Outstanding piece of work.
Do you know how much bubbling is needed? You obviously opted for a lot; have you done or heard of successful grows in which less bubbling is done?
A few thoughts, just ignore if already considered or not relevant (keep in mind I've never done a hydroponic grow in my life):
You could eliminate the potentially leaky connection at the bottom of the tank by putting the connection at the top and putting a couple of elbows in the air line to keep the air line clear of the roots.
I was struck by how often your plants' solution had to be topped up. You could have an automatic fill control for the tanks by running a line to a bottle of solution suspended upside down above the tank; the as the tank solution level dropped, air would go in the line, allowing more solution to flow from the bottle to the tank. Alternatively, there are cheap float valves. Larger aquariums use all sorts of devices like that for controlling water level. Or the connection at the base of the tanks could be joined via one tube to a master solution reservoir at the same height as the tanks.
With a pump and a drinking water style filter cartridge, the nutrient solution could be filtered. Not sure if that's important, but you made a point of discussing rinsing particles off the grow medium.
Again, thanks for the impressive grow journal. |