How to recirculate a 4 bucket waterfarm system with a res and controller?

I was told the feed hose should be a smaller diameter than the drain hose.

1/2" flexible tubing connected to the bottom of each bucket for draining. Already in place.

The stand alone res of the waterfarm has a 1/2" hole at the bottom. I am going to put a water pump inside to push the water out. Then use a diameter changing adapter on the outside and either flexible 1/4" or 3/8" for a feed tube. I'm going to drill a hole 2/3 of the way up on each lower bucket for the feed line. Not done yet.

The 8 gallon res is ~12" in height, the seperate 13 gallon controller which goes on top of the res is ~18" in height. (the float in the res will not be needed)
How can I get the water to get back up into the 2 1/2 foot high controller? I can't see the water pump being strong enough to push water through the feed lines into the 4 buckets and then somehow having enough pressure to force the water through the drain lines up 2 1/2 feet.

The easy way is to use just the 13 gallon container as the main res, raise the 4 waterfarms to 2 feet in height and let gravity drain it. I'd rather have the 21 gallons though. Do I need the 21 gallons or is 13 enough?

you have to add pump into drain rez, and pump solution up to main rez...you need a some type of floatswitch to make it all work.

You can use your resivour as your controller and just keep it level w/ the buckets,just do as latewood said and use a pump to empty out the system. You can also switch the feed pump(at nute change time) to your empty out drain line

BTW. Shut off valves are lifesavers in the long run. I would run one at the begining of the drain line and one at the end of your empty out drain line.

multi-flow

controller

and, that was great extra tips there Snoop...The cut-off valves and even a 1 into 2 switchvalve would be good to route fluid to either main rez, or to waste by installing switchvalve...cool

I went the easy way out and elevated the waterfarms 2 feet. The drain on the waterfarm is about 1 inch from the bottom of the bucket so it did not have much fluid in the bucket.
On the inside of the bucket I connected an elbow with ~4 inches of hose to the drain plug. Now each bucket holds about 4-5 inches of fluid.

I put another plastic tube into the waterfarm exactly like the current one. From the main res, water flows from a water pump through a 1/4" hose which is threaded through this plastic pipe. A seperate airline with an air stone attached to it is also threaded through the same tube.

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Originally Posted by PigSnout

I went the easy way out and elevated the waterfarms 2 feet. The drain on the waterfarm is about 1 inch from the bottom of the bucket so it did not have much fluid in the bucket.
On the inside of the bucket I connected an elbow with ~4 inches of hose to the drain plug. Now each bucket holds about 4-5 inches of fluid.

I put another plastic tube into the waterfarm exactly like the current one. From the main res, water flows from a water pump through a 1/4" hose which is threaded through this plastic pipe. A seperate airline with an air stone attached to it is also threaded through the same tube.

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Sounds great! :thumbsup:

Would love to see a pic :o

I have done this in a little different manor,It worked well but not the best.I will draw a diagram, because im not at this time running the system.I am thinking of firing the system back up tho,and elaborating on the recirc. part.

The room is real tight so it's tuff to get a picture. Here is a drawing of it.