You Gotta SIP, Not Slurp

[thailer]

I poke some small holes in the bottom of the perlite bag and open up the top so I can use a garden hose to rinse it clean. A lot of the dust goes out the bottom and since it’s wet, the dust won’t become airborne so you don’t have to use a mask unless you’re also mixing up guano/manures or other stuff that you don’t want to breath in.

 

[flylowgethigh]

You are lucky the wet bottom doesn't blow out like my bag did today, from setting on wet ground as I was washing. Your way sounds easier. I need to find something at the dollar store to fill the donut hole in my drain pipe circle, for the weight support.

Also, a small 160 rosin bag should work with my bulkhead fitting strainer (just add a zip tie), and I have a bunch looking for a use. These taper-fit fittings seem like they stay together well, and they don't use glue. Edit: I put a little black silicon on the 90* elbows before I put them in final, cause I just didn't trust them to stay put.



My SIP tub is a 32 gallon trash can, cut to 18" height. The bulkhead with rosin bag, 4" loop of pipe, 8' perlite, and a 10 gallon bag.



The control box is a 5 gallon bucket, with a 6" high bucket screwed down inside. I put a float valve controlled bilge pupm to return to the reservoir water that goes over the well edge. The orange supply bucket has the supply pump, which fills the white bucket up to the point it overflows into the well. The supply pump is on a timer, and only has to run long enough to replenish the system. I bet 5 mins per hour, or we'll see. The return pump is always powered and ready.



This is going to take a lot of perlite. I used a half a big bag on one tub. The bags they have here are plastic lined paper.

 

[thailer]

i use a pen or a pitchfork to poke holes in the bag so its pretty small holes. i don't lift the plastic bag when it is full of water and just let gravity's flow wash the perlite dust out through the holes. i don't poke a lot of holes either. it probably doesn't get it super clean but it sure makes it safer to work with due to the dust. maybe if you found a mesh laundry bag, you could dump you perlite out in that to wash if its a concern. this one is from home depot and the holes are pretty small compared to other mesh laundry bags. it could make a mess depending on if the perlite you bought got crushed into finer particles. i really don't think the dust is too big of a deal in the sips. it can't clog anything. in the soil i still don't think it is a big deal myself but i mix large batches of soil so maybe it gets spread out further.

 

[Bmac1]

1 week of flower down on these wedding cake. Gave them a serious plucking again and will give another thorough one next week and then let them go.


It's really almost hydro like growth.

 

[flylowgethigh]

I scrapped the 7 gallon totes and made bigger tubs. These have the 4" pipe on the bottom, and a screen (rosin bag) over the eater inlet:

 

[flylowgethigh]

Filled with 7" washed perlite and put 4 of them and the control box in the flower tent.

 

[unregistered190]

flylowgethigh how big are those? Only worry with bigger is not being able to move them out of the tent if needed.

 

[flylowgethigh]

The tubs ae 32 gallons that I cut down to 18" high, and riveted the handles back on. The 10 gallon bags are as big as will fit, to make a SWICK. If the bags don't work out I can just do the soil on top of the perlite, but i am trying to avoid doing that for the clean-up mess Look closely and you can see how I split the top part I cut off, and riveted it on.

 

[flylowgethigh]

The SWICK /SIP is running - it took about 30 gallons to fill it, and there is room for more in the 12 gallon reservoir. Most of that water is in the tubs. I have the best of the worst plants in there with their 7 gallon bags, and I am using the Blumat to measure the water uptake. If this works as planned, the reservoir will be the measure. I should have put a sight gage on the outside (still can). The timer is set to run 5 minutes every 8 hours at this point, to top off the perlite moisture in the tubs.


The valve in the reservoir regulates how much the reservoir pump puts out, to slow down the feed. If the reservoir pump puts out more than the perlite can absorb, the excess just runs into the well and gets returned. Throttling the supply feed reduces the times per watering cycle the return pump operates.

Edit: It has been running a while now on the timer, which for now means 5 minutes ON every 8 hours. ON means the timer supplies power to the pump in the reservoir that feeds the control bucket, which feeds the tubs.

