Tony & Marilyn's System

[Marilyn]

Hi everyone we finally have our system up and running. We have had our jade perch since 1st Feb and today finally started cycling through 4 1m x 1m grow beds. Our jade perch are very hardy living through high ammonia levels for the past 2 weeks. Hopefully now everything will settle down. We had done numerous water changes but it never changed the levels of ammonia. we've planted up with melons, zuchinni, squash, lettuce, bok choy, corn, strwberries and tomatoes. Camera had to be recharged so will take photos tomorrow and put online as well. We will put two more lines of grow beds in to complete the system now that we know what we are doing. The system is currently taking 20min to flood and then 39min to drain before pumps kick in and start the cycle over so at this stage we don't have to use timers.

Till tomorrow Marilyn

[alexmac]

Hi Marilyn,
I think you GBed is draining too slowly. Can you hurry it along a bit.
Alex

[GaryD]

Hi Folks,

I think you GBed is draining too slowly.

My gravel grow beds take a similar amount of time to drain......I wouldn't be too concerned about it. Having said that, my microFish Farms (using autosyphons) dump the water in about 30 seconds. I will be changing all of my media-based beds over to autosyphons as the opportunity permits.

Gary

[fishfood]

I would not be worried about the drain times in my system the beds fill in 3 min and some take 45 min to drain This whole system has been running 2 years now with no problem[have a look at my thread in established systems] to see the growth

[alexmac]

Hi Marilyn,
Garry-- Fish food,

I was under the impression that the idea was to drain the water out quickly so that air would be dragged down through the media to help oxygenate the bacteria and root systems.

My system (1600lts) fills in around 8 min and empties in around 10 to 12. It takes 35 to 40 mins for the siphon from the FT to drain back to the sump and bring the water level up to the pump cut in point. So I pump once an hr 24/7.
I will be back up to the farm in a fortnight and will time the events again and post the result on my thread.


Alex

[GaryD]

Hi Alex,

If a grow bed is filled with water, and then you drain it (regardless of how long it takes), air is drawn down into the depths of the grow bed (otherwise you'd have a vacuum).....so a 45 minute drain period is not a problem.

That's not to suggest that more frequent filling and draining is problematic. It would mean even more oxygen around the roots......and that might even be better.

The point is that, borne of my experience and that of several other people that I know, 45 minutes is not an excessive drain time.

Gary

[alexmac]

Every thing is growing well in my system except that I do not have enough light at the moment.
I do have a problem with too much uneaten food on the bottom of the FT.
I am making an air lift pump to pump the rubbish off the bottom into the sump for the yabbies to sort through then the auto pump will pump the residue into the GB's.
Alex

[Marilyn]

Here are some photos of our system. One is the growbeds and the other is the sump.

[djs-sa]

pix look good,
and 45 min drain is fine, too frequent waters can cause stem rot

[Marilyn]

Here are some more photos. The first are lettuce that we are groing in sattelite pots, the next is our quails. Tony built using cheap shelving from bunnings with the shelves upside down and putting two lots together to make it 705mmx705mm. We then attached wire around. There are six shelves altogether. The feeders have been cut from pvc pipe and hung so that they cannot scratch it everywhere.And the last photo is of our brooder made from an old school workstation. The fluoro light keeps them warm enough but I have other lamps as well if need be but it has got very warm up here quickly with humidity already increasing.