Welcome to the beginning of another one of my system threads. I forget how many systems I've had over the years, so I'm going to have to start using descriptive names instead of ordinals .

Anyhoo, it's a new year, so I have a new apartment. This one actually gets some sun! I chose the South-facing apartment specifically for this reason. It's spring time now, and the trees are just beginning to leaf out, so the space very close to the railing on my balcony gets a solid few hours of sun.

As the summer comes, I expect that time to be shortened due to the trees and the angle of the sun hitting a roof overhang.

So my plan is to create an NFT system with 4" PVC tubes hung on the outside of my balcony railing to maximize sun exposure. I'll be using a swirl filter in line with a fluidized sand bed filter, each in 5 gallon buckets, to handle the bio-load.

I'd like to arrange the system as a CHIFT PIST, but I'm not sure there will be head room between the bottom of the NFT tube(s) and any potential sump. We'll see.

Things to do:

1, order uniseals!
2, figure out how to make a swirl filter and a FSF (I've been spending the morning reading the relevant threads)
3, get to designing.

Pics and video to come, comments always welcome.

I ordered my uniseals yesterday, so they should be here next week. In the mean time, here's a tour of the site (be careful if you get motion sickness )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBDRikAx6Zo

Picked up a blue 55 gallon barrel today. This will serve as my fish tank.

So, two or three months later, I'm finally done.

The only problem is what I expected: using 1/2" pipe is just too small to prevent back-pressure, so I get overflows. I originally went with the 1/2" because those were the size uniseals I had.

So I just ordered 1" uniseals. They should be here Wednesday or so. After that, cycling!

The 1" pipes are in, but I still don't seem to have enough head to get a good swirl going. Here are some vids:


Overview for those not familiar with the technique:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7tlgqzmQmM

After the 1" upgrade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdQlmpZPYcg

I've forgotten to update this thread. Here are some new vids:

Trying cardboard as a wick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9v_hlbfZs4

Using soil as a wick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wDjs6KiyLY

General update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fjTuASH8ZI

Reflector set up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwFWqGvCwKw