You Gotta SIP, Not Slurp

Cactus Squatter · Feb 3, 2023

Sasult said:
Has anyone tried the AC infinity self watering bases? They have a lot of good youtube reviews, but I don't put a lot of faith in those. I'm switching to sips, so I'm checking all the options.

I just installed some last night. A friend has been using them for a few weeks with great results and loves them.
They also enabled me to make my “old man watering system” way easier on my back.

I zip tied a plastic pipe into position at the fill port.

Then ran some tubing to them that I shielded inside another pvc pipe.

And all the tubes come up to the front corner of the tent. I just shove a funnel into the end and fill each tube.

No more bending and reaching and crawling into the back of the tent.
I go out of town frequently for extended periods so I am running mine in conjunction with blumats. I’ll keep updated about how this setup works out.

Sasult · Feb 3, 2023

Thanks, I'm also trying to cut down weight, and make the back row easier to water. My plan was to use 2L bottles with a line mounted to the cap for filling. A piece of 2x6 and a hole saw to make a rack outside the room. Basically the same as a dog watering bowl. That should get watering down to empty jug, fill it.

Hope the work as good as they say. AC Infinity makes good products, so I hope this is no exception. I need to finish the new room first, but by then I should have enough information.

Cactus Squatter · Feb 3, 2023

Sasult said:
Thanks, I'm also trying to cut down weight, and make the back row easier to water. My plan was to use 2L bottles with a line mounted to the cap for filling. A piece of 2x6 and a hole saw to make a rack outside the room. Basically the same as a dog watering bowl. That should get watering down to empty jug, fill it.

Hope the work as good as they say. AC Infinity makes good products, so I hope this is no exception. I need to finish the new room first, but by then I should have enough information.

The plastic quality is really nice on these AC infinity bases. Not flimsy junk, doesn’t smell weird or like anything at all. I’m going to definitely get 4 more for my other tent.

Bio boy · Feb 17, 2023

Dya think fabric pots 44cm x44cm 56litre

sat in a grow tray raised on a bread packing plastic grid to keep it off the water

underneath a square net pot 20x20cm with perlite in

will that be enough to wick being as it’s fabric pots and the pearlite bed isn’t covering the entire base ?

I can’t get anymore perlite atm so limited

flylowgethigh · Feb 17, 2023

There are other wicks. If you can get coarse sand without fines, maybe fine lava rocks with lotsa porosity. I like to have a couple inches of the wick above the waterline, and set the bag on top. That is the important air gap.

I rinse the perlite to get the crushed stuff gone. It clogs the filter that leaps the wick media in the tub. I use a 160 mesh rosin squeezing bag for the filter.

I think it is important to be able to drain the wick and refil the water with fresh stuff. The runoff from top watering in feed has a high EC, and the tub and reservoir gets that high EC water. I pump it all into a carboy and dump that outside on the garden. Then fresh water with lotsa oxygen is put in. I will do this at the flip, and a few weeks after that to be sure the nitrogen is being removed from the water.

Bio boy · Mar 11, 2023

flylowgethigh said:
There are other wicks. If you can get coarse sand without fines, maybe fine lava rocks with lotsa porosity. I like to have a couple inches of the wick above the waterline, and set the bag on top. That is the important air gap.

I rinse the perlite to get the crushed stuff gone. It clogs the filter that leaps the wick media in the tub. I use a 160 mesh rosin squeezing bag for the filter.

I think it is important to be able to drain the wick and refil the water with fresh stuff. The runoff from top watering in feed has a high EC, and the tub and reservoir gets that high EC water. I pump it all into a carboy and dump that outside on the garden. Then fresh water with lotsa oxygen is put in. I will do this at the flip, and a few weeks after that to be sure the nitrogen is being removed from the water.

So if I fill my big trays with drain pipe and put my mesh on top that would raise them 3 inch then I can put Fabric bag wicks down the mesh top and sit plants on there Think it will work ?

flylowgethigh · Mar 11, 2023

What is wrong with a regular wick for the bed? A 10 gallon bag of wet soil is heavy.

Bio boy · Mar 11, 2023

flylowgethigh said:
What is wrong with a regular wick for the bed? A 10 gallon bag of wet soil is heavy.

