Building a basic home hydroponic system like this is really easy and the benefits when
you get involved in hydroponics are huge. I'm here at Builders Express in Taingang with Sir Phil, who designed and built this
and when I saw it I realised I had to do a video for you. Sir Phil, what inspired you to get into this
My main inspiration for building this was the fact that I don't have a garden
The way I live, there's no soil, it's caved in the plant, it's caved in the grass
And I found this was the best way in terms of thin space and having the vegetables and
herbs that I need. So I've done all the shopping you need, let's head back to the workshop and show you how
to build this. Right, here we are. Now what this is, is a store-bought coaster with four 1-metre lengths of 110mm PVC pipes
mounted with jack-and-jackets. Each one of these is interlinked with electrical conduit piping that all flows back to the
water reservoir where a water feature pumps the water back to the shop and the cycle continues
We've cored holes for our steeping pots and then a closed-loop system. It means you can put personalised or plant food in and all the plants are getting equal amount
It also reduces the evaporation. Now let's start by making a structure we need to mount the gutter brackets onto the dresser
For this you'll need a store-bought trestle, 8 gutter brackets, a packet of 5x25mm wood
screws, a drill driver with a Phillips bit, tape measure, chisel and a spirit level
Now personally I would treat the trestle, it just makes it that much more tolerant to
the elements. I'll paint this one with one coat of primer, two coats of water-based paint
It just makes it look neat and it makes it that much more tolerant. So the first thing you need to do is mount the gutter brackets to the trestle
I'm going to offset them about 60mm from the top. I do find it easier for the stage to work with the trestle lying flat on the table
Then using the drill driver I'm going to secure these with the 5x25mm wood screws
Right, so let's go along. Now for the two lower brackets I need to leave a gap of about 30cm from the bottom of this
bracket to the top of the next one. So using a tape measure, measure and mark 30cm
And the great thing with these wood screws when working with cloth primers, you don't need to drill a pilot hole, they make their own hole as they go
And then we'll same for the other bracket. There we go. Now I'll use a spirit level to make sure that they are level
And the great thing with these brackets is you can adjust them on the slotted drill
Last, I'm happy that my gutter brackets are level. Next step is to mount the gutter brackets on the reverse side
However, we need a gradual pull to be able to transfer the water
Here we went down an offset of 6cm, I'm going to add 5cm to that and go down 11cm on the back
So with my tape measure, measure and mark 11cm on both sides
And as I did earlier, using the 5x25mm screws, attach the gutter brackets which is level side
And again, using my spirit level, I can check they are level and adjust it if I need to
Now here we can see we've got a nice pull between the first and second channel. On the reverse side, we're only going to drop down 20cm which will give us the pull into
the last channel. So we can measure and tape, measure and mark 20cm from the bottom of the top bracket
And then fasten those brackets into place. So that's our frame done
Next is we're moving on to making the channels. And for that, we will need three 2m lengths of 110mm PVC pipe, a hatch door, a spirit
level, a drill driver with a 64mm hole saw, a small piece of sandpaper, a utility knife
tape measure and a pencil. So for the channels, we need four 1m lengths of 110mm pipe
So taking two of the two pipes, I'm going to measure, mark and cut them in half
So there's our four pieces of pipe cut for the channels. Now the next step is to work out where to drill the holes to accommodate the pipes
So each of these lengths is a metre. Now I've capped it for 6 holes which means you need to take a metre divided by 7 which
will give us even spacing. A thousand divided by seven is 142 point something
Let's round it off to a 140mm. To use my spirit level, I'm going to mark a straight line along the top and then every
14cm and mark for where we're going to drill. So that's all of those are marked
Now using a drill driver with a 64mm hole saw, we can start to clean those holes
At this stage, I should probably tell you you might need a vacuum cleaner. Right, using the utility knife and a sandpaper, we can loosen up these rough edges
Now the reason we drill and clean up the holes before we put the end caps on is that once
they're glued on, it's very difficult to get the filings out and that's just going to block up the tunnels
This is the part about DIY my wife does not enjoy, is the mess
Now that the holes in the channels have been drilled and cleaned, we can move on to the last stage of the preparation, which is the plumbing
