First Time.

[GrumpAzz]

Are these the quiet air pumps I was suggested at some point?

 

[Anthem275]

Are these the quiet air pumps I was suggested at some point?
View attachment 20271

You might want to send a P M to @steamroller. He has a vast knowledge of air pumps

 

[GrumpAzz]

You might want to send a P M to @steamroller. He has a vast knowledge of air pumps

Someone suggested air pumps somewhere in my thread but it's been tough digging through it all . It was probably him. I just had a lot of questions and a lot of "proud dad" moments so this ended up with 50+ pages.

 

[moe.red]

yeah the diaphragm pumps are what you want for heat and noise minimization.

 

[GrumpAzz]

yeah the diaphragm pumps are what you want for heat and noise minimization.

Sweet. I'm working on a cart with all the new stuff for the next round. Smaller net pots, spare pumps, more fulvic... stuff like that.

I'm still on the fence, but I'd like another guardian moniter for my top off rez, too.

 

[GrumpAzz]

@Moe.Red is it common for my bottle of Orca to start growing a culture on the surface? Or should that be replaced as well? I've been using it either way, but a couple changes ago, I notice a surface culture and quite the smell from the bottle.

 

[ninjadip]

Are these the quiet air pumps I was suggested at some point?
View attachment 20271

This is my exact one

 

[midwestcannaman]

Are these the quiet air pumps I was suggested at some point?
View attachment 20271

Do yourself a HUGE favor if you plan on staying in hydro and expanding ever. Go buy an alita air pump. I'm not shitting you I wish I would've just spent the money right the first time. I mustve gone thru atleast ten smaller air pumps and finally bought one. Now I'll never buy anything else. Really powerful and can't hear mine over the wall fan and dehumidifier. I was recommended by so a few different og hydro guys and have no regrets at all! I got the al15 and love it.

 

[ninjadip]

Do yourself a HUGE favor if you plan on staying in hydro and expanding ever. Go buy an alita air pump. I'm not shitting you I wish I would've just spent the money right the first time. I mustve gone thru atleast ten smaller air pumps and finally bought one. Now I'll never buy anything else. Really powerful and can't hear mine over the wall fan and dehumidifier. I was recommended by so a few different og hydro guys and have no regrets at all!

Yes, that is the brand I have been told to try as well. Have to remember this down the road if mine ever craps out

 

[midwestcannaman]

Yes, that is the brand I have been told to try as well. Have to remember this down the road if mine ever craps out

Bad ass pumps man!

 

[smoke]

Go buy an alita air pump

I have 3 of the alita air pumps oldest is 12 yrs old.

They would be my first recommendation and i know @steamroller will say the same

 

[moe.red]

@Moe.Red is it common for my bottle of Orca to start growing a culture on the surface? Or should that be replaced as well? I've been using it either way, but a couple changes ago, I notice a surface culture and quite the smell from the bottle.

No, not right. The bacteria in Orca has been made dormant via stress and is now called a spore. They come back to life when you put them in your res as the water matches it's preferred growth zone and nutes and O2 are available to them.

What is in the bottle should be non-active.

If you have an active growth at the bottle, I suspect it has been contaminated.

 

[GrumpAzz]

Yes, that is the brand I have been told to try as well. Have to remember this down the road if mine ever craps out

Bad ass pumps man!

I have 3 of the alita air pumps oldest is 12 yrs old.

They would be my first recommendation and i know @steamroller will say the same

Thanks guys. I have an ActiveAqua chiller and figured the air pump would be of a decent quality. I'll look into these. I'm sure that's what @steamroller probably recommended in here somewhere.

 

[GrumpAzz]

No, not right. The bacteria in Orca has been made dormant via stress and is now called a spore. They come back to life when you put them in your res as the water matches it's preferred growth zone and nutes and O2 are available to them.

What is in the bottle should be non-active.

If you have an active growth at the bottle, I suspect it has been contaminated.

Gotcha. I use the same meat injector for all my nutrients so I must not be cleaning it well enough between fertilizers and the orca. It's pretty stinky in there. I'll grab another bottle of that too.

 

[moe.red]

Gotcha. I use the same meat injector for all my nutrients so I must not be cleaning it well enough between fertilizers and the orca. It's pretty stinky in there. I'll grab another bottle of that too.

I dump from the bottle into a glass beaker, then from there into the res.

Keep the cap on and nothing touches what is inside is best practice for all your various bottles of stuff, but especially with live cultures.

 

[GrumpAzz]

I dump from the bottle into a glass beaker, then from there into the res.

Keep the cap on and nothing touches what is inside is best practice for all your various bottles of stuff, but especially with live cultures.

A beaker set and some graduated cylinders is that list as well.

 

[Rootsruler]

Alita is the way to go. The AA will do the job but will be noisier and may not last as long. I have the 2 port version.

 

[ninjadip]

I dump from the bottle into a glass beaker, then from there into the res.

Keep the cap on and nothing touches what is inside is best practice for all your various bottles of stuff, but especially with live cultures.

