Everything has been insulated and wrapped with mylar emergency blankets. I decided to build a control res, refill res with valves for either one to use the chiller.
A RO system will be installed which will go to the refill reservoir in the back. I am putting in a float valve in the refill res so it gets filled in between change outs without my doing anything. (That is the plan anyway!)
When it is time to change water, I will pump out old water while chilling the water in the refill res. Then a line from the control res goes into the tent. Gets a manifold in the center to split left and right. Another manifold feeds each hydro station.
The whole set up is on ten inch risers to make working on plants easier. Water feed line going in is 3/4". 2" pvc return to res using uniseals. (Which were a royal pain).
Nice set-up. Looks like you are worried about the contribution of air temps to the water temps with all of the insulation, or was it light? All that insulation will make it interesting with maintenance and reuse, but I don’t see any major problem with it. Pumps should be sized large enough to create turbulent flow in the totes holding the plants. Immersion pumps will add heat, while rotary lobe pumps require head maintenance from time to time. Adding water automatically while appropriate, ultimately you want to continue to add nutes and PH up/down to the reservoir to maintain optimal PPM and pH. This should be easy enough with your topped up system. Should be fun to watch your grow.
Air and water temps were a concern. Thought I would take as much strain off the chiller as possible. (Plus it was fairly cheap to do so what the heck).
I did go with submersed pumps. The supply pump is 800gph and the others for the chiller are 400gph. Had to make an educated guess on those.
I realized I was making it harder to sanitize the system between runs, but thought it was a fair trade off. We’ll see. I may be sorry on some of my choices, but that is half the fun!!
And yes @MattyBear, been busy all right! If I had know the thousand or so details that needed worked out I might have bulked! Ignorance is bliss.
Just run some peroxide through before storing and you should be good.
Nice setup! I managed heat infiltration by using rigid styrofoam panels over the totes with a cutout for the plants. Basically did a physical separation from the root space and the grow space. I am no expert by any means so will be lurking in the background haha!
Some of the return lines are a bit high so some water can be left in the buckets. In the end I will have to wet vac some out I suspect.
I used Reflectix around the totes and on top. It kind of looks like Mylar bubble wrap. I have a circle cut out to go around the plant and over the net pot to shield the roots too. Easy to use and one roll was all I needed.
I will remember the peroxide wash thanks!
Wow, awesome build. Can’t wait to see how it runs for ya. I thought about doing the Mylar instead of buying a chiller and tried aluminized foam on top of my res but it wasn’t making the difference I needed. Yours coupled with a chiller should work fantastic!
Thanks @beautifulL0V3. We shall see how it works out!
Mother plants going nicely to provide me with some clones. ILGM Super Lemon Haze, Purple Haze and from elsewhere a Blue Wizard. A couple will be outside and I will do four in the RDWC.
I figured I will do a mi culpa later and let folks what worked and what maybe doesn’t. If anyone asked I might put together an inventory list of parts required. Don’t want to do it yet in case I need to change some things. Don’t want to steer anyone wrong. (I’m NOT at TDubWilly’s skill level!!)
I hear ya! Neither am I, but we all have to start from somewhere, it’s only up from there! I’m only on my second ever grow but I’m definitely learning a lot, thanks to the forum. I’m also really diggin’ hydro.
and hoping I don’t manage to figure out how to screw it up. I plan on putting my air pump out of the tent to draw cool air in from the basement where I have my grow . I struggle to get my tent up to 74 or 75 inside and it stays in the 60s outside the tent all year long downstairs but I vent my warm air through the filter and outside to keep it chilly . Gonna be watching this grow good luck . That looks much better than what is on line for 400 bucks nice job
Thanks @Oldstoner. Still tweeking a couple of things. I had the room so what the heck!
Going to do 2 Super Lemon Haze and 2 Purple Haze when I have the plants ready to drop in the baskets!
Had to loose the refill res for a true 50 gal water barrel and added a bigger pump for the tent. RO system can auto refill the control res, the refill res or both at the same time. Both can cycle through the chiller also. The same valves for the chiller let me send water from the refill res to the control res.
I added an UV light to the refill res.
Very nice! My only observation is a hoop top barrel would be MUCH easier to clean out. I went that route with a couple of scavenged barrels from the car wash. My check res I cut out an access port in the top and hinged it so I could take samples and scrub at changes etc. That would be easy enough to do with that one too.
If you mean the 50 gallon drum, it will only have clean RO water in it. I put in a UV lamp in it too to ensure it stays clean just to refill the control res.
I suspect you are right though that cleaning will be a chore because of the way I put it all together. Just have to give it a run and see!
The hydro has been up and running with ILGM genetics. 2 Super Lemon Haze and 2 Purple Haze.
One thing I have noticed is I have fan leaves as big as a dinner plate from the SLH. I didn’t see that in Pro-Mix. Still working on dialing in the amounts for nutes. I am seeing a bit of Nitrogen clawing, but otherwise looking good. I think I over estimated how many gallons are in the system. (Very slightly different levels, less in the lines than I had guessed etc. Originally I had estimated the tubs and res would hold 30 gallons. I gave an additional 2 for the 3/4" lines sending water to the tubs and 2" PVC passive return.
Overall hydro is a lot less work than Pro-mix even if it is a bit touchy to dial in.
pH = 5.9 and PPM was 1250. Pulled out 3 gallons and added 3 RO to bring the PPM down some.