What do ya mean by regular wick ?
There 15 gal and yes they are lol
They dry out after 5 liters water by the mornin doing my head in getting dry medium problems

flylowgethigh · Mar 12, 2023

perlite is what i meant. i rinse the stuff to get the crushed material off. It clogs the screen

Bio boy · Mar 12, 2023

flylowgethigh said:
perlite is what i meant. i rinse the stuff to get the crushed material off. It clogs the screen

Mainly cause I have non atm and they take a week delivery here on that stuff there’s not too many unless ya pay the earth and I’ve been trying to fix sooner which hasn’t worked lol

I got 200litres of perlite and 50 in pumice
been washing with ro water n soaking in em1 soap washing peroxide the lot the ppm on the pumice is still 200 and looks dirty lol can’t work that out I shook em that much there starting to polish and go shiney lol
the perlite I washed so many times I can’t count it still washing dirty so figured I’d throw it on garden and get new if poss to avoid whatever that ppm is

the perlite seems to get a bit stinky after a grow or 2 and wondering if that’s the reason I had salts , also as they didn’t get a wash in 5 grows as the bed was 30gal a side had roots in them ofc so figure it’s them rotting each time
so I figured if I could avoid them like some have them sat on trays over water and a wick fabric or rope up seems to work n drop roots in the tank still

if ya reccomend I stil get petite I’ll order some they are trees I fee I’m going to reduce their size a little from the top repot onto swick and flip they have a new big room

Bio boy · Apr 3, 2023

flylowgethigh said:
Here is the new set-up

Here is the set-up in that sketch in action. The sump pump in the bucket is all the way on the bottom. It can suck the system down to 1” of water height, which is how I can drain the wicks. Raising the pump 3” raises the waterline 3”, which is where it will run at.

View attachment 18806336

The overflow from the return bucket into the carboy, which is nice because it can be dumped in the garden for the nutes. There is a tie wrap on the hose to keep the bilge pump discharge hose from coming out of the carboy snap-on cap.

The Little Giant sump pump comes with a plastic box, which makes a good stand to raise the pump, and thus the wick bed water level. There is 8 gallons in each tub, good for a week if something happens.

View attachment 18806337

Just be sure to keep enough room in that carboy for the overflow.

Can’t workout why ya need a pump to keep level in the swick?
I was using float valves like in firs posts so keep a res topping up as needed control was a float setting all containers
why do ya need a pump ? I think I missed somthing I’ve read back a few pages over n over

flylowgethigh · Apr 3, 2023

I pump the water that spills over the waterfall back to the reservoir. That keeps the level constant. In the tent I have going right now water siphons into the control bucket from the reservoir, eliminating the need to pump it in. The pump in the control box returns any excess.

There is a plug between the inner and outer chambers of my control bucket. When that plug is out the water in the tubs can be mostly pumped out. I took 7 gallons of old water out of the system today and dumped it on the outside garden. My next design has the reservoir watering directly onto the top of the perlite, and the control bucket has the pump elevated to set the water height. If I put the pump down on the bottom of the bucket it will pump the wicks dry. That allows fresh, aerated, low EC and properly pH'd water to fill the wicks.

Float valves and water pressure sound like a way to get a flood.

Bio boy · Apr 3, 2023

flylowgethigh said:
I pump the water that spills over the waterfall back to the reservoir. That keeps the level constant. In the tent I have going right now water siphons into the control bucket from the reservoir, eliminating the need to pump it in. The pump in the control box returns any excess.

There is a plug between the inner and outer chambers of my control bucket. When that plug is out the water in the tubs can be mostly pumped out. I took 7 gallons of old water out of the system today and dumped it on the outside garden. My next design has the reservoir watering directly onto the top of the perlite, and the control bucket has the pump elevated to set the water height. If I put the pump down on the bottom of the bucket it will pump the wicks dry. That allows fresh, aerated, low EC and properly pH'd water to fill the wicks.

Float valves and water pressure sound like a way to get a flood.

Ah so it’s almost like an dwc ? Keeping new oxygen in the water by recycling it , you ec and ph the water ? Thaught we avoided nutes in the base swick ?
what do you ph With ?
how often does the water get changed for new ?
has there been a growth improvement over sitting it on still water ?
I was planning simple this round and just hand topping up the bases as they drink

instead of top watering is that ok ?

flylowgethigh · Apr 3, 2023

pH down is what I use to adjust the reservoir. You don't want old nutes in the wick bed, so I flush it out a couple times in a run. The water that runs through the bag of soil into the wick when I top-feed is what is being replaced. I want only aerated pH'd water in the wick, the goodies are in the soil with the microbes distributing them. Worms in the soil would help.

Bio boy · Apr 4, 2023

flylowgethigh said:
pH down is what I use to adjust the reservoir. You don't want old nutes in the wick bed, so I flush it out a couple times in a run. The water that runs through the bag of soil into the wick when I top-feed is what is being replaced. I want only aerated pH'd water in the wick, the goodies are in the soil with the microbes distributing them. Worms in the soil would help.

