Fishing4life12
Active Member
Well guys/gals, Ive been at this experiment for a couple of weeks now. Ive read plenty of posts on this site, read plenty of articles online, searched numerous retail sites and have had plenty of input from you guys regarding humidity levels in my 2x4x5 grow tent, which is located in my basement.
1st off, i wanna start by saying, for the newbies, quite like myself at growing indoors, measure your huminity and heat levels in the room your tent will be sitting in. You should beable to get those exact measurments inside your tent. But , for myself, Ihad to improvise, considering i only had about 18-19°c outside my tent and only 30%humidity. Great for flowering purposes, not for veg. Concrete floors, no heat registers in the room made things difficult to get them to a more desirable 50-60% hum and 24-28°C.
I raised my tent on some pcs of 2x6 and ontop of that some 3/8" plywood which is covered in 1/2"reflective foam cut to size of tent. Now it alows air movement under my tent, while reflecting heat back in, like a house.
To get my heat up, I used a fan heater, which blows heat around my tent and has its own thermostat built in.
To raise my humididy, I tried several different types of humidifiers, from cool ultrasonic misting, to small ultra sonic misting humidifier, to a bigger tank humidifier with volume and flow controls.
I tried fabricating an autoflow system into the tank of a small ultrasonic misting humidifier with no success. It kept overflowing the bottom holding cell for water and over flowing out the bottom and between where tank and base meet. The reason for this is because the bottom holding cell only holds so much water and has a tiny float and when introduced to pressure from above by filling the tank, it keeps pushing down the float and overflowing the tank. Also air pressure from the bottom to make a seal was over powered by the slightest dripping motion of water. I tried and tried to correct this by slowing water down but that never worked because the tank also has a spring loaded flapper that opens its seal once its on its base, allowing continuous amounts of water into the water holding cell to make mist. As water is used the float lowers and adds more. So this method failed and failed again.
Have no fear, I came up with a beauty of a hack to stop my refilling madness of every 6hrs, to around 34-36hrs.
This hack consists of
*heated glass humidifier
*3/8" o.d. tubbing
*3/8" o.d. plastic press fit tubbing shut off
*5 gallon bucket
*small float (mines homemade for now)
*3/8" o.d. tubbing fill screw with a small hole in it
*something to attach the float to the tank
*clear tub and bath silicone(must be this kind, color not an issue, only for esthetics)
1. In the lid of the bucket, pierce a hole with sccisors just smaller then the 3/8"tube. The reason for this is they are sharp on a diagnal and can easily step a hole bigger. Also poke hole from outside of lid, alowing smal perferations inside to grip the tubbing.
2. Cut 4" pc of 3/8"tubbing and insert tubbing from top of lid inside about 1" - 1 1/2"inside. Make sure its a super tight fit or else ull have to silicone this inplace. This will act as your vent.
3. About 2 inches from bottom, drill another hole thru the side of the bucket just smaller then the tubbing.
4. Cut about 12" of tubbing and shove about another 1"- 1 1/2" inside the bucket and leaving the rest hanging outside.
5. Silicone the bucket to the tub with a generous amount, linside and outside the bucket) sealing off any cracks water can escape from the bucket. Let set for 24hrs.
6. Attach the 3/8" press fit shutoff to the 12"portion of tubbing. Make sure arrow points to the the direction of flow.
7.Cut a other pc of 3/8" tubbing that will reach from the shutoff to inside the humidifier. **Bucket need to be up on a shelf, higher then your humidifier and outside the tank.
Make it a bit long and u can always cut later.
8. Thread the tubbing thru the inside of ur tent and out to the shutoff. Make sure the tubbing is inside ur tank. Cut tubbing to length and attach to the press fit shutoff. Seal up the tent where tubbing goes thru.
9. At the end of the tubbing, inside your humidifier, add your filling screw and silicone so no water escapes. You may have an all in one filler and float system and you may nor may not need this step.
10. Next set up the float to the fill portion and secure this tubing to the tank thru the bracket or homemade bracket system. I used a big zip tie and homemade bracket to hold 3/8" tubing.
11. Adjust float to desired height of water you would like in the tank to close the fill valve and also how much water needs to dissapate for the float to lower and add water to the tank.
12. With the shut off in the off position, fill the bucket about 1/4 way to test the system.
13. Open shutoff a crack so water just starts comming out the fill valve and watch the magic happen. Check for leaks and address them. Make sure float shuts off the water way and keep an eye on tank levels. Make several trips back to see if water has risen or lowered to much and make the necessary adjustments.
14. Once you are satisfied with all the adjustments, shut off the supply and fill the bucket up to about an 1 1/2" from top. Open up valve in same position and sit back and relax for the next 34 to 36hrs. Once bucket is empty, refill it and repeat.
PROBLEM SOLVED.
