Hi looking to get back into nft hydroponic. One issue I had was running the pumps constantly and it inevitably failing, would a 2 tank gravity fed system work. Upper tank flows to grow bed then to sump tank. When sump rises the float switch turns on and refills the upper tank. Obviously we would have flow limiters out of the gravity tank, would that be enough pressure for nft? Am I missing any major issues?
by Ornery-Emu-9368
5 Comments
If a pump or sensor fails you will just overflow the bottom tank and constantly run into issues with how empty/full the tanks will be. Keep it simple – single tank, carry spares, inspect at least twice a day, keep filters clean.
It will work, but you dont need to run the pump non stop with one tank.
For the price of two tanks, you are better having two pumps.
Seems like overkill for 2 rows of lettuce?
this is a good idea if you have one reservoir feeding the entire operation, but it means you then have to clean two tanks, and one of your tank is going to be above ground, which means it will heat up more, causing algae issues if not properly insulated or cooled. Either way your sump pump is going to be feeding the upper reservoir just as much as if it were feeding your NFT channels, because the same amount of water needs to flow.
The way I got around this is I simply size a reservoir to match each week’s succession, but it gets fed top off nutrient solution from a larger reservoir, so that they never run out, and when the crop is done I simply toss all of the water that is remaining. This also helps when finishing off plants, as I prefer to flush crops with water the day before they get harvested, which removes biter flavor in the crop. The downside is I have more reservoirs, but the pumps I use are cheaper $15, and I always have backups on hand to swap out.
This is a recipe for disaster. Ask any serious aquarium keeper (especially reef/marine). You’re much better off running two pumps if you’re worried about pump failure. Or just assume that upper reservoir will NEVER actually have much water in it, which means… what’s the point?