cheap HPA pump

freddy42

Member
The espresso pump is fine. It's the black chinese pump that you ordered that sucks. It was impossible to deal with. I was going to have to build a plywood box with acoustic wool blankets or something. Totally not worth it since that would cost way more than the espresso pump did. You probably do still want to wrap it with a bit of foam though. Walmart sells foam used for seat cushions in the sewing section that works pretty well.

Here is the pump I got:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NMNA138/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I don't have a grow log but I'm between grows right now and I'm going to start one as soon as I start up again. I'll link it here.

It's just the one pump. I don't even have a backup because I think this one will be reliable. I will probably buy a backup pressure switch though because the one I have is from china.

I have the plastic accumulator. It's totally fine. Although I would probably be ok with a larger one too. Just make sure if you get a bigger one you attach a T connector with a valve so you can empty the accumulator back into the reservoir every time you change the water. Otherwise you'll have like 4 gallons of old water stuck in the system that might take days to go through the misters.

Right now I'm at 0.25 seconds on and 4 minutes off, but this depends totally on the size and shape of your root chamber and the number of misters + their flow rate. I'm building a larger chamber this time so it will probably require longer on times. It needs to be long enough to completely fill the chamber with mist. It took me forever to figure out that I needed sub-second on times and almost 5 minute off times. I started out with 3 seconds on and 3 mins off. Total root rot! It might work fine with another setup, but not this one. You have to experiment wildly. I'm probably still not getting it dialed in perfectly. My next setup will have two identical chambers on separate solenoids with individual temperature control and spray timing for each root chamber. That way I can A/B test different conditions to see which one does better. Otherwise you're just guessing really.

I have tons of cool sensors but I'm not using most of them right now. I have a leaf turgidity sensor that measures when the plant actually needs water long before it actually gets drought stressed and wilts. You could control the spray times with this but for now I'm just using a timer. It's on my list of things to try though. It should allow me to save water and improve growth rates.

I have a heavy-duty steel-enclosed temp/humidity sensor from sensirion. I use it to control the atmosphere in my tent. The DHT-xx sensors didn't work for me. The small amounts of mist in the air eventually corroded them. It's well worth the extra money because you'll spend at least that much replacing the cheap ones.

I use a bunch of solid state relays to control a humidifier, the exhaust fan for the tent, the root zone cooling system, and eventually I'm going to hook up a bunch of peristaltic pumps so I can automatically dose pH up and down as well as liquid ferts. I have the pH sensor but I had some problems with bio-film messing the readings up so I put it on the back burner.

The root zone is cooled by a peltier junction (thermoelectric cooler) and a heatsink and a bunch of parts for water-cooling computers. It's not as efficient as a big compressor-based aquarium chiller, but it's quieter and definitely cheaper to put together. I think maybe $100 worth of parts. Before I got the chiller even with the AC cranked so the tent was 75F, the roots were still overheating and dying. Once I sorted the root temps out it was smooth sailing. Now they can tolerate low-80's in the canopy without any issues at all.

I used a 400w induction light last time, this time I'm going to add a couple white-led panels to up the wattage so I can do a v-scrog in my 5x5.
I can only agree about the chinese pumps, they are very loud, and int the case you build soundproof box for it, it can also overheat and cause even more damage. Im verry happy and thankful that you shared with all of us the pump that you found, I agree the pump looks solid and it is EU made that speaks a lot for itself :) :) How do you power it ? by a 12v tranformer? Lots of trial and error with the dialing in the right time for the pump, but its good that you figured it out ;) Im looking forward for that grow log :) Have you bought the arduino sensors separately or in some pack/set? That turgidity sensor seems really cool, I can only imagine how good that might be with watering. I mean if the sensors detects that the plant needs water and it automatically gets water from the hpa system ,that is really great idea. Anti corrosive sensor in the chamber is a must thank you for reminding me this little detail, when I will buy mine I will buy better quality :) You got the exhaust fan, humidifier and root zone sensors, setup automatically or you just control it by yourself? Is it possible to get some warnings from this setup, when the temp or humidity reach its max?

