How to fully automate reservoir top offs!

Lazyman · Nov 6, 2009

sirripalot said:
hey lazyman, based on your comments..do you turn off your pumps during night time?

Correct, no watering at night. The circulation pump in each tank remains on, as does the air pump. Frequency and duration of waterings are up to you and your medium (as well as plant and pot sizes) and have been discussed at length elsewhere if needed.

I'm doing a new setup that will incorporate the tall boy filter as a prefilter for the Merlin Pro RO filter too, split out to 5 reservoirs. 750 gallons per day, woot!

fdish · Nov 6, 2009

good onfo, thanks

Aeroguerilla · Nov 12, 2009

hey lazyman you wana help my figure some shit out? i got 2 aerojet 8 tray with 40gal rez under each i dont have the luxury of leaving a hose running down stairs bc of security purposes...any alternatives for me? right now 40gals go 4days until there pretty much empty... i need them to go at least 7-8 safely... i was thinking a 50gal drum gravity fed with one of those float valves on the 40gal rez... what do you think? any other ideas?

Lazyman · Nov 12, 2009

Hey buddy, yeah I can make a couple recommendations:

Instead of a garden hose, can you maybe snake a 3/8" OD poly line down? I've used 6' drill bits (and the handy little bender tool) used for running data cables inside walls. Just make a hole you can cover with a wall plate later, punch through below and repeat, nice little white line almost looks like a a data line if you find white line. If it needs to come from outside you can run a line under the house and up through the floor (inside a wall if needed, not too hard.)

Lowes and most hydro shops sell the 3/4" Female hose thread to 3/8" OD poly line (like icemaker line.) Lowes only sells the clear stuff though, it gets algae in it.

How do you get water down there now?

Yeah a second res can work too, but if you can get even a small line down there it won't be needed.

Aeroguerilla · Nov 12, 2009

i have the line from my fridge that should work correct? i normally just attach my hose to my upstairs sink run it down to the rez and fill em up. but my sink is in the kitchen and theres a door that people may knock on when im not there so i cant leave it attached... i got the hose that goes from the fridge and im going to drop that down stairs from under the sink. should i split into 2? then 2 float valves on each rez?

ChaosCatalunya · Nov 12, 2009

Great stuff Lazyman

I think the best bit is not the automated top up itself, but the overflow drain preventing floods... says the bloke who had to teach himself plastering....

Lazyman · Nov 12, 2009

Aeroguerilla said:
i have the line from my fridge that should work correct? i normally just attach my hose to my upstairs sink run it down to the rez and fill em up. but my sink is in the kitchen and theres a door that people may knock on when im not there so i cant leave it attached... i got the hose that goes from the fridge and im going to drop that down stairs from under the sink. should i split into 2? then 2 float valves on each rez?

Yep that should work, yes you can tee it off, and plumb in a shutoff valve to each res too. Only 1 float valve per res should be needed. Are you plumbing in an RO filter or anything too?

Lazyman · Nov 12, 2009

ChaosCatalunya said:
Great stuff Lazyman

I think the best bit is not the automated top up itself, but the overflow drain preventing floods... says the bloke who had to teach himself plastering....

Yep same here buddy, I had to replace $500 worth of carpet in my old house, lucky it wasn't more. SUcks knowing $4 worth of parts would have prevented all of it eh?

B00420 · Nov 12, 2009

Just something to consider.....I recently discovered that by not using clear water to top off and instead changing the nutes more often my yields went up at least 15-20%. I have to change my nutes every 4 days in peak flower, and by the 4th day, I am over 3000PPM on a .5 scale. Super hot but the plants seem to love it, dont ask me why.

Im using GH base nutes with a whole range of suppliments....seems like with GH you can get real hot with your nutes without hurting your plants....wouldn't recommend it with more organic nutrients.

Lazyman · Nov 12, 2009

Yep I've heard good results both ways, but look in the thread above this, Dongle69 got 14# out of 6 lights, with no res changes. With no CO2. Certainly cheaper to not change tanks than to change them more often!

B00420 · Nov 12, 2009

Well, Im getting single plants between 2 and 2lbs 9oz from 1, 600w overhead light each...

so if you figure out the gpw on that and compare it to 14# from 6000w, using many smaller plants....its not even really close at all...im talking 1.5+ gpw

Aeroguerilla · Nov 14, 2009

got the float valves, plumbing that in tonight... should only have to visit the garden once a week now just to make sure roots arnt clogging the drains. lol i came home the other day sounded like a waterfall!! next idea is to find a material that roots dont clog and water will filtrate thru. any ideas? my drains on the aerojets get clogged with roots to the point of overflow!! this happens everyweek if i dont lift up trays and rip off excess roots. thoughts?

Lazyman · Nov 14, 2009

Yeah I like the tubular water pump socks iver the drain fittings, from the Home Depot pond section, got the idea from Dongle69's 6000 watt grow

fizzy187 · Nov 16, 2009

Hey lazyman, i like what you've done here!

I guess i wouldnt go as far as automating top offs since that lowers my ec, however i do top off once or twice a week so its a puzzle for me!
I like the idea of having a tap ready and pump system for when working with the resevoir!

Any tips towards mixing a batch aswell? That would be invaluable..

As for the ph controller it is a milwaukee sms 122 hooked up to a peri pump that delivers a few drops of ph down to the res whenever it goes above 6.0. I hope that helps, hasnt been mentioned yet so there ya have it

Cheers!!

Lazyman · Nov 17, 2009

Thanks Fizzy.

With most grows there are plenty of things to worry about, but maintaining the grow room itself should come after the plants themselves. If the room itself requires less work, you have more time to do other things. In recirculating systems the topping off keeps the mix from getting too strong as water is transpired to the dehueys.

For mixing batches I always sink a pump that recirculates water from the front/top deepest or furthest corner. Just dump the raw nutes on the pump and wait a couple minutes for the EC/PPM to stabilize.

My reservoirs all have:

A circulation water pump
3-4 airstones
1 float valve
1 drain valve
1 overflow valve
1 large pump to a long hose for handwatering, shutoff valve and gardening wand on end.

...no matter what system I use.

Thanks for the model of the doser, what did those critters run you?

RamCTD1027 · Nov 18, 2009

Lazyman,

great ideas in this thread. I plan to use some of these ideas on my rezs. Do u happen to have any pics of ur Rez with the float valve, drain valve, and overflow?? Thanks

ram

Lazyman · Nov 18, 2009

Actually I don't have a pic of the drain side, but here's what the "fill" side
(with float valves) looks like, simple tee off to a pair of lines, with inline shutoff valves,to float valves:

RamCTD1027 · Nov 18, 2009

Thanks for the shot lazy. I understand the fill/float valves but I'm more interested in how u drain those big rezs. Right now, I drain my 70 gal rezs using the pump inside connected to a hose which I run to my washer drain. I'm always looking for easier ways to do things in my room.

Lazyman · Nov 19, 2009

Ahh, well let's try some asci:

|--------------------res overflow
|
|
__________________drain line____|___Shutoff valve___res drain

I like to have my res elevated a little if doing a gravity drain.

smokadepep · Nov 20, 2009

just a quick question, not sure if it was already answered, but how would you go about hooking up the tall boy or small boy to a regular faucet sink? do i need to buy a seperate adapter somewhere, or does it come with one?? any information will help, trying to not have to worry about filling up buckets to sit out for 24 hrs

How to fully automate reservoir top offs!

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Overkill is under-rated.

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