Floating Raft and other Aquaponic Updates

There are as many methods of growing plants in an aquaponic system as there are ways to get water from point A to point B.  Today we added another growbed to the big AP tank system.  This is a floating raft bed.  I know that the system hasn't fully cycled yet, so I may have jumped the gun a bit adding another growbed, but I really want to get some things growing.  I was gifted a couple of the essentials to make the raft, so I took the plunge.  For the raft bed, you either need net pots or a bunch of plastic flower pots, a good drill, and a steady hand.  Thankfully I was gifted the net pots!

As you can see, they are a simple basket that serve the purpose of anchoring the plant in place.  The plant roots will grow through the pot and absorb nutrients from the water.  The growing media is expanded clay.  You can use pebble gravel for this, but there are a few drawbacks to gravel for these...one of which is weight.  The expanded clay is very lightweight...

For the raft, I used a lid from a rubbermaid container.  Many folks use sheets of Styrofoam but I am trying to keep chemicals out of our food....and I don't want to think about what would be leached into the system when you combine Styrofoam, UVB rays, and H2O.  For the bed I used a large plastic tub that I spotted at the hardware store....

The next step was getting the spot for it ready in the greenhut.  I levelled the last empty corner and sat a couple of concrete blocks as a base....

I'm using shelves as a stand for the tub....mainly because I already have the shelves.....and I'm sure I'll use them for something in the days to come...

Next I drilled a 1" hole in the floor of the tub to accommodate the drain pipe.  This system won't use a bell siphon, since the raft floats there is no reason to drain the tub. 

I inserted a standpipe that serves as a skimmer, then drains directly into the big fish tank...

I split the water inlet to the first growbed into a spraybar and to a single arm that adds water to the floating raft bed.  I'm using a ball valve to control the flow of water to the raft bed.  For now I've got a lot of water flowing through it so that the expanded clay can begin collecting bacteria and act as a biological filter for both the fish and the plants.

The drainpipe also adds another source of oxygen to the water....

So here are the 2 growbeds now connected to the main fish tank.

We also added some minnows to the bean pot....There are a couple dozen of them in that bag, but none of them were staying still for a picture.

And some of the tiny lettuce plants in the big grow bed took a beating while I was building and adjusting the spraybar....so they got moved to the bean pot also...

I snipped a piece of mint off the main plant and stuck it into one of the grow pots on the raft bed....I'm anxious to see how it does!