I'm working on a hybrid soil/hydroponic monitoring and control system as well as the garden itself, I look forward to learnign more about NFT as your project develops, it seems really interesitng.

Hi Adam, sorry for the late reply. I actually built a monitoring system for my Aquaponics system that sounds like it may share some similarities with your own. I focused mainly on temperatures of the fish tank and grow beds and built in some automation to fire off a heater if too cold, fan if too hot, etc. I accomplished this by using solid state relays to control the HV side of things. I'll try to post some pics later on in another project, or blog here. 

Thank you for the high praise! You really nailed the potential benefits of NFT that I wanted to write about. Perhaps you would want to contribute? 

I started off with a small backyard aquaponics installation and that started me thinking bigger. With the looming water crisis here in California I want to be able to help in any way I can. I live in the Salinas Valley (Monterey, California) and I believe technology can really help us and other communities make sustainable farming practices a reality.

I also built a full sensor monitoring system for my Aquaponics installation that I thought would migrate well for NFT and Hydroponics.  Specifically flow rates, temperatures, talk volume, etc. over 4G and callable for both SCADA style remote control and big-data analysis and decision making, all based on the Raspberry Pi.

I have some hints and kinks I can add at some point.  I think aquaponics is the ultimate, but way too troublesome for the uncommitted hobbyist - so I have started gathering supplies for a decent sized hydro system using non-leech PVC pipe.  I have definitely been thinking along the lines of how cool Arduino or Pi would be for this with simple relay shields, $2 Maxim 1-wire DS18B20 temp sensors and cheap fish safe (which means it should be human safe) air bubbler/water pumps - then Hadoop Flume agent or mongoDB client to AWS or digital Ocean server.  Accurate pH and PPM readings automagically are still an issue either due to price for the high end stuff, or since you really have to constantly clean, calibrate, and safely store the cheaper (but decent lab quality) probes - I have a bluelab combo kit which is great, but high maintenance.

I have done some weird experiments like using the Kratky method to propagate pineapples from just twisting off the tops and removing a few leaves, and lemon trees from seed (sadly, I got busy and left them outside during a freeze - so much for that).  But the point is that there is no reason folks can't grow what they want, where they are, 24/7/365.  The money people save at the grocery store/farmers' market the first year will pay for all the materials necessary to build a serviceable greenhouse/growroom with hydro and start it with heirloom and other non-GMO seeds - further savings and good health are the dividends.

I hate the fact that Cali is going through the awful trouble - the irony is that it's right near an unlimited water supply, an energy source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power) for desalinization and pumping, but would probably face the same political pushback that has contributed to the original problem (i.e. delta smelt could have been saved and transplanted elsewhere).  Couple that with the CO₂ hoax that the globalist cabal ("the owners" as George Carlin called them) is trying to foist upon the ignorant, the constant "chem -trailing" of the air the planet breathes, the genetic contamination by the criminals at "big agra"...we're *all* in a lot of trouble.

Of all the projects in the world, this is one of the most important and near and dear to my heart.

NFT and hydroponics in general uses a fraction of the water, is more manageable for pest/disease control, can be run year round to overabundance (to donate to needy) with a greenhouse.  You can put nutrients back into the plants, and you can run the whole shebang off solar.

Good bye mon-satan-to.