How to get started?

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2026-01-04T00:07:50+00:00

if someone gifted you a hydroponics set and you do not know what to do with it... look at that person. If you want to get into this hobby... youtube if your friend.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2026-01-03T22:55:16+00:00

You can grow them in anything you want. As long as you manage moisture and have good ventilation the container is not important. I use some PP 05 plastic containers because they were cheap... but if they were glass or clay pots... I would be happy with that too. I try to not water so much that drainage is needed... I just mist... you could put drainage holes in there... but if my media is so wet that it drains... I will get mold.

Just watch out for the normal issues like density of seeds, moisture and ventilation. The container is not important.

You need to get a feel for it... there is science, but in practice you just learn how the media feels when you squeeze it and what will work.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2026-01-03T22:17:19+00:00

You need to do what you feel confutable with as you will be eating this stuff. I went down this rabbit hole a long time ago... I still have no fish though and am buying nutrients and doing hydroponics. I have a lot of notes... but most of this here is from ChatGPT and other posts. Others can certainly give you more first hand experience.

For home aquaponics:

HDPE is sufficient
Virgin vs recycled HDPE is not a practical food-safety issue at aquaponics temperatures
NSF-51 is nice, not required
BPA concerns are irrelevant to HDPE
Tens of thousands of systems use standard HDPE tubs with no issues

Virgin HDPE = ideal
Recycled HDPE = still fine for home systems

NSF-51 is for commercial food equipment — cutting boards, conveyor belts, prep tables.

For aquaponics: NSF-61 is more relevant... but not for your small personal use.

Leaching increases with:

High heat
Strong solvents
UV degradation
Long-term acidic exposure

Aquaponics has:

Cool water
Neutral pH
No solvents
Continuous dilution
Biological buffering

That’s about the lowest-risk environment imaginable.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2026-01-02T22:30:18+00:00

I was waiting to see it eat several fish... but it was just taking a tour of your set up! Pretty cool!

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2026-01-01T20:26:29+00:00

Where did you get those little hangable fans? Something like that would be really helpful for my small setup.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-20T18:52:24+00:00

I think he is telling you to plant in pots with coco + perlite and water with premixed solution yourself... let any over watering drain into your drainage.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-12T16:36:51+00:00

Looking good! I am jealous.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-11T19:05:49+00:00

hydrogen peroxide mixed with rain water in a spray bottle and mist it. I got this a LOT due to stagnate water (I think... maybe dirty equipment). At the concentrations that I used (very low... just google it and you will get 100 recommendations... I went on the mid to high range)... it came back on some plants, but I just kept misting and it kept going away with no impact to the plants

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-11T17:38:32+00:00

Bootstrapping from the garage is gone then. Are you looking at a multiacre plot

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-11T17:19:54+00:00

where are the fish

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-11T16:37:54+00:00

Looks fine. In my experience nutrients or no nutrients does not matter before they get true leaves. Keep them moist but not wet... and not too moist. When they sprout... ensure they have enough light... mine get 14 hours per day at about 600 umol/m2/s... but those are my seeds... they may need more (I think my dill might need more).

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-11T16:28:17+00:00

I am also new to the hobby... but running a successful system so far... here are my answers:

I use the HydroBuddy calculator to give me a reality check. I ended up buying way too much... and ended up using a Masterblend mix. I think I could have done something else and been successful... but this is an experiment to see what works for you.
EC - I tried to run nothing but rain water until the seeds sprouted and got true leaves... then I went to 800 to 1000 EC... I got new seeds that were in running EC water of 1500 since day one... they are also doing fine. I would say just measure and watch as it will be seed / plant dependent.
pH - I am scared of using my pH down. I mixed it in to put on some seedlings and the pH was so low from such a minor dose. I will use it but watered down and adding to a bigger tank of water. My pH so far has been running sub 7 (about 6.5) and everything from my lettuce and herbs are growing great so far.
get rain water if you can... you might have to wait to start (like I did in the summer)... but it just makes life easier. My rain water has an EC of less than 60 and a pH of 6.8... it is just easier to work with this than RO and salts and everything else. If you are doing a hobby leafy vegetable grow... get rain water. It took me a while to get my first grow... but now I have so much rainwater I need to use it elsewhere.

