Hoocho seems to be using 3 spiderfarm SF600 in this setup, each one are 74 W. If the photoperiod is 12 hours he is using 2.6 kWh a day in lighting. A pump for a setup this big might be 6 W running 24 hours? that adds 0.14 kWh a day. lighting and water draws 2.8 kWh a day or 87 kWh a month. The system is growing 42 lettuces, so each lettuce requieres 2.07 kWh to grow. Multiplying by your energy price you can get your cost per lettuce (for me is about 0.30 €)
hopefully more people see this comment - clearly lots of people chomping at the bit for electricity draw info. even a ball park would help some people in here it seems. nice :)
Would be great if you shared the overall cost and electricity used. Also if you could work out how long it takes to recoup your costs at $3 a lettuce that would be awesome! P.s. love your channel and as a fellow Aussie, love the metric system!
I’m running a Spider Farmer SF600 here and for the last 2 days (this month), to run the light for 16 hours per day has cost 63 cents AUD so under $20 for the month. NFT pump I don’t have a meter on so couldn’t tell you that part.
3 dollars a lettuce? The cheapest saddest looking lettuce in the grocery store is 8 dollars here. 12 dollars for the "oRgAnIc" heads which look marginally better. My system pays for itself nearly every other month.
@@karlotto8925 last time I visited Germany I found Bananas cheaper there than where I live which is where they are grown. Australia has some large supermarket chains that are sucking the country dry...
Just set up a similar system using a bunch of your techniques from earlier videos (cotton ball propagation FTW) and the fortuitous gifting of a 3 level propagation shelf from a neighbour who needed the room for a new baby. I love with the cotton ball method that it gives enough support to a well-grown seedling by just placing it the channel you don't have to got through a deeper water phase to grow a longer root structure or need the additional support of foam puck. I used 4" PVC because it seemed a good idea at the time but is probably overkill for lettuce which is my main crop. I wish I'd gone to the smaller diameter tubing. I added some taps so I can shut off the draining and retain some solution in the channel if the power goes off to keep the plant friends alive. That based on your power outage video. Everything you're doing, even just sharing thoughts and experiences, has gotten me back into hydroponic growing. Thanks for all you're doing.
You're right about power being the biggest Achilles heel for NFT. That, and clogged nutrient feed pipes. However, as a medicinal cannabis cultivator using NFTs commercially, we have both fkow sensors on the feed lines as well as a super cheap UPS power supply on each of the pumps. They'll last for the better part of half a day running solidly, and you can even pump water for like 1 min on an 5 off for example (again with a power controller) and it'll extend it even further... Though without lights for two days you won't have much fun 🤣
I’ve been waiting for this video so impatiently 😂😂😂 Just started it now and can’t wait to see how it comes out. I’ve already built a smaller version which has been running for a few weeks now and is going great.
Have you tried harvesting the outer leaves like Charles Dowding recommends. You can apparently keep harvesting from one plant for months. It might be more practical than growing full heads.
WICKED. I have built this system in my kitchen (in a unit). Cotton wool seedlings nearly ready to transplant and try it out. Plan on staggering my grow by 1 x shelf per week. Made it on 4 shelf rack (next size up), have 40l res sideways on bottom shelf and SF300 next to res sideways for seedlings. All fits as an entire system. Was thinking of trying a third staggered row in the middle of each shelf, but looking at your results, maybe not... Oh, 1 x 120mm USB mini fan per shelf too. Can't wait !!!! Cheers
Last year, I finally had my first successful Kratky system outdoors in my garden raising lettuce. I'm certainly curious to try out this method to use in my basement where I have the room to do something like this. I'll certainly be checking out the build video next.
spring comes in the Netherlands, joined you again to get ideas for my new endeavours and I'm so so moved by your beautiful inspiring timelapses. Keep up the good work, Sir!
I built one of these, 3 tier, 4 ft wide, 420w led, and yesterday I gave an entire grocery bag of lettuce to my Mom and it didnt even look like we touched it. This design is very good.
