Absolutely no clue on what size pump I need.

[oks226]

I'm changing from soil to hydro and need to know what size pump I will need.
I plan on running a drip system in a 4x4 area with 42 drip sites. Could someone please tell me how many GPH pump I should be looking for, maybe a min and a max.
Also can I drain the water I drip back into the same reservoir, or will I need 2 reservoirs? Thanks!

 

[Searcher]

OKS,

I am a newbie, on my second grow. When
I started hydro, I had the same question. The answer is surprisingly easy. Aquarium pumps. Nothing fancier required.

I was not doing a drip system, but an NFT system with 18 spaces for 2" pots. The manufacturer of my NFT system, a large commercial grower of various vegetables, provided a 900 liter/hour aquarium pump (for about $8.00). It was more than adequate to provide water flow for the system I bought.

If your are growing the same strain in all your drip stations, you can get by with one reservoir. I do suggest one reservoir per strain. Different strains have different nute requirements and strain specific issues.

Strongly recommend that you also buy, at the minimum, one dual outlet (strong) aquarium air pump with 2 large air stones for each reservoir. If you are going hydro, keeping your water supply highly oxygenated is a REQUIREMENT. Otherwise nasty un-MJ things start growing in your system.

A nice supplement, #1 supplement in my book, is hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). When changing your nute solution, no less than once every 7 days, add 3ml H2O2 per liter of solution. Then, daily, add 25% of initial H2O2 dosage to make-up for wastage.

Change your nutes, religiously, no less than once every seven days.

Good luck,
Searcher

 

[oks226]

Great info searcher, thank you and +rep!

 

[Roseman]

Searcher, you did an excellent job answering that. I couldn't have done better myself.

I suggest a 260 to 285 gph pump.

 

[Searcher]

Thanks Roseman,

It should be no secret that I got alot of what I know (that actually works...LOL) comes from from reading your posts. Especially your DWC and Bubblebonics DIY blogs. Great stuff. So much good info on this site.

Thanks again,
Searcher

 

[Roseman]

The Submersive Pump in Deep Water Culture

I am often asked the questions "which pump should I use?" and "when should I remove the water pump?" Here I would like to discuss the use of the water pump in the single Deep Water Culture reservoir tank. StealthHydro offers 2 different manufactured submersible water pumps. The ActiveAqua...

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