Hydro problem

I'm currently using 3 buckets of a 5 bucket system. I've ran into a baffling problem that you guys have probably seen before. On a number of occasions my buckets fill to the point that the water pump has nothing left to pump.

So the nutes are pumped in at the top of the bucket. Each bucket has two nozzles: one sprays nutes up to splash off the bottom of the net pot, a second nozzle has a small hose attached and it pumps water up to the top of the net pot.

The drains are down at the bottom of the buckets and the nutes should return to the reservoir as soon as they're sprayed. That don't always happen. For some reason the nutes get backed up. There's no clogs, there's no kinks in the hose and therefore no logical reason that the nutes should not return to the reservoir.

I'd appreciate any help here. Thanks.

Looks like your drain line runs along the table for some time before running vertical down to the holding tank. I'd suggest running the drain lines to where they all are running at a downwards angle so your draining has more to do with gravity than relying on the pressure of the water itself to push itself through the hoses. Not sure if this is the problem, but its worth a shot!

sounds like its air locked some how need some kinda trap not shure

dwel said:

sounds like its air locked some how need some kinda trap not shure

Click to expand...

I was thinking that it could be an air bubble in the line. It seems that when it's locked up like that all I have to do is move the drain hose a little and it starts flowing again....So, how to prevent an airlock?

enigma94 said:

Looks like your drain line runs along the table for some time before running vertical down to the holding tank. I'd suggest running the drain lines to where they all are running at a downwards angle so your draining has more to do with gravity than relying on the pressure of the water itself to push itself through the hoses. Not sure if this is the problem, but its worth a shot!

Click to expand...

The buckets are horizontally connected and share a single drain hose. As for the drain hose, I changed it so that it's all downhill now. Thanks.

need a vent somewhere like a pee trap loop hose like that still dont work might need a vent on right side of trap like a teehope this helps


pic

http://www.career-resumes.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/pee_trap.png

http://www.ashireporter.org/photos/thumbnails/2009_04/Hand-Cap-Cut.jpg


see how this has a vent keep flow ;]

Thanks guys...one of these is sure to help.

hey man, you might want to angle your drain lines a little differnetly. they look like they're really being stressed for pumping

There it is with the new vent. Now the water is flowing very evenly and there's no alternating chugs of water and air. Thanks again for the help.

I still don't see how an air bubble can hold back 8 gallons of water, but it is fixed.

I just went in to check and the buckets are still holding water even with an air escape hose. I think the problem will fix itself when I add more buckets next week for my vegetables. I think the problem is that the water pump delivers nutes faster than they can drain back. The nutes are still flowing back into the reservoir nice and smoothly. When I add more buckets I'll just add a couple more drain lines as well.

Thanks again for all the help. You all got repped.