Do you only use one reservoir for the whole setup or do you have separate cloning/ grow site and flower site? I was really thinking about these perilstatic pumps, but I cant figure out If I can use it both for flowering and for grow or If I need 2 separate nute reservoirs. Do you want to make it fully automatic so if ph drops it will pump the ph solution until the desired level?
For the cooling do you use something like this ? How did you calculated how much of them do you need to cover your area?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10Pcs-6A-TEC1-12706-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Heat-Sink-Cooling-Peltier-Plate-Module-/322176967002?hash=item4b033e615a:g:kr4AAOSwbYZXfGyz
I didnt even imagined before that the roots temps are so crucial when it comes to hpa, does that induction bulb makes a lot of heat? Have you thought about bridgelux vero / cree cxa/cxb or citizen cob setup ? Man I have a spare unused LED 4 Cob modular light that I would totally give you if you would help me with setting up the arduino + sensors and automatizing the whole setup. Where are you from?
I want to personally make mother and clone area + flowering sog area with this setup, so I could perpetually grow medicine 2 friends which are patients and need help with their conditions. Im building it to make some rso tears for them and myself too :)
 

freddy42

Member
The espresso pump is fine. It's the black chinese pump that you ordered that sucks. It was impossible to deal with. I was going to have to build a plywood box with acoustic wool blankets or something. Totally not worth it since that would cost way more than the espresso pump did. You probably do still want to wrap it with a bit of foam though. Walmart sells foam used for seat cushions in the sewing section that works pretty well.

Here is the pump I got:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NMNA138/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I don't have a grow log but I'm between grows right now and I'm going to start one as soon as I start up again. I'll link it here.

It's just the one pump. I don't even have a backup because I think this one will be reliable. I will probably buy a backup pressure switch though because the one I have is from china.

I have the plastic accumulator. It's totally fine. Although I would probably be ok with a larger one too. Just make sure if you get a bigger one you attach a T connector with a valve so you can empty the accumulator back into the reservoir every time you change the water. Otherwise you'll have like 4 gallons of old water stuck in the system that might take days to go through the misters.

Right now I'm at 0.25 seconds on and 4 minutes off, but this depends totally on the size and shape of your root chamber and the number of misters + their flow rate. I'm building a larger chamber this time so it will probably require longer on times. It needs to be long enough to completely fill the chamber with mist. It took me forever to figure out that I needed sub-second on times and almost 5 minute off times. I started out with 3 seconds on and 3 mins off. Total root rot! It might work fine with another setup, but not this one. You have to experiment wildly. I'm probably still not getting it dialed in perfectly. My next setup will have two identical chambers on separate solenoids with individual temperature control and spray timing for each root chamber. That way I can A/B test different conditions to see which one does better. Otherwise you're just guessing really.

I have tons of cool sensors but I'm not using most of them right now. I have a leaf turgidity sensor that measures when the plant actually needs water long before it actually gets drought stressed and wilts. You could control the spray times with this but for now I'm just using a timer. It's on my list of things to try though. It should allow me to save water and improve growth rates.

I have a heavy-duty steel-enclosed temp/humidity sensor from sensirion. I use it to control the atmosphere in my tent. The DHT-xx sensors didn't work for me. The small amounts of mist in the air eventually corroded them. It's well worth the extra money because you'll spend at least that much replacing the cheap ones.

I use a bunch of solid state relays to control a humidifier, the exhaust fan for the tent, the root zone cooling system, and eventually I'm going to hook up a bunch of peristaltic pumps so I can automatically dose pH up and down as well as liquid ferts. I have the pH sensor but I had some problems with bio-film messing the readings up so I put it on the back burner.

