Hydroponics 3 NFT and flood drain combination

[densellers]

Looks like a pretty good start but you should be using black hoses & a dark colored reservoir to keep as much light from getting into your system as that promotes algae growth. But why is your drain on the same side as the inflow header, how can you get proper nutrient circulation throughout the tubes? Adding a couple of air stones to your reservoir will also help, as not enough oxygen to the roots will promote root rot. I've built a few NFT systems and have had fantastic results with my buds.

[moerbeimaster]

I do not understand? The upper and lower end of the NFT pipes are open for enhanced air flow. This do result in some algae growth though.

[milbroman]

on this method do u need to use mesh at the bottom of the pipe mate?

[milbroman]

on this method do u need to use mesh at the bottom of the pipe mate?

[moerbeimaster]

Here are some pics on plants growing in this NFT:

picasaweb.google.com/101171447­821868426335/20110114_NFTRootZ­one?authuser=0&feat=directlink

and also some pics on my flood and drain grow-box:

picasaweb.google.com/101171447­821868426335/20101028_Mini_Gre­enhouse?authuser=0&feat=direct­link

My next step will be to expand this system to 3meter gutters or even 6 meter gutters.

[moerbeimaster]

This improved the flow as well as reduced the pump requirement due to lower pressure required. I also scraped the Flood-drain bit (since it was never used) and converted to a pure NFT (since it works great in this mode). For pure NFT I also removed the individual drain pipes and all the NFT gutters are now just flowing into a collector gutter which in turns drain into the reservoir. This was to reduce the occurrence of roots clocking the drain pipes.

[moerbeimaster]

SHOCK...you are 100% correct. It is closed now, including the transparent drain pipes. I just left it open for the VID to indicate the working thereof.

I actually made a couple of mods to the system and will try and load new pics/vids soon. I now use one large (15mm) feeder pype all the way to the top of the NFT gutters, and from this “manifold” pype I just use short black feeder tubes(3mm) of about 15cm length.

[SHOCKBR3AKER]

why you dont close your reservoir ? it can contain algae if the light comes in.

[moerbeimaster]

It is one of the smallest pond pums, hence the orange create to overcome the pump-head restriction of 0.5meters. My guess it's about 400liters per hour.

[ojestah]

nice set up im just starting my own at the moment what size pump you got there ??

[moerbeimaster]

The system actually works very well for me, just a warning that it is only suitable for lettuce-sized plants. Other stuff like tomato, spinage or peppers are blocking the NFT flow with their huge root-mass.

[moerbeimaster]

I run my system now in NFT mode 24/7. I did replace the inlets with a single big line feeding to a manifult at the top and then just short (about 5cm) spagetti tubes to each nft pipe. No air pump needed. The drainage of the NFT (which is active 24/7) creates plenty of air-locks to ensure a high level of airation.

[Arizonagrowdepot]

You need to trim your tubes and air an air pump with at lease 2 stones.

[MsNikkikitty]

Ok so the whole system floods a few times daily? or do you run the entire system 24-7 on flood mode? My system is micro (though i have not started yet, i do have the piping necessary to start the project, just waiting on a friend with tools right now.

But my system will run a very small layer of nute film, a tad bigger than 2mm I'm thinking it should be about 4-5mm when I'm done, but thats due to the size of the pipe verses the bottom of each pot, since I'm not running a troth like system.

[MsNikkikitty]

sh!t... i mean

O-O-O-O-O-

-O-O-O-O-O-

[moerbeimaster]

Sounds interesting. Post a video clip when done. I would like o see it.

Note that a true NFT only have a very thin nutrient film (1mm) in the bottom. This video clip is of a combo NFT/ebb-flow. When used as NFT, the nutrient drains out through the bottom drain only. The side-mounted drain pype is then not in use. This video clip actually shows the ebb-flow version where I reverse the flow and inject new nutrient through the NFT-Drain.

[MsNikkikitty]

OK so the pots really are completely submerged i never knew that. I'm thinking about doing an NFT setup like this only using a grid of small 2'' pots made from PVC (2x2x) then on the bottom half of the pots, running half inch pipe to each pot think of it like this O-O-O-O-O-

-O-O-O-O-O-

Each 2'' pipe "pot" would be touching each other like a honeycomb of pots. Then re-curulate back into the res( a 4'' Drainage pipe).

Think it would work well?

[moerbeimaster]

Yes it is. I Made 1 small mod: cutting about 2cm away from the top end of the styrafoam end cap to allow some air flow through the pypes.....it works great now.

[teamgrn]

is that styrafoam end caps?