Ventilation Question - help and ideas please :)

[Mañ'O'Green]

I have not seen the humidifier but it has plenty of volume and says it is made for a grow tent. Be sure to run distilled water otherwise you will end up with calcium deposits all over your tent including on the plants. The Inkbird is a good controller.

 

[Dory]

I have not seen the humidifier but it has plenty of volume and says it is made for a grow tent. Be sure to run distilled water otherwise you will end up with calcium deposits all over your tent including on the plants. The Inkbird is a good controller.

yeh... good point I was wondering about that... saw a vid about it and the man said the same..... where can I get distilled water in the quantities I'd need... that could be an issue. I have a tap in the room.... it would be a real problem trying to get water into the space. Think I need tp do more reading to see what other option there may be. I think the smaller units have filters in them?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

yeh... good point I was wondering about that... saw a vid about it and the man said the same..... where can I get distilled water in the quantities I'd need... that could be an issue. I have a tap in the room.... it would be a real problem trying to get water into the space. Think I need tp do more reading to see what other option there may be. I think the smaller units have filters in them?

I buy distilled water at the grocery store for $.80 a gallon and it takes about 20 to 30 gallons to get the plants big enough to bring the humidity up on their own.

What is the starting PPM of your tap water. Maybe you can mix them so you don't get too much calcium?

 

[Dory]

I buy distilled water at the grocery store for $.80 a gallon and it takes about 20 to 30 gallons to get the plants big enough to bring the humidity up on their own.

What is the starting PPM of your tap water. Maybe you can mix them so you don't get too much calcium?

I wouldn't be able to lift that up to the room.....I have a chronic pain condition, hence using for meds. It really would be impossible, partner not always around to help lifting and filling it up etc. He is a plumber/electrician though so I am wondering if we could fit a reverse osmosis filter system to the water supply? I am not sure on the PPM .... we have a water softner and the lime scale is very soft, high calcium content. When he gets home will see what he thinks too.... having done a bit of research there are systems ranging from £50 to 2K to filter and reverse osmosis. I just went to the product page, the manufacturer states 'use reverse osmosis water'.... doesn't say anything about distilled but am guessing the process does the same thing.... removing the 'nasties' out of the supply?

 

[Simplicio]

I've bought over a dozen different brands and types of humidifiers.
My experience is that the forced air types don't do well.

Ultrasonic humidifiers are by far the best, but RO or distilled must be used to avoid white dust, which is water impurities.
Top fill is essential so that water can be poured in without removing the tank.
Ultrasonic humidifiers can appear to have limited lifetimes, but when they stop working, shaking out all the water and letting them dry out usually revives them.
I need to do this every few months with almost every one I own.

After a lot of experimenting, I now blow fog from top-fill ultrasonic humidifiers into tents thru upper tent port holes.
Supporting a humidifier can be done using wire shelving units or plant hangers.
A dedicated fan inside the tent is needed to disperse the fog droplets.
Because they are droplets, and if the fog is blown in from outside the tent, evaporation will also lower tent air temperatures a few degrees F.
Either a fitting attached to the humidifier to direct the fog, or a fan behind the humidifier might be needed to get the fog into the tent.

 

[Dory]

Hi Simplico, thanks for your reply. I was looking at an ultrasonic humidifier earlier today, which has a sensor on it, it was about £80 and seemed to have good reviews. This would certainly be a cheaper solution for the veg stage. I am intaking from outside so RH is affected by weather outdoors too. I don't have a tent though. I have a room with solid walls.... but I could place the unit outside of the room and position the spout into the room. I saw a 4 litre tank that had a hose attached on it for directing the vapour into a reptile tank, something like that might work? This could be stood on the floor outside the room and the hose would come through a hole in the wall, it is plasterboard. Where would you suggest the fan sit? In front of the flow? I have a few fans I can use. I was using a 5litre Honeywell but cant get the filters here so have sent it back.... when I was running that I had RH of 58 consistently, that was positioned on a small stool among the plants. I am only growing 4-6 plants at most and dont want overkill. The rhino is fairly powerful but I chose that to minimise odor. I am going to have to decide what to do soon .... the towels are helping but cant get above 45% atm.

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Thanks again for your input.... I have the will, there has to be a way

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I wouldn't be able to lift that up to the room.....I have a chronic pain condition, hence using for meds. It really would be impossible, partner not always around to help lifting and filling it up etc. He is a plumber/electrician though so I am wondering if we could fit a reverse osmosis filter system to the water supply? I am not sure on the PPM .... we have a water softner and the lime scale is very soft, high calcium content. When he gets home will see what he thinks too.... having done a bit of research there are systems ranging from £50 to 2K to filter and reverse osmosis. I just went to the product page, the manufacturer states 'use reverse osmosis water'.... doesn't say anything about distilled but am guessing the process does the same thing.... removing the 'nasties' out of the supply?

STOP! you should not try to grow with water directly from a water softener system. The salt levels will kill your plants. Yes an RO system will eliminate the problems but if you run RO after your softener you will burn through membranes!

@Simplicio I have this humidifier and it is far superior to any sonic humidifier I have used in the past. I has a built in humidistat the keeps the tent at a set RH.

You can see were it ran out of water! I got stoned and forgot to add water .

 

[Dory]

STOP! you should not try to grow with water directly from a water softener system. The salt levels will kill your plants. Yes an RO system will eliminate the problems but if you run RO after your softener you will burn through membranes!

@Simplicio I have this humidifier and it is far superior to any sonic humidifier I have used in the past. I has a built in humidistat the keeps the tent at a set RH.

You can see were it ran out of water! I got stoned and forgot to add water .

View attachment 1193332

Its a shame they don't ship to my location. This would be ideal for me I think. Do you run yours inside the room?

I should confirm it is a 'bioflow' magnet that is attached to the pipe work, not a water softner. The magnet magnetises the water to stop hard limescale buildup. It makes house cleaning a lot easier. I always call it a water softner. I don't think the magnet affects the salt levels. This is what it is, I have had it for about 20 years.

Magnetic Water Conditioner �49.95 Magnetic Hard Water Treatment.

 

[Diamond Dog Hair]

If you do buy and Inkbird humidity controller, make sure your what you plug into it is an analog type humidifier and de-humidifier. Which means it has a physical on/off switch or dial, because the controller will just power up the units when needed. A digital unit normally doesn't come on until you tell it to when plugged in.

 

[Dory]

If you do buy and Inkbird humidity controller, make sure your what you plug into it is an analog type humidifier and de-humidifier. Which means it has a physical on/off switch or dial, because the controller will just power up the units when needed. A digital unit normally doesn't come on until you tell it to when plugged in.

That makes sense thanks.