Enjoyed the several videos on DIY indoor home hydroponics. A lot of good information. Will also be looking to future videos that you will have on solar / battery system for hydroponics.
Hoocho you could adapt that a little and use wire shelf racks like the cyclone wire. Or make timber clamps with thumb screws for a quick release on your nft tubes
Hey there Hoocho! One other thing to consider about why your top lettuce weighed less than the bottom. With the way you have your nutrient distributing to the pipes, the higher pipes are getting less nutrient flow than the bottom ones due to how much more water weight the pump needs to push to get the nutrient to the top.
I love all your videos. I recently starting growing indoors (mostly lettuce and herbs). I”ve learned a lot from your channel. I’m wondering if you’ve heard of Maker Pipe? It’s a US company that makes connectors for metal electrical conduit. I’d love to see all the crazy rigs you would make in your greenhouse & grow spaces with Maker Pipe. Cheer!!
Good work Hoocho! 💪 lots of people are doing fodder systems now, to do rural small farms.. gettin big in terms of efficient farming animals in deserts, especially.
This looks like an amazing setup, im just starting getting into hydroponics and this setup looks perfect for my apartment. Altho I think I will start with buckets and crates first hehe
I just wanted to say that I love your videos and especially the music. Is this your own personal music? Either way its brilliant and goes beautifully with your edits! Kind of gives me Tool vibes!
Very similar to the one that I am about to start putting together using a fish tank on the bottom, and everything except for our refrigerators in our house is on solar
Do you ever tried let only one leaf on roots at harvesting and let the roots make new plant with that one lefaf's helping? Could do they that? Or they cant renegerate a whole plant again? Those roots look so nice.
Do you think it would be a bad idea to run the PVC back and forth across the shelves in a continuous S and just have the water go in the top and come out the bottom after running through the entire system? Why/why not.
Awesome build :) you can DIY a coated circuit board using clear nail polish. I don't own an SF300 but I'd guess you could probably get away with just painting over the LEDs and power connections (on the board itself) to make it at least somewhat water resistant. It'd take time but shouldn't cost much and I doubt it would affect the PAR too negatively. You wouldn't want to start showering it with water but it should hold up against the extra moisture from the transpiration. You could test how it affects the PAR relatively on the semi-dead board, if it's not bad then might be worth trying it out on your others to see saves them from the moisture! Cheers
wonder if paper towel could be used over cotton wool - would take some time for cotton to breakdown, certainly better than manmade components, though the cotton is heavily bleached.
No idea if it is on your radar or not, but some inverters operate as a back up for when their grid goes down. Ie on a renogy inverter, you can have something plugged in, running from the mains power and if that fails the inverter should kick in without disrupting the supply.
Awesome grow. Hoocho Question- I’ve always wondered how you calculate your power usage. You calculated water usage/nutrient usage to get the overall cost per plant but you didn’t add in the power consumption cost 🍺🍺
What off grid energy solution are you looking at ? Solar ? Battery storage ? Are you planning to have the lights running off grid or just say the NFT pump ?
Hate to say it but that's not a knife. I really like all your videos. There very informative and definitely we share the same intellect with wanting to build and learn through trial and error. I really appreciate time laps by the way.
Add a reservoir to the top shelf and divert your pump into it. Then just poor a bucket of water from the lower reservoir to the upper when you don't use the pump. I've been doing this for my dutch bucket toms (1 time every other day). I'm sure you can figure out a way to regulate water flow from the upper reservoir and stretch out the watering duration.
@@atomizer2665 I'd like to see that. I have an idea for a large see-saw with reservoirs at either end. And I could walk from one side to the other to raise and lower the water for a gravity fed system.
