Hello!

I am very excited to set up my window farm!

I managed to play around with my air lift with a airflow valve, and I have quite a range of drips.

My question is how much water should I be cycling through my window farm in a given period of time?

Also, is it better to have a steady slow drip or to have the pump on a timer and just run the water at certain intervals?

Thanks for your help.

Melissa

Just got the system up and tested it overnight for any leaks etc. before adding the plants. I attached the lights to the bars instead of suspending them as it seemed easier. Success! No leaks or pooling. I think there might have been a slight clog in one of the drip valves, but I blew into the tube slightly to release it, which worked.

Getting ready to put the seedlings into net pots and install, but I’m trying to figure out the timing of the lights and nutrients first. I have a feeling it’s going to be a bit of trial & error.  Since my 47″ reservoirs hold 2.6 gallons of water, I’m going to pour 2 gallons into the reservoir to make sure that my pump is always submerged in water. To balance the PH level in the water, I am using a tester kit and PH-Up and PH-Down to adjust the level according to this PH chart for hydroponic gardeners.  My mix of herbs (Oregano, Thyme, Parsley, Sage, Verbena, Lavender, Sweet Basil), vegetables (Endive, Hot Peppers, Lettuce) & flowers (Morning Glory, Moonflower, Echinacea) warrants a 5.5-6 to keep everyone happy, I think.

For nutrients, I am using the following products measured to proportion with 2 gallons of water:

(L to R: PH-Up, PH tester, PH-Down, Drip Clean, Multi Zen, Roots Excelerator, Magic Green, Aqua Flakes A, Aqua Flakes B)

My contact at the local hydro store recommended that I turn the drip on 3x a day for 15 minutes to begin with (sun-up, midday, lights off) and to keep the lights on for 18 HRS a day starting from sun-up even though my windows face South.

Okay, as requested by Britta, here’s the introduction to a piece of equipment that may provide a cheap solution to a problem that those of us who chose to use a setup featuring a comparatively powerful aquarium pump have:

How to reduce the interval to a minimum when it’s not about a steady drip, but quick flushes.

The Lucky Reptile Easy Timer doesn’t need specified switch-on times to be set – it’s enough to program an interval and the duration of the power-on time.  The shortest interval is 15mins, the shortest power-on times are a mere 15/30s.

As I haven’t got an aquaponics setup, that should be enough time for the pump to push the entire content of my reservoir through the system once.

Lucky Reptile is, as you will have guessed, a German company, but the timer is apparently also readily available in the UK. I was unable to find comparable entry-level products, quite surprising, given the number of foggers operated by lizard and orchid lovers around the world.

Mabye someone else knows of one, and can add it here!

This gets way nerdy on the pump/plumbing of the Reservoir System. Beware. If you are super nerdy, this is where you can jump in and start making this system better!!

Your reservoir system is a liquid circuit controlled by a pump on a timer. The pump needs to only pump water, not air. Running a water pump dry will kill it. The relationship between the amount of time your pump is turned on by the timer and the gallons per minute flow of your pump dictates a minimum amount of water in your system and, therefore, a minimum size for a sewer pipe reservoir.

However, there is plenty to tinker with here.

Here are notes from my thinking when I wrote that part of the Reservoir system How-to. They are notes that I have not really edited, so ask questions if something is unclear,

Theoretically, let’s say our pump pumps 500gph. That’s about 8.3 gallons per minute. We have decided that we lose about 25% to the curve at the top of the reservoir, and we probably lose about 10% to any remainder at the bottom that is too low for the pump intake. That means that when the bottom reservoir is as full as it can be, only 65% of the water in the tube can actually cycle through the system. So, 65% has to be at least = 8.3 gallons, which means the total pipe capacity if completely full has to be 12.8 gallons.

The pipe formula is

length of pipe = volume in gallons/0.00432900433 x Pi x radiussquared

so when the radius is 4” for the sewer pipe with 1/8” thick walls, the minimum pipe length formula is

GPM/0.21759949= min pipe length

For this 500 GPH pump, minimum pipe length for a one-minute pump-on cycle with the timer we have recommended is

8.3/(0.00432900433 x 3.14159265 x 16)=

8.3/0.21759949

= 38.14”

and if you want it to rest inside the window sill, that has to have the pump length added to it, which puts us at more like 40”

A typical window is 36” wide. So:

1- Maybe we don’t need this fancy a pump because we are only pumping up about 4+- feet of head. Maybe we could find one that would fit inside the reservoir so we don’t have to suspend it outside.

2- If we still want to use this pump, we should have people make them wider than their windows and suspend them outside the windowframe.

3- ??

RESEARCH—

Ecoplus pumps correlated with head and cost are here: http://homeharvest.com/hydroponicpumpssubmersible.htm

(CAUTION: BE of these pumps- several of the ones we ordered did not pump as high as they were rated to pump!! Go a size bigger if you’ve got a tall window and can mount it outside the windowframe!)

Ecoplus 633 – 7.87 feet of head- pumps 633 gph

Gpm=10.55

Absolute Minimum pipe length with our timer is 48.5” +pump, assuming it drains completely within 3 hours

Drip rate needs to be 3.5 gph

½ inch and ¾ inch hose connectors

7.2 inches long (with cover that we remove) by 3.1 inches wide by 4.3 inches tall-

won’t fit in pipe

$46.95 at home harvest

Ecoplus 264- 6.39 feet of head- pumps 264 gph

Gpm= 4.4

Absolute Minimum pipe length with our timer is 20.22”+pump, assuming it drains completely within 3 hours

Drip rate needs to be 1.5 gph

½ inch and ¾ inch hose connectors

6.2 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall-

will fit in pipe $21.95 at home harvest

If you put the Ecoplus 264 pump timer on a two minute duration cycle, you’d pump 8.8 gallons and your pipe would have to be 40.44”+pump long.

Hello.  I’m about to begin my window farm, but I had a quick question.  In the Reservoir System instructions , the minimum width for the reservoir is 47″.  Is there any reason that it must be that long?  If I only wanted three columns (instead of four in the diagram), could my reservoir be ~36″?  Also, is there a functional reason for the lower reservoir to be suspended instead of resting on the floor?  Thanks in advance for the advice.