My first grow I used a GH Waterfarm being told that it was simple, adequately efficient and that it works. You can look under my profile to see my very first post as I was having bloom problems...No blooming due to light leaks. Anyways, after I completed that grow, which netted me with a little over 2 oz of sweet Mex dro I took a closer look at my waterfarm to see if I could solve a couple of issues that I was having. These were the issues:
1. I changed my nutes every week according to the GH feeding schedule and in order to do that I had to pick up the first half of the farm and place it into another lower unit while I drained out the old and refilled with the new. I then had to transfer the upper half back to the filled unit. This wasn't soo bad until late in bloom when I had a big f-ing root ball to deal with and a four and a half foot plant stickin out the top. Then it was a big heavy pain in the ass.
2. I had to check the ph every day and balance it as it would swing from about 6.2 when balanced to 7.0 every day. Same issue as above. Had to pick up the top a little and sit it caddy corner on the top rim while I took readings and then balanced the nute solution. I also had to pick up the top half to add more nute water later on in the grow as the plant was a thirsty little lady. Wasn't such a big deal until later in the bloom phase when the plant was friggin gigantic.
Those were the two main issues I had. The third and fourth minor issues I had was the pump that comes with the complete module is only a 1.5L per hour pump. It dripped, but had to work on it and if the reserve got low at all, as it did daily later on in bloom, it didn't really pump very well at all. And the holes in the bottom of the waterfarm didn't allow for enough drainage when the plant was mature as the rootball used most of the holes to grow into the resevoir. I think that with the lack of drainage and the lack of adequate aeration, the solution might not have been kept at peak efficiency.
So, here's what I did to solve these problems and I think that this does a fantastic job of fixing the only real pains of using stand alone waterfarms.
..........standard GH Waterfarm bottom
..........Modified GH Waterfarm bottom. I drilled out a bunch of holes the same size as the ones that were already drilled in, then I took a smaller drill bit and drilled in between all the bigger holes. The reason I did this was in the standard waterfarm bottom, when filled with a root mass, the water has a doesn't efficiently enough draining back into the resevoir. This should help solve that. Notice the big ass hole drilled in the corner?
.........This was so I could put an 8.5' long piece of 1.5' PVC pipe through the water farm. What I did was make an access tube to the resevoir. Now I can take a turkey baster and pull out some nutes to test em and using a funnel, pour solution and anything else I need back into the waterfarm without picking it up. I have just tested this and it works beautifully.
..........Drilled a 1/4' hole behind the drip ring in order to allow a clear vinyl tube access to the bottom of the bucket. See below
..........This is the bottom of the bucket. See how the tubing is protected by the drip ring in front. The bottom of the access tube is just sticking below the net pot, but not too far below to impede access to the nute solution.
.........vinyl tube goes to big ass airstone, which is linked to a 40L per hour pump that drives the drip ring and this stone. The pump runs two of these stand alone waterfarm units and has two extra ports to allow a third. The pump is on a timer and when on; pumps the ring and the stone at the same time. Does a great job of oxygenating the solution while feeding it to the plants and keeps the solution from getting stagnant.
.........some solid irrigation action. No puny drips here.
..........Drilled a 3/4' hole as close to the bottom as I could and used a thick 3/4' rubber grommet, 3/4' PVC straight barbed male ended connector and a 3/4' PVC on/off valve in order to create a drainage port at the bottom of the waterfarm. Now I can drain the old nutes, flush with clean water and add the new nutes without the hassle listed in issue #1. I'll have these farms sitting on something a couple of inches above the ground to be able to slide a container under the valves. Tested and it works very well.
..........this is the airstone used in the bottom of the waterfarm. 8 incher I believe.
..........this is what the top of the setup looks like. You have access to the resevoir below without distubing your plan and it all fits together excellently.
Let me know what you think of my mods. Hope you enjoy them and maybe sooner or later General Hydroponics will update their waterfarm using a setup similar to this.