v2 'dream system' DIY and diary

[bobblehead]

I've changed things up a bit... I have a lot running through my head lately... but to make this short, I wanted to simplify things. The radiators I buy are big... which got me to thinking I could make an intake box and cool things down with 1 radiator. So I did.

The radiator is hard plumbed and the amount of flow is manually controlled with a valve.

So ground water is supposed to be a consistent 71F or so I've read... It gets a little cooler where I am. I can run my a/c which doesn't work... Or I can run my well pump which is brand new with a 5 year warranty. With a 435cfm fan attached to each of those 4 ducts, the 85F air in the lung room get cooled to 70-75F, and with 2x a minute air exchange, that seems to keep my plants happy. After passing through the radiator the water goes down the drain.

It's not precise... For a flip flop daisy chaining the radiators works really well for dispersing the heat.... I have some really cold night temps though, and I'm thinking I would be better off just buying some more ballasts and running all my lights at night. I live in a med state so who cares about constant draw... I'm licensed by the state to grow plants. That starts going into other things I've been thinking about though... ha ha...

To only use the radiators for cooling and having 1 in each room, you would want to give them each their own supply line and solenoid. You can recycle the water and use a pump and chiller... but I'm trying to save on electricity... and I have. When I have more money I want to do things differently... I also don't want to put a lot more money into the lake house grow. I just want to simplify it and have it produce.

 

[village green]

Man, this dope growin' has got to be the mother of all invention. Rock on guys...my head's hurting but I'm learning.

 

[Mister_D]

FHC, bobble and Fred - SM-90 killing off bennies is an old myth, disproven by dongle69 with a microscope here at the mag, and also by the makers of sm-90. SM-90 does kill anaerobic (bad) bacteria, but not the good ones.

Gmax - Loving all the attention to detail . True hallmark of a pro. I'm subbed and watching.

 

[bobblehead]

Slow down D... not everything you read on the internet is true! lol... or not the complete truth! So I did some reading... and it says that SM-90 doesn't directly kill the aerobic bacteria, but there is no solid answer about whether or not it inhibits root colonization. What I think is even more interesting, is that they can't explain why it doesn't kill them... Also, there's no answer about beneficial fungi... which I don't know how they can reproduce if their spores are encapsulate by the SM-90.

I just think there's more to the story... I think the SM-90 can still inhibit many of the bennies without killing them all off.

 

[DHF]

I remember Dongle`s thread Mr D , and still stand by what I witnessed first hand with Roots Excellurator compared to what I`d been doin with rootin cuts for oh.....

17 ys before bein gifted with it , that my tight old ass would`ve NEVER bought ........and...

Everyone here knows I`ve preached SM-90 for fuckin ever and trust me.....it`s been in my juice for over 20 yrs since Krusty said get it and never stop.....and....

As far as what it does to beneficial bacteria/ fungi.......I ain`t got a clue cuz I never used nor needed the shit.....

Peace....Freds.......

 

[GMax]

had to stop by the grow today to harvest a crop from the coolers...didnt snap any pics but looks like what i have come to expect..

everything was doing fine and still running smoothy.. another good thing about the float valves for the coolers is flushing is now waaaay easier... i give them their last nutes on day 28 and then i just let the valves top of the coolers until it time for harvest..still flushes them just as well and i dont have to mess with them for the last 3 weeks except to remove leaves ..

while i was there i did drain out half of the water of the coolers in flush to dilute it a little more and let the valves top it back off

clones are still healthy but no roots after 48 hrs... but that expected. my veg plants are looking healthy and i will prob transplant in about 4 days or so





all the containers in the veg tent and the mother are attached to the same drain tube which i tested today when i changed the nutes in my mom.. she gonna be beasting before too long and be able to fill all the flowering rooms ..take one clone and next week their are two in its place

since i have some coolers that are empty i may fill 2 or 3 up at once instead of staggering every 6-7 days

i got the holes cut out for my netcups...




and the system attached to my pump




gonna need more tubing for the drain to this... i realized it cant share the drain with the things in the veg tent because when i empty something in the veg water will come up through the bottom of the flowering system...

I am gonna have more tubing next time i come and i will give the system i test run for leaks etc.. plan to come back on saturday to find roots on my clones, take more clones, and put the finishing touches on the system

the sm90 seems to be a highly debated subject... so for my first veg for the new system i am going to do a side by side... both with sm90 but one with beneficial and one without.. it may not prove whether sm90 kills beneficials but it will at least show the results of using the two products together

thanks again everybody

 

[b00m]

Sweet as frack mate

 

[Mister_D]

Bobble - I'm probably the biggest skeptic you know. Dongle was a highly respected member here, and freds experience seems to follow suit with what i've seen in my own garden. I won't argue that it's possible sm-90 inhibits bacteria and/or fungus, but we won't know to what extent, if any, until further testing is done.

