Pump failure

Another pump wore out. Second pump in 4 years, not bad. Came home tonight and found the pump on the NFT/DWC system making a strange sound. No water was being pumped. Switch out the pump with another, was back up and running.

New Hydro Bucket system up and running.

New hydro bucket system running and planted.

Getting nutrient tank ready fo new system.

Spend the morning digging a hole to sink nutrient tank into. It will be about 3/4 of the way into the ground. This is a new three buckets system for my zucchini plants.

First plants are in the NFT/DWC

The first plants of season are in. Still would like to rise the tubes up another 4 to 6 inchs. This would allow me drain the water back into the nutrient tank from the side instead of the top. This would also permit the lid to be place back on the tank.

System On

Here's a closeup of the modifed PVC pressure testing cap. A hole was made in it to keep the water level approx. one inch deep in the solo cups.

Water supply connected to NFT tube.

Added a 1/2 inch connect tap to the NFT tube for connecting the nutrient supply line to.

PVC tubing glued

Here I'm testing for water leaks after having glues the PVC pipes together. Everything looking good so far. Now need to find a way to control the water height within the tubes. If to high, the water will leak around the solo cups.

Firing up of NFT system delay

No time to work on the NFT system Sunday. The forecast for the next couple of days is rain, so I hoping to get the system fire up sometime this week.

Electric outlet in place.

I was going to cut the patio pavers to size early to day, but could not find my masory saw blade. So I will have to buy a new one some time this coming week, before can cut the pavers. How ever, I did add another 2x6 to the framing. Which I then mounted the the electric outlet to. You can see it here with the weatherproof cover on it.

Pavers added to top of walls.

Did pickup patio pavers to top off the tops of both walls. This also gives the walls an extra 2 inches of height, which allows the NFT tubes to clear the top of the nutrient tank ( See third picture ).

Still need to cut a slot this one paver to allow the electric line to pass thru.

Here you can see that the NFT tubes just clear the top of the nutrient tank. I also decided to reused the old tubes for one more year.