Use of a sump pump to lower ebb and flow tables?

[simple green]

Hey folks, just thinking here as I've considered trying ebb and flow but height in my basement would be the issue that prevents it..

I've never done ebb and flow or anything like it so pardon me if there's some ignorance here...I'm hoping for feedback from people with experience...I've searched and haven't found a thread with this done, and since I have 0 experience with this growing method it's making me think there's gotta be something wrong with my idea on how to lower ebb and flow tables....



So....

Could you have you res sitting over to the side of your tables and have your ebb/flow table, say 3-4 inches off the ground draining down to a short wide rubbermaid container that is sitting right beside your resiovior with a sump pump in it, which turns on and pumps water back to your res???

I know there's sump pumps that turn on with very minimal amounts of water....and there's also manually operated ones you could put on a timer....

Does this make sense? Would it work or is there some issue I'm not thinking of????????



EDIT diagram attached

 

[Lazyman]

Well, you have to have your table high enough that it can drain back into the reservoir with ease, but I've seen several systems that had the tube fittings right over the reservoir (like an inch up) but I don't think you could have them any more even than that or they won't drain right.

Interesting idea, but know that if that sump pump ever failed, you'd have a flood. All of the sump pumps I've seen were like 10" tall, so I don't think you'd fit them under your trays, but if maybe you could get away with it if you had them to the side as you mentioned, and had two of them and ran them off of a battery backup unit (UPS) so at least one of em should ALWAYS work, even in a power outage. I dunno, sounds risky to me.

 

[simple green]

No I don't think you're getting what I'm intending... my idea is for the sump pump to not be under the E&F table but in a shallow (4-5" rubbermaid) container sitting on the groundnext to the ebb and flow table which is only raised 4".....and that little rubbermaid container have the sump pump in it so as the tables drain into it, the sump pump pumps water back into the res....

Uhh I don't know how I can do a rough sketchup to show it and get it on here...lemme see....

In my specific case pump failure wouldn't flood my basement because it would be right next to my basement drain...any flood would go right there....If the pump failed the nutes/water wouldn't make it back up into the res for feeding.....many of us face the threat of a pump failure meaning no feed...

 

[simple green]

I'm horrible at this type of stuff, but see if this makes sense....