Looking to upsize to an 8x4 for flower thinking 16-24 plants in 3 gallon containers(soil, organic).
I dont really mind hand watering but nighttime is my plants daytime and I might wanna go out sometime so I want to automate a bit and could use some ideas.
I know saturation point is typically 1:5 water to soil. So how would I work that with say 3 reseviors hooked up to drip?
I’m also kinda thinking 1 big res(30gal trashcan) with a few small sumps hooked to manifolds.
I don’t like all the lines, so I’d rig a servo to a smart plug, have it flood the floor with a 5 gallon bucket of water on timer or connect it to a water sensor and really automate it haha. Let them butt chug! I wish we had all this cool remote access tech 15 years ago. I think automation breeds complacency tho and should only be used when absolutely necessary.(I’ve killed a plant or 50 from forgetting to fill tanks haha)
I’ve been working on a long distance monitoring/control system for patients for a little bit now. I want a damn near fully controllable room from anywhere, I mean light height,rotating floor on an degreed indexable gear for full inspection from cam(I’ve also thought about multi cams as well to avoid possible pinch points and debris clogging runways) water,fans etc… I have a few patients who are immobile and making a system I can leave for a few days without asking someone’s nurse for assistance via facetime/whatever to simply change a light a few inches would be a game changer. I’d possibly be able to help more people after all the bugs got worked out in 3047. Maybe by the time we’re living on Mars I’ll have it figured out. hahaa
I’m sure some of the hydro guys gotta have a nice,clean setups that are tested and reliable.
That’s alot. I’m trying to keep it pretty basic.
I did this for a single site.
@Slick1 brought up in discussion about doing something similar with the smallest sized Air-Pots and an under-the-bed storage tote.
Looks like a big ass hempy bucket. That’s pretty dope.
hmm I recognize that home depot tote 
What medium do you plan on filling the net/airpot with?
Part of it is my limited space though. That tote would pretty much take over my 2x4 tents and tying a tent up for one plant would hurt. If you’ve got the room though I would think your setup would grow a tree.
@Neb - Got the tote at Crappy Tire on sale 
, They are great though, cheap but solid as fuck.
I’m going with Hydroton, and the air-pot will be filled up with pre-moistened PromixBX.
The next part is to add a pump (in reservoir) that will pipe the nute solution up and out of the bin to a 2 way split where one way will be used to empty the unit for change-outs, and the other will be the continuously active line that will send the solution to the other end of the tub with a 90 degree bend for some fall-ponics action. There will also be 2-4 air-stones running. I may T-off the return feed line so it has double falls on either side of the end opposing the pump side but gonna map it out first 
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All this 1/2" tubing will get a layer of Reflectix over the whole tub to bounce off the lights and keep some heat down.
I really like your idea of using the orange bottom Air-Pots and the underbed tote as a res. I may end up with a solid sea-of-green system with multiple reveg. options. You could easily mount a pump on it’s side and just let the whole thing circulate.
Something like this:
Tag on some Reflectix and it’s light proof enough (*or plastic spray paint; I used that once but fucked up the priming so it flaked after a season so I go with Reflectix now)
id do a inline pump to try and keep water temps down personally!
Exactly. I’m thinking if I’m tying up a whole tent with a tote that takes up most of the bottom anyway I might as well take up the entire bottom. Height is also a concern and the plant would be into my lights 2 weeks into veg with your setup lol
I’m thinking it would be a pretty cheap experiment to run overall for the smaller one. Maybe 5 plants, one towards each corner and one in the middle, possible even do a slightly larger pot in the center depending on how it spaced out.
You do have a good point there. Integrating a single tub outlet isn’t that big of a deal for the benefits of the heat reduction. Well met!
May I recommend SIPs. Much simpler than any automated water delivery system, very little chance of spillage (which is a big deal imho), and specifically tailored to organics. You can fit about 3 plants per Earthbox or City Pickers SIPs and get the same soil to plant ratio you’re looking for. Pick whichever one works better for your tent dimensions where you can easily access the fill tubes.
You can DIY them pretty easy from totes, but easier in the end to just buy since it’s not that much cheaper to DIY. The only reason I’d DIY them is to make bigger reservoirs so you have to fill less frequently and can leave them unattended while out of town.
Done right, SIPs create hydro rates of growth and production with the “set it and forget it” ease of water only organic soil. For some ideas, watch the BuildASoil 10x10 series of videos on youtube. They use a few SIPs with outstanding results.
That sounds like perfect spacing for a nice SCROG net. You may even be able to go with 6x slightly offset or just squared up across from each other.
Yeah, that’s the basic idea. Big ones are really really hard to move, which is why I recommend the smaller ones, but if you don’t have to move them, the bigger the better once you get used to them. The City Pickers are easy for $30 or $20 when on sale, but the Earthboxes are a little more I think.
I built big DIY ones from 18gal rubbermaid totes and set cloth pots on top and, while it was a great design that let me go on vacation for 2.5wks at a time, they were 150lbs+ when full and hard to move when packed in a tent.
