Very nice work!!! That’s the hard part. 
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Way ta Go! 
Looks good from here! Where’s the big Rez and how high above the controller is it?
I’m on my 4th grow with autofiller now and the thing does work. There are some tips and tricks to be learned, mostly routine maintenance to keep it running smoothly.
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Thank you! Here’s hoping no leaks!
The rezevoir is to the right of the pic below, on a table roughly at the divider level. The water line drops then snakes in through an air vent.
Plain water for now, seedlings are ~8 days above ground. When do you shift to nutrients?
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I am compiling my notes on how best to use these systems and nutes are one of the biggies.
I start with a low level of Jack’s 10-30-20 right off with newly transplanted seedlings, but that’s personal choice.
The important concern is to keep the inevitable gunk of fertilized water from clogging AutoFill and the first trick is to mix your nutes and fill the rez a day or so before to let everything settle before running it through the controller and tubing.
Here’s my protocol:
- Fill the pots to the level you want, by hand if necessary.
- Close the valve at the main Reservoir to stop feeding the system.
- Mix your nutes and load the reservoir. Even if you are using inorganic salts like Jack’s, the water will be cloudy with undissolved particles and we want them to settle before turning them loose. This could be a real problem if you want to use organic fertilizer with loads of particulates.
- Let the filled reservoir sit overnight at least. You should see the water clear up. I wait till I can see the bottom.
- This is a good time to troubleshoot any other problems, leaks, clogs etc. I bought a can of compressed air and connected it to a length of the 1/4" tubing. You can connect that to any part of the system and blow out the float valve or any section of fill line that you suspect to be clogged.
- Your pots will draw down their water levels while you wait for the water to clear and that seems to be a good thing! My plants seem to appreciate the extra oxygen dose that Octos get when the water level drops for awhile.
- Once the water clears open the valve on the big rez and check the Controller to make sure your float valve is letting the water flow.
- Final step is to check that the water level is rising on all your pots. They will fill very slowly so note how low they were and check them a few hours later to ensure they are filling. They should all be at the same level, so if one isn’t moving get out your air can and troubleshoot!
I also dump the main rez and controller every two weeks or so. They’ll never fully empty so just dump the residue in the “Spit Bucket” and swab out the bins with a paper towel.
That may all sound like a pain, but once you get into a routine it only takes a few minutes.
-Grouchy
Octo Bud! (Orange Grove x GG4 RIL courtesy @Floyd)
Hey @420ghost, how’s your autofill workin?
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That’s workable! Thanks for the breakdown!
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My pleasure is to see some of these in use! We just took another long weekend trip and the plants didn’t miss a beat. My Saintly Spouse is an Autofill fan! Priceless.
I’m pulling together another few more notes to post here on what works and what don’t.
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MicroOcto Autofiller, User’s Guide
No free rides in the Craft Cannabis art… there’s work involved in running the autofiller on a continuous basis. I’m finishing up my third grow with a six pot autofiller and there are lessons to be learned. Stuff to know, stuff to be done.
I’m going to use this thread as my “AutoFiller Notebook.” A good place to store what I learn and, perhaps, be of use if anyone one else makes use of this approach. Anyone interested is welcome to chime in.
It Works
I had two goals for this device: First to allow me to go away for at least a week without undue concern. Secondly, I wanted to gain more insight and control over how these micro octopots work. I’ve always thought that the “Magic” of these little pots is the way it implements the dual root system. This Autofiller makes it easy to play with the water levels for an individual plant, or an entire room full. There are secrets to explore here.
But the essential utility here is freedom. I’ve left town for up to two weeks during three sequential grows successfully. So, yeah, what’s the value of taking a week to visit your mother, or whatever?
Two Ways to Use
I have found two very different modes of use for this autofiller; first as a standby system clean and empty but piped all the way to your pots and ready to take over. Just fill the big rez and walk away. Clean the big rez and controller when you get home and take it offline till next time.
The other endpoint is keeping this type of autofiller running on a continuous basis for a full grow. That requires a bit of maintenance weekly and a good cleaning once each month. Also likely is an occasional troubleshooting headache.
The good news is that the maintenance for either type of use is manageable, and the level of effort is proportional to the amount and type of use. If you are reading this you are some kind of CannaNerd and this is nothin folks like us can’t manage.
Mung, Strew, and Gack
Let’s face it, the eighth inch (3mm) flow of nutrient-rich plant food through these tiny pipes is slow and easy to clog. It’s manageable, but routine maintenance is required to keep this system happy.
It’s all about the mung and strew weirdness that seems to accompany every cannabis fertilizer system. If you mix up ten gallons of any nutes and the autofiller slowly feeds a room full of plants it will eventually clog the float valve in the Controller or one of the components downstream.
I had hoped to avoid the problem of nutrient mung in the system by sticking to liquid inorganic salt nutes, notably General Hydro trio. I have since switched to Jack’s which is better but still not perfect. My experience is that a visible grunge appears in the large reservoir after a week or so no matter which brand. That’s bad news, but worse yet is that the gack is distributed in the water column, so some of it will be sucked down to the controller, through the float valve and on to the pots. Proper maintenance can avoid this problem.
Filling the Main Reservoir with Fresh Nutes*
-
Start when the main reservoir is nearly empty.
-
Manually top off each pot, by hand if necessary, with the current feed. this will buy you the time to take the rest of the system offline for maintenance.
-
Close the valve at the main Reservoir to stop feeding the system.
