Thanks omerizm,
For me it wouldn't be cost effective to use a 6 inch round tube (PVC anyway). The 6 inch tube runs $1.78 a foot x10= $17.80 + tax, and the end caps run $11.98 +tax ea. That would run me about $45 a tube. I can get the 4 inch vinyl fence post tubing with end caps for about that, probably less. I haven't checked prices for 5 inch PVC tubing and caps, but I don't think it would be much different in price. Not to mention the added operational costs like needing a reservoir at least twice the size. That would also likely double the cost of the
nutrients I would go through.
It would only be economical for me to use round tubing if I used the 4 inch ADS irrigation tubing that I have used before. It runs $8 for a 10 foot tube, and $2 for each end cap, and coupler. Total $14 for a complete 10 foot tube, including a coupler piece for the center of the tube. I think I will get another ADS tube to do some testing with to see if I can get the water level high enough. But because of the angles, preliminary testing seem to show that only about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of the bottom of the basket would get wet at full flooding (before threat of overflowing out the holes). I wanted a full inch to get saturated when fully flooded.
P.S. Just for the heck of it I attached a few pictures of the ADS tubing. Notice that I gut the tube in half in order to pull out the roots and clean the inside before I reuse it. That's what I needed the coupler for, to reconnect both halves again. I also attached an updated version of the drawing of my intended design. Don't pay to much attention to the black ports sticking out the end and bottom for the inlet and overflow, I have an update but didn't want to redraw the whole thing. I just did some copy and pasting of my original design to give you an idea how I plan to have it setup. The two rows are raised so I can walk underneath them, and still be able to reach all the plants for picking and maintenance.