Filling Grow Beds from Fish Tank

[B. Pearcy]

I used 3/4" PVC from the 210 gallon fish tank to two 100 gallon grow beds.  I can always change it later, but for now I have drilled 2 holes of 1/4" in the pipe and water flows into the grow beds pretty fast, but with a little more pressure than I anticipated. I don't have the gravel media in the beds yet so that might change the splatter I am currently experiencing. I drilled the holes at 45 degree angle, but see that straight down might have been better. If I need to adjust the flow by adding an additional hole I'll make it straight down instead of angled.  I think the splatter would be a little less.

 

The 1 1/2" pipe that drains the beds has a ball valve that allows me to regulate the flow back to the fish tank either wide open or I can slow it with the ball valve if needed. I really won't know until I have the gravel washed and in the beds.

[TCLynx]

I like the stand pipe method for controlling how fast beds drain.  It provides not only the slow drain but overflow protection,  If you use the ball valve to control the draining of your grow beds, if the valve starts getting clogged up the bed could overflow so you will need to plum in an additional over flow from the bed back to the fish tank.

[B. Pearcy]

Oops . I forgot about that possibility.

[B. Pearcy]

I researched my plan for 2 months incessisantly (my wife can vouch for me).  But instead of sticking to my plan exactly, I made a change at the last minute based on what sounded like a "better way".  It does work well, but I should have stuck to my original plan.

I'll add an overflow to the tank before I go too much farther.

[TCLynx]

Make sure to drill the overflow several inches below your planned flood height and then you can adjust the exact height of the water at full flood using an elbow and a small piece of pipe that you can pull and replace or cut if you need to make fine adjustments.  Then put a basket around it to keep gravel and roots from blocking the overflow.

[B. Pearcy]

Does it need to be 2 inch pipe? Or would something smaller work?

[TCLynx]

Size needed is dependent on the flow rate into the bed and the size of pipe needed to drain the bed faster than it fills or it could still overflow.  You could probably use the uniseals you have and see if it can keep up when you block the normal drain.