Hydroponics

[morbious]

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post this question…

I am constructing 3 tanks, that will be used for hydroponics, that are 16 feet long, 1 foot wide and 2 feet deep. I will be installing 6 jets in each tank, 1 at each end and 4 distributed evenly along the long axis of the tank. I will have a separate "reservoir" tank, approx. 2 foot square by 3 feet high at one end of the middle tank, centered between the 3 tanks, so this reservoir tank will be inline with the center tank and about 1 foot away. The pump will draw water from this reservoir tank. Also, all three main tanks and the reservoir tank are connected together. Pump head will only be 1 foot or so. The 3 tanks will sit side by side, about 4 feet apart. I want to use 1 pump to power all 18 jets and use venturis to provide air to the water.

I plan on having one main manifold running perpendicular to the tank ends, three, sixteen foot branches coming off the main manifold and six jets coming off of each sixteen foot sub branch.

I am trying to determine what size pump would work for this configuration and what the pipe diameters should be for the manifolds.

Thanks

 

[Modd]

I assume you are trying to grow sweet red bell pepper which is just ripened green bell pepper. What is it that you are trying to accomplish?

 

[morbious]

I am trying to determine what size pump and piping would be required to run all 18 nozzles efficiently and to provide maximum aeration to the water, given the specs listed in my original question.

 

[mas985]

It will depend on the type of jet. How much flow rate (GPM) does each jet require and what is the pressure loss across the jet?

To find the required operating point of the pump, you need to the sum the flow rate of each jet and then covert the pressure of a single jet into head.

So for example, if each jet requires 1 GPM @ 10 PSI, then the operating point is:

18 GPM @ 24' of head (10 * 2.31 + 1).

 

[jblizzle]

Would there potentially be a benefit to "looping" the nozzles by adding a manifold on the left of the picture? Or would that only matter if the pipes were pretty undersized to equalize the pressure to all the nozzles?

 

[morbious]

Thanks mas 985, i'm getting more information.

JB, I believe if I ran the jets in serial, one after another, a loop would be effective in equalizing pressure, however off of each 16 foot manifold, I am stubbing 12 inch length of pipe to each jet. The intent is to pressurize the 16 footer first and then feed each nozzle with its own length of pipe, although I think pressure would always be greater at the nearest jets. I could then fine tune the pressure with the jets own nozzle

 

[jblizzle]

I did not mean all in serial ... I meant just connecting the left end of the your 3 runs together so you are better able to equalize the pressure to all nozzles.

But, Mark will be able to quickly respond if that is worth it or not.