My First system

[jamromhem]

Your suggestions worked great GPS. The system is up and running again and the PH is stable now.

I have it going and it is working fine. The water is doing what it should be doing lol..

There is a good bit of h2o2 in the system. I didnt measure just started squirting it in there till I decided I was bored with it lol.

The plants seem happy to be in the system now. I can tell a good difference in the plants in the few hours they have spent in it. There is probably about a 1/10th strength solution in there right now.

I will take some pics of the plants when I get more than just 2 leaves lol. I also have some tomato seeds germinating in the system as a test of laziness. One has started showing rooting atleast, so I think it is working fairly well.

[GpsFrontier]

Glad to hear you were able to clear it up. But bacteria, fungi, and pathogens do have a way of recurring, so keep an eye out for any signs of it coming back. Also I haven't dabbled with them yet (though plan to), but if you wanted to you could introduce/inoculate your hydro system with beneficial microbes as well. Beneficial microbes basically feed on pathogens, keeping their numbers down, and thus from breading out of control. But any sanitizing treatments like H2O2, or UV light will kill beneficial microbes just as easy as pathogens (bad microbes). If your interested I could post a list of what to look for in a good quality beneficial microbe product for future reference. I have it on my computer in PDF, and would post it now but will take me a few minutes to find it because I forget the title of the PDF.

[jamromhem]

Sure I would love any info you have. I think right now though sterilization is the best effort for me right now. I might try to use a biological system later.

I have also looked at the UV lights. I am thinking I might try to build an in res UV light. It is a tricky idea, but I think it is doable if I can find the right type of light. I have seen some T5 UV lights that only have a connection on one side.. I just wish I could fins a T5 ballast and connectors near by lol. I think the technology is still too new and isnt spread out in the market as much as I would like yet.

[GpsFrontier]

OK, I'll start a thread for it when I get a chance. After a quick look I also have a lot of articles I can post too. As well as PDF files, I also save articles in text documents to my computer so I can print them out, but I also save the links to them in the text document so I can easily find it online again later.

Building a UV light system is also on my list of things to do. But it's not a new technology. They have been using UV light for sterilizing water since the 1940's at least. Their commonly used for sterilizing well water. If you look at Lowe's and Home Depot's pond pumps, some have UV lights built in too. They commonly use it in hydroponics as well, but generally only in commercial operations where they have a lot of money at stake. So it's not a common item in hydroponic shops. That's fine with me because they would just be overpriced, and I would much rather build my own anyway (I'm funny that way). The two main design aspects to keep in mind are the depth of the water for the light to go through, and the flow rate of the water. The flow rate needs to be slow enough to allow the light sufficient time to kill the microbes (contact time). And the water needs to be shallow enough for the light to penetrate all the way through it.

My plan for building a UV light system is fairly simple. It involves using a section of tubing (rain gutter, down spouts etc.). Laying it flat, cutting an opening large enough for the light. Hot gluing in a section of durable clear glass (to keep the light from getting wet accidentally). Then using a small pump to pump the water through the tube. I will probably use an ball cock valve inline from the pump to control water flow, and a short dam on the other end to control water depth. Basically setup like a NFT system, but using UV lights in place of the baskets with plants, and a section of clear glass to separate the water from the lights (for electrocution safety). I can add more lights or use one long fixture (increasing light contact time) to be able to increase water flow depending on how large the reservoir is.

I plan to build a few just like that for a 3 level commercial setup I'm planing. Ill have the overflow drain through the UV light on it's way back to the reservoir, and have the UV lights on a timer set the same as the timer for the water pump's. I also plan to use beneficial microbes in the system as well. I'll leave the UV lights off for a couple days for the beneficial microbes to become established. Then when I switch them on, the microbes traveling under the light will be killed, but the ones in the growing medium will be able to bread and help fend off any pathogens living in the growing medium at the roots.

[jamromhem]

I was also thinking about something like that... Or perhaps a larger tube with clear poly surrounding the UV light in the center to let multiple res's have their nutrients pumped through it on the way to the plant or on the side with a second pump.

I read that the UV light has trouble penetrating the glass and clear plastics... you would have to get a special glass or plastic to use from my understanding.

I have seen things where the UV light is actually set up in a way that the water is flowing over the light itself. (no splashing and constant contact prevents the fast temp change that cracks the glass)

I am still reading more into it, and will let you know what I find on that...

[jamromhem]

I figured I would do an update on the system and show a few plants.

The first (if everything uploaded like I told it) is a picture of the first lettuce to sprout a third leaf. It is still tiny, but there is a fourth leaf starting to develope and I am hoping for it to start taking off a little better.

The second picture is of the firs ttomato plant to start to show. It is a Roma VF determinate. Nothing spectacular, but I am hoping it will take off. It was completely germinated in the hydroponic system as a test to see how well they would do while letting me be lazy.

The third picture is of the res. I have 2 airstones in it and in the back you can see the line from the pump and the return line from the planter.

Some of the bubbles are not popping. I don't think there is still an infection. The water is very clear and I keep the H2O2 levels fairly high.