How to set up solenoid valves for sequential ebb and flow table flooding?

Hi,
I have four 4x4 ebb and flow tables in a row. My reservoir is not big enough to flood them all. So I want to flood and drain one after the other. I thought I will use solenoid valves for that purpose.

I looked at the valves from Hunter: https://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/valves/pgv

They are 24 VAC. Unfortunately I have no clue what I can connect to them to control them. I somehow need to connect them to timers.

But how the hell can I do that?

I googled a bit and loads of sites with tutorials for building your arduino controller came up....

Do I really need to build an arduino controller?

Aren't there valves for plugging into normal electricity? Or is that considered too dangerous?

Obviously there are valves for 220 to 240 Volts which I would need. I can easily attach a plug to them.

I did find out there are magnetic valves and motor valves...

The magnetic valves open when there is electricity and as soon the electricity is gone the valve closes.

With the motor valves it is like that. If there is electricity the valve opens and stays like that even the electricity is gone. If you put electrictiy again on the valve, it closes.

I am not sure which valve I should take? Do you have any advice?

There is also a problem I ran into:
I will need to use analog or digital timers for timing the pump and the solenoid valves. That would mean each item would have its own timer (pump, solenoid valve1, solenoid valve2, solenoid valve3, solenoid valve4).

Now I wonder what will happen if one of the timers of the solenoid vavles or one of the solenoid valves itself will stop working? That might mean that the pump will start to pump water and the solenoid stays closed. Would that mean that my hosing will explode and the pump will create hell of a mess? I did read that the timers not rarely have malfunctions.

So is there a way to prevent flooding the room with water in case of a malfunction?

I was thinking about installing water detectors on the floor which will shut down the pump... Or install an additional waterflow beside the solenoids which returns into the reservoir. So when there is a lot of pressure on the solenoids (because they are all closed) water will search its way to the reservoir....

So any advice?

More cowbell!

Runoff from 4 tables will cause fast changes if you don't have enough buffering.

Not an option. I have a 400 liter reservoir which needs to be enough.

$48 from grainger (pic) $30 elsewhere, plug this into your standard timer, the low voltage end to your newly acquired valves.

In the interest of keeping it simple, do you use a wetting agent? like SM-90? 20 gals per table soak mine to the top. That would leave you 20 gal for deadwood, sumps, pumps, & lines.

Thanks!!! But no need for voltage converters anymore! I did find solenoid valves for 220 - 240 volts.

I now wonder how to prevent leakage in the case of timer or solenoid malfunction.

And the other question I am trying to solve is if I should use magnetic or motor valves.

What is a wetting agent like SM-90? I googled it but please can you explain me what I should use it for?

Wetting agents are substances that reduce the surface tension of water to allow it to spread drops onto a surface, increasing the spreading abilities of a liquid.

It's kinda like going down a slide sitting on a Banana peel, it just causes water to flow better and in our case, the ability for the water to flow upwards to the top of the root zone.

How much do I need if I have a 100 gallon reservoir? How much yield increase did you in notice? Or any other parameters which improved?

1-3 ml per gal.
The ability of water to flow easier also pulls more o2 into the root zone minimizing root rot as well since it will drain faster.
I started using it when I grew in Hugo Blocks and was losing 25% due to poor drainage.

Grandpapy said:

View attachment 4057976
More cowbell!

Runoff from 4 tables will cause fast changes if you don't have enough buffering.

Click to expand...

I have to switch my reservoir now, because the first one got delivered broken. I will go for a big rain barrel. Now I have the problem that my water level in the rain barell will be higher than my tables. What is an advisable plumbing configuration to drain the tables back into the reservoir?

I was thinking about another small reservoir into which the tables drain and then get pumped back into the main reservoir. But I don't know how to set the drain line. Usually the intake is the drain. But in that case it wouldn't work anymore....

Also do you know reliable time switches, which I can maybe synchronize so I can reliably control solenoid valves?