Anyone have experience with NFT?

Time for an update!
 
The first round of seedlings have made it from the flood table and into the NFT.
 

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr
 
The dill is particularly happy

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr
 
Lettuce is looking pretty good too!

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr
 
So here are the lessons I have learned so far.
 
Rockwool - screw it, let it just be soaking wet all the time, apparently it doesn't matter. In fact, I was only flooding my table once a day at first and I discovered that the roots coming out the bottom of the rockwool would die back as soon as they got dry. Several of the seedlings didn't have roots long enough to hit the bottom of the NFT channels when they were transplanted, so for the first few days I had to hand water those until they got their feet wet in the channel. I am now running the flood table 3x a day during daytime hours and the next round of seedlings are looking better.
 
Algae - Algae sucks! By the second day of running the NFT I had brown algae all over the channel. Luckily there was very little in the reservoir. I realized that the end caps on the channels had a 1/2 inch gap that was letting in enough light that algae was blooming. Once I blocked off the light, the problem has gotten any worse.
 
PH - My ph keeps rising and I have been having to drop it everyday by adding about 15ml of PH down to each reservoir keeping it at around 6.3. Everyday is gets back up to about 7.1 - 7.2. I am going to try a different PH down product as soon as this bottle runs out as this one doesn't seem to be very effective.
 
So here is what it looks like 4 weeks later!
 

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr
 
Close up of some lettuce that will be eaten at Christmas.

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr
 
I can honestly say that I was VERY worried about going so big on my first real hydro project, but it has been really trouble-free. The NFT has been mostly free of algae for the last three weeks, My PH levels have been really stable and all of the plants are happy. Hopefully when I start filling up all the troughs in March things won't get out of hand on us.
 
That's looking great! 
 
Regarding your 1000gph pump only returning 420gph - take a look at the pump curve from the vendor if you can. Depending on the fittings and how high you are pumping it that is probably right with all those losses. 
 
As for the pH - what are you using for nutrients? You will get fluctuations as the plants use nutrients and the water chemistry changes, but that seems pretty fast to me. Then again it is a lot of plants.
 
Good luck I hope it keeps going well for you!
 
You are correct about the pump. The power curve at 7ft is right at 400gph. I actually found out from another source that my goal of 1L/m/channel was too high anyway. All in all the system is working like a charm right now.

I am using Botanicare Grow 3-1-2 at right around 650ppm. It crept up to around 900 for a couple of days when the res got low but the plants seemed to enjoy it. After I switched to a different PH down, the pH has been stable. It rises about .2 each 7 days now which is easily manageable.
 
Glad to hear that it is all working well now.

That's interesting that a different pH down made it more stable. Good that it's working better for you now.
 
Nice setup mate. Quick question, are your plants roots just free hanging or do you have a slab of rockwool in there.
 
Ive seen a chap with an NFT setup for peppers and he runs a slab of rockwool the whole way through his channel. His setup and results are absolutely astonishing but I don't know if its necessary. Maybe with small plants like these it isn't. Do you intend to grow full blown peppers in this setup?
 
Capsicum Select said:
Glad to hear that it is all working well now.

That's interesting that a different pH down made it more stable. Good that it's working better for you now.
Click to expand...
 
I think it had a lot to do with the fact that the Ph down I first used was a leftover bottle from a previous experiment almost two years ago, or the fact that it was an "organic" ph down (whatever that means). Maybe it was old? My first hydro experiment failed due to ph problems, so maybe it was always a crappy product.
 
 
Sarge said:
Nice setup mate. Quick question, are your plants roots just free hanging or do you have a slab of rockwool in there.
 
Ive seen a chap with an NFT setup for peppers and he runs a slab of rockwool the whole way through his channel. His setup and results are absolutely astonishing but I don't know if its necessary. Maybe with small plants like these it isn't. Do you intend to grow full blown peppers in this setup?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks! The system was designed for 1.5 inch rockwool cubes, so that is what I am using. From what I understand about using NFT for bigger, longer living plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc, you need to use the rockwool slabs in order to give the plant enough support. They also have much bigger NFT channels designed for that purpose. Mine are 4" wide and 2" deep, I think the ones they use for peppers are about 10" wide and 6" deep.
 
My system will only be used for lettuce, spinach, kale and maybe some herbs from time to time. I did transplant a mata frade seedling into rockwool about a week ago and I plan to put it in the NFT as a test whenever its root starts popping through. I think some smaller pepper varieties would do ok, but I don't know if the nutrient levels will be suitable for them.
 
Here is a shot of the root systems from the bigger plants. Roots are still a little dark from the algae bloom a few weeks back.

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr
 
Looking really good. I started with hydro last year with a number of flood and drain systems and it was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be once you get used to adjusting PH and EC levels. One thing you haven't mentioned is about adding H2O2 to your reservoir. I'd recommend adding this every so often as it keeps your water and channels free from algae and helps oxygenate the water. Typically I would add 30ml of 6% H2O2 for a 90 litre reservoir and then add 4ml of H2O2 every couple of days. I would change the nutes/reservoir every two weeks with fresh.

You can get H2O2 from your local chemist or alternatively buy stronger stuff (30% grade) on eBay.

Hope this helps

David
 
Slyboy said:
Looking really good. I started with hydro last year with a number of flood and drain systems and it was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be once you get used to adjusting PH and EC levels. One thing you haven't mentioned is about adding H2O2 to your reservoir. I'd recommend adding this every so often as it keeps your water and channels free from algae and helps oxygenate the water. Typically I would add 30ml of 6% H2O2 for a 90 litre reservoir and then add 4ml of H2O2 every couple of days. I would change the nutes/reservoir every two weeks with fresh.

You can get H2O2 from your local chemist or alternatively buy stronger stuff (30% grade) on eBay.

Hope this helps

David
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the tip. I have looked into H202 as a anti-algae treatment. Oxygenation in NFT systems isn't generally a problem since you are spreading the water so thin across so much surface area. That process causes enough gas diffusion that oxygen levels are not a problem. The algae problem was due to having some light making it into the channels at each end. A bit of aluminum foil solved that problem.
 
I want to avoid H2O2 if possible since it kills everything, beneficial or otherwise.
 
I run nft for most of my chilies and other things!  Not the channels like that though, I'm using bath tubs and just put a layer of expanded clay at the bottom.  I can't imagine using a whole layer of rock wool. wouldn't be cheap and I feel like it might hold too much moisture.   All of my stuff starts in a small cube and I dont have any problems with that.
 
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Looks great. I have more lettuce, in a similar but much smaller system, in the grow room than we can eat. Love it. 
 
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