@@noahmiller6115 The jack will need less space and the water will remain level. There are plenty of how to`s on you tube for height adjustable woodwork benches that use scissor jacks :)
Hey hoocos mate love your stuff... I am new to this... but something I would love to see u experiment with.. solar... I have a solar oxygen pump... I'm testing with ur Dr. krakesy oxyponics set up the bonus is... it has a battery bank. Also a solar water fountain pump that could be used for flood and drain system. All tho is is direct light pump not batrey banked.. I comment on this particular video due to the black out you had.😊 keen to hear back from. U. Shane.
how many days was this? And if you just leave the root system in and don't trim the lettuce all the way to the pipe, can you just keep regrowing them indefinitely?
Would standard T5 fluorescent tubes work for lighting? I have some Cool white 6000k tubes and holders laying around be good to save money on the lights
My tomato had fruit (ber got the first and the other two I ate and grabbed their seeds). I took the seeds from the first fruit, and put them in water to remove their coatings, only to find they all sprouted in the water in a day or so. OOPS. I rushed to get them into dirt, and 3 went into hydro. Within 5 weeks they are all now flowering and the kratky one has a baby tomato with a lot of other flowers. All indoors in winter as hydro is a no-no here (as I found out last summer) between June and Sept due to the heat and the root rot that comes (water temps are just too high). This tells me that kratky is indeed a viable method for tomatoes.
Greetings from Germany, we got PV on our roof and electricity costs are nearly zero (except winter). Started setting up my indoor garden last months, got a 3D printed tower in the kitchen which serves salad and herbs. Now tomatoes and others in the tent this summer. Would like to know which fertilizer is recommended (N-K-P and other ratios), got some liquid stuff which causes a bad taste to cucumbers and others veggies. I dont know which works for veggies
I use masterblend, calcium nitrate and epsom salts. Not sure if the masterblend is available in Deutschland. Works great on lettuce and on dwarf tomatoes although the tomatoes are just flowering so I haven't gotten to taste them.
Would filling the NFT channels with hydroton help act as a buffer when there are blackouts? My short term solution was to flip the elbows at the end of my NFT channels up and fill the channels up with water. Not ideal. Had root rot before that so i do not know if it affected anything. I am putting off buying a larger air pump for now. It is too expensive where I am located. fosetyl aluminium helps cure root rot in my experience. I may need to apply at the start and not part way through the lettuce grow. Soil based Pesticides and Fungicides in recirculating systems is something that concerns me. They can not wash lower into the water table like with soil but I have not had time to research the topic well.
Are you using beneficial bactera or a sterile system? I can't recall you ever mentioning how you combat pyth and other waterborns. But you never have any temp control or air stones so you must be doing something right?
Like others I would also like to know total running cost, especially electricity. I have attempted to collate the electricity used: SF300 (240V input +/-5%): 33.47 W * 16h * 3 units = 1606.56 Wh 40cm pedestal fan: ~40-50 W * 24h = 1200 Wh Kegland KL15905 2000L/H pump: 45W * 24h = 1080 Wh Total (sum) power = 3.88656 kWh/day Lettuce: 7 plants * 2 rows * 3 shelves = 42 Timelapse: 2023-02-04 - 2023-02-22? = ~3 weeks? Standard lettuce maturity: 28-56 days = 4-8 weeks Assuming 4 week: 3.88656 kWh/day * 7 days * 4 weeks / 42 plants Total power = 2.59104 kWh / mature plant My mains general supply is AU$0.21395/kWh = AU$0.83152 /day total run cost = AU$0.55435 /mature plant, assuming 4 week You'd also have to eat 1.5 lettuce/day to keep up with growth
Hoocho seems to be using 3 spiderfarm SF600 in this setup, each one are 74 W. If the photoperiod is 12 hours he is using 2.6 kWh a day in lighting. A pump for a setup this big might be 6 W running 24 hours? that adds 0.14 kWh a day. lighting and water draws 2.8 kWh a day or 87 kWh a month. The system is growing 42 lettuces, so each lettuce requieres 2.07 kWh to grow.