Good advice, I use medicine cups to measure mL. I should get some glass beakers just for the cool look lol

 

[Rootsruler]

I use plastic pipettes to meter out my liquid nutes.

Been thinking of graduating to one of these...

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

 

[GrumpAzz]

I use plastic pipettes to meter out my liquid nutes.

Been thinking of graduating to one of these...

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

I've been using a 30 ml meat injector and it works great aside from contaminating my bottle of Orca. I just been up a few loads of RO after each use to rinse it but that must not do a good enough job because there's now a colony of crap growing on the surface of the liquid.

The pistol-grip injectors are pretty sweet.

 

[Rootsruler]

Your meat injector must have been wet still when you used it.

 

[midwestcannaman]

Your meat injector must have been wet still when you used it.

That's why I like the pipettes. Just toss them cuz they come in bags a a few hundred. I use the 5ml and 10ml ones.

 

[tobh]

best practice when working with any bottled liquids is to pour them into another container and extract what you need from that. it prevents [cross] contamination of the source you'll be relying on for extended periods of time. kind of the same reason a line cook is supposed wash their hands after handling raw meat and before touching anything else. also why they'll use multiple different utensils, one for each thing, simply to minimize the risk of getting mac n cheese in your cole slaw.

 

[GrumpAzz]

My temps were fine until about 30 minutes ago. How do I go in and check on my exhaust fan while the lights are off? By feel? I cranked my inline intake to max for now and it's definitely sucking air, but I don't hear anything outside by my exhaust. I could crawl under the deck but the cat likes to shit under there...

You think the sock over the carbon filter is gummed up with sticky from the buds?

 

[tobh]

My temps were fine until about 30 minutes ago. How do I go in and check on my exhaust fan while the lights are off? By feel? I cranked my inline intake to max for now and it's definitely sucking air, but I don't hear anything outside by my exhaust. I could crawl under the deck but the cat likes to shit under there...

You think the sock over the carbon filter is gummed up with sticky from the buds?

is the fan inside the tent? or outside? any way for you to disconnect the ducting from the fan without having to go roll around in poo?

 

[GrumpAzz]

is the fan inside the tent? or outside? any way for you to disconnect the ducting from the fan without having to go roll around in poo?

The fan and filter are both in the tent and it ducts straight through the floor out of reach in my tiny room.

Thankfully I think I figured it out...
The little UIS plug from AC Infinty must've shorted out internally.

I went in blind and could feel the heater working. Checked my controller... that port is "off." I unplugged the control wire from the controller for that port, went back in the tent, still running. I just shut the heater off manually. What the hell? Those things only last through one grow cycle? The one running my humidifier hasn't messed up but apparently the added amperage of the heater was too much for it. Aren't they rated for 15 amps?

Thankfully I have a spare UIS plug but how long til that one shits out? I mean... it does run quite a bit while the lights are off, but damn. It's so easy to just keep the AC in the lung room running low cool all day. It stays in the mid 60's there. I don't wanna rely on the dial on the heater. I'll investigate a little closer when the lights come on in an hour and a half.

So close to finish line too... yeesh.
Thanks for the speedy reply, @tobh

 

[GoodShit97]

The fan and filter are both in the tent and it ducts straight through the floor out of reach in my tiny room.

Thankfully I think I figured it out...
The little UIS plug from AC Infinty must've shorted out internally.

I went in blind and could feel the heater working. Checked my controller... that port is "off." I unplugged the control wire from the controller for that port, went back in the tent, still running. I just shut the heater off manually. What the hell? Those things only last through one grow cycle? The one running my humidifier hasn't messed up but apparently the added amperage of the heater was too much for it. Aren't they rated for 15 amps?

Thankfully I have a spare UIS plug but how long til that one shits out? I mean... it does run quite a bit while the lights are off, but damn. It's so easy to just keep the AC in the lung room running low cool all day. It stays in the mid 60's there. I don't wanna rely on the dial on the heater. I'll investigate a little closer when the lights come on in an hour and a half.

So close to finish line too... yeesh.
Thanks for the speedy reply, @tobh

Yep, a heater running this time of year would do that to you. Good thing you caught it man.

As for thw uis plugs i dunno man. I dont have any of them here.

 

[GrumpAzz]

Yep, a heater running this time of year would do that to you. Good thing you caught it man.

As for thw uis plugs i dunno man. I dont have any of them here.

It was 73 in the tent at the time and the heater was keeping it from dropping with the 65ish degree air coming in so maybe the internals of that plug couldn't handle it or something. It's been working fine for 3 months or so...

Maybe with the backup plug I'll run the heater on it's lowest setting. There's a High Medium and Low setting on the Vornado itself. Maybe this next time around, the lower amperage from the Low setting will prevent the issue from happening again.

 

[tobh]

man that's sketchy. plugs melting/failing is some scary shit, and a reason we all should have some kind of fire suppression near or in our grow areas. glad you caught it before it became more than an inconvenience!

 

[steamroller]

Alita all the way. Best quietest pumps going. No one will ever be mad for following this advice.
Active aqua are good chiller as far as I know.
Think I have one??