The irrigation pump needed new gaskets and seals after 10 years of use. In order to check repair work needed to devise a test setup which consisted of mounting pump on wood base, wiring pump through a test 220 Vac set up to a portable generator. Water was then pumped out of