The root zone is cooled by a peltier junction (thermoelectric cooler) and a heatsink and a bunch of parts for water-cooling computers. It's not as efficient as a big compressor-based aquarium chiller, but it's quieter and definitely cheaper to put together. I think maybe $100 worth of parts. Before I got the chiller even with the AC cranked so the tent was 75F, the roots were still overheating and dying. Once I sorted the root temps out it was smooth sailing. Now they can tolerate low-80's in the canopy without any issues at all.

I used a 400w induction light last time, this time I'm going to add a couple white-led panels to up the wattage so I can do a v-scrog in my 5x5.
btw I forgot about one thing you mentioned biowfilm formation, do you grow organically? how do you prevent the buildup of biofilm better said how do you prevent it getting it into pump and clogging it and the nozzles, is the filter enough?
 

LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
I can only agree about the chinese pumps, they are very loud, and int the case you build soundproof box for it, it can also overheat and cause even more damage. Im verry happy and thankful that you shared with all of us the pump that you found, I agree the pump looks solid and it is EU made that speaks a lot for itself :) :) How do you power it ? by a 12v tranformer? Lots of trial and error with the dialing in the right time for the pump, but its good that you figured it out ;) Im looking forward for that grow log :) Have you bought the arduino sensors separately or in some pack/set? That turgidity sensor seems really cool, I can only imagine how good that might be with watering. I mean if the sensors detects that the plant needs water and it automatically gets water from the hpa system ,that is really great idea. Anti corrosive sensor in the chamber is a must thank you for reminding me this little detail, when I will buy mine I will buy better quality :) You got the exhaust fan, humidifier and root zone sensors, setup automatically or you just control it by yourself? Is it possible to get some warnings from this setup, when the temp or humidity reach its max?

Do you only use one reservoir for the whole setup or do you have separate cloning/ grow site and flower site? I was really thinking about these perilstatic pumps, but I cant figure out If I can use it both for flowering and for grow or If I need 2 separate nute reservoirs. Do you want to make it fully automatic so if ph drops it will pump the ph solution until the desired level?
For the cooling do you use something like this ? How did you calculated how much of them do you need to cover your area?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10Pcs-6A-TEC1-12706-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Heat-Sink-Cooling-Peltier-Plate-Module-/322176967002?hash=item4b033e615a:g:kr4AAOSwbYZXfGyz
I didnt even imagined before that the roots temps are so crucial when it comes to hpa, does that induction bulb makes a lot of heat? Have you thought about bridgelux vero / cree cxa/cxb or citizen cob setup ? Man I have a spare unused LED 4 Cob modular light that I would totally give you if you would help me with setting up the arduino + sensors and automatizing the whole setup. Where are you from?
I want to personally make mother and clone area + flowering sog area with this setup, so I could perpetually grow medicine 2 friends which are patients and need help with their conditions. Im building it to make some rso tears for them and myself too :)
The pump is 120v AC. That is the only drawback for me, that I can't power it with a 12v battery in case the power goes out.

The turgidity sensor detects the thickness of the leaf so it can tell when it needs water before it visibly wilts. There are no root zone sensors, I use the temp/humidity sensor in the canopy area to control the climate in the grow tent. They get sprayed with water sometimes. You can put them in the root chamber but it wouldn't tell you anything useful anyway.

Everything is automatic except for mixing nutes and filling the reservoir. Eventually I plan to install a float valve and peristaltic dosing pumps for ph and nutes, so I won't have to do anything at all.


The arduino is connected to the internet via wifi, so it can log the data as well as send alerts. It could warn me if the reservoir level is low for example. Or use a vibration sensor to notify me if the pump is running continuously.

I use a 5 gallon bucket LPA system for cloning/veg. It cost me about $50 to build and there's not much point in using HPA for cloning anyway.

For the cooling I use those, yes. I attach a water block to one side and a CPU heatsink to the other side with thermal epoxy and then pump the water to a radiator in the root chamber via plastic tubing wrapped in foam insulation (pool noodle). I have a super-high-end waterpoof computer fan on the radiator in the root zone. The whole thing gets turned on and off with a solid state relay controlled by a thermometer in the root zone to maintain ~68F.

