Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 21:48:37 -0500
Reply-To: Chris Gkikas <theerion@GATOR.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Chris Gkikas <theerion@GATOR.NET>
Organization: Jiboo, Ltd
Subject: Re: Broc2K is up!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Y'know, I've been tooling this over in my head since the sun went down and the same thing occurred to me: shaky. This was my dilemma: I only have one reservoir, and it's about three feet at its widest. Whereas my first system simply had two tubes with elbows
draining directly into the reservoir, this new system is about four times as wide. This left me with the challenge of somehow returning the nutrient to the tank, eight feet to the right and only 6" down.
I thought about drilling holes in the bottoms of the pipes at the drain end. The problem with this is getting a good seal around the fitting, because the surface isn't flush (round pipe). Also, since the PVC is so thin-walled, any fitting I could jam in there (seal
notwithstanding) would rise above the "gully" and result in pooling, not to mention possibly a rough time unclogging the drains from root blockage.
Tomorrow brings more planning and tweaking. Because of the algae problem, I was planning on capping the pipe with a test cap that's been cut in half (bottom half open for draining, of course). This would keep light out and keep the wind from whippin' around in
there. I'm also considering skipping the test caps altogether and just wrapping black plastic around the applicable areas and hoping that this keeps thing in check.
I'm rather pleased. I used flexible metal pipe-hanging straps, the kind that comes in a roll for $1.66. I used tin snips to cut them to the appropriate size, and drilled them into the crossmember, FIRMLY strapping the pipes in place. I found that I could loosen the
screws on one side of the strap, thus releasing some of the tension, but allowing fine adjustment of the pipe's position with respect to its drainage hole in the return pipe.
If all goes well, tomorrow I'll mix up a reservoir and I'll have the baby broccoli in by sundown. I've got school all day, but I've gotten used to working on this thing in the dark. :)
Best,
Chris
Ray Schneider wrote:
> Hydroponics Mailing List - http://hsa.hydroponics.org
>
> Chris you gotta keep us posted on if that fandangle keeps working. Talk
> about shakey. What happens when a breeze comes up, won't the wind blow
> your waterfall out of line? I've had all kinds of subtle leakage
> problems, so I'm really skeptical that that will work for very long.
> Why not just run tubes?
>
> Cheers, Ray
> --
> Ray Schneider
> rschneid@shentel.net
> On the Search for the PERFECT tomato.
> Come See Me at:
> http://www.user.shentel.net/rschneid
>
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