Flooding And Draining A Large Area.

I have a table equaling 5 feet by 5 feet in area and 6 inches deep. I lined it with pond liner, drilled a hole each for the flooding piece and drain piece, and installed them both. I did a test run tonight and wanted to ask a few questions. It took about 15 minutes to fill the 5x5 area to about an inch and a half deep. It also took about 20 minutes to drain. Keep in mind there was no pots in the tray and no rockwool to soak any of this water up. I'm worried that this entire flooding and draining process took to long. I'm planning on having about 50 8" pots on the tray. What height would be ideal to flood the tray to, and do I need to take any steps to ensure that the table floods quicker and drains quicker as well? Perhaps installing a stronger pump or a second pump, and also installing a second drain piece?

Good question, They say it should not take any longer than 15 mins. to flood.You want it to drain back slower.What size pump and res do you have?A bigger pump will flood the tray in say 5 mins. or so.The 2x2x7 tray I have with a 15 gal res ,4-5" pots and 264 gph pump floods in 1-1/2 mins and drains in about 3-1/2 mins.One thing what is the head pressure of the pump?My pump will lift water to a highest of 6 feet.that is important too when buying your pump. Hope this helps PEACE

Tokecrazy said:

Good question, They say it should not take any longer than 15 mins. to flood.You want it to drain back slower.What size pump and res do you have?A bigger pump will flood the tray in say 5 mins. or so.The 2x2x7 tray I have with a 15 gal res ,4-5" pots and 264 gph pump floods in 1-1/2 mins and drains in about 3-1/2 mins.One thing what is the head pressure of the pump?My pump will lift water to a highest of 6 feet.that is important too when buying your pump. Hope this helps PEACE

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The pump is a 185GPH and the res is 37 gallons. The pump will lift to 3.9 feet. I also have a couple 264GPH pumps that push up to 6 feet as well. I should give those a try... What height should the water flood to inside the tray and how long do the pots need to be submerged for the Rockwool to soak the right amount of water? What are the ways to find this out?