Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the topic:

‘The two main types of hydroponics are solution culture and medium culture. Solution culture does not use a solid medium for the roots, just the nutrient solution. The three main types of solution culture are static solution culture, continuous flow solution culture and aeroponics. The medium culture method has a solid medium for the roots and is named for the type of medium, e.g. sand culture, gravel culture or rockwool culture. There are two main variations for each medium, subirrigation and top irrigation. For all techniques, most hydroponic reservoirs are now built of plastic but other materials have been used including concrete, glass, metal, vegetable solids and wood. The containers should exclude light to prevent algae growth in the nutrient solution.’

What do I need for homemade hydroponics?

First of all you will need one tote that will work as the nutrients and mineral reservoir; then a water pump will be used for oxygenating the nutrients all the time. An upper container will be used to hold several other smaller plant containers, in the container’s bottom two holes must be made and used in the following way: one hole will support the flood and drain, and the other one must placed for the overflow pipe.

A short tube pipe must be taken from the water pump to the drain fitting, and the water pump must be connected to a clock. This is the basics of an effective homemade hydroponics. The pump must work four times a day about half an hour each time.

If you succeeded in putting together a functional homemade hydroponics then your job is half done, because the other essential part is to learn how to feed your plants, according to the type of crop you are growing certain nutrients and minerals are to be used to achieve a satisfying result.

One of the best ways to prevent failure is to acquire a Ph meter and an EC meter that will both help you in monitoring the amount of nutrients and minerals your system has. As it can be seen homemade hydroponics are not something very easily made, but with determination and a little effort, results will show.

The things you will need for homemade hydroponics

Building homemade hydroponics is neither impossible nor too expensive, you will just need two 32 liter plastic totes, an aquarium water and an air pump. You also need to buy some flood and drain fittings and finally some plastic tubings and a timer. Hydroponics has become quite a hobby for many researchers and the fact is that its importance is recognized even by NASA that use this technique in providing fresh vegetable and recycle air on the orbital space station. Good luck!

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In a Recovery Drip System, overflow of the nutrients will be collected back into the reservoir for reuse. The Non-Recovery Drip System does not collect the excess of nutrient solution. Therefore it is crucial to use a more precise timer to control the watering cycles to minimize the waste of runoff while nourish the plants with adequate hydroponic nutrients.

Though nutrient solution is utilized more efficiently in the Recovery Drip System, more maintenance tasks are required. When nutrient solution is recycled back into the reservoir, it will have significant change in pH and the strength. Therefore, constant checking and adjusting of the nutrient solution is essential.

Since Non-Recovery Drip system does not collect the excess of nutrients, it basically requires little to no maintenance. After you have set up the system with pH-adjusted nutrients, you can basically leave it to operate by itself until the time to refill with more nutrient solution.

Common growing medium used for Drip systems are rockwool, clay pellets and lava chips. Growing medium plays an important role in Drip system to determine the type of emitters used for dripping purpose. Generally, a fast draining medium (such as clay pellets) will require faster dripping emitters. On the other hand, slower dripping emitters are best used alongside with slow draining medium like rockwool.

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Here is what you need to build a DIY deep water culture system:

- Reservoir (you can use fish tank, bucket or any water proof bin)
- Tubing
- Aquarium air stones
- Growing net pots
- Styrofoam (as floater to hold the plants)
- Air pump
- Growing mediums (recommended to use grow rocks or rockwool)
- Hydroponic nutrients
- Cutter or scissors

Step-by-step guide for building deep water culture system

1. Styrofoam is used as floater to support the plants above the nutrient solution. You have 2 options:
(a) Cut the Styrofoam with exact measurement of your reservoir and float the whole piece on top of the nutrient solution, or
(b) Cut the Styrofoam as individual floaters for the plants; so the individual floater will each supports a growing net pot.

2. If option (a) is used, transfer the measurement of reservoir’s length and width onto the Styrofoam. It should be cut about 1/4 inch smaller than the actual measurement. However, if the reservoir used is narrow at the bottom, it should be cut about 2 to 3 inch smaller.

3. Outline the growing net pots onto the Styrofoam. Cut out the marked area so that it securely holds the net pot halfway down the Styrofoam.

4. Fix the air pump at the bottom of the reservoir. Connect the tubing and air stones to the pump.

5. Transfer the germinated seeds into the growing net pots filled with growing mediums such as grow rocks or rockwools.

6. Fill the reservoir with hydroponic nutrients specifically for your plants. Prepare the nutrient solution following the instructions given by the type of fertilizer used.

7. Now, you can place the growing net pots into the holes on Styrofoam. Rest the Styrofoam on top of the nutrient solution.

8. Switch on the air pump to provide aeration to the nutrient solution.

Monitor the nutrient solution; make sure your plants are getting sufficient oxygenated nutrients to ensure rapid and healthy growth. The nutrient solution needs to be replaced every once a week with pH reading maintained between 5.5 and 6.5.

When replacing the hydroponic nutrients, make sure you wash the reservoir to get rid of any algae, mold, and / or other salt debris. The highly oxygenated environment in a deep water culture system will promote the growth of algae and mold inside the reservoir. Thus, you may consider blocking the light from penetrating the reservoir by painting it black. This will help preventing algae issue.

To achieve a healthy supply of oxygen in deep water culture system, you can either use aeration devices (like air stones in the example above), or the water from several buckets can be connected and re-circulated continuously through them using spray nozzles.

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