Hello from Boston

[natethegreek]

growbed



aquarium



This is the siphon, and I have taken out the brass and replaced it with plastic.

I am just waiting for the bacteria to do their mojo.

I also added a bit of expanded clay balls so that the water rose to the top level of the grow media. You can see in the picture that the water came up really really high.

[keith_r]

you might want the water to come up to about 1" under the top of your media.. plants didn't fair to well in my bed that was getting flooded to the top of the media

[natethegreek]

I did add some more grow media to the plants, maybe I should add a little more as I think the water comes up to just under the top of the media.

[jackalope]

I'm with you ...... either add some more media and get the water level an inch or so below the top of the media - or in the alternative, adjust the loop so the water doesn't fill so high and only comes up to the desired height

[natethegreek]

I checked the PH levels they are in the 7.4 range and the Ammonia is .25 ppm and no Nitrates.




If you look on the edge of the grow bed you can see the water rises a little higher than I would like. I don't have all of the pieces for the siphon glued together, I am hoping that when I do that will make the siphon more effective as it is leaking now.





I threw some bib lettuce seeds into the bed, I should have waited obviously, they are probably just going to rot right?

Also I only have a CFL in the light, which isn't producing any heat. Is that a good thing? I feel like it would dry better if I had an incandescent light in there, but that would obviously take a lot more energy. Any thoughts?

[Brier]

Nate, CFL provide better light for plant growth than incandescents . I think you might need more light, and if nothing else, get that light right on top of your plants. When growing with floro's you should have your lights within a few inches of the plant tops(unless you are using high output lights), otherwise you will end up with very leggy plants that have low yield. I would suggest a small HID light. Metal halides are fairly well balanced, but high pressure sodiums work better for flowering plants. The light spectrum from incandescents is very poor for plant growth. Good luck!

[natethegreek]

So we had a bit of an accident, I glued together the pipes and put tubing back on. Turn the whole thing on and then the part that the tubing connects to was leaking, so I gave it a twist which in turn kinked up the drain hose. I got it to drain and then I started doing some cooking (the set up is in my kitchen). Anyway I noticed the sounds from the tank wasn't quite right, I turn back the overflow is working but it is pouring on to the floor. So I spent the rest of the night moping up water. I had to turn the pump off for today and I will try to fix it tonight.

One of the problems I had last night is that after the first cycle the water just runs out at the pace it gets pumped in. Any thoughts how to fix this?

[Hotrodmike]

Well at least the floor got mopped and you didn't have a 1000 gal tank
From the few pictures you have sent , I do not know what type of siphon you are useing . It's kind of hard to make out in the pictures but I see you have the siphon is reduced down to what looks like small diameter tubing as you come off the PVC .It may be too restrictive on the out flow . I would go a bit bigger and see if the problems goes away . If that doesn't work then slow the flow to the grow bed .
Have A Kind Day
Mike

[natethegreek]

Thanks for the help everybody. I made a new thread in Backyard systems because I figure I am going to be around here for a while!


Once again THANK YOU!

[harburtlee]

hi to all,
i am new one in this site and i like this site advice