Hydroponic Systems and Components

Systems and Components  - Logic
Several systems and components have been installed in our grow room to provide our veggies and herbs an environment in which to provide the highest yields possible.  Your comments in areas where we can improve (or question our logic) are always welcome.   Many of these systems are generally thought of after the enthusiastic grower has plants and figures out how to manage the expansion of their growing environment.  I put in all of these systems and controls so I could focus purely on the plants in the future without having to crawl all over the room to make things fit and work. 

Hydroponic Systems
The grow room started with a General Hydroponics Aeroflo36, and eventually grew to include a General Hydroponics PowerGrower Water Farm to handle larger (taller, bushier, vine based) plants.  The AeroFlo is a combination of aeroponic and hydroponic technologies combined.  The PowerGrower is a drip based system with a master reservoir with reservoirs in each power grower module.  Growco (4hydroponics.com) has complete manufacturer installation instructions for these systems in PDF format.  This is one of the few web sites I found that does that - and it is great information for those that want to know more about the systems and how they are put together.  Hats off to Growco !  We will add a cloning system when we get to mature plants to help increase our re-planting rates. 

Lighting & Ballasts
I chose 1000 watt light bulbs due to the actual footprint of the systems they would cover with light.  Each digital ballast can manage high pressure sodium (HPS) and metal halide (MH) light bulbs at watt ratings from 400-1000 watts.  I used SolarMax bulbs at the recommendation of my local grow shop, Texas Hydroponics (texashydroponics.com) due to their reliability and warranty as well as for the types of plants I would be growing. They are currently using 120v / 20 amp circuits but I may be changing it to 240v / 20 amp circuits for lower power consumption.  At the time I purchased these lighting systems, I did not have knowledge of the new LED lighting systems now in the market.  I plan on an experiment with eggplant with a single PowerGrower module with a LED grow light (can't wait till Christmas comes).

Water Purification
We live in a rural area but have "county" water.  The water out of the tap has approx 400 ppm of "stuff" in it, not to mention a slightly chlorinated taste.  With a combined requirement of the hydroponic systems being about 75 gallons per nutrient water change, a "kitchen sink" R.O. system just wasn't going to do the job.  In steps the Hydro Logic Merlin Garden Pro.  It produces about 750 gallons a day (you need to get some barrels - check out www.globalindustrial) and the water is pre-filtered with a Hydro Logic Tall Blue de-chlorinator filter.  Using the pre-filter removes the chlorine that would damage or reduce the life of the R.O. system filters.

For unattended functionality of the R.O. system, I installed two shut-off valves in the primary water barrel.  The control water flow is managed by a Merlin Electronic Shut Off Kit which uses a solenoid valve, the second is a Merlin manual float valve.  Water moves from a "T" connection in the main plumbing (you also can connect so a sink faucet) to the Tall Blue, then to the input side of the Merlin Garden Pro.  When the water level in the primary barrel reaches its shut-off float point, the solenoid shuts the valve, and the water flow stops.  If the electronic valve fails, the manual float kit cuts off the water flow (talk about belts and suspenders, but hey, better than a flood).

I installed a second barrel that I pump water into from the primary.  I use the second barrel is to do final pH adjustments and mix nutrients solutions for the plants in the two systems.  After I begin pumping the water into the second barrel, the float in the primary barrel drops, allowing more water to be processed through the R.O. system into the primary barrel.  After pH and nutrients are mixed into the second barrel of water, I pump it into the AeroFlo36 and PowerGrower separately using a small utility pump.  I use about 35 gallons to fill the AeroFlo36 and about the same for the PowerGrower.  It is much easier to mix, then pump it into the systems vs pumping R.O. water and mixing nutrients in the grow systems.

CO2 / Temperature / Humidity Controllers
I had a small CO2 tank on hand so I chose to use it and a C.A.P. dual tank CO2 Regulator/Emitter.  The C.A.P. CO2 PPM monitor controls the release of CO2 based on my set points entered into the PPM monitor.  The CO2 is activated (on/off) by the CO2 side of the C.A.P. CO2-4e controller.  The 4-e automatically turns off all exhaust fans/AC (our HVAC is controlled separately so we use the outlet for an additional circulation fan) to the room while CO2 is discharged.  The exhaust systems are managed via temperature and humidity set points on the 4-e as well.  When the exhaust systems activates due to high temperature (caused by lighting systems mainly) in the room, it deactivates any CO2 discharge that was taking place and delivers power to the in-line Cap Fan.  Humidity control is managed by activating a plug for a DEHUMIDIFIER.  I don't have an issue with to much humidity as it is managed through the HVAC system previously installed in the room (Daiken spit system).  My issue is maintaining enough humidity.  Enter the Nutramist fog machine and C.A.P. HUM-1 humidity controller.  Will post more when they arrive this week and are installed.

All of this technology is a bit costly, but worthwhile for the person that has to work for a living and can't spend 3 hours a day in the grow room.  Besides, our mission was to provide the best possible environment to produce the highest possible yields.

Since we moved the seedlings to the AeroFlo36 and activated the CO2, we are seeing almost 50% increase in growth every day on our seedlings.  WOW !

Nutrients
Talk about a confusing selection of seemingly great products.  We totally punted the decision on this one to the experts at the grow shop and selected the full Canna line of nutrients.  So far we don't have much practical experience with these products but we are seeing fantastic results in the plants transferred to the AeroFlo36.  More updates on this as we progress through the veg stage and into flowering.

pH / EC / TDS Monitoring
I selected the "all-in-one" Hana pH/EC/TDS (HI3M) meter as it was durable, extremely accurate, and did all tests with a single device.  So far it has worked fabulously.