New to Hydroponics - Want to Build a System With a Budget of $650

FalseFlash · #1 05-01-2013, 12:18 AM

I joined this forum to ask for some help on building a system. I have a budget of $650, I can go somewhat over but prefer not to. I been searching all over Google for days but have not really found anything useful for me. I don't want one of them 5-gallon bucket systems.

I'm hoping to use PVC on this system, just because I think it looks better.

This system will always be outside until winter.

I plan on growing tomatoes and peppers as a first start. Also, I live out in the open so this will have nothing from blocking the sun.

I already have some stuff towards building one;

Hydrofarm 1000-GPH Active Aqua Submersible pump
General Hydroponics Flora Series QT - FloraGro, FloraBloom, and FloraMicro
General Hydroponics Ph Control Kit
Hydroton Leca Clay (6 pounds)
60 3" Net Pots

So if maybe anyone could link me to a step-by-step guide that would be great.

Stan · #2 05-01-2013, 10:35 PM

Welcome to the site! I'm sure someone here will be able to help you. First of all you need to figure out what type of system you want. Check out the pictures of the set ups people posted here.

Your Hydroponics Setup - Hydroponics Forums Discussions

When you have decided what type of system you want you will need to figure out how many plants of each you want to grow and what varieties you would like.

From the list of things you already have I would include an air pump and air stones to aerate the reservoir you will need.

fintuckyfarms · #3 05-02-2013, 12:12 AM

$650 is a lot to work with, I could build at least 4 systems with that much money. Tomatoes are tricky... I grew some in a 4" pvc pipe and I never will attempt that again; lots of roots, plugging and backflowing. Maybe a 8" pipe would work but I will only grow them in buckets or 55 gal barrels cut in half.
With pvc you have two methods of growing, NFT and flood and drain. NFT will utilize your net pots and you can grow much closer together then traditional gardening. The pro's are you can keep the nutes flowing past the roots, grow dense and utilize verticle growing. The con's are you are dependant on power and temps can be a big factor.
Flood and drain; by cutting out the top section of the pipe and filling with pea gravel or pearlite making net cups not necessary, but you can still use them. Flood and drain allows more options of what you can plant like some root vegies like carrots and onions. Con's are you are still dependant on power but have a longer grace period. Temps are also still an issue but depending on your medium you can midigate it somewhat. Pro's are the system is heavyer so it will not blow over as easily, you can still grow verticle and still grow denser then tradition gardening.

I will be experimenting with the "Alaska bucket system", not true hydroponics but real close. Maybe an option for those maters

In the pict of the double pvc system, the top is NFT and the bottom pipes are flood and drain.
Just some more examples...

Tracy

FalseFlash · #4 05-02-2013, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fintuckyfarms

$650 is a lot to work with, I could build at least 4 systems with that much money. Tomatoes are tricky... I grew some in a 4" pvc pipe and I never will attempt that again; lots of roots, plugging and backflowing. Maybe a 8" pipe would work but I will only grow them in buckets or 55 gal barrels cut in half.
With pvc you have two methods of growing, NFT and flood and drain. NFT will utilize your net pots and you can grow much closer together then traditional gardening. The pro's are you can keep the nutes flowing past the roots, grow dense and utilize verticle growing. The con's are you are dependant on power and temps can be a big factor.
Flood and drain; by cutting out the top section of the pipe and filling with pea gravel or pearlite making net cups not necessary, but you can still use them. Flood and drain allows more options of what you can plant like some root vegies like carrots and onions. Con's are you are still dependant on power but have a longer grace period. Temps are also still an issue but depending on your medium you can midigate it somewhat. Pro's are the system is heavyer so it will not blow over as easily, you can still grow verticle and still grow denser then tradition gardening.

I will be experimenting with the "Alaska bucket system", not true hydroponics but real close. Maybe an option for those maters

In the pict of the double pvc system, the top is NFT and the bottom pipes are flood and drain.
Just some more examples...

Tracy

Do you have the build plans for the 4th of July one?

fintuckyfarms · #5 05-02-2013, 02:36 PM

Nope, just winged it but I can tell you how I made it and what I would do different...

I purchased 5 lengths of not pvc but the thin walled drain field pipe. It is black on the inside and white on the outside. There are two kinds, one with holes and one without, you do not want the one with the holes. (at Home Depo they are outside in the garden area) I purchased 90* elbows (2 each) for each end to connect them and used one of the pipes to cut small lengths to connect the elbows. The length of this fitting will determin how close your pipes are together. So with something like lettuce they can be fairly close like 6" pieces but for anything that spreads like maters or beans you are gonna want 1' pieces. You also need two end caps. I purchsed two bulkheads (I think that is what they are called) at a hydro store for the tubing to both fill and drain.
For the stand, I just purchased two sawhorse kits at harbor freight and used some 2 x 4's I already had.
The thing I would do different is to place the pipe on top of a 2x4 to give the pipe more stability and to make it easier to adjust the level of each pipe. the 1st pipe where the nutes enter will need to be about an inch higher then the pipe with the drain and each pipe will have to have a slight slope from one end to the other so the nutes flow thru. I used just off bubble for the slope.
I used a large rubbermaid tote for the nutes but gave up on it pretty fast because it will not hold it's shape and lets the light in. I used a 55 gal barrel to hold the nutes and it works great. You can partically bury it or make a cover out of the styrofoam sheets to keep it dark and cool during the summer.
Your pump does not need to be very powerfull and you may need to make some sort of adjuster on the pump or tubing to limit the flow. When looking for a pump don't look at the gpm, look at the max pump hight and pick one that is rated for about a foot higher then your project. So if you pipes sit at 4' pick one with a 5' max head height.
I will post some picts of the "bulkheads" that I used.

So the first pict shows how I did the ends and how I used 2x4 under the pipes to help adjust the levels. The second photo shows the fill and drain ends, notice the clear tubing that I had to cover with pipe insulation to keep it alge free and cool. I was experimenting with some black pipe that was already insulated from Home Depot with the drain side. The next two picts are of the bulkhead from a different project. On the system you are interested in, drill the holes on an edge and not in the center so you can turn the end cap to adjust the water level in the pipes. The fill hole should be on the top so the splash creates air bubbles. The drain cap can be adjusted for both overfill problems, temp control (more water in the system keeps it cooler) and diffrent levels for plant roots (needs to be higher when they are first placed in the system and can be lowered as the roots grow). As you can guess, this is not a traditional NTF system because the water level is much higher to both reach the net pots, keep the system cooler and incase of a power loss, the roots never go dry. I also had an air pump in the nutes, just a cheap one from Wal-Mart works great.
Did I miss anything?