Waterfarm controller drip system with coco - Success or disaster?

[Guest]

I've been trying to come up with a drip system for a few days. I've got a weird sized space for a grow room and haven't been able to come up with the ideal sized reservoir and trays to make it work. I can't use anything higher than about 12 inches or I could use Rubbermaid stuff. I was talking with the grow guru at the hydro shop I drive to a couple of hours away about what he had in stock that would work for my reservoir problem. I've had an order for some stuff sitting there for a couple of days so I could get it all shipped together when I came up with a solution to the res problem. Finally, after we talked back and forth about a res solution for about 20 minutes on the phone, he said "dude you really need to get a "Waterfarm controller." Not knowing what it is and whether or not it would work for a coco grow, he told me he has sold them by the hundreds to coco growers and absolutely nobody has had anything negative to say about them. He said everyone says the system grows killer plants.

Anybody here had experience with the setup? Here's the link to how it works.

http://www.gthydro.com/images/productguides/GH_Controller_inst.pdf

All opinions are appreciated. My space is 25"deep X 87"wide X 8' tall. I could get two twenty gallon tanks that would fit and provide enough volume that I wouldn't have to mess with it for a few days but I'd have to tie them together with bulk head fittings and the circulation between the two might be a problem.

So I am considering this Waterfarm system if it will work.

 

[Dalton]

Hey what's up Mojo, Are you talking about using the whole system or just the controller? If its just the controller you could probably just hook something up to suit your needs better. It looks like it's just 2 reserviors stacked with a float valve to keep the levels right. The water farms keep nutrients in the bottom of the pots at all times, it's like a drip,dwc combo. The pumps are setup to run all of the time. So with most coco this could be a problem.
They have profit disks they are also called crop circles or pucks that are setup to be dripped on continuously because they are so course. Probably there are some other course coco that could work as well, but the profit disks are used in another system called IGS that runs all of the time, so they will definately work. You could probably build the whole waterfarm setup yourself
for 1/3rd of the price but if money isn't a thing, I would just scoop it up.
Oh and the reservior could probably go maybe 3 days or so without a top off if you just use the one.

Good luck


Edit: I'm realizing that I'm comparing the rez to mine and I can only go 3 days without topping because It's going to 30 plants, So I guess less plants less topping off and it also depends on temps and what stage of growth...someone else will know better then me

 

[Guest]

Strange... the profit disks on the IGS page don't look remotely close to a coco profit disk...


mojo, I am 99% sure that everything you could ever need to build a drip setup, including a tray and res can be found at your local hardware store. It is always nice to save a few bucks =]

 

[Dalton]

http://www.growthtechnology.com/grwk-igs.asp

 

[Guest]

There they are! Sneaky bastards =]

 

[Guest]

Yeah I'm all for saving a few bucks but I haven't been able to locate a suitable sized container to use as a res. And then I've got the problem of a tray for it but then I have two rubbermaid under bed storage trays that just fit the footprint of my closet that I could use.

Having said that, I would prefer to have one single tray. If I use two separate trays, I'll neet two separate res's, two pumps, etc. Or I could try to tie them together by drilling some holes and connecting them together using bulkhead fittings but there would always be some of the runoff that wouldn't make it back to the drain that will return it to my res. Guess that there is no perfect solution but there has to be one better than what I've been able to come up with. Like I said, I need a res that's no higher than 12". If I was growing in the middle of a room, no prob just get any size res and put a tray on top of it.

 

[Guest]

couldn't ya just stack up two of those under bed storage containers and pipe them together? sounds to me like you have everything worked out already, now you just need to go ahead and put it all together =]

 

[Dalton]

Mojo, You can get 2x2 or a 2x3 cement mixing tray from lowes or depot. They are about 1 foot tall for 10 bucks. Then you can just stack em right on top of each other, one as a rez and one as a table.

 

[Guest]

Indica Sativa, nice idea. Rather than using the things for trays, I could tie em together one on top of the other and use them for the reservoir. They're designed to stack inside each other but I could flip one over and put it on top of the other one. To seal them I could drip some MEK (methylethylketone) into the seam. MEK has a real cool property when it hits plastic - it softens it almost to a liquid state temporarily. And when you use it to join two pieces of plastic, i.e. broken crisper bins in the bottom of a refrigerator (I've actually put a broken roller back on an overloaded crisper bin using it) it virtually welds the two pieces together with their own material. And it would be leak proof too. Just to make sure, I could run a bead of clear silicone around the inside perimeter. They're 17 gal capacity each so I would have about 35 gallon capacity when I got through. Nice! And Casa de pot sells MEK in quarts.

Since both of these will already fit into my grow space end to end, for the trays I could buy two more of them, put the res in the middle of the closet grow space, cut access ports into the thing, prop one end of each tray onto the res, raise the outside ends an inch or two to create a slope to the middle and drain the sonofabitches back into the res to recirculate!

Didn't really like the whole look or concept of the Waterfarm, I don't care how many the guy says he's sold. It just looked like a grow wreck waiting to happen, ya know? Salt build up, not really designed for coco, runs 24/7, etc. And uses an air pump and riser? Nope.

Or, Dalton if the cement mixing trays aren't metal I could use one of the two by three trays for a res or put them end to end and use bulkhead fittings x four, get a couple of small recirculating pumps, put a length of hose on each pump's intake port, put one in each tank, shove the intake hose of each pump through the two outside fittings in opposite directions and cycle them on and off for a couple of minutes ever hour or so and my mixing problems would be solved.

Two very good ideas, guys. Thanks, I knew you'd be able to come up with something better than what I was coming up with, hehe.

I'll make a trip to the store tomorrow - later today I mean, lol. Thanks again!

Jeeze I love this forum, hehe.

 

[Guest]

Just an update and a thanks to both Indica Sativa and Dalton. I ended up going with the cement bucket idea Dalton suggested. Looked at doing the under bed storage thing and couldn't come up with a way to make that work the way I wanted it to. Not enough capacity using only one and no way to tie two of them together and have them not leak.

Got the 2x3 cement mixing bucket and propped the two under bed Rubbermaid trays up on their outside ends and rested them on top of the reservoir in the middle. Got a problem even with the res height of 8 inches with the my White Widow not having enough clearance between the top of the plant and the light. Damned plant's about 4 1/2 feet tall and using the Hydrofarm yoyo light lifts I've been using, I can only get about 4" between the glass on the bottom of the 400w light and the top of the cola. Gonna have to tie the top of the plant down like gaius suggested in reply to me in another forum. Also gonna have to get rid of the yoyos and use a pulley system to raise and lower the lights as the yoyos waste about 10 inches above them in the way they hang.

Thanks again for the help guys.

 

[Guest]

Glad ya got everything worked out =]

 

[gaiusmarius]

hehe seems i'm too late, to tell you not to get the water farm, as you figured it out yourself, lol.

maybe you should consider finishing this grow up with hand watering and only start the auto watering etc, with the new run, where you will know to keep the veg time down a bit.

 

[Guest]

Dude thanks for the thought, lol. But I have already decided to wait til the next grow, LMFAO. Yeah you're right, it just makes more sense. I'm getting trichs on the AA and the WW looks like it's getting them too. Today the plants are exactly 4 weeks into flower 28 days today, man. Figure I've got another 4 or so before harvest.

Later