Need help automated soil grow / air pump

This might not be the right forum for this post because it's not directly Hydro / Aero stuff but I thought I would get best tips here.

I'm going to automate my soil grow with 200l reservoir with faucet + watering hose and dripping tubes. I want to continue growing with soil because I know it well and I don't have the energy to study anything new at the moment.

I need about 13 liters / 3,5 gallons water per day so my reservoir should last about 2 weeks.

I guess I need some kind of air stone + air pump in reservoir If the water stands there for 14 days? I have no idea how powerful air pump + air stone I need. Can I please have some advices?

Is 1,3 l / min (1,8w) pump enought? This was the cheapest one I found (only 15€). I guess I don't need hardcore pumps + air stones because I'm not doing actual DWS, hydro, aero. Is this true or do I need to invest more on a better pump?

Thank you for your time,

-DreamK

Also, can I add nutrients as planned and how often should I clean the dripping tubes?

If you can spot any risks that I should consider that would be amazing. I think this is pretty straight forward upgrade so I think everything is going to be OK.

Thx again.

-DreamK said:

I guess I need some kind of air stone + air pump in reservoir If the water stands there for 14 days? I have no idea how powerful air pump + air stone I need. Can I please have some advices?

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i would build a simple waterfall instead. will aerate the solution and keep nutes well mixed too. probably 10 dollars for a small pump, some tubing and some elbow fittings

Thank you for this tip rkymtnman

I didn't even think about doing a waterwall system. Nutrient mix is a nice bonus.

Are you 100% sure this system (cheap water pump + tubing + 200l reservoir) will aerate the water enoght? I dont know anything about this stuff.

-DreamK said:

Thank you for this tip rkymtnman

I didn't even think about doing a waterwall system. Nutrient mix is a nice bonus.

Are you 100% sure this system (cheap water pump + tubing + 200l reservoir) will aerate the water enoght? I dont know anything about this stuff.

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soil plants don't really care if the water is highly aerated.

you could even build it so that there is a tee, one side is the waterfall and the other goes to your hose to feed the plants.

rkymtnman said:

soil plants don't really care if the water is highly aerated.

you could even build it so that there is a tee, one side is the waterfall and the other goes to your hose to feed the plants.

Click to expand...

I was thinking the automation is phase 2. First I want to make it work with out pump + timer etc.

Do you know how much water can you pass trough one dripping tube ( liter / minute or something ). I would like to know is 4mm tube (normal drippin tube) good for anything else than dripping. It would be nice if the whole watering process would take 5 minutes or less. Should I buy a thicker tube if I want to make watering in that time frame? I have 18 plants if that makes a difference.

My plan is to install 14mm tube to reservoir and then I attach 18 shorter (1 meter for each plant) dripping tubes to that 14mm main tube.

But thx again. This really helped a lot!

i use this with 1/4 silicone airline tubing

https://www.digcorp.com/homeowner-drip-irrigation-products/six-outlet-adjustable-drip-manifold