Best methods for keeping roots out of recirc pipes???

[spoonofinsanity]

As per the title trying to think of a number of ways of keeping roots out of the recirc pipes in a hydro system.
My last hydro grow had real problems with roots blocking the recirc pipes and one time roots almost made their way back to the main res.

The problem with this was it slowed the flow of water round the system and i started getting pythium in the roots stuck in the piping which spread back to my farms.

For my next run i'm going to include some air stones underneath the pipe outlets to try and move the roots away from the pipes but would like to develop a few other methods aswell.

My other thought was to see if i could find some copper mesh to cap the ends of the pipes and discourage roots entering the pipes.

any thoughts welcomed cheers spoons

[Mr Pothead]

I would say rip up a pair of the mrs tights and wrap them over the tubes, air stones will only encourage the rootball to grow there so if your using them I would put them away from the tubes

[Icon]

No dont rip the tights it wont work

The fact is you cant stop the roots growing through there because the flow is so strong and the roots will grow through anything that will let water flow through

I have had some serious flow rates running and all I do is make sure that once every week or so I can gently pull the roots back through.
Once the roots are established in the bucket they naturally sit there and dont flow down the pipes as much.

Its very simple tbh and never causes me an issue and most of the time I only need to do it 2 times maybe three at a push.

Much better then using these other ideas that will end up in you damaging the roots when you try to pull them through.

ATB
Icon

But nothing wrong with ripping the misses tights off though

[spoonofinsanity]

cheers guys icon your idea was what i did for the start of my last grow but once i dropped the screen into the grow getting into the res's on the farms was incredibly difficult.

If i rock out another farm grow i might just try and run the one farm with no screen so i can still get the top off to disentangle.

Ph1 i'd thought abotut tights or something but thought i'd just end up with it all blocking up and having a massive overflow situation hopefully the airstones would prevent pythium from lack of air in the res but its prob just wishful thinking

[G_UNIT]

the easiest way to stop it is using deeper tubs and twin returns . i havent had one root blocking issue due to combining both of the methods i have mentioned

[BioShock]

i use a two chanel system now, i have 5000L/h flow for lots of airation but about 60% just goes around the pump/res and 40% goes to the pots... the reduced flow is now not sucking the roots into the pipes but i still have ample/loads of flow to mix nuted and handle the DO

[spoonofinsanity]

Think if i run another twin farm setup i will add more return lines last time i had one line from each farm back to the res and one linking the two farms if i had both going two line going back to the res and a link might have had less trouble thanks to everyone for their help

[Icon]

I always build a system that has easy access to the tubes so its never an issue but if you are looking at lots of water movement then its a problem that you have to accept as such.

Any way theres enough options to have a try there at least.

Deeper tubs is ok if you have the height of course but like I say its not much of an issue when its setup right
Another reason I have these access parts is to check Ph/EC in each tub because that is quite handy to monitor

ATB
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[G_UNIT]

i wouldn't worry about running both returns back to the main res mate , the thing with having to return outlets is that because the current is being pulled in 2 different directions the roots are less inclined to grow in one direction . in th epic below you can see how i plumbed mine .



tbh though mate the height of the tubs is just as important . roots float and because my tubs are good an tall the roots tend to occupy just the top half of the tubs .

I have a 3500lt/hr pump recirculation just under 150litres in my system and it causes me no issues at all

[spoonofinsanity]

thanks g unit thats what i was thinking of doing in a one farm system because i already have the two outputs on the farms from my last attempt.

thanks icon defo got some stuff to think on