I built a similar system a couple years ago and put it on my backyard patio. It worked fine until it got hot. I had painted it brown to match the deck, but the dark color absorbed heat from the sun, and the reservoir water got too hot. If you're going to set that system in the hot sun, I would make everything white. Otherwise, I think it looks great.

here's mine from a couple of years ago:

worked pretty good but it took a spill in heavy wind one night. make sure you anchor it down.
and two years ago the algae really got me. I ended up covering the pipe wilt aluminum foil. worked well until the deer got hungry.

Cole_Robbie, good idea about painting it white. i really hadn't thought about it.i'll get some paint.
yeah grizzman, i was worried about it blowing away. i think i got it tied down enough.
did ya'll ever have any problem with the roots filling up the channel? i put tomatoes in it.

if you have enough slope roots shouldn't be a problem. well that depends on what you're growing? With peppers, I didn't. my slope was 1.5" over5 feet.

Mine was 6" green pvc, and the heat killed my aquaponics experiment before they got a chance to get big, but yeah, I think you will have a problem with that if you try to grow big plants. I would stick to determinate tomatoes, and try to get something compact. Container tomato varieties would probably work best, but it's hard to recommend a variety that tastes decent, at least to me. Terrenzo was the best I had this spring. Tumbling Tom and Tumbler are both beautiful plants, but I don't like the tomatoes at all.

ok thanks for the advice.

rebelhead,
Look into ASD tubing (it might be ADS tubing I always get it mixed up). It's irrigation tubing. White on the outside, and black on the inside so there is no need to paint anything. It runs about $8 for a 10 foot long, 4 inch wide piece. it's much better than PVC to me. also the end caps are $2, versed the $12 for the same size PVC ones (here anyway). PVC connectors fit the tubing as well. It's also much easier to cut through too, but just as strong. Anyhow that's what I use.

hey home i'll look into that tubing for sure. i'm gonna build a big system next year so i'll check into it. btw pvc caps here are 2.50 at lowes but only the ones in the sewer pipe section. they are thinner walled.
i'm posting an update of the system and a new one i built. i wasted alot of money on grow bags and drippers and medium which i used but will not again. it a labor nightmare if you have 100's of plants. also a timer and injector is needed or you will end up with cracked tomatoes all summer. a run to waster system sounds good until you try it. imo its more trouble than its worth. and dont bother with a gravity system. they clog every 2 days if pressurized water isn't run through the system. at least thats been my experience.
nft is the way to go. all i do is top up the reservoir every 2-3 days and dump it every few weeks. and so far the growth is much better than i'm getting from the plants in the run to waste system.
here are some pics. so far so good.

and the new one.

nice work!

thanks bro

What medium do you have in the styrofoam cups?
perlite?

Wow, they're great. And yeah, what grizzman, said...what medium did you use that didn't work out?

yeah, its perlite in most of them. a few are in pine bark fines. pine bark and perlite are about equal in results. i tried perlite and vermiculite(30%) but it stayed too wet and got some stem rot. i can get a 4 cubic foot bag of perlite locally for 15$, so it fairly economical. i keep the nutrient about 2.5" deep in the tubes so its actually a nft/deep flow hybrid i guess.
the small system has beefsteak and 1 better boy that i have been pruning to a single vine. the larger system has big boy bush hybrid a determinate variety, and 5 marglobe.
this is the first time i have ever grown anything, so i think it is going pretty good. i dont even have a tds pen. lol i have just been guessing at it. on hot days i top up with just water. cooler days i have been topping up with 1/2 strength(.5 tsp per gal) of chem gro 10-8-22 sump tank formula.