Grow Mediums Muddy's DIY Veg System

[Muddy]

When I built my grow room I left a space for a small veg room. About 4 months ago I finally got my veg system built and starting cloning photos for my grows. The space isn't huge. It's 8' wide, 8' high and 3' wide. It's split in half by the walkway into the bloom room. The RDWC tanks are set on the floor and above them I have a shelf on each side. The lights hang from the shelves. One one shelf I have my clone machine and on the other shelf, my mothers. Since the space is small I didn't want the chiller in that room. Chillers give off a bit of heat and I thought best to locate it on the other side of the wall and pipe through the wall. The only down side to this is that the area the chiller is in isn't heated. I've had some issues with my water temps going too low on cold nights. So that's something I need to rethink a bit.

I vent the system into my bloom room using a 6" inline fan located in the top corner of one side. The intake is low on the other side. Two small fan provide circulation within the room. Lighting is 3 FERO Bulldog LEDs, 280 watts each, 1 over each side of the system and one over the mothers. For the clones I use a 100 watt LED bulb. Piping is 1 1/2" PVC between the tanks with 3/4" tubing to and from the pump and chiller. The chiller is 1/10 HP and the pump is 350 gph. Aeration is provide by a 40 lph air pump with 8 air stones, 2 in each tank. I intend to replace the current round air stones with 3" flat ones in the future. Uniseals were used for the piping and were sprayed with 3 coats of Flex Seal for added protection against leaks.

The tanks are 14 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck totes. I debated about using the 20 gallon ones instead but since this is strictly a veg system, opted for the smaller 14 gallon ones. When the system if full it holds 25 gallons of solution, which brings the water level about 1/2" above the bottom of the 8" net pots. Once roots are established I let the level drop to just below the bottom of the net pots. I first tried different totes but had trouble with leaks. The plastic was much harder and easily cracked when working the piping through the uniseals. The plastic of the Roughnecks is not only thicker but a bit more pliable. So far now leaks with these. I'm currently using the lids that came with the totes. I plan to replace those with some made of 1/4" plywood. The ones that come with the totes are recessed about 7/8". The plywood ones will sit on top of the totes, giving me that extra room, which I could use given that these are all that high. I will spray the underside of the plywood with several coats of Flex Seal to keep the water out and paint the tops white.



Chiller, water filter and pump.



Left side tanks with epicenter for checking pH, ppm and adding nutes, and the air pump.



Right side tanks.



Clone machine with OG Kush clones ready to go.



Raised walkway with connecting piping running underneath.



Left side with clones in.



Right side with clones in.

 

[CGR]

If i never go 100% hydro ,i going to borrow some of your ideas,.your walk way is the perfect example of making it happen with what you got .How do you dump and fill your totes ..

 

[Muddy]

If i never go 100% hydro ,i going to borrow some of your ideas,.your walk way is the perfect example of making it happen with what you got .How do you dump and fill your totes ..

Go right ahead, borrow away. That's why I posted it. All and all it's working very well.

I ran piping from my water storage tanks through the wall into the veg room. I put a valve with a quick connect so I can simply attach a short hose to fill them. To pump them out I move my transfer pump and pump it into a deep sink located on the other side of the wall on the left side. If you look at the walk way pic you can see the fill hose laying on the floor. Next time I pump it out and refill I'll take some pics to show you.

 

[CGR]

Go right ahead, borrow away. That's why I posted it. All and all it's working very well.

I ran piping from my water storage tanks through the wall into the veg room. I put a valve with a quick connect so I can simply attach a short hose to fill them. To pump them out I move my transfer pump and pump it into a deep sink located on the other side of the wall on the left side. If you look at the walk way pic you can see the fill hose laying on the floor. Next time I pump it out and refill I'll take some pics to show you.

thanks brother il stay tuned!!!

 

[Cave Toad]

Go right ahead, borrow away. That's why I posted it. All and all it's working very well.

I ran piping from my water storage tanks through the wall into the veg room. I put a valve with a quick connect so I can simply attach a short hose to fill them. To pump them out I move my transfer pump and pump it into a deep sink located on the other side of the wall on the left side. If you look at the walk way pic you can see the fill hose laying on the floor. Next time I pump it out and refill I'll take some pics to show you.

@Muddy I like your drain system, I did something a bit like that too but just use the line to my drip header and added a by-pass valve to stay with one pump, I do keep a spare on the shelf just in case though. I plan to pump into buckets so I can use the depleted water on plants outside my house. trying to put as little down the drain as I can.

 

[Muddy]

Thanks much. I'm going to get a 2nd pump soon so I don't have to keep moving it and also as a backup. I also want to build an overflow system. My top off res is 30 gallons and it's fed into the epicenter via a float valve. If that float valve should fail all the solution in the top off would go into the system and overflow it. I'm going to cut a hole near the top of the epicenter and run some 1/2" PVC through the wall and outdoors. That way if the water reaches that level it will go outside instead of flooding the room.



Here are my storage tanks. You can see the pump on the wall, drawing from the tanks and into the supply line. You can see the supply line on the right where it runs through the wall into the veg room.




Here's the fill valve at the top off res.



Here you can see the pump attached to the drain line to pump the system out.