6K Drain to Waste Chemdog D

[itsus]

nice to see ya up the ante on this one....how much are you actually running to waste? do you feed everyday at a weaker strength, or alternate day to day full strength nutes with ph adjusted water?

 

[grow nerd]

*mistress*, you certainly seem to be particularly biased towards the wick systems, for good or for bad. Do you have pictures of your setup or your plants? I'd love to see how it's working out for you.

For some reason you make it sound like it's super duper simple (and I suppose it is, for one plant) and that other systems are extremely complicated: I don't understand how one can get simpler than pouring water on top of container and having the resulting drain automatically channeled away to a safe location is anything but simple.

I'll also share my personal experience with soaker hoses. At least, 1/4" kind. They are horrible and not at all recommended, at least with mineral salt based nutes. I imagine they'd be even worse with "organic" stuff, but I wouldn't know.

I've heard of people using A/C or dehumidifier condensate drain as R/O alternative. Maybe it's because the unit was improperly installed, but I've seen floating oil more than once. May not affect plants, but a HVAC guy I asked said that it's not at all recommended for drinking, as it may cause disease in humans. (I was told lyme disease, but I didn't necessarily accept that as a fact automatically, just nodded.) Anyone know for sure? Is this an oil-trap related issue (i.e., installation)?

itsus, "not very much" is the plan. Right now it's being "manually watered" (w/o timer) and just going by feel with what seems to be more than minimal / usual runoff. On a previous top-drip DTW setup I used an on-delay relay/timer in conjunction with a SPST relay to automatically switch and time the pumps down to the second-level rather than the minute-level. Of course another option is a typical repeat cycle timer that can be used to control down to seconds.

The reason that it's not being automatically timed right now is fairly simple: been too busy dealing with other more pressing issues to chase down a digital timer and see if 60 seconds is too long. Although I guess I could have had that solved in the time I wrote this post... but having other scheduling issues, as well. At least that's the excuse for now.

 

[grow nerd]

By the way, the clones are a random variety mix... only about half of them are Chem's.

Most of the room is a re-build (tear down and re-do) from a previous setup, and the left 6k (side about to be harvested) will also be re-done. Or at least cleaned up and reconfigured.

 

[itsus]

cool shit, i've seen similar set ups that only feed once a day, but they alternate heavy feedings with plain water. i've thought about both for a long hard time, drain to waste seems the easier way to control your nutes.

 

[Teeg420]

why did you switch to super sun 2 hoods as opposed to your cool tubes?

 

[grow nerd]

Teeg420, they were already available, for one; but as an added side effect, they also happen to be one of the best air-cooled hoods out there for a 1kw system. There is less air turbulence in Cool Tubes, but that isn't enough of an advantage (IMO) to warrant the type of light spread & loss produced by these things. Especially considering how the previous guy who set the room up did a horrific job of installing the ventilation (I wish I had pictures to illustrate). Three 8" 747cfm and 1 6" 440cfm Vortex inline centrifugal fans were used for 6 hoods, but there was very little to zero airflow in the ducts due to poor installation. I think this is partly what led Securityfirst to write these reflectors off and move to Cool Tubes (which, IMO are one of the worst types of reflectors to use in a flat garden like this).

With this setup I will attempt to demonstrate to Securityfirst that, with proper ventilation / installation, the SS2's will produce a far superior light output and keep the room just as cool.

itsus, I don't personally believe in these "mini-flushes". Instead of pumping over-dosed nutes followed by plain water, why not just keep it simple and use a lower strength mix and keep it steady instead? I see absolutely no reason how a overfert-then-flush will be superior or beneficial over a standard, sane feeding schedule. My anyways.

 

[Securityfirst]

I happen to lovey the cooltubes, they keep things cool , lol . I was sold when the clerk at the local growstore ( a respected commercial grower ) told me the shop owner uses them exclusively. A sales pitch? I think not.ha ha. Another reason I like them so much is because of the fat nuggs that grow under them as evidenced by the harvest pics that I will throw up soon in the Sour Grapes room thread. Theres something so "Rambo" about them.......well for me anyways.

