Ok, system still working good no leaks in bulkhead fittings. One ultra tiny leak in a glued joint of all places but an easy fix. Feeling pretty confident in the testing so I am going to deploy it in the flower room. Plants are only one week into flip so during the lights on phase I will pump some of the nutes out into DWC buckets in the other room, raise the scrog net up and transfer the plants out for a couple of hours while I swap out the system.
Then the old system will grow food crops for the household in the adjacent room. My family likes to grow food crops year round indoors for 3 seasons and outdoors for one season. I keep a slight positive pressure in my grow room to keep any bugs from the food crops out of my grow and so far this has worked well. I spray (preventive) in the food crop area (
trifecta natural oil spray) to keep it safe.
So, today I will install it and go from there.
The way I solved the bulkhead fitting issue is this: Primary seal
does need to be on the inside of the tank and a secondary on the outside. I bought a sheet of 1/8" red silicone sheet from the hardware store for about $12 and cut a bunch of inner seals and with a very small amount of silicone (food grade) high vacuum grease that did the trick. The grease is mainly so when the nut is tightened it doesn't bunch up the inner seal and lets it rotate slowly while the pressure is applied. I used a little grease on the outside seal as well just as added insurance.
Is it a hassle to DIY this project, make seals and dick around with all this: Well yes. However, is it worth it to save $2k or more? Well, for me absolutely yes.
I would encourage folks who want to go to a UC system to give it a go especially if a commercial UC system is way out of range for your grow.
Thanks for tuning in to my DIY crazyness,
Dee
System in the test area: