Friday, June 5, 2009

Vertical NFT Tubes Up And Running




Decided to buy a pump from from my local hydroponic store instead of Lowes. Fill up the nutrient tank with water. Connected the new pump to supply line and dropped it into the tank. Fill up all the tubes perlite. Turn the pump on and began looking for leaks. Almost ran the tank dry before any water started returning to the tank. Did not realize how much water the perlite would retain. In this case, about 8 gallons water. Added another 6 gallons of water to the tank. No leaks were found. Will be putting strawberries plants in this Saturday.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

how did you put those slits in the pvc? They look great!

CraftyTom said...

The vertical pipes are 4" diameter sewer pipes, which have a wall thickness of about 1/8 inch. This thickness of PVC can be soften using a heat gun.
By simply cutting a 2 1/2 inch slot with a hack saw. Then heating both sides of the slot. One can shape the slot into a pocket.