The induction doesn't produce that much heat. My temps are usually 75-78F. The problem is the root zone will equalize with the rest of the room, and 75 is enough to kill roots. Evaporation cools it a little bit, but if its 80 in your room its not going to be 68 in your root zone. And if it is, that means you have so much evaporation going on that the mist is basically gone after 3-4 seconds anyway. The only way anyone could ever pull this off is either by running a very cold room with AC, or by cooling the root zone directly. I chose to do the latter since some heat in your canopy can be a good thing. I'm not happy unless my canopy is pushing 80.

Some people have had good results using that felt smartpot material for making the root chamber out of. The extra water that soaks into the felt cools the root zone through evaporative cooling. I want to experiment with this, but I don't know where to buy that knitted felt material. I think this might be a good solution for growing outdoors in the heat, or just to save electricity.

The solenoids require a certain amount of pressure behind them to close properly, but otherwise they're just valves. They don't know or care what pressure is flowing through them.

I'm actually new to hydro, so I don't understand the biofilm very much. I'm using a 160gph pump to recirculate my res, which is kind of large for that purpose so it's heating up my water to the low 80s. I add botanicare's hydrogaurd, which is a beneficial root bacteria that the plants need and wont get without any soil media, so I have to add it. It also has the added benefit of taking over the res and preventing any other (bad) bacteria from growing. At first I had all sorts of algae and other things growing on the sides of my res. I have a cloth pre-filter and a 200 mesh filter before and after the pump, so I didn't have any issues with clogging, but it did take a while before I could get a handle on the slimy film that was growing all over my ph probe.

I do not grow organically. You can't use organic nutes in HPA. I use cal-mag, dyna-grow bloom, dyna-grow pro-tekt, and botanicare hydroguard.

I just bought one of those Roleadro 600w white LED panels for this next grow. Their efficiency is terrible but I'm hoping I can upgrade them to an efficient COB setup later. I'm always down for free shit, but I'm not sure how helpful I'll be able to be for you. I've been pretty lazy about implementing my own system so far. :)

Anyway, I just got some foam board to build a bigger root chamber today. I'll take some pictures as I build it and start up a grow log tonight or tomorrow.
 

LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
Here is some info on the leaf turgidity sensor:

https://leafsensor.wordpress.com/

So far all I've done is graph the data. With the 10 bit ADC of the arduino you can't get that much resolution, so I ordered a 16 bit ADC but I haven't hooked it up yet. Hopefully the extra resolution will help. Before it was hard to even see the signal. Very tiny changes in leaf thickness mean very tiny changes in voltage, so you need something sensitive. You can also use it manually with a sensitive volt-meter.
 

freddy42

Member
The pump is 120v AC. That is the only drawback for me, that I can't power it with a 12v battery in case the power goes out.

The turgidity sensor detects the thickness of the leaf so it can tell when it needs water before it visibly wilts. There are no root zone sensors, I use the temp/humidity sensor in the canopy area to control the climate in the grow tent. They get sprayed with water sometimes. You can put them in the root chamber but it wouldn't tell you anything useful anyway.

Everything is automatic except for mixing nutes and filling the reservoir. Eventually I plan to install a float valve and peristaltic dosing pumps for ph and nutes, so I won't have to do anything at all.


The arduino is connected to the internet via wifi, so it can log the data as well as send alerts. It could warn me if the reservoir level is low for example. Or use a vibration sensor to notify me if the pump is running continuously.

I use a 5 gallon bucket LPA system for cloning/veg. It cost me about $50 to build and there's not much point in using HPA for cloning anyway.

