The new batch worked perfectly. The second problem that I had earlier this week was the flooding problem. The clay media was being sucked into the drain, clogging (why can nothing work?). I was able to fix this by putting a piece of tile over the hole boosted up a little, just high enough that the water can get through, but tight enough that the clay media can't get in. This made the system drain much more quickly and kept it from overflowing, but led to another problem - the system isn't draining fast enough. The plan to fix this (not yet fully executed) is to build up more silicon around the outside of the drain, causing the water to drain slower. My next issue that I had to fix with the system involved clay media - I didn't think I had enough. Luckily, after putting in rock wool starter plugs (which I will explain in the next post) the clay that I had was more than enough, meaning no more ordering supplies!Note: Before putting the clay media in the system, I put all of it in a strainer and washed all the dust/dirt off of it that was also dumped out of the bag the media was shipped in - this will keep this from getting into the water basin and clogging up the filter on the water pump. As for the water, that has yet to be addressed, because before I can starting making the water just right for the plants, the rest of the system needs to be running properly. When I get to planting (hopefully next week) I will go more in depth in everything that needs to be done in order to set up the water correctly once it's in the system.
I've still got one or two fixes to go, but it's looking bright.
During this project I've also been working on a bit of a personal research project involved with hydroponics and have been looking into urban hydroponics and the possible benefits of those. One video that I found reporting on a test system being run in NYC does a great job of outlining how urban hydroponics systems can benefit a city
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