Wick bed

[Chris Smith]

After watching the new Murry video I am interested in making a wick bed. Has anybody tried one?

[Raychel A Watkins]

Nice links Sahib.  Appreciate your vigilance in finding new sites we can explore.  We need to see other aspects of the sustainable food world.  It is only by working together will we solve the problem of world hunger.  We don't have to go very far to find hunger.  It may be right down the road. Mahalo again.

[Sahib Punjabi]

:-)

 

God bless,

Raychel A Watkins said:

Nice links Sahib.  Appreciate your vigilance in finding new sites we can explore.  We need to see other aspects of the sustainable food world.  It is only by working together will we solve the problem of world hunger.  We don't have to go very far to find hunger.  It may be right down the road. Mahalo again.

[Averan]

good point TCLynx.  additionally, the extra source of nitrogen from wicking beds could reduce the number of fish needed to make the system work......which might be helpful for smaller systems where available space limits the size of the fish tank.

[Sean Salas]

I don't see why the wick tub could not be connected to the aquaponics system.  I mean that the wick tubs could have a 2" PVC fill pipe directly connect to the aquaponics system with a automatic shut off.  When the fill pipe is full the automatic valve shuts off the supply until the water has been wicked up and drops down low enough to turn the valve on again etc.  Kinda like the shut off valve on a swamp/ evaporative cooler.  This would allow the fish waste water to be readily available for the rooting plants at all times.  

If someone did want a constantly wet bed they could set it on a timer and still get the same effect.  Anyone care to comment?  Tear my idea part? I will take no offense..

[Averan]

I've been running mine inline for 6 months now. The trick is that when it rains you flush a lot of tannins into the water. I put up a greenhouse roof over my beds and now have no problems. Setup this way my wicking bed is just a constant flood media bed with an extra foot of low nitrogen soil on top.

[Sahib Punjabi]

Hello Sean,

I have been recirculating the water in my wicking beds for over 4 years now - NO dead fish or leaching of harmful chemicals etc. Secret is that you "make your own soil" using items such as Coir,Vermicast, aged composted pine fines and so on. Just make sure that you have an excellent soil liner so as to to let it flow back to your fish tank. 

I am sharing with you a Youtube posting where I show one of my Recirculating Wicking Bed design and one which I call "River Beds" (these have been developed further to make them more functional).

http://youtu.be/dn4CHL9C4n8

God bless

Sean Salas said:

I don't see why the wick tub could not be connected to the aquaponics system.  I mean that the wick tubs could have a 2" PVC fill pipe directly connect to the aquaponics system with a automatic shut off.  When the fill pipe is full the automatic valve shuts off the supply until the water has been wicked up and drops down low enough to turn the valve on again etc.  Kinda like the shut off valve on a swamp/ evaporative cooler.  This would allow the fish waste water to be readily available for the rooting plants at all times.  

If someone did want a constantly wet bed they could set it on a timer and still get the same effect.  Anyone care to comment?  Tear my idea part? I will take no offense..

[paul burton]

Nice wicking bed and a great video well done. I hope my project turns out as well.
Your setup looks really nice.

[Averan]

In mine the water goes straight into the corrugated drain pipe where it runs along the bottom and out the stand pipe at the other end.