My second system

[fintuckyfarms]

Finally..... I got it going today. Only the outside plants are in it right now cuz it is way too hot to move them out there.

I still have a few things to do like add the air stones and hog panel that I'm gonna use as a trellis. I plan on wrapping both the resiviour and the tubes to help keep them cool. This is only a temp location until the green house gets built but it will do for now. The system gets early morning and mid day sun till about 3ish then it is shadded from the really hot part of the day. It is also protected from the winds we get here on the east side of the house.

I used 10' thin will pipe and now wish I would have just spent the extra $$ and went with regular PVC as this tends to bow. It makes it harder to get the water level correct. When I build the system GPSfrontier designed for me I will get regular pvc. I did not glue the joints and only have a very small leak at one of the joints thus far. The first two tubes have holes at 8" on center and the last two at 12" as I plan to grow larger plants like tomatos and peppers back there.

The system is continous flow using a 290 gpm pump I bought on-line for $9 plus free shipping. I regulate the water level by twisting the end cap that has the black tube to get the desired level. That way if the pump fails or the power goes out, there is still about 2.5"s of water in the tubes. I still need to wrap both the intake tube (it is clear) and the output tube to keep them cool and algee free. (See, I am learning lots from this site)

I am using a 50 gal rubermaid container as the resiviour right now. Not sure if this is a permenent thing as just yet as I can only put about 35 gal's in it before the sides start bulging out. But the larger volume really does help keep the temp more regulated. It is about 95 outside right now and the water is still cool to the touch.

I am not going to be able to move the squash plant into this system so I am already thinking on a ebb and flow system out of plastic 55 gal barrels that I picked up. I will probably end up moving the cantalope there also. I think I just need another pump and some more hydrodron.

Anyway, what do ya think?