Fully Automated Drain-To-Waste System For Coco

[Choco8]

This is a automated system for dosing, distributing, and disposing of nutrient for a small coco-based system.

It makes and distributes 12 gallons of nutrient twice a day, starting with a solenoid valve controlled by a timer which fills the tank to the proper level. The water first passes through a basic whole-house water filter which is positioned upstream of the solenoid valve.

After the tank is filled with fresh water, another timer controlling a circulating pump at the bottom of the tank and two air stones power on.
Then a Jecod Aquarium doser adds the proper amounts of nutrients to the tank in sequence using the doser's program, pulling the nutrient from these clear graduated storage tanks.

Yet another timer powers on a large sump pump in the nutrient tank that delivers the goods to 4 soaker rings through a 1/2" rigid pvc line that goes up the wall and across the center of the ceiling, where it splits and heads to opposite walls and down to a flexible hose leading to the feed rings. The plants sit in 3 x 3 trays which are elevated about 12" from the floor to allow drainage into a lowboy storage bin ( about 8" tall).

Now the final step - about 1/2 hour after each feeding ( to allow for drain-down), a small sump pump in each lowboy powers on, disposing of the waste nutes through a separate pvc line that runs along the perimeter of the room and snakes into a utility sink for disposal. These pumps power on for 2 minutes for the first drain-down, and again and hour later for one minute just in case there has been more drain-down. Float switches could also be used to accomplish this emptying.

 

[f-e]

Looks good
I thought about the fish dosers myself, it's so cheap. The little brushed motors have a quite short lifespan though. Cheap as they are. You may also want to put a tray under, as the pipes will split it time. They're a service item. It's what they do. Think about some Pharmed tube rather than the silicone. It lasts longer and is more resistant. The main thing is getting some spare pumps though. They are very cheap from China but not here. Or you could move over to stepper motors. Keeping your controller to activate them.

The omron 61F is a nice level controller for your waste. It comes on at a high level and runs till a lower level. You choose where the level sensors are put. You can see them in my under bed build thread in pals workshop. Are systems are very similar, in that we meter water use to time peristaltic pumps. My filter is in the post though


Edit: I couldn't get some of my bottles to stop settling. Many solutions we buy can't be machined. No issues with stirring?

 

[Choco8]

Looks good
The main thing is getting some spare pumps though. They are very cheap from China but not here. Or you could move over to stepper motors. Keeping your controller to activate them.

Yup. Across the rom from me sits a stack of 3 dosers ready to cannibalize at a moments notice. My expectations of reliability are low.

 

[f-e]

Look at the Aspen Standard. They come up on eBay quite cheap. ~100ml a minute. You can stick a plug on one and use it's float wire to activate it, via a 12v relay that your controller could operate. In easy interface that gets a dosing pumps that's reliable and spares can be found. They use a good resistant hose. I think it's pharmed and they are happy to tell you. I just forget..