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My First system


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  #1  
Old 07-30-2011, 10:54 PM
jamromhem jamromhem is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Central Florida
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Default My First system

I decided to go with the Lettuce first. No particular reason other than it was actually more work to put together lol.

I went for a run around home depot today and baught more than I needed. I got about 35ft of 1-1/2" PVC for about 6 dollars because the person couldnt count when he was looking at the stack of misscuts. I am not going to complain though. I paid about 1/2 price.

I guess I will go ahead and start with the pictures.

I will do them in a few posts just to keep them separated out I guess.

These first few is how I attached the Drain. It was a 1-1/2 " PVC male adapter, and I just off the part that would usually slide over the pipe and then made a hole that would just fit it and hot glued it in. I havent leak tested it yet. I will get more into my reason for waiting later.

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Old 07-30-2011, 10:59 PM
jamromhem jamromhem is offline
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These next few show the drain and intake system. I have the intake running through the drain system through 1/2" flexible PVC and then it branches out just before it goes into the res through the side of a T. I put a 1-1/2" to 1/2" bushing and board it out just a hair at the lip it has to let the 1/2" pipe fit all the way through it. I figured less holes in the vinyl post the less I would have to worry about leaking.
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  #3  
Old 07-30-2011, 11:12 PM
jamromhem jamromhem is offline
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Here is what I have done so far. I have to do a little more to it. and I have it set up to where i can expand it to 3 tubes later if I decide to. I will have to do some more work to the plumbing side to add more to it, but that isnt a big deal with all the extra PVC I have laying around right now.

Inside of the 4x4 post is a long piece of 1/2" pvc I havent finished with yet. It will be fixed at the top back corner of the 4x4 to let me put small holes in to spray on the net cups that I will be putting in there (have to wait for them to get here to make the holes). The purpose of letting it spray on them is to let me put plants that dont have roots that will hang down yet.

Hopefully the net cups will be here soon. I have them ordered and should hopefully be here next week if I am lucky. My lettuce seeds are already set up to germinate (I hope they all do). I set them up today in hopes that everything will be here on time to let me put them into the system.

I also have to put up the support for the lights I will be putting up. I am going to do 4 T8s. with 6500k bulbs. That should be plenty with the system sitting next to a south pacing 6ft window.
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Old 07-31-2011, 09:33 PM
jamromhem jamromhem is offline
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ok.. I have been doing some thinking on the system. I am considering the space below the shelving for both storage and an additional res. I am thinking about placing the pump under the shelf in the second res, and having the waste water dump into the one you can see in the picture. (nothing is glued yet so I still have plenty of think time)


I would be joining the two res with a pipe near the bottom. (just enough to clear the wood framing) I would think that would give me more time between res changes having way more res than needed for the single tube that is in place at the moment.

The other half of the space could be used as storage for the nutrient bins and such. I am also considering adding the plumbing for the other 2 tubes I am going to add in the future now rather than having to redo it all later.

I have the braces cut for the lighting that I am going to add, I just have to wait for my little cordless drill to charge before I can add it on and take more pics.

Any thoughts on my idea? I am wanting to make the system as useful as I can in the beginning since I am planning on expanding it later.
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  #5  
Old 08-01-2011, 11:54 PM
jamromhem jamromhem is offline
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Well I have some more work done on the system. I got the light system set up on it. It is 2 dual T8 4ft flourescents. I have 2 5000k bulbs and 2 6500k bulbs.

For more than 10k lumens in a 4ft by 14" area. That should be plenty of light for some lettuce. If need be I can fix mount another fixture in the back, but I don't think I will need to.You can also see how I fixed it to the frame. It currently has 4 pullies and if you pull on the center loop it goes up evenly. I will be adding another line and making a 'reel' (like a fishing one) to let me control the light levels. It sits about 1" from the rails when completely lowered, and about 1' when wrapped as it is in the picture. (the retaining strings slid onto the hooks for the pullies)

I am still waiting for the ordered supplies to get in to let me test the pump to see what I have to do. I have multiple lines set up to let me do a drip feed, semi aeroponics, small sprayers..... tons of things to test to let the roots develope down into the NFT.

I hope it all gets here soon.. I started germinating the lettuce to try to be ready for when things get here... of the 10 seeds I set. 8 have already sprouted (2 days). 8/10 is pretty impressive in 2 days. I hope that those plants are still going when the supplies get here.
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  #6  
Old 08-03-2011, 09:39 PM
jamromhem jamromhem is offline
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Default 8/3/11

well I did some more work on the system and got in my supplies.

It is up and running mostly.. I am working on getting the PH to be where I want it...

It is only holding 6 gallons but I might add another gallon or two to try to help out with the PH balance thing...

I am working on flushing all of the vinyl scraps out of the system to get it cleaned up..

Here is the pic of it.. I am going to add 2 more channels to it later.. I have my seedling tray sitting in the middle of the picture at the moment.. Waiting for them to start being big enough to put in the system..

Not to mention trying to work out the bugs before killing the plants lol.

On a side note.. I have decided there is no chance I am sticking with perlite lol... the peices are getting all through the system and are more of a pain than it is worth..

What other mediums might people think I should use to replace the mess? :P
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Last edited by jamromhem; 08-03-2011 at 09:47 PM.
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