I have two small tents both set up with DWC and they are as noisy as hell. I'm sure my neighbours can hear it and I will shortly have to turn on my 600w HPS with 5" fan cooling the hood, and a couple of air pumps too. I have a number of 10LPM air pumps in DWC, a few circulation fans, 3 exhaust fans, and a few LEDs that have very noisy fans. I really need to do something about the noise. I'm planning to give up DWC because the aeration pumps are making most of the noise. I know I'll always need to aerate the nutrient solution but if the roots aren't in the water I guess I'll be able to get away with less air. Any suggestions?
I am running two tents a (2)4" intake, 8" outtake and 4 circulating fans. I threw up some sound buffering insulation(Lowes), and keep music going 24/7, classical and jazz, just loud enough that it would throw someone off if they came close enough to hear the fans if there was no music. Seems to work for me. 1stsfdoc Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
Lol I knew someone would say it, it is a logical conclusion based on the information I have put forward, but soil isn't for me, it's way too much work I have a 2" thick sheet of polystyrene under the reservoirs to help with vibration, and I guess this must help to a degree. I don't mind the noise if I have a visitor as I can shut everything off and have the 2 exhaust fans on low. It's quiet enough for visitors then. I have neighbours underneath me, their bedroom is under my grow room so I'm sure they can hear the noise late at night. If I played music loud enough to drown out the fans and pumps I would think they would complain about it. They have young kids so probably wouldn't be happy with even more noise.
I have changed my lights on time from the night to the day so at least the loudest part is in the daytime now and less noticeable. I hope my temperatures don't get too high, I think they will be ok. I think I have settled on Flood & Drain now, unless I get a better suggestion. I'm hoping that I can use a very small air pump just to stop the water from becoming stagnant and the drying of the clay balls will provide enough air to stop the roots rotting. I have had struggles in the past with flood and drain when trying to get the timings right. I'm planning on very long flood intervals to maximise aeration of the roots
Hempy buckets has the same problems for me as growing in soil. You become a slave to it as far as watering goes. Having to water when the medium demands it just isn't suitable for me. It has to be some sort of automated watering with a reservoir that I can simply top up any day I please
I was going to suggest a top feed or drip system on coco pots ... I like you love my dwc growth rates but it's noisy and can be lots of work
I like the idea of top feed but I'd use clay balls and circulate it instead of coco as it is a lot more airy for the roots. I love DWC. I just wish I lived in a little house on its own in the country so I didn't have to worry about noise.
We just got a 36% electric bill increase ... so I'm thinking of ways to save energy without scaling back lighting ... I'm running close to 500w just in air pumps 24-7
Bloody hell that's a lot of electricity on air. What's the litre per minute on that? What's your set up? Lights, reservoirs, that sort of thing?
I have been in one of my tents switching things on and off. The air pumps are certainly contributing to the noise a fair bit, but the LEDs are probably taking the lead on the noise factor. they are on 12/12. They were on at night and off in the day to counteract the temperature. I always do it this way. But now I have them on in the day, and switching off at 10 at night, so at least the noise level will drop at night, and the noisest part is in the daytime where it will be drowned out to some degree by the ambient noise level from traffic and kids screaming and such. I may set one of the air pumps on the same timer so it lowers the noise even further in the night time. Although I would be worried that this may bring new problems as I am not aerating my reservoir to a satisfactory level already
http://hydrobuilder.com/commercial-air-pump-12-outlets-110-lt-per-minute.html?dzid=csegps_AAPA110L&gclid=CjwKEAiA3vamBRDJ1Lfwt5Pckw4SJAAdhnk2ca3sPdkUYTZOJUqNUBX116HmGvdmyFnZLCe-UXT8oxoCgEHw_wcB I gut 4 of these going ... 4x8 flower room 2000w dwc 5x5 veg 400w and 2 kessil can led in as well Usually flower 6-8 plants at a time ... veg I like to have 8-10
You don't need an air pump with flood and drain. Let me first start by saying; every thing that can be done wrong or less efficiently with E&F, I've done it. Been there done that, and I could show some pictures of fucked up plants to prove it. I have also found a lot of things that work well with E&F, and that's what I have stuck with. The first thing I did for the best improvement is stop using rockwool in a flood table. It's well suited for NFT, but counterproductive to E&F in my experience. I use only clay pellets as a medium. I stopped using an air pump early on. It really has no purpose in E&F. The pump should be big enough to fill the table quickly, and you should have an aerator on the inlet to keep the stream from shooting up toward the ceiling (the pump should be that strong). Once the aerator is under water it doesn't aerate anymore, but once the water starts falling down the overflow tube it aerates like a mother fucker (people don't realize how well falling water aerates). You need 1" for the fill/drain and overflow. Anything smaller is too small. The table needs to be slightly lower at the fill/drain end so it can drain properly. The table must be a proper E&F table with drainage channels and the fill/drain at the lowest point in the table. "I have had struggles in the past with flood and drain when trying to get the timings right. I'm planning on very long flood intervals to maximise aeration of the roots" Longer times between in between floods is the opposite of what you need for better aeration in my experience. More frequent floods (not longer than 15 minutes flooding) give more aeration in my experience, and I've dealt with some pretty high res temps. Each flood/drain cycle (and make sure drainage is fast and complete) adds more oxygen to the water.
The absolute quietest circulating/automated hydro system by far is NFT. It's more work to set up, higher maintenance and more mess to deal with each change out, but it is absolutely silent if set up properly. E&F has a slight gurgling noise during floods (if it's set up properly, that's the aeration taking place), but it's not as loud as DWC systems.
I find the loudest parts of DWC are big inline fans and possibly air pumps. Air Pumps- Tetra has a line of aquarium air pumps called whisper, one decent air pump will work for at least 4-5 buckets and is very very quiet. Also as the previous post said, if your recirculating the water properly, air pumps are not essential, but if you do want them, i would recommend the tetra whisper(can find on e-bay, amazon or possible local pet shops). If your inline fans are causing lots of noise, I've used a silencer in the past, similar technology to mufflers or gun silencers, they usually run $20-$100 or 10-60GBP each and they reduce noise significantly(I purchased one from E-bay). Hope this helps, Good Luck.
It would be drip irrigation then and that is an option but I would much prefer to use clay balls because it allows more air to the roots. I'm tempted to do this