NFT hydroponic kit : 36 plant sites & pump included

NFT tolerates poorly the suspended solids load of fish tank water. Particles settle at the bottom of the tube, thicken the film, and then block the junctions between levels. If you feed this tower from a pond, mechanical filtration upstream is a basic operating requirement. The rest of the installation remains unchanged: same pump, same gradient, same baskets. What you gain in return is water that already carries its nitrates, meaning a nutrition to top up rather than build from scratch, with particular attention to iron and potassium, which pond water tends to supply poorly. The pH range also shifts, as a stocked pond typically sits at around 6.8 to protect the fish and bacteria, at the cost of slightly reduced availability of certain elements for the plants.

Between cycles, the tubes are dismantled and rinsed under clean water with the lids open. What you are looking for is the slippery biofilm that forms along the bottom of the channel and traps particles during the next cycle. Used germination sponges are discarded; the baskets are rinsed and reused. Allow a good hour for all four tubes, and take the opportunity to empty the tank and scrub its walls, as deposits start there. The pump strainer should be rinsed at the same time, a partially blocked filter reduces flow well before the mesh looks visibly clogged.

With no grow medium to act as a buffer, the solution changes quickly and should be corrected to 5.8–6.2, the range in which nutrients remain available. Test once a week in an established system, every 2 days during the early stages, and always from the reservoir rather than a tube, a sample taken there is representative of the whole circuit. Renew the solution entirely every two to three weeks, topping up with plain water in between to compensate for evaporation. If conductivity rises while the level drops, your plants are drinking more than they're eating, and plain water will correct this better than adding more fertiliser.

The tower occupies less than half a square metre of floor space and requires height above all, with the tank sliding under the structure. The slope of the tubes is set during assembly and kept shallow, a few millimetres per metre is enough to maintain the film flow without it pooling at the bottom of the channel. Pay equal attention to the lateral level; a tube tilted to one side will leave the opposite edge dry and therefore a few positions on each row without water. Also allow access on one side to open the tank, take readings and top up without moving the whole unit, and ensure a reliable power socket is nearby for the pump. Assembly itself is done dry, then a first fill with plain water, with the pump running for an hour, checks the joints for leaks and verifies even flow across all four levels before a single plant goes into a pot.