Grow Mediums Steely's first hydro grow. LED DWC.

[steelrat]

Cheers buds

My head hurts this morning!

And i can't upload photos coz my VPN subscription ran out yesterday and so did my cash so ican't renew it until one of my clients pays me next week!

The outdoor AKR got battered in the wind and rain yesterday so she spent the night in the box and looks much better this morning.

Hopefully the indoor AKR will pop up tomorrow sometime.


steely

 

[steelrat]

Picture of her yesterday when i brought her in from the wind and rain :

Today after some LED healing :

The hydro AKR is above ground but not fully out yet, i'm thinking at least another 12 hours before she's ready to go in the bucket.


steely

 

[GMan]

She's perked up ok man. It was a horrendous day yesterday, don't envy any outdoor Uk growers.

 

[steelrat]

Another problem solved.

Final addition to the hydrobox (i think!).

Previously, when i needed to detach the DWC bucket from the topup bucket i either had to pull the airline from the DWC intake hole or pull it from the topup output hole.

The problem was that pulling it from the topup hole was making the hole very slightly bigger each time, and the leak got worse. Pulling it from the DWC intake made the connection looser every time and that leaked more.

The last thing i did was add a tap so that i could just fit the airline to that and turn the tap off, pull the airline out and done. But the airline didn't fit the tap.

This is a really long way of saying i basically bought a little rubber ring lol :

slipped it over the airline (which i'm using to deliver nute solution of course, not air) :

put some water in the topup tank :

stuck the airline up the tap and turned the tap on :

it doesn't leak when the tubing is hangoing straight down but it does a little if there's sideways movement so i may add a slightly larger o-ring to catch that.

Outdoor AKR is out of the cabinet and catching some rays through the loft window :

Hydro AKR is popping up so day 1 should be tomorrow i think :

steely

 

[KsjAuto]

Hi steely
If thats a garden hose tap on your bucket.
Do a searh on aliexpress. "garden hose to barbed drip" .
I think that will fix your o ring dripping.
Congrats on the AKR now soil free .
Keep it up.

 

[steelrat]

Thanks KJS, that turns up sellers in the US when i search for it on ebay but it's given me the clue to find the same thing in the UK so thanks for that, off to hunt for it


steely

 

[steelrat]

Yes it would fix it but unfortunately i have to come from the hose to the input on the float valve using standard 4mm/6mm aquarium airline.

I would use hozelock throught but that would require a 13mm float valve input which in turn means a larger float valve and i want that to stay small.

Also worried that, when the rootball gets bigger, the weight of it will push down on the float valve ...


steely

 

[steelrat]

Think i'm gonna go with a flow control valve, then i can do the maths based on how much she drinks and how much the valve allows through per minute. Then i can just use off-the-shelf hozelock parts (which the tap is compatible with) and get rid of the float valve, which would probably have been pushed down by future rootbal mass.

Problem-solved !


steely.

 

[KsjAuto]

Im looking forward to how it all will turn out.
It´s always fun to build / tweak a new system .
Keep it up.

 

[Grim Reefer]

Hope it all gets sorted for you man. She looks like shes off to a healthy start i bet you will do this one some justice.