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Hydroponic gardening - Build your own Hydroponic system
Hydroponic gardening can be a fun and rewarding experience for the hobbyist. It can also turn into a profitable business venture for anyone wanting to take it a step further. Here we will show you the basics about building a working Hydroponic gardening system. What we show you here are instructions on building a simple Ebb and Flow system that can be easily modified to build any size Hydroponic system you need even a very large system that can hold many plants at one time.
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system
In an Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system first we need to select an appropriate planting container for the water table. This container can be of almost any size, rectangular or square as long as it has a flat bottom and is deep enough for what you will be planting.
First put some thought into what and how much you will be growing in it at a time. This will help you to decide what size will work best for you. It will also help you to decide what you will be using for a nutrient tank that will be supplying it with the nutrient solution to feed the plants. The size of your growing container will need to correspond with the nutrient tank so it will have adequate water volume to fill the container. More about this a little later. Right now let's concentrate on the container that will hold the plants.
In this case we have selected a purple tub container that is 22"x15"x 6" deep. A three and a half gallon nutrient bucket would be fine for this Hydroponic system. A five gallon nutrient bucket would be even better. Either will work. There are many types of drain setups out there but we like our design the best.
Our drain design goes through the side and not the bottom of the container so there are no problems with things sticking out from the bottom making it hard to place the container on shelves or whatever else flat that you place it on. We just like it much better. That's our story and we are sticking to it. It also allows you to elminate almost all the bulkhead threaded fittings and gaskets for just two rubber water tight grommets and you don't have to worry about any underwater fittings ever leaking later on because the fittings in our system are all above water. Simple is good. Not worrying is even better.
When you have selected your growing container you will want to decide where your nutrient tank will go so you know what side of the container to drill the holes on. Then decide where the maximum water level should be based on the pots you will be growing in. The maximum water level should be about three quarters of the way up the pot. A good way to do this is to place a pot in the container and mark the location on the side of the container.
The top fill hole can be an inch or two above this. Now you have decided where the nutrient tank will be and have marked these two locations on the chosen side of the container. Next you will drill two neat 5/8" holes at these marks. Later you will install 2 hoses at these holes which will go to your nutrient tank below.
POWER HEAD PUMPS feature a complete line of Submersible pumps that are reliable and quiet. They feature an easy water flow adjustment and are suitable for industrial tanks, fountains and ponds.
These underwater pumps have a nice compact energy saving design, high lift, and come with a one year warranty and a 6 foot cord. Look for these along with many others in our Nutrient Pumps section.
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system
Next you will be installing a 1/2" black vinyl hose with a 13 mm rubber grommet. Any Hydroponic store should have both of these. Push the hose through the grommet about an inch and then work and wiggle the grommet into the top hole until it seats flat. You can install the grommets in either direction but if you put the larger flat side outside the container as shown it will be easy to remove the hose if you ever need to later on. Remember- easy is good. The hose is 1/2" outside diameter and 3/8" inside diameter. The hose needs to be black so you don't end up cleaning algae all the time. Algae loves to grow in clear hoses. Save yourself some work later and use black hoses. The growing container should not have a problem with algae because if set up correctly it drains so well that it is fairly dry and algae does not have a chance to grow in it.
The grommet calls for a 16mm hole. It fits perfectly in a neatly done 5/8" hole. This is the top hole you drilled and will be the fill hose. Decide where the bottom of your nutrient tank will be and run the hose to that point with no kinks or bends. Add a little extra hose to this like about a foot or so and cut the hose to length at this location. Most pumps are set up already for a 1/2" hose. Later you will cut the nutrient tank end of this hose again more accurately and slip it onto the pump.
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system
After you have worked the rubber grommet into the top hole it should look like this. You are now ready to install the next fitting which is a 3/8"x3/8" WATTS PL-350 NYLON HOSE BARB ELBOW which you can pick up at Home Depot or almost any hardware or plumbing store. Push the white hose barb fitting into the sidewall hose so it is fairly snug. Next you will be cutting a short piece of hose for the other end of the hose barb. Line up the other short hose where it will be going and cut the bottom angle to match the floor bottom. Take your time measuring this short length of hose making it just a little longer than needed so that it actually pushes the other hose up a little on an angle. This will cause a slight pressure pushing it down when you let go making a nice close fit to the floor bottom.
This hose will actually double as a fill AND a drain hose for the growing container. This is the absolute best system we have ever seen to fill AND drain the growing area. We have used this system for many years on many different size systems and it works so great we would never do it any other way. If you are doing things correctly your nutrient water should be as clean or almost as clean going out as it was going in so it doesn't effect the pump in any way whatsoever. Even if your water is not as as clean as it should be a small piece of window screen on the end will work just fine. We have never had to do this. We have run many different size Hydroponic systems with this and our pumps have been running absolutely perfect for years.
ECO PLUS AIR PUMPS are great little pumps for supplying extra Oxygen to the plant's roots for better and faster growth. They are quiet and reliable little pumps. They can be placed on your timer or just left to run continuous, whichever works best for your application.
