"First of all, I never ever recommend the use of any chlorine " Are you so vain that you think that anything that might be recommend was something that was recommended by you? As far as I can tell you are only concerned with the misconceptions that you don't agree with, all the rest are just fine. " If you use the wrong dose, (in the worst case on top of what your water may already contain) you will most certainly inhibit plant growth or even damage your cultures fatally." Why would you possibly care what might be in the water supply? As far as I can tell you have EXPRESED that there is no need to care what is in the water supply. "In case you aim for a rather radically sterile or disinfected water or setup, only use hydrogen peroxide for the purpose" H202 costs money in this country. Any other other chemical would be cheaper. chlorine is much cheaper. I thought you were so concerned with resources you would know that? It would cost me hundreds of dollars to disinfect using H2O2. I can filter it for a fraction of that. Good thing your not my financial adviser. "The actual and in fact sole purpose of UV-treatment or water ozonification (in smaller or larger set-ups) is to prevent build-up of bacterial- and decomposition related particles within a running system. The base water that is/was used, or whatever may be introduced by it, doesn't actually play here." Not 'particles', pathogens. Pathogens are basically anything that can do damage to a plant. OK then the people running. Those operations are so stupid that they don't care anything about their initial water supply. Lets say they don't, why would they care about the supply after that? Lucas says there will never be any problems with any water supply. So Lucas says it does not mater what what water you use, you will NEVER have any problems with your water supply. 'It's more like (figuratively speaking) a "inside job". Also, fine particles that could only be filtered out by high pressure filtering, will bind in such way they can be filtered out by a much more rudimentary "outline flow filter". This obviously saves money and energy and keeps the system "clean"." This is just an attempt to draw attention away from the fact that there is no information in this statement. And just a bunch of junk, with only the hopes of big words to mask the fact that there is no basis for the junk. "Now about building or keeping a system airtight (as suggested by homehydro) and quoted: "not just for pathogens, but also to help keep the warm air temperatures from getting to the nutrient solution and root zones" Well, here I cannot disagree more, "this part is not consistent with anything I've seen nor heard, nor can imagin" That's good because I never asked you to imagine anything, nor have I ever cared how you feel, so then it works out just fine. "And yet, I have visited a number of smaller and bigger scaled hydroponic farms, that don't use any products, nor such systems (as UV or Ozone) and actually just have some piece of nylon cloth at the final outlet tube as a sole filter" OK, so we should just take your word for it that there is nothing to water quality when many EXPERTS suggest different. OK, I will just believe you because you demand it. "Same for chitosan, trichoderma and EM inoculation of hydroponic systems (even-though less commonly used or known without a doubt). Any inoculation would become merely useless if aiming for a sterile system, respectively taking any measures to make and keep it sterile or even preventing the media from breathing. " English please? Gobilty gook does not matter.Anything other than your perception of your systems is considered Lab quality in your opinion. Thanks for the interpretation. "But most importantly how would one be able to adequately aerate and oxygenate a root zone" That's because you simply are not aware of how I build my systems, and also the laws of physics. If you had a clue, you would easily understand what I do. "A reverse effect is much more likely to take place! "Air-tightness" may also promote anaerobic bacterial activity and multiplication, and may actually have a reverse effect for this matter." This also shows that you have no clue what I am talking about, as well as my designs. You are just SPECULATING as you continually blame others of doing. "Last but not least, the inappropriate and certainly inflationary use of terms like "chemicals". Folks, please get it: any so called nutrients or solutions (even so called organic nutrients partially) are made of chemicals, actually chemical components" Yes, So then there is no person that should not be able to pour a bunch of chlorine in their reservoirs without any problems. after all it is a chemical and that is what plants use for food. So Lucas says to put as much as you want in your reservoir because there simply won't be any problems (Lucas says). Hay why not just pour bleach on on your grass, it's just a chemical and Lucas says it wont cause any harm. Why not drink RAID it is just a bunch of chemicals, heck it's probably even good for plants. So heck, suck it down Lucas says, it's just a chemical so what's the problem. If chlorine is so great just try pouring it on the grass outside and just see if it lives. I know it's one of the CHEMICAL ELEMENTS in a nutrient solution. But in the concentrations that it's in a nutrient solution, it wont kill anything. In concentrations that it will kill, it will do damage to your plants. "In fact, calcium chloride or potassium chloride (why not sodium chloride) are per definition just acceptable components that simply range among other equally "chemical" components COMMONLY used with nutrient making. Pretending or believing otherwise would just contribute to spreading one more "improper terminology" based fallacy. LOL" But you are saying that in any concentrations that there is never any problems. If that is the case then why bother worrying about the recipy in the first place. It doesn't matter. But if it is not a fallacy or misconception that you disagree with then it's just fine. Leave a list of the ones you agree with.

Well, I went ahead with hiring a pro to re-brick where the hole was. I was able to find the same style brick but they had to special order it. Cost me about $50 for the bricks and $200 to have them installed. Unfortunately the bricklayer said he couldn't properly patch in the bricks near the window as he said it could cause the bricks above the hole to fail (some joints had already cracked above the hole), so he left it a straight shot there. He did patch them in on the right where he had to cut out some bricks. i think he did a pretty decent job. The mortar seems to be lightening since it was done last week. I thought it seemed too dark then but i guess it was still drying. Once I get the caulking off the bricks where the air conditioner was it will look better. I'll probaby also rub some dirt into the new bricks then hose them off to see if i can make them look a little dirtier like the old bricks. Here are a couple pix of the finished job... I'd considered trying to patch in the 4 bricks near the window to eliminate the straight line, but i'm not so sure anyone will even notice it. I could also try adding mortar there to bring the joints to the level of the bricks then painting it to look like the bricks I suppose. Just enough to make that line less obvious maybe. I don't know. For now I'll just leave it alone. Planning on trying to use a heat gun and wire brush to clean the caulking off.

For those whose homes are heated with heat pumps (the outside equipment looks the same as for a central air conditioner but you know who you are), remember that that equipment continues to operate during the winter to heat your home and it shouldn't be covered in any event. If you're curious, a heat pump is just an air conditioner running in reverse. When in AC mode, it removes heat from the inside air and the coolant transports it outdoors (you'll note the air blowing out of the outdoor equipment is hot). Run it in reverse and it does the opposite, it takes heat from the outdoor air (even if it's cold, there's still "heat") and the coolant transfers the warmth to the indoor air heat exchanger to provide heat.

i like the fireplace screen ideas or radiator covers i also like the cabinet used but i think its too big and black, if you could get something lower and white and span the entire area to the right as well it would look cohesive and not stick out the big black cabinet takes more away from your view than the radiator by itself does