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!All Resevoir&Irrigation Experts Please Help!

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walkster220

Member
hey guys i have some questions on how to control 4- 4x8 trays with 1 large 300 gallon horizontal polytank..the tank has 2" mft drain outlet on the bottom. flood trays are approx 3ft above floor level.. its pretty easy to get the water to the trays but how would i get it to return back to the res properly..because in my mind 3000 gallons would probably flood the tubes and trays all the time due to the gravity of that amount of water.. i really need the this large res to work because im going to automated it with tds and ph controllers with dosing pumps.. im asking you guys for help because im a retarded genious who has the tendency to make thing more difficult than it has to be my mind get to scrambling and i take it too far but i know its some its a layed back logical grower out there that can tell in 3 steps on how to get this res running... by the way the 4 trays are in rows of 2 positioned the long way running parallel to each other so i can have a walk way in the middle..hope you guys can help
 
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ogatec

300 or 3000 gallons? im guessing 300, 3000 would be absolutley huge...pics or drawings would help. as long as the rez sits below the level of the trays gravity will do all the work draining.

also a 300 gallon tank isnt really allot for 4 4x8 tables i would say its barley enough....i use a hundred gallon tank for 1 4x8 table & i still have to top it off every few days....
 
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walkster220

Member
THANKS FOR THE FAST FEED BACK... YES ITS A 300 TANK AND I ALSO HAVE A 275 GALLON TANK IF NEEDED FOR AUTOTOP...I HAVE 2 1500GPH INLINE PUMPS THAT CAN RUN DRY ALSO SO GETTING THE WATER THERE WILL BE CAKE ITS JUST GETTING IT BACK WHAT BAFFLES ME AND HERE IS THE SCHEATIC OF THE ROOM I TRIED MY BEST
schem.jpg
 
Capn

Capn

Member
picture.php


hope this can help? I'm not sure how you would do it with an inline pump unless it lets water flow through it when power it cut off.

Gravity works to drain this system.
 
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walkster220

Member
the res needs 2be about 15ft away from the room i know if the res was below the trays gravity would let it return back when flood but this res is 4 feet high so there wouldnt be any convenient way to do so with trays above the res thats why some people have remote resevoirs with powerful pumps
 
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walkster220

Member
i was on to something before i bookmarked a couple threads but lost it when my computer crashed so im back to square 1... why use 4 100 resevoirs when i could use one large and control all at once considering they're on the same regimen and i plan on auto dosing this round
 
CovertCrops

CovertCrops

Member
Ok, use gravity as much as you can, but that is only gonna get you so far. Make sure that all of your drain lines maintian a downward slope and I would have them dump into a collection tank on the floor (seperate from res). From the collection tank you could have a pump on a float switch so when the tables start to drain and fill the collection tank the pump comes on and transfers the water back to the res. does that makes sense?

Multipule res's does have an advantage. You can run each table as an independent entity, great for multiple strains that require different feeding schedules. If you screw up your mix or get something nasty in your res you can lose your whole crop if they are all on the same res. I have a res for each table, 6 in all. Each table has a different strain at a different stage of growth, I harvest 1 table every 2 weeks. Yes its less convienent having to mix up all of those res's but i view it as security. Having all your eggs in one basket is risky.

If you need clarifitcation on the instructions just shout and ill try to draw something up. good luck.
 
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ogatec

i see,the 15ft away shouldnt be a problem as long as there is a drop btw the table & the tank. i dont really know what to do about the tank beeing higher than the tables though, im not really sure how thats gonna work...my only sugestion would be to raise the tables above the level of the tank...even 1" higher will do..otherwise you will have backflow & your tables will never empty all the way.


i guess you could sink the tank, but that will take some major construction depending on what type of foundation you have!
good luck!
 
