There is nothing wrong with that, but you could water a tiny bit less at each event for efficiency sake. Just keep an eye on the numbers.
Thank you for the piece of mind. The numbers were about 50 less than what went in this morning. I think timing wise it’s working well I am transplanting them today so I will increase the feed numbers from here.
@Low and @Gl1tch Thank you for your guidance, it is truly appreciated, lots of information and things I didn’t think about, like the in line filter and especially correcting me on not making a ring because that could cause more back pressure on the pump and damage it in the long run.
@Low
The plants will not be lower than the reservoir level at any point, even if the rez is filled up all the way to the top. I will still take your advice and make an anti siphon hole just in case though.
Yes I forgot to mention I have a timer with seconds to get more accurate feedings. I was thinking of running the stirring pump 10 minutes every 4 hours or so, and especially before a feeding, not continuously because of the heat in the rez as you are stating.
I will definitely look into making some form of manifold to get more even water distribution, thank you. I dont’ think the ones like you linked will work for my system though, it looks like it slots or threads into a solid PVC pipe if I’m not mistaken. I’m using poly and vinyl tubing from the pump, but I’ll figure something out. Thank you also for taking the time to take pictures, I appreciate it.
@Gl1tch
Sorry I should have been more clear about the bleach and hydrogen peroxide. I don’t mix them together, I usually do a bleach cleaning one day, and leave the extractor and fans on, then the next day I do the same with the hydrogen peroxide, but if you tell me one is enough, that would be great, saves some time.
Thanks again for the warning about not using a circle, I’ll conjure up some sort of manifold. I think I’d prefer a smaller one with longer lines just to try keeping the main feed line to each plant as close as possible. I imagine I can do this with my tees, an elbow and short pieces of vinyl very close together?
The water tank is going under a shelf in the closet, I have no way to lift it up unfortunately. Space is limited here I envy these people which have a full basement which they can convert into a grow room.
I was planning on cleaning the rez and the pumps each week, but I also need to clean the lines every week? How would I do this? I don’t think a bottle brush will reach through the whole tubing unless it’s taken apart each time? I was planning on cleaning the lines with hydrogen peroxide after every harvest, but I can’t do this with the hydro halos on the plants while they’re growing.
Sorry my quoting isn’t working from my tablet for some reason, you said ‘don’t forget your PPE especially if your going to use 12%’, what is PPE? I’m using 6% hydrogen peroxide diluted with water.
That sounds like a good idea for the aeriation, thanks for the heads up about a screen. Crashing down like a fountain is the initial idea I also had, but that requires a PVC pipe I imagine to hold sturdy in place? My pump nozzles are barbed.
@Low and @Gl1tch Again, I stand to be corrected on anything I say that doesn’t make sense, or which I think is not possible but it could be. This is all just theory in my head, when you both have practice, so you will surely know better than me. Thank you both again for your time and information.
@JPhoenixX glad your switch to coco is going well Best of luck on the transplant! Hope the girls will quickly recover from it quickly and start boosting in growth!
The best way to learn is to jump in and tweak along the way with the gear you got. I too started with flexible piping, all sorts of different configurations and gear… slowly made the transition to pvc to mitigate leaks and control positioning easier. You got this.
Out of all the hose sizes I tried this is the set up that worked best for me 1/2” all around,
Also you can add peroxide directly to your nutrient res. I do it once a week or so. Alternating with a bacteria product. Peroxide helps with algae. Bacteria helps with build up.
With our current set up I clean the reservoir ever 2 nutrient reservoirs with tap and peroxide. Rinse and drain. I can see what it cleans out each time using an online filter.
I collected pieces over some time to assemble this. RO/Water tank on the right. After res filters for both, pressure gauges to monitor flow before and after filter. Mixing capabilities, dispensing capabilities. Has made everything easier and wish I would have done something like this sooner.
With three plants a single line would probably be the way to minimize tubing. The length between tees doesn’t matter that much as long as it’s equal. Keep in mind that adding length to the individual branches of the manifold takes three times the tube as adding length to the trunk. That increases resistance and the need for a larger pump. If your halos are going to be higher than your water level then you will might need a bigger pump at some point anyway. The hardest thing for a pump to do is lift water vertically. You will see most pumps tell you how much lift they can generate. that number is usually a best case scenario and the water will have very little pressure with a lot of lift. The flow rating usually assumes very little lift. When you measure your lift make sure to measure from the lowest point your water level will be when the res is near empty. Fortunately halos don’t need a lot of pressure to work but you may have to run the pump long enough to heat the nute solution. When you get your halos make sure all the little holes are the same size. Some brands don’t get the holes poked all the way through and that will cause uneven watering as well. I would add your ball valves as close to the halos as you can and one on the tail. That way you can close off the plants and crack the tail to flush or circulate clearing solution through the system to clean lines without flooding the plants.
