Yes I have a pump in there running 15 minutes on 15 minutes off. Setup has 10 aero misters with 400gph pump 8 gallons of water in 16 gallon tote with 2 airstones. I'm ordering a recycle timer so until it gets here the smallest increment timer I have is 15/15. I might even try usING a smaller pump yet. Just didn't know if there was anything else I could do. Thanks for the reply
If only...lol my wife would have a heart attack my room is pretty stealth. I think most of my problem is the heat from my lights so far. This is a new setup to me so still trying to work the bugs out. Thanks for the reply
Hell yea man sweet setup yea after I get a run or two in maybe I'll invest in a chiller. Want to make sure this is the route I wanna go. Soil is soo damn easy I got bored with it lol. I also like knowing exactly what my plants are getting at what stages. I don't want to start a debate about flushing but I like too at least for a few days before harvest. That's one of the reasons for multiple resivoirs. I also like the idea of perpetual and not having to wait 4 months for a harvest in soil. So wish me luck hopefully I'm successful. And BTW do you know if I can use pure cane sugar for heis tea? I'm gunna pick yur brain while I for u on my post lol. Ive read a lot of your material and I feel like you know what you are doing.
That chiller I got so lucky on, the dude had it on craigs for 75 bux, I told him yeah I'd give him that and then he says his room mate must have thrown away the fittings so he'd give it to me for 60 bux! I had fittings from my hydro shop in my hand the next day for 7.99!
I like the idea. Does the Styrofoam make it a pain in the ass to maintain the res. I'm a noob as far as hydro goes pretty much and feel the need to keep a close eye on my res especially while I get a "blueprint" for my system start to finish. Do you have a pic of your setup with the Styrofoam in place?
Not at all. What I do is cut a hole in the middle of a styrofoam board, and then cut it in half (perpendicular to the longer edge), so I get two halves that can easily be removed when I need to tinkle with the buckets as they are just sitting on the lid but aren't attatched to anything.
Yes it is stealth but I don't know if I considered it a cab. I framed in a secret room 5'x6' I have a small veg tent I put in the room which leaves me 5x3 which I flower in. I have all the proper ventilation and a dehumidifier. Just a new setup and eventually I will have chillers but want to have a harvest or 2 before I drop more money on equipment. I did however purchase a recycle timer today
Hey stink bud thanks for dropping in and your sticky pound every 3 weeks I read most of it and was what I built my setup around. I initially was going to use the double stack rough neck totes, but they were too tall. So ended up incorporating dwc with only 1 tote. Got my timer on 1 on 5 off and am seeing lower temps. Maybe one day I'll have the space you do lol. As for now I'm in the middle of my learning curve but have a good handle on things. Keep up the great work man, if some of the other users are like me you've helped tremendously and would like to thank you for that.The only way for water to be warmer than the ambient air temps is if you add heat. The most likely way for you to be adding heat is through the pump. Normally your water temps will run 10 degrees cooler than the air.
What happens when you run your pump for 15 minutes straight is it starts to heat the water slowly. Water conducts heat very well and retains it even longer. What you really need is a 1-4 minute timer. One minute on, four minutes off. Then the water never has a chance to heat up. What little heat created is lost naturally to evaporation cooling and the waterfall effect. It's a lot cheaper to buy a new timer than a new chiller. If that doesn't work I'd be like, WTF? The only other heat source is your lights...
Here's what I've learned from my experiments with Aero/DWC. My first designs actually worked better than my last designs. It works better if the roots never hang in the water. Then you don't have to deal with air stones. What I did was take one 2 gallon bucket and put it in a 20 gallon storage bin. Then I bought one of those lids that have the net pot built in. I had a pump in the bottom res that pumped up to sprayers in the bucket. The water just drained through the holes in the bucket. The roots just all hung down and stayed in the bucket.
Another design I tried used air stones with the netpot and roots hanging in the water just like a traditional DWC system. Of course whenever you have roots in water you need lots of air to keep from drowning the plant. That means more air stones... which means more heat... Then you start needing chillers or ice bottles, etc..
My current veg unit uses 2 - 27 gallon strong boxes, one stacked on top of the other. The pump is in the bottom box and plants are in the top box. I have a simple EZ-Clone sprayer setup and the plants love it. I could easily grow just one big plant if I had the room, which I do...
