Question to the ppk pros. I have the 3.5gal 3.5gal bucket w/ 1.5" tailpiece setup and construction is nearly finished. Bulk res will be a 5 gal bucket and the control res with the float valve will be another 3.5 gal bucket. @av8or, or anyone else that knows. To connect these with the smaller feed lines, is it possible to do the "drill an undersized hole and jam the hose thru" technique to connect the bulk res to the control res? For got to grab the hose and fittings. for that connection when I bought the goodyear hose.
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a ppk for a 6 plant limit
- Thread starter delta9nxs
- Start date
Root aphids got the first; never get clones from strangers.The second was pulled early due to buying a house and moving. When I get my new room setup in a few months I'll start a thread.
Was trying to quote this response. Thanks. Peace.
C.O.B.
Boutique Manettino
Member
Generally the "bulk res" sits up higher (cinder blocks) than the control res, so that the control res is gravity fed.
The line from the bulk res connects to the float valve in the control res and you might find the diameter of the goodyear hose too large to seal to the float valve etc. although it would be fine on the bulk res end.
I used tire valves installed right near the bottom of 50-gallon barrels and then air line which happened to be the right inner diameter for a tight fit over the end of the float valve.
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av8or
Member
You're going to be mixing nutes a lot with only a 5 gallon res. But yes, I connect the small vinyl tubing up to the float valve normally and then do the smaller.hole and jam in method into the res.
av8or
Member
I didn't like using RO water because I kept chasing ph. But in any case, ph to 5.8 and let her rip. Don't worry about letting anything settle over time. A few.minutes tops is plenty good. But yes, do check the next day and see where it has naturally drifted, then correct next time.
Lost my reply and questions. Boutique & Av8or. Thank you. Peace.
C.O.B.
Ps. I do have access to a 10 & 20 gal hydropharm res. Then 10 I can make room for. The 20 will have to sit outside the grow area. Just using The 5 gal res for now so I can learn the system. Don't mind mixing them as needed for now as I hand water veg/flower everyday. Wanted to copy fliptopbox's 1 plant module and maybe add 1 more ppk to it. I have everything except the john guest fittings for the bulk res connection to the feed line as well as the feed line.
C.O.B.
Ps. I do have access to a 10 & 20 gal hydropharm res. Then 10 I can make room for. The 20 will have to sit outside the grow area. Just using The 5 gal res for now so I can learn the system. Don't mind mixing them as needed for now as I hand water veg/flower everyday. Wanted to copy fliptopbox's 1 plant module and maybe add 1 more ppk to it. I have everything except the john guest fittings for the bulk res connection to the feed line as well as the feed line.
May have just been easier to ask one of the pros, if you were to currently build a 1 or 2 site ppk using 3.5's stacked in a 4x4 tent, what would you use(parts) and how would you go about plumbing it? Assuming I have the media,pumps,plants,tailpieces,goodyear hose etc... Just no feed line nor tire valves,or bulkheads. I'll get either. Just lead the way.
Please forgive my plumbing noobieness. It's the reason I've stayed away from hydro in the traditional sense.I hate wet socks! Peace.
C.O.B.
Please forgive my plumbing noobieness. It's the reason I've stayed away from hydro in the traditional sense.I hate wet socks! Peace.
C.O.B.
Thanks for the feedback av8or. You shouldn't have told me that about the RO water. I was already visualizing how big of a pain in the nuts it was going to be to go out and get RO water every couple days and now you are making my garden hose look really good right now. lol
Are you going to update your thread with your DE bulbs grow? I was trying to copy your recipe for 1lb plants in a perpetual except that I was going to be doing 4 plants under a 1k DE lamp. I would be really interested in being able to follow along with your DE grow.
Heya cob if your new to plumbing start with a good moisture barrier and ability to retain spills....... lol. Seriously. Mistakes and accidents happen. Whatever you start with will likely be ok and just think of it as iteration #1 the baseline. Tweak and update as u find something better or a need that wasnt anticipated. Itll be a process but dont wait until you think youve finally gotten to the perfect design. It wont be and the first hardly ever is.... start a thread and youll get some followers who will help.
Thats what i did. Started research in '12 and built in '13. Kicking out big 1-2 elbers in 3 yrs time with lots of learnin while doing and havin fun.
Met some fine people along the way like you!
av8or
Member
I hear your concerns about damp socks, I really do. But if you jam a rubber hose through a plastic hole that's a slight bit too small, there's no way water leaks. The only water spillage I've had from a ppk site is when I set a feed ring off to the side while it's still attached to a pump....then the timer fires the pumps. Otherwise, dry dry dry. Let me assure you by stating that my 24 plant veg room (not propagation room, that's another spot) is directly upstairs from my bedroom. I wouldn't put a hydro system on the second floor if I wasn't confident in its ability to retain water. That being said, a 4x4 tent is easy to put a pond liner or something similar in....if you're that worried about it.
I'm assuming you're using a single overhead light in that tent. So...put the res outside your tent with the float bucket inside. Attach the float bucket to the ppk base bucket W/ Goodyear hose at their bases. Put your pump inside the float bucket with a feed hose attached. Run it to the top ppk bucket to feed your plant site. Víola, just like that that you have a kick ass ppk system. The like attaching the mixing res and the float bucket is that small vinyl tubing that jams into the fitting on the float valve.
Does that make sense? Perhaps I'll draw an extremely scientific diagram with my amazing left-handed anti-drawing skills.
use the black garden hose with the 13/16" undersized hole to make the connection to the bulk res then use a hose barb to 1/2" pipe thread connector with a 1/2" pipe thread cap on it drilled out to 5/16" for the 3/8" od, 1/4" id vinyl hose that fits the float valve.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=27798&catid=465
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Charlotte-Pipe-1-2-in-PVC-Sch-40-FPT-Cap-PVC021170800HD/203811708
using the garden hose out of the bulk res allows you to use standard fittings like a ball valve or t's to multiple floats. all a lot cheaper than john guest fittings
home depot, lowes, and most other hardware stores have the above fittings. i used the picture from usplastics because i found it first
av8or
Member
I think this marks the third time I've drawn you all this (or a similar) masterpiece. This time it's labeled.
1) childish drawing of an apple tree?
2) 3.5 or 7 (pictured) gallon top bucket
3) wick/drain pipe
4) water level leaves a 4"ish air gap between the water and top bucket
5) Goodyear hose
6) float bucket/pump bucket in this case
7) float valve
8) small vinyl tubing (I use the thicker stuff, 3/8")
9) mixing res, bulk res, whatever you guys call it these days
10) pump (I use 170-190 gph)
11) 1/2" vinyl tubing feed line
12) feed ring (usually from hydroflow)
1) childish drawing of an apple tree?
2) 3.5 or 7 (pictured) gallon top bucket
3) wick/drain pipe
4) water level leaves a 4"ish air gap between the water and top bucket
5) Goodyear hose
6) float bucket/pump bucket in this case
7) float valve
8) small vinyl tubing (I use the thicker stuff, 3/8")
9) mixing res, bulk res, whatever you guys call it these days
10) pump (I use 170-190 gph)
11) 1/2" vinyl tubing feed line
12) feed ring (usually from hydroflow)
Attachments
av8or
Member
Yeah boss, garden hose it up. Unless your tap water is over the 150-160 ppm range to begin with....just use tap water. I mix 600 ppm with tap water and it ends up at 6.7-6.8 ph. I add 20 ml (to a 50 gallon drum) of advanced nutrients concentrated ph down and it levels off at 5.6-5.8. Perfect.
I doubt I'll update my original thread. Maybe I should start a new one? I dunno....are you guys' and gals' in want of yet another ppk thread?
I run a couple perpetual grows, one that uses vertical bulbs and another with DEs. For a pound a week perpetually with only 4 plants, you're going to need to grow a two pound plant every other week, get an early.finishing strain, use a room that's at least 12x12x10 , use 4 x 1000 watt DEs, at least a 24,000 BTU AC, and finally co2 in a completely sealed room.
4 plants under a single DE might yield you a half pound per plant in a scrog, which is doable, and that would take a quarter of the room and electricity. But it's also a quarter of the yield.
Maybe I misunderstood you?
You didn't misunderstand me. After reading your posts and thread a 1lb per plant seemed like a reasonable goal but I have zero experience to base that off of so it is just a starting goal for now.
My entire space is a sealed room 10x20 with 9' ceilings and a 24,000 btu mini split. I have four 1k DE's but I am only going to run 1 for now and build up as I get comfortable. For vegging I will be using a 8x4x7 tent with LED's in the same room fed off the same bulk res. My plan is to LST/Super Crop until they are 24-30 inches tall/round and then pop them into flower and use a trellis to control the stretch. Not sure if that will work but that is the starting plan. I am shooting to eventually harvest the area under 1 or 2 lights every month.
av8or
Member
Ah OK, thanks for the clarification. OK, so given your space and goals, be sure to scrog as low as possible. You're going to want 30" between the DE fixture and your canopy. That means your plant has to finish at 4 1/2' tall after stretch. So, strain depending, place your scrog screen at around 30" from the ground and keep yanking your plant under the screen till she's 2/3 to 3/4 full. Start there and make adjustments as you learn the stretch of each strain. You could pull 2.5 pounds under a DE when scrogged properly in a sealed room. So....with 4 lights eventually, yes you absolutely could hit your goal of a pound a week. It'll look more like 2-2.5 pounds every 2-2.5 weeks instead of a pound each week. Or....you could increase the plant count to 8,9 or 10 AMD two or three plants under each screen....or all of them. Totally up to you.
If you grow trees like I do, your ceilings are too short for DEs. Maybe. It's close. You'd be better served dangling vertical lights in a shorter room if you're going to grow trees. I think you'll get more yield with less electricity scrogging under DEs though. I have 10' ceilings and that extra foot proves a live saver.
Here's a picture I took this morning of a 31.69% thc strain I'm growing. She just got flipped and only uses the 5 x 600 watt light X pattern in a 10x10' room with low ceilings. With 3000 watts I consistently pull a pound and a half off these plants (4 in each room for a 6 pound total). Never mind the lack of training on this plant. She kinda sprung up on me when I wasn't paying attention.
Attachments
This is what I do in my downstair UC rooms (not PPK yet). 5-600's in the diamond pattern. That picture of your plant on day one of flip, how much do you strip it after the stretch? Do you have any pictures of one after the stretch and you cleaned it out?
Thank you for the words of wisdom. You're absolutely right about the ceiling height, 9 foot is going to suck. I should have stuck to my original plan which was to use vertical bulbs but then a friend talked me into the DE's claiming he pulls 3lbs per light with 9 plants each and just topping them. I'm an idiot.
Trees are out the question for me unless I switch lights. I'm hoping that with the right training I can make a 4.5x4.5 canopy of dense bud. If I have to add a couple more plants to make that happen easier I will which would also reduce my veg times so that is a plus if I go that route. I will find out soon enough, I'm hoping to have some clones loaded into the system over the next couple days.
That plant in the picture is a beast by the way.
It is results like that that might make me put my DE's up for sale and pickup some cheap 600's.