 

[GMax]

ok freds bobble whoever...

i have some questions about the flip flops..


i was at the store today looking at one of these flip flops... the one that my store has is a 4 ballast/8 light one( i think it is Titan brand cant remember it was white and green)

my worry was whether it was going to flip a breaker or not and this is what i am confused about .. all the outlets in my grow are connected to their own 20A breaker.. my current setup for just one room uses 2 timers, one with 2 lights and another with just one plugged into different outlets .. they dont come on at the same time one comes on 20 min later and shuts off earlier

the flip flop is included with a manual 15A timer so it seems like running that on a 20A dedicated breaker is fine... but i thought 600w drew like 5.5 watts and you only supposed to use 75% so it seems like the timer isnt rated enough which seems like too big of a design flaw to be possible considering i could add another 600 lamp to the flip box or be trying to run four 1000w for that matter

i am new to flip boxes so what am i missing ? am i gonna have to buy a $200 timer or somethin.. if not can i use one of my existing digital timers ??

sorry electricity isnt my strongest growing statistic.. i should buy
an electrician book and read it

thanks

 

[DHF]

I never used a flip flop box in my life , cuz I had a dedicated subpanel to handle each flip room`s needs as well as the lung room for environment management.....

Never trusted relays and such although they work........Just didn`t see em in my setups only goin once a week.....

Many ways ta skin a mule...

Peace....DHF........

 

[Mister_D]

Gmax - The flip flop works like this. The timer plugs into your standard wall outlet. All it does is control a switch in the relay. The power for your ballasts has to be run separately. It is usually a 220v dryer cord that is included, or it's meant to be hard wired into your breaker panel. I'll assume the one you are looking at in the hydro store is meant to be hardwired, in which case you just need an appropriate sized 220v breaker for your box (might already have an unused on in there) and some romex (what size wire and breaker depends on what size flip box). It's all very easy to hook up. I suggest you pm rives in the growroom design and equip forum. He is our resident sparky and very helpful with electrical questions.

 

[GMax]

I never used a flip flop box in my life , cuz I had a dedicated subpanel to handle each flip room`s needs as well as the lung room for environment management.....

Never trusted relays and such although they work........Just didn`t see em in my setups only goin once a week.....

Many ways ta skin a mule...

Peace....DHF........

Gmax - The flip flop works like this. The timer plugs into your standard wall outlet. All it does is control a switch in the relay. The power for your ballasts has to be run separately. It is usually a 220v dryer cord that is included, or it's meant to be hard wired into your breaker panel. I'll assume the one you are looking at in the hydro store is meant to be hardwired, in which case you just need an appropriate sized 220v breaker for your box (might already have an unused on in there) and some romex (what size wire and breaker depends on what size flip box). It's all very easy to hook up. I suggest you pm rives in the growroom design and equip forum. He is our resident sparky and very helpful with electrical questions.

thanks for the responses i got it now

this is the one i am looking at.. $479 is what they give it to me.. ouch



it doesnt have the dryer cord so i can still have my ballasts plugged in seperate outlets

thanks again

 

[Derka]

You might want to try Dan @ dxsoundco.com. He tends to be the cheapest, however be warned that the guy isn't the best on communication or ship dates. I'm actually using two of his flip boxes as I type..

 

[high life 45]

Roots Excellurator`s "supposed ta be" made from beneficial bacteria best I know Gmax , and thus why it`s been said time and time again that SM-90 will kill it and make it useless......but....

Couldn`t tell it in my setups when I got hold of it....Roots were bustin left and right with taproots hittin the bottoms of the clear solo cups and spinnin as well as bustin out through the holes drilled in the bottoms for drainage.....

Lateral feeder roots were coverin the sides of the cups and allowing me to choose the "picks of the litter" waaaay faster and get em under the t-5`s for pre-veg...anyways....

Hope that clears it up.....Freds........

Hey Freds
I saw a post by desert squirrel on another site (tea h sea phart)..... he took a pic of RE with a microscope.....it showed a crystalline structure and NO bacterias...I dont believe everything on the internet....I dont believe everything the manufacturer sells ya either....something to keep in mind or look into though.

Sm90 made a bit of a slime in my res with the ppks, I used RO water and Jacks...

 

[Mister_D]

High life 45 - Just curious what if any circulation you had in your res while using sm-90? I havn't noticed any build up with it yet, but I keep my res mixing 24/7.

