How to regulate water pressure invertical?

[gmanwho]

Solarz, alot of pumps from HD or lowes or a harbor frieght will do fine. Been using sumps from 1/3hp-1/2 hp for a few years now and had no issues. Infact there quite rugged in the most cases. thou there are shitty pumps out there too..

from Harbor freight or lowes u can get a 1/2hp like 1200gph pump for $50-60 tops. That creates great pressure and lift.

sump pumps can handle the cycling. at that price it couldn't hurt to get a back up after a harvest anyways.

See alot of good ideas on watering here.

Gang ....when running multilevel, u can always incorporate a few inline valves to restrict the higher pressure areas. When learning how to equalize a feed system, I've always found it easier to restrict water to an area, then it is to increase water to an area.

and maybe in this case it might be an idea to run a main feed over high, then down with a t off that main feed to each level. after that t, install a 1/2 inline valve, and then 1/2 hose all the way down. then with 1/4's to each plant. this way u could restrict each level where needed.

open the valves all the way .run the pump. Look at the lowest flow areas first. then the highest flow areas.

By decreasing flow(with the valve) to the highest flow areas, it will inturn increase the flow to the lower flow areas. The higher flow thats now restricted more,then the lower flow, will allow the flows to meet in the middle(flow/pressure) and create a more consistant flow throughout.

then you choose your cycle timing for length on to get sufficient water an etc....

B-safe

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Spot on gmanwho, I always had taps to adjust the flow on my NFT system channels, but still ran into the odd problem with airlocks, it can take time and attention to get right, any problems with the feed supply with NFT and Aero type systems, and you can kill the lot very quickly. A strip of brown dead plants through your crop is not a happy sight.

As a consequence the systems ended up with doubled up water supplies, often just a dripper, but enough to keep it all going if your main system has a fail. This is the same idea as redundancy in Engineering and can save a crop if you have a pump failure, airlock, etc.


Wiki on Redundancy ...

In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe.

 

[ILikeCheetos]

I have a 350gph that will pump a 7 foot head through a 1/2" hose. However no amount of splitting or other trickery would get me an even distribution to multiple levels so I pump to the top and gravity feed the rest of the way down.

 

[solarz]

Solarz, alot of pumps from HD or lowes or a harbor frieght will do fine. Been using sumps from 1/3hp-1/2 hp for a few years now and had no issues. Infact there quite rugged in the most cases. thou there are shitty pumps out there too..

from Harbor freight or lowes u can get a 1/2hp like 1200gph pump for $50-60 tops. That creates great pressure and lift.

sump pumps can handle the cycling. at that price it couldn't hurt to get a back up after a harvest anyways.

See alot of good ideas on watering here.

Gang ....when running multilevel, u can always incorporate a few inline valves to restrict the higher pressure areas. When learning how to equalize a feed system, I've always found it easier to restrict water to an area, then it is to increase water to an area.

and maybe in this case it might be an idea to run a main feed over high, then down with a t off that main feed to each level. after that t, install a 1/2 inline valve, and then 1/2 hose all the way down. then with 1/4's to each plant. this way u could restrict each level where needed.

open the valves all the way .run the pump. Look at the lowest flow areas first. then the highest flow areas.

By decreasing flow(with the valve) to the highest flow areas, it will inturn increase the flow to the lower flow areas. The higher flow thats now restricted more,then the lower flow, will allow the flows to meet in the middle(flow/pressure) and create a more consistant flow throughout.

then you choose your cycle timing for length on to get sufficient water an etc....

B-safe

Can you provide a link or something for said pump? I've been searching and the only thingk i've found comparable to what you described is a 1/6 or 1/8 hp pump @ around 1700 gph. pretty much ALL of the 1/2 hp pumps i've come across have been no less than $100.

Would a 1/6 or 1/8 hp pump be able to get the job done...?

solarz

 

[gmanwho]

Harbor freight. lots here to choose from, ones with floats, one without. no float needed, but u can usually remove the float if a pump with a float is all u can find.

Harbor freight, mine isnt listed, but it was like $49 i believe. theres a few others that would work

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?catPath=All%2BProducts%252F%252F%252F%252FUserSearch%253Dpump&currentPage=4&lastPage=9&isNext=false&isPrevious=false&category=&attributeValue=&attributeName=&requestedPage=3&resultsPerPage=10&resultsPerPageBottom=0


Home depot was pricey, at lowes i own this one, the one from harbor freight i found at my store is like this one,but for the $49

http://www.lowes.com/pd_94086-15649...87_?newSearch=true$ddkey=http:CategoryDisplay


B-safe

 

[solarz]

thanks bro...i think i may go with that one from harbor freight...give it a go and see if it can hang.

solarz

 

[Chesire Cat]

i was just looking the other day at HF pumps wondering if they are ok for the job! awesome timing on this post.

Are the pumps quiet quiet?

krunchbubble what are your lights connected with neoprene collars/ metal bands?