Hey, so I wasn't sure where to stick this but I wanted to make it easy to find. Figure making a new thread won't clutter someone elses thread.
@DoobieGrows - This is the setup I used on my coco grow. Wicked easy. Loads of room to customize and swap things out.
Aight so, the full setup:
Piece by piece. The reservoir is just a cheap plastic bin. I got this one at Lowes. They had a better selection than Home Depot. I think a 10gal is good for one plant, lasts a few days. If you've got more plants maybe go bigger and stick one pump per plant.
The timer. The most important part is that whatever timer you get, it needs to be able to be programmed down to the second. The pumps move a lot of water. I ended up at about 35 seconds twice a day. This one lets you program the time and the frequency. There are plenty to choose from on Amazon.
Model TC201 from Techbee on amazon. $17-ish
Amazon product
The pump I used. The ribbed post on the top screws in. There are a couple sizes in the box. I used the 1/2" fitting since I was using 1/2" tubing on everything. It's big enough it won't clog if your nutes are crusty.
The drainage tray. I saw these in @Lil Dab 's setup and got one. Works great. I have no idea what pot that is. I was given that one by the old dude that recruited me. Same with the hydro halo distribution thing. I highly recommend if you go with this drain tray that you purchase their tubing. It's 3/4" and I could not find it locally. Worth buying with the tray so you don't have to hassle with it. I got a big roll of it but I ended up using like 2 feet of it. It was stiff and hard to work with plus I didn't want to cut a big hole in my tent and I had a ton of 1/2" pond tubing already. Saved the new stuff for rearranging later.
Link to the tray:
www.thebucketcompany.com
I grabbed this brass reducer thing from the plumbing section. 3/4" to 1/2" so I could run the smaller hose as the drain line from my tent. I cut a small hole to pass it through the tent wall
The drain tube. These elbow pieces screw together and you might end up with a funny angle once it's tight. Heat seal the tubing to block the one end. It's open on both sides so you can link mulitple trays but they dont' send you any plugs.
I drilled two holes in the lid of the reservoir. The big one is for the power plug on the pump and the small one is for the 1/2" tubing coming off the pump. I tried to keep them as small as possible but if the cord and tube can slide its easy to lift the lid on one end or the other to refill.
Pump in the res and plug in the timer.
TL: DR - The whole shebang. Pump in the res. Plug it into the timer, run 1/2" tubing from the res to the halo thing, jam that into your coco coir, let the drainage tray do it's thing, easy! No more hand watering. Full simple automation. Just takes some time to get the seconds dialed in to get enough runoff. There is a small channel in the tray that keeps a small amount of runoff so you can stick a PPM meter into it to check if you are getting enough volume and not salt build up. Also you can drain into a basin of some sort if you want to measure your runoff. I have a drain in the basement floor that I direct the waste water into. I just checked the runoff ppm and if it climbed I put more seconds on the timer. Filled it like once a week and left it on autopilot.
Oh and I kept the reservoir outside the tent. Cut 2 small holes to pass the tubing through. One in, one out. Do have a good loop of tubing from the pump to the pot so you don't get a siphon effect.
Shoot me a question or if anyone has better ideas, fixes, etc. feel free to improve on it!
@DoobieGrows - This is the setup I used on my coco grow. Wicked easy. Loads of room to customize and swap things out.
Aight so, the full setup:
Piece by piece. The reservoir is just a cheap plastic bin. I got this one at Lowes. They had a better selection than Home Depot. I think a 10gal is good for one plant, lasts a few days. If you've got more plants maybe go bigger and stick one pump per plant.
The timer. The most important part is that whatever timer you get, it needs to be able to be programmed down to the second. The pumps move a lot of water. I ended up at about 35 seconds twice a day. This one lets you program the time and the frequency. There are plenty to choose from on Amazon.
Model TC201 from Techbee on amazon. $17-ish
Amazon product
The pump I used. The ribbed post on the top screws in. There are a couple sizes in the box. I used the 1/2" fitting since I was using 1/2" tubing on everything. It's big enough it won't clog if your nutes are crusty.
The drainage tray. I saw these in @Lil Dab 's setup and got one. Works great. I have no idea what pot that is. I was given that one by the old dude that recruited me. Same with the hydro halo distribution thing. I highly recommend if you go with this drain tray that you purchase their tubing. It's 3/4" and I could not find it locally. Worth buying with the tray so you don't have to hassle with it. I got a big roll of it but I ended up using like 2 feet of it. It was stiff and hard to work with plus I didn't want to cut a big hole in my tent and I had a ton of 1/2" pond tubing already. Saved the new stuff for rearranging later.
Link to the tray:
Ez-Pz Runoff Drain Trays | The Bucket Company
The Bucket Company's NEW Ez-Pz Runoff Drain Trays allow growers to raise their plastic pots and fabric pots off the ground. Connect multiple trays to one drain site to prevent water spills and long hours using a Shop/Wet Vac.
www.thebucketcompany.com
I grabbed this brass reducer thing from the plumbing section. 3/4" to 1/2" so I could run the smaller hose as the drain line from my tent. I cut a small hole to pass it through the tent wall
The drain tube. These elbow pieces screw together and you might end up with a funny angle once it's tight. Heat seal the tubing to block the one end. It's open on both sides so you can link mulitple trays but they dont' send you any plugs.
I drilled two holes in the lid of the reservoir. The big one is for the power plug on the pump and the small one is for the 1/2" tubing coming off the pump. I tried to keep them as small as possible but if the cord and tube can slide its easy to lift the lid on one end or the other to refill.
Pump in the res and plug in the timer.
TL: DR - The whole shebang. Pump in the res. Plug it into the timer, run 1/2" tubing from the res to the halo thing, jam that into your coco coir, let the drainage tray do it's thing, easy! No more hand watering. Full simple automation. Just takes some time to get the seconds dialed in to get enough runoff. There is a small channel in the tray that keeps a small amount of runoff so you can stick a PPM meter into it to check if you are getting enough volume and not salt build up. Also you can drain into a basin of some sort if you want to measure your runoff. I have a drain in the basement floor that I direct the waste water into. I just checked the runoff ppm and if it climbed I put more seconds on the timer. Filled it like once a week and left it on autopilot.
Oh and I kept the reservoir outside the tent. Cut 2 small holes to pass the tubing through. One in, one out. Do have a good loop of tubing from the pump to the pot so you don't get a siphon effect.
Shoot me a question or if anyone has better ideas, fixes, etc. feel free to improve on it!
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