PPE stands for personal protective equipment. I use 12% H2O2 and dilute it to suit my purpose. When dealing with corrosive or reactive chemicals like H2O2 you should protect yourself with gloves, respirator, eye, and splash protection. Also know that it can get pretty warm and spit and splash if your res is particularly dirty. I am a certified retard and use a beard respirator and hold my breath, but long sleeves, gloves, and glasses are always a good idea at the very least when dealing with H2O2 of any concentration.
My set up is a little ghetto still but it’s getting there a little at a time.
My first res had a nice bevel that was able to put a fiberglass rod on to support my aeration tube upright.
This is the combo I replaced it with so I could add a pre filter and rigid fittings. Then I added the black vapor barrier to keep the light out. My grow room is the only room in my house that has AC so my res has to stay in there.
self draining saucers and the tote has a condensate pump in it to take the runoff ta a more convenient res to be emptied. I notched the top of the bulkhead fittings in the saucers so they would retain a few ML of runoff so I can test each plant individually.
I don’t have any good pick of my old table I made but these shelves are what I replaced it with.
I like those shelves, I was just thinking yesterday about how something like that would be good for me. I’m glad I’m at least on the right track
A friend got them from Walmart for me. The Hyper tough brand even makes a bunch of accessories that go with them like casters, trays, and hooks and clips that can be used for cable management
@Low and @Gl1tch Thank you both for such informative replies. You really gave me a much better understanding and way how to proceed on this. I appreciate your time in making these replies. Thank you so much.
Definitely agree on this. It’s all just theory in my head for now, but yeah getting hands on with it will definitely give me a better picture and see what to tweak along the way/between harvests.
I use the full line of Advanced Nutrients. For the first 2 weeks of veg and flower, I feed 3 different types of beneficials, you probably heard of them: Voodoo Juice, Piranha, and Tarantula. Wouldn’t mixing hydrogen peroxide into the nute solution then make it to the coco and kill the beneficials I have been building up? Or you’re basically stating to not build a colony and just have a new army of beneficials every other week?
Whoa that’s a beautiful, and very neat set up, well done! I really wish I had the space to make something like this.
Hmmm got it, might be worth doing it the other way around then, just having one line going through behing the 3 plants, and 3 short lengths coming out from that line to the halos. The pump states it has a vertical lift of 2.1m. Took some measurements. The rez is 60cm high, the top of the exhaust port I will be going in from is around 55cm high, and the drippers will be around 75cm. Quite close within each other, and at max 75cm from 2.1m, think this will suffice?
Yeah I read about this on the Amazon reviews, I’m going to check all the holes individually and make sure they’re all poked through.
Thanks, this is a brillaint idea to manage the flush with hydrogen peroxide, and making the ball valves as close to the halos as possible will clean as much of the tubing as possible also. To make sure I understood, the part where you said in the diagram ‘don’t forget to leave a tail or plant 1 will get high pressure’, this is the same tail we are referring to that will come after plant 3 to make the hyrodgen peroxide flush, correct?
So I’m thinking:
Rez -----> In line Filter ------> Plant 1 -----> Plant 2 -----> Plant 3 ----->Ball valve for H202 flush
Ah ok. Yeah I always wear gloves with H202, never used respirator or eye protection though, thanks for the heads up. What H202/water ratio do you use in the rez for cleaning/flushing (ml p/ltr), and how many litres per cleaning?
Thank you also for the pics of your previous set up, the new combo, the saucers and shelves. Always nice seeing other growers’ setups
Appreciate all the help and time these past few days everyone. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much!
I’ve personally gotten away from all beneficials in coco that’s treated as hydro. Nutrients are already readily available. So I decided it’s not worth my effort. Microbes don’t do well in reservoirs. nothing against the stuff, for me just keeping the nutrient reservoir clean, stable, and keeping environmental conditions good has turned out some of the best weed I’ve ever grown.
nice warning on mixing bleach and H202 basic elementry chemistry!!!
