Salutations Hecno,
Egzoset, I have holes in the sides... ...one of the things I will have to watch is not to over water...
I must confess i didn't understand this feature correctly as i'm used to 1 system that happened to provide an air layer separating roots from their water tank, with capilary channels to create an up-link in between... So the information you've just given me helps to focuss on your goal rather than the means, and talking of means i can appreciate it very much when experiments are meant to be replicable at a minimum cost, because this is inclusive instead of elitist and i like that a lot, which is why i wish the concept leads to success with no contest!
Also, quite frankly i had never heard about "pumice" before. This is a new word/material to me and many more possible resources still are actually. All i can say with confidence is that roots with proper access to oxygen and a system to flush excess water worked wonders for me, not to mention a parallel experiment relative to my top soil vs nuisance insects: keep it dry somehow! Because when i started skipping that simple precaution, after a couple years, nasty visitors popped out in my hobby which i had never faced before. Excess water is a bitch, additionally i'd suggest this present system should allow a user to see when it has been turned red as i believe it signals an excess of nitrates, whatever, etc... and i suspected it was time to check pH levels at such stage though in the end i only monitored used water colour. They are alive, they eat and digest i figure. So once in a while i changed that water to avoid salt accumulations, as i recall it. Perhaps you may want to implement a similar item, eventually: the height of the side holes will evacuate overflow and set your water tank level. But does this even make sense in your context? I'd have to see it in function i guess...
...I am thinking the pumice would be a nice spot for the roots to hang out and help with the oxygen levels for the roots as it releases moisture, I will be using oxygenated water, and Margahooja {"shows"?} no issue with PH, so we will see how it goes, seed popped up today.
Oh, it's a girl i hope! Have a cigar!...
But i don't smoke so you'll have to taste it for both!
Good day, have fun!!
P.S.:
Be warned that i yet had to experiment and acquire suitable background with complex soils and "nutes" when i was finally assimilated by The Borg! My feeling was that i had to flush the equivalent of opaque "urine" in the vegetal kingdom while i was only depending on my soil's initial fertility plus a few drops of supplements once in a while, as the plant went old. It's just ~3 months from start to finish after all and i wanted something to put on my window-sill, at least eventually...