Semi-automatic nutes change equipment/setup

I was thinking about rigging an LED so that a red light lights up when the power is not applied to the pump. I don’t want to have it lit up when the pump is running (because it’d run during dark periods).

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Yep, I did this. Have all of the electrical components except 12ohm resistors (shipping delay, ugh). I should have this wired up & ready for plumbing this week.
Wiring is done, except for the wiring to the pump and the valves. Still need to do plumbing, but I have to wait for the 5x10’ tent I got a smoking deal on to arrive before doing the plumbing…

Here’s some current pictures…




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Almost ready to start planting.

I have three valves set up, ‘recirculate’ (-> plants), ‘mix’ (-> resv) and ‘drain’ → sink, a 1900gph magnetic pump, a smaller pump for draining the plant buckets from bottom-mounted drains and a manual valve for draining.

Slightly out-of-date picture:

Changed from the photo:

  • magnetic pump installed
  • drain pump & drain lines relocated & cleaned up
  • auto-top-off installed

So far, if I had it to do over again, I’d:

  • Use on/off/on switches for the zones (instead of the momentary switches), because it takes more than a few seconds to fully open/close, and it’s also hard to know the state of the valves from a glance.
  • Leave more room between the reservoir drain and the pump inlet, it’s a bit crowded there.

Things I’m really happy about:

  • The filter… it works great. Wish it could be in front of the pump, alas.
  • The high volume pump … drains the whole system fast (when turned up all the way)
  • The superstrut mounting … this was the first time I used superstruts and they hold the pipes, valves, manifolds, SOLID.

PITA:

  • Threaded fittings leak unless you remember the teflon tape.
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Photos.


And my cute dog.

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this is the most saVAGE THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!..wow man good job …i see so much cancerous things in grow communities that i purposely look for innovation because thats where ive always found the passionate growers and you have that in spades my friend…very well done!!, this is just amazing!!..ohh and yur fur child…i see some blue healer beautiful dog!

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Thanks @nodurxshn !

Mmm, it does look like it. But I don’t think there is any Blue Heeler in him. He’s an “All American Dog”, with a collection of interesting things in his genes :slight_smile:

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thats very legit! personally im a dog lover living a cat owner life …but i found my cat on the side of the road so i had no choice in it really :slight_smile:

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I did add a 1/4hp chiller. It was rather necessary, nutes temp was approaching 80F. I do get condensation on the outside of the plant buckets (which grows over the day), and I probably need to find a way to deal with that. Either by insulating the buckets & piping (best), or by capturing the condensate in pans or something (less good, but easier).

Anyone else deal with condensation like that?

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so now that you have all that , what nutrients / line , do you use ? i want to try and start small with just the DWC buckets and am using jacks ro - ultra violet - and finisher to see how it will do in the buckets .
:alien: Happy Growing

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I’m currently using GH Trio, ArmorSi, CalMag, Liquid & Dry Kool Bloom, Hydroguard.

I’m sure the Jacks is cheaper, especially if you need large quantities (e.g., a 25lb bag won’t last into next decade or so), but I’ve been getting good results.

In the price range of things, from Jacks to [name it], the GH seems to be on the lower-end of prices for premixed liquid multipart nutes.

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have you try’ed southern Ag garden friendly bio fungicide organic ? instead of hydroguard said to work great at just 1ml per 5 Gallons .
:alien: Happy Growing

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I don’t think it’s the same thing. Southern Ag Product Page shows it as a spray…

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What magnetic pump?

What are these?

Are those little orange cubes on the pipes your 3/4 shut off valves?

Very cute dog!

I have not had any condensation issues with my buckets, I’m really curious why you have this issue and I don’t, humidity? Tent temperature?

I’m surprised you’re not using jacks 321 already.

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I am really interested in learning more about your pumps you are using.

My next step that I want to automate is the auto pH controller, so feel free to nerd about that lol.

Since my new tent is 5x5x80 I’m debating when I do my new setup, putting the tent on blocks, cutting holes in the bottom of the tent for the buckets to go through … So that I have as much growing room as possible…

pH Controller

I use a Milwaukee pH controller (leftover from aquarium), and an inexpensive peristaltic pump. If you get that pump, you also need appropriate tubing, something like this 2mm id 4mm od 1mm wall thickness .

