flo n gro problem.. keeps flooding!!

I switched to hydro about 2 weeks ago. It runs 4 times a day, 2 at 15 minutes and 2 and 30 minutes. The first week was working fine. Then two mornings in a row I come in to find 20+ gallons on the floor with the flood pump still running.. buckets completely full and overflowing. So I bring back the controller bucket to the store.. they give me a new one in box. Hook it up.. everything is good for 5 days.. just now I go downstairs to fine the pump running again and 20 gallons of water on the floor.. unplug the controller, move the dial to drain, plug it back in and it starts draining.

What is wrong with these? Seems like the float switch to tell the controller its full is not working/registering. I leveled the bucket even to make sure that was not the problem before the first one was doing this and still same problems. ideas?!

thanks all!

A few pics would be of immense help m8, water is a terribly lazy media and will find a way to go where you don't want it to. Try to include your pump and tubing configurations in your photos.

Peace

Asmallvoice

There is a little hole on the flood to the res. you may have covered it. check their website...?

Sounds like the drain pipe is cloging, check to see if some roots arn't reaching down into it. I've had a similar experience with a home made set up, the roots would reach down into the drain hole, following the flow, or the drain is not sufficient to handle the amt pumping in.

DeeTee said:

Sounds like the drain pipe is cloging, check to see if some roots arn't reaching down into it. I've had a similar experience with a home made set up, the roots would reach down into the drain hole, following the flow, or the drain is not sufficient to handle the amt pumping in.

Click to expand...

Well I know its the flood pump (pump in res) not turning off once the controller bucket is full as I have witnessed the pump still just running even while the buckets and the controller buckets are overflowing over the top onto the floor. Like its the float switch not registering to the controller that its full.

here are photos of setup.

bongwaterbob said:

There is a little hole on the flood to the res. you may have covered it. check their website...?

Click to expand...

Just checked.. its not covered.. actually its not able to be covered.. its under the lid in the fitting before the 1/2" part where you can put the hose onto.

Check your float valves I had a similar experience where the nutes that I used caused my lower float valve to get stickny I guess and it almost burnt up my drain pump. I would just make sure they remain clean and unobstructed

Is that perlite I see in there? What exactly are you running in there? That perlite has got to be getting into the system.

Hell I didn't even notice that I would imagine that's his problem the perlite getting stuck in the float valve

Nothing is clogged anywhere... the pump that floods (fills the buckets) keeps running even though the float switch is up which is suppose to switch it off... It has not flooded again since posting this thread.. but watching it constantly. I think the switch that is suppose to tell the controller its full is not registering sometimes so the pump just keeps pumping.

I am using 6" grodans and perlite btw.

Either you're having bad luck with float switches, or something is jamming it open. I always have extra float switches on hand, they're easy to replace.

Grab a multimeter and verify the proper contact operation of your float switch (continuity with the power OFF! ), if the switch is up, and the pump is still running, the float switch is either stuck/bad, replace it, awfully cheap part to protect the system as a whole. If it were me, growing with that setup, I would have at least 2 float switches on standby.

Peace

Asmallvoice