Questions About Aero GPH?

TheJ

Active Member
Was just wondering:
Lets say you have a pump that pumps 675 gph and the mainline tubing has 8 points, all with misters that put out maybe .3 gph...
My logic tells me that the tubes (1/2 in mainline blank tubing) would explode from the pressure. I wonder if the pressure just stays strong and steady, if the water backs up and just pumps what it needs or is there some pump that i am not able to find that pumps incredibly low gph?

Any input would be appreciated. I am starting a 6 plant Aero/Fog closet grow, using a couple LED lights (multi spectrum) and may pick up a white LED spot just for a little extra.

Thanks again in advance.
 

squidcore

Member
Most pumps don't really generate much pressure so there's probably no need to worry as long as you're glueing your joints. The thing to worry about is putting too much back-pressure on the pump so it doesn't run with any pressure at all.
 

TheJ

Active Member
Most pumps don't really generate much pressure so there's probably no need to worry as long as you're glueing your joints. The thing to worry about is putting too much back-pressure on the pump so it doesn't run with any pressure at all.
Thank you very much. Yeah i was planning on gluing the joints, after smoking them :bigjoint:
Could you go more into "putting too much back-pressure". I dont quite get what you mean.
 

squidcore

Member
No problem sir. So if your pump has a flow-rate of 675gph, and you have 8 emitters, 675 / 8 = 84.4 gph per emitter. Most spray emiters are going to be closer to 11-25gph. Try to shoot for closer to 25 gallons of pump flow per emitter. Think of back pressure like putting your thumb over the end of a garden hose. You create pressure by obstructing flow. Most submersible pumps can't fight this kind of back pressure and simply fail to push water beyond a trickle if there isn't enough emitters. Also consider that the flow-rate goes down as water is pushed higher.
 

TheJ

Active Member
No problem sir. So if your pump has a flow-rate of 675gph, and you have 8 emitters, 675 / 8 = 84.4 gph per emitter. Most spray emiters are going to be closer to 11-25gph. Try to shoot for closer to 25 gallons of pump flow per emitter. Think of back pressure like putting your thumb over the end of a garden hose. You create pressure by obstructing flow. Most submersible pumps can't fight this kind of back pressure and simply fail to push water beyond a trickle if there isn't enough emitters. Also consider that the flow-rate goes down as water is pushed higher.
Wow, very good information! +rep for you! Thanks so much for your help on that, im sure it will save me some mistakes/money.

So if i had a 250gph pumping to ten emitters i would have ideal gallon flow, even if emitters only allow 1 or 2 gph? Like the difference is the pressure needed? Thank for being so helpful
 

squidcore

Member
I made a lot of mistakes along the way building systems, but I always tried to learn from them.
are the emitters spray heads or what are they? 1-2 gph is more of a trickle than a spray.
 

TheJ

Active Member
Yeah i was planning on using misting head emitters, possible these http://www.dripworks.com/product/MM , or something similar. i want the droplets to be very small in size, and will also be using a ultrasonic nebulizer (fogger) in addition to the emitters, but the fogger would not be a part of the main grow "container" but will be connected via pvc
 

TheJ

Active Member
I've never seen those sprayers before so i'm not sure how they work. I use these: http://danthegrowman.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=spray&product_id=2197 or ones like this in most of my aero systems. It seems like a lot of people on this site are doing high pressure aero/fogger systems and I'm not too familiar with those kind of setups.
Oh okay, well all the info you have shared has been great. Thanks so much. Do you have in pics of your set up? I would love to see it :D
 
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