great links fatman! thanks
good info too earl, i will get a themometer.
as far as spray times go etc...
right now im just trying to preserve my pump life as you mentioned, so im not turning it on that often... the roots are fine without any spray at all.
further...
the water does not have to be shut off, and roots do not need to be in air as long as water has enough oxygen in it... like dwc systems.
when you look at my setup, and see how much the water tumbles, goes through pvc pipes, spills into the res, and waterfalls from a nozzle into the channle that the roots are in... youd soon realize oxygen is not an issue.
the celenoid is a good idea... i have not played with these yet, but i want to.
the sprayers you linked fatman... can i just drill a hole into pvc and screw them in?
do you get the barbed ones or the screw sprayers?
any idea what size hole to drill?
just so you guys understand, i dont want to confuse you, but im doing something that no one else has done (that i can find)
i have a custom built "table" that has lanes, so it essentially acts like 12 gutters next to eachother, and the table is then tilted long ways, and it is 5 ft long, so the last plants still get oxygen because the whole problem with long nft's is that the water runs out of oxygen after about 6ft of plant roots breathing it in down the gutter.
my table is 4 ft by 5 ft...
however i will be building larger ones... perhaps.
if i dont go with a setup similar to stinkbuds first.
I like the table for veg, because you can put so many plants in a concentrated area.
The sprayers are really only used to oxygenate the water, and to get the plants that dont have roots that touch the nft layer that well.
But, i dont put plants in until they have long long roots.
My setup is humidity rapid rooter plastic domes AND rubbermade tubs for cloning.
All rapid rooters, i peel away rapid rooter, put a neoprene colar on it, and then put it in the stinkbud spray cloner for a few days to let the roots further develop.
Then i have a huge rubbermade tub, that is about 3 or 4 ft long (the big big one)
and i have pvc and sprayers in it. This has nutes at about 300ppm, and 8 t5 ho floros above it. This is a transition tub between clonex and stonger nutes. this holds 100 plants. I have another one of these statiosn set up, so i will have 200 transition spots total.
and 2 50 site tub cloners, and about 4 50 site humidity dome plastic tray cloners.
After the roots are about a foot long or more in the 100 site big tubs, i move the plant to the nft "table".
here the nutes are about 1000ppm, and it has a 1000w cool delux MH with vented hood.
It is not really close to plants, about 2-3 ft.
But this is also where the mums are kept, and they are close to the light because they are taller, so it all works out, small plants arent scorched, and big plants get all they could ever want.
THe 1000 also provides ambient light for all the clone dome platic trays with rapid rooters in them, and i just sit them on the floor all around the table.
So in all, I have 1x 1000w mh, and 1x 8light t5, but you really only need 4 of the 8 lights because these plants get ambient light form the 1000w as well, so having all 8 on scorches the plants so im just turnign on half of them.
Soon to have 2x floro sites and a lot more clone tubs, probably 4x 50 site tubs total...
coolest part about the nft table is it is completely light tight, and water tight... BUT NOT AIR TIGHT AT ALL, so it can breathe, but not grow algea.
the other cool thing about this table is it will hold over 200 plants if they are small enough, and it is all customizable, so as plants grow, you can move them around.
THe lid to the table has the holes already pre drilled, and then i just fill in the empty spots with an empty net pot and neoprene, so its light and spray tight.
from the lid to the floor of the table where the water is, its only about 3-4 inches, so the 2 inch net pots put the roots almost down to the water.
even the water falling back to the res is not exposed to light.
the water NEVER sees light... unless i open the lid.
I am debating building another one of these tables or using stinkbuds fence post technique....
the plants HAVE TO BE SPACED OUT ANYWAY, so theres really no advantage to the table once the plants start to get good sized, and i think stinkbuts setup will be easier to build, clean, and cheaper to purchase.
I would consider using these 80 micron sprayers fatman showed me..
but... for bloom? what about bloom nutes and molassis? will they clog?