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drip irrigation help needed

mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
i need help please. im trying to do a automated water system.and i need to know the cheapest place to get the fittings. and if what i have im mind to use will work. here is a list of what i am planing to use.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281540553477?var=580564463375 before you say the pump is too small im only going to run 10 .psi to the drip lines
http://www.ebay.com/itm/301433961689 this will supply 4 cells with 16 plants per cell. will only be watering 1 cell per day.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181412404704
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181143151974 2 of these for 16 pots
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181402606649?var=480389667512 in going to use 3 per plant.
well am i on the right track or not.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
None of those pumps will reach near 10 psi. Those pumps range from 0.65 PSI to 3.86 PSI. Multiply the max height (feet) by 0.434 and that will give you the PSI needed to reach that height. You need to design for lower PSI or use a stronger pump (non centrifugal).

Make sure the pump you use doesn't release toxic oil in the event of failure. I have wonderful experience with the zc-a40 or zc-t40 pumps $13-20 (alliexpress/ebay). They will need an AC/DC adapter, but I always keep a few of the old 12v ones around for this type of use anyway. I actually found the pumps for use in a solar powered outdoor setup and have been using them indoors and out now.

Note the zc-a40/zc-t40 will only reach about 7 PSI still, I get about 16ft of lift from mine, at a trickle.
 
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mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
nomofatum said:
None of those pumps will reach near 10 psi. Those pumps range from 0.65 PSI to 3.86 PSI. Multiply the max height (feet) by 0.434 and that will give you the PSI needed to reach that height. You need to design for lower PSI or use a stronger pump (non centrifugal).

Make sure the pump you use doesn't release toxic oil in the event of failure. I have wonderful experience with the zc-a40 or zc-t40 pumps $13-20 (alliexpress/ebay). They will need an AC/DC adapter, but I always keep a few of the old 12v ones around for this type of use anyway. I actually found the pumps for use in a solar powered outdoor setup and have been using them indoors and out now.

Note the zc-a40/zc-t40 will only reach about 7 PSI still, I get about 16ft of lift from mine, at a trickle.
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its not the psi that i need. i was only using a 10 psi flow reg. just in case i up the pump i wont have to redo all the setup.
what i was looking at was GPH. if you go backwards the drippers are set at 0.3 GPH no mater the pressure with these drippers, and if using 3 per plant. thats about 1 GPH per plant. i need to water 16 plants per cell per day. thats 16 GPH of water i need to supply, so i thought a 53 GPH pump would be pushing ok. what do you think will i work? Oh i forgot to say in growing in soil and just want to automate the watering, and feeding
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
mike4c4 said:
its not the psi that i need. i was only using a 10 psi flow reg. just in case i up the pump i wont have to redo all the setup.
what i was looking at was GPH. if you go backwards the drippers are set at 0.3 GPH no mater the pressure with these drippers, and if using 3 per plant. thats about 1 GPH per plant. i need to water 16 plants per cell per day. thats 16 GPH of water i need to supply, so i thought a 53 GPH pump would be pushing ok. what do you think will i work? Oh i forgot to say in growing in soil and just want to automate the watering, and feeding
Click to expand...
Beware they tend to underperform their lift rating. In my experience they run about 2/3rd the rating except the ones zc-a40/t40, they are rated at 3.8m (12.5ft) but I get 16ft.

Dealing with 1ft or less of actual lift can be enough of a bitch. I would go with one rated to at least 1.5x the height of your drippers in your setup.

I'm curious how the drippers work at the same rate with different pressures.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
My guess is at lower pressure you will get less output, in any case, you can setup your system and collect the output for x timeframe, do the math and figure out how long you want to leave each zone on for.

All the drippers I find say 10-20 PSI operating range, though I'm guessing they still work at slower rates at lower PSI.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
hey mike, i went real simple with my auto feed. a 6 outlet DiG manifold (forget the actual GPM of the pump) with black silicone airline tubing into a plastic Tee from Lowes. Don't worry about drippers/emitters clogging. I just change by digital timer for how long and often I want it to feed
 
mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
rkymtnman said:
hey mike, i went real simple with my auto feed. a 6 outlet DiG manifold (forget the actual GPM of the pump) with black silicone airline tubing into a plastic Tee from Lowes. Don't worry about drippers/emitters clogging. I just change by digital timer for how long and often I want it to feed
Click to expand...
that works good for you. your doing 6 plants where my grow is a little bigger 16 plants per cell with 4 cell thats 64 plants total in the flower room.
 
mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
nomofatum said:
My guess is at lower pressure you will get less output, in any case, you can setup your system and collect the output for x timeframe, do the math and figure out how long you want to leave each zone on for.

All the drippers I find say 10-20 PSI operating range, though I'm guessing they still work at slower rates at lower PSI.
Click to expand...
NETAFIM irrigation drippers seem to be the best i have found i have heard that they are the only ones that do. it seems every one in calli. seems to be using them only, and these drippers are for gravity fed systems.
 
mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
Has anybody used these drippers on here. can you say if they are good or not. they are kind of pricey over the other ones
 
mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
nomofatum said:
Still looks like the same damn thing to me. Same specs just listed in bar/liter instead of psi/gallon.
Click to expand...
im not sure what you mean by how much lift i need. the bottom of my water tank is 6" higher than the 5gal buckets i use. the line comes from the bottom of my tank along the wall still 6" above the buckets into the 2 orbit 8 way supply fittings. then into the buckets. at no time is the lines lower than the top of my buckets.
so whats your setup? what tips do you use? what kind of controller did you get. i have been looking at Growtronix. i have heard nothing but good things about them.
i dont mean to come off sounding like a ass. ive just got a lot of cash tied up in this. i would like to get this system up and running bug free within 6 months. once everything is up and running i will only be visiting the site every 6wks. every thing is going great but this water system. ive had 3 different types installed and they all failed.
 
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mike4c4

mike4c4

Well-Known Member
just got my hands on 6 of these drippers to test for a wk and see how they perform. will let you know how they do.
 
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