Celt’s Cavern Of Chaos

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Awsome project @The Celt its gonna be fun with your setup and organic Nutrients. I'll be following along for sure.

Have you ever built a sump for aquariums? This is basically the same concept as your setup and may help with water backflowing from the grow buckets. Think Baffles ;)

Grow on mountain man, cool thread.
 
The only thing I have ever had to do with aquariums is watching fish swim in them :rofl:

I could use bulkhead fittings to solve the overflow issue, but at $10 a pop and needing 8 of them for this setup, I couldn’t justify the expensive for something experimental that may not work :rofl: not to mention, they don’t seat well on rounded surfaces like bucket sides.

Once I get the 1-way valves installed, it will solve the issue with airlock causing flow restriction. As it stands now, I can get things circulating with minimal risk of flooding, but the level in the buckets becomes too high, I want to keep the solution below the net pots :)

If this works as expected, and with minimal or zero issues, then I will invest in making the system the way I actually envisioned it. Basically, the entire system contained in a single tub with just the top, holding the net pots, being rotational :)
 
The Celt said:
The only thing I have ever had to do with aquariums is watching fish swim in them :rofl:

I could use bulkhead fittings to solve the overflow issue, but at $10 a pop and needing 8 of them for this setup, I couldn’t justify the expensive for something experimental that may not work :rofl: not to mention, they don’t seat well on rounded surfaces like bucket sides.

Once I get the 1-way valves installed, it will solve the issue with airlock causing flow restriction. As it stands now, I can get things circulating with minimal risk of flooding, but the level in the buckets becomes too high, I want to keep the solution below the net pots :)

If this works as expected, and with minimal or zero issues, then I will invest in making the system the way I actually envisioned it. Basically, the entire system contained in a single tub with just the top, holding the net pots, being rotational :)
Click to expand...
Inside your grow bucket, drill a hole and insert some pvc and of course use silicone to make it water tight or use fittings for this purpose...

The height of the tube is the max height the water in your grow buckets can rise, because the pvc tube takes any extra water back into the main center blue bucket.

power on the water pump, everything flows as it should. When the pump goes off, very little backflow because the water in grow buckets only drain to the top of the pvc pipes.

xBucket_018_v_1418178609.JPG.pagespeed.ic.f4WVeCoxII.jpeg.jpg


Of you need more visual aid, just Google "simple aquarium bucket sump" or "aquarium sump"...

You can also make the same thing using a wall instead of pvc pipe, exactly the same concept and design, just with a plastic divider wall being used instead of pvc for the overflow.
 
Coming along nicely Celt, what are you buzzed on this morning? I'm vaping a blend of Gelato and Afghani. Looks like you're in for a busy weekend. Stay stoneder.
 
OverflowDiagramFront.jpg

Same idea as this photo...
The pvc pipe is your overflow.
The center blue bucket is your sump.
Water height in grow buckets never change, only need to top-up water/nutrients in your sump only.
Of course make sure the water coming from the sump into the grow buckets is above the overflow ... in yourcase thats already in place from your photos. So that will be easy ;)
 
OK friends, I will be running 4 different strains in this grow, one of each in this hydro setup, and a 2nd of each strain in LOS soil. Two of the strains are already decided as I am doing a sponsored grow for DopeSeeds.

This leaves spots open for 4 plants and 2 strains. As the 2 supplied by DopeSeeds are mostly indica, I want to grow with similar growth rate and timing. Here is a list of what might fit that I have on hand and I am leaving it up to a vote by you to decide the 2 strains, we have about 2 weeks before I drop seeds so here are the options, and the top 2 will be what gets grown :)

Dutch Passion. - Friesen dew (H)
World of Seed - Ketama & Afghan Kush (both pure Indica Landrace)
Reserva Privada - Kandy Kush
Resin Seed. - Bubblicious
Barneys Farm. - Blue Cheese
Nirvana. - Blackberry

and also a number of different Bomb Seed strains, but as I have grown most of them in the past, I am leaving them out of this run.

Let the voting begin, the 2 strains with the most votes is what I will drop when ready :)
 
Fredwak said:
Coming along nicely Celt, what are you buzzed on this morning? I'm vaping a blend of Gelato and Afghani. Looks like you're in for a busy weekend. Stay stoneder.
Click to expand...
Morning Fred :) These days I am smoking Cluster Bomb and Blue Dream...got pounds of it but it’s all i have on hand atm :rofl:

I soon need to get my ass in gear and make some oil and hash, they are my preferred method most days :)
 
CADBOY said:
OverflowDiagramFront.jpg

Same idea as this photo...
The pvc pipe is your overflow.
The center blue bucket is your sump.
Water height in grow buckets never change, only need to top-up water/nutrients in your sump only.
Of course make sure the water coming from the sump into the grow buckets is above the overflow ... in yourcase thats already in place from your photos. So that will be easy ;)
Click to expand...
OK, caught up on some other things and can come back to this now :)

If you had said “riser tube/pipe” I would have known exactly what you meant :rofl: in engineering it’s a vertical tube/pipe to transfer fluids between different elevations, often referred to as just a “riser” :)

I had thought of doing this, risers can be made adjustable allowing for variable fluid levels in the upper tanks. Risers in this case rely on gravity flow meaning that the tube must pass through the bottom of your upper tanks, requiring bulkhead fittings. I could get away with only 4 fittings if my buckets are higher than the top of the reservoir but this would make the entire assembly ~ 44” tall, that’s over half the height of my tent so obviously not an option :rofl: conversely, I could use a 90 elbow and go through the side of my reservoir, but being a drum, the rounded sides present issues sealing the bulkhead fittings and now I would need 8.