Multiplying by your energy price you can get your cost per lettuce (for me is about 0.30 €)
hopefully more people see this comment - clearly lots of people chomping at the bit for electricity draw info. even a ball park would help some people in here it seems. nice :)
I’m running a Spider Farmer SF600 and my cost (it’s through a meter) is less than 30 cents a day for 16 hours on
For me @ $0.10 per kw it comes out to $8.7 for electricity for about 9 pounds of lettuce.
Would be great if you shared the overall cost and electricity used. Also if you could work out how long it takes to recoup your costs at $3 a lettuce that would be awesome! P.s. love your channel and as a fellow Aussie, love the metric system!
I’m running a Spider Farmer SF600 here and for the last 2 days (this month), to run the light for 16 hours per day has cost 63 cents AUD so under $20 for the month. NFT pump I don’t have a meter on so couldn’t tell you that part.
3 dollars a lettuce? The cheapest saddest looking lettuce in the grocery store is 8 dollars here. 12 dollars for the "oRgAnIc" heads which look marginally better.
My system pays for itself nearly every other month.
@@CriticoolHit Wow that price sounds ridiculous to me. Here in Germany a lettuce costs about 1US$
@@danboutdoors thanks for your info. So a ball park of 30c a day X3 lights would put the system at a very rough $1 a day. Thank you.
@@karlotto8925 last time I visited Germany I found Bananas cheaper there than where I live which is where they are grown. Australia has some large supermarket chains that are sucking the country dry...
To fix the shorting problem with the lights, get a spray can of silicone conformal coating for electronics. I'm surprised they aren't already coated.
Just set up a similar system using a bunch of your techniques from earlier videos (cotton ball propagation FTW) and the fortuitous gifting of a 3 level propagation shelf from a neighbour who needed the room for a new baby. I love with the cotton ball method that it gives enough support to a well-grown seedling by just placing it the channel you don't have to got through a deeper water phase to grow a longer root structure or need the additional support of foam puck. I used 4" PVC because it seemed a good idea at the time but is probably overkill for lettuce which is my main crop. I wish I'd gone to the smaller diameter tubing. I added some taps so I can shut off the draining and retain some solution in the channel if the power goes off to keep the plant friends alive. That based on your power outage video.
Everything you're doing, even just sharing thoughts and experiences, has gotten me back into hydroponic growing. Thanks for all you're doing.
Nice setup. Great to see you making more indoor garden videos. Great job and I hope you keep them coming.
Great Video!! Great Soundtrack!! King Gizzard FTW !!
I love the abrupt but smooth transitions
Thanks for showing the harvest!!! I really thing more people should show that part of the hydro system so it entices people to try it!
You're right about power being the biggest Achilles heel for NFT. That, and clogged nutrient feed pipes.
However, as a medicinal cannabis cultivator using NFTs commercially, we have both fkow sensors on the feed lines as well as a super cheap UPS power supply on each of the pumps. They'll last for the better part of half a day running solidly, and you can even pump water for like 1 min on an 5 off for example (again with a power controller) and it'll extend it even further... Though without lights for two days you won't have much fun 🤣
I’ve been waiting for this video so impatiently 😂😂😂
Just started it now and can’t wait to see how it comes out.
I’ve already built a smaller version which has been running for a few weeks now and is going great.
I too was impatiently waiting, having built one too !!
Have you tried harvesting the outer leaves like Charles Dowding recommends. You can apparently keep harvesting from one plant for months. It might be more practical than growing full heads.
th-cam.com/video/_pgcvN6TuE8/w-d-xo.html
Love the shots of the lettuce over the tunes. Spicy
Also ThankYou for making these videos. They are very high quality
Outstanding Hoocho, nice to see you building systems to different needs, well done.
WICKED. I have built this system in my kitchen (in a unit). Cotton wool seedlings nearly ready to transplant and try it out. Plan on staggering my grow by 1 x shelf per week. Made it on 4 shelf rack (next size up), have 40l res sideways on bottom shelf and SF300 next to res sideways for seedlings. All fits as an entire system.
Was thinking of trying a third staggered row in the middle of each shelf, but looking at your results, maybe not...