Hope this help anybody in need of an autofill humidifier and I hope you guys liked this post. Pictures below for refference. Any queations or comments, feel free to drop em. All be happy to help or answer. Until next time.
Cheers
1st off, i wanna start by saying, for the newbies, quite like myself at growing indoors, measure your huminity and heat levels in the room your tent will be sitting in. You should beable to get those exact measurments inside your tent. But , for myself, Ihad to improvise, considering i only had about 18-19°c outside my tent and only 30%humidity. Great for flowering purposes, not for veg. Concrete floors, no heat registers in the room made things difficult to get them to a more desirable 50-60% hum and 24-28°C.
I raised my tent on some pcs of 2x6 and ontop of that some 3/8" plywood which is covered in 1/2"reflective foam cut to size of tent. Now it alows air movement under my tent, while reflecting heat back in, like a house.
To get my heat up, I used a fan heater, which blows heat around my tent and has its own thermostat built in.
To raise my humididy, I tried several different types of humidifiers, from cool ultrasonic misting, to small ultra sonic misting humidifier, to a bigger tank humidifier with volume and flow controls.
I tried fabricating an autoflow system into the tank of a small ultrasonic misting humidifier with no success. It kept overflowing the bottom holding cell for water and over flowing out the bottom and between where tank and base meet. The reason for this is because the bottom holding cell only holds so much water and has a tiny float and when introduced to pressure from above by filling the tank, it keeps pushing down the float and overflowing the tank. Also air pressure from the bottom to make a seal was over powered by the slightest dripping motion of water. I tried and tried to correct this by slowing water down but that never worked because the tank also has a spring loaded flapper that opens its seal once its on its base, allowing continuous amounts of water into the water holding cell to make mist. As water is used the float lowers and adds more. So this method failed and failed again.
Have no fear, I came up with a beauty of a hack to stop my refilling madness of every 6hrs, to around 34-36hrs.
This hack consists of
*heated glass humidifier
*3/8" o.d. tubbing
*3/8" o.d. plastic press fit tubbing shut off
*5 gallon bucket
*small float (mines homemade for now)
*3/8" o.d. tubbing fill screw with a small hole in it
*something to attach the float to the tank
*clear tub and bath silicone(must be this kind, color not an issue, only for esthetics)
1. In the lid of the bucket, pierce a hole with sccisors just smaller then the 3/8"tube. The reason for this is they are sharp on a diagnal and can easily step a hole bigger. Also poke hole from outside of lid, alowing smal perferations inside to grip the tubbing.
2. Cut 4" pc of 3/8"tubbing and insert tubbing from top of lid inside about 1" - 1 1/2"inside. Make sure its a super tight fit or else ull have to silicone this inplace. This will act as your vent.
3. About 2 inches from bottom, drill another hole thru the side of the bucket just smaller then the tubbing.
4. Cut about 12" of tubbing and shove about another 1"- 1 1/2" inside the bucket and leaving the rest hanging outside.
5. Silicone the bucket to the tub with a generous amount, linside and outside the bucket) sealing off any cracks water can escape from the bucket. Let set for 24hrs.
6. Attach the 3/8" press fit shutoff to the 12"portion of tubbing. Make sure arrow points to the the direction of flow.
7.Cut a other pc of 3/8" tubbing that will reach from the shutoff to inside the humidifier. **Bucket need to be up on a shelf, higher then your humidifier and outside the tank.
Make it a bit long and u can always cut later.
8. Thread the tubbing thru the inside of ur tent and out to the shutoff. Make sure the tubbing is inside ur tank. Cut tubbing to length and attach to the press fit shutoff. Seal up the tent where tubbing goes thru.
9. At the end of the tubbing, inside your humidifier, add your filling screw and silicone so no water escapes. You may have an all in one filler and float system and you may nor may not need this step.
10. Next set up the float to the fill portion and secure this tubing to the tank thru the bracket or homemade bracket system. I used a big zip tie and homemade bracket to hold 3/8" tubing.
11. Adjust float to desired height of water you would like in the tank to close the fill valve and also how much water needs to dissapate for the float to lower and add water to the tank.
12. With the shut off in the off position, fill the bucket about 1/4 way to test the system.
13. Open shutoff a crack so water just starts comming out the fill valve and watch the magic happen. Check for leaks and address them. Make sure float shuts off the water way and keep an eye on tank levels. Make several trips back to see if water has risen or lowered to much and make the necessary adjustments.
14. Once you are satisfied with all the adjustments, shut off the supply and fill the bucket up to about an 1 1/2" from top. Open up valve in same position and sit back and relax for the next 34 to 36hrs. Once bucket is empty, refill it and repeat.
PROBLEM SOLVED.
Hope this help anybody in need of an autofill humidifier and I hope you guys liked this post. Pictures below for refference. Any queations or comments, feel free to drop em. All be happy to help or answer. Until next time.
Cheers
