Aquaponics - New grow bed

Scoria has always been the media I favored because its perfect for aquaponics. I'll be using road gravel.

Here's some I prepared earlier.

Pictured here, and using chicken feet for scale, is a  path in my back yard. It's the same stuff I'll be using in my new grow bed. It's sometimes called blue metal, and in this part of the world we mix it with tar, and make roads out of it.

Scoria is great in all kinds of ways, but it's hard on the hands, and because of it's sharp edged irregular shape, it's actually difficult to dig into.

My new grow bed is big enough that I don't need to worry about the extra surface area scoria would provide. I'll get around 2000 - 2500 litres of gravel to fill it, and I'll use the existing system as a pre-filter to seed the nitrifying bacteria.

In a former life, this new grow bed of mine was an abalone growing tank used in aquaculture. As soon as I can stop switching between plans, I'll bu using it to grow veggies.