Hydroponic urban gardening system

thingiverse

Hello urban gardeners! ==================== (German text below videos in some time) I want to introduce You to my idea of soilless urban gardening. The entire System is based on modular and also replacable parts (like pump, sump tank etc.) and delivers the important parts as STL's. First of all, why did I build this or why should You follow and build one too? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, in our lifes we're all pushed to the limits. Everybody is stressed and this results in more and more people that don't have the time and often not even the space for standard soil based farming or gardening. Hydroponics solves different problems at once. You need less time to care for Your plants, also less space and it does'nt need soil at all. Basically for a basic system, you need a reservoir and an alternative medium like correls or even rockwool. It's called the kratky method, but it is not the best option if You ask me. I decided to combine the 2 most efficient ways to grow and those are NFT (nutrient film technique) and ebb&flow aka flood&drain. To reduce the amount of power needed to keep the system alive, i decided to place the NFT rails above the flood&drain bed. So i have only one 15W 1500L/hr pump that pumps the nutrient solution into my NFT. After passing about 5m it flows directly into the flood&drain bed, where it fills up the bed to 80% until the bell siphon kicks in and drains the solution again. To copy my system, i'll give You a parts list and some build images. Questions always welcome =)