For the cooling I use those, yes. I attach a water block to one side and a CPU heatsink to the other side with thermal epoxy and then pump the water to a radiator in the root chamber via plastic tubing wrapped in foam insulation (pool noodle). I have a super-high-end waterpoof computer fan on the radiator in the root zone. The whole thing gets turned on and off with a solid state relay controlled by a thermometer in the root zone to maintain ~68F.

The induction doesn't produce that much heat. My temps are usually 75-78F. The problem is the root zone will equalize with the rest of the room, and 75 is enough to kill roots. Evaporation cools it a little bit, but if its 80 in your room its not going to be 68 in your root zone. And if it is, that means you have so much evaporation going on that the mist is basically gone after 3-4 seconds anyway. The only way anyone could ever pull this off is either by running a very cold room with AC, or by cooling the root zone directly. I chose to do the latter since some heat in your canopy can be a good thing. I'm not happy unless my canopy is pushing 80.

Some people have had good results using that felt smartpot material for making the root chamber out of. The extra water that soaks into the felt cools the root zone through evaporative cooling. I want to experiment with this, but I don't know where to buy that knitted felt material. I think this might be a good solution for growing outdoors in the heat, or just to save electricity.

The solenoids require a certain amount of pressure behind them to close properly, but otherwise they're just valves. They don't know or care what pressure is flowing through them.

I'm actually new to hydro, so I don't understand the biofilm very much. I'm using a 160gph pump to recirculate my res, which is kind of large for that purpose so it's heating up my water to the low 80s. I add botanicare's hydrogaurd, which is a beneficial root bacteria that the plants need and wont get without any soil media, so I have to add it. It also has the added benefit of taking over the res and preventing any other (bad) bacteria from growing. At first I had all sorts of algae and other things growing on the sides of my res. I have a cloth pre-filter and a 200 mesh filter before and after the pump, so I didn't have any issues with clogging, but it did take a while before I could get a handle on the slimy film that was growing all over my ph probe.

I do not grow organically. You can't use organic nutes in HPA. I use cal-mag, dyna-grow bloom, dyna-grow pro-tekt, and botanicare hydroguard.

I just bought one of those Roleadro 600w white LED panels for this next grow. Their efficiency is terrible but I'm hoping I can upgrade them to an efficient COB setup later. I'm always down for free shit, but I'm not sure how helpful I'll be able to be for you. I've been pretty lazy about implementing my own system so far. :)

Anyway, I just got some foam board to build a bigger root chamber today. I'll take some pictures as I build it and start up a grow log tonight or tomorrow.
The major trigger which got me interested in the arduino grow setup was question in my mind, what If its possible to use it as a timer and also monitor other things, now when Im thinking about it, Do you think it is possible to setup dimming with it? so it would mimic the sunrise and sunset?, probably even full moon later on. That would be really cool.
Thank for explaining about sensors to me, it helps me to understand it lot more, so If I put the turgidity sensor on the lower leaves it can even warn me when the plant got sick from some pest related problem :) That would be really awesome to have full scale logs about what is happening, temps/ph/ec + do nothing just harvesting. The hpa setup is quite sensitive, so it relieve a lot of stress when you dont need to check if they are alive there every while :D
Its quite complicated to me to imagine your cooling process fully, but If I get it right, it pumps water throught this water cooled cpu like heatsink and thats how the water is cooled? Thats a really smart idea and its really cool thats it is automated so it maintains the exact temp that roots need ;)
Its probably saving you a lot when you consider ac power consumption. That felt pot thing sounds interesting. Here they are easily availible, I tried to found that fabric too a while back but as far as I come was material called filz, and they are probably made from it. Chinese people do something similar, but when I saw those feltpots from them made from the old jeans fabric I was like :O :O that must be really healthy for the root system...
I just saw some solenoid rated for example for 110 psi, thats why I was asking, I was quite dumb about it but thank you for keeping it simple, now I understand their function.
Most people say algae forms when the light comes to the res from somewhere but Im not sure about it, That bacteria seems like a good idea, do you use hygrozime too? or it is basically very similar thing? Do you think If I prefilter organicly derived hydro nutes it would still not appliable?
About the cloning, I meaned flower area, I want to clone under the foggers I hope its a good idea.
Are you satisfied by growing in lpa ? would you consider to use hpa for grow in the future:?
If you help me to automatize and build arduino setup for that automatization setup that would be enough :)) Im really happy that you will start your own growlog, looking forward to see it.
Thank you for detailed info and enjoy your day:)
 

LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
If you had an LED driver that supported dimming you could hook up the dimming line to the arduino and do PWM, yes. You can also use it to "dim" PWM capable computer fans (the ones with 4 wires). I could control the power of the fan in my cooling system, but for now I just run it full blast and turn the entire cooling system on and off to control the temp.

I was thinking of using it to control some far red LEDs. I have a lux sensor so I know when the lights have turned off, and I can trigger the far-red LEDs for 5 minutes after lights-out that way.

I log everything with this: https://thingspeak.com/

I keep it running on my TV when I'm not watching anything else, its reassuring to see that everything is operating normally.

You could use any fabric as long as it blocked 100% of the light and it passed air. I tried to make one out of weed-control fabric but it let way too much light through even with multiple layers.

Yeah the solenoids are rated to 116PSI. My pressure switch is 90-115, so I'm fine. I've run this thing at up to 160psi and the solenoids still worked just fine. The "real" working pressure is probably closer to 200PSI.

You can't use organic. Its just not possible. You shouldn't use it anyway. Organic is total bullshit to trick hippies into spending too much money on food.

You could clone with high pressure foggers. I actually don't have any clones ready right now so I might put some cuttings in the system just to see if it will work. You just need a different pump and accumulator for each reservoir.

I'm satisfied with LPA for cloning. It works fine and all the commercial cloning units use LPA. The benefit of HPA is extremely fast vegetative growth to save you time so you can squeeze in more cycles. As soon as they have roots they go into the flower room. I only do 2 weeks of veg and then go straight into flower. My "veg tent" is really just a couple mother plants and the cloner bucket. The roots take some time to adapt from the LPA to the HPA environment, which is why I move them as soon as possible. I could run two growth chambers off the same pump (both running bloom ferts, they work fine for veg too) but at this point I'm not concerned with tweaking every last drop of efficiency out of the system. Maybe for the third grow I'll do that. One step at a time.

I will take some photographs of the cooling system so you can understand better.
 

freddy42

Member
If you had an LED driver that supported dimming you could hook up the dimming line to the arduino and do PWM, yes. You can also use it to "dim" PWM capable computer fans (the ones with 4 wires). I could control the power of the fan in my cooling system, but for now I just run it full blast and turn the entire cooling system on and off to control the temp.

I was thinking of using it to control some far red LEDs. I have a lux sensor so I know when the lights have turned off, and I can trigger the far-red LEDs for 5 minutes after lights-out that way.

I log everything with this: https://thingspeak.com/

I keep it running on my TV when I'm not watching anything else, its reassuring to see that everything is operating normally.

You could use any fabric as long as it blocked 100% of the light and it passed air. I tried to make one out of weed-control fabric but it let way too much light through even with multiple layers.

Yeah the solenoids are rated to 116PSI. My pressure switch is 90-115, so I'm fine. I've run this thing at up to 160psi and the solenoids still worked just fine. The "real" working pressure is probably closer to 200PSI.

You can't use organic. Its just not possible. You shouldn't use it anyway. Organic is total bullshit to trick hippies into spending too much money on food.

You could clone with high pressure foggers. I actually don't have any clones ready right now so I might put some cuttings in the system just to see if it will work. You just need a different pump and accumulator for each reservoir.

