Easy drain system for flood hydro systems

[Al B. Fuct]

A pair of lawn irrigation valves and a tee fitting make draining reservoir tanks easy. Green lines depict sections of common garden hose. Irrigation valves used are all plastic and thus impervious to corrosive nutrient solutions.

For normal operation, close valve #2, open valve #1.

To drain tank, close valve #1, open valve #2 and turn on the pump.

Be sure to return the valves to the operating position after draining- unless you want your new tank of sauce to go down the gurgler!

Several copies of the above can share a single drain line, as shown:



I just use a normal garden hose to fill the tanks at the moment, but if all the drain line connections had hose clamps, it would be possible to refill the system via the drain system.

 

[mogie]

Nice addition to faq's.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Thanks, mogie. Another mechanical adaptation to suit my slacker self. Got tired of crouching under tanks, swapping hoses around.

I saw in your recent thread about a small flood system that the screened cap on the tray fitting connected to the pump, once removed, reveals a 1/2" hose connection for draining. I have used those fittings for years and didn't know that connector was there!

With the valved arrangement, I just switch the valves to 'drain' and turn on all the pumps. A cup of coffee or two later, the tanks are drained and ready for cleaning and filling.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Thanks to mogie for adding this to the GrowFAQ.

Easy drain system for flood hydro systems

 

[jdawg]

Hello AL.B!!! I was looking at your system. Nice!!!! Mine is similiar yet still in the fledgling state. I am now integrating the "mums" in from seed. My op has been an evolving idea since its preconception basically. It has been $$$$ out so far.Rambling.... I am curious if you have built a grow table from scratch. Am thinking about lining in a wood frame and applying fittings. Any ideas or direction on this concept. Any insight appreciated. JDAWG

 

[sgtpeppr]

Way to use your melon your not a slacker, your just smart.

 

[CaliGurl]

Do you have a thread with the full construction of your hydro set up?
thanks
~Cali Gurl~

 

[MedTokeRx]

wow good one i'm gonna use that

 

[VictorVIcious]

Hello AL.B!!! I was looking at your system. Nice!!!! Mine is similiar yet still in the fledgling state. I am now integrating the "mums" in from seed. My op has been an evolving idea since its preconception basically. It has been $$$$ out so far.Rambling.... I am curious if you have built a grow table from scratch. Am thinking about lining in a wood frame and applying fittings. Any ideas or direction on this concept. Any insight appreciated. JDAWG

I have built some. Unless you have a reason why a 'ready made' one doesn't fit, I don't recommend building them. Mine work well for me and can be built to any size to accomidate Al's harvest every two weeks cycle. VV

 

[Al B. Fuct]

I am curious if you have built a grow table from scratch. Am thinking about lining in a wood frame and applying fittings. Any ideas or direction on this concept. Any insight appreciated. JDAWG

Not recommended. What you propose will work in a pinch, though not for very long.

Build your frame from 2x4, make a floor from plywood (not MDF!), preferably marine grade. Line with heavy poly sheeting or shower stall liner sheeting, fit the fill & drain plumbing to the centre. Put about an inch of sand on top of the plywood, underneath of the poly sheet. Use the sand to incline the poly floor a bit so water will run toward the drain.

Presuming you have no pinhole leaks in your sheet, this will work. With use, however, pinholes will appear, the sand will get wet and the ply or 2x4 frame will eventually mould/rot.

By the time you're done with all that, you could have bought a proper, durable, vacuformed plastic flood tray and an aluminum tubing stand that will last many years. DIY just isn't superior in this instance.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Way to use your melon your not a slacker, your just smart.

shhh. Best to be thought a slacker or folks will expect you to be creative like this all the time.

Do you have a thread with the full construction of your hydro set up?
thanks
~Cali Gurl~

Not really. The Get a harvest every 2 weeks thread is about as close as you'll get.

This version of my op is built just like any timber framed construction; the walls are framed up with 2x4 studs and 2x4 joists run overhead to form a ceiling. The room is lined with panda film.

