Octopus Slayer - Part 2

If you remember from a prior post last year, we made some changes to the large A-Frame NFT system that was being used over at the Together We Stand Aquaponic Gardens.  It had been designed with a manifold at the top to feed water individually at each tube and to drain each tube individually. It had so many hoses going so many directions we called it the "octopus".  Classic exacmple of over-engineering to solve a problem that didn't exist.

When I wrote about how we changed the water flow I mentioned that instead of black tubing, my hubby cut a garden hose to make the jumper from one tube to the next. It was easy, quick, and most importantly cheap!

After I posted this, several folks commented on this blog and other places about the wisdom of using a garden hose. There was quite a bit of concern about the safety of the water flowing through the garden hose and the possibility of leaching toxic chemicals.

Quite honestly, for as "smart" and evolved as we are supposed to be, it never occurred to us that the hose might taint the water.  Hubby and I  both grew up in a very hot and dry area of South Texas and drank lots of water from the hose as youngsters and teens. While it did have a funny taste, I just always guessed it was from the metal bib of the hose.  That and the fact that all the water in that town tasted like crud, no matter the source.  But when you are hot and thirsty you will drink what is available.  Of course, this was back in the 60's and 70's so we didn't know about things like bottled water back then

But this is a new century and we are evolved and enlightened!  So a few days ago, hubby decided that the garden hose should be replaced.  You spoke and he listened!

 This did require a trip to Home Depot, but it was only a few dollars and the result looks clean and works well.  I think fighting the crowd of Canadians in the parking lot and through the store on a Saturday (remember this is Hollywood Florida and it is January and in the mid-80's so all the snowbirds have landed) took longer and was more effort than making the actual change.  Here is the new set-up. 

Here is another view.

Nice huh?

But this gets me to thinking about all the things we did as kids that people never do now....or they don't allow their kids to do now.  Maybe it was because we were from a small-ish town, but we rode our bikes everywhere and got into everything. I don't know how we survived.

How about you?