I'm satisfied with LPA for cloning. It works fine and all the commercial cloning units use LPA. The benefit of HPA is extremely fast vegetative growth to save you time so you can squeeze in more cycles. As soon as they have roots they go into the flower room. I only do 2 weeks of veg and then go straight into flower. My "veg tent" is really just a couple mother plants and the cloner bucket. The roots take some time to adapt from the LPA to the HPA environment, which is why I move them as soon as possible. I could run two growth chambers off the same pump (both running bloom ferts, they work fine for veg too) but at this point I'm not concerned with tweaking every last drop of efficiency out of the system. Maybe for the third grow I'll do that. One step at a time.

I will take some photographs of the cooling system so you can understand better.
Some new drivers support some kind of sunrise, sunset feature, I only have a driver which have an outlet for dimming, like you can solder potenciometer to it, that one with dimming outlet as you described. It would really awesome if it can be connected to arduino for the purpose of natural sunrise and sunset dimming. So basically when the temp arise too much your the fan get on right ?
Im wondering about the outcome of the far reds, lot of people are using this as supplement for flowering. What do you think about UV?
Does somebody helped you with configuring the arduino script? Seems like a good idea, got a spare monitor and pc too, so maybe it finaly find some use :)
Good to know that about those solenoids I will be purchasing them soon,but I need to figure out first how much of them I need :)
By organics I meaned those mineral derived nutes like this its hydro fertilizer and they state that it can be sued with ghe rainforest aero, althrough I do not know if its HPA or LPA.Lot of people use them because of the simplicity
http://jungleindabox.eu/en/
I would do better making diy fertilizer, but cant source peters originals formula here in europe, hope I find some good recipe + source of all those chemicals, or better said crushed rocks.
Then It would be exactly how I originally planned, hpa for moms and flowering and I will try the foggers for cloning, got some 360heads for lpa so I will try that for side to side comparasing and after seeing results I will decide which is better for cloning.

Thats a very valuable piece of information that the bloom ferts works for veg too.
Thank you I will really appreciate those pics and one last question how big is your cloning bucket, also you told before that you purchased too big lpa pump? thats why I asked.
 

LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
I add in cal-mag too, which contains a little bit of nitrogen, so between that and the N that's already in the bloom ferts, they do fine the whole way through. I usually do use a little bit of grow (or foliage pro) at the beginning, but it's not necessary.
 

freddy42

Member
Some new drivers support some kind of sunrise, sunset feature, I only have a driver which have an outlet for dimming, like you can solder potenciometer to it, that one with dimming outlet as you described. It would really awesome if it can be connected to arduino for the purpose of natural sunrise and sunset dimming. So basically when the temp arise too much your the fan get on right ?
Im wondering about the outcome of the far reds, lot of people are using this as supplement for flowering. What do you think about UV?
Does somebody helped you with configuring the arduino script? Seems like a good idea, got a spare monitor and pc too, so maybe it finaly find some use :)
Good to know that about those solenoids I will be purchasing them soon,but I need to figure out first how much of them I need :)
By organics I meaned those mineral derived nutes like this its hydro fertilizer and they state that it can be sued with ghe rainforest aero, althrough I do not know if its HPA or LPA.Lot of people use them because of the simplicity
http://jungleindabox.eu/en/
I would do better making diy fertilizer, but cant source peters originals formula here in europe, hope I find some good recipe + source of all those chemicals, or better said crushed rocks.
Then It would be exactly how I originally planned, hpa for moms and flowering and I will try the foggers for cloning, got some 360heads for lpa so I will try that for side to side comparasing and after seeing results I will decide which is better for cloning.

