Blumat auto watering

[banknchips]

Yup instead of venting on purge it actually creates a suction.

 

[banknchips]

Well what I have now is a 350gph not sure of band pump. It can run a submersible or inline. I'm going to have to put it in both ways and test. I'm afraid it might be to powerful. Do you think if I ran inline it would still heat the water?

 

[rives]

Check the volume at the head it will be bucking, from the pump discharge to the highest point in the discharge plumbing. Then check the flow chart - volume falls off dramatically on a high-head installation. I use the Danner Mag-Drive Pondmaster pumps rated for 350gph and at 8' of head, they drop to about 80gph.

The pump is still going to get hot and transfer some heat to the water. It will be far less in an in-line configuration than submerged, though.

 

[IndoorAddict]

Hey guys, been using blumats in coco with general hydroponics flora for three weeks now. I'm really loving the setup and the plants are happy as I've ever seen them.

But it seems every 2 to 3 days I have to tug on the dripper hose to make it start dripping again. Like its getting just a slight blockage at the pinch valve. I know the problem occurs to others. Is drip clean the answer to this?? Or should I just keep tugging my lines every so often?

 

[skyview]

Are you using a gravity system? If so, does this problem tend to happen when your res in on the low side? It could a result of the lower pressure when the res is low.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

^definitely can cause pressure concerns when elevated rez gets low. If that's not the case..

IA, did you purchase additional 3mm tubing or are you using the small factory sections that come with the kit. When I ran the kit I'd have similar issues... almost as if the tubing started to get tacky (and would stick pinched), perhaps from age or hot climate storage. Once I ordered a lot of additional 3mm it arrived much less tacky.. almost dusted in a white powder to prevent such.. or so it seemed at least. Up until this wonderful thread it seems like a lot of deck and patio kits were sitting around for a bit until popularity grew. I'm sure some orders were filled (and possibly still are depending on the source) from the depths of some hot dusty warehouses.

I'll still occasionally experience what you describe, but it's far and few between. Have you tried letting it be to see if it eventually starts dripping? I've tugged on a seemingly no flow lines only to have it start flowing as if I I opened to full flow. I've then got to dial down to a slow drip and ultimately question my eventual setting... although they do seem to work fine after that re-dial without further tweaking..

 

[IndoorAddict]

Are you using a gravity system? If so, does this problem tend to happen when your res in on the low side? It could a result of the lower pressure when the res is low.

i'm using a gravity system yes but i'm doing the trick where the feed rez is elevated and the main rez is on a lower shelf. i have a timer that turns the pump on every 4 hours to top off the feed rez and stir things up. so no, it's not happening when the rez is low, since the feed rez is always full.

^definitely can cause pressure concerns when elevated rez gets low. If that's not the case..

IA, did you purchase additional 3mm tubing or are you using the small factory sections that come with the kit. When I ran the kit I'd have similar issues... almost as if the tubing started to get tacky (and would stick pinched), perhaps from age or hot climate storage. Once I ordered a lot of additional 3mm it arrived much less tacky.. almost dusted in a white powder to prevent such.. or so it seemed at least. Up until this wonderful thread it seems like a lot of deck and patio kits were sitting around for a bit until popularity grew. I'm sure some orders were filled (and possibly still are depending on the source) from the depths of some hot dusty warehouses.
I'll still occasionally experience what you describe, but it's far and few between. Have you tried letting it be to see if it eventually starts dripping? I've tugged on a seemingly no flow lines only to have it start flowing as if I I opened to full flow. I've then got to dial down to a slow drip and ultimately question my eventual setting... although they do seem to work fine after that re-dial without further tweaking..

i purchased extra 3mm tubing and am using 2 ft sections for each dripper. i also noticed the white powder coating and this stuff seems fresh and not tacky.
and ya i've left it alone for a day to see if it picks up but it never really seems to. i lift the pot to determine how saturated it is, along with a visual of course and when i think it's getting too dry, i'll tug the line one way or the other and it'll start dripping a bunch until it is re saturated enough for the blumat to shut her down some. then it'll drip drip drip away until several days later.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Drip clean might help, but with GH I'm not sure what the source of the issue is. You shouldn't be having any issues. I've ran both Floraseries and Maxibloom in my blumat rez without any issues. When u say flora do you mean the flora series or flora nova? Not using any additives like floralicious or anything?

