More progress.
I got the water distribution manifold installed and adjusted pretty close to the flow rates I want. All three totes are pretty much complete as far as the basic setup and have been cycling for the last hour or so.
The cycle time on the E/F tote is around 10 minutes at the moment. I have had it up to 16 minutes, but the siphon wasnt always tripping reliably. Im going to keep playing with that. I would prefer more like 15 minutes, but Im ok with 10 minutes if it means reliability.
The other two totes both have a steady trickle of water flowing in and out. Its roughly 3.5 gals/hour each.
I did a test of the membrane ability to wick water by placing a small handful of some damp but not wet lava rock on the membrane. Before putting it in, it weighed 50.3 gms. After about 5 minutes they weighed 53.6 gms, so about 3.3 gms of extra water were absorbed. Thats not much, but over a 24 hr period that would add up to about .25 gals. That bit of rock was only covering maybe 5% of the area at most, so that means about 5 gals a day of potential water transfer at least. I think that will be fast enough to keep up with one plants drinking rate.
The mat in the NFT tote stays saturated really well.
So the three totes will have a large spread as far as how much water the roots get. The E/F tote will have the max - approaching DWC levels. The Membrane tote will have the least amount with the roots mostly in air. The NFT will be in the middle somewhere, but closer to the low end.
At the moment, my gut feeling is the NFT tent is going to win, but we will see.
Here are some more pics.
The pipe coming up from below in the bottom left of this pic is the air-lift pump. The water runs to the 'T' in the back. Most of it goes into the E/F tote on the left, but some flows to the right and into the other two totes through small holes - two in each tote. There is also a lot of air flowing with the water, which goes into all three totes. In addition, there is a cutout between each tote that goes down to under the work bench. That means the air pump is constantly supplying fresh air and the totes can get fresh air from below every time the E/F cycles.
Im going to be wrapping all the totes in 1" insulation on the sides and top to seal them off from the grow tent.
This is a pic under the work bench showing all the lines draining into the rez from the totes above. The rez is raised up off the floor about 14 inches. Just enough to get a 5 gal square bucket under the drain spout. The second pic shows the 3" PVC pipe that forms the pumping chamber. It holds the air-lift pump. You can see the hose connecting it to the rez.
If I had done a better job of pre-planning and visualization, things would have ended up much neater. I dont really care as long as it works.
Its hard to see, but this shot shows the meniscus forming at the bottom of that small piece of PVC pipe.
too close lol
