Setting up my first watering system today and wanted to go step by step. The cost was $200 for the hoses, valves and pump. This is my flowering chamber. Its 18x8 im scrogging using promix in 5 gallon pots.
This is what I’m working with. The canvas if you may.
Everything worked out. Took awhile but well worth the time it will save.
That’s gonna make life soooo much easier. Nice looking room!
@beacher ya agreed. I’ve spent to many hours watering. - says my wife hahah
Those are the girls going into those pots in a few weeks time
[Nitpicking] 
@cannabissequoia Thanks for the tips. White paint is quick and easy so I should stop being lazy hahah I’m in Canada so no earth quakes to deal with. I recently removed tables from this room not sure how floor temps will come into play. I had to tear down 4 weeks ago to rid myself of mites (took on a rouge plant from another grower and it destroyed me) getting back on track from all that.
The pump size has me concerned. I’m running about 25 feet of hosing l. Do you think this will be able to do it? I should get a spare for sure.
It should have you concerned. I have 2x3000lph central heating pumps feeding about half the number of plants you have there. I find that even then I have issues with insufficient flow. One issue is that the valves that feed each tray in my system get clogged with little bits of crap (broken off parts of root, algae, precipitates) and there is not enough back pressure to clear it so that outlet stops flowing.
I would start by figuring how much flow per plant I want. Get one of your buckets and set the flow to it to be the rate you want. Now measure how much volume that is in 1 minute.
For example, if you fill a 2 litre jug in 1 minutes that is a flow of 120 litres per hour (2x60).
Once you know your flow per plant per hour, multiply that by 30 (you have 30 plants as far as I can see) then add 25% extra for losses (this is a guess, if anyone can give more a firm answer here please do), both from the length of tubing and to allow for some spare for when the pump gets old and tired.
So, using the example above again, at 60 litres per hour for 30 plants you would need 1800lph and 25% on top would be 2250lph.
I just tested my flow rate and it fills a 500ml glass in about 14 seconds. When I look at the flow it is not much more than a trickle from a 15mm (1/2") outlet. This is 28 seconds per litre so (60/28)=2.1428 litres per minute. 2.1428*60=128.5lph
I find this gives a good flow to allow plants to grow vigorously. I would like more. Specifically more pressure to clear blockages but that is not relevent to your issue.
128lph*30 plants would be 3840lph, and with the extra for losses 4800lph.
I suspect your 1500lph pump will not let your system provide the benefits it is capable of and you would get a better result with a larger pump (or two).
One thing to be very aware of is the head on your pump. If your pump has to make your solution rise from the floor to your tank, that height is called the ‘head’ and it is normally measured in metres.
Most pumps at a 1-2m head are pumping half the flow they do at a head of 0.
The max head on an ecoplus 396 is 1.95M. That is the height you could hold a hose and no water would come out of the end. There would be no flow at all.
Here is the chart showing flow at various heads. Your storage tank inlet looks to be about 4ft (1.25m) high. At that height, your pump will only supply 600lph. With losses from the length of tubing, you are looking at much less than that.
That is about 20lph per plant, around 20% of what I would consider to be decent flow.
Always look at the head chart on a pump, it is the only way to know what flow YOU will get in your system.
Here is the head chart for my pumps. Ignore the other lines, they are different settings. The one to look at is the solid black line which is the highest.
As you can see, they have a good head (4m) and will still provide 50% flow (1200lph) at over a 2m head. I placed a second pump at 1m to keep flow up at the 2m height I need for my particular system. As each pump only has a head of 1m this means I get roughly 2300lph at a head of 2m (1m3=1000lph). Dividing that by the 18 plants in the system gives (2300/18=)127.777lph, very close to the direct measurement I just took. The extra from the real world measurement is probably due to some outlets being lower than 2m, which would reduce the head as far as the pump sees it.
For your system, with 30 plants, I would say you need a net flow of 3000lph after losses, with the 25% spare that is close to 4000lph. This would get your system into the flow rate ballpark to allow your system to function as well as it should.
Hopefully, this information will stop you getting another pump which will also not be enough and to start looking at pumps capable of what you need them to do. You have a serious system, you need a serious pump. Not aquarium toys…
Please don’t take this as criticism, you have done really well if this is your first watering system, just some timely advice.
I had quite a problem during the colder months when I had plants directly in contact with the cement slab. I am in the UP so I have a much longer cold season than I do warm.
An easy fix I found was using 2" foam w/ a piece of plywood on top, but for plants alone you might just skip the wood and only have to cut small squares to sit them on. Just a thought.
Great looking watering setup!
I prefer black/white plastic. Cheap, clean, light and waterproof… painting stuff like OSB or concrete can be a real pain I like to just hide it all away lol
@MicroDoser woah that was a very detailed breakdown. Thanks very much. I’m not beat up over buying the little pump I think I can utilize it in my smaller veg room. And have no worries your comments were taken constructively. I will grab a bigger pump.
@SuperiorBuds thanks for the tip I think I’ll go with individual foam pieces.
@beacher I’ve got a roll and hate painting so I’ll go your recommended route.
@MicroDoser seriously, thanks. 
i normally get competitive about knowledge (…& shit…) but so glad you slammed the gavel down definitively on this one 
hehe
as in…
@Mongobongo: “What he said” 
dad was a plumber
@cannabissequoia Haha this is why I love this damn site.
I cut some inch and a half spacers out of pvc to raise my plants off of the ground and also to get better air flow.
I only meant to type “You should be concerned”…
Mine was a welder/pipefitter (when pipe fitting was still a job). My mate is a plumber and he is where the “Stop using that aquarium shit” concept comes from. He shifted my view from upper-level aquarium to lower level industrial and I have never regretted taking his advice. I recently got a very similar pump to the one OP is using to run my chiller and after about 6 months it sounds like the bearings or some seal has gone inside and now it sounds like a little barrel of stones where the impeller is rattling about inside like you wouldn’t believe. It became the noisiest thing in my whole system. I will be replacing it with a Grundfos Alpha 2.
During this time, my Grundfos Alpha 2 pumps just went from three years old to four years old with no other change.
LOL I know that one way too well!
I should have not called it a watering system. It’s suppose to be a drip system
Then you may not need such a strong flow. The best way forward is to do the single pot flow test then multiply it up to get the rate you need for all your buckets, adjust for head flow, allow for pipe losses, then recalculate your required pump size.
I gave you numbers for NFT hydro, YMMV.
I’m going to play around with it today. Get the flow down. I’ve got a timer that can go down to 15s and a valve on each tube. It’s just going to take some time pissing around with it. I’ll let you know how the single pot flow test goes.
Hi,
I’m researching top drip systems myself. I ran into a dude that made a mod I liked. He T’d off the main output line and ran a valved line back to res. He then controlled how much pressure to plants by how open or closed the valve is that feeds water back to res. Hard to describe. Solves two issues. Regulates output pressure as well as providing waterfall oxygenation of res.
JD
