OK, I'll start a thread for it when I get a chance. After a quick look I also have a lot of articles I can post too. As well as PDF files, I also save articles in text documents to my computer so I can print them out, but I also save the links to them in the text document so I can easily find it online again later.
Building a UV light system is also on my list of things to do. But it's not a new technology. They have been using UV light for sterilizing water since the 1940's at least. Their commonly used for sterilizing well water. If you look at Lowe's and Home Depot's pond pumps, some have UV
lights built in too. They commonly use it in hydroponics as well, but generally only in commercial operations where they have a lot of money at stake. So it's not a common item in hydroponic shops. That's fine with me because they would just be overpriced, and I would much rather build my own anyway (I'm funny that way). The two main design aspects to keep in mind are the depth of the water for the light to go through, and the flow rate of the water. The flow rate needs to be slow enough to allow the light sufficient time to kill the microbes (contact time). And the water needs to be shallow enough for the light to penetrate all the way through it.
My plan for building a UV light system is fairly simple. It involves using a section of tubing (rain gutter, down spouts etc.). Laying it flat, cutting an opening large enough for the light. Hot gluing in a section of durable clear glass (to keep the light from getting wet accidentally). Then using a small
pump to pump the water through the tube. I will probably use an ball cock valve inline from the pump to control water flow, and a short dam on the other end to control water depth. Basically setup like a NFT system, but using UV lights in place of the baskets with plants, and a section of clear glass to separate the water from the lights (for electrocution safety). I can add more lights or use one long fixture (increasing light contact time) to be able to increase water flow depending on how large the reservoir is.
I plan to build a few just like that for a 3 level commercial setup I'm planing. Ill have the overflow drain through the UV light on it's way back to the reservoir, and have the UV lights on a timer set the same as the timer for the water pump's. I also plan to use beneficial microbes in the system as well. I'll leave the UV lights off for a couple days for the beneficial microbes to become established. Then when I switch them on, the microbes traveling under the light will be killed, but the ones in the growing medium will be able to bread and help fend off any pathogens living in the
growing medium at the roots.