I GOTTA LOSE THE AIR PUMPS! HOW?! Plus my awesome mini DWC :)
- Thread starter Airwalker16
- Start date
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
What's your chiller set at? What's that 6 site hold, like 25gallons full?
my setup is a room with thea/c
i am building a 4 site
Axion42
Well-Known Member
At transplant with no roots it takes 30 gallons total. I keep my chiller at 69 with 3 degree deadband. Kicks on at 72.
I'm looking to build an 8 site with external res. Won't have a chiller soon. Thinking of using 17gal totes for plants and a 27gal external res to keep temps down. Guessing res temp will be 72-75ish as I'll have mylar on totes and insulation with mylar on lines to keep tent/light heat out. Gonna try to design so I have 6x turnover per hour so will size a pump for 600-1000gph based on pump curve and pressure drop of lines. 100gal total-ish volume. Probably run hydroguard and see how it goes. 2" or 3" return lines with 1" feeds reduced to waterfall for correct system head and gravity return. I guess I'll run like that and can always add venturis to totes if O2 seems to be depleted. Thoughts?
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
No point in wrapping the manifold for waterfalls in Mylar if you're using PVC. It's a good insulator. Same on your returns.
The buckets however are beat wrapped in the Mylar type insulation they sell in rolls. Or go budget and buy a dozen or so window shades for your car windshield from dollar tree. They have them there last time I checked.
Also, if you do use 17gallon sites, you'll probably only need 4 as 2 plants can fit in one. But it's up to you. Just pretty sure if you're in a 4x8 tent at least, you're not fittings 8 of em in there. No way.
Keesje
Well-Known Member
'Breaking the surface tension' by itself is not the reason that 02 gets into the water.
Even if the water would be totally flat, there would get O2 in the water. It is atmospheric pressure that does the job.
But with totally flat water only the upper layer of the water would be oxygenated.
So to get more water in contact with the air above (and to get more oxygenated water in total), it is important to exchange the upper layer of oxygenated water with another layer of water that has no oxygen yet. So this layer can get oxygenated.
Bubbles, waterfalls, flooming are all methods to exchange the layers over and over again.
Renfro
Well-Known Member
Well standing water is notoriously anaerobic so I totally agree, water needs to move.
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
I have not. Only uniseals. But the threaded bulkheads you use just with a male threaded pipe adapter is all
I was wondering if people every put two waterfalls to a reservoir, but the caps you got at the end sort of gives it the two stream feature. Is there a strategy to where the water fall is placed? Do people ever do two waterfalls to reservoir or is that too much oxygen? Thanks
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
No such thing as "too much oxygen". It's a matter of maximum holding capacity of the water itself as once it's reached, that's it. Can't get more. One waterfall per site is plenty, the only factor you would want to adjust for tote size is the amount of pressure of the waterfall stream. That's something that's dialed in just with using the right gph pump.
I just grabbed the ecoplus 360 that you recommended. going to start piecing together the bulkheads, abs pipes, etc. gunna hazmat up and see what home depot has. way pumped bradah
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Very cool! Only things you'll need from there is the PVC, PVC Fittings, 2" ABS and Fittings, PVC cement and new tote for your res. Bulkheads(4-2"&1-3/4") 1/2" & 3/4" black hydro tibing, 1/2" will be online
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Unless you're going to just use PVC for the entirety of the waterfall manifold,you wouldn't need the hydro tubing. Just be sure to use 3/4 for the whole manifold besides where it tees off to both totes where you'll use a reducing adapter/insert to go to 1/2" for those 2 small lengths of pipe.
is there a benefit to using hydro tubing over the pvc for those sections? thanks again for all the info as the journey continues.
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
The reason I did it, is because I could use a 1/2" grommet in the side of my bucket and stick a 1/2x barbed elbow through it from the inside. It just made for a really easy connection. You just have to use a threaded reducing insert on your tees/crosses(on my build) and screw in a make threaded barb into it with some Teflon tape.
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ok cool. should i check home depot for these components or would it be easier to grab online, along with the bulkheads and hydro tubing? sorry for all the questions but thanks for the details and taking time to respond. i was trying to figure out what you meant by reducing adapter, but these visuals explain it perfectly. you rock!
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Online for tubing, but home depot and your local sprinkler supply will have the fittings. Probably better off starin at sprinkler supply. But you can use PVC too. Check out fragileassassins thread.
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fragileassassin
Well-Known Member
Yeah I always but all my fitting local so I can stand in the store for an hour and piece everything together and lay it all out to make sure I get everything I need.
The plumbing section in lowes is the best part of the store imo LOL.
Between sprinkler stuff and all the pvc/abs we have so many options it's like grown up legos
The plumbing section in lowes is the best part of the store imo LOL.
Between sprinkler stuff and all the pvc/abs we have so many options it's like grown up legos