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Uneek Ecoponics, Newcastle (2026)

23/05/2026

The fringe benefits of Flood & Drain irrigation!

Bell siphons are a great example of fluid mechanics, but very troublesome, with no way to control when they prime; the more siphons you have the bigger the problem!

So we designed made & use our own ‘invention’ which used Daniel Bernoulli’s principle (another example of fluid mechanics); with a float switch inside the siphon to trigger the siphon controller to turn the pump(s) on & off; a monumental game changer!

Once you’ve got full siphon control it opens a world of options, to enjoy the benefits of F & D:-

1. The obvious . . . It’s automated.
2. Less obvious; if the bed is made correctly, F & D eliminates all anaerobic issues (the main problem with wicking beds).
3. Even less obvious, F & D aerates the soil . . . As the bed floods, it expels air from the soil, replaced with fresh air as it drains; that ‘fresh’ air is 80% nitrogen . . . so, the micro-biology in the soil get all the nitrogen it needs to convert into bio-available nitrogen for the plants, negating the need for any ammonia from the fish or synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. All you need is an abundant ‘organic’ population of ‘natural’ micro-biology!
4. OK . . with no need for fish . . . there’s no need to 24/7 F & D, a couple of cycles each day is just enough to irrigate, fertilise and aerate the soil!!!
5. Nitrogen is the main nutrient required, but we do need more; so . . . add a worm farm! Set the worm farm up so it gets a ‘trickle’ of water through the farm and back to sump; the worms are kept moist without flooding; the nutrients get flushed back to sump, then circulated by the F & D to fertilise the plants for free!

Summary
• The best thing to come out of Aquaponics is F & D; the rest is a waste of time, money & effort!
• A wicking bed is little better; it’s only a watering system, there’s little if any aeration, and the soil needs regular nutrient replenishment!
• F & D is 20% irrigation, 30% free fertilising, thanks to the worms & 50% aeration . . . nitrogen for the plants, oxygen for the micro-fauna!

The system we run has three gold fish, more for aesthetics than function, running two F & D cycles per day; total run time, twenty minutes per day, a saving of 98% compared to a traditional 24/7 aquaponics setup.

Factor in the costs of buying, feeding & managing high stocking rate fish, & the inevitable mortality with fish farming & you have a recipe for an expensive, high maintenance, & anxiety grow system, that's still has a nutrient shortfall!

The system we have occasionally gets some dolomite lime, the rest of the nutrients come from the worms!

We run the system costs 30 cents per month to run, run on mains powered 12 volt, 100 watt, switch mode power supply,!

Don’t be put off by the need for a pump for each grow bed; the benefits outweigh the cost; an up side; if / when a pump fails it doesn’t take the whole system down; simply ‘bridge out’ the affected grow bed until it can be fixed or replaced; everything else continues on as per normal!

14/05/2026

Aquaponics / Ecoponics siphon management . . . the game changer to fix ALL bell siphon issues!

Welcome to our new optimised siphon controller:-
• Sequential flood & drain of up to 7 grow beds.
• Auxiliary auto sump top up function.
• Your choice; run a continuous loop 24/7, or
• Auto shut down after one cycle, then wait for a timer to restart the cycle (we use this function to do two F & D cycles twice a day, saving 98% of run costs for as good if not better result).

The benefits:-
• No more “tunning the pump”.
• Maximum power efficiency.
• Each grow bed fills in a set order, one after the other.
• For whatever reason you can “skip” one or more grow beds as needed.
• It’s 12 volt
> No electrician needed.
> Runs on battery, solar or a mains powered, 12 volt switch mode power supply.
• Each circuit has fuse protection.
• Indicator lights show what’s happening.
• Each circuit has 120watts max power output.
• Use either a 12 volt pump or solenoid valve (we use a 16 litre / minute pump for the grow beds, and a 12 volt solenoid valve for sump top up).
• The controller can be used in other ways too, i.e. fish tank F & D (watch our “Aquaponics flood & drain siphon control Game Changer” YouTube video).
• With full siphon management you only need a small sump and far less water.

How it works:-

Each siphon has a float switch in the siphon body; when siphon 1 primes, the float switch triggers the controller to turn the flow to bed 1 off, and the flow to bed 2 on. In the same way siphon 2 triggers bed 2 to stop filling and bed 3 to start and so on until it gets to the last bed (up to 7 beds), the last siphon then either resets the controller to start all over in a 24/7 continuous loop, or turn the controller off and wait for a timer to start the next cycle.

