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DIY Auto-Watering & Drain to Waste System.


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On 1/24/2018 at 7:58 PM, dingo bingo said:

 

Do you run a filter before the top spin? I've ran mine for a few crops now and haven't had any blockages.

 

You live and learn eh! I love the simplicity of 100% coco, easy to clean away after a crop, maximum space for roots and still has great drainage. Will try some fabric pots soon as they seem worth a punt.

when i grew coco dripper feed. pure coco in the air pots, they grow big string roots and plants used fabric they were ok no better than plastic imo dried out a little quiicker thats it

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I have now fitted a return line to my watering system, and it has fixed the siphoning problem.  :smoke:I made a hole in the main pipe a few inches above the tank, and put a nipple in it.  Making the hole in the pipe was no problem, but those nipples are horrible to work with.  I pushed and pushed and eventually got it most of the way in, but it simply won't go all the way in, the pipe just bends in till I'm pushing against the other side of it, and I'm not sure it isn't going to pop out again.  And it's leaking slightly when the pump is on.  If you are thinking of creating a watering system, my advice is to buy the eight-way manifiold instead of drilling lots of holes in the pipe and using nipples like The Saint did.  It is much easier.

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@squirrel I use a 16mm - 6mm t with a bit of line tie wrapped to the 16mm line firing back into the tank at the top of the tank level like yourself! 

 

We could probably do with going over this thread and updating it with things like the drain trays and to try and make things a bit more comprehensive! 

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  • 5 months later...

Would you bother with an automated system if only growing one plant? I'm growing in a small space and plan to maximize yield by Just concentrating on one plant grown in Coco. 

 

My only hesitation is that I work twelve hour shifts and I've read about multiple feeds/waters a day needed in Coco

 

Thanksin advance

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55 minutes ago, Mimicker said:

Would you bother with an automated system if only growing one plant? I'm growing in a small space and plan to maximize yield by Just concentrating on one plant grown in Coco. 

 

My only hesitation is that I work twelve hour shifts and I've read about multiple feeds/waters a day needed in Coco

 

Thanksin advance

 

You can water coco once a day till runoff & its fine so don't worry.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Is there any system where I can have the feed going into a tray with like 4 plants in the tray? I guest there would need to be some sort of valve on the tray to stop it overflowing?

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Thanks you lot! Awesome.
I set up these drippers ages ago to assist soil growing with plain water when I was away or it was inconvenient to feed.

Now I've started growing in coco and I'm blown away by how easy this is, yes mate. I am only one week in but am seeing incredible growth like I've never seen in soil. I've got a good feeling about this. I'm so greatful. 


1.5ml/litre of Canna A and 1.5ml/litre of Canna B. (Showing 750 ppm total with a cheap TDS meter.)
PH reduced to 6 using testing drops and PH down.

Feeding until run off once a day.

I should have done this ages ago.

 

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On 22/01/2019 at 0:43 AM, SpartaGrow said:

Is there any system where I can have the feed going into a tray with like 4 plants in the tray? I guest there would need to be some sort of valve on the tray to stop it overflowing?

 

I believe you have just described the autopot system :)

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Hey guys, I have a question which seems to be relevant here.  I grow in my upstairs spare room, only my water supply is at the far end of the house, downstairs.

I have the houses water tank directly above my grow room.  My initial idea was to run a pump into the tank with a pipe coming down into the room, so I can plug in the pump when I need to fill my res.

then I realised I'd just have a syphon effect and the water would just continue to syphon down the pipe.  This inlet to the house has a ballcock system in place, so it would essentially result in a perpetual flooding of my house - no good :( 

 

Didn't realise there were devices / tech in place that could act as an anti-syphon measure - could anyone let me know if there is a method I could put in place to accomplish what I want, but it needs to have a zero fail rate, the risk of flooding the house cannot be possible, I'd rather carry water than carry the risk :)

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@unity could you not just drill a hole in the water tank and hose to grow room with tap on it? Gravity fed instead of a pump? 

Yep  tank connector then a isolation valve next to it pipe down to growroom with another isolation valve on end as a tap then if you ever have to remove it you can turn first valve off and pull pipe out without replacing anything 

Edited by doobie01
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@doobie01 not really - it's a metal tank in the attic, I wouldn't want to go cutting holes into it - hence I  thought of pumping the water out, I was going to attach the pump the the inside wall, and have a pipe going up / over.

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@unity cut supply pipe before ball valve put a compression tee in and run a compression gate valve pipe to room compression gate valve ? any good

i like cutting things lol 

Edited by doobie01
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@unity Have a nose at the PlantIt Timer. It's gravity fed and might suit your needs. I used it whilst on a 2 week holiday and it worked great. 

 

Not 100% sure if it would work with the siphon setup you require but if it does, then it's a cheap resolution at £20.

 

Just read your post again and realised it's only to fill you reservoir. Just get some 15mm pushfit pipe, pushfit elbows and an isolation valve from screwfix or other DIY store. All the fittings will cost about 30 quid. It's made for heating/water systems so it's pretty safe. Just use pipe inserts and connect them correctly and job done.

 

I can draw a diagram if you wish...just let me know if it's of interest ;)

Edited by Pinkytoe
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