Flood distribution in media bed

[RW]

Designing my first system . It will be a timed flood and drain with a 100 gallon fish tank and two 40 gallon (2ft by 3ft by 1ft deep) media beds filled with hydroton.

My question is on the flood cycle to the media beds. Would you want to spread out the inflow piping to flood many parts of the bed evenly or would a simple inflow pipe at some point near the edge of the bed be good enough?

[TCLynx]

I do a single inflow point normally as far away from the drain as I can.  With timed flood and drain it doesn't really seem worth it to me to do a distrobution grid.  For constant inflow a distrobution grid might be worth while but I've never bothered with distrobution grids.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Me either.  A single inflow has been sufficient.  The waste distributes itself through the bed well enough, and the worms distribute the rest...

[TCLynx]

I have seen issues with "sliming" of the gravel around the water inlet on constant inflow beds and where I got tired of "poking it with a stick" or stirring it up is when I decided that perhaps a distrobution grid or larger gravel would be more appropriate to constant inflow siphon systems but I've still never bothered.  At the moment I actually have only two gravel beds that get constant inflow anyway.

 

Which ever way you go, keep the plumbing accessible.  You may have to clean things out on occasion.  Water distrobution and drain side, always keep things accessible.  Roots can do amazing things sometimes.

[RW]

thanks a ton for the tips.