Duelling flood tables
- Thread starter Gquebed
- Start date
firsttimeARE
Well-Known Member
Two pumps cheapest and easiest.
Measure the time it takes to flood and drain completely and have two different timers. Say the time is 15minutes. And you want to flood every 6 hours have one pump start at 12:00PM 6:00PM etc... And the other at 12:20PM 6:20PM etc.
Thought this thread was going to be about a battle to the death between two flood tables
Gquebed
Well-Known Member
I plan on a 60 gal res. Ive heard that pumps can bring up res temps significantly. Will two pumps in a 60 gal be a problem for heat?
firsttimeARE
Well-Known Member
They are only adding heat while running. So yes while running they will add heat. But it will go back to near ambient fairly quickly
Gquebed
Well-Known Member
Say... what about....
Having the second table lower and then... one pump floods the top table and instead of draining to the res the top table drains to the lower table and then it drains to the res.
Then i could use one pump, one timer and one outlet?
firsttimeARE
Well-Known Member
I guess it depends on how big your res is and how big your tables are and how high you flood those tables. But that could work as well.
I know with my 4x4 table flooding the 40gal res gets almost empty
I know with my 4x4 table flooding the 40gal res gets almost empty
Gquebed
Well-Known Member
Well... all as above.
Two 4x4 tables. One 60 gal res. The bottom of one table would be at 31" high and the bottom of the second table would be 6" lower or so.
firsttimeARE
Well-Known Member
That doesn't matter. I meant height of the water in the table.
Gquebed
Well-Known Member
Ah.
I read wrong.
I guess i just figured both would flood to the same height, given the tables would be identical.
firsttimeARE
Well-Known Member
Well fill up your res and flood a table and see how much water you have left. If that could fill another table then it would work. If not I'd use two different pumps with different timings.
If it's close I'd still use the separate pumps so you have to top off less.
But if each table only needs 10-15gal then I'd say that would work.
A pump has a water line before it just sputters and doesn't pump and your 50gal probably doesn't fit that much water. Only one way to find out is run a test.
If it's close I'd still use the separate pumps so you have to top off less.
But if each table only needs 10-15gal then I'd say that would work.
A pump has a water line before it just sputters and doesn't pump and your 50gal probably doesn't fit that much water. Only one way to find out is run a test.
Gquebed
Well-Known Member
I think you misunderstood me.
Res pumps up to high table.
High table drains completely to low table.
Low table drains to res completely.
Thats what i was getting at.
firsttimeARE
Well-Known Member
What I was getting at is how are you going to drain it completely into the lower table?
Usually a table floods back to the res via the same way it comes in which is an opening in the sump of the table.
Now that I'm thinking of it the way I was thinking wouldn't work either.
So a new idea would be to tee off the pump exit and feed up to each table. Plumb the overflows to a tee and run it back to the res.
Just don't bullhead the tee. Infact make a plenum that's capped at the end that's a size larger than the runouts to each table. Stack two reducing tees on top of each other and run out to each table opening and elbow up. Water takes the path of least resistance so what making a larger plenum and smaller sized run outside does is the water fills up the larger sized plenum first and equally pushed water out to the runouts so you don't have one table filling up easier than the other and more consistent flood rims on each table. Your table heights would be level as well with this approach.
Not sure why I didn't think of this to begin with
Usually a table floods back to the res via the same way it comes in which is an opening in the sump of the table.
Now that I'm thinking of it the way I was thinking wouldn't work either.
So a new idea would be to tee off the pump exit and feed up to each table. Plumb the overflows to a tee and run it back to the res.
Just don't bullhead the tee. Infact make a plenum that's capped at the end that's a size larger than the runouts to each table. Stack two reducing tees on top of each other and run out to each table opening and elbow up. Water takes the path of least resistance so what making a larger plenum and smaller sized run outside does is the water fills up the larger sized plenum first and equally pushed water out to the runouts so you don't have one table filling up easier than the other and more consistent flood rims on each table. Your table heights would be level as well with this approach.
Not sure why I didn't think of this to begin with
Last edited:
Carolina Dream'n
Well-Known Member
Not gonna work. The pump going up one side of your flood and drain is what keeps the water in tray. If you don’t have that pump in it’s never gonna flood. Just drain.
Carolina Dream'n
Well-Known Member
Tee your overflow/drainage line. Seperate pump for each tray.
Seperate timer for each pump.
Redundancy is key. If one pump fails you only loose half crop. If one timer fails, same thing.
Seperate timer for each pump.
Redundancy is key. If one pump fails you only loose half crop. If one timer fails, same thing.
Kenny Grows
Active Member
Turpman
Well-Known Member
This would work
Put a bell siphon on the top table. Once it fills and overflows the bell it will dump to the bottom table. Draining the bottom table may be tempermental. Since you don't have a fill line you would have to make sure you have ample water to make sure the the second table fills to the bell siphon drain on it too. Maybe a small 1/8 drain that will get rid of the excess the if the bell doesn't drain completely on the second table since you don't have fill lies to drain back through a pump. Google siphon bell they are easy to make.
Put a bell siphon on the top table. Once it fills and overflows the bell it will dump to the bottom table. Draining the bottom table may be tempermental. Since you don't have a fill line you would have to make sure you have ample water to make sure the the second table fills to the bell siphon drain on it too. Maybe a small 1/8 drain that will get rid of the excess the if the bell doesn't drain completely on the second table since you don't have fill lies to drain back through a pump. Google siphon bell they are easy to make.
Major Blazer
Well-Known Member
In a 60 gal res I would bet my cat that the amount of time the pump is on for one - or even more - flood cycle(s) would not raise your water temps at all. Even if it does, it won't be significant (and you win a free cat).
