Keeping it simple - Coco + Blumats

xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I run about 1.2 ec or 600 ppm's in veg and around 1.5 ec or 750 ppm's in flower. That's using a Hanna meter.
 
Uncle Reefer

Uncle Reefer

Well-Known Member
Can't argue with results, great work. I love seeing these bluemats work for you. There is definitely something to having perfect soil moister levels at all times.

I wish I could get these to work for me but alas I got too many plants going and its too hard to reach the pots to adjust a check the blue mats at work.
I have toyed with 4 of them but I didn't have success with getting them dialed in. They were close but still needed care. Not the set it and forget it that I would need. I figured with more head pressure things would be different.

Oh, to not have to hand water ever other day...........
 
DesertHydro

DesertHydro

Well-Known Member
i get air bubbles inside mine after a while. not sure what is going on. i fill them under water and get all the air out but then after a couple weeks i seem to get big air bubbles in the carrots. not sure if it matters or not.
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
How much if any runoff will there be? I'm actually looking at the 5 carrot setup to test in square pails. I'm not looking forward to drilling them out for drainage as I originally got 12 to use in a recirc setup but thinking way more complicated lol. Also I have a huge bag of clay balls (20lbs) and would like to incorporate them somehow, perhaps a vereculite/perlite mix, any thoughts? I'm running a flood and drain kind of thing now.
 
DesertHydro

DesertHydro

Well-Known Member
Budley Doright said:
How much if any runoff will there be? I'm actually looking at the 5 carrot setup to test in square pails. I'm not looking forward to drilling them out for drainage as I originally got 12 to use in a recirc setup but thinking way more complicated lol. Also I have a huge bag of clay balls (20lbs) and would like to incorporate them somehow, perhaps a vereculite/perlite mix, any thoughts? I'm running a flood and drain kind of thing now.
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No runoff unless they're improperly tuned. With these you generally end up using less water and less ferts because they're super efficient and there's no runoff. That's why it's important to not be like me and over feed lol. Start at about 5-600ppm and go from there. If you wanna mix in the clay balls I would just keep them away from the sensor because you want nice even contact with the media and the ceramic cone. My stuff is 70/30 Coco perlite
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
DesertHydro said:
No runoff unless they're improperly tuned. With these you generally end up using less water and less ferts because they're super efficient and there's no runoff. That's why it's important to not be like me and over feed lol. Start at about 5-600ppm and go from there. If you wanna mix in the clay balls I would just keep them away from the sensor because you want nice even contact with the media and the ceramic cone. My stuff is 70/30 Coco perlite
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So clay balls are probably not the best then. Coco has always scared me away due to quality and cost, its pretty expensive around here I think from initial inquiries, maybe I should rethink that lol. Perilite I have, again a huge bag, I use it in my outdoor soil.
 
DesertHydro

DesertHydro

Well-Known Member
Budley Doright said:
So clay balls are probably not the best then. Coco has always scared me away due to quality and cost, its pretty expensive around here I think from initial inquiries, maybe I should rethink that lol. Perilite I have, again a huge bag, I use it in my outdoor soil.
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ideally you'd want pure coco or coco/perlite in about the 70/30 range seems to work well.
 
Daveindiego

Daveindiego

Well-Known Member
Hey, what size is the inlet hose into this system?

1/4”. 3/8?

I’m going to have to get this resovoir issue resolved.
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
DesertHydro said:
ideally you'd want pure coco or coco/perlite in about the 70/30 range seems to work well.
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Pure coco is the best.

I use botanicaire coco grow coco that comes in 5 kilogram bricks. It's what they sell down the street and it's double washed. I re-hydrate it with half strength nutes unless I'm planting seedlings or clones when I use 1/4 strength.

Daveindiego said:
Pretty sure that’s a 1/4 inch line.
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It's 8mm line. The lines coming off that to the blumats are 3mm.
 
Daveindiego

Daveindiego

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
Pure coco is the best.

I use botanicaire coco grow coco that comes in 5 kilogram bricks. It's what they sell down the street and it's double washed. I re-hydrate it with half strength nutes unless I'm planting seedlings or clones when I use 1/4 strength.



It's 8mm line. The lines coming off that to the blumats are 3mm.
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You said that you put together that 18 gallon resovoir, did the kit come with the necessary grommet to use for the resovoir?
 
Daveindiego

Daveindiego

Well-Known Member
Anyone have any ideas on other terms to find a 15-20 gallon gravity drain tank? Not easy to find a bottom draining resovoir.
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
Daveindiego said:
Anyone have any ideas on other terms to find a 15-20 gallon gravity drain tank? Not easy to find a bottom draining resovoir.
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Im sure the heavy duty totes with the yellow/red lids will work and your right about the bottom drain, you probably won't find one. If you buy a rain barrel drain they have a valve that fits right on it. Also from what I can see, it should have come with a thru hull fitting that you use for the res.
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
Pure coco is the best.

I use botanicaire coco grow coco that comes in 5 kilogram bricks. It's what they sell down the street and it's double washed. I re-hydrate it with half strength nutes unless I'm planting seedlings or clones when I use 1/4 strength.



It's 8mm line. The lines coming off that to the blumats are 3mm.
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And u reuse the coco? Seems like it would be a pain to do that :(. And have you had any clog up and quit? I'm just trying to weigh these as opposed to drain to waste with timed watering.
 
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