swirl tank or no swirl tank

[Zach]

I have read that some people don't use a swirl tank or any filter from fish tank to media bed, but use red wigglers in the bed to eat up the solids and add nutrients to the bed.

Can anyone help me with the facts and information?

Thank you

[Brent Shafer]

I am using red wigglers in my beds and been going 1 year with 1200 gallon FT with with 725 cubic foot grow media. I have some build up but you need to have a inch or so of nutrient filled sediment at the bottom of the grow beds. I assume at some point I will still need to "clean" out the beds.

[George]

I believe most media systems operate without a swirl tank and without cleaning media beds

[Zach]

ok thanks, trying to figure out next system.

[john mcdougal]

i have used red wigglers for 2 years works good

[Jim Fisk]

It depends so upon your particular system. In my 2500g system with trout I got tired of solids getting to the GBs for visual reasons more than chemistry reasons so I added a simple to make 15g swirl that catches most floaters and sinkers. What gets thru (suspended solids) I trap with a short "gravel guard" type filter at each GB inlet. This keeps the GBs a lot more eye appealing.  As to DWC I use sump water that is already clarified by the media beds. Best simple solution there.

[Zach]

I only have a 10 gallon system right now looking at doing a 50 gallon and need to do my research first to get a good plan, Jim if you filter out solids are you still getting the bacteria to get plant growth?

[Zach]

[Zach]

Would this work as a tower in my GH for an aquaponic system?

Zach said: