Month: October 2012

Today we were able to get the hydroponics system set up. We started with a test run with our pump to make sure it was not pushing to much water through. After noticing that it was sufficient we then proceeded to get 11 pieces of rockwool and planted rosemary seeds inside. The water seems to be flowing perfectly at the moment, and it is returning back down tot he base through the drainage tube as expected. Next step is to wait for our seeds to begin to grow.

As we neared the end of our build we had finally come up with a solution for our drainage problem. To do we decided to go with a funnel and a piece of 1/2″ nylon tubing. When purchasing this tubing you horrible have to buy a section of at least a foot. By the time this piece had been attached to our system we had cut off a good 8″ to 9″. After attaching this to the base of the table there is now a slight waiting time for it to dry before we can start the system up and start our growing process. Hopefully this will begin tomorrow.

As we entered the end of our construction we had come across a problem in our design, Our original plan was to insert a piece of PVC into a hole that would drain the water back down to the base. Since we did not have the PVC at the time a hole was cut in the bottom of our table. While we lined the table with pond liner we had decided to cut the liner and to have it pushed down through the hole to cover the wood. This is where the problem arises. When we cut the liner we did not take into account the slack needed to be able to have enough liner to cover the hole. After almost an entire period of working we decided to nix the idea, and are now going back to the design with a piece of 1.5” diameter nylon pond tubing. Up to that point all construction had been going great. Next step is to get the unit up and running.

Pictures to be posted soon of construction and system running.