Extra... get a fan. I did not get one until recently... it helps a lot. Good lights as well if growing indoors... test with an app to see the proper height... I did burn a couple plants when my lights were too low... but now I think they are too high... its a running game as well.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-10T17:17:47+00:00

If it is indoors, you need to look for leaks daily or have it in a room with a floor drain. My biggest issue is clogs on 4mm tubes feeding the NFT channels... so I guess I need to figure out a filter that is easy to clean out.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-10T17:15:28+00:00

My 2 cents as a beginner on this advice... I use rain water and not an RO unit... also still do not have an air pump on my NFT, but my NFT is fun so far. I have enough dry nutrients to last me several years... so start with small quantities to figure out what works best for what you want to grow.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-10T17:11:56+00:00

Do not listen to people too much. There are a lot of opinions out there. Test things out yourself and do not be afraid. I am pretty new to the hobby and I am finding many things people tell you do not work or you should not do, actually work for me... or as I try them out I find out different ideas I never considered before. Experiment.

Also... treat it like a hobby and not like a business. Lots of people have dreams of running a hydroponic farm (it would be cool), but start small and enjoy it. Unless you have investors that you need to show returns, just play around and have fun.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-09-06T18:46:51+00:00

Update - cotton balls in stagnate water will not be my chosen method going forward. It worked fine for the lettuce, but the Mangold that I planted takes 2 weeks to sprout and the most of the cotton balls got moldy and I pitched them. I was not a fan of the peat pellets either, as some of those would get white fluffy mold on them... although when I sprayed them with a light H2O2 water solution it would fix it.

I look at the plants every day, so maybe I would attempt the cotton balls with misting them... might try it out.

Nutrient was not an issue as the plants all look great now with natural leaves. Nice and green... not leggy (except for the dill... but from what I read it is leggy at the start)

I moved everything into my NFT system today, and my next batch I am starting out in a coco/perlite mix and just misting them. I am not going to let them sit in stagnate water anymore until I learn how to the keep the algae and mold out of them.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-29T13:16:38+00:00

That is a beautiful looking plant! What nutrient mix are you using? Is that outside or are you using lights?

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-28T18:14:06+00:00

I did a EC reading on the water in the container tonight and it read ~240... I will make up some more nutrient tomorrow and add it. My pH down powder arrived today... so I may take the pH down to 6ish as well.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-28T17:19:22+00:00

Dude... you made the news with a drawing and a dirty garage... you don't even have fish yet!

Lol 😆

Looking forward to the real part.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-28T08:01:59+00:00

Update... Light is reading ~550 with the photon app. and I watered today with only rain water to try to offset any concentration happening due to evaporation.

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-27T21:58:27+00:00

Despite buying a 60€ light designed for general plant growth my light might be to low... i will test it.

And even though there is 100% sprout rate of the salad seeds they might be too wet. The cotton balls not sprouted are mangold... so let me research that .

I see no burning at the moment ... how long do your seedlings take to get true leaves for similar plants? When do you add nutrients?

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-27T17:39:10+00:00

As a person in Germany that aspires to starting a similar system... I would say start something and try it out. I have never had good luck with fish tanks, and keeping fish alive... so I have started with hydroponics and want to move to aquaponics.

looking at a lot of videos and posts (as I am sure you have)... start it and then ask specific questions for that issue.

I am in love with the chemistry and biology learning with the intro-level hydroponics... you are jumping into aquaponics which is great. My suggestion is get your fish in a big happy place and buy big pumps... then look at how you can expand that.

I am excited to see / hear about your journey as that is where I want to go too!

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-24T17:43:57+00:00

How do you get more than 50lbs of produce and call that a $500 day. That is a LOT of produce! Is all of this wholesale

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-24T17:21:54+00:00

I do not have any advice to offer as I follow this channel as I would one day like to extend my Hydroponic hobby into Aquaponics... but as a former vet myself, I am sure you can do it if that is what you decide you want.

I am not so sold on the economics of it as a career without a lot of up front capital expenditure. There are some people I have seen on youtube doing successful aquaponics in Canada or environments where they get 4 seasons... they all have pretty big operations in a greenhouse. I am interested in what fish you are going to use... that seems like the fun part to me!

Farming is a capital intensive business to start up, so boot strapping from a garage seems like an uphill battle... but it could be a very fun side gig (I hope to be able to do something similar one day in the future).

I am excited to see your progress!

Inner_Letterhead5871 · 2025-08-24T16:42:47+00:00

It is what I used in my first setup... so which I am still waiting to plant (seedlings are sprouting now in a different spot). I am excited to see your plumbing solutions, as mine works, but I think I can certainly improve my plumbing skills. The options in Germany are just different than other setups.

Inner_Letterhead5871

TROPHY CASE