blumats and reservoirs

rives · Jul 16, 2012

Red Swan said:
I just set up a blumat res with an upper and a lower with overflow , but made the mistake of making the overflow from the rez the same size and it overflowed all right. The line attached to my pump is 1/2 inch. How big do I need to make the overflow for a constantly on pump? 3/4"? 1"?

Thanks.

I used 3/4" on the feed line from the pump and 1-1/4" for the return. The 3/4" wasn't necessary for the pump volume that I have, but the pipe was much more rigid and my upper reservoir is up pretty high as you can see by the picture in my earlier post. The return line is probably overkill, but you get almost 60% more area in an 1-1/4" pipe over 1" for almost the same cost.

Tyga · Jul 17, 2012

Don't have any pics of mine... But Mine is in one of those 27gal heavy duty storage bins Black with the yellow lid I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Have that ontop of an old bird cage raised to about 3ft off the floor. 1st line from the thru-hull connector goes to a T, one line goes down the the blumats, the other is an open line that I feed back to the rez above water level.<--- Read it helps from keeping air bubbles out of the line.
Bluelab guardian mounted on the wall right about the rez, 3 holes drilled in the lid... 1 for the Temp/conductivity probe, 1 for the PH probe, and 1 for the submersible pump cord.
Submersible pumps are preferred because I guess using regular air pumps will cause air bubbles to get caught in the feed line.

Kit Kat · Jul 17, 2012

This is my dirt simple 5g bucket res. I just used what came in the patio kit, with the exception of two control valves. One valve is right up at the bucket and the other is at the end of my line inside the tent for drainage.

At first I would turn off the bucket valve, disconnect, dump the bucket, refill, reconnect, open the valve, and then drain for 30 seconds to make sure all the air was clear - now I just keep a 5g jug ready to go and keep it topped up. No runaways or dried out plants at all yet.

I love the ease of blumats.

Tyga · Jul 19, 2012

Just for you guys! :tiphat:

Mister_D · Aug 18, 2012

Elevated res with air release

1/2" Feed line (green) and 1" overflow

Overflow tee's off into two 65 gal. res on the floor.

The 65 gal res tee together and feed the elevated res via 500gph pump.

budman678 · Aug 18, 2012

i was going to be doing something along the lines of the 5gallon bucket setup...you are just constantly topping it off? go down there and fill up every other day? i have a similiar size tent it looks like

Kit Kat · Aug 18, 2012

Yep, just topped it off continously. I would fill five gallon carboys with RO water, then mix nutrients, ph, and let them sit nearby. During the peak of stretch it would need topping up every day. With the H&G line it really was a quite the time investment.

When I set back up again I'll certainly use a larger res, or a five gallon bucket with an automated top off system like others posted here.

budman678 · Aug 18, 2012

i assume one the rex goes below half it loses head pressure and the flow of water isnt as good?

Kit Kat · Aug 18, 2012

I only had six drippers total, and the bucket hull through was maybe 6" above the soil at most and it was never a problem for me. A few times it got down to a few inches of water total even.

I seriously don't recommend allowing that but in my specific case it was never an issue. For larger runs from what I've read in sunnydogs thread it would be a disaster.

budman678 · Aug 18, 2012

wow, this is valuable...thanks homie. appreciate it much`

TribalSeeds · Aug 18, 2012

I threw a couple of air stones in the res and it went up to 75 degree. Should I be worried about this, or just dump the air all together? My room is closed and kept at 75. Id like to keep more water in the res, but at 75 in the res Im not sure I want it in there very long. Im using CNS17 and I dont notice a funky smell now. I have had a funky smell after about a week without stones. I cleaned the hell out of my res recently and Im not sure if the stones are helping or not. My PH stays stable either way though.

Blaz3 · Aug 18, 2012

Lets say you wanted to run ~40 plants..how much dekc and patio kits would you need?..How does it work setting up large numbers of plants?

Mister_D · Aug 18, 2012

Blaz3 - if you want to run 40 plants just buy the 50 pack of blumats from sustainable village. Much cheaper than buying the deck and patio kits.

Blaz3 · Aug 18, 2012

Do you need multiple reservoirs for large numbers of plants?Can you,for example,do a 50 plant system,using ONE reservoir,and ONE feed line.Do you have to split it?

Mister_D · Aug 18, 2012

Short answer is no, one res is fine. I'm feeding ~50 plants (will be 64 when the system is full) in a vertical rack setup with blumats on one res (redemption thread in my sig). You might want to go to 1/2" ID feedline and 3/32" kent system fittings to feed that many plants off one line though. Do yourself a favor and read the blumat auto watering thread. It's long, but should answer just about any question you might have.

Blaz3 · Aug 18, 2012

Yeah thats what got me interested in this system..for sure Ill invest in them,Im surprised more people dont use them.

Would you say growth rate,in say,coco,is on par with full hydro (dwc,nft,ebbnflow)?

Also Tyga VERY nice meter,is that the BlueLab combination meter??Looks very nice and high tech,I mighth buy two of those ;}

Sent a friend request too man.

Mister_D · Aug 18, 2012

Honestly I havn't used them long enough to say one way or the other. Got a gro bro using 300 of them in coco, and says it's the closest he's come to full on hydro without all the headaches :biggrin:

. I did alot of research before I bought mine, and have no doubt i'll be using them for a long time to come.

Red Swan · Aug 25, 2012

Too many rats

budman678 · Aug 25, 2012

my system just arrived in the mail.

will i need to use two blumats for a 5gall smartie?

i have 6 plants and twelve carrots...i can feasibly do it if recommended

Kit Kat · Aug 25, 2012

Two per would be better for a 5gal on opposite sides from each other.

blumats and reservoirs

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