Top-feed Recirculating - with rezervoir at plant level using water level float valves?

I'm trying to setup a top-feed system that uses a rez that is not lower than the plants. Some flood and drain systems like Greentree do this by using a container (bucket) and small float valves (water level valves), that then pump the water back to the rez.

The plant buckets are connected via hose to a bucket next to the rez, which I'll refer to as the rez bucket. Gravity causes the water to flow into the rez bucket after the plants have been fed. When water comes into this rez bucket from the plant sites and reaches the float then the float switches on a pump that pumps the water from the bucket back into the rez.

Has anyone done this before, I'm needing help setting it up.

Yeah you can do something like that, the ebb and grow controller is just one example. You will never get the water level all the way down before the pump starts sucking water. The pumps that come with the ebb and grow are nice because they draw water from the base. Float switch placement will be key as you will want to get as much water as possible pumped out.

If you intend to use a low voltage float switch then you will need to use a power supply and contactor to switch the power for the pump.

Renfro said:

Float switch placement will be key as you will want to get as much water as possible pumped out.

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Yeah, that is what concerns me. To get it so that there is not a lot of standing water in the bucket I would have to have the float very low, but then it would kick in early and shut off soon after, and my concern is that it won't shut off and start sucking air and burn out. Or just keep turning on and off every 30 seconds or so, maybe that is not a problem?

I can't figure out how the the flood and drain system do it, they have 3 floats that are about 11 inches above the bottom of the bucket. One float turns off the fill pump when the bucket gets full. Then after a set period of time (15 minutes) the drain pump turns on and when it gets to the bottom it shuts off, but there is no float at the bottom, so I'm confused as to how that works.

I made a iws system. Sounds like what your talking about. Flood and drain but res is same hight as plants or lower.
Use a pump in res to flood, need vaccume brake for anti siphon if above. I ran a res just full enough to not over flow plants and control bucket, so no worry about a high level float to stop flood. Your control bucket sits about 4" below your plants. It has a pump and a float to shut of the pump when drain is done. Run cycle timer to cotrol flood and drain. Timer on is flood. Say 3 min. It doesnt hurt most pumps to run dry for 1/2 min or so if it takes less time. Then off timer turns on drain pump say 3 hrs. It will run as long as the drain float is up. I ran cycle timer with lights on. No flood at night.
Relays are needed between float switch and pump.