I decided to put on some top water after things were running, and put about 3/4 gallon on the 4 plants. The SIP was full, and a while later I can hear the return pump every now and then for just a couple seconds,, as the water drains from the pots into the perlite and raises the water level. The waterfall control is that sensitive.

 

[thailer]

I can hear the return pump every now and then for just a couple seconds,, as the water drains from the pots into the perlite and raises the water level. The waterfall control is that sensitive.

so you can hear them sipping up the water as quick as they drink it up? nice!! sounds complicated to me but i'm glad you're enjoying creating it.


late last night i got a phone call from a friend who is gonna bring me some clean clones to plant in my SIPs i built so i should be able to start updating again. i don't even know what plants he is bringing but its probably some sort of gelato or runtz. maybe gary payton. not too sure. i am hoping to have it planted on Sunday.

Bmac's SIP is freaking rocking!!

 

[flylowgethigh]

Good news! My Swick reservoir is down 3/4 inch overnight. The Blumat and my finger tell me the soil is plenty wet (maybe too much). I have about 1/3 drainage material in the soil, and I hope that isn't too much. I think the water being "made" after it was first wet was the perlite settling under the weight of the bag, squeezing water back into the reservoir.

 

[thailer]

theres usually some settling i think from perlite falling into the drainage pipe nooks and crannies. just add some more soil to the top and call it a day!! i super hope your system works out for you!

i spent yesterday sweeping and organizing my grow garage because someone is actually gonna see it. it isn't dirty but just not organized. looks so nice in there!

 

[flylowgethigh]

The beauty of the Swick is the bag just sets on the perlite. My blumat is reading like I just top watered, but the carrot tip is down there a ways reading the water coming up. My calibrated finger (yes, I have calibrated it in soil for weeks), says the soil is a bit on the wet side, but not bad. These are 7 gallon bags, not the 10s I will use for run #2.

I am digging this so far. To put individual SCROG screens on each tub may require me to make the frame look like a stop sign, and be rounded instead of square. Only the front tubs really need it, to move them for better access to the rear tubs. The rear ones can have a 2x4 frame scrog for the first layer since the tubs can stay there.

So clean outside:

Inside too, but I stepped on a fitting tinkering with the back of the tent.

 

[flylowgethigh]

I had to add 4 gallons of water to the SWICK reservoir this morning. I run the pumps with the timer to refill the tubs twice a day. I am seeing the reservoir water communicate with the tub water, as the reservoir ph keeps reverting to a higher number after I lower the reservoir. I imagine the tubs are chemically communicating with each other also.

So what about aeration of the water? Hydro guys add bubblers to their reservoirs. I am thinking of an airstone at the bottom of the perlite down in the wet zone, bubbling in air. What do ya'll think of this idea? I can't see it hurting anything, and I have the bubblers.

 

[thailer]

Other people have added bubblers trying to make the water more aerated for roots and they didn’t notice any improvement. I think it is unnecessary and those bubble stones breed gunk slime coverings from the air injected into the water and I don’t know how you’d clean that on the regular. You don’t need it IMO.

 

[thailer]

I had to add 4 gallons of water to the SWICK reservoir this morning. I run the pumps with the timer to refill the tubs twice a day. I am seeing the reservoir water communicate with the tub water, as the reservoir ph keeps reverting to a higher number after I lower the reservoir. I imagine the tubs are chemically communicating with each other also.

So when I first set up the SIPs on a line, I added rinsed wet perlite and wet soil so everything was premoistened and I did not add water from the top so there was no run off. For months the water in the control box which feeds the irrigation line was clear. The minute I watered a sip lightly to add a barley tea, the water had the run off yellow look. I never had algae in the control bucket until then and that is one thing I want to fix before I set up these SIPs.

so I think that all the SIPs share the same water because the color bleeds out from run off into the shared control bucket. I have no idea about reservoir pH swings because I don’t care and so far the plants haven’t either. That being said I do use RO water and some peoples tap could have lots of bicarbonates that can build up effecting pH. In my system the water is very slowly added into the SIPs so it shouldn’t be too big of a swing in a short time, if there is one. I don’t measure my own and it’s so slow the effect of swings would be negligible I imagine unless you have tap water that is less than ideal. Then you can flush out the system by disconnecting the irrigation line at the end and dumping out the totes water and refilling once or thrice.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Fertilizer and light make algae. I have read about people getting algae on the perlite in a SWICK, and they stop it by covering the perlite so no light can reach it. We are growing fungus in the soil, so why worry?

