[Jane Long]

Pretty elaborate?

What keeps the water pumping/circulating, etc?

Requires electrickity, right?

I love the thought....just wondering how involved...compared to say...container gardening.

[GingisK]

I think you could hand pump, or dump buckets of water/nutrient into the system. Solar panels should help a lot.

The water flow is not supposed to be fast; and, the grow pipes are almost horizontal. An elevated tank would supply steady flow for a time, then you'd have to pump it back up again.

[GingisK]

Some forms of hydroponics use nutrient trays where the water doesn't move.

Look at abebooks.com and search for hydroponics. There are oodles of good books that are really inexpensive.