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indoor Indoor Custom Drip Hydro System, fast growing veggies...

Just thought I would share a few pictures of our hydro drip system, with some starter plans, arugula, tat soi, cherry tomatoes.
The setup is not ready for prime time but is coming along, It has four four foot T5's 2 of each red and blue spectrum bulbs, you can see the drip gang valves,
PVC plastic inserts, cut on C&C machine, the boxes are 8 feet, by 20 inches, by 6 inches deep, and there are three drains in each the return water is fed back to the 30 gallon bucket where it is recirculated forming a closed system. Sometimes we use dripper insert stakes, sometimes we clip the 1/4 inch hose on the baskets, there are inserts for them and run the water to the plants direct. The first unit has 6 and 3 inch baskets (basically an experiment), in the second box we are going to cut the 1/4 inch PVC grey plastic for six inch baskets. This is the largest home grow hydro system I have seen. The first and second box was made from high grade plywood, outside painted and the insides laced with 4 stringers to support the 5 PVC plastic inserts with basket cutouts, the inside of the box is painted with fiberglass to make it water proof. The next box will be made of all 1/4 inch PVC, so fiberglass will not be necessary, less time, material and labor to construct. If any of you are thinking those round drip outlets with blue screws are cool, they are not, they are junk, do not use them. The next big hurdle is getting a chiller to cool the water to a balmy 68 F. The lights heat up the water quite a bit, install black 1/4 inch drip hose, then build another 40 inch high stand next to this one, add 2 more tanks, 4 more lights, and the plumbing necessary for a drip system. We will be able to isolate each eight foot tank as needed for cleaning, etc... as needed. Any comments ? This is not for fun and games, we plan to grow and sell fast growing herbs and veggies this way.













Rhody...
 
im jeally you have acess to a cnc cutter. i have to make do with a drill powered cutter that is absolutly awful... even on my drill press.

your setup reminded me of a mini dutch bucket thing.
what pressure are you running on your drip system? and how are you pumping it? i have an outdoor system thats similar... i use a 35 gallon tank of fertilizer thats pumped out by a 5gpm diaphragm pump at 45-60psi.
whats your problem with the circular dripper manifolds? ive seem them used in storefront landscapeing to water different shrubs and flowers at the same time.

im not sure why you want to run a chiller TBH, id hold off on that unless you already have one... just chlorinate your water. this is what almost all commercial hydroponic greenhouses do.

if you are going to go all baller with this system, i vote that you build a vaccuforming jig, and mold some 1/4" abs sheets as your base.
 
im jeally you have acess to a cnc cutter. i have to make do with a drill powered cutter that is absolutly awful... even on my drill press.

your setup reminded me of a mini dutch bucket thing.
what pressure are you running on your drip system? and how are you pumping it? i have an outdoor system thats similar... i use a 35 gallon tank of fertilizer thats pumped out by a 5gpm diaphragm pump at 45-60psi.
whats your problem with the circular dripper manifolds? ive seem them used in storefront landscapeing to water different shrubs and flowers at the same time.

im not sure why you want to run a chiller TBH, id hold off on that unless you already have one... just chlorinate your water. this is what almost all commercial hydroponic greenhouses do.

if you are going to go all baller with this system, i vote that you build a vaccuforming jig, and mold some 1/4" abs sheets as your base.

3000 GPH Outdoor pond pump, we use a regulator valve to control flow without pressure gauge, so I can't tell the exact PSI.

"whats your problem with the circular dripper manifolds?"

Here is my response in the post: "If any of you are thinking those round drip outlets with blue screws are cool, they are not, they are junk, do not use them."
They are pieces of shit, not worth the 19 and change they change for them, the screw slots get knarled easily, and they leak to boot, not good.

Were are going with thicker PVC for the rest and looking for screw in 1/4 inch drip fittings, and then another value before them to control the pressure.

It's learn as we go, the lights seem to be working well, 1/2 the bulbs are red shifted and 1/2 are blue shifted. The red makes them leggy and the blue makes
the plants bushy, so it is a good compromise. As far as the C&C machine goes a guy two shops down has one and my friend knows him well.

Rhody...
 
bummer you couldnt get the manifolds to work well,

another option is the hose end manifolds. just take runs of 3/4" pvc or 1/2" pvc and add tees with a 3/4" female . then thread in a 3/4" male NPT to 3/4" female hose thread fitting.
something like this
8way_dripper_manifold.jpg
 
Thanks queequeg152,

We look into the hose end manifolds, if you have a link for a supplier that would be great.

Rhody...
 
ah, sorry i just went to google images and grabed the first one that was not a round type, like the one you had problems with. that thing is apparently not even sold in the US.

i assume you cant use poly pipe correct?

you might try this?
http://compare.ebay.com/like/261083433349?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

or this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Orbit-2-Port-Drip-Manifold-1-4-Drip-Tubing-Micro-Dripping-Line-67035-/261094209266?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D261083433349%26ps%3D54

or this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rain-Bird-Corp-Consumer-MANIF1-1PK-6-Port-Drip-Manifold-/300765454987?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460704a28b

what ever you go with i would make sure it does not have any flow resitriction built into it. your pump is going to have very little head, and flow regulators/pressure compensateing emitters etc are going to impact the flow alot. in bato bucket systems you will notice that they just use regular irrigation spikes connected directly into the poly pipe, no buttons no pc regulators.
 
Ive got a quick suggestion. make sure that all of those extra open holes in your table stay covered... It takes a very small amount of light to create serious algae problems in your nutrient solution reservoir and your lines/drippers. If its a recirculating system of course. Looks amazing, and well built. I forsee plenty of veggies in your future
 
Ive got a quick suggestion. make sure that all of those extra open holes in your table stay covered... It takes a very small amount of light to create serious algae problems in your nutrient solution reservoir and your lines/drippers. If its a recirculating system of course. Looks amazing, and well built. I forsee plenty of veggies in your future
bush,

Yeah we already have, I knew about the algae problem, we also have black dripper hose for the same reason. On grow box number #2 we decided to go with all 6 inch pots. The 3 inch are just not practical for a number of reasons. Have a decent PH and EC meter and am looking into doser and buying and mixing solid neuts, much cheaper that way. Little by little we will get there. I have read and heard that if all of your hydro grow were to come to harvest at the same time, in the last week you flush and run straight water, the claim being that the produce you harvest tastes better. Any one want to dispute or confirm that again for me ?

ah, sorry i just went to google images and grabed the first one that was not a round type, like the one you had problems with. that thing is apparently not even sold in the US.

i assume you cant use poly pipe correct?

you might try this?
http://compare.ebay....mTypes&var=sbar

or this
http://www.ebay.com/...083433349&ps=54

or this
http://www.ebay.com/...=item460704a28b

what ever you go with i would make sure it does not have any flow resitriction built into it. your pump is going to have very little head, and flow regulators/pressure compensateing emitters etc are going to impact the flow alot. in bato bucket systems you will notice that they just use regular irrigation spikes connected directly into the poly pipe, no buttons no pc regulators.

queequeg,

These almost fit the bill, the problem is we need, 1/4 inch outlets to connect our hoses too, there are plenty of 1/2 inch drip outlets out there, but not 8 or more 1/4 inch connects. 1/2 inch is too big for our needs. We are thinking of using heavier gauge PVC and drilling and tapping the pipe as needed for individual drip ends, the problem with that is we need to be able to take each grow box offline for maintenance, planting, etc...

Necessity dictates the most efficient design, even when there are not products that cover all your needs, you find ways of improvising solutions and we will, sooner or later, continual process improvement.

Rhody...

Here is the link on the flush or multiple flushes in the last 7 days before harvest:
 
The big problem after weeks of searching is to find a way to distribute off of a main tube or loop, eight 1/4 male dripper inserts that attach to 1/4 inch black dripper hose. There are ones that work in 1/2 inch sizes, but nothing we can find to meet our needs. Trying to find 1/4 inch inserts that we can drill and tap into our own tubing. Will control each set with individual shutoff valves. The has been a painful, expensive, frustrating time consuming exercise. It will feel especially good when we have the problem solved. The drippers we have keep crapping out and the plants attached to the no flow ends are dying. And to add insult to injury the damn things leak.

Rhody...
 
i have a few drip emitters that are threaded... they are expensive, and dont seem to be terribly well built imo. i bought them to play around with an idea a long time ago. anyway they use that 10/32 unf thread and connect to regular drip tubing. they make spray stakes that have this thread... emitters valves etc etc.

http://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/Drip-Irrigation-Drip-Tubing-Adapters-p/a40945.htm

TBH tho thats such a pain in the ass... i would just run some poly tube and buy male to male barbs. my pump runs up to 60psi during the irrigation cycle and ive never seen the barbs/poly hoose leak.

as far as your clogging problems. you might want to add an inline filter along with some disinfectant of some kind. im partial to chlorine.
 
i have a few drip emitters that are threaded... they are expensive, and dont seem to be terribly well built imo. i bought them to play around with an idea a long time ago. anyway they use that 10/32 unf thread and connect to regular drip tubing. they make spray stakes that have this thread... emitters valves etc etc.

http://www.sprinkler...rs-p/a40945.htm

TBH tho thats such a pain in the ass... i would just run some poly tube and buy male to male barbs. my pump runs up to 60psi during the irrigation cycle and ive never seen the barbs/poly hoose leak.

as far as your clogging problems. you might want to add an inline filter along with some disinfectant of some kind. im partial to chlorine.

quee,

Ha, great minds think alike, we were looking at this last night online as well, my buddy bought a few of these or something like these to experiment with. All we want is to control flow to a gang of them reliably and not leak, screens and filters may solve that problem. The plastic ones we have are junk, maybe in a spic and span clean system they work fine, but not with stuff in the lines.

Rhody...
 
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