 

[NukaCola]

I'm sticking around for this

 

[grow nerd]

I had a nice response typed out but decided to keep it to PM.

All I will say/ask here is: would you rather have a few fat nugs, or a fat harvest?

Although with the recent electrical & CO2 issues I'm not so sure I can say too much for this run... But hey, it's a helluva turnaround: owner of this place used to be a professional spider mite breeder, I'm told!

 

[Lazyman]

]*mistress*, you certainly seem to be particularly biased towards the wick systems, for good or for bad. Do you have pictures of your setup or your plants? I'd love to see how it's working out for you.

Just throwing in my $.02 here, I like the idea of the wicks actually, would love to see a set of pots/buckets with wicks hanging in PVC pipes with recirculating nutes. Keep everything fresh and clean.

I'll also share my personal experience with soaker hoses. At least, 1/4" kind. They are horrible and not at all recommended, at least with mineral salt based nutes. I imagine they'd be even worse with "organic" stuff, but I wouldn't know.

Oh yeah, I had the same experience. Cool idea on paper, but soakers take a ton of water pressure. Would have to use them with tap water, no pumps.

I've heard of people using A/C or dehumidifier condensate drain as R/O alternative. Maybe it's because the unit was improperly installed, but I've seen floating oil more than once. May not affect plants, but a HVAC guy I asked said that it's not at all recommended for drinking, as it may cause disease in humans. (I was told lyme disease, but I didn't necessarily accept that as a fact automatically, just nodded.) Anyone know for sure? Is this an oil-trap related issue (i.e., installation)?

Probably not worth the effort, any oils would be residuals from the fan motor or assembly lubes. No easy way to get them out, might just be an old/rebuilt AC? I hadn't noticed this particular problem in air conditioners, but both of my dehumidifiers have pretty clean drain water, no oils.

Take care man, looking good. You ever sleep? LOL

 

[Securityfirst]

I had a nice response typed out but decided to keep it to PM.

All I will say/ask here is: would you rather have a few fat nugs, or a fat harvest?

Although with the recent electrical & CO2 issues I'm not so sure I can say too much for this run... But hey, it's a helluva turnaround: owner of this place used to be a professional spider mite breeder, I'm told!

Ummmmmmmm Diet Coke..ha ha . Ok I would rather have a fat harvest but we have to start somewhere right? Ive been concerned about the plant count and what not and the cooltubes have worked fine for 20 plants a tray.And ya the current owner of the spot use to be a professional spider mite breeder.lol

 

[accessndx]

Good show bro.....hope you don't mind if I pull up a chair and stay for the ride! :friends:

 

[grow nerd]

I mind. Get out! Shoo!

 

[The Bling]

PLANTS PRODUCE WASTE JUST LIKE YOU AND I AND THEY DON'T REALLY WANT TO LIVE IN IT BUT MILK CRATES AND ROOT CLOTH ARE SICK LOTS OF OXYGEN AND PLEASE GO ORGANIC FOR ALL OF US. YOUR SETUP LOOKS SICK BTW MIGHT TIE UP THE DUCT TO REDUCE DRAG ROCK ON!

 

[*mistress*]

.................

 

[grow nerd]

*mistress, by no means am I trying to say this garden is perfect... because I will personally say it's far from.

But we're just discussing the merits of a wick system on a large scale.

In particular I'm interested in a larger-scale setup automation and real-world performance; I think it's not going to be that great both ways, but will try anything reasonable once. Sign me up for a trial run soon, when I have more space to work with.

The Bling, thanks; will do. Attention to details much appreciated.

accessndx, just kidding on that last post.

 

[Wait...What?]

The disease the HVAC guy was talking about is Legionnaire's Disease.

 

[grow nerd]

Thanks for confirming.

 

[*mistress*]

*mistress, by no means am I trying to say this garden is perfect... because I will personally say it's far from.

But we're just discussing the merits of a wick system on a large scale.

place ropes in media.
extend opposite end of rope into water (large).
end.

 

[RandyCalifornia]

outstanding, wish I had a room like that