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How many gallons should i have if i plan on having 12 plant's?
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With all the earlier posts I forgot about this question. But here are the general "minimum" recommendations. For small plants like strawberry's and most varieties of lettuce, "minimum" 1/2 gallons of
nutrient solution per plant. For medium sized plants like bush type pepper plants or a basil plant, "minimum" 1 to 1.5 gallons of nutrient solution per plant. For large plants like tomato plants "minimum" 2.5 gallons of nutrient solution per plant. So to figure the reservoir size you need, just take into account how big the plant gets when it's full grown. Then using the basic "minimum" guidelines, multiply the amount of plants you plan by the minimum amount of nutrient solution. That will give you a starting point as to the "minimum" reservoir size you will be able to get by with.
Except for lettuce I would pretty much double the minimums, mainly because lettuce plants generally go from seed to harvesting the head in 6-8 weeks. So most of their life cycle they are well below full size. But even for lettuce I would probably hope for around 3/4 gallons per plant. For strawberry I would want about 1 gallon per plant (especially if expect heavy fruiting). Pepper plants come in all sizes, some varieties like indeterminate greenhouse varieties even get as large as tomato plants. So you pretty much just need to judge how big your plant, and plant variety will actually get. But if it were me, going by the general guidelines I would know the bare minimum reservoir size I would need is 12x 2.5= 30 gallons. But because I always find the minimum guidelines inadequate when the plants get to be full grown. I would want a 60 gallon reservoir for 12 tomato plants (double the minimum), and wouldn't feel comfortable with less than a 50 gallon reservoir. You don't need to fill it all the way while the plants are young and smaller, but I know I'll want the extra water volume when they get big.
I added to the drawing I posted earlier, and showed how you could easily double the water volume size. First I should say the drawings are drawn around the
45 gallon storage tote I mentioned in the earlier post. It's been a long time since I bought it, but I believe it was around $15 or so at walmart. As I mentioned though it just bowed out when I tried to fill it with water. So I intended to build a wood frame around it to support the sides. I hadn't thought about trying to connect more than one together. But in case you wanted to, I made another drawing of how I would do it.
Because I've tried using a syphon before, and found that you really need to watch the water levels because if a air bubble gets in the tube, it stops syphoning. And that would be a disaster. So to connect two reservoirs together, and without a chance of air bubbles causing a problem. I would connect them with a tube near the bottom, and let water flow freely between the two reservoir (because of gravity, a liquid always seeks it's own level).
So first I would install a PVC bulkhead fitting that connects directly to PVC tubing into each reservoir near the bottom. This bulkhead fitting would be permanently glued in place. From there all I need to do is connect PVC tubing between the two reservoirs. But because the PVC tubing wouldn't be glued to the bulkhead fitting (just tightly fitted so they wont leak), they can be separated for easy maintenance. This also allows them to each be used as separate reservoirs later by simply inserting a plug into the bulkhead fitting, or a small piece of PVC tubing with a end cap on it.
If the cost of the 45 gallon storage tote is what I remember them to be, including both storage totes, wood 2x3's, screws, fittings and PVC tubing, you could probably build the whole setup for about $50 or so. Then you would have two 45 gallon reservoirs, or one 90 gallon one. If using two together as one reservoir, I would make sure to
pump nutrient solution out of one of them, and allow the overflow to drain into the other one. That will make sure the nutrient solution is always thoroughly circulated through both reservoirs.