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Something wicked this way comes

Desert Hydro

Active member
Veteran
chillin in PPK land, same pup as my avatar in the same spot of the same floor lol
 

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Earlmarne

Member
Dang elbows and 1/2 tubing are giving me hell.
Trying to build my halos n they are kicking my ass.
You guys using a heat gun?
 

Desert Hydro

Active member
Veteran
Dang elbows and 1/2 tubing are giving me hell.
Trying to build my halos n they are kicking my ass.
You guys using a heat gun?

for my manifolds is used 3/8 soft hydro tubing from growershouse. drilled a fuck-ton of 1/8" holes relatively evenly spaced about every 1.5"

3/8 barb fittings are a bitch to find.


on my veg side i used the same as you. get a cup of hot soapy water and lube your fitting or hose and then work it in slowly back and forth. your palm is gonna hurt but it wont get hairy lol
 

967

Active member
Dang elbows and 1/2 tubing are giving me hell.
Trying to build my halos n they are kicking my ass.
You guys using a heat gun?

Shit how did I not think of that. I've been using metal hose clamps and these plastic clip things. My rings are 1/4" tho (manifold is 1/2"), holes melted with a hot nail. Only have 4 decent size holes per 7" ish ring but media is evenly moist

Just upgraded my pump so might hit the larger tube rings with more holes anyway

Do the elbows pop off with the pressure? Otherwise if they just leak it wouldn't really matter?
 

gmanwho

Well-known member
Veteran
heat gun with the larger hose helps alot. thou its funny how a barb fitting from one mfg to the next will very despite them claiming the same outside diameter.

i use a soldering pen to pop the holes, with a fan sucking air out, preferably out the window. d9 uses a hole punch thing u can get a t some hardware stores. looks like a pair of pliers with a " boot spur" on the end that spins for different hole sizes. i have never used one but been meaning to

with the drip rings to the " tee" i always set push one side of the tube in "permanent" ,an the other side half on. that way when it comes time to take the rings off i dont have to use a heat gun or something to pry the hose off. the "half on " side comes off with a little persuasion.
 

Earlmarne

Member
heat gun with the larger hose helps alot. thou its funny how a barb fitting from one mfg to the next will very despite them claiming the same outside diameter.

i use a soldering pen to pop the holes, with a fan sucking air out, preferably out the window. d9 uses a hole punch thing u can get a t some hardware stores. looks like a pair of pliers with a " boot spur" on the end that spins for different hole sizes. i have never used one but been meaning to

with the drip rings to the " tee" i always set push one side of the tube in "permanent" ,an the other side half on. that way when it comes time to take the rings off i dont have to use a heat gun or something to pry the hose off. the "half on " side comes off with a little persuasion.
Sweet, I'll bust out the heat gun tonight.
For some reason I had it my head to run a bunch of t's for the halo. Poking some holes will be way cheaper
Thank you
 

967

Active member
Sweet, I'll bust out the heat gun tonight.
For some reason I had it my head to run a bunch of t's for the halo. Poking some holes will be way cheaper
Thank you


I tried that, it was shit. Makes for an ugly shape halo. Now I have many spare tees...
 

967

Active member
On that note, my irrigation system sucks! It was blocked so I removed all rings, tried to unblock, added extra holes and they still aren't working properly.. well one in particular. Plants are vert in tent so I had to squeeze in the middle, broke a 1/2 to 1/4 tee, had to rig something up. Pain in the ass big time. I do have a filter on it Now, dumb me didn't think it was necessary in the first place

So... can anyone point me in the direction of a rock solid manifold/drip system that I won't have to fuck with early on in flower? I'll read through this and other ppk threads, but it only has to service 4 plants in a 4x4 tent...
 

Junk

Member
I tried that, it was shit. Makes for an ugly shape halo. Now I have many spare tees...

Fwiw, I'm a fan of soap and water to get the tubing on. Not the heat gun. The heat makes the rubber softer, and even harder to get on the fitting.

Once it's on, a quick dose of heat, let it cool (<-important!), *then* add a clamp and it's unlikely to leak. I have some old connections that I've made that I can't even pull apart. I have to cut them off.

The type of tubing you use might be different, I honestly don't know. But with that flexible black tubing, that's what I do.

A couple years ago I had a leak, and I was so disappointed. The way I make the connections, it should never leak.

