Eddie's AP system with soil and hydroton as media

[foodchain]

Where did you find those grow beds? I love them.

[eddiemigue]

They are 100 Gal hydroponic reservoirs, measuring 36"x60"x14" from my local hydroponics guy. I can get you the brand if you like, because they are very rigid and sturdy, unlike some of the other hydroponic supplies that I have checked out.

My original plan was to go with a few rubbermaid 50 gal stock tanks, but Tractor Supply only had one when I was setting up the system, and I did not have time to wait for an order (was on a break from work and on limited setup/construction time). Fortunately, these where available at the hydroponics store and they have worked out nicely thus far.

[eddiemigue]

Here are some close-up pictures of the GB's from a month ago:
[attachment=1:98pphw30]20130405_231436.jpg[/attachment:98pphw30]
[attachment=0:98pphw30]20130405_231443.jpg[/attachment:98pphw30]

[keith_r]

strawb's will do fine in nft or towers.. but they don't handle salt to well.. and with your nitrites going up, i'd be inclined to salt to 3ppt..

[foodchain]

In your growbeds, that doesn't appear to be a bell siphon. What is that?
Any information you can provide on those grow beds would be greatly appreciated. Preformed, as long as cost effective beats building with wood and lining any day.

[foodchain]

Also, what is K-1 kaldness media? I am not familiar with this. Do you like it? In your experience what are the pros and cons? Filters are a hot botton for me right now...as I am currently tackling this issue.

[foodchain]

Could your nitrates be going up, because you have covered (mulched) with pine shavings? As these break down, won't this increase the nitrates? I am thinking outloud here, I don't know for sure. But my experience has been anything organic breaking down produces nitrates/amonia in the cycle.

[eddiemigue]

The GB's were quite pricey ($200 each) - I wouldn't call them cost effective by any means, but I wanted something functional and neat.

The pipes that you see are 4"PVC with a drain cover sitting on a toilet flange as a base. Their purpose is to allow access to the inlets and outlets for the subsurface flow. I can post a link to a site with very detailed instructions on the design, but not sure if that would violate forum policies.

The K-1 is a plastic filter media with a lot of surface area (wagon wheel structure) that becomes neutrally buoyant. It works well in moving bed filters because as bacteria build on it, it churns readily with an air stone in the filter. This serves to knock off dead bacteria and is partially self-cleaning. The inside bacteria is protected so you get both older bacteria on the inside and newer bacteria colonizing the exterior. A quick Google search will show you a closeup of the media. I'm very happy with the media thus far (mind you that I've only been using it about two months). Another advantage is that you can see the bacteria accumulate on it because it goes from white to brown with time. The only con that I have identified is that it is pricey ($90 for 1cuft).

As far as the nitrites, I think it's due to the liquid seaweed that I recently added. The pine shavings are a top dressing of mulch over the soil mix to retain moisture and all this is well separated from the water flow. It's only been on for a short while so I don't think it has had much time to break down, let alone make it into the water column.

The system is salted to 1ppt, which I believe should be ok for strawberries, right?

[foodchain]

I have had a lot of success with strawberries. As long as I kept salt a long ways away......I added salt once....never never again.
Salt and strawberries are mortal enemies.

[eddiemigue]

I only added salt once just before adding fish, and since then I have changed out a portion of the water (watering soil gardens and topping off tank). Since I started off just below 1ppt, and this has dropped since, do you think that I should give it a go or wait some more time? Don't have much experience with strawberries.