• The float switches connect to the terminal block on the right.
• The pumps / solenoids used to fill each of the grow beds connect to the terminal block on the left.

As well, the cycle is interrupted by the auxiliary circuit designed as a sump top up. When the sump gets to bottom tide, whichever bed is filling stops, the sump then refills to top tide, then the sump stops filling the bed resumes filling where it left off; so its not made to start all over from scratch!

• The terminal block across the bottom is the sump top up control; the first 2 (marked "A") connect to the top tide float switch, the next 2 connect to the bottom float switch, the 5th is the negative & 6th the positive connection for the sump pump / solenoid valve!

NB . . A float switch won't work inside a bell siphon; we designed and make our auto siphons to work with a float switch inside the siphon!

08/05/2026

Aquaponics / Ecoponics . . . Super siphon control promo video:-

This video was made using our demo unit used for our ecoponics workshop tour; the workshop covers:-
• How it works.
• How & why our ecoponics system evolved from aquaponics.
• Why & how we use a worm farm instead of fish for nutrient supply.
• The numerous benefits of ecoponics over hydroponics, aquaponics & wicking beds.
• Why we believe flood & drain is the key to how it all works with 20% irrigation, 50% aeration & 30% fertilising.

The three parts to the video:-

Part A . . .
#1 is a simulated grow bed, without media, to show how water should be directed to the bottom of the grow bed. The siphon prime and break are filmed at ¼ speed to show how fast it primes & breaks; the rest of the video is run at fast forward to keep it short!
#2 & #3 are purpose build beds with built in super siphons, #2 is a grow bed, #3 a fish tank.

Part B . . .

#4 is our trailer used to transport our workshop tour; what you see has a surface area of 2 square metres and a volume of 700 litres to show how the size of the bed / fish pond isn’t limited to the size of #2 & #3.

Part C . . .

#4, it’s still functioning as seen in part 2, just hidden from view by the rest of the display mounted atop the trailer. The main point is to show how an ordered sequential flood & drain system works, & how small the sump tank can be.

Summary . . .

Having sequential flood changes the whole paradigm. Presenting a multitude of flow on benefits that we cover in our workshop presentation.

23/04/2026

The radish seem to like mango seedlings as a companion plant!

The turmeric is fully grown too; no sign of floweres yet.

22/04/2026

We've just finish making a new fish pond / tank; the design is the same as our grow beds with a couple of minor variations.

This video was made for our YouTube channel.

The plan is to add a float switch to the siphon in the next few days.

21/03/2026

Three months on since our first plant out; the only nutrients have come from 3 gold fish, the worm farm & the resident frog population!

The mango trees came from seeds saved from pre Christmas fruit bought from the supermarket. the tallest one is 40 cm high.

The turmeric has exceeded expectations seeing we planted the rhyomes too late in the season.

All the grow beds now have our own home made terra preta grow media, all of which have been "inoculated" in the since Christmas.

We've been monitoring the power usage to run the pumps; works out we're using just under 50 cents per month of mains supply power, by running the flood & drain cycle twice each day for eleven minutes each time; just enough to keep the terra preta wet out and fed with nutrients from the worm infused sump water.

Watch the YouTube video:-
https://youtu.be/fUz_YV1IKBw

14/03/2026

One month on; everthing is looking good!

Watch the YouTube video:-
https://youtu.be/GUJFCJPXyOU

10/02/2026

Uneek Ecoponics Workshop . . .
More ECO-nomical, ECO-logical & ECO friendly
than hydroponics, aquaponics & wicking beds.

Next workshop coming soon

06/01/2026

Uneek Ecoponics . . . 20% irrigation, 30% fertilising & 50% aeration; run cost . . . 50 cents / month!

System build; the finale . . . bed 4 . . . a “Terra Preta Inoculation kettle”.

This post has three parts . . .

Part A . . . the video:-

Before we set the last grow bed up we’re using it to demo the bare basics of what ecoponics is, and how it works!

A grow bed, a worm farm and a sump tank is all you need; in this video I’m using a pump and bucket to fill the bed, when the siphon primes I manually turn the pump off. The siphon drains back to sump and a trickle tube feeds the last remnant of water back to sump through the worm farm.

