proposed wick system

Hi everyone,

I was about to start using my new water farm ( drip system with clay pellets ) but I discovered that it's just too noisy for my little bedroom. ( glug glug glug ! )

So I'm thinking about converting the bucket to use a wick system. Does anyone know if this would be ok with the clay pellets and a length of 1cm diameter rope , coiled up in the base of the top container and dangling down into the nutrient, then with the clay pellets on top. One slight concern I have is that the rope is brown and I don't want to kill my plants with any chemicals in there. Should I be worried ? Any other ideas for a wick ?

Many Thanks.

 

I like the idea of being able to change the nutrient solution every two weeks instead of watering every day. I used to use rock wool cubes standing in 1cm of nutrient solution and the results were fine but I want to use a wick system now so I'm not obliged to monitor the plants so closely.

If I use a bubble bucket I might have the same trouble with noise as before but it's an option worth considering. But what I was thinking of was to have a wick supplying nutrient to a large upper container that is full of clay pellets. So the roots from 4 small plants would fill the top container nut not enter the solution. The wick would keep the pellets moist but they , I hope , would also be allowing air to get to the roots becuase they are porus.

 

I'm gonna go ahead with the wick system. Do you know what the wicks were made out of ? I'm seeing confliting info on the net. One person says use cotton, not nylon ( because nylon wont absorb ) and one person says use nylon , not cotton (because cotton can rot ). So I'm thinking I might have to just do something without knowing if it's right or not.

 

I'll keep this thread updated for anyone interested in following it to the end. I've used white cotton material for my wick. It's lining the base of the upper chamber ( 2 layers ) and then a strip of it is dangling into the nutrient solution. On top of this cotton lining I've added clay pellets. All the posts I've seen use 50% perlite and 50% verniculite mixed but I'm trying this way because it's what I've got. We'll see what happens over the coming weeks.

 

Thanks to everyone who helped with this. I had trouble with the system as planned. The clay pellets didn't provide enough wicking action and the plants started to dry out. So I've changed the set up completely to be a hempy bucket, using 65/35 perlite/vermiculite mix and now the plants are smiling happily, enjoying their lovely home.