Resurrected system

[GpsFrontier]

I have finally resurrected one of my older systems. I have had had some problems getting it going, but finally got things situated OK for now. First problem was that the nutrient solution was getting cloudy, and had likely a fungus growing growing in it. I am still not sure if that was due to contamination of my growing medium, or something airborne that got into the system. The plants were small, and felt if I needed to start over with new plants I would. But first I would give it a try to flush the system. So I cleaned the system out, and flushed it with bleach water for 24 hours (30 min on/30 min off cycles). I think it was about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of bleach to 10 gallons of water (again I just figured I would need to start over anyway).

The next day I flushed the system with just plain water, dumped and flushed again (about 3-4 times). Then mixed a fresh batch of nutrient solution, and added a strong amount of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). After a couple of days the water started to become cloudy again, although without a noticeable odor. After a few days more it still looked the same but still no odor. So I just figured I would let it go and see what happens, adding more H2O2 every 2-3 days. Much to my surprise, the plants seemed to survive the bleaching. After about a week I noticed some residue at the bottom of the growing tube, it looked like fine dirt/dust. Their putting in sewer lines on the streets surrounding our house (including our street) at the time, kicking up a lot of dust. So I'm pretty sure the cloudy water that still remains is due to airborne dirt from construction.

At this time the temperatures were really starting to warm up, and the tiny seedlings began to suffer from heat stress because I was still using a above ground reservoir that was in direct sunlight most of the day, and the nutrient temps were getting too high. I had planed to use the in ground reservoir I used for my tomatoes, for this system (just not needing it so soon). So I began getting it ready, but yet again another problem. Over the winter without any water in the in ground trash cans to hold the shape. Ground water caused a collapse (like a sink hole) in the soft soil that back filled the hole I dug to put the trash can in the ground. That caused the side to cave in, and that caused cracks in the inner trash can.

So I dug out the trash can from the ground, pounded out the indent, filled it up with water to check for leaks. Surprisingly that wasn't leaking, so I put it back in the ground to use for the reservoir. But without the inner trash can, maintenance will be much more difficult (I can't afford to replace it). Anyhow, then I needed to dig a shallow trench to run the PVC tubing for the feed and return lines from the reservoir to the system. That was for two reasons, one so the PVC lines wouldn't be in direct sunlight heating up all day, and the other was so we wouldn't be tripping over it (especially at night). Then I insulated the the above ground sections to help keep the nutrients from warming up while they are flowing through the above ground tubes.

I still have more to do. I need to re-wrap the blue insulation around the main tube to get a tighter and more even wrap, then I need to create a shade cloth cover to help shade the foliage from our harsh sun. But scene I completed connecting the system to the in-ground reservoir, they plants have really picked up, and one even bloomed today.