Oh, 1 x 120mm USB mini fan per shelf too.
Can't wait !!!!
Cheers
Are there designs for this somewhere?
I studied the original build video and took notes, then made adjustments as required. No "instructions" as such...
Last year, I finally had my first successful Kratky system outdoors in my garden raising lettuce. I'm certainly curious to try out this method to use in my basement where I have the room to do something like this. I'll certainly be checking out the build video next.
Awesome setup! Thanks Hoocho!!
Great system there. It would great to see PH and EC snapshots in the timelapse run so growers can compare and align to achieve the same result.
Looking forward to building this design for my family. Thanks for the update!!
love this channel
spring comes in the Netherlands, joined you again to get ideas for my new endeavours and I'm so so moved by your beautiful inspiring timelapses. Keep up the good work, Sir!
Love it when you're blown away, great content! 🙏
Excellent Job Hoocha/very nice set up.
Excellent! Nice work on that one! Thank you for sharing that with us.
I built one of these, 3 tier, 4 ft wide, 420w led, and yesterday I gave an entire grocery bag of lettuce to my Mom and it didnt even look like we touched it.
This design is very good.
What diameter of pipe did you use?
Enjoyed the several videos on DIY indoor home hydroponics. A lot of good information. Will also be looking to future videos that you will have on solar / battery system for hydroponics.
Great work man. Love and respect from Canada eh.
Hoocho you could adapt that a little and use wire shelf racks like the cyclone wire. Or make timber clamps with thumb screws for a quick release on your nft tubes
would be nice to factor in the power draw. amazing harvest :)
Awesome results
Can you think of a use for the roots? Animal feed maybe?
Only 40 cents in nutritants. 🤯 The end result is just amazing.
Hey there Hoocho! One other thing to consider about why your top lettuce weighed less than the bottom. With the way you have your nutrient distributing to the pipes, the higher pipes are getting less nutrient flow than the bottom ones due to how much more water weight the pump needs to push to get the nutrient to the top.
thank you very much for all your videos and knowledge that you share
I love all your videos. I recently starting growing indoors (mostly lettuce and herbs). I”ve learned a lot from your channel. I’m wondering if you’ve heard of Maker Pipe? It’s a US company that makes connectors for metal electrical conduit. I’d love to see all the crazy rigs you would make in your greenhouse & grow spaces with Maker Pipe. Cheer!!
my trend of gardening has been gravity self water, and if pump needed, 12v solar...i have same power outage issues....
Good work Hoocho! 💪 lots of people are doing fodder systems now, to do rural small farms.. gettin big in terms of efficient farming animals in deserts, especially.
I 'Think' We just became BEST FRIENDS!
This looks like an amazing setup, im just starting getting into hydroponics and this setup looks perfect for my apartment. Altho I think I will start with buckets and crates first hehe
Looks great👍
interesting, very interesting. Good video.
这套系统设计的太好了，非常适合我的环境
Try washing the light with distilled water a few times to get all the salts/residue off of it. Once it thoroughly dries... test it again
I just wanted to say that I love your videos and especially the music. Is this your own personal music? Either way its brilliant and goes beautifully with your edits! Kind of gives me Tool vibes!
The band is called king gizzard and the lizard wizard, they have lot's of great music and are incredible to see live
@@MrCrazyChemist thanks! Definitely gonna check them out!
could you do 1 more video on this setup but put a fish tank at the bottom and do a run on aquaponics to show us the process and results
Very similar to the one that I am about to start putting together using a fish tank on the bottom, and everything except for our refrigerators in our house is on solar
how to do you deal with algae buildup inside of the PVC after months of use?
Amazing!! 40 cents🤯
Very good system. What is the diameter of the white pipe?
Gr8 video. Now, how long time from planting the seeds to plants ready for harvest?
Great video!!! Looking forward to off-grid videos too, haha
Hey hooch!
How much power do you think want in to the pump and lights for at full lettuce grow?
