I’m trying to build a two bucket ez stor 8 gallon buckets with a outside tent reservoir in my 2x4 gorilla tent and for the life of me i cant wrap around my head how the reservoir volume works and im not using a top off tsnk. I have a 2" bottom return BUT I have a hump from reservoir to the bucket. My question is…
Do i have to keep the reservoir water volume at the same height as i want in the plant buckets or does the pump decide?
As the reservoir drops in water from being used does the plant buckets still maintain thier height unless I run the reservoir so low the return tube looses suction?
Your pump manages your water distribution, you will need to do some online homework to find a flow chart. Sorry I don’t remember where I looked at it last.
If you guess, which I did for a while, you risk draining your res and over flowing your grow buckets….
My system has a caterpillar setup to get up & out of the tent & into the reservoir. Yes, the reservoir level is the same as in the buckets…the bucket water level will be go down when the plant & large rootball are in place if that makes sense?
Nice setup bro… Im building almost the same style setup (Garys Pahydroponics) but i will be running 2 8g buckets (ez stor) with a 13g trash bin as a reservoir that way I can have my plumbing inside the trash can. Im hard pluming everything and im running a cooler.
I have most of it together just waiting on a few more bulkheads for the return lines. I never grew hydro so im pretty much lost. I see you have a valve so you must be using a top off reservoir and that’s what I don’t have. And that’s what I’m worried about because I don’t want to be screwing with this thing every single day! I’m used to planting 10 plants in a 5x5 in soil but now in my 2x4 I’m going to try this hydro and I’m freaking out. I don’t know if it’s going to be worth it because I get a good bit out of my 5x5.
So back to my question, to be clear, the same level in your buckets in your tent are at the same level as the reservoir, correct?? What if I used let’s say a 40 gallon reservoir which more water would be at the same level as the buckets, which in my thought would take longer or last longer in the reservoir, right?
Biggest problem with your thought of bigger reservoir being better is you have to change out water completely. They say weekly is best but i go two weeks. Your reservoir could be 1000 gallons and it would take many gallons of nutrients per water change & very expensive. I have an additional external tote that could fill my reservoir if need be but i never filled it or use it. That would be water only.
Ye i get my weekly or biweeklies would be costly i guess im going to have to either manually add water every day which im trying to avoid and keep the small reservoir OR better yet just add either a line from my RO or similar using the leveler fill thingy in my res to top off and use less nutrients like you mentioned.