The Eco Plus 4 Outlet Dual Valve pump is especially nice. It's dual outlet has durable metal nipples and 1/4" fittings along with a Variable Air Control. Look for these great little air pumps along with many others in our Air Pumps section.
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system
Now you are ready to install the overflow hose in the lower hole that you drilled. Do exactly the same thing with the hose and grommet as in the top hole letting the hose go through the grommet about an inch or less before working the grommet into the hole. If you were careful when you figured where the maximum water level should be in the first step this hose will begin letting the nutrient solution drain back into the nutrient tank below at exactly the correct level so that your pots are properly flooded. An added function of this overflow hose is that it also sucks in air, gurgling in the bottom of tour tank enriching your Hydroponic solution with oxygen. This will not happen if you use a larger diameter hose as it throws off the balance of the draining action.
This hose also lets you set your pump timer for various flood times keeping the correct water level the whole time. Some plants need flood times of 15 minutes or so and some need less. It doesn't matter. The water level in your growing container will always remain at the correct level so you don't have any problems.
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system
Here is the completed system with all the pots flooded and the water recirculating and ready for planting. Again, this ingenious fill and drain system works extremely well and no worries about flooded floors, shelves, tables or carpets. The water line should only go to the middle or top of the lower grommet. If it goes higher just turn your water flow down at the pump a little. This is a very tight seal so don't worry if it goes higher. You actually want it to about 2/3 of the hose opening so this overflow hose sucks in air and water and not just water to enrich your Hydroponic nutrient solution with extra oxygen. The growing container is shimmed up underneath on two sides about 1/4" so all the water flows down toward the suction tube.
This is a very simple system that works great. It drains right down to the bottom and actually makes sucking sounds as it sucks up the last little puddle of water. This system shows hydroton in nursery pots, some of which are just starters and will be relocated later to another system and the remaining pots spaced out further as the plants grow larger. Because of the type of pots we used the pots will be easy to relocate. The growing area could have just as easily been filled with growing medium with no pots at all or net pots could have been used.
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system
Here is the Hydroponic system with lettuce seedlings in place and the hydroton pots being flooded with Hydroponic nutrient solution. This same basic Hydroponic system can be used to build quite large systems if needed. We have built large Hydroponic systems like this using 100 gallon nutrient tanks and they all work great. Now you are ready to build a nutrient tank.
The nutrient tank that supplies this small Hydroponic system uses a small Becket M130 water pump and a small Aqua Culture 2800 cc per minute dual outlet air pump with a 3 1/2 gallon Hydroponic nutrient tank which actually gives us 3 gallons of Hydroponic nutrient solution. Because this nutrient tank is so small we change out the solution in it once a week instead of every 2 weeks for other larger tanks. The Ph and PPM changes in this little tank too fast because of it's small size. Use the largest tank size you can for slowing down the changes going on in the nutrient tank.
HYDROTON is a very popular growing medium to grow all types of Hydroponic plants in and for many reasons. Hydroton are kiln fired clay pebbles with a neutral pH which is very important in Hydroponic Gardening. Hydroton has excellent capillary action qualities to hold the nutrient solution.
Hydroton is a preferred method of horticulture as a Hydroponic growing medium. Hydroton is clean, odor free, reusable and provides excellent aeration to the roots of all plants. It also prevents rotting, excess acidity and soil pests and is great for all Hydroponic, NFT and Aeroponic applications. Look for Hydroton in our Growing Mediums section!
Hydroponic gradening - Ebb and Flow Hydroponic system
These are the same lettuce plants after 6 days in the Hydroponic system. Notice the Haydite pots in the white pots in the front row and the Hydroton pot in the middle of them. The white pots filled with the Haydite are much larger.
If you do little experiments like this in your Hydroponics system you will learn a lot. The plants pretty much tell you everything.
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and flow Hydroponic system
These Hydroponic lettuce plants that have been in the Hydroponic system exactly 6 days from transplant are all doing fine. They are all growing nicely and will need to be thinned out in 1 more day because of the fast growth and crowding of the plants.
Because of the type of pots we use they can simply be lifted out and placed into another system that is ready to go. Nice and clean. Had we used net pots there would roots hanging out everywhere and it would be quite messy moving them. We also would have caused some damage to the plant roots.
We noticed that the plants we planted into the Haydite growing medium are much larger than the ones in the Hydroton. This tells us that we could either increase the flooding time or flood every 2 1/2 hours instead of every 3 hours. The plants tell us everything that is going on.
The Hydroponic nutrient tank is the other half of this Hydroponic growing system and is the real heart of the whole Hydroponic system. Building the Hydroponic nutrient tank is in another section of this site.
Do be sure and VISIT OUR MAIN HYDRO STORE for all your Hydroponic supplies! We have everything you need for your Hydroponic gardening and delivered right to your door!
Hydroponic gardening - Ebb and flow Hydroponic system
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