For All Cap Ebb and Grow Users

[Osburn]

I just got my monster system up and running and I like it alot except for one problem. The drain pump spends like a half hour at the end of cycle getting two glasses of water out of the brain bucket. Anything I can add to the float valve to quit abusing the drain pump? I was thinking of some rubber grommets or o-rings...

 

[tommyo3000]

Is your pump sideways in your controller bucket?
That helps..
In my home made system, I take the endcap and sponge off my pump and mount the suctin cups on the side of the bucket with the "sucky end" of the pump right on the bottom of the buckets.. pulls almost every bit out..

 

[i81two]

Put a couple shims under the front of the controller bucket so it is a little out of leval.

 

[hellraizer30]

I just got my monster system up and running and I like it alot except for one problem. The drain pump spends like a half hour at the end of cycle getting two glasses of water out of the brain bucket. Anything I can add to the float valve to quit abusing the drain pump? I was thinking of some rubber grommets or o-rings...

the reason the pump does that is when the pump shuts off the water that didnt get pumped out thats in the extraction lne drains back to the command box
and trips the float vavle to turn the pump back on, this will continue and overtime burn your pump up. this is the #1 issue with cap system ive found and is easy
to fix first way to correct it is to get a wrench and rotate the float valve a bit, secound is to take a peace of cardboard and raise the float side of the command
box up, so place the cardboard under the bottom left side to tilt the box and make the left over water move to the right side and not trip the valve switch.
also keeping the command box right next to the res tank will lessen the amount of extraction line and lesson the amount of water that can return to the box.

hope all this makes sense lol

 

[drgreentm]

This morning I was doing my checks and noticed that the command bucket was on the drain cycle as usual but the bucket was still full, so I unplugged the drain pump and plugged it straight into the power outlet to see if the pump crapped out an it kicked on so I plugged it back into the brain and it started working. Hope it's not a big problem.

 

[hellraizer30]

never had that happen before, im shure its the pump so watch it ive had pumps not come on, remember the 30 I lost in the aero
well same shit, later I cleaned the pump and plugged it in and it worked fine. pumps are a nightmare, why im in the process
of converting all my pumps to the little gaint mini pumps there $99 a peace but well worth it.

 

[drgreentm]

My thougts was the pump as well, I have tons of pumps laying around I know there are allot of pumps out there that are meant to come on in short bursts I actually have one that was purchased for a aero cloner that was never used but it's like over 500 gph don't know if that matters

 

[tommyo3000]

My thougts was the pump as well, I have tons of pumps laying around I know there are allot of pumps out there that are meant to come on in short bursts I actually have one that was purchased for a aero cloner that was never used but it's like over 500 gph don't know if that matters

You can use any pump you want.. if you put in a 500 gph, you might drain faster.. What are the stock pumps in the actual CAP ebb and gro? Ebb monster?

 

[hellraizer30]

I think there 300gph pumps

 

[drgreentm]

Yup that's what mine are. At least I have it if I need it. Seems to be working now though.

 

[tommyo3000]

Yup that's what mine are. At least I have it if I need it. Seems to be working now though.

Nice.. You know, I have two of these systems in my flower room.. The first one I built, I bought big pumps for and used 3/4 for all of the connections... The second one, I bought small pumps and used the 1/2" tubing for the pumps BUT 3/4 poly for the bucket plumbing..

I find that the smaller system keeps up with the flow better than the large pump system. This doesn't matter too much in during the filling cycle, but is most noticeable in the drain cycle (on the large pump system). I worry about the drain pump failing prematurely...

I've just started using bleach instead of H2O2 and Hygrozyme.. and OMG. I can't believe I have not used this all along.. Works great, is cheap as hell...just like my hot tub.. anyway..

 

[hellraizer30]

yep plain bleach is awsome, I use it when thing get bad! but for proventive mantenace I use H202.
@ tommy you have some pics to show of your DIY ebb setup?

 

[drgreentm]

Ya the bleach works great Once a batch is done I will run just plain water with a healthy dose of bleach in it for a few days and everything looks like it just came from the store lol I have used it in with the plants as well, just not as strong of course, and it works great too.

 

[tommyo3000]

yep plain bleach is awsome, I use it when thing get bad! but for proventive mantenace I use H202.
@ tommy you have some pics to show of your DIY ebb setup?

I have read that keeping a .5PPM residual is good to keep stuff clean at all times and 2.5PPM chlorine for emergencies.

I have some shitty pics in my journal..

 

[Ferredoxin]

Put a couple shims under the front of the controller bucket so it is a little out of leval.

Gonna do this tonight....thanks! I would rather shim the front than the side with the float because my drain pump is at the back of the brain bucket. Lets see how it does....

 

[Ferredoxin]

the reason the pump does that is when the pump shuts off the water that didnt get pumped out thats in the extraction lne drains back to the command box
and trips the float vavle to turn the pump back on, this will continue and overtime burn your pump up. this is the #1 issue with cap system ive found and is easy
to fix first way to correct it is to get a wrench and rotate the float valve a bit, secound is to take a peace of cardboard and raise the float side of the command
box up, so place the cardboard under the bottom left side to tilt the box and make the left over water move to the right side and not trip the valve switch.
also keeping the command box right next to the res tank will lessen the amount of extraction line and lesson the amount of water that can return to the box.

hope all this makes sense lol

Could you elaborate on the rotation of the float valve? Are you talking about the valve that is already cocked to one side, or the straight up and down one? Which way did you rotate it? Is the purpose to cut the pump off sooner, and leave a little more water in the bottom of the bucket?

 

[hellraizer30]

the purpose is to allow the water that runs back from the hose that goes up to the res to have room to drain back and not trip the switch.
the one to rotate is the one thats at a angle just turn it a bit not much, if the float is slanted to the right turn it counter clock wise, if its
slanted to the left then turn it clockwise. ive got three command boxes and all of then are different.

 

[facestabber]

This morning I was doing my checks and noticed that the command bucket was on the drain cycle as usual but the bucket was still full, so I unplugged the drain pump and plugged it straight into the power outlet to see if the pump crapped out an it kicked on so I plugged it back into the brain and it started working. Hope it's not a big problem.

I've also had this happen. In my case it was caused by manually holding up the drain floats to drain more water from my controller bucket (operator error). I held the floats until the pump sucked air. The next time it was activated to drain it just sat there cavitating until I unplugged it and the air bubbles floated out of the pump allowing it to work again. Its never been a problem when I didnt muck with it.

 

[facestabber]

Update..... 13 days in the E&G. These Chem4 clones are finally starting to go!
Kicked my dimmable lumateks up a notch today to the 750w setting and increased ppm to 800.
Using h2o2 at 2 ml/gallon AND Hydrofungicide at 2ml/gallon. I've had bad problems in the past with root rot so Im not taking any chances.

 

[facestabber]

Update- My 4x8 tent. Alien OG day 22. 60/40 coco/hydroton mix. Flooding once every 3rd day now. 100% "beneficial" free root zone and never been healthier!

On a side note, Im really loving these cool tubes. Tent stays around 80F even with dimmable 1000's set to super bright mode. They run so cool I can actually lay my hand on the glass of the tubes without discomfort. They also increase head room and save a ton of weight from hanging on the flimsy tent frame.