Blumat auto watering

[sanjuan]

The official Blumat setup is to have the end of the line be a dripper, FWIW.

One reason I don't have a loop is I didn't want to be always stepping over/on the line.
A potential problem with terminating the line past a dripper is mold/whatever growing in the stagnant solution until it gets bled. I'm in the habit of bleeding the contents of the lines every day, after adding a little bleach to the res.

I've run up to six midsize (for indoor) plants in a row and I never felt like the ones on the end of the line were being neglected. My (few) clogs from mold in the 3mm lines seem to occur at any random distance from the res.

IMO your plan will work, CHEFfy, especially having a 1/2" trunk line. You're putting that 5 Gal res up high, right?

 

[Dave Coulier]

The official Blumat setup is to have the end of the line be a dripper, FWIW.

One reason I don't have a loop is I didn't want to be always stepping over/on the line.
A potential problem with terminating the line past a dripper is mold/whatever growing in the stagnant solution until it gets bled. I'm in the habit of bleeding the contents of the lines every day, after adding a little bleach to the res.

I've run up to six midsize (for indoor) plants in a row and I never felt like the ones on the end of the line were being neglected. My (few) clogs from mold in the 3mm lines seem to occur at any random distance from the res.

IMO your plan will work, CHEFfy, especially having a 1/2" trunk line. You're putting that 5 Gal res up high, right?

Put me in the category of blumaters who do not use a closed loop. I terminate the end with a feed line and tie it off or I use it as a dripper for a plant like Im doing atm. Ive not seen any issues with clogging, etc running it this way as compared to a closed loop system.

Hell, I rarely even bleed my lines, and things run very smoothly as long as the blumat is adjusted correctly. Having the blumat adjusted correctly is the key, more so than how we set up our tubing, etc imo.

 

[sanjuan]

Thanks, rives. The blue ES series were something of a disappointment. I have 4 x 165 and 4 x 330 (of various revisions) and one of each series failed during the first grow, doing just 12 hr days. I haven't gotten around to retrofitting the bad fans.

Dave, I'm using MaxiGro and/or MaxiBloom at 3.33g/Gal which gives me a total of 1.4mS. I'm using city well water @ 0.2mS, and each gallon gets: 1ml Pro-Tekt (Si), 1ml Drip Clean, 10ml Ful-Power (fulvic acid), 1ml Cal-Mag+.

I think I'm still on the edge of underfeeding but I get tip burn at 1.5mS.

I use GH pH Down at about 1.1ml per gallon--my city adds sodium hydroxide to inhibit corrosion in the older parts of town with a pH of 7.4 (very consistent). I started out keeping the pH at 5.9 to 6.0 but the plants might be happier with the current 5.8 to 5.9 range. I set it at 5.8 and it will be 5.85 a day or two later. Some people like a wider pH range for best mineral uptake but centering around 5.8 seems good enough to me.

If I happen to have low pH, the Pro-Tekt silicon is an effective pH Up.

 

[CHEFfy]

Thanks for your input... That is the exact reason I want to do it with terminated ends... Don't want to crawl all over lines every few days. So, no major problems with using off the shelf mainline for these setups? Only problem I see is the junction from mainline to individual feedlines to the blumats. Never had much luck with those hole punched nipples. My 5 gallon control bucket should be at least 4-5 ft above the final blumat level (which is a foot or so above the mainline.

 

[sanjuan]

I like to buy fittings but this would be TOO many, a min order of 2000 from nordsonmedical--wait until March, also. Grand Total $1,054.00

Amazon used to sell these in 25-packs: Value Plastics T080/055-0 Tee Reduction Tube Fitting with 500 Series Barbs, 1/2" (12.7 mm) and 1/4" (6.4 mm) ID Tubing, Natural Nylon (25-Pack)

I looked at kentsystems but they didn't carry this type of tee.

OK, grainger has Thogus brand using polypropylene: http://www.grainger.com/product/THOGUS-Barbed-Tee-3YNE5?functionCode=P2IDP2PCP

 

[CHEFfy]

Badass. Thanks for the help. I suck at googling.

 

[Oti$]

I'm sure it has been mentioned, but this is a long thread, there is a type of hose called "flexilla"sold at hind depot and Lowes, it may be air hose for air compressor not certain, but it can be used with the fittings that come with the blumats, everything fits snugly and its much more flexible than the hose that comes with the kit. I had already bought the poly hose and Kent 3/32t's before Mr. D made this discovery, but in the future I will probably switch. Its bright green and can be seen in Mr Ds vertical threads.

 

[CHEFfy]

Haha. It's the same air hose that I use with my portable compressor for nail guns etc... Good shit and tough as nails! Would maybe be good to go from a PVC main manifold to the flexzilla for main feedlines...

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

This is a mound!