Do you ever tried let only one leaf on roots at harvesting and let the roots make new plant with that one lefaf's helping? Could do they that? Or they cant renegerate a whole plant again? Those roots look so nice.
Do you think it would be a bad idea to run the PVC back and forth across the shelves in a continuous S and just have the water go in the top and come out the bottom after running through the entire system? Why/why not.
Awesome build :) you can DIY a coated circuit board using clear nail polish. I don't own an SF300 but I'd guess you could probably get away with just painting over the LEDs and power connections (on the board itself) to make it at least somewhat water resistant. It'd take time but shouldn't cost much and I doubt it would affect the PAR too negatively. You wouldn't want to start showering it with water but it should hold up against the extra moisture from the transpiration. You could test how it affects the PAR relatively on the semi-dead board, if it's not bad then might be worth trying it out on your others to see saves them from the moisture!
Cheers
Interesting idea. But i would be afraid of any heat from the lights causing possible fumes from the polish. It might not but that would be my concern.
Hell yeah big dog! I'd assume you would have hydro set ups all throughout the house by now!
wonder if paper towel could be used over cotton wool - would take some time for cotton to breakdown, certainly better than manmade components, though the cotton is heavily bleached.
Beautiful
hoooochoooooooo, cheers!
No idea if it is on your radar or not, but some inverters operate as a back up for when their grid goes down. Ie on a renogy inverter, you can have something plugged in, running from the mains power and if that fails the inverter should kick in without disrupting the supply.
Great stuff thanks for the video
King gizzard!
Congrats on breaking the 100K too!
I have built one. One problem is that the roots quite easily can plug the canal so that the water overflows. Works great otherwise for my lettuce.
Shrink-wrap the fixture so that the plants can't touch the diodes?
Great channel 😮
Cheap workaround for power outages - especially short ones: weak little usb fountain pump plugged into a power brick.
Very nice system and viexeo. Is it loud? I would sleep in the same room. Is it suitable for basil?
Awesome grow.
Hoocho Question- I’ve always wondered how you calculate your power usage.
You calculated water usage/nutrient usage to get the overall cost per plant but you didn’t add in the power consumption cost 🍺🍺
What off grid energy solution are you looking at ? Solar ? Battery storage ? Are you planning to have the lights running off grid or just say the NFT pump ?
Would any greens be good for this system, Hooch? Or just lettuce?
new to all this dose Hydroponics mean i can grow chilli all year round or only in summer?
Hate to say it but that's not a knife. I really like all your videos. There very informative and definitely we share the same intellect with wanting to build and learn through trial and error. I really appreciate time laps by the way.
You need solar and a whole-premises battery. also why partial-DWC rails are better than pure NFT
Do you think it's possible to grow Asparagus with RGGS?
Add a reservoir to the top shelf and divert your pump into it. Then just poor a bucket of water from the lower reservoir to the upper when you don't use the pump. I've been doing this for my dutch bucket toms (1 time every other day). I'm sure you can figure out a way to regulate water flow from the upper reservoir and stretch out the watering duration.
A scissor jack, a platform and a battery drill can be used to raise and lower the reservoir for the same result :)
@@atomizer2665 I'd like to see that. I have an idea for a large see-saw with reservoirs at either end. And I could walk from one side to the other to raise and lower the water for a gravity fed system.
@@noahmiller6115
The jack will need less space and the water will remain level. There are plenty of how to`s on you tube for height adjustable woodwork benches that use scissor jacks :)
Please compare with elfsys?
Nice.
Great video, do you know the flow rate into each rail of 7 lettuces?
What is the green on the cotton? Is it algae or just color from the nutrient solution?
Hey hoocos mate love your stuff... I am new to this... but something I would love to see u experiment with.. solar...
I have a solar oxygen pump...
I'm testing with ur Dr. krakesy oxyponics set up the bonus is... it has a battery bank. Also a solar water fountain pump that could be used for flood and drain system. All tho is is direct light pump not batrey banked..
