Aquaponic system ph level and nutrients

[GpsFrontier]

Hello kr3t3n,

Basically, how close together can I put the container towers/boxes/racks without leaving the bottom plants completely out of sunlight?

Trial and error...... Research...


You need to know your plants.
That means if your not already familiar with the plants you want to grow, you need to research them. You need to know how big they will get when full grown so you can space them accordingly and size the reservoir appropriately. You need to know how big the root system will get so you can design the hydroponic system to accommodate their needs. You need to know if the plants can tolerate wet feet or need well draining soil so again you can design the hydroponic system to accommodate the plants needs. You need to know if the plants are warm weather plants or cool weather plants. you need to know about the type of lighting the plants prefer/need (full sun, part shade, full shade etc.). Knowing your plants, and how many you plan to grow is the first step in being able to design the right hydroponic system to grow them in, not to mention the best way to design it.


P.S.
The shelving systems in the pictures are rotating systems.... They rotate the plants to get even lighting.

[kr3t3n]

If all of them are truly rotating (I have seen rotating growbeds but I was wondering if it is possible to keep the static and grow (I thought this is what is happening in the second picture I posted).

If necessary to rotate, that would truly make things a lot more difficult, not necessarily impossible, with a water wheel. I'm just thinking "out loud", of course, and would have to test it out to confirm how viable an option it is. Maybe an electricity-assisted water wheel generator, I imagine such exist?

[GpsFrontier]

Hello kr3t3n,
The vertical tubes don't rotate, their just spaced far enough apart so they get enough sunlight. Also because of the greenhouse glazing the light is diffused. Sunlight won't go through plants and solid objects, so either you have to design the system and space the plants so they get enough light, or you'll have to use supplemental artificial lighting.

[kr3t3n]

Is it worth covering the containers and tables in reflective foil?

[GpsFrontier]

Hello kr3t3n,
Sometimes, but I have no idea if doing so would help you since I have no idea how you plan to design your system/s, where you plan to grow them, how much natural light the area gets, or even really what type of plants you will be growing or how many you plan to grow. All I know about your plans is probably some type of aeroponic system, and you may or may not plan to use fish/aquaponics to make your nutrients.

Lighting is part of planning. So often people go all out designing a system first and then try and decide what they can grow in it, that's doing things backwards. Then they find out they wasted their time and money because they wanted to skip the planning and go straight into the building. Can you build a house without a budget or design plans? Yes, but you'll be wasting a lot of time and money building it without planning it out first. Same thing building your hydroponic systems.

First you have to decide what budget you have to work with, what you plan to grow, how much of it you plan to grow, where you plan to grow it etc. etc.. A successful hydroponic system is one that you design and build around the needs of the plants you will be growing in it. In order to be able to do that you first need to know the needs of the plants and understand how the six different types of hydroponic systems are different so you can tell which ones will benefit the plants needs best. As well as known what budget and space you have to work with. Then you can start thinking it out and designing it. After you think it out and design it, you can start building it.

[kr3t3n]

These sketches are all a bit premature but they provide an idea of what I have in mind. Each of these containers will hold several plants.
3D views:








Here is the actual floor plan (keep in mind there are elevated containers which hide certain ground containers, all visible in the 3D views):




As for the container specifications, they are documented here: greenhouse.pdf

Thank you very much in advance for your thoughts on this! Don't spare my feelings

P.S. Dimensions are in cm

P.S.2 The greenhouse is separated in 3 sections to allow different climate control.

[GpsFrontier]

Hello kr3t3n,

1. Well my first thought is I don't think you have grown those crops before and/or aren't really familiar with them.
2. My second thought is your trying to do to much and won't be successful. You have 12 crops listed and 96 different containers.
3. My third thought is you not only have way to many containers complicating things (96), but their way over crowded.
4. My fourth thought is the containers aren't sized for the crops.
5. My fifth thought is many of those crops will do better in a different type of system, like a drip system.
6. My sixth thought is not only are the crops over crowded, but your blocking all the light.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but you said not to spare your feelings so I just said my thoughts. So often I see people new to hydroponics try to do to much right from the start, only to wind up spending a fortune and being unsuccessful. Then having to go back and rethink it all over and spend more money fixing problems and redesigning and building new the systems.


P.S.
No I don't think using reflective material will help, from the looks of it you have it to crowded so that there won't be enough light getting in anyway, reflective material or not.