And for that you will need 910mm end caps, 110mm seating, a length of 20mm conjure piping
to give us 6 20mm 90 degree bends and 6 20mm nail screw adapters
You'll also need some PVC welds, a drill driver with a 90mm straight bit, hot cutters, tape
measure and a pencil. Now instead of the end caps, we need to drill a 19mm hole with the straight bit to accommodate
the screw and adapter. Now this hole needs to be slightly off-center so that the base of the adapter lines up with
the center of the end cap. Now with the 90mm straight bit and the drill driver, I'm going to drill off-step holes
to 7 of the end caps. Now you could measure this, I'm just going to eyeball it and ensure that the base of
the hole is in the center of the end cap. Always remember if you use a stretching system that underneath you, you don't damage your workbench
Now into each of these screw adapters, I'm just going to apply a little bit of PVC weld around the threads through the hole and tighten it with a nut on the inside
That's this all 6 thread adapter done. The last end cap is the hole which is for the top of the reservoir and does not need
a thread adapter. Now through the channels, get these end caps on both sides
These 3 channels will only have an end cap with the screw thread adapter on one side
So let's get our channels and glue on the end caps, remembering the orientation of the
screw thread must be on the higher side. Now for the water reservoir, we need to add a T-piece onto one of the channels that does
not have an end cap. If you're using these fittings with a rubber seal, it does help to put some dishwashing
liquid on, helps them slide together. Right, that's on. Next step is bring in our pedestal and start positioning our channels in place
The reservoir goes on the lowest level and the last tube with only one end cap is our inlet
Next we can start doing the plumbing that joins our channels together. For that, you're going to cut a short piece of conjured about 3-3.5 cm long and glue it
into the threaded adapter. While the PVC weld on the small pieces we just glued and dried, I need to get the reservoir
onto the T-piece. Now the easiest way to do this is to measure the distance from where the pipe would end
to the workbench. 23 cm. So off our last length of tubing, let's cut the piece 23 cm long and get it into here
Now that I've inserted the piece that we just cut for the reservoir, I can glue on an end cap
Now we can do the plumbing that joins our channels together. So using the 90 degree pieces onto the short pieces we glued in earlier, measuring the
distance in between and cutting a piece of conjured will ensure that the water can flow through
So I'm going to put the two 90 degree bends onto the short piece of conjured we glued
in earlier, but I'm not gluing these in place yet. Once I've measured and cut the adjoining conjured, I can glue it all together and make sure I
have the right angle. Just make sure that you measure for your conjured from here and not from here
Perfect. I can see that going to fit. I'm happy to glue everything now
So the plumbing is done between the first and second channel. Next will be the plumbing between the second and third and the third dash to the fourth
which flows into the reservoir. All that's left to do is to glue an end cap onto the top of the first or highest chamber
with a hole drilled at the very top. This is for our punch feed. So using a 90 mm straight bit, I'm going to drill a hole fairly close to the edge
While that dries, all that's left now is to finish off the reservoir. So we're going to cut the short piece of 110 tight together with the end cap we drilled
earlier and put them together. Now we're not gluing this end cap on because we want easy access to the pump
So this is a submersible water feature pump which goes 400 litres per hour up to a maximum
of 0.9 litres head. So I'm just going to push the clear tubing onto the nozzle and pop that in the reservoir
Now to accommodate for the cable coming out, I'm just going to cut a little slot in the tube
Now I can insert the clear tube through the hole in the end cap and into chamber number one
And that's it. All we need now is some water and some plants. Let's get this out and get it running
Now this system takes approximately 30 litres which is important to know if you're going
to be adding personaliser. UCC is a hydroponic friendly personaliser and the expressions on the back tell us how
much we need to add depending on our water volume. A simple hydroponic setup that is ideal if you have a small garden or no garden at all
Even if you live in an apartment, this will fit perfectly on the veranda. Now everything we've used today is available at Builders
In store or online at builders.co.za. For more videos like this, check out the blog on the website
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