Part B . . . the pictures:-

A collection of pictures past and present!

#1 . . . The new purpose built, grow bed with float switch ready to fit, and pump we use to fill it. It has 100 litres grow media capacity, and ½ square metre surface area.

#2 . . . A bottom view of the bed showing the small drain hole in the bottom to drain off any “pooled” water to prevent any anaerobic issues. Attach a plastic tube to that hole to trickle through the worm farm and back to sump, just enough to keep the worms moist (don’t drown them) and flush the “worm wee” back to sump.

#3 . . . A view of part of our new system; bed 1 has a crop of 14 day old alfalfa, bed 2 is a shade tunnel propagation bed, bed 3 is planted out with turmeric that’s yet to shoot.

#4 . . . One of the grow beds we used in our last build (see our face book profile picture) made from a 44 gallon drum then painted with food safe pool liner paint.

#5 . . . A corner spa bath grow bed we used a long time ago with a crop of snow peas and rhubarb.

#6 . . . Some of last year’s harvest of ginger & turmeric seen in our profile picture.

#7 . . . The new bed, all finished with a gutter is placed along the bottom of the bed; water is delivered down through the pipe at the back end and through the gutter to the other end and up the siphon pickup pipe. Water soaks up through the slits into the media and back as the bed drains.

#8 . . . A view of the manifold pipe with holes drilled for the siphon return and trickle drain tube.

#9 . . . Bed 4 “kettle” filled with our terra preta mix ready for “inoculation”; the hessian bag is used as a cover to minimise heating and evaporation.
The bed exhales stale air as it floods, and inhales fresh air as it drains!

# 10 . . . All finished; 11 minutes cycle time, twice a day, total run time . . . 22 minutes per day; how effficient is that?!

Only a few weeks since we started. three weeks since we planted the alfalfa, and we’ve already got some unexpects livestock; aside from the fish and worms we’ve had a family of frogs and tadpoles take up residence in to the sump tank, and two elusive blue tongue lizards do a regular patrol (sorry, I haven’t been fast enough to get any pics), what better proof of a healthy non toxic ecosystem!

Part C . . . What is Terra Preta:-

This is the whole point of this build has been to have a terra preta “inoculation kettle” to make our own “Uneek" Terra Preta.

Most people haven’t heard of terra preta, if you’re one of those, this YouTube video is a great place to start:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUAEa4ORAkY

Bio char you may have heard of; it’s claimed to be have the same benefits, but most bio char is nothing more than charcoal laced with some organic fillers, with no “bio” at all, the bio only comes with the right environment for “bio” to grow and the passage of time to do that, and must be kept alive with bio-nutrients, moisture and aeration, this “inoculation kettle” is a fast track way to do that!

So how’s it work:-

The bed is filled with a mix of compost, worm castings, rock dust, some fertile organic “seed” soil and 20% by volume of charcoal char (when the alfalfa we’re growing in bed one matures, we’ll harvest it to use as green fertiliser in out future terra preta mix). Mix it all together, the ecoponics process (20% irrigation,
30% fertilising & 50% aeration) provides the perfect habitat to “inoculate” it for the “bio” to grow. After as little as two weeks, either plant it out, or better still, “harvest” it as an organic, “bio” rich, general purpose, super soil amendment!

The process is fast, cheap and easy, with no complicated chemistry tests, the hardest work tending and feeding the worms!

Bottom line . . .

Ecoponics, use it as a grow system & / or to make terra preta works a treat, and far easier and cheaper than hydroponics or aquaponics and better than wicking beds!

Want to build you own? . . . It’s not rocket science!
If I, a 78 year old pensioner can do it, it can’t be too hard!

What you’ll need:-

• A grow bed . . . it can be a plastic barrel, a 44 gallon drum, a fibreglass spa, a bath tub; they all work, but each have there own issues; our new purpose built beds with an inbuilt siphon are big and strong but not heavy or cumbersome.
You don’t need a siphon for a single bed system; that can come later!
• A sump tank, pretty much anything works as long as it has the capacity for the job.
• A worm farm.
• Manually flood & drain with a bucket, at least once a week, ideally twice a day, but no more than ten times a day; it’s easy and inexpensive to automate with a small pump and / or timer (we use Seaflo, 16 litre per minute, 12 volt caravan pump(s) and a timer each bought on eBay).
• If / when you’re ready to upgrade to multiple beds, use a siphon with a float switch (also available on eBay) to turn the pump to bed one off, and a pump to bed on (& so on). We use our own home made controller to do that, then turn the whole system off and wait for the timer to start the cycle again next time.

