Questions from new member talking2u

[Murray]

talking2U is new to the internet, so she asked me to make a thread for her. Murray.

talking2u asks,

I am not to savy on the internet/web pages. Can't figure things out/or find....It has taken me three months to get this far! (Praise God I have not Given UP!!! Not sure where to go to ask a question or find the question?

1 Questions I have:*Does the bed have to fully drain or can it have a little bit of standing water(1/2 inch)

2 How Long can the Grow Bed go "between floodings"? in case of power outage ....my tank is not over stocked with fish. but I don't want to lose my plants either.

3 I have read about the relay--- back up batteries. I do will not have a sump, my pond is in the ground and my grow bed will drain directly to it. thanks
talking2u

[fishfood]

talking2U is new to the internet, so she asked me to make a thread for her. Murray.

talking2u asks,

I am not to savy on the internet/web pages. Can't figure things out/or find....It has taken me three months to get this far! (Praise God I have not Given UP!!! Not sure where to go to ask a question or find the question?

1 Questions I have:*Does the bed have to fully drain or can it have a little bit of standing water(1/2 inch)

2 How Long can the Grow Bed go "between floodings"? in case of power outage ....my tank is not over stocked with fish. but I don't want to lose my plants either.

3 I have read about the relay--- back up batteries. I do will not have a sump, my pond is in the ground and my grow bed will drain directly to it. thanks
talking2u

Hi I to run direct drain
My system has been running 12 months Now the cooler weather is here it goes 15 hrs without running [over night] in the summer max 4 hrs and every 2 hrs is plenty during the day
There is always 1 inch water in the grow beds that does not drain no problem so far

As for the battery backup murry is the boy for that

[GaryD]

Hi,

1 Questions I have:*Does the bed have to fully drain or can it have a little bit of standing water(1/2 inch)

I've got a small flood and drain gravel/expanded clay grow bed that always has 50mm of water in the bottom. It's been running for at least six months without any apparent issue.

2 How Long can the Grow Bed go "between floodings"? in case of power outage ....my tank is not over stocked with fish. but I don't want to lose my plants either.

My small grow bed runs on a 15 minutes ON/45 minutes OFF pumping cycle. This regime is fairly common.

By my experience, a grow bed could survive, in the event of a power or equipment failure, without water all day in cool weather but will be in serious trouble after about half a day in hot weather. The amount of damage will also be determined by the maturity of the plants - fully grown plants will cope much better than young plants - probably because of their deeper roots.

The biggest risk that you face in the event of a prolonged blackout is dead fish due to lack of dissolved oxygen.

3 I have read about the relay--- back up batteries. I do will not have a sump, my pond is in the ground and my grow bed will drain directly to it. thanks talking2u

Murray will explain how the backup relay system works.

Gary

[talking2u]

Thanks FishFood

[talking2u]

Hi,


Thanks Gary D

[talking2u]

what is a autosyphons?

[talking2u]

I have a neat idea I wonder what you all might think.
I want my pump to be running cont. so I am going to hook it up to a sprinkler system. the timer will tell it when to switch to the grow beds. then the timer will tell it when to switch back to the pond. this will also allow me to have a NFT system as well.

[GaryD]

Hi Talking2U,

An autosyphon (as the name suggests) is a device that automatically drains a grow bed when it has filled. In so doing, it controls the pumping cycle for the system.....rather than a float switch or a timer. The principal benefit of an autosyphon is that you can run a pump continuously rather than have it cycling on an off.

While I currently use timers and float switches, I would prefer to have my pump run continously (it's better for the pump and it provides for better aeration) so I'll eventually get into autosyphons.

I'm a bit unclear as to what you're attempting to do with the sprinklers etc. Can you provide more detail?

Gary

[daniel]

I am not sure about this, but wouldn't you loose a fair bit of water by using sprinklers. Especially on windy days?

[talking2u]

is an auto "sypon" a pump?

I know what a sypon is....water from a higher level stick in a hose. Suck hard. water will drain to a lower level.