I use it to dose either 10:1 diluted pH up/down, which I have prepared in a squeeze bottle (so that the tubing just fits through the nozzle). Generally, during veg I’m dosing pH up, during flower I’m dosing pH down (but that’ll depend on your situation)

On a related note, a nearby (to me) grower and I (but mostly him) are working on an affordable calibrated(-able) peristaltic pump dosing system (e.g., for nutrients). Speak up if you wanna hear more.

Pumps

I’m using three pumps currently:

  1. Main Pump. I’m using the same one @PharmerBob is using, a Current USA 1900 GPH pump, which is discussed on this thread: Magnetic higher-end pumps for RDWC . This pump feeds the manifold on the wall, and the output can be directed to any of (a) recirculate, (b) mix in res, (c) drain to sink.
  2. Chiller Pump. Per the manufacturers recommendation, it’s a Hydrofarm AAPW400. This pump sits in the reservoir and pumps to the chiller, the return from the chiller goes to the reservoir.
    I use the Active Aqua 1/4hp Chiller. 1/4 hp is more than I need for the current ~35 gal system, but I’m expandable to with another four or six plants so the chiller will grow with me.
  3. Drain pump. This is another Hydrofarm pump, a bit smaller (if I recall), but I don’t really remember. It’s one I had lying around.

Superstruts

These are the hardware that is mounted to the wall, and the pipes/valves are mounted to it. Superstrut is a brand name, they’re available at Home Depot and Lowes. See the manufacturers page, Superstrut®.

Valves

Yes, the orange box things are the electrically-controlled valves. From Amazon.

Condensation

Perhaps it’s an unusual problem, but (daytime) I have 86-88F air temp, 70-80% humidity, and 68F water temp. Yea, it’s going to condense. I’m running so hot/humid because I’m both supplementing CO2 and trying to keep VPD between 1.2 and 1.5 (higher than normal).

I probably should find a way to deal with this, but it’ll be difficult to do until after harvest (the plants would make it real difficult to insulate the 3" drain pipes or the 3/4" flex supply hoses. I think I’m just going to insulate the plants & the pipes with flexible neoprene pipe insulation.

Here’s my environment, last 36 hours or so… maybe you can see why it condenses? lol

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What are you using to record your data?

May want to check out home assistant. It allows you to load all your stuff onto it

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I’m using these “Wireless Tag” (https://wirelesstag.net/) things which I happened to already have for other reasons. The tags upload data to the cloud, I download the data to my PC and process using gnuplot.

What’s “home assistant”?

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Yeah I can see why your producing condensation.

My temp in my tent maxes out at 80, I’ve been keeping my humidity below 50% as I want no mold issues.

I didn’t realize the pH controller didn’t come with pump, I also didn’t realize they will only use one pump and because of that can only do either up or down and can’t do both.

I guess I ideally I would have a controller that could control two separate pumps for up and down

I’m thinking about upgrading my pump but I guess I well wait until I see a reason too. Should only be a matter of time.

I am also interested in the nuet dosing pump but I think this is even further down the line automation that I’m not ready for yet lol

I have a chiller in my setup I grabbed the 1/4hp as well since I wanted large res.

I have an extra drain pump but it is bottom suction to empty the system better.

I’m going to have to check out these super struts and shut off valves…

I suppose it’s much like gnuplot but much more functional here’s my water monitoring (2nd thought I added a link to not disrupt the conversation any further)

@Syndrix i built an 8 pump system using this program. It may be something to look into…

4 pump jebao 80$
Sonoff 4ch pro $30

Then you’d need a monitoring system. At that point you could really just buy into a ph doser. Bluelab makes on for 300$

@Jungle I’ll link you to my journey

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I don’t think this is ideal. You run the risk of adding up, adding down, repeat. I don’t have any issue switching from ph up to ph down when its necessary (generally, the switch from veg to flower), whatever the ph is doing it’s trending in one direction only…

You only need something like the superstruts if you need a platform to mount piping, valves, filters, etc.

Oh, speaking of which, I have a 100 micron filter in-line. I’d try to find a way to put it before the pump (between the res and pump) if I could.

If you get the pump that @PharmerBob and I have, note that neither of us has had luck with the adaptors that came with the pump, we both had to adapt down from the 2" male thread on the pump to whatever we needed. I went down to 3/4, but … next time I might do a 2" input, even if I’m not going to plum the output at larger than 3/4.

… and the Milwaukee I’m using is $125 plus ~$20 for a cheap ebay peristaltic pump.

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