Blumat or other drip system... which is best?

[mrduke]

what size pump did you use and for how many sites. i'm thinking about doing 24 sites and dont know what size pump i need. I have a 800gph and a 1/5hp sump but i'm pretty sure i need somewhere in the middle. any advice would be sweet

 

[kushtrees]

definitely can picture that sounds super ez i think ill give it a shot next go

 

[JACKMAYOFFER]

I will be doing a DIY on Pepco octa bubblers with sprayer steaks tomorrow this is the best way to go for drain to waist I have done it many ways and hands down this is the way to go.JACK

 

[Resinable]

mr duke:

I don't know the gph of the pump I used but it is a heavy duty cast iron submersable pump I got from a place that works on ag and well projects; not a rinky dink plastic hydro store pump. About one horse power I think. Even at that it could only water about ten plants at a time (i prefer to run one or two plants per light). So I had a ball valve controling a pvc line with ten poly lines coming of feeding ten pots. So I would feed one pvc line for set time and then close the valve and go to the next line and open its valve. I also had smaller valves on each .5 inch poly line to fine tune the flow rates. I plan to make this system fully automated with selonoid valves in the future.

 

[mrduke]

thanks resin - my thought was to run a 3/4 pvc line woth 1/2 feeders coming of it with a ball valve on each one and using just one tee at the end of the feeder to disperse the flow of nutes. i think my little giant sump should be able to handle that.

 

[Str8Dank]

I'm doing my first drip run right now and so far I'm loving it. i used aqua turret 4 position dripper steaks (high, med, low, off) and a 290 gph pump and a titian digital timer that does one minute increments and up to 8 different on/off cycles ($20). I'm using 1/2" hose as a manifold line and brass fittings inserted with a tool to attach the 1/8" lines to the pot. none of that manifold line loop nonsense is needed just take a zip strip and close the end off. the key to pressure equalization is to keep the lines coming from the manifold line (the 1/8" lines) all equal in length. also cut the tip of the 1/8" line going into the manifold line at a 45 degree angle so if you push it in all the way it does not sit flush against the inside of the manifold line preventing flow.

I'm running 18 2' lines into 5 gal buckets of coco and the one farthest and the one nearest have damn near identical output i check them often by placing a steak from each end of the room in a empty 1 gal nutrient jug and seeing how much is in each after a cycle. with this setup I'm delivering roughly 1/2 gal per pot in 9 minutes using the slowest posts on the dripper. for filtration a doubled up set of panty hose (which are 220u btw) around the pump and a zip tie keeping it nice and sealed against the pumps power cord and hose. since the panty hose installation I've been clog free and its been a week. i actually went back to the store to pickup a pump filter bag and was told just to use panty hose and to save my money by the owner.

while i see some awesome ass setups for drip many seem over engineered for the normal basement grower imo. 1000+gph pumps, large ID pvc many valves etc just seem slightly overkill for the home grower in my humble opinion. i may be wrong and I'd love more insight if i am this is a new area to me but it's hard to not see it that way when i have an hour and less then $100 into this and its running error free. i even have one extra plant on my drip system in a solo cup that's got a valve on the end so it just lets a slow stream of drips over the 9 minute cycle and it saturates that cup just perfect.

now if i just hadn't over vegged them I'd be able to fit run away tables under here but for now it's going to be shop vac daily until next run lol. if you don't have a floor drain (like i don't) you can get a controller bucket from cap that's just like a ebb and grow controller but just with one electronic float switch. run your runoff to it and when that float switch rises it will kick on a pump inside the controller pumping the waste water to whatever drain you like! I've got a old ebb and grow controller I'm going to use for this function. the gutter from the table will run right into the lid of the ebb and grow controller, waste water problem solved.


here is a pic of my manifold line. you can see it's just regular 1/2" hose. those brass fittings i used i'm not sure where you can get those my local store carries them. i've tried inserting a line without them and it works fine but i like those little things they make it easy to take a line off and put it back on if i needed to i guess.

here is the top of my drippers. you can see the 3 posts around the outside have different size notches cut into them allowing for different flow rates. the middle post has no groove and is a off position. it's just a simple design and works great. the guy who helped me set this up said he's been using these for over 20 years in greenhouses with no issues so i didn't think twice about getting them.

like i said I'm completely new to drip systems so i don't know much about them but this is working for me and was cheap and easy to setup.

 

[nebulius]

2 worked for me, worked great, I found with blumats, since your getting very little run off, it was good to water with RO occasionally , I did feed 2 days R0 third. I lower strength nute solution would probably also work, how ever u want to deal with em

Only thing I didn't like about blumats was the gravity feed part, elevating a 100g res was impossible so I had to set up a 5g bucket with float valve and pump, worked well tho

Edit cuz my iPhone spellcheck like to turn blumats into blunts... Go apple

I'm ignorant to Blumats, but have been looking into it lately. Saw the video on their website but am still confused as to the water supply part. Can you use a gravity res with the Blumat Maxi? Looking to automate watering for just a few plants.

 

[moodster]

yes m8 i use a gravity res with the blumats maxis work sweet no need to hang the res from the roof just about a foot higher so much easier than handwatering

 

[Living Magic]

Just wanted y'all to know that BlumatSystems.com / Sustainable Village added some very cool medical drip supplies to our Blumat accessories inventory. Includes things like valve shut-off, and previously unavailable adapters / connectors.

Check them out at http://blumatsystems.com

 

[CelticEBE]

I had problems in Coco with Blumats, so much so that I contacted them and they told me that they don't perform well in Coco. I invested a pretty good chunk of money into them, so I am going to give it another shot with a coco/peat/perlite mix. Hopefully that will help things out a bit. I see where a few people have said that they needed multiple blumats per pot, they actually have a distribution dripper set so that one stake can supply a larger area.

 

[CelticEBE]

Forgot to add this. I used a 55 gal drum for a rez, and built a stand for it that was higher than the pots I was using. This worked really well. Also....if you are running Blumats you have to keep a CLEAN REZ!!! I was running H16 base, Prime, and Fire and the drip lines got clogged QUICK! I had to switch over to a booster and carb that ran a lot cleaner.

Gonna try em again with H16 and Aptus and hand watering Caps bene's once a week.

 

[WalterWhiteFire]

Those Blumat distributers are notorious for clogging. I Would only run pure water if i needed to use those. I ran PBP and cannazyme no problems. 3 maxis per 12 gallon pot coco/promix/ewc. Loved it, saved me so much time and brain power.

 

[moodster]

I run the lucas formula thru the blumats and drip clean and never clogged in over a year:cool:

 

[Lapides]

I really love the blumats. I follow the directions given by them, fiddle with them for about 5-7 days until I have it perfect, and it's easy street from there. I have encountered few minor problems, so they aren't perfect, but you quickly learn how to avoid those problems.

I run them in ammended soil in 2.5'x5' beds that are a foot deep. I use 1 dripper per every 8-12 inches. When I first got them, I did a side by side vs. handwatering. Within 5 days I noticed a HUGE difference in growth with the blumats KILLING it. I think because it keeps constant moisture, the beneficial bacteria and fungi in my dirt thrive and give my plants the most of what they need.

Love the blumats.