cemchris said:

The vert gray ones? They are 1/2 sprinkler risers. Come in all lengths . Male on both sides. He used a 3/4 threaded T to a 3/4 to 1/2 threaded reducer.

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Thank you so much, tonight we build my setup

made it to home depot too late last night, about to make my way over there now.

looking to run 5 manifolds in a 4x8

would a 500 gph pump be sufficient?

Bonesy512 said:

made it to home depot too late last night, about to make my way over there now.

looking to run 5 manifolds in a 4x8

would a 500 gph pump be sufficient?

Click to expand...

‘it’s not so much the gph you need a certain psi to use open flow octabubblers (No gph inserts). These are meant to operate at 20-60psi with around 40psi being the sweet spot for me in my setup to get even distribution. Since the bubblers are gutted and there’s no flow control you need sufficient pressure to prime the lines from start to finish so all the lines distribute the same amount of water.

For example if you need to feed 500ml per irrigation event and you time it with a measuring cup that it takes 20 seconds to supply 500ml you should expect that 20 seconds will be the same for all the bubbler. However using a weaker pump that doesn’t supply enough pressure won’t prime the lines fast enough when the pump comes on. So in that 20 seconds the first bubblers in the system will start getting fed but the end of the line mine not get primed until 3 seconds later and the pots get uneven watering. Having that higher psi allows your entire drip line to get pressurized as soon as your pump comes on so each bubble starts dripping at the same time and you get your 500ml from your first to last bubble.

For reference, most utility submersible pumps max out arou 9-12psi, aquarium pumps even lower around 2-5psi. You want an on demand pump that’s high pressure low volume like a shallow well jet pump. I‘ve also seen it done with a diaphragm pump but most jet pumps average around 40-80+ psi depending on the horsepower of the motor. Don’t go overboard you can get a jet pump for $100 that will work just fine without spending $300+ on a leader pump, etc. Most importantly is keep it simple, there’s a lot of science in precision irrigation systems and it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole designing a system but 99% of that info is irrelevant for our purposes so don’t try to reinvent the wheel or build something elaborate, put a jet pump from your reservoir to your drip lines, test a few lines randomly to make sure the distribution is even and call it a day