Been watching rose of darkness on opengrow.
She is a mental blumat grower

 

[Jimmy Luffnan]

https://www.opengrow.com/topic/49345-roses-cave-of-monsters/

 

[Oti$]

That beautiful

 

[sanjuan]

Legacy Flexilla 1/4" x 100ft, $45 @ HD or $30 for 50ft.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

What a mound of roots!

Been procrastinating on getting my blumats rolling again. Going to be pumping from 3 100 Gal Toter trash cans to a 20 Gal brute in a closet a floor above. Upgraded to all 3/4" tubing.

Ya'll seem to really rep the Flexzilla stuff. Never used it on my blumats, but I use it to pump water around the basement (the larger garden hose variety).. Stuff doesnt appear to be light proof. The end of of line ends up looking like a dead bird is living in it, but perhaps that's only on the cut end. I wonder what the middle of my hose looks like.

I'm goodyear garden hose per Delta9nxs and his PPK builds from here on out. (edit. not necessarily for bumat gardens.. might be difficult to punch holes for the 3/32" barbs.. havn't tried). I'm personally just using hydrofarm 3/4" tubing. It's affordable and works.

Here is my upper res with 3/4" shut offs and 2 1" overflows. If I can get some water stored up I'll be going on blumats today/tomorrow. Struggling at the moment because I use it all hand watering. I'm 3 weeks in flower and should have had these on blumats weeks ago. Think I'll see any problem converting from a wand fed wet/dry cycle to blumats?

I've only got kent tees instead of barbs, but no longer want to run them 2 per.. I think the tee impedes flow. I turned them sideways and stuck a section of knotted 3mm to plug the one. Will I have issues here with stagnanted water in that little section. I should have just bought damn straights..

I might add a bleed valve.. but have been really successful with blumats in the past never doing so.

 

[sanjuan]

. . .
Ya'll seem to really rep the Flexzilla stuff. Never used it on my blumats, but I use it to pump water around the basement (the larger garden hose variety).. Stuff doesnt appear to be light proof. The end of of line ends up looking like a dead bird is living in it, but perhaps that's only on the cut end. I wonder what the middle of my hose looks like.

I'm goodyear garden hose per Delta9nxs and his PPK builds from here on out. . .

Thanks for that info, I was wondering about the light transmission through "Zilla Green". Mold is growing in my Mocap 0.224in silicone lines and they are translucent enough.

Badass. Thanks for the help. I suck at googling.

I may have worked industrial maintenance in a past life.

 

[rives]

I may have worked industrial maintenance in a past life.

Interesting how that turned out to be cross-training, isn't it?

 

[CHEFfy]

Yeah, general contracting has been a great background for this "hobby" of mine.

 

[ChillyDogg]

Heat the lines a little to get them off.

 

[Cobra420]

Just set up my 3 x 600w tents with Blumats.

Ran the 8mm lines in through the intakes. "T" off them with 3mm line next to each container

It then hits a quick disconnect with a stopper. From there it goes to the Blumat sensor.

Out of the sensor it goes to 4 distribution drippers circling the plant.

One of the 3 tents setup (Satori)

I'm amazed at how easy it was to setup. The quick disconnects work better than I thought. I was a little hesitant with all the pressure behind them, but they seem to work flawlessly so far. In the process of dialing them in now. I'm running CC's mix in no till 10g Geopots. We'll see how they do.

I'm in the process of running them to my dual 150w cab as well. Was going to just have a res on top of the cab but realized how easy it is to run the 8mm tubing to the cab from the pressure regulator feeding the 600w tents. Had to order some white 8mm tubing to match the base boards. The white cable roka's I have were practically made for this. As soon as it's here, I'll be able to run them into each section of the cabinet as well. Super stoked!!

For anyone interested, I bought a 10M Patio and Balcony Kit with 40 sensors. I looked at a few sites online and the cheapest I could find them was at this site...

http://growershouse.com/tropf-blumat-10m-patio-balcony-kit-40-sensor

Over 100 dollars cheaper than any other site I found this same kit on. I thought it was too good to be true until I got them. Kudo's to them for such great pricing.

They also have the 12 sensor kit for $65 bucks... Best prices I found on the net since NO one in these parts of the woods have any idea what these things are...

http://growershouse.com/tropf-blumat-3m-patio-balcony-kit-12-sensor


Being my first time running these, if anyone has any tips or advice, feel free. They are already looking to be one of the best investments I've made in this hobby.

 

[rives]

If you are running on a pressure reducer indoors, I hope that you have the drains tied in to the sewer system! Reports on the installations fed with pressure reducers have said that they are MUCH more reliable, but ........

 

[Cobra420]

If you are running on a pressure reducer indoors, I hope that you have the drains tied in to the sewer system! Reports on the installations fed with pressure reducers have said that they are MUCH more reliable, but ........

When you say reports say this way is more reliable, how so??

Haha, believe me, we will be keeping a VERY close eye on this setup. May move into the room with the tents just in case Lol hoping everything stays dry outside the tents though. Luckily the 3 tents are in an area with a concrete floor and a drain "just in case".