Simple Ebb and Flow Hydroponic System

Step 5 Drilling and Covering the Drain Holes

Picture 1
The first thing you need to do at this step is to drill a small drain hole in the corner of the plant container. This one is 1/4" in diameter. You probably shouldn't make it any bigger because you don't want the water to drain out faster than the pump can pump it in.

The only reason to make this hole smaller would be if you were going to set up multiple plant containers, all filled with the same pump. I have only tried this with two plant containers myself, but I think that the quarter inch hole would work with four or maybe even six containers.

It's something that would take some experimenting to be certain.

Picture 2
The next thing you need to do is to drill the overflow holes. The plastic containers I am using have a convenient handle which makes for a good place to put them.

Picture 3
Cover the small drain hole with the larger sized gravel. This is done to keep the small pea gravel from clogging it.

Pictures 4 and 5
Go ahead and fill the container with the pea gravel. The container is pretty heavy when it's full, so you'll want to have it in position before you top it off.

Pictures 6, 7, and 8
Do the same thing with the overflow holes that you did with the small drain hole. Cover them with a layer of larger sized gravel and then put the pea gravel on top.

Note: You may want to test the system out with the pump first before these are covered so that you can be certain that they drain the water out fast enough.