I decided before I setup my greenhouse I would have a go with growing my chillies using hydroponics and see what kind of results I get. I hear good things and like the idea of faster growth as the season for super hots is pretty short here in New Zealand. Things going well I will do the same in my greenhouse which will mean even longer grow time and less weeding etc to worry about.
I built this system for my deck which has plastic covering on the side and stays pretty warm and sheltered. I also built in the drainage to make life easier when it comes time to swap out the nutrient solution.
Here are some pictures of the build so far before I add the air pump, air lines and of course plants.
In the end I changed my mind a little and changed the system into a recirculating dwc bubbler. Since I already had the drainage pipe setup on one side of all the buckets all I had to do was add another connection on the other side of the bucket for the water to come in. I also added a reservoir and a small 700 litre pump which is quiet and gives it a small current. The pump also allows me to quickly and easily fill all the buckets and the drainage pipe above lets me easily empty it so nutrient change outs will be really simple. The one other thing I did was to add a tap on the pipe from the pump to the buckets so I can control the pressure of the water going into the buckets so they do not fill quicker then they empty. Here is a video of the system running during my first test.
Are those all just Hansen fittings? What size tank fitting did you use on the bucket?
They are standard 19mm irrigation fittings including the fitting to the reservoir. https://www.bunnings.co.nz/search/products?q=irrigation%2019mm