-
The Reservoir and Controller will never empty entirely so just dump the residue in the “Spit Bucket” and swab out the bins with a paper towel. You shouldn’t even need to unplug any tubing and you’ll remove most of the accumulated junk before it goes into your plumbing! Recycle the waste into your veggie garden or whatever.
-
Mix your new nutes and fill the reservoir. Even if you are using inorganic salts like Jack’s, the water will be cloudy with undissolved particles and we want them to settle before turning them loose. This could be a real problem if you want to use organic fertilizer with loads of particulates.
-
Let the filled reservoir sit overnight at least. You should see the water clear up. I wait till I can see the bottom.
-
This is a good time to troubleshoot any other problems, leaks, clogs etc. I bought a can of compressed air and connected it to a length of the 1/4" tubing. You can connect that to any part of the system and blow out the float valve or any section of fill line that you suspect to be clogged.
-
Your pots will draw down their water levels while you wait for the water to clear and that seems to be a good thing! My plants seem to appreciate the extra oxygen dose that Octos get when the water level drops for awhile.
-
Once the water clears open the valve on the big rez and check the Controller to make sure your float valve is letting the water flow.
-
Final step is to check that the water level is rising on all your pots. They will fill very slowly so note how low they were and check them a few hours later to ensure they are filling. They should all be at the same level, so if one isn’t moving get out your air can and troubleshoot!
Monthly Maintenance Task
If you want your system to function continually, you need to plan for a monthly cleaning of the main rez and Controller. Easy but messy cleaning, hose purge.
Basically this involves closing all the valves from the Rez to the Controller, then disconnecting and emptying them both for a real scrub down.
Plan ahead to do this and run down the level in your large reservoir. Just let your plants drain it way down then dump the remainder. Take the rez outside and clean the holy hell out of the thing. High pressure garden hose sprayer will get most of the gunk, but have a sponge on hand. While you’re at it, open that outlet valve and direct some serious water spray through that fitting. Once the big rez is clean, reinstall it, empty, and open the outlet valve.
Empty the Controller and give it the same treatment. Push some serious water through the float valve, brush away any gunk, test that it shuts off flow when you lift the float. Shoot some water through the outlet bulk head and make sure it flows.
That’s it really, reconnect everything and you’re back in bidness. A grace note is to sanitize both pieces before using them again. I spray everything with a 50/50 water & isopropyl mix, let it sit for a bit then spray it down with clean water.
Clearing a blockage
Let’s say that you have determined that a specific fitting or length of tubing is blocked and it’s not practical to disconnect the entire manifold to trouble shoot and fix?
In that case, a can of compressed air is your best friend. I’ll add some pics, but basically a can of the compressed air product intended to blow dust around in electronics, is the tool of choice. Slip a length of your Auto Fill tubing over the spout on your can of air and plug the other end on the offending Auto fill component. Works best if the tubing is full of water, the air pressure just punches it downstream.
For example, connect your air to the manifold inlet. Now you can turn each outlet on the manifold valve on / off all the way into each plant’s one gallon rez. Give the air a squeeze or two and listen for bubbles in your pots.
Plumbing Tips
The variety of 1/4" tubing types can be used to advantage. The harder blue or green tubing designed for under the sink RO units is best used for the mainline plumbing between the reservoir, controller and manifold. The more flexible black tubing usually sold for drip systems is much better for the lines from the manifold to the individual pots since they will usually be longer runs and you want all the tubing to be as flat as possible. I put my pots on Lazy Susan rotating platters so I can spin them to get even lighting. the flexi tubing allows a 180 degree rotation without complaining.
That should do it, but if it don’t well, just tag @GrouchyOldMan!
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Awesome Guide @GrouchyOldMan
Bookmarking…
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@GrouchyOldMan, outstanding work sir. Thank you!
note: I’ve added a small fluming pump in my main reservoir. runs for 30min/day.
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This is super cool. I’d like to try this some day. I wonder how it would work with earthbox or city pickers
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So far the system is serving me very well. Upgraded the external rez to a 12 gallon tote. Shooting for close to a laissez-faire system as possible.
So far, so very good.
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Very nice, those plants look happy!
Have the roots hit the rez yet? I’m so curious how those tall bags work out. My squatty 3 gallon bags seem to encourage large root systems both in the pot and in the entire fabric pot. Surprising.
-Grouchy
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Today is day 25 from germination. I Transplanted them on day 7.This morning all had roots visible under the lid.
Just checked. All have roots in water.
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YOU ARE RAWKIN IT Grrrrl.
So those roots snaked their way down through how many inches of dry soil to get through to the octo rez? Impressive.
Nice pic BTW, how did you DO that?
-Grouchy
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lol, thank you. I really am doing very little. I’ll be feeding a constant formula throughout.
per gallon :
Jack’s 20-10-20 peat lite, 2.25 gram
gypsum: 1gr
epsom 1gr
fish shit 1.5ml
this gives me a repeatable EC of 1.10-1.15 over water baseline. (I’ll test an increase to 2.5g when they’re a little older, see how they take it.)
steady ph of 6.2-6.5.
so once a week I make some water. lol.
pic was nothing special, phone against lip with lid lift
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That’s exactly how I feel about the autofiller, "Once a week I mix a batch of chems and pour it into the big Rez… ZZZzzzzzz.
I started playing with the autofiller water level in the pots this grow with interesting results.
-Grouchy
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Where are you guys getting all these various octo pots ? I’m curious to try them eventually.
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jumper cable clamp…brilliant!