New Grower AutoCobs/AutoPots in 4x4 Tent, Unboxing and Setup

Glad your domes arrived. :vibeguard:. All of my ordered will be delivered today, so it is waiting for me. :snooze:
 
Hey all! Just a quick lunchtime update... I'm still alive and I'm starting my grow this week! I will start a new thread and invite everyone to it! I also have a few more setup updates to post to this thread.

Sorry I was MIA for a while there, alas real life intruded. I had some family obligations to take care of, and then I was out of town for a few days last week and I didn't want to start things right before I left town. But I'm back on track so stay tuned...
 
Hey all! Just a quick lunchtime update... I'm still alive and I'm starting my grow this week! I will start a new thread and invite everyone to it! I also have a few more setup updates to post to this thread.

Sorry I was MIA for a while there, alas real life intruded. I had some family obligations to take care of, and then I was out of town for a few days last week and I didn't want to start things right before I left town. But I'm back on track so stay tuned...
:bighug:
Glad your back. Got to love life. We are here in Houston right now. we said our good byes to Costa Rica.

Take care and I know you will take names with this grow
 
:bighug:
Glad your back. Got to love life. We are here in Houston right now. we said our good byes to Costa Rica.

Take care and I know you will take names with this grow

Thanks for the love, @Nosias. I sure hope you're right about the grow! Sorry to hear you've left Costa Rica, I hear it is beautiful there!

I like your profile pic, by the way. What kind of bird is that?
 
Progress continues surely but slowly...

Today I expanded my Coco coir using a method I found on the intertubes. I took my brick of Coco and placed it in a 30-gallon trash bag, then placed the trash bag inside of a large Tupperware storage container. I then filled the bag with tap water. I left the brick to expand while I went to work today, and when I came home I poked holes in the trash bag with a thumbtack to let the excess water drain out. Do not try to use your fingers to poke holes in the trash bag, as the holes will be too large and the cocoa will run out as well. Not speaking from experience here anything...

Here are a few pics of the Coco expansion Tupperware, with a bonus view of my vegetable garden! Hopefully I don't get any contamination from the cocoa being outside.
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I also just turned on four of the six Autocobs in order to warm the tent up to grow temperature. I am planning on germinating my seeds using the method published on the Mephisto website, so I need a warm germination environment, and I also need the pots to be ready to receive the seeds as soon as they have sprouted.
 
More setup accomplished this morning--I woke up early to start building my autopot setup before work! I cut the tubing and put it together based on the diagram on the box, it was really quite easy.

Here are the aqua valves in various stages of assembly. All you do is put the tube on the barb and screw the compression cap on. Cut the tubes an inch or so longer than you think you will need them, I had to redo my first attempt because it was just a little too taught and you couldn't move the pots around.
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Here's the aquavalve in the autopot tray. I found that rocking the aquavalve back and forth makes it easier to insert it onto the tab on the tray
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I'm doing the central hub style layout so I'm using the X connectors, just pull the tubes onto the barbs
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Here is the valve at the end which can be open to drain or flush the system
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Here are the valves in trays all connected!
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Once you put the little tray over the valve it become a sealed system!
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The expanded coco is now in two 30-gallon trash bags which makes it easier to move around (vs one big heavy bag). I put a bunch of holes in the bags with a thumb tack as I mentioned. The water had drained out leaving nice fluffy coco in the bags. This morning I refilled the bags with water and left them to drain for the day, in order to further flush any remaining salts out of the coco.

Over the next couple days I hope to connect the reservoir and do a test run with a gallon or so of water to check the whole system for functionality and leaks, etc. I will also install the airdomes, tubing and pump, and fill the autopots with my rinsed coco.

Oh yeah and germination of course, the most important bit! :mrgreen:
 
I am getting full of anticipation for you. :cool1:

As always thanks for the updates. I would say you maybe an engineer ???

Got to run got a plane to caught this am :vibes:
 
Haha @Nosias, my title in the real world is systems engineer, how did you guess?

I have I fallen behind on updates, I have a bunch of exciting stuff to share! First I will finish up the autopot setup, since I have a few more pictures of that.

Here's the assembled airdome, sitting on top of the root mat in the bottom of the pot. You need to remember to put those in there before you put your media in the pot!
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Getting to be quite a tangle of tubes coming out of these things now! I'm going to have to do some tubing management once this is all finished.
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After rinsing the Coco three times, I've filled up the autopot! You can see the tube for the air Dome coming out of the media.
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Here you can see all four pots fill it up and ready to roll! I have completed some of the routing for the tubing. My air pump has two outputs, so I am using two air lines with splitters to feed the four airdomes. The tubes will be bundled together and routed out of the tent. I am going to use an old coffee table as the stand for the reservoir and air pump.
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