Building a 7.5 gal SIP 101
Items needed:
• 7.5 gal Tote
• ¾ PVC pipe (schedule 20)
• ½” Vinyl tubing
• Landscape fabric or similar
• Perforated Drain Pipe (PDP) 4" diameter
• ½ “ Barbed Elbow connections
Adding water to your tote is an important step so that you can check to see if your tote has any leaks. I have made a few totes and a bunch of totes from the HD had a very small hole all in the same place. I just took an old soldering iron and welded the holes closed. It wasn’t a pain other than having to pour some more water in after they were repaired to make sure they were water tight.
I started with this 7.5 gal tote from wally world.
I start by cutting the large end of the Perforated Drain Pipe (PDP) off and bending the PDP to the shape.
I then simply cut the PDP to length.
I then take the landscape fabric or similar and ziptie it to the end of the PDP
I then cut a notch out of my 3/4" pvc so the water can flow out easily into the PDP. I then slip the PVC inside the 7.5 tote and cut the 3/4 pvc to the desired height.
Next I cut a hole for the water filler tube. I then take a small piece of landscape fabric and wrap it around the filler tube so that when I push the filler tube into the PDP it will have less space for your medium to escape into your reservoir/PDP.
This is what it looks it looks like when the reservoir is completed
With the Reservoir assembly in place I marked the top of the assembly and drilled a hole so that the bottom of the drilled hole will sit one inch from the top of the reservoir. This will leave a 1 inch air layer.
**Remember *** This hole has to line up with the reservoir and be against the landscape fabric so the water will flow out without getting clogged
Then I convince the 1/2 rubber grommet that it needs to fit in the small hole I just drilled for it.
Before I install the 90°barbed elbow connection into the rubber grommet I slip the 1/2 Vinyl tubing onto the barbed elbow. Then I install the 90° barbed elbow into the rubber grommet and cut the vinyl tubing to length.
Now that the overflow is installed you will need to cut the landscape fabric on the PDP so that the 90° barbed elbow on the inside of the tote is poking through the landscape fabric. This will allow the water inside the tote to flow out when the tote is overfilled. I recommend cutting a slightly smaller hole than is needed and working the end of the elbow through the cut in the fabric** Don’t forget to turn the overflow tube sideways or down so that if the reservoir is overflowed the water can drain out. The over flow can also be turned down and tipped if you need to drain water from the reservoir.
Now that the lower portion of the SIP is complete we need to cut a holes in the top for the plant and the filler tube.
You can cut a hole in the top wherever you typically plant into your SIP’s. I chose the center on this one.
I measure the filler tube from the sides and mark the top cover where the hole should be cut. You can see the marks I made for where to drill the filler tube hole.
As the top is locked onto the now SIP on the sides I cut the top in half so that I can easily get to the top of my soil by taking away the cover without disturbing the plant !
Now just fill the New SIP up to the top of the PDP with vermiculite and you are GTG!
You are now ready to add your soil mix and start a SIP grow.
Water volume is approx 1.5 gal
(Soil volume is approx 9"x 15.5")
The tote is 15" in length at the top of the vermiculite and is just under 16" at the top of the tote so I split it to be 15.5"
I tried to build this SIP using the method I found in this post. I do not usually build my SIP’s this way. I can tell you that building a SIP this was is way easier than I have done it in the past.