My biggest fear with blumats (while leaving them for longer periods) is what you describe.... you lose either the plant due to total dry up, or worse.. when/if the blumat does start flowing into the overly dry pot it creates a run-away and doesn't turn off properly as the now dry pot allows the water to chanel the least path of resistance.. The entire rez is empty and the entire crop is lost.

I've been extremely fortunate to not have any real issues when leaving my blumats for about 2 weeks unattended, but all it takes is 1 run-away to eventually run my rez dry.

I'd be interested in hearing what anyone else might have to say on this topic.

 

[Eighths-n-Aces]

I'd be interested in hearing what anyone else might have to say on this topic.

if you run nutes in the res thats a tough problem to solve.

if you don't you can run with the blumat pressure regulator or put a float valve in the rez and run that off the main water line, both of those solutions can always turn into a disaster if you don't have a drain to catch the runaways because of corse they'll run forever. solving that problem is either easy or impossible depending on your situation. having a drain makes it easy, the need for stealth or no drain makes it impossible

 

[IndoorAddict]

ya i mean the flora series. i'm running h3ad's formula. and no additives or anything. just the water/micro/bloom and i do add some h2o2 in hopes to prevent problems like this haha!!

well i really appreciate your efforts and time. i'm probably gonna try drip clean in the future, but since i'm about 4 weeks into flower with the drippers i won't start the DC until next run. since starting to use it midway through is not advised.

but i'll keep and eye on the situation and keep everyone posted if i discover the reason this happens. maybe i'm just not being patient enough

 

[IndoorAddict]

This may be pay off my problem. If not it was going to be soon...

 

[IndoorAddict]

*part of

so ya, that's a picture of my "feed rez" which is a 5 gal bucket. i've been running this system for 3 weeks and a day and have only been topping off my rez as needed. only using GH flora series H3ADs recipe with some h202 here and there to hopefully prevent this white fuzzy stuff growing in my rez. could the h202 be the problem? and like i said i havent been changing the rez out, just topping off since the nutes arent reused with a blumat drip system. should i be changing it out? i was really hoping to not have to in order to save on nute waste.

so anyways, i cleaned everything out real good. mixed a fresh batch and did my weekly hand watering regimen. will monitor more closely for white fuzz build up from now on. i'm sure that was the culprit of my plugged drip lines. wonder what that stuff is??

 

[rives]

I've been wanting to try out the in-line filters that are available now, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I run V+B and it's really clean, but since I started adding SM90 I get some scum that is worrisome.

IA, I don't know about GH, but V+B is stable long term - I never dump, just add, and have enough storage to last several weeks. With my water, the pH drifts a little bit over the first several days and then comes in pretty solid. It wouldn't surprise me if GH was similar - you could monitor the pH, the ppm's, and keep an eye out for precipitation and get a feel for it.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

IA, could be part of your problem as well as part of mine. I added Gnatrol to my rez like an idiot instead of just hand drenching it in for the gnats. I ended up with snotty looking strands in floating around when I topped things off. They'd settle and ultimately didn't cause any real issues, but this of course was one of the gardens that did gave me slight issue on a few plants staying pinned shut.

Normally with base nutes (jacks + Calnit) the DO & agitation created by the overflow back to my lower rez is sufficient to keep me sparkling clean without any additional additives. I've also ran head recipe only for the entire garden.. only pumping pre-mixed nutes into the low lower rez.

Have you tried running a dead rez w/ chlorine or a product like dutch master zone. It wont dissipate fast like h202. I believe Lazyman was doing something like 15mL/55 Gal of bleach, but ultimately if you went this route it'd be best to pic up a chlorine meter to maintain accurate levels. Look into Snypes stuff as I believe he runs chlorine.



