Get a Harvest Every 2 Weeks

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Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
Maccabee said:
Interesting! Found this:

Soleus FB1-30-20 12" Box Fan with Rotating Grill
$24
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Yep, them's the bananas!

Unfortunately, that $24 fan would cost double that to ship to Australia.

LoudBlunts said:
two questions for ya al...

i modded a trash can on wheels for a res. i put a drain on her and hose...but duh! the hose doesnt curve downwards....
[...]
any ideas?
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Yep, permanently block the drain hole you put in the bin. Drain the tank with the pump.



Use a couple valves to make tank dumps easy.



second... IYO, what is the best way to aerate? i hear all this shit about bubblecurtains, airstones, bubblestones, air diffusers....air pumps with air lines running thru the res....what is your opinion on the best and way?
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Plain ol aquarium air pump and a bubble curtain. Get the sort with a woven stainless tube inside (weights them down to keep them from floating) and a polyfoam outer layer. The glued or compressed sand or glass bead sort of air stones just disintegrate into a pile of sand or beads in a few weeks.
 
Maccabee

Maccabee

Well-Known Member
LoudBlunts said:
thank you much. do i need to stand it up? or can i lay it on its side?
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The pond pumps are usually designed lower and wider, the inlet is on the side.

The utility pumps are like smaller sump pumps, basically, the water enters the bottom so they are meant to stand up.

If you really want to you can use an external inline pump--look at the "transfer pumps" on the site I linked. It's much more of a hassle though, unless you have a reason for doing it that way.
 
cmak40

cmak40

Well-Known Member
i dunno where your at lb but at canadian tire (in canada obviously) and most other stores that change with season have pond pumps. i got an 80gph for the mom tray for $13 and 4 130 gph for $25 a piece=$113+tax not a bad deal gonna grab 2 extras for back up.

as for your hole at the bottom of your res you could use it as your overflow back and just put a new hole up high for the pump in.

i grabbed an aquarium air pump and just put a 4way split on it for the res with a curtain in each one
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
LoudBlunts said:
what kinda pump do i get al?

also...can the pump be laid on its side?
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Like others have said, your garden variety submersible centrifugal aquarium pump. When the pump shuts off, water drains backward through it. For this reason, only centrif pumps can be used, but that's what 99.9% of the cheapo aquarium pumps are anyway.

We discussed recently the phenomenon of air getting sucked down the fill line to the pump when the tray is draining. This can cause an air bubble to be trapped in the centrif pump's chamber. It will sit there and cavitate but will pump no water. I put some screens in my fill fittings to try to stop the problem- doesn't work, even with 3 stacked. Took the screens out.

The problem of trapped air is made much worse when the pump is laid on its side. The pump outlet must face upward and the hose to it should be vertical at all points. A loop or bend would trap air. The hose should not be any longer than needed to get to the pump sitting upright on the bottom of the tank, like in my dwg with the valves as above.
 
insanestang4life

insanestang4life

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I am lucky because I sterilized the room realy good today with bleach and I have about 1 foot I can spare on each end of tables so hopefully that will be enough space for fans! Do you use two fans one on each end or one in each corner? Thanks



Al B. Fuct said:
oh yeah stang, I was going to mention to you that you should work in some clearance for circ fans on the far ends of your pairs of trays. The 'hanging from the ceiling' trick will save you a bit of space but you still have to have room to swing the fans without taking up the space above the trays- plants need that space.

I tried some compact tower fans but they did not like being run inverted. Their osc mechanisms quit after a month or so. I had to scoot my trays away from the wall on the far end to make room for some common $14, 40cm osc circ fans, but not as much as if the fans were standing on the floor. The tower fans were twice the price and I know I have to replace osc circ fans yearly, so I just made room for them and bought in a stock of about 20. Sucks that I didn't design in enough space from the get-go for the cheap traditional type fans. Hopefully you can catch this before you start setting up, unlike me.
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LoudBlunts

LoudBlunts

Well-Known Member
just got back from the store....


got one of those one with the rotating output....pretty sweet. nice priced too!!!
 
Maccabee

Maccabee

Well-Known Member
Just a note, you could use a different kind of pump if you wanted to plumb a separate return using a tee and some one-way valves. However, this is not as simple as it might sound (typically you have to use electronically controlled valves to get it to work well) so you would want to have a good reason to introduce this additional complexity to your setup.
 
LoudBlunts

LoudBlunts

Well-Known Member
HUH???!?!?!

i just needed a way to fight gravity! i need water to flow thru the tubing, even it the tube was pointing upwards! i modded a trash can for when im ready to dump and change the res...... the trash can has wheels my res doesnt... water is hard on the back!!!!!

so i just put a drain spout on a trash can with wheels!!!
 
Maccabee

Maccabee

Well-Known Member
I didn't get that Loud. Try again? If you mean that you're relying on the pressure of standing water in the trash can to force water out the drain @ the bottom and up to where your plants are you should keep in mind that the pressure will fall quickly as the water is forced out.

You pretty much have to have a pump, unless you want to use an elevated feeder bucket and a lower reservoir. In that setup you can transfer the water back to the top by hand, but thats exactly what you want to avoid. It does give you more flexibility on pumps, as like with the separate return water does not need to travel back down the fill line. So you could use a sump pump. This configuration is kind of a kludge for e&f/f&d though, it's more intended for an always on NFT setup with water falling to the bottom and being recirculated to the top.
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
Maccabee said:
Just a note, you could use a different kind of pump if you wanted to plumb a separate return using a tee and some one-way valves. However, this is not as simple as it might sound (typically you have to use electronically controlled valves to get it to work well) so you would want to have a good reason to introduce this additional complexity to your setup.
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A REAL good reason. F&D is brilliant mainly because it's soooooo simple. There's nothing to clog and just one thing to break- the pump. I keep a half dozen spares on hand.

Mac, I'm a BSEE but also a slacker- and your plan scares the crap out of both of me. :D
 
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