Filter for Hydroponic Nutrients

[Ross]

Hey Everyone,

 

I'm new here and this is my first post. I have a hydroponic garden going right now (it's actually an aeroponic set-up for those who are interested) and in case you're not familiar, hydroponics is a way to grow plants without soil. I'm using expanded clay pellets to house my plants' roots, and using a pump connected to misters to continuously spray the roots directly with a nutrient solution. It makes for a much more efficient and effective way to grow plants- they grow bigger, faster, and with a fraction of the water used in conventional farming. Anyways, I'm having a big problem with random particles clogging up my spray yets, and was thinking about setting up a filtration system for the water before it is recycled to my water pump. The question I have is, if I used a standard Brita water filter, would this be taking out the essential nutrients and trace elements out of my nutrient solution? I'm using Canna Aqua Vega nutrient solutions, but it basically contains small amounts of potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorous. The question is, will a water filter take up these essential nutrients and leave me with only water? Also, does anyone have any advice on using some sort of filter or semi-permeable membrane that will work for this application? I've been using leg stockings as a very crude filter so far, but it hasn't worked perfectly.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[insane_alien]

assuming all the nutrients are water soluble(which is a fair assumption as they pretty much need to be to be absorbed by the plant) nothing short of an osmotic membrane (also called a molecular sieve) isn't going to remove the nutrients.

 

a good filter capable of handling small particles should be fine.

 

Also, Brita is a brand of filter, not a single type. i'm pretty sure they have a few different lines that would be completely unsuitible for your purposes. you need to show us exactly what filter you are planning on using. To illustrate this, say you came here saying you wanted to know if a car was suitible for you to go about your business. you said you were going to be getting a ford. now, ford make a lot of cars are you getting a model-T? a fiesta? a GT? these are very different cars all made by the same manufacturer and fit very different purposes.

 

it would also help if we knew the particle size of the stuff blocking your jets, are the individual particles visible?

[greenprogrammin]

You want a screen filter, not a Chemical filter (ie. Carbon). The chemical filter will react with the nutrients. The micron size off the screen is important. If you go to home depot or another hardware store you will probably find water drip and spray equipment. They usually have the filters there.

[Christopher Walken]

According to me aeroponics provides maximized mistscontaining hydroponics nutrients, water and oxygen to spur incredibly fastgrowth and superb yields. But aeroponics has its drawbacks. One of the biggestis that you can't just plug plants in to an aeroponics system, make sure you'vegot adequate water and nutrients in a reservoir, and go away for a few days.

 

I have gotten lots of help from this blog. I thought I wouldshare this. Not sure how long this link helpful for you

 

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Edited February 23, 2012 by Phi for All
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[John Cuthber]

assuming all the nutrients are water soluble(which is a fair assumption as they pretty much need to be to be absorbed by the plant) nothing short of an osmotic membrane* (also called a molecular sieve) isn't going to remove the nutrients.

 

*Or an ion exchange filter or charcoal trap of the sort sold as a water purifier under trade names like "Brita".

 

A sand bed filter seems like a good place to start (albeit a bit ironic in the circumstances.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_filter