A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Media availability and quantity

Hello everyone!

I am new to the aquaponic community and aquaponics in general, but I am very knowledgeable in fish keeping, both marine and freshwater. I am currently attending college majoring in biology and chemistry with the end goal of having my doctorate in marine biology so I can conduct my own research. With that being said, if there are any questions I can help any of you with, with my education and experience, I am more than willing! I am going to set up a system this winter and I am having issues finding a low cost grow bed that has a 12-16 sq.ft. grow area and is 1 ft. deep. I am also looking for the hydroton or similar clay pebble medium in large quantities at a reasonable price. Lastly, how much of the hydroton will be required to fill the above grow bed in liters (since that is how it is sold). Any info will be much appreciated- sorry for the long post!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Linda Logan on December 16, 2012 at 4:01pm

You may need to build the bed you are looking for or use IBC's. My experience in hydroton is since the mine in Germany is closed you should go with a combination of lava rock and pea gravel. I found bags of hydroton here in Portland OR at $36/bag. I needed 24 so went with pea gravel over the lava rock.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on December 16, 2012 at 5:30pm

For an inexpensive grow bed, it is hard to beat IBC's

As for media, I've never been willing to spring for the expanded clay media.

I have used expanded Slate and other have used Expanded Shale with good results. You will need to call around to aggregate suppliers in your area if you need to find bulk media at good prices. They may also be able to provide river rock or lava rock.

When buying rock (like pea gravel) please make sure it is not limestone. Descriptions like pea gravel only describe the size/shape and not the type of rock. Limestone will keep the pH too high. You can test media using vinegar

If if fizzes that would be bad and you don't want to use it.

I would recommend media in the size range between 1/2" to 3/4" I have used 1/2" brown river rock with good results. I have also used 1/2" Stalite expanded slate with good results.

As to how to figure out how much media you need. Measure the volume of your media bed and then you can enter the cubic foot or cubic inch measurement into an online calculator to get liters. Conversion

So if you found a grow bed that would give you 16 square feet and be 1 foot deep (that gives you 16 cubic feet) which would require about 453 liters to fill it.

Rock is often sold by weight or by 1/2 cubic foot bags. The 1/2" brown river rock where I live has been sold by the ton from a couple places I've gotten it from and it takes 1.25 ton to fill a cubic yard (which is 27 cubic feet).

The 1/2" Stalite I've used, one ton = 1.33 cubic yards.

Permalink Reply by Jim Fisk on December 17, 2012 at 7:55am

Welcome aboard Hector! and welcome to the addiction.

I am currently using granite pea gravel and 1 ton filled 2 IBC grow beds to 1 foot. Also if you happen to be using a Mac there is a great widget conversion calc that I use all the time for volume conversions. I thought you youngsters grew up doing metric conversions and we old farts were the challenged ones

Permalink Reply by Hector Chavez on December 17, 2012 at 10:49am

Thanks for the info Linda, I think that is what I will end up using is lava rock and pea gravel- cheap, and I found that is very easy to get out here!

Linda Logan said:

You may need to build the bed you are looking for or use IBC's. My experience in hydroton is since the mine in Germany is closed you should go with a combination of lava rock and pea gravel. I found bags of hydroton here in Portland OR at $36/bag. I needed 24 so went with pea gravel over the lava rock.

Permalink Reply by Hector Chavez on December 17, 2012 at 10:56am

Thanks for all the great info and help! I think I am going to use IBC's for my outdoor set up. Now that I measured the stairway going to my basement, I am going to have to use something smaller like dual 2'x2'.

TCLynx said:

For an inexpensive grow bed, it is hard to beat IBC's

As for media, I've never been willing to spring for the expanded clay media.

I have used expanded Slate and other have used Expanded Shale with good results. You will need to call around to aggregate suppliers in your area if you need to find bulk media at good prices. They may also be able to provide river rock or lava rock.

When buying rock (like pea gravel) please make sure it is not limestone. Descriptions like pea gravel only describe the size/shape and not the type of rock. Limestone will keep the pH too high. You can test media using vinegar

If if fizzes that would be bad and you don't want to use it.

I would recommend media in the size range between 1/2" to 3/4" I have used 1/2" brown river rock with good results. I have also used 1/2" Stalite expanded slate with good results.

As to how to figure out how much media you need. Measure the volume of your media bed and then you can enter the cubic foot or cubic inch measurement into an online calculator to get liters. Conversion

So if you found a grow bed that would give you 16 square feet and be 1 foot deep (that gives you 16 cubic feet) which would require about 453 liters to fill it.

Rock is often sold by weight or by 1/2 cubic foot bags. The 1/2" brown river rock where I live has been sold by the ton from a couple places I've gotten it from and it takes 1.25 ton to fill a cubic yard (which is 27 cubic feet).

The 1/2" Stalite I've used, one ton = 1.33 cubic yards.

Permalink Reply by Hector Chavez on December 17, 2012 at 11:02am

Thanks for the welcome and the info Jim! And yes, I am familiar with the conversions I had a serious brain fart on that submission on volume.lol- If you dont mind me asking what are you growing in your IBC's? Indoor or Outdoor?

Jim Fisk said:

Welcome aboard Hector! and welcome to the addiction.

I am currently using granite pea gravel and 1 ton filled 2 IBC grow beds to 1 foot. Also if you happen to be using a Mac there is a great widget conversion calc that I use all the time for volume conversions. I thought you youngsters grew up doing metric conversions and we old farts were the challenged ones

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on December 17, 2012 at 11:23am

If you can't get a cut IBC down into your space, then you might look at a 50 gallon stock tank as a grow bed. They are readily available at tractor supply.

Permalink Reply by Hector Chavez on December 17, 2012 at 1:43pm

I did not even think to check tractor supply thanks TCLynx you've been very helpful. I appreciate it!

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on December 17, 2012 at 5:20pm

I use lots of their Rubbermaid stock tanks (the 100 gallon tanks actually only cost a little more than the 50 gallon ones and I often just do deep grow beds.) But I'm not sure I would want to haul too much extra gravel down to the basement.

Permalink Reply by Linda Logan on December 17, 2012 at 5:39pm

I agree on hauling the gravel! Everything in my system is moved from front yard to back up an incline and I have a long lot. I put down about 3" of large lava rock (1/2 yd for 3 3X5 beds) and then a yard of small 3/8" pea gravel. I checked for limestone first of course. I washed everything as best I could which was a lot of washing. I needed to do it by cleaning in large pond plant baskets (12 handfuls at a time). I found this was the only way to get all the fines out.

It's a great endeavor. have fun

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on December 17, 2012 at 5:54pm

If you get the larger gravel (like 1/2" or 3/4") you will likely have less fines, though I still recommend giving it a swishing in a basket in water to remove as much sand and dusk as you can before filling the system. Unless the media is really well sifted washing is generally a good idea.

Permalink Reply by Jim Fisk on December 18, 2012 at 7:04am

Hey Hector, I haven't found much yet that doesn't grow well. Our Brocs have been great, tomatoes, cabbage, peas (6-7 ft high) herbs, spinach, lettuce, kale, etc. We have had a bug problem on the lettuce but they don't eat much so far:-) Here's a recent pic and as you can see it is all in a 20 x 24 GH. The fish room is in the rear 1/3 behind the tarp on the right so I have some climate control between veggies and fish. 5 more gbs for a total of 10 next Spring. Heavy winds and rain last night and the temp 4 mil roof survived so

Hector Chavez said:

Thanks for the welcome and the info Jim! And yes, I am familiar with the conversions I had a serious brain fart on that submission on volume.lol- If you dont mind me asking what are you growing in your IBC's? Indoor or Outdoor?

Jim Fisk said:

Welcome aboard Hector! and welcome to the addiction.

I am currently using granite pea gravel and 1 ton filled 2 IBC grow beds to 1 foot. Also if you happen to be using a Mac there is a great widget conversion calc that I use all the time for volume conversions. I thought you youngsters grew up doing metric conversions and we old farts were the challenged ones