I comment on this particular video due to the black out you had.😊 keen to hear back from. U. Shane.
what brand of PH tester do you use and what is your preferred choice of of liquid fertilizer
So how many days to harvest?
how many days was this? And if you just leave the root system in and don't trim the lettuce all the way to the pipe, can you just keep regrowing them indefinitely?
Is there a right temperature for these lettuces? I am in a tropical country with 40C heat index.
Hi, how many wattages are those grow lights? lights are on for 16 hours based on Daily Light Integral, right?
how long do your pumps last? do they get gummed up with nutrient buildup or something?
What was the hole spacing for this?
Would standard T5 fluorescent tubes work for lighting? I have some Cool white 6000k tubes and holders laying around be good to save money on the lights
Love you videos but let me ask you something have you ever tried using a pool noodle to hold the base of the plant in there in the hole?
YES!!!!
My tomato had fruit (ber got the first and the other two I ate and grabbed their seeds). I took the seeds from the first fruit, and put them in water to remove their coatings, only to find they all sprouted in the water in a day or so. OOPS. I rushed to get them into dirt, and 3 went into hydro. Within 5 weeks they are all now flowering and the kratky one has a baby tomato with a lot of other flowers. All indoors in winter as hydro is a no-no here (as I found out last summer) between June and Sept due to the heat and the root rot that comes (water temps are just too high). This tells me that kratky is indeed a viable method for tomatoes.
Greetings from Germany, we got PV on our roof and electricity costs are nearly zero (except winter). Started setting up my indoor garden last months, got a 3D printed tower in the kitchen which serves salad and herbs. Now tomatoes and others in the tent this summer. Would like to know which fertilizer is recommended (N-K-P and other ratios), got some liquid stuff which causes a bad taste to cucumbers and others veggies. I dont know which works for veggies
I use masterblend, calcium nitrate and epsom salts. Not sure if the masterblend is available in Deutschland. Works great on lettuce and on dwarf tomatoes although the tomatoes are just flowering so I haven't gotten to taste them.
how much power dose this use
Would filling the NFT channels with hydroton help act as a buffer when there are blackouts? My short term solution was to flip the elbows at the end of my NFT channels up and fill the channels up with water. Not ideal. Had root rot before that so i do not know if it affected anything. I am putting off buying a larger air pump for now. It is too expensive where I am located. fosetyl aluminium helps cure root rot in my experience. I may need to apply at the start and not part way through the lettuce grow. Soil based Pesticides and Fungicides in recirculating systems is something that concerns me. They can not wash lower into the water table like with soil but I have not had time to research the topic well.
Are you using beneficial bactera or a sterile system? I can't recall you ever mentioning how you combat pyth and other waterborns. But you never have any temp control or air stones so you must be doing something right?
You rock.
Why isn't the light getting into the water a problem? I expected to see a seal around the plants to keep the light out of the water.
Im new to this whole thing debatinf how to start... is this abojt as complicated as the bucket sysem
Like others I would also like to know total running cost, especially electricity.
I have attempted to collate the electricity used:
SF300 (240V input +/-5%): 33.47 W * 16h * 3 units = 1606.56 Wh
40cm pedestal fan: ~40-50 W * 24h = 1200 Wh
Kegland KL15905 2000L/H pump: 45W * 24h = 1080 Wh
Total (sum) power = 3.88656 kWh/day
Lettuce: 7 plants * 2 rows * 3 shelves = 42
Timelapse: 2023-02-04 - 2023-02-22? = ~3 weeks?
Standard lettuce maturity: 28-56 days = 4-8 weeks
Assuming 4 week: 3.88656 kWh/day * 7 days * 4 weeks / 42 plants
Total power = 2.59104 kWh / mature plant
My mains general supply is AU$0.21395/kWh
= AU$0.83152 /day total run cost
= AU$0.55435 /mature plant, assuming 4 week
You'd also have to eat 1.5 lettuce/day to keep up with growth
In the UK electricity is around 35pence per kWh 40cents USA