Until recently, my aeroponic/hydroponic setups were made according to a simple system. Namely, the water container is also the container where the plant is growing in/on and where the pump to spray/wet the roots and aerate the water is in.

Over time I realized 3 things about this setup.
– You need a pump per plant, meaning adding plants equals adding pumps. This uses more energy and is noisier.
– Roots tend to clog the pump after a while.
– From the outside of the container, you can’t see what the water level is and you need to work with the sound that the pump is making ( unreliable ).

My idea was to experiment with a ‘shared’ reservoir. In this main reservoir I would pump the water to a separate container within this reservoir which would then overflow back into the main reservoir. The plant pots are connected by a small tube ( communicating vessels ) with the main reservoir and because the level in the main reservoir changes by pumping the water into a separate container, I would generate a flow of water and therefore transfer the aerated water to the plant pots.

Findings
– Flow is dependent on functioning communicating vessels. This is also not so reliable.
– Transparent hose got algae grow (eating up my nutrients)