Im planning a NFT system and need help.

Sorry if I posted in the wrong area, this is my first forum post ever.
I am planning a nft or I guess a dft since I'm going to use round pvc. I'm going to connect 6 5ft pieces of 3in pvc with 2in holes every 8 to 10in for the girls. 6 or 7 plants per pipe. I will be doing SOG style grow from clones under a 1000w hps. The 6 5ft pieces will all be connected so when water is put in the top it will flow down to the next pipe then to the next and so on until it gets back to the res that will be connected to the bottom pipe. They will be set with 1in of fall every 40in. That's the basic setup I'm planning.
I have been reading that one of the biggest problems with this setup is the pump fails and roots dry out. I was wondering if there is some sort of fabric that I can put inside the pvc to absorb water and keep the roots wet incase of pump failure. I will be checking them every 24 hours to record data. Let me know if there are any flaws in the system I have over looked aswell. Thanks

Hey, I'm working on building a round pvc nft sort of system as well. Complete noob myself, but what you describe sounds like are capillary mats. Happened to read something about them yesterday (making cheap ones using 6 sheets of newspaper - sounds like a bad idea) and not sure if it works well in round pvc, especially as small as 3 inch. Like I said, noob here, but so far only seen 4" to 6" pipes being used and would be worried about clogging with 3" pvc.

I'm considering to get a 12v or 24v pump as backup, or getting a UPS. A battery will last longer than then plants will without lights or the time it takes to replace a pump. Another option is an extra, raised rez and let gravity do the work while you get a new pump (and before you made sure the bottom rez can hold the contents of the raised rez).

Good luck!

I think newspaper would end up breaking apart and clogging up the pump. I will look into those capillary mats you mentioned. Your right, after looking, 3" is way to small I'm going to get 4 or 6". I will also have a back up pump and what is UPS? Thanks for the feedback

UPS = Uninterruptabe power supply. Used commonly in IT, to keep servers and networks devices running if the power fails. Depending on the pump wattage and how much money you'd be willing to spend on it will run for minutes to hours.

Sounds like that will work good as long as they aren't too expensive. Thanks

After the roots are established there really is buffer zone. I was out of electricity for 72 hours and didn't lose a plant but I hand watered every 6-10 hours using a battery powered kerosene transfer pump from walmart. You really should rethink the round pvc and use square fence posts, much easier.

That was my original plan but for how much I need it would be too expensive. I won't be building it for a couple weeks so if I find some that is affordable I will get it.

I wouldn't go with a 3 inch pipe. Too small of a diameter. The roots will clog that up quickly. Even a 4 inch square fence post will clog up as well, unless you are planning on the plants only getting 10-20 inches tall. Best bet, and speaking from a lot of NFT experience, go with 8 inch pvc pipes. They cost alot more but you will thank yourself in the long run. Also, I would go with 3 inch net pots as well. When it comes to building an NFT system there is very little room for error. My first NFT build I used the 4 inch fence posts, everything went smooth until about the 4th or 5th week. The roots got so big they clogged everything up and the water started to backflow. Unfortunately, I didn't plan on that happening and the opening where I had the pipe at the "top" was a bit bigger than the 1/2 in. PVC pipe and the water leaked out. I used that plumbers putty to patch around the inlet holes and that worked o.k. for a bit. Since the fence posts were a fraction smaller than the caps that go on them, I had to silicone around the caps, as well as use the pvc glue. Well, after plugging up the holes with the plumbers putty the silicon started giving out and that created a leak. I had to refill the res every day for the last 2 1/2 weeks, and I even chopped early because it was such a pain.

I thought I was able to fix all the leaks and did another run, and again, all the same problems as before. Nothing like going down to check in the morning to find out your res is empty and the water is all over the floor from leaky end caps, silicon not doing that great of a job, and even the plumbers putty eventually gave out. After that run I tossed that whole system and went with bubble buckets, didn't like it too well so I went back to NFT. I went and bought the BIG 8 inch PVC pipes, bought two 90 degree elbows, two solid end caps for the top part and put it all together. Used one of the big totes, not the 18 gallon one, as the res, cut two big holes in the top of the lid so the elbows could go down into the tote. I left the lid on because I also found out from the previous NFT runs that there is alot of splash. The 90 degree elbows, along with the tote lid with two holes cut in it worked perfect against splash when the water trickles back down to the res.

I also have to warn you, even the 8 inch pvc tubes run the risk of being clogged too. Well, not so much as clogged, but with the massive roots it does slow down the flow of water and the ones at the very bottom don't get as much water as the ones at the top. Sorry for the long post, but if I can help you save a ton of time and headache from my own mistakes and failures running an NFT then it's all worth it.

Summary - The bigger the PVC pipes you use the better, make sure you seal everything up tight, and then seal it up tight again. Water always finds a hole somewhere in the system. Never ran with net pots smaller than 3 inches so I have no idea if it's a good idea or not. Space the plants out a good amount. I wanna say I've had better results with less plants spaced apart far enough to spread and soak up the light than trying to pack them in as tight as possible, but that part is up to you, it's just my preference. Oh, another issue you may have is when the roots start getting massive, if they don't have adequate space below the net pots they will start to push the plant and pot upward to the point where it will fall over, again, ran into that with the 4 inch pvc fence posts. So far with the 8 inch pvc pipes I haven't had any leaks, no problem with water backing up from the roots clogging things up, and overall has been 100% better than all my previous NFT runs combined. lol Sorry, I have 8 inch pvc pipes that are 5 ft. long and only have 4 pots per pipe.

I've used 4" posts for years, with plants hitting 5-6 feet and never had a clogged rail. It's all in the planning and design.

Not trying to start anything, but how much planning goes into a simple build lol. I'm not going to say that you are wrong or anything about the 4" posts, but that was just my experience while using them. The root mass got so large, by the time they were finished I couldn't pull the roots out. I had to chop little bits apart at a time and pull them out. My 4" posts were probably around 4 ft. long and I only had one plant in each post. They were towards the top of the rail and the roots ended up hanging out of the bottom end of the post. Maybe it has something to do with the particular strain. I don't know if that plays a role in it or not, but it might.

Oh, I did fail to mention that I did a scrog with them, so maybe all the extra growth had something to do with the massive root mass that I had. lol, I tell ya, those roots were so big, and compact it was crazy. I ended up filling about 3 plastic grocery bags per plant with nothing but roots. I'm also running into these massive root masses with the ones I have now in those 8" pipes I'm using. I can't get them out of the pipes very easily either. I have to chop the plant down, try to stick my arm in the next hole down and use a pair of sheers to cut the roots up enough so I can pull the net pot out.

Superstoner...what size net pots do you use? I use the 3" pots so maybe that contributes to the hard time getting the roots out since the holes aren't that big. Do you have any pics of your system? I would like to compare and contrast your system to mine and see if I can improve my system more.

I use 2" pots, 4 to a 54" rail, 3 rails in a system. Planning has everything to do with it, that's why I can grow 4 plants that yield 3+ ounces each in each rail without worrying about issues like you had. My root mat runs from front to back, side to side, and about 2" thick. Even the most simple products start with planning, experimenting, and re-designing. I have run close to 50 strains, and numerous phenos of each strain, through these systems and clogged sprayers and root clogs were never even a concern. I have a thread with pics in hydro

Thank you, lots of good info. I will be doing a SOG style grow where I will be putting them into flower shortly after cloning so they won't be very big when finished and I will be able to fit lots in a small space. I heard 8in is enough space between plants when doing a hydro SOG and if that's the case you could fit 49 in a 5ft x 5ft area, I won't be doing that many. Has anybody done a NFT SOG, and how far were the plants spaced out?Does it really matter if you get square or round pipe? Is the square pipe recomended so you can get a shallow film over the roots , but does it matter if the water is a little deaper if your using air stones in the res? Because its looks cheaper and easier to use round pvc.

I started doing sog with 21 plants, I now run 12 plants in the same space and pull 40% more yield, and work much less

I only have 1 room big enough to do anything with. I'm planning on keeping a few mothers in a closet for clones and keeping a constant flow in the flower room.

Superstoner - how many rooms do you have, and how long do you veg?

i have a flower room and a veg/cloner/Drying room. I have 12 strains now and no mother's. Veg is 3-4 weeks

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance - 6 P rule
Actually it may be 7 & I forgot 1.Peace

I've ran 3" pvc for years with no issues of roots clogging, although I am running wyes vertically. Unless you're running SOG or vertically, I agree about using the 4" square posts over pvc, though. I built one awhile back and had good success with about 1 week in veg. Kind of wish I didn't get rid of it, but I needed the room.

4" fence post system is the best (round pipes roll). Use epoxy on the end cap and leave the other side open so it doesn't clog. Cut the bottom of the drain end caps to let water flow freely.

I can prevent the pipes from rolling if thats the only issue with round pvc. i want to know if there is a significant difference in the finished product, yield, potency of square vs round tubing. I read your thread on here on how to build one of these, and watched your videos stinkbud, and learned quite a bit. im actually almost done building the cloner, just waiting for the net pots and misters to come in the mail.

It's just easier. Less problems with square. Potency is up to strain and grower, not round or square.