Hmmmm. I think you may be onto something with that bowl idea. Ya I was thinking like a drain loop where you'd pump one way or the other so both drain lines had a 0 flow rate average, ie a + flow rate for awhile and then a negative flow rate for awhile, but this might just clog both lines lol or lead to flooding disasters idk.. If you had a garbage disposal Itd prolly work well lol cut the tips as they grew and they'd more easily flow in small pieces like that. Would require some sort of bulk filtering in reservoir to remove pieces. A light barrier could lead to algae growth unless maybe it was UV but not sure how roots are effected by UV. Like will they sense and turn root shoots away? Or will the UV just kill the parts that are exposed to it so you'd have the same problem except itd be a dead root rat tail? The bowl might be the best bet, imo I'd make the travel routes for the water as big as possible. Maybe a 4in jut, but a bowl that's an 1in or so above the drain opening and the bottom of the bowl, ie the ring of the bowl seperated by an inch or 2 from the bottom of the bucket. That way you'd have less pressure pushing/pulling roots towards drain. I'm trying to think here.. Maybe there's a way to maintain a air bubble in the top of the bowl to provide an air barrier as well.. I'm still trying to logically work through the idea to determine if it's possible but just trying to brainstorm outloud.. EDIT: I see your drawing now, we're on the same page
This might be extreme. Lol But could you make an accessible version with a disconnect that you could use for regular maintenance? Add it to the list top off , check ph, check drain?
After discuss with Chief, I was thinking of trying these vents out, but the shipping cost are 4 times the price, kinda sucks. this is a cutaway. kinda nice as the piece would just screw right into the draining bulkhead.
I'm probably going to order those caps... Anyhow, this is how the plant looks today Got a little bit of light burn and some calmag def showing up but I changed the res today and gave ~2.5mL/4L calmag. I didn't mess with the lights... its time to grow up little plant.
Hey what about just a riser tube with a PVC cap on the end of it. Then drill holes in the riser tube below the cap an inch or so for water to travel through, and then just drop a bigger PVC cap ontop of the stand pipe to act as your deflector dome. You could use a single screw to fasten the caps together or maybe just have loose. But that'd be about the same design minus the mesh screen, but if your roots make it to the mesh screen, I'm not sure it's going to stop them from growing through it, so figured this cheaper design (no shipping) might give you an idea? That plant is guna make for some nice yieldage EDIT: If you split the riser into 2 sections, and use 2 different diameter pipes, 1 big enough to fasten to the bulkhead, the other pipe would have a diameter big enough to just barely slide over the first pipe. You could stick a piece of window screen between the skinny inside riser pipe and bigger riser pipe so when you pounded the bigger riser pipe onto the skinny riser it'd sandwich the window screen in between and keep it snug and then you could cut the excess away and you'd have your screening design. Then drill holes in the top wider pipe for water, then cap it and then throw a big PVC cap ontop of all of it to act as your deflector dome. Might take a slight bit of filing down the inside bore hole a bit to slide pipes over screen ect, but PVC is soft and it shouldn't be hard to do, plus you can make it petty snug then too?
I like this idea and will construct something this coming week. Thank you Chief. Today, the plant still showed signs of whatever, but those are permanent marks, so I'm not too worried. I changed the res yesterday and used 'recommended' levels (for once); felt it was low on bloom so I used a bit more. The final TDS was at 830ppm. Today it was at ~750ppm. I will need to increase the strength tomorrow, but I hate doing this without some kind of chemical analysis... I wish I could just know what it was absorbing.
That would be great if we had some way too see exactly what was being taken out when. We could really fine tune a grow with that information.
@Headhunterpipes showed me this unit a few months back... its like a growers dream come true, except for that price tag, that is. and meanwhile, rich dudes are buying deep freezers and turning them into ice baths; seriously, don't they own a tub!? smh
Its not as useful as it appears The number of elements this unit can measure and the ppm range it can measure over is very limited. The unit costs $700 but you will need to buy reagents for each element. As an example, the potassium reagent for 100 tests costs around $150. For some tests, you`ll need to dilute the sample with distilled water to get it inside the units measure range.
ok I'm not buying that thing anyways, I got other things to get. I can just look at the plant and say 'ok time to change the res. ugh I forgot to plug in the pump for 1/2 the day ffs.
For those that are watching and planning such a system, I should mention that I ordered a piece to help with the root issue... maybe. I was lucky to have spent the extra $5 on proper bulkheads; the bulkheads fasten by threading on the outside, but also have 3/4" thread inside/through the piping. After lengthy discussions with Chief (thank you @ChiefRunningPhist), I found these male threaded vent caps that should screw right in. The shipping price sucks, but as you can see a couple messages back, I did bite the bullet and ordered two of them. This is a cut away view so we can see how its made. The bottom can screw in and the water will need to rise up underneath the cap to to get to the holes. There is also a screen in there, but I may bust that out when I get it... maybe not.