Crisis in the Tent
A few days back, it was all drama in my grow space.
I noticed my reservoir wasn't lowering much. So I checked the pot-side (small) reservoirs on the AutoPots, which were dry.
Sure enough, the filter was clogged. The plants were removed from the tent, and I cleaned up the filter and reinstalled it. I double-checked the lines and brought the plants back in.
Yet, the nutrients were still slow-flowing. I removed the filter completely, and everything worked great.
Or, so I thought ...
When I put the pots back in the tent, I decided not to reconnect the air stones at the base of the AutoPots.
A few hours later, I went back to check the tent for leaks, and about 12 gallons of liquid nutrients were pooled on the floor of my tent. Thankfully, I recently added a hard-plastic floor liner in the tent (with 4" sides).
The flooding may have happened because I left the airstone hoses at ground level. Still, I have no idea how that low water pressure could push the fluid up the side of those 6-gallon pots (if that's what happened).
After cleaning that mess, I returned the plants to the tent and hooked up the airhoses this time. I removed the filter as well. I made sure to blow out each section of tubing in the tent as they traveled pot-to-pot. So far, so good.
Back to the filter, it was gunked up because I used a pond sludge remover to keep the lines clean. I don't know what it reacted with, but Sludge Remover is out of the rotation.
I'm returning to Enzyme products and the occasional hypochlorous acid treatment to keep all the parts clean.
I don't maintain a living soil, even though I occasionally put microbes in the coco. If I kill them out, I add a few more here and there.