22/12/2025

Uneek Ecoponics . . . Stage 5 of the build . . . Using a disused wicking bed . . .

The whole point of this post is to explain the logic of F&D ecoponics, it doesn’t need to be “techo”; that part only automates the process; basic ecoponics can be done with a normal wicking bed; simply re-circulate the water through a worm farm, preferably once a day but at least once a week; do that with a bucket if you like!

The video . . . the first part shows the automation, the second part shows how to modify a wicking bed to do the same job!

Part 1, the automation:-
• Since the last post we’ve updated controller to a type 3, which has the capacity to sequentially control up to six grow beds, with each sequence having an individual fuse protection for each pump.
• We’ve also added three more grow beds, beds 2 & 3 are new, made for purpose, fibreglass beds, the fourth is a disused wicking bed that served us well for two years, rather than dispose of it we’re using it to show how it can be repurposed it as a “manual” ecoponic grow bed!
• Sequence #1 does a sump tank top up to compensate for evaporation and plant transpiration.
• #2 does a F&D of the fish tank.
• #3 & #4 do a F&D of beds 2 &3.

Part 2, the wicking bed re-work scenario:-

Because we’re using a disused wicking bed, we’ve moved the fill pipe from bed 3 to do a manual F&D of bed 4. We’ve also attached a plastic hose to the overflow port on the wicking bed, raising it high enough to stop any water draining until the bed is completely filled, then move the hose to drain through the manifold back to sump; we then move the filler pipe back to bed 3 for it to do it’s normal auto F&D of bed 3.

We do this once each day, the other auto cycles skip bed 4.

So let’s compare the differences:-

A wicking bed . . .
• The whole point of a wicking bed is to have a static “water well” reservoir to keep the soil moist, solely to extend the “watering” intervals. The water is static and risks becoming stagnant and anaerobic (we’ve all got “self watering” pots with stagnant water in the bottom . . a typical mini wicking bed)!
• Nutrient depends on the fertility of the soil, needing nutrient replenishment by either synthetic or “bio” fertilisers; inevitably the soil needs total replacement after a couple of years . . . a big and expensive job!

The wicking bed we’re using did exactly that! All we got was a static watering system for a year or two.

The Ecoponic grow bed . . .

• Instead of a “water well”, we do a complete flood of the soil, preferably from the bottom up; the flooding expels the air from the soil, as it “wets out” the soil.
• When it drains fresh air is drawn back into the soil! This does two things . . .
1. It’s a full “soaking” of the soil, totally distributing nutrients dissolved in the “bio rich” water supply.
2. But just as important, it replenishes the soil with atmospheric nitrogen (80% of the air) . . . Take the time to think it through; fertilisers, be they synthetic of organic, are mainly “bio available” nitrogen . . . all we need is a good supply of atmospheric nitrogen for organic “bio diverse” micro flora & fauna in the soil to do what they’re meant to do (as long as the “bio” is there to do the job). So why waste time and money on fertilisers???

Fill the bed with a bucket if you like, recycle the water through a worm farm and back to sump for “free” nutrient enrichment; it’s not rocket science, the automation only makes the job easier!!!

OK enough of that . . .

All three beds drain through a common manifold back to sump.

Bed 1 is the only one that trickle drains through the worm farm, the other two beds do have a trickle drain, but they drain direct to the water return manifold.

We’ve planted out bed 1 with alfalfa (lucerne) four days ago; it's already germinated, bed 2 is filled with plastic pots planted out with mango seeds, (an experiment to try to propagate them from seed we've saved from our Christmas festivities)! Bed 3 has been planted out with turmeric rhizomes; we're at least two months too late for planting, but let's see how we go!

Stay tuned for the next stage of the rebuild . . .

Uneek Ecoponics

23/05/2026

14/05/2026

08/05/2026

23/04/2026

22/04/2026

21/03/2026

14/03/2026

10/02/2026

06/01/2026

22/12/2025

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