 

[GMax]

ok ran the system yesterday for the first time..

i not going to lie i am having some leak problems... the good news is that it doesnt leak from the drains that i made but the bad news is that it leaks around the netcups... i bought some weather stripping to seal in any gaps in the holes and it works a little but the cups would be too hard to get through the hole with plants... so then i tried it without the cups and just use the neoprene and the 2 in neoprene is slightly too small for the holes themselves and too big when used with weatherstriing so it leaked as well....then i tried weatherstripping and 1.5in neoprene and still leaks a little...


another issue with the system is the pump.. i bought this 1500gph pump for my water cooled co2 generator that i havent used yet..i had it laying around so i thought i would use it on the system. but when it kicks on it takes about 5 sec to start spraying in the system then one row sprays at a time...the middle row sprays first then the next and then the next with about 3-5 sec in between so it takes almost 20 sec to reach full pressure and be spraying at all sites... no good...

the middle row sprays first and it wont start leaking until after it has been running for like ten solid seconds so if i can get a better pump that can spray them all at once for less than ten sec i may be able to solve the leak problem that way

even if it means lots of tape i will solve the leaks and if i cant find a way to do that then i may just have to bite the bullet and buy some wye elbows
trying to avoid this if at all possible but at the same time i am too deep to give up


i worked real late into the night so i stayed here last night.. just woke up and now back to trying to solve this

open to suggestions

thanks everyone

i get some pics up later today

 

[farmhouse cat]

Sorry about the leaks bro.. I don't see how it can be solved unless you bite the bullet and get the elbows. Ive been racking my brain on this and i cant find a solution. Sure you can tape the hell out of um and even make those gaskets like we talked about, but i think its just gonna always be a problem, Water will find a way. I still have leaks and mine is at like a 40deg angle.

As far as pumps.. i had the same problem using the low pressure fountain pumps. I couldnt get them to power up all at once and the spray was weak. I found a shallow well pump at harbor freight thats been a dream. It capable of up to 60 psi depending on how many sprayers your runnin. (mine is powering 48 sprayers and it fires them at about 15 psi on average) Only drawback is the pump is loud. I built my closet with soundboard to counter and now you can barely here it.

Anyway hope you can work out the kinks..im looking forward to the setup.

 

[GMax]

Sorry about the leaks bro.. I don't see how it can be solved unless you bite the bullet and get the elbows. Ive been racking my brain on this and i cant find a solution. Sure you can tape the hell out of um and even make those gaskets like we talked about, but i think its just gonna always be a problem, Water will find a way. I still have leaks and mine is at like a 40deg angle.

As far as pumps.. i had the same problem using the low pressure fountain pumps. I couldnt get them to power up all at once and the spray was weak. I found a shallow well pump at harbor freight thats been a dream. It capable of up to 60 psi depending on how many sprayers your runnin. (mine is powering 48 sprayers and it fires them at about 15 psi on average) Only drawback is the pump is loud. I built my closet with soundboard to counter and now you can barely here it.

Anyway hope you can work out the kinks..im looking forward to the setup.

which pump are you using ??like brand, size, and whatnot... pic would be nice... they have many types of pumps at Home Depot/Lowes/Tractor Supply/etc.. one that looks most appealing is called transfer pump because it seems to be inline and have 3/4" fittings... but i am unsure on the size..1/6hp...1/4hp...1/2hp and up... i obviously dont want to go too small but i also dont want to go too big because of like you said noise and also i m afraid of mister blowout

i am also worried that once i get into these kind of pumps that they will have more likely chance of failing because of the unnatural operation..

i really thought that this one would work because it rated at 15'head.. it also sprays well at all levels once it going...maybe i can make the water enter the manifold from more points like between every 2 pipes and solve it

using the wyes are something that i am trying to avoid at all costs but i also think may be neccesary.. i will have to go to every home depot in a 100 mi radius to find that many wyes and thinking about cutting (48) peices of 4" PVC at 2 3/4" with a hacksaw makes me wanna blow my brains out lol... prob buy a saw to just to do it

 

[farmhouse cat]

I hear ya man..just dont blow your brains out yet!! lol I know how ya feel...i wanted to blow my brains out a few times putting my setup together.

How many sprayers you runnin again?

here is a link to the pump im using. Been running strong for a year no problems.

http://images.harborfreight.com/manuals/47000-47999/47906.pdf

 

[Mister_D]

Gmax another thing you might consider is just buying a pressure tank and a selinoid valvle to supply the sprayers. Then just use the pump you have to recharge the pressure tank in between feedings. This is what the HP aero guys are using. Pressure tanks are adjustable psi wise, so you can set it to whatever you want from 15-80 psi.