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globel

Member
what i have done in the past with similar setups was to use a sump. I would use a small res appx.20 gallons under the drain for the 4x8 and in the res i would setup a sump pump with a levle switch... anytime the water goes above the switch the 20 gallon res will drain... this will work for you. there are people on this forum that have done the same.
 
Capn

Capn

Member
Globel has a good idea.

Just better make sure that pump doesnt fail in your sump or your gona have a new indoor pond.
 
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pimpjuice

Member
I'd make a separte slow drain next to your overflow into a 5 gallon bucket with a float switch controlled little giant "water wizard" to kick the water back to your reservoir. I did something very similar with an aquaponics setup I used to run, water was constantly circulating between a 100gal fish tank and a dwc/aero system on the floor, water wizard pump worked perfectly, survived the constant on-off's.
 
SoCaliSmoker

SoCaliSmoker

Member
When I used my 4ft X 8ft trays I used sawhorses (you can buy them from home depot) and put them under my tray to hold the tray evenly. By placing my tray on the sawhorses, that left me 3 feet below the tray to put whatever I liked. I placed a 55 gallon reservoir beneath the tray for filled/drain.

At most, I only needed 45 gallons to fill the tray but the flood and drain worked perfectly because my reservoir was under my tray allowing gravity to drain the water right underneath. But that also meant that I was able to put 1 reservoir under my tray, so if you have multiple trays then it could pose a space issue and I understand the problem. Plus multiple times you have to fill up the reservoirs.

The reservoir I used had a pump with 1/2 tubing going up both sides of the tray (you can drill holes on both sides of your tray for faster filling/draining) and I would fill with my nutes and drain 4 times a day. I use Rockwool and never had a problem. If you are able to squeeze smaller reservoirs under your tables you should be in good shape. Just my 2-cents.
 
imnotcrazy

imnotcrazy

There is ALWAYS meaning to my madness ®
Veteran
You need to build a control bucket or use one direction check valves so that gravity has no effect on the flooding.

Check out the Krypto controller bucket thread, copy his design and the flood level in the controller bucket will set flood height or it could be done with the overflow fittings but IMO it's easier to only drill your trays for fill fittings and use a controller bucket to set the flood.... Hope this helps :joint:

Sorry, just saw Globel's sump reservoir idea which is fucking EXCELLENT.... Just be certain to size the pump for this application so that it can keep up with the draining of all your overflow from all of your trays or you'll have a big flood
 
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pimpjuice

Member
a check valve won't work in his application. definitely needs a sump (could be as small as a 5 gallon bucket), and a good size sump pump, many of them come with float switches already installed.
 
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mymed

New member
I've actually done this in the past. The way I did has been mentioned but I'll run through exactly how I had it going. I ran 2 2x4 tables from one 55gl drum, basically I had two pumps one res and one 5gl bucket. I used a 640gpm flotec in the res that that ran 1/2 hose to a tee that split to each table for filling. Now draining is where it got a little complicated for me as I was using pre-drilled tables for 1/2" fill and 3/4" drains. I ran 3/4" hose from the drain of each table to the 5gl bucket using hose fitting and grommets. Inside the bucket I used a 500gpm attwood automatic bilge pump (had a bass pro gift card) now this works up to a point but the table will not drain past the full height that you have the 3/4 drain set at. So I improvised, I used 3/8" bulk head fitting I found at home depot in the electrical? section. I installed the bulk head at the opposite end of the tables from the f&d and shimmed the table so it had just a slight tilt towards the new drain. I then ran the 3/8" hose to the bucket in the same manner and voila it worked. I did build an over flow from the bucket into a drain just incase the bilge pump ever failed. I ran that for about two years with no problems.

A couple things if you do try it this way, make sure your fill pump cant over take your drain pump and at the same time your fill pump needs to be able to over take your low level drain line (so your flood will reach the desired level), in my case that was the 3/8" inch hose.

Anyway I hope this makes sense and might help or at least give a new idea or perspective.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=2870923#post2870923
 
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