Watering system help?

[TheGreenGiggler]

Hi all,

Need your help, I was looking at something like an oxygen pot system but I am not sure if it would work. My goal is less maintenance on the day to day watering, with out having complications around to much reservoir maintenance. My thought is a soil hydro mix as I feel that that would allow for more grace with errors but I would be open to a lot of opinion here.

currently I use air pots with adv nutrients and sunshine pro mix #3. I mix the nute combo in a 5 gallon pail with and air stone and 80 gal pump on a timer and it feeds for 3-4 days. My issue is by the 3rd day my pump is clogging from a off white slime like film that builds up in little clumps the bottom area of the pail. (Are my nutes gumming up or is this a weird algae or salt mix?). The time it takes to clean this from the pump and res is a huge time killer.

This isn’t a recirculating system, but I would like to figure out what I am doing wrong before moving to a better system for less work and automation. Not sill for less Waite might be nice as well. 2-3 plants that I could manage water set ups on week ends would be my altimeter goal. Thoughts?

[DoctorJohnson]

> by the 3rd day my pump is clogging from a off white slime like film that builds up in little clumps the bottom area of the pail.
Do I understand correctly that just a simple mixture of AN pH Perfect and water is forming clumps after 3 days? If so, something is very seriously wrong. What are you using for water? How many PPM is your feed water? What is the pH of the feed water and the pH of the nute mix? I can only guess that you have extremely hard water and it is forming precipitate, but even that sounds very unlikely.

> Not sill for less Waite might be nice as well.
> 2-3 plants that I could manage water set ups on week ends would be my altimeter goal.

Huh? Do us the courtesy of checking your text before posting gibberish amigo!

[TheGreenGiggler]

Lol sorry someone was on the phone for the last bit while I was trying to finish. Here is what I meant.

A non soil option for medium might be nice to move to with something like the oxygen pot system, if it works well. I would be curious as to how hard it is to clean and maintain... would my cost be higher with a system like that? Disposing if used medium can be a hassle.

I would not be maintaining more than 2-3 plants at a given time, setting up and maintaining a water/feed systems for about 30 mins on a weekend is my preferred outcome when I think about my ultimate goal, is this a feasible goal?

[DoctorJohnson]

I asked about four questions there, the answers to which would really help... Help. Us. Help. You. LOL.

[DingusKhan]

Hey gigler, I'm glad to see that you are back in the game!

What DoctorJohnson said, and you might consider a power head aerator for your reservoir. It pumps the water in your reservoir around within the reservoir, and bubbles it up at the same time. That should eliminate the precipitation which is clogging your plumbing.

The light seal and turbulence in your reservoir should fix both problems. If they don't, you might have an infection in your reservoir.

[TheGreenGiggler]

Thanks for the heads up, is a power head aerator better than an air stone option? If so, is there a strength or out put range that I should be looking at?

[DingusKhan]

This should do it

https://smile.amazon.com/AQUANEAT-Powerhead-Submersible-Undergravel-Hydroponics/dp/B077HGGBFT/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1517093789&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=powerhead+aquarium&psc=1

[DingusKhan]

Are those nutrients high in carbohydrates?

[DingusKhan]

Sure, I meant are you adding anything to your tank that has sugar or molasses? If so, it may be feeding an infection.

[TheGreenGiggler]

Nope, just advance nutrients- bloom a&b, bud candy and overdrive atm...

[DingusKhan]

Okay. Actually, Bud Candy is has some molasses in it. I don't have personal experience with this, but I know some people use bud candy in DWC without problems. So you may be right, this may be a precipitation issue. But remember, unless you are running a sterile reservoir, you have to maintain pretty tight conditions to keep from setting up for infection.

Cool, dark, adequate nutrients, and inoculated with beneficial microbes, and just enough food for those microbes. If conditions in your 5 gallon petri dish change enough to favor a different collection of microbes, you may get some funk.

Either way, little bits of solid stuff in your tank will plug little holes. Here's something might help

https://smile.amazon.com/AQUANEAT-Powerhead-Submersible-Undergravel-Hydroponics/dp/B077HGGBFT/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1517093789&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=powerhead+aquarium&psc=1

[DoctorJohnson]

> I believe we have a high calcium water table but nothing that seems to have a negative affect.
Learn all about your water. It's important.

Your local water utility will have a website that tells about the water. You can start there. You can ask at your local hydro shop or even the local garden club. And measuring how many PPM out of the tap will tell you a lot too. If your water is too hard (starting at a reading of over about 100 PPM), it's going to affect your grow. You can grow in hard water and you can work around it by buying RO water, but it really helps to know what you're starting with.

If you have trouble interpreting the numbers you get at the water website or from your PPM meter, people online can help, and so can the people who manufacture your fertilizer, but you have to be able to tell them what you've got.

[DingusKhan]

If might consider keeping your reservoir mixed with the above mentioned recirculator keeping it dissolved and aerated, only with water, nutrients, and calmag, and maybe some hydrogaurd. No Bud Candy. Use that for your daily automatic watering.

Weekly handwatering with Bud Candy and something like Microbe Brew, or just molasses will only take a few minutes once per week, and can be done during other plant care time. You can do it like pet treats.