grow bed ratio

[Daniel Budfuloski]

  Just out of curiosity, is my sump tank a consideration that needs to be taken when determining the size of my grow bed or is it just the fish tank size?  also, on a side note, I made a great sketch of my system that I want to build on "google sketchup" but don't know how to put it on this site to show everyone.  anyone know how this is done?

[George]

I believe that sumps are not generally considered when planning tank volume to grow bed volume ratios.  Can't help with sketch up.  Can you save it as an image file and then use the icon to post it in a reply?  Good luck.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Well they do have somewhat of a relationship. Part of the purpose of the sump is to mitigate water level fluctuations in the fish tank, yes? So the grow bed size and the sump size, and fish tank size do (or should) share some considerations.

A good general rule is to make your sump volume at least 50% of your grow bed volume.

But if you have say,a 1000 gallon FT and one say IBC 12" deep GB you don't need to bother with a sump for the purpose of mitigating water level fluctuations...

On the other hand if tour FT is 100 gallons and you have the same 12" deep IBC grow bed a sump wood certainly be a good idea.

[Daniel Budfuloski]

awesome, thank you guys...

[George]

To clarify my first response, when figuring a ratio of fish tank volume to media bed volume, sumps are not generally taken into consideration.  For example a 1 to 1 ratio with 100 gallon fish tank = 100 gallons of media, regardless of sump.