Somewhat Epic Post
1) What size prefilter do I need? Ordered a 100 micron one (two of them, actually) – is that too large?
2) My system is a vertical SOG made of out 4” PVC – 15 columns, 6 plants per column. I was going to try and get away with two misters per column (one at the top serving the top three plants and one at the middle serving the bottom three plants) – any idea on how/if this would work? I could step up to 3 misters per column, but not sure if the system could easily handle 45 misters (obviously the current plan is 30).
3) There’s going to be four solenoids controlling the output , with two lines around the octagon – tee off of the accumulator tank to each side (side “A” and “B”), then another tee at each side to the start of each line (call them “A1” and “A2” and “B1” and “B2”, respectively). The octagon has a 7’ diameter, so it’s a circumference of ~21’. So two lines at 21’ is 42’, and then another 3’ per column (15*3’ = 45’) (for the middle mister, the top mister will be right at the top) per each column, so another 45’ + 42’ = a total system of 87’ of tubing and 30 misters. Here’s a quick video I shot to show how the system worked when it was lp aero/NFT, just to give you an idea of what I’m trying to describe – this setup only had one feed per column (as opposed to the two feeds I’m planning):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLsQGDcTevs (skip to 40 seconds to see the system operate).
4) The pump will pressurize to 140PSI and turn back on at 115PSI – any idea how often the pump will need to cycle with this setup and a 4.4 gallon accumulator tank? No need to calculate Boyle’s Law, just a simple guesstimate would suffice – assume 3 seconds per every five minutes to give me a guess.
5) I’d love to be able to run in one second cycles, but I have serious doubts about the ability to deliver that much pressure to 30 misters in that short of a time – that being said, think I could do it in 3 seconds? I just have no concept for how quickly 115-140PSI could deliver pressure to 30 nozzles over 90’ of tubing.
6) Instead of having “A1” feed all top nozzles and “A2” feed all lower nozzles, would I be better off alternating them to have equal pressure between the lines? I.e., each circuit would have half top nozzles and half bottom nozzles so pressure would be equal between them.
7) What should my setpoint for my pressure relief valve be? Since the pump will be adjusted to shutoff at 140PSI, would 150PSI be a good relief valve pressure? And what is the large difference in prices of relief valves? I can find them for $10 or $100 – does it matter which one I use? Would this work? :
8) In order to have a backup in case my main pump goes out, is there some reason I couldn’t just install this pump inline with the system (before the accumulator tank) – it switches on at 85PSI and off at 100PSI, so while not delivering the super high pressure my main pump does, it would still keep my system pressurized enough to operate if the main pump went down, right?
Well, that’s all for now…………but trust me, there’s lots more – thanks again for all your help, sir.
EDIT: just to make clear, I'm not trying/expecting to get the true pearly white HP aero roots and all that jazz with this setup, because I realize I'd have to have a mister at every plant for that to happen - I'm trying to save power, not use a medium, and run DTW, which makes HP aero my choice.
If the roots of the 4 plants not getting directly misted in each column "only" look like LP aero roots than I can live with that :) Just wanna make sure they'd be getting fed somehow.
