Clogging Drippers... Am I Not Supplying Enough Pressure?

[ethcan]

Some info.

Running this pump (1/3hp, 1930gph) inside of a 55 gallon reservoir, with a hose that comes up to a manifold mounted on the wall above the reservoir.

The manifold tees off to two lines each on ball valves which feed one tray each, respectively. Each tray is running 75 sites, with 2 drippers per site. This is with floraflex octobubblers, lines, and caps. To be clear, I only feed one tray at a time, by opening one ball valve at a time. Therefor, I am feeding 150 drippers at once.

I have had an issue with drippers not getting pressure, resulting in low flow, or down right now flow. Irregular flow is an issue as well. I run drip clean with every watering.

I added an inline filter which has been catching a shit ton of debris, and I think it was an excellent move. However, even with a perfectly clean and clear filter, and blasting 34% phosphoric acid through the lines (which made the room smell like all holy fucking hell, as it cleared out a shit ton of nasty anaerobic sludge built up inside the system), I still have clogged drippers. Some which won't function at all.

Now the octobubblers are running without any restricters in them. I was told this was incorrect, and that the restricters are necessary in maintaining equal pressure. So I will be adding them and testing tomorrow.

Would anyone say that the pump I am running is the main culprit here, and I need to move to an inline pump with a hole drilled in the bottom of my rez?

Any other solutions would be appreciated.

 

[FarmerDaniel]

You can overcome the underpowered pump sometimes with pressure compensating drippers. If you don't already have them then that might be a start.

the numbers seem ok in terms of gph but plumbing losses can be significant. The longer your lines get the more resistance on the pump so it can all add up.

I suggest picking one line and doing some experiments. Soon enough you'll have a better idea of what's going on. Good luck!

 

[cemchris]

If you are using 1/4 drip line you need to use a different pump. When scaling up that big forgo the sump/hydrostore pumps and you need something that is pressure compensating. You need to get into the commercial irrigation mindset and not the home depot/hydrostore one. This will ramp the pump up to maintain a set pressure and flow. Not to mention most of those pumps have auto shutoff when dry to avoid damaging the pumps. Just know these pumps are going to be more then 200 bucks. They range from about 380 up to about 1700. Look into stuff like DAB Pumps for an example (I have personally used those and they are amazing but not the only option out there). Another option is putting a pressure boosting pump on top of that one or running more than 1 pump.

GPM/GPH is not the most important rating but head pressure and maintaining that to pump the distance and to all the mainfolds. This all comes into pipe sizing, length of runs, pumping height ect. When playing up on that scale its not as simple as throw a cheap pump on and done.

 

[cemchris]

Pressure consistency is key to get uniform volume across all drippers. If you dont want to forgo the above mentions and stick to what you have break your zones down to smaller zones. This can be done manually with ball valves or you can automate it with sprinkler valves and pvc for pretty cheap with a timer. Your zones are too big for your current pump.

That being said nute selection also comes into play. Some stuff doesnt play nice with others and will cause problems. No amount of pressure will help stuff that sludges up lines and clogs drippers. If you are dead set on not changing that aspect then you need to set up a service interval for flushing the system and checking drippers. No way around that.

 

[ethcan]

Pressure consistency is key to get uniform volume across all drippers. If you dont want to forgo the above mentions and stick to what you have break your zones down to smaller zones. This can be done manually with ball valves or you can automate it with sprinkler valves and pvc for pretty cheap with a timer. Your zones are too big for your current pump.

That being said nute selection also comes into play. Some stuff doesnt play nice with others and will cause problems. No amount of pressure will help stuff that sludges up lines and clogs drippers. If you are dead set on not changing that aspect then you need to set up a service interval for flushing the system and checking drippers. No way around that.

Thank you very much for your help. Pretty much exactly what I needed to hear, that I need to upgrade my pumps.

I will look into a commercial irrigation pump capable of maintaining a set pressure and flow rate.

Can you give me a couple recommendations for reliable pumps? I'm happy to spend the money to solve the problem, but would like to do so as cost effectively as possible.

Also, can you name some nutrient types which are contributing to sludges and clogs?
I am assuming in respect to this issue this will be in relation to organics. Kelps, molasses, possibly dry humics. Hopefully not my liquid beneficials (Tribus microbes, microbe lift Bt).

I use Jacks Hydroponic with Tribus microbes and full strength drip clean with every watering, and ideally would like to add dry humic.

 

[cemchris]

Thank you very much for your help. Pretty much exactly what I needed to hear, that I need to upgrade my pumps.

I will look into a commercial irrigation pump capable of maintaining a set pressure and flow rate.

Can you give me a couple recommendations for reliable pumps? I'm happy to spend the money to solve the problem, but would like to do so as cost effectively as possible.

Also, can you name some nutrient types which are contributing to sludges and clogs?
I am assuming in respect to this issue this will be in relation to organics. Kelps, molasses, possibly dry humics. Hopefully not my liquid beneficials (Tribus microbes, microbe lift Bt).

I use Jacks Hydroponic with Tribus microbes and full strength drip clean with every watering, and ideally would like to add dry humic.

As far as pumps- DAB pumps are the only ones I've used on that scale but there are others that do similar things. I can vouch for them. Solid as fuck.

Jacks should be solid in drippers. High doeses of MPK (mono potassium phosphate - most bloom boosters like Liquid Koolbloom ect) will hose nute tanks up over time and in turn lines and drippers. Stuff like humics/fulvic can cause problems but there are some solid sources for them. People like customhydronutes have a good selection of those. If the cause problems with buildup ect you can always put them in some panty hose and hang them over the side of your res to keep the big material out. Im not sure what the carrier or if there is one in the Tribus. If its sometype of clay like in V+B that can cause problems down the road. Ive always run sterile in drips just to keep everything 100% and never have to worry about them. Yeah most of the organics strait into the tanks can reek havoc on lines. Most people use strained teas (just make sure you are straining big enough with the micron so you dont filter anything out out want in it)

Gl man. I hope that helped some.

 

[ethcan]

As far as pumps- DAB pumps are the only ones I've used on that scale but there are others that do similar things. I can vouch for them. Solid as fuck.

Jacks should be solid in drippers. High doeses of MPK (mono potassium phosphate - most bloom boosters like Liquid Koolbloom ect) will hose nute tanks up over time and in turn lines and drippers. Stuff like humics/fulvic can cause problems but there are some solid sources for them. People like customhydronutes have a good selection of those. If the cause problems with buildup ect you can always put them in some panty hose and hang them over the side of your res to keep the big material out. Im not sure what the carrier or if there is one in the Tribus. If its sometype of clay like in V+B that can cause problems down the road. Ive always run sterile in drips just to keep everything 100% and never have to worry about them. Yeah most of the organics strait into the tanks can reek havoc on lines. Most people use strained teas (just make sure you are straining big enough with the micron so you dont filter anything out out want in it)

Gl man. I hope that helped some.

Dude, the panty hose over the side of the rez is a great idea. Going to look into the DAB pump. I was recommended NPK Raw Humic.

 

[cemchris]

Leader pumps is the other one people use a lot. Egotronics and Inoxtronics I believe for the lines