Have you noticed a difference agitating the water in the wick I know some in here said it didn’t make a difference at all
but your doing it a lot so did you notice a growth change doing that ?
man’s I guess i Could recirculate it ish would take some thinking in this setup

wish we had a vid of yours lol going to go over it again check what’s going on

Bio boy · May 31, 2023

Squirrel Master said:
Day 26 of flower and loving this growth. I’m legally limited to six plants only so this seems like a sure way to potentially max them out and continue to stay compliant
View attachment 18797828

How did she end

Squirrel Master · Jun 7, 2023

Bio boy said:
How did she end

They did not finish as well as I would have liked. When I pulled the root balls two of them had a nasty rotten egg smell. Seems like the water stagnated at the bottom of those pots. Maybe those two plants were not drinking fast enough

It seems like flylowgethigh has the right idea with recirculating the water.
I have since moved back to fabric pots and I’m now using the Blumat drip system. It’s very boring but very effective. No issues last run.
Maybe I’ll try the SIP again later on down the road

gmanwho · Jun 8, 2023

been awhile since i read through this thread. i love the sip idea. i have been eager to experiment and switch a few of my top drip coco synthetic nutes bucket in bucket DTW system out. maybe run 25% of a room with an ammended coco/ soil sip or an autopot like system.

the thing im trying to figure out is the best way to go about a sip that you dont veg out in. i veg in a different room and the main flower rooms never come out of the flower cycle. back to back runs 24hr reloads. It also would be difficult/ hazardous bringing up a 15-25 gal of soil an vegged plant up a 10ft ladder to the 2nd floor flower room. (eventually there will be stairs)

what size container would be best? i average a 4'x4' to a 5'x5' foot print per plant. im thinking an 8-10 gal tote at this point. as always there are a ton of variables. looking to drop a 3gal vegged out small bush right into a square tote with ammended coco and soil. most likely...

so not wanting the tote to be overly saturated and encourage root development. for shits and giggles i may plug in one of my trolmaster wcs-2 (water saturation%/ec/ph sensor) to monitor the zone approx 1/3rd above the perlite.

thinking might even have to put the autotop off on a schedule to allow the roots to fill the system and not stay saturated at first. like how an autopot valve waits for the system to dry down before a topoff. gotta get her roots to fill the tote, then on an autofill schedule by say day 20, maybe

also tempted to try a few 25gal outdoor alongside the 100gal fabric pots

8-10 gal tote? any thoughts appreciate...

bsafe

Bio boy · Jun 10, 2023

gmanwho said:
been awhile since i read through this thread. i love the sip idea. i have been eager to experiment and switch a few of my top drip coco synthetic nutes bucket in bucket DTW system out. maybe run 25% of a room with an ammended coco/ soil sip or an autopot like system.

the thing im trying to figure out is the best way to go about a sip that you dont veg out in. i veg in a different room and the main flower rooms never come out of the flower cycle. back to back runs 24hr reloads. It also would be difficult/ hazardous bringing up a 15-25 gal of soil an vegged plant up a 10ft ladder to the 2nd floor flower room. (eventually there will be stairs)

what size container would be best? i average a 4'x4' to a 5'x5' foot print per plant. im thinking an 8-10 gal tote at this point. as always there are a ton of variables. looking to drop a 3gal vegged out small bush right into a square tote with ammended coco and soil. most likely...

so not wanting the tote to be overly saturated and encourage root development. for shits and giggles i may plug in one of my trolmaster wcs-2 (water saturation%/ec/ph sensor) to monitor the zone approx 1/3rd above the perlite.

thinking might even have to put the autotop off on a schedule to allow the roots to fill the system and not stay saturated at first. like how an autopot valve waits for the system to dry down before a topoff. gotta get her roots to fill the tote, then on an autofill schedule by say day 20, maybe

also tempted to try a few 25gal outdoor alongside the 100gal fabric pots

8-10 gal tote? any thoughts appreciate...

bsafe

Did ya use any em1?

gmanwho · Oct 29, 2023

Bio boy said:
Did ya use any em1?

Just saw this post now. sorry so late. I just came back to read real quick as i am building 3 keg bucket sip systems right now.

I haven't used em1 in particular.
But i have used my own rice wash ferments. bioag quantum lines before in my tea brewers, i believe it is similar.

as well as Pondzymes, hysheild, LAB, & I absolutely love recharge.

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