That’s very interesting, especially stating the best weed you got came from these grows without the microbes. Definitely worth giving it a shot also (not this grow though, already stocked up 2 Ltrs of each of the bennies). Would be good if I could get better results without them, the AN stuff is pricey, these bennies are 75 USD per Litre and there’s 3 of them. How much H202 do you put in the rez mixed with the nutes?
I love microbes and have sunk a ton of money into them. Just depending on how coco is utilized I don’t think they are needed. They also can die in a reservoir if you have to correct pH drift. Keeping numbers in line matter and even AN “pH perfect” needs correction, it’s just supposed to be easier and require less correcting. I don’t really measure peroxide anymore, it’s so unstable in water it dissipates fast. However if I were to measure, maybe 5-10 ml per gallon. That’s if I’m running it through the plants. To combat some algae. If I’m cleaning the reservoir I usually dump 16 oz or so mix for a while and drain.
Edit
I should note, I use the basic 3% peroxide off the shelf. I stopped buying the concentrate because it can be dangerous and there are kids around.
Food grade is obviously better stuff, because of the stabilizers in the brown bottle off the shelf stuff. But there is no real evidence that suggests stabilizers do any harm.
I put my filter in before the pump to help minimize crud inside my pump, but you may not be able to do that with your pump. You can even make that tail long enough to circle back to your res so you can circulate cleaning solution. H2O2 is for weekly cleaning, vinegar if you need to dissolve salt deposits, and bleach for deep cleaning between plantings or if things get crazy. Bleach is more persistent than H2O2 so it has a better sterilization effect over time, but must be thoroughly rinsed from the lines before watering can resume.
For cleaning I dilute to 3% in a spray bottle and mist and wipe everything in the grow room except the plants. For mixing in your nutes 2-3 ml per L at 3%. As @Low pointed out when you mix H2O2 with the non sterile water it decays pretty quickly and becomes H2O and free oxygen. Within a couple hours it’s pretty much oxygenated water again. As long as you don’t mix it with your beneficials you should be ok.
True story, A friend of mine burned his lungs breathing in mist. I burned my eye lid when some spattered while I was diluting it. Thank God I blinked. Hence why I say face and breathing protection. I use food grade because I also dilute it to use on fruits and veggies and all sort’s of other places so it’s more economical for me. While there is no evidence that the stabilizers in drug store peroxide will hurt your plant or you when simply using it in the water, they are toxic to you if you consume them in high enough quantities. So you also wouldn’t want to use it to ward off WPM on budding plants, which is another miracle use of H2O2.
Thanks for all the help guys things are going so much better for me now that I’m using coco. I’ve been surprised at the growth rate wish I would have started with coco from the beginning.
I said the same thing when I made the switch from soil. looking good
Haha, Glad it’s working out for ya. I do think that coco or hydo are the undisputed kings of fast growth. Soil has it’s place too. I personally love both and see value in both. There is also quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that organic soil may produce more terps than soil or coco grown with synthetic ferts, but studies are still being done and reviewed and so for I haven’t seen anything concrete to say one way or another. They both produce fine kind and both have pros and cons. I can’t wait till the work season is over and I have time to do both at the same time. It’s all about what works best of you.
So I’m a recovering card counter I’m pretty good with numbers. For the life of me I can’t figure this one out…
No matter how much water I put in I’m getting 45-55% run off every time. Yesterday my runoff numbers changed to about 350 ppm higher than inflow so I’ve bumped it up to 2 waterings a day. I figured more waterings so I would give less each time. That brought it down to within 100 ppm which is cool. I only put in 500ml and got almost 300ml coming out. I gave 1.5 liters the first time in the 5 gallon pot and was at 50%, 1 liter was 45%, 750ml was 40%, today 500ml gave me 55%. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it, should I keep lowering the amount of water?
I would stick with the 500ml for a day to confirm your reading then dial down more if you’re still getting excessive runoff. don’t let an anomalous reading or two throw you. I try to keep a log and use it to look for patterns. After a few days of increased frequency, your medium is probably just staying more saturated. A little plant in a big pot can be tricky to manage until the roots fill in the pot. That’s one of the reasons I like to transplant. It’s way easier to manage moisture in a pot sized for the roots. It’s not near as big a deal in coco as in soil though.
Ok thank you I’ll stick with 500ml for now and see if things even out for me.
Sorry to keep picking on you guys I appreciate all the help
No worries bro. Ask all the questions you can think of. I genuinely enjoy learning and teaching about cannabis and most of my friends are sick of hearing it. This is what I do to relax or kill time before work in the morning. I also learn a lot and refine my craft in the process too.