I know our pond was discussed in detail on some koi forums, it was bought up by Roddy Conrad (many years ago) he discussed how we manage to successfully maintain clean and healthy pond practices with aggressive water exchanges and a separate biological pond. I read many of the posts with Roddy but unfortunately missed yours. Water changes and flow thru systems have of course been a cornerstone of fish keeping, from fish farms and hatcheries to backyard ponds forever. Many of the Japanese growers seem to have flow thru systems, but most of us don't have a stream/river in our back yards for that so we have to make due with water changes. Up until the last few years most of the discussion in Koi Ponds has been about how frequency relates to keeping fish alive. In the last few years it's changed by a very few people to frequency relating to other things like clear water. algae control, and increasing fish growth. It's new so interesting to me. What surprised me is that you are already basically doing the 24/7 drip thing except once a day instead of 24/7 and hose instead of drip. Your volume is right in the range of 10-70% per week (varies by goals). And you've been doing it for a really long time so that's good data. Not sure how long Andy Moo has been doing 24/7, he's been around a long time too. And of course you're also using your hose as a TPR and basically the same as vacuum. Whether dirt is pushed to suction or suction is moved to dirt the result is the same. And you're doing it often. Pretty much all the people I've dealt with who wanted a bottom system as a option (not required for fish load) wanted it solely as a convenience. They just want a pond for looking at fish after work and don't want to pick up a hose. I do not belong to any of these forums, ( I did try briefly, however they were beyond snobby) as they have very expensive Japanese koi and they have sterile ponds, (meaning no rocks on the edges) also their filtration systems cost many thousands of dollars and they are quite snobby about their koi and ponds. Hell they don't even consider butterfly koi to be koi. Every forum seems to have a single specific type of pond that the 20-40 dominating posters have. Every forum says they accept all kinds of ponds but that sure isn't true. They'll say "all ponds are different, and that's great" and then launch into telling people why their pond is all wrong. But that's forums, protecting their little world. I most read pond forums that sometimes have good info but I don't find much reason to post very often. I've learned a lot about that I might be able to adapt to other ponds and more importantly so I understand these systems. Aquarium forums are even better for learning but I never post in those since I've never even had an aquarium or are interested in one. But those folks sure know there stuff, lots of test data. I think the hard it is to keep fish alive the better the forum because they have to take everything more serious. Fish farming forums are good too. If it don't pay they don't use it. However, the main reason I won't frequent these koi forums is because with all their expensive and super elaborate filter systems -- many of them they still use PP to help clear their ponds. I don't get it, why subject your fish to dangerous chemicals? If you systems are so wonderful why do they need chemicals and uv lights? You can see the amount of trouble I could get myself into frequenting these forums. :) Besides, my koi are mutts. I haven't seen much in those forums about PP use for general maintenance in several years. Occasional use by few for a specific reason. Or maybe they just don't talk about it. There's been better filters developed since Roddy was talking about PP and way easier to use, and pretty cheap, oxidizers have become available since then too. They need those things because they keep a different kind of pond than you do. For example for me to do the kind of water changes in San Jose would have added about $80 per month to my water bill since they use a tried system. While $960 a year isn't a lot I kept the water clear enough for me using other cheaper means. It's just a choice thing. For my next pond I can design a pond specifically to include 24/7 drip so I can reuse the waste water for landscaping. Here in Phoenix we water the landscape all year, and use a lot of water for that. So the water from the 24/7 drip will be basically free. Free and completely automated me likes. I know Dr. Roddy Conrad from another forum that we were both members of. We got along well,( but I did disagree with his PP practices.) He knew our set-up that why he was able to explain to the koi forum members our set up and aggressive water exchanges. "Successful pond husbantry practices " he called it. I don't remember if the other forum members agreed with him. Probably not. The Doctor that lost all the koi in his pond (twice) was that from on overdose of PP? I don't think I've ever posted directly with Roddy but have reads hundreds of his posts. He may have taught me more about ponds than maybe anyone else, especially when I was first learning about koi keeping. I've just been interested in learning different techniques and don't really have an opinion on whether it's good or bad. Just a tool. A hammer is good for driving a nail, not good for opening eggs. The tool itself is neither good or bad to me. I don't find a lot applications for PP but when needed and useful it works fine. But I'm sure happy Roddy took the time to teach me how to use PP, it's effects, and it's downsides through his posts. I'd be happy to buy him dinner any day. Plus his explaining, experimenting and providing lots of early data on Trickle Towers was very important to the hobby imo. And he took a lot of crap from the peanut gallery to boot which taught me a lot about forums which has helped me in developing software. TT popularity may have been short lived in the Koi Pond world but lead to even better filters. So I take what I can from those forums and just try and stay out of the crap...as best I can.

I am a newbie, my interest in hydroponics began 4 weeks ago when I was given an assignment in a classes at the Community College. We were told to use what was available to us and not to go out and buy something. I did some research and decided to try and grow some vegetables using hydroponics. I built an ebb and flow system which turned out great no problems. I also built a NFT system using 2 old rain gutters to grow different varities of lettuce. I like the idea of the 5 gal buckets for individual plants what type of system are you using in those?I haven't planted tomatoes yet, I didn't have room for them. I think I'd like to use the 5 gal buckets can you e-mail me the info. donnie1354@hotmail.com

I think you're talking about the one in the attached link? We got a 7-bar version years ago and, I have to say, they're really good to use. Too bad we couldn't find another one. Here is a link that might be useful: IKEA towel holder

Our gas pipe situation was similar to yours, so I installed a shorter nipple on the gas pipe to get the 90 degree bend snug to the wall. And when the gas valve is in the on position in line with the pipe the total distance the stove sits off the wall is only 1.5 inches, and we're willing to live with that small concession. Just screw on the gas flex line, plug in the electric cord, and shove it in until it stops. The range is zero clearance to the side cabinets with no heat issues.