Quote Originally Posted by Gen
Skunky, that's where the lava rocks come in. They take care of of the algae. Put a few rocks in your reservoir for the good bacteria to live in. I grow outside and don't light proof my boxes. I haven't had any algae.
Gen, yeah, it was beyond the point of fixing by the time I realized what had happened. It's because the pump in the res. runs hot, so it's perfect conditions with just a minimal amount of light. There are two approaches as I see or a combination of the two. The only problem with using Lava Rocks for good bacteria is that when you change the system out, you will lose a lot of these bacterial colonies. The best solution, imho, when growing indoors, is to lightproof everything and keep the res temps in the adequate range. But, the bottom line is, algea CAN'T grow without light, so make that your first priority.

I've been dreaming lately about the pump issue as well and regardless of whether my res it lightproof totally now or not, I want that big pump out of there. So, I have come up with a new recirc system, with a new infamous way to auto-top your control res with just a pump. Everything I have planned about this system makes its better and more efficient than the last.

Here's how it goes:
I have reduced the # of buckets in the system to 4. I have covered each bucket with aluminum foil, head to toe and all are bitch black under a 1000 watt hps. I have also made a new 10gal control res (sterilite, dark grey) and drilled 4 1/2" holes, one for each bucket in the system. Last time, I only had one hole, where all the buckets drained too...this will make the system drain 4 times faster while doing res. changes and keep the nute mix a lot more stable throughout the entire system. I Also made 3 holes above the the waterline and 1 WHERE YOU WANT THE WATERLINE in the control res. 3 up top, one for the incoming auto-topper res water (waterfall action), one for the outgoing pump feeding the system and one for the pump wire to the wall. The hole at the waterline will feed down a tube to another "catch" res, if you will, that then in turn pumps that water back up to the auto-topping res, which sits ontop of the "catcher" res, which sits right beside the control res on the floor. [SEE DIAGRAM PIC] - This is my new, auto-topping system which keeps the waterlevel exactly where you want it for up to 2 weeks, depending on the size of the AT res and CATCH res. (however, they should be the same size as if the top did flood to the bottom, the catcher res could hold plenty so it wouldn't overflow.) I light proofed every res with aluminum foil. Now, this new setup requires two pumps. A smaller gph pump for the control res, like say 100 for a 4 bucket system. Then you want a larger pump for the catch res as it will need to pump the same amount of water up back up to the AT res as the AT res is losing to the control res. Just a matter of simple math. It's kinda like a double recirc. system which in turn will circulate new nutes to the system ALL the time! Also, each bucket has a 60gal airpump min. now, which also deters fungus, algea and disease....Whereas if you have enough air in the water, they simply can not grow, another key principle.

I'm stoked to have come up with this system all on my own. If their are any questions you have, feel free to ask. I will probably do a thread on the auto-topping system alone as I think it is a easy, cheap alternative to things like toilet floats and drip drivin ideas as all you need is a pump from the pet store.