I think my reservoir was siphoning to the control box, and I put a little hole in the 1/2" line at the top. Now the control box water can drop between fillings.

I really like this SIP/SWICK watering system, and the plants appreciate it also.

 

[thailer]

long story short, i've been waiting on this dude to bring me plants but he lives a long drive away and the snow this year is the worst we had so i told him no biggie but the situation still sucked. now the snow has finally allowed passage across the mountains and he says he is gonna come over, then calls in the morning and says he can't because he has a plant emergency. fine come the following day but he posted that night a pic of him fishing at a river that is the same distance away. whatever dude. so the following day arrives and i get this call middle of the afternoon when he is supposed to be arriving saying he isn't coming because he has to buy a water pump for his plants so he can water them, so i offered to meet him halfway to get the plants...like in plural. then he says he doesn't want to give me a bunch and he is gonna just bring me one i can mom out and can i buy him lunch for the plant? sure dude whatever gets some clean bug free plants in my room. so i drive halfway two hours up into the mountains where people ski and meet him. we go inside and its one of those order and pay at a counter and they'll bring your food to your table. i order $14 meal and so does he but he orders two appetizers also and the total comes to $50 including a tip. He slips me a $20 and says he didn't bring me a plant at all.

so i sat there and ate my food while he told me all this shit advice and I am thinking about all the stuff i had to reschedule to meet dude the past two days, the money i am out of for gas, time and i've waited for months now for these specific plants (long story about a business agreement) before i chop down my spider mite plants for his replacements. so after an hour i finish and after a two hour drive home in the shittiest traffic in our state i noticed i don't have my money. it is back at the restaurant on the bench seat beside me. so i drive two hours back up there and two hours back home again. i am so mad about the whole thing and i am done with this flake. maybe it worked out for my benefit because his plants could've had bugs even though he says they don't. he has said a lot of stuff that hasn't panned out.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Sounds like a true friend. /sarc. A liar has no place in my world.

Break out the beans! I wanna see the big SIPs at work. So now that I have fixed the supply line siphon, and the SIP only gets water when the pumps come on at the 7:30's, I look forward to being in there and seeing the water in the res go down. It's now my evening doobie time, sitting in the room. They have drank more than I would have watered. I use paper clips on a metal ruler to keep track of the previous water level... The anti-siphon holes are in the lines inside the reservoir, so when the pump is on the leakage stays inside. I will be able to leave for 2-3 days with this system.



Edit 3/12: Had to add another 4 gallons today, so the tent is taking 2 gallons a day. Even with all that water, I still have to keep wet shirts on the wall to keep the Rh over 50%.

 

[thailer]

Break out the beans! I wanna see the big SIPs at work. So now that I have fixed the supply line siphon, and the SIP only gets water when the pumps come on at the 7:30's, I look forward to being in there and seeing the water in the res go down. It's now my evening doobie time, sitting in the room. They have drank more than I would have watered.

i bet they will work even better and the pots will not be as moist. did you notice the plants are greening back up when you put them on irrigation? it is so important to water plants correctly in organic soil because they can also mimic other problems.

i have some dope seeds except that poses problems for running a monocrop. i am not sure what i am allowed to talk about here, if you catch my drift. basically told i can't pop seeds if i am doing this type of deal. so we are just gonna progress forward and i am hoping to have them planted in a week. i have three nice mac1 clones that are on the opposite side of the area that the mite clones are as well as the new GMO bx called Donny Burger from skunkmasterflex. This guy says it isn't exotic enough and told me he doesn't want it but i think i can do well with it. it kinda blows my monocrop though. i am hoping by the end of the week i will have it all set up and the clones will be free of mites.