Im building a 144 sq ft grow bed system.

[15mules]

As they say "the devil is in the details"

[JCO]

That' according to how your water enters if it moves around...enter at one end with force downward and exit at the other surface wise.

[Roger L.]

Why not add a t at the bottom drain and run a pipe to the level that you want your tank as JCO suggested but leave the bottom drain also. Wouldn't the stand pipe give you a safety in case the bottom drain were plugged up in some way?

[15mules]

Roger,
That seems like a good idea, like a secondary, or backup drain, tied in with the primary, just in case the primary stopped up? makes sense to me.

[sebarker75]

here is an update on the plants in the system

[keith_r]

to catch a bunch of scuds, i used a leaf from... i think it was zuchini..
put it in the scud tank in the evening, the next morning pull what's left of the leaf out of the water and shake the scuds off in another bucket
i've got some pics and will try to REpost some this week..

[JCO]

Your veggies are looking good.

[sebarker75]

Just check my levels on everything .
Ph 7.6
Ammonis .25
Nitrites 5.0
Nitrates 40 ppm
I know my nitrites are high just wondering if that is the cycling process. do i need to add plants to get the nitrates down or is that a good number.

[keith_r]

your water is not very good for your fish, luckily your ph is high but it's still bad... i'd salt to 3ppt as soon as possible and hold off on feed until nitrites drop.. hopefully you won't start loosing fish to brown blood disease

don't worry on nitrates unless they start getting up over a couple hundred...

[sebarker75]

i going to hook up my air pump today. i have around 90 fish in there right now. i was going to bring them up to around 200 total when i got my air pump going. should i hold off on that until nitrites fall some. when you say salt do you mean regular salt and what is ppt.