orangefrog
Well-Known Member
So I got this idea and decided to sketch it out to make it understandable.
Basically the benefits of this design is you can go as low to the ground as possible without flooding your plants. (you can grow your plants even lower with trays instead of buckets.)
One downfall is the reservoir cannot be under the plants and takes up more space, this can be fixed by getting a much narrower reservoir but much taller, you could go to the ceiling if you wanted too. Also you will require 2 pumps instead of 1. You can change the size of all of these containers just have both reservoirs an inch below the bottom of the plant containers, pump tubes going over the bigger reservoir edge, pump 2 res higher than plant containers and overflow from res 2 below plant container top.
First Picture: Res full, pump 1 and 2 off
Second Picture: Pump 1 on, overflow goes back into the res via back flow valve (this is so the pump constantly has water)
Third Picture: Res empty, pump 1 and 2 off
Forth Picture: Pump 2 on, Plants are drained (Pump 2 res is lower), back flow valve has Styrofoam underneath and closes as the water level rises, more water builds up pressure and keeps this closed, overflow goes back into pump 2 res via almost horizontal tube connecting both reservoirs (this is so the pump constantly has water:
Fifth Picture: Res full, pump 1 and 2 off.
I don't grow weed so i haven't built or tested this but i will eventually so in the mean time i just try to perfect everything, learn as much as possible and help others out so a while back i got this idea and here it is, I think it will work and if not then the back flow valve will need a bit of tuning.
Basically the benefits of this design is you can go as low to the ground as possible without flooding your plants. (you can grow your plants even lower with trays instead of buckets.)
One downfall is the reservoir cannot be under the plants and takes up more space, this can be fixed by getting a much narrower reservoir but much taller, you could go to the ceiling if you wanted too. Also you will require 2 pumps instead of 1. You can change the size of all of these containers just have both reservoirs an inch below the bottom of the plant containers, pump tubes going over the bigger reservoir edge, pump 2 res higher than plant containers and overflow from res 2 below plant container top.
First Picture: Res full, pump 1 and 2 off
Second Picture: Pump 1 on, overflow goes back into the res via back flow valve (this is so the pump constantly has water)
Third Picture: Res empty, pump 1 and 2 off
Forth Picture: Pump 2 on, Plants are drained (Pump 2 res is lower), back flow valve has Styrofoam underneath and closes as the water level rises, more water builds up pressure and keeps this closed, overflow goes back into pump 2 res via almost horizontal tube connecting both reservoirs (this is so the pump constantly has water:
Fifth Picture: Res full, pump 1 and 2 off.
I don't grow weed so i haven't built or tested this but i will eventually so in the mean time i just try to perfect everything, learn as much as possible and help others out so a while back i got this idea and here it is, I think it will work and if not then the back flow valve will need a bit of tuning.