Thats a very valuable piece of information that the bloom ferts works for veg too.
Thank you I will really appreciate those pics and one last question how big is your cloning bucket, also you told before that you purchased too big lpa pump? thats why I asked.
So basically it is cpu fan + that cooling pad is attached to it + you added this to it ?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-Water-Cooling-Heatsink-Block-Waterblock-Liquid-Cooler-For-CPU-GPU-UR-/401108516588?hash=item5d63ee3eec:g:SigAAOSw1DtXF3Ie
The radiator in root chamber cools the water right, you mentioned super high end pc fan, is that one waterproof? I imagine that one side of the radiator is the one which makes things cool/cold, but the other one creates heat, thats why the fan is in the root chamber right? Doesnt that heat from the fan counter act the cooling process?
I know I got lots of questions but I really want to build it :)
Dynagro seems like a really good and simple option, but unfortunately I cannot source it here in EU :(
Can you please tell me more about the fitting on your filter ? Do you think this one would be good
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/1-Male-BSP-connector-screen-irrigation-fitler-120mesh-Garden-agriculture-filter-Free-shipping/302405_1532047957.html
or
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/3-4-Male-BSP-connector-screen-irrigation-fitler-120mesh-Garden-agriculture-filter-Free-shipping/302405_1532111534.html

Thank you I really appreciate the advices, btw you maybe missed it but did you programmed and negineered that arduino all by yourself?:)
 
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LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
The thermo-cooler makes the water cold and pumps it into the radiator. The fan on the radiator blows air over the cold radiator to cool the root zone. It's the opposite of how a radiator normally works. Yes, it's waterproof. If it wasn't it wouldn't last more than a couple days in the corrosive salty mist. I'm really hoping it continues to survive, since it cost $30.

If you can't find dyna gro, try dutch masters one. It was designed for aeroponics.

This is the filter I use. You need 200 mesh filter or else the nozzles will clog.

https://www.freshwatersystems.com/p-5873-dmfit-filter-strainer-14-x-14-push-in-200-mesh-60-mic.aspx

Yes, I programmed the arduino myself. I'm a programmer.
 

LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
And sorry, there is a sensor in the root zone. A waterproof thermometer to control the cooling system. I was just trying to say that there is no humidity sensor in the root zone, but I said no sensors. Oops.
 

freddy42

Member
Thats a hell of a good price for that cooling system :) I was searching for waterproof fan or water resistant fan but I only found this for a good price
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AVC-DAZA0515RCU-waterproof-fan-5CM-5015-refrigerator-fan-DC-13-6V-0-20A-/142111413649?hash=item2116801591:g:r9UAAOSwFe5X0Xo-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-Water-Cooling-Block-Water-cooled-Row-Heat-Exchanger-With-Fan-for-PC-/251262757622?hash=item3a806d6af6:g:g3sAAMXQn11RcDOA
Do you think any of these is usable ? or can you help with what I should search for?
So you got 60micron filter and your nozzles and pump are ok right ? Do you think 50micron filter is not suitable?
That sensor as like all your sensors and whole arduino setup sounds really good, can you tell me what was your invesment into the arduino setup ?:)
Thank you
PS: If you help me with that arduino script, I would send you that cob light, If you are interested, since I got no use in it. Its quite heavy so shipping would be litlte higher but nothing horrible. I can send you pics if you are interested.
 

LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
There are certifications for water-proofness. Search for IP-67 or IP-68.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code

200 mesh is 74 microns. 50 microns would be even better.

I spent way too much on the arduino sensors, especially since I didn't need most of them. All you really need is an arduino to do the fixed spray timing, to turn the root cooling on and off, and to turn the humidifier on and off in the tent. Thats it. The most expensive part of that is a $30 humidity/temp sensor. The temp sensor for the root zone was like $1 and thats it. Just two sensors.

I will upload the arduino script to github or something once I get my grow log up and running.
 

LarsVegasNirvana

Well-Known Member
Oh, and definitely use solid state relays instead of mechanical relays. Mechanical relays can only click so many times before they fail, and in a system like this they will last about 2 months. The SSRs are more expensive, but they won't fail. Make sure you get a DC-DC SSR for the solenoid relay, and DC-AC SSRs for the AC loads like humidifiers.
 

Atomizer

Well-Known Member
SSR`s can fail but it`s generally closed circuit so whatever they`re controlling will be permanently on until you realise its fubar ;)
 
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