CPARKTX
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2020 2:13 pm

Water temp in NFT system - help/advice

I am a beginner and just setup a small outdoor NFT system. I got starter plants (lettuce and Swiss chard), and yesterday planted half in my hydroponic system and half in a raised GardenTower. Weather here in central Texas has been nice, upper 50s at night and low 80s daytime. The ones planted in soil look great, but midday today the ones in my hydroponic setup were severely wilted. I checked the water level which was fine, but in doing so I discovered that the water was warm and measured it at 93 degrees (vs air temp of 81).

How do you manage water temp? What is a safe range? Advice or guidance for a beginner? Thanks!
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pepperhead212
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2852
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

Welcome to the forum!

I can't help you with outdoor setups, but I'm guessing that you must be getting sunlight heating that water. Another thing that will heat it somewhat is the residual heat from the water pump, but that's probably just a small amount, so you'll have to figure out something to prevent getting that heat from the sun. Maybe some shade screen, or something like that? Lettuce and other greens don't need intense sun, so they would probably not be bothered by shade.

Jedhad127
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2021 8:32 pm

Hi, I don't mean to be too critical but here is what needs to be done *in my opinion* to have good results.

1. Burry the reservoir into the ground. Soil temperatures tend to fluctuate somewhat inversely to air temperatures.
2. Ditch the clear tubing. The only thing clear tubing is good for, is growing algae and bacteria.
3. Figure out how to seal the top of your reservoir, buy a new lid for the bin and route the return pipe into the side of the reservoir
and make sure it's sealed. This prevents bugs, rain water, and other outside stuff from getting into your reservoir and creating
harmful bacteria.
4. The way your system is built, the grow tubes (4" pvc pipe) are constantly half full of water. this is not ideal, it leads to poor sanitary conditions in there, and the roots never get a moment to breathe, your essentially drowning the roots, but then again, there are methods of hydroponics that are built around constant submersion of roots so I don't know how accurate my last statement is.
5. Cover whatever holes you are not growing plants in, the sunlight directly on the root system is not good at all.
6. Monitor ph and tds. Make sure you are not putting too much nutrients into your system, make sure you are not throwing off the ph when you add nutrients.

Best of luck with your garden, and most importantly, have fun.



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