Come to find out, the bottom of the bucket cracked, it wasn't my connections.
 

Thirdtime

Member
I'm a little confused about what you are having problems with on the halos, 1/2" hydro flo tubing 1/2" T and a $10 pump for each plant is pretty much rock solid. The tubing and T's go on and off easy enough.
 

967

Active member
I'm a little confused about what you are having problems with on the halos, 1/2" hydro flo tubing 1/2" T and a $10 pump for each plant is pretty much rock solid. The tubing and T's go on and off easy enough.

See I had to be different lol made a 1/2" loop manifold with 1/4" tubing and halos to feed 4 plant sites

Next one I might just do the same but 1/2" all the way. Not sure how to calculate pump size needed for that tho
 

Mr Blah

Member
.... I'll read through this and other ppk threads, but it only has to service 4 plants in a 4x4 tent...
I have a PVC ring going on the perimeter of the inside of the tent in a few. But my latest is a control bucket off the side of the grow and 4-$10 pumps in it. Going out to each plant. Cheaper and easier. From now I will be doing it this way.
 

967

Active member
I'll look in to that, price pumps and shit. What gph pumps do you use? I'm in NZ so might not be the most economical solution. Don't think I have enough water in my system for all pumps to draw water simultaneously either so i suppose I'd have to factor in extra timers too...
 

Mr Blah

Member
I'll look in to that, price pumps and shit. What gph pumps do you use? I'm in NZ so might not be the most economical solution. Don't think I have enough water in my system for all pumps to draw water simultaneously either so i suppose I'd have to factor in extra timers too...
Mine are 185gph just like Delta9's. Just mine are all in the control bucket with 4 holes out the cover.
Mine fire for 30 secs every 90 mins. It goes down about an 1.5" roughly. I have a 27gal tote for the control bucket.
 

967

Active member
Thanks Blah, I just read through your first ppk thread - lots of good info in there. I think I'm gonna stick with what I'm doing now for the remainder of flower (another 5 - 6 weeks) then change shit up for the better

My pump is 3000lph so 900? gph. Should be enough for the 4 plants off a single manifold but I'm concerned if I go to 1/2" Rings water level will drop too much, unless I change up a lot of my system. The 1/4" lines and rings I have tee'd off a 1/2" loop manifold I think will work fine now I have a filter plumbed in after the pump, but I might look and getting halos and even drilling them out to enlarge the tiny holes I can see clogging with salts in no time..

Already quite a few things I wish I had done different, but plants look great, much bigger and better than what I've grown before in coco dtw
 

Junk

Member
My pump is 3000lph so 900? gph. Should be enough for the 4 plants off a single manifold but I'm concerned if I go to 1/2" Rings water level will drop too much, unless I change up a lot of my system.

793 gph. I can't imagine a scenario in which that isn't enough for 4 plants.

So are you essentially using the 1/4" rings/tubing (whatever) to restrict flow? Is that what you mean when you say "I'm concerned if I go to 1/2" Rings water level will drop too much"?

A smaller pump would be $50 tops. Would that be an overall cheaper/easier solution than a rebuild?
 

967

Active member
793 gph. I can't imagine a scenario in which that isn't enough for 4 plants.

So are you essentially using the 1/4" rings/tubing (whatever) to restrict flow? Is that what you mean when you say "I'm concerned if I go to 1/2" Rings water level will drop too much"?

A smaller pump would be $50 tops. Would that be an overall cheaper/easier solution than a rebuild?

I actually have a smaller pump floating around but no idea of flow rate

The 1/4" lines and rings are because I used to use this smaller pump, which I'm sure wouldn't keep up with 1/2" line. But Yeah, I don't have a whole lot of solution in my system as my buckets are nesting. Water doesn't cover pump by much so can't afford for water level to drop by much
 

Snook

Still Learning
Veteran
I actually have a smaller pump floating around but no idea of flow rate

The 1/4" lines and rings are because I used to use this smaller pump, which I'm sure wouldn't keep up with 1/2" line. But Yeah, I don't have a whole lot of solution in my system as my buckets are nesting. Water doesn't cover pump by much so can't afford for water level to drop by much
I understand lack of headroom but if you raise the ppks and the controll rez lets say 1", that would give you an inch more water in the pump rez which would be an inch lower than the other two.. a quart here, a quart there.. just a suggestion. 2" = twice as much.:biggrin:
 
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