Yeah, if my next couple of experiments dont work out, thats going to be my final shot before going to stones.
I realized a little bit ago that part of the problem Im having is that Im dealing with much shallower water than I had in any of my fish tanks. That doesnt leave enough vertical space inside the tubes for the water/air to build up any momentum or flow. Im playing with different sized tubes and airflow rates to see if I can find a combination that works ok.
Thanks!
I recommend airstones.
Also the larger the volume of water the less the temperature will fluctuate. You can freeze s bottle of water to put in your rez if it starts to get to hot. Also put the air pump in front of the Ac duct or in the coolest place.
it’s my understanding megacrop is going for OMRI certification in 2018. i want to switch to hydro once i upgrade from a tent to a room but i think i’ll do flood/drain w/ hydroton or perlite
I can see why people are using air stones. My old reef tank tricks just dont work worth a darn in shallow water.
However, I still refuse to use regular air stones for the reasons I listed above - they are $$, they plug up, and they can breed nasty bacteria. I have an alternate DIY option that is cheep and looks like its going to work very well. Skibal gets credit for mentioning the idea first - simple CPVC pipe and caps work great and are dirt cheap (if you dont count your labor) compared to air stones.
I see what you mean by the volume of water being important for temp stability. I have been playing around at HomeDepot with various totes and buckets, and it looks like Im going to need to go up to a 27 gal tote to get the two pots far enough apart to center them properly in my tent and have enough room for an access door in the lid. All of that adds up to me needing more water in the rez. I guess I will just have to put up with having to mix up more than one 5 gal bucket at water change time.
The air pump will be outside the tent and in as cool a place as I can find. I can always put a fan on it if needed. I also plan to insulate the top of the tote as much as I can to keep the heat from the tent from getting into the rez area. Im going to mount the tote by cutting a hole in the work bench my tent is sitting on so it hangs down below the bottom of the grow tent. That should help a lot with hi temps. This time of year I may even need to add a heater. I keep my house fairly cool at night. My goal is to keep water temps in the 68F to 70F range. My tent stays between 74F-78F.
Thanks for the tips!!!
I really wanted to to flood/drain but I cant justify the added expense and complexity. I really like the idea though.
yes i’d probably build my own ebb/flow tables to save cost and then can customize for the space. will yours be recirculating DWC system? i might have missed it somewhere, but will the water drain back to the rez from the hydroton buckets?
You get the grand prize! As I said, none of my old tricks work well in shallow water. So I got some 1/2" CPVC pipe and end caps and made some DIY air “stones”. They will cost me about $.75 each.
The CVPC stuff is much smaller than regular PVC pipe and fittings, but Im sure the regular stuff would work just fine.
These look to me like they will work great with much less chance of clogging up or growing bad stuff than normal air stones - I hope.
2ea end caps = .64 (you can probably buy them in 10 packs for less)
1ea 1/4" air hose barb ell = .10
1" of pipe = $.03 ( a 5ft piece costs $1.96. That will make 60 “stones”)
You dont need any glue. Just press the parts together. Here are some pics.
I drilled a 3/16" hole in the cap, then ream it out carefully until the barb fitting almost slips in. You want the hole too small, but not toooooo small.
I wrapped the fitting with some teflon tape, but I dont think thats necessary. No big deal if it leaks a bit - thats just more bubbles.
I use my vice to press the fitting in place. If the hole is sized properly, the barb on the fitting will snap in and hold it pretty tight.
All done.
Next, I drilled some 1mm holes in the second end cap. Thats the smallest drill bit I had handy. I tried 4 holes, 6 holes and 8 holes. More holes gives more water movement, but takes more air. I have a 900 L/Min pump and it looks like it could handle at least 6 of these with 6 holes each.
You can even make a curtain wall type or probably a circle or square if you wanted. I tried an 9" long one and it worked well, but it has to sit pretty level or the bubbles are not evenly distributed. It also takes a lot more air with all those holes. Im going to stick with the small ones. Probably 6ea in the tote - Two at each end and two in the middle.
This is two of them in a 5 gal bucket running with the air turned down. Really boils the water well.
I ordered a couple of WaterFarm plumbing kits to do the drip since my tricks were not working. Ill test one out as soon as it gets here. They are only about $11ea on Amazon.
Im not sure if it will qualify as recirculating. Im not going to have a water pump. The hydroton pots/buckets will be in the lid of the tote. There will not be a separate bucket, so the tote is the rez. The water in the tote will be aerated by the PVC stones and the water dripping through the hydroton. I expect most of the aeration will be from the water dripping through the hydroton. The water will sort of “circulate” as it drips through the hydroton, but thats going to be a very low volume of water. Not sure that counts as recirculating.
The thing I’m not understanding is how is water getting to the hydron without a water pump?
https://generalhydroponics.com/waterfarm-1/
The waterfarm’s use a drip system run by an air pump - no water pumps. Its similar to what is used in aquariums with under gravel filters, but their set up is a bit different looking than any I have seen before. What I ordered is just the drip system.
Here is the complete system.
Im just getting this part though.
Its the water lifting tube plus the drip ring. We will have to see how well it works in my application.
I just dont get how air going into the bucket forces water up the hose. If the bucket was air tight pressure would push it up but its not.
It works great in aquarium situations. Basically, you have a narrow tube, open at both ends, sitting vertically in the water. You insert air into the bottom of the tube, and as the air rises inside the tube, it forces water up the tube and out the top.
These Waterfarms seem to be popular, so they must work to some degree. I’ll have one of the plumbing kits in a couple of days and report how it does.
Thanks it’s not yur fault i still don’t get it.
Yes it does thanks!!!
Doing Hydro …loving it …will be looking just4growers for more pointers:grinning:
Doing Hydro my nutz are Masterblend 4-18-38
5 gal water: 12 gms Masterblend, 12 gms Cal. Nitrate, 6 gms Mag. Sulfate
Remember that with plants you can use H2O2. The airstones should not clog. I soak mine in h2o2 for a few min every 10days when I do a rez change. Even though the PVC will work fine.
Yeah, I think the air stone should work better for aerating the solution I would think, since they produce so many fine bubbles compared to the bubbles from the air hose alone… I would think that the minute bubbles would aerate the water better, But I’m no expert on aeration of water… I would think that you should not have any real issues using air stones as almost everyone uses them in DWC.
I have also seen the round ring tube that has a bunch of tiny holes in it that you can place in the bottom of the bucket instead of using an airstone…
I’m looking forward to running a Hydro grow for the first time. I was going to run all coco but the DWC bucket kit was sitting there in front of me at the grow store for $30 with everything needed, So I was like why not give it a shot with 1 plant!
Yeah, my prejudice against air stones is a hold over from my fish tank days from 20 plus years ago. Ive read reports of people having the stones plug up or get blocked by roots, but none of them getting nasty bacteria.
Im assuming that if you’re using H2O2 that you are not using any type of “beneficial bacterial” additives like Great White or Hydro Guard etc?