Look at my sketch below. The green circuit shows how a riser would be setup, much like your description and sketch, allowing me to set the fluid level in the bucket independent of the level in the reservoir. The pink circuit is what I am using and works on siphon flow, which is actually more efficient than gravity feed, ie can use a smaller pipe for the same flow. This flow maintains a fluid level in the buckets at the same elevation as the reservoir. The risk of over flow only happens if siphon is lost and water in the buckets rises quicker than gravity can pull it out. Hence the need to the 1-way valves to release air lock at the top of the circuit.

34BDFCAF-78BA-493F-977D-FAB95CD9D6F3.jpeg


There is a second reason I choose this design over a riser design. With both inflow and outflow occur at the surface of the bucket fluid, turnover in the bucket is slow and allows for the possibility of “dead spots” in which O2 levels can drop enough for anaerobic conditions something we want to avoid. If I was using air stones for aeration in each bucket, this would be less of a concern. As I am using “jetted” water to provide aeration, this can be a problem. Although I didn’t show it in the sketch, the leg of pipe in the bucket, actually extends down to the bottom centre of the bucket. With inflow at the top outside edge and outflow coming from the bottom centre, I have high turnover rate ensuring good O2 levels throughout:)
 
I'm with Dank and Weas, Blackberry and the Afghani but I would pick the Ketama if I were more familiar with it. Wish I could do hash and oil- copd means vape only for me, but I did make a bit of Afghani hash with my brother last week. The Afghani colas look long and kinda thin but they produce so much tasty kief/hash.
 
The Celt said:
Morning @Carmen Ray and welcome, pull up a chair and help yourself to the Blue Dream and Cluster Bomb in the jars :)

Lets see if I can address some (or all) of your questions/concerns:)

LABs produce lactic acid, the smell of sour/fermentation, as they grow and multiply. This is a natural defense mechanism. LABs thrive in a pH of ~4, the pH of lactic acid, but other bacteria don’t do well in such acidic conditions, minimizes competition.

LABs are great for organics, in small does :) too much of a good thing can be lethal, pure raw LABs can and likely will kill your plants due to the low pH. A tablespoon of LABs per gallon (4 L) of water is plenty and will not hurt your plants, raw will, just ask me :rofl:

Now having said that, you can make nutrient supplements with LABs. Say you wanted a N boost. You could use LABs to digest some blood meal making a N supplement which will be too acidic to use without treatment first. To use, after the LABs have done their thing, you would need to boil it to kill of the LABs, then add enough lime (or other basics) to bring the pH up around 6.

As for things growing in/on top of your LABs, it’s likely either yeasts or fungus. Both of which will aid in breaking down organics, yeasts break down carbohydrates (sugars) making ethanol, and fungi as a group, feed on anything and everything :rofl: Fungi are the first step in breaking down stone into soil.

If you are going to be adding a tablespoon or 2 to your water, use it as is, but if you want to use the LABs as an actual feed, then I would suggest boiling and adjusting the pH before giving it to your plants :)

So long as you don’t smell rotten eggs, it hasn’t gone septic. The dominate species in your brew will dictate the smell.

LABs has a distinct smell and if you have made your LABs by fermenting milk you know the smell, same smell as the liquid that forms under the cheese. It’s a sharp sour smell. In a highly aerated system like what I have setup, because the bacteria are multiplying so quickly, the solution actually fizzes when left sit idle

Yeasts are our other means of fermentation and as they produce alcohol and CO2, they will smell of ethanol or sweetish like over ripe fruit and will fizz as well. Kombucha tea is a good example of this type of fermentation.
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Thank you Celt. That is just the information I need. I will dip into your bluedream please :yummy:
 
Welcome @Dankman_420 , this may all go to sh!t but hey, it’s about learning and fun :rofl:

Things are just sitting idle for the moment, waiting on testing solutions to calibrate my pH pen and some 1-way valves to prevent the air locking in the return flow. I also got in a fight with some 1 1/4” angle iron I was using to fab some brackets. My own dam fault for losing my patience and not looking to see what was annoying me. Needless to say, I wore a piece in the face, drove my glasses into my right eye, breaking them and splitting my eyelid and cheek open in 3 spots :rofl: good thing I had my glasses on, would have lost the eye otherwise.
 
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