There's much easier ways to do it, such as making a frame from 2x4s to the size of your floorspace, throw a sheet of panda over the top to form a ceiling, then fix the timber frame to the house's ceiling joists with screws and L-brackets. Wrap the frame with panda film to form hanging curtain "walls." Leave several extra feet of pandafilm at the end of the wrap to form an easy to close, light-trapping entryway flap. No framed walls required; essentially a big grow tent.

 

[psyclone]

Like all truly good ideas, it's easy to do and I wish I had thought of it. I will use the
"Al B. Fuct Perfecto Flood and Drain system With Added Coffee" for my next grow.
That's some clever slacking.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Like all truly good ideas, it's easy to do and I wish I had thought of it. I will use the
"Al B. Fuct Perfecto Flood and Drain system With Added Coffee" for my next grow.
That's some clever slacking.

heh, thanks, psyclone.

I have to insist that this drain system came about truly because of slack- as it is said, necessity is the mother of invention. Or was it 'mother is the necessity of invention'...

I didn't like bending over and crouching amongst the tanks for dumps every two weeks, moving pumps and hoses around to drain each of them. The flowering area alone has 500L (132 US gal) of nute tanks and they take quite a while to drain with these small aquarium pumps. Now I just have to bend over twice; once to flip the valves to drain position and again to put them back in normal operation position.

I can even turn the valves to 'drain,' hit the pumps until water starts flowing and then shut them off- siphon action will do the rest. I can walk away and not worry about the thing until I see water has stopped draining from the main drain hose. If I leave the pumps running, it drains faster, but I have to shut down each pump when its tank is empty- centrif pumps do not like being spun dry for long. Big deal, just means I get to have another coffee.

 

[psyclone]

Awed I am. Just ordered a bunch of 13mm fittings incl taps, non return valves etc and will spend this cruel weather emulating you and beating hollow these "hobby Set ups". Which work, mostly, but are untidy and lack coffee.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

I think what separates my op from some others is my reliance on known techniques and materials as well as some streamlining to simplify repeated mundane operations, like draining tanks periodically.

Also, because I'm a slacker, it has to require as little maintenance as possible. There's several productivity compromises for ease of operation; if I wanted to get the very most bud per sf, I probably would do a ScrOG in aero or NFT. However, the work in maintaining a ScrOG and fancy watering systems is just that- work. Far too fiddly.

 

[psyclone]

I would like a small, modular system. Maybe able to bring 2-4 plants a month, averaging 1/2-3/4's dry per plant. That would cover me nicely, I wouldn't care if I got more though...

 

[psyclone]

But keeping the fiddling down definitely.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

I would like a small, modular system. Maybe able to bring 2-4 plants a month, averaging 1/2-3/4's dry per plant. That would cover me nicely, I wouldn't care if I got more though...

Sounds like you need to put in 2 plants to flower every 2 weeks. You'll have 8 plants in flower at any given time. A 400HPS will do ya.

Running multiple tanks allows you to tailor nute mixes to the various stages of plant development. I use a potassium-phosphorus additive for 1 week only in week 3 of flowering. This would be complicated if I only had a single reservoir running all plants. However, it's not really practical to run separate nute tanks for a grow as small as you propose. You may end up hand-watering your wk3 plants if you use a PK additive for that week.

 

[turfsire]

i just got a system just like this..it as a drip
system its self is 2 ft wide 3 ft long and is about 35 ltr. .le t us know of any ideas becoz its my first time doing hydro..
ive got feminized seeds and thinkin of scrog grow..
srry for jumpin in on this topic

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Feminised seeds are not a 100% sure thing. You'll get about 80% female at very best. This means that if you try to ScrOG from seed, at least some of the plants you will painstakingly wind around your screen will be male. Bad, bad, bad. For SoG & ScrOG, you need to establish a known female mother and do cuttings from that to feed your flowering area.

Drip systems are prone to nutrient salts clogging their dripper apertures unless cleaned frequently- at least every 2 days. Use an old toothbrush- or even a new one. A clogged dripper can mean a dead plant. This is the main reason why I use a flood system.