I was thinking about also trying to hang a bio-wheel power filter (like for a fish tank) on the edge of my upper rez to ensure any particulates are filtered out. What you are likely seeing is all of the dead stuff the h202 has killed off getting kicked around during a top up.

Not sure how much any of it matters (it settles out lower then my bulkheads which feed the garden. My drains exit the side of my upper container a few inches from the absolute bottom), but I'd prefer squeaky clean if I can achieve it.

Anyone sterilizing their blumats rez w/ UV or anything?

 

[IndoorAddict]

IA, I don't know about GH, but V+B is stable long term - I never dump, just add, and have enough storage to last several weeks. With my water, the pH drifts a little bit over the first several days and then comes in pretty solid. It wouldn't surprise me if GH was similar - you could monitor the pH, the ppm's, and keep an eye out for precipitation and get a feel for it.

rives, yes the gh seems very similar, i'm quite convinced that the h2o2 was my problem. just in the little research i had time to do i read enough horror stories to convince me it was anyway

Normally with base nutes (jacks + Calnit) the DO & agitation created by the overflow back to my lower rez is sufficient to keep me sparkling clean without any additional additives. I've also ran head recipe only for the entire garden.. only pumping pre-mixed nutes into the low lower rez.

Have you tried running a dead rez w/ chlorine or a product like dutch master zone. It wont dissipate fast like h202. I believe Lazyman was doing something like 15mL/55 Gal of bleach, but ultimately if you went this route it'd be best to pic up a chlorine meter to maintain accurate levels. Look into Snypes stuff as I believe he runs chlorine.



I was thinking about also trying to hang a bio-wheel power filter (like for a fish tank) on the edge of my upper rez to ensure any particulates are filtered out. What you are likely seeing is all of the dead stuff the h202 has killed off getting kicked around during a top up.

Not sure how much any of it matters (it settles out lower then my bulkheads which feed the garden. My drains exit the side of my upper container a few inches from the absolute bottom), but I'd prefer squeaky clean if I can achieve it.

Anyone sterilizing their blumats rez w/ UV or anything?

ya, i dropped the h2o2 outta the mix. my grobro was going to the hydro store today and asked if i needed anything, so i said to get me some Zone. so i'm probably gonna add this to my mix instead now.

i assume it's safe to use Zone halfway through flower?? unlike drip clean where they say it could cause problems...

i like the biowheel idea. now that i look again i see just what looks to be dust and a stray cat hair here and there so i put a simple lid over my feed rez now too, which i know i should've done from the beginning. i'm sure that didn't help anything. i'd say its safe to assume that everyone has both of their rez's covered?? i can admit that my top "feed rez" was not covered. allowing dust and other airborne crap to settle into the water.

and also i should've done like you did and put my feed line up a little ways on the side of my bucket. mine is straight out of the bottom

 

[rives]

I've never used Zone, but have never had any problems with DripClean. I use 1ml/gallon from start to finish, and have been for many years.

All of my rez's are covered, with the outlets out the side. You lose a couple inches of water, but gain a settling sump.

 

[IndoorAddict]

i like what i'm hearing there! thanks for your help and input!

 

[silver hawaiian]

I've been wanting to try out the in-line filters that are available now, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I run V+B and it's really clean, but since I started adding SM90 I get some scum that is worrisome.

IA, I don't know about GH, but V+B is stable long term - I never dump, just add, and have enough storage to last several weeks. With my water, the pH drifts a little bit over the first several days and then comes in pretty solid. It wouldn't surprise me if GH was similar - you could monitor the pH, the ppm's, and keep an eye out for precipitation and get a feel for it.

FWIW, I used to run SM90 at 2 ml/gal (along with Ful Power at 5 ml/gal and ProTekt at 2 ml/gal) through my blumats and never had any clogs.

I have had one clog:

A root!

 

[IndoorAddict]

Damn!

 

[Cobra420]

A couple pics to show off the surface roots of my Pineapple Express x Cheese N Chaze freebie I got. WOW have these Blumats exceeded my expectations.

Going to run some mulch next round and may add another dripper to the container. I also haven't really messed with the settings since setting them up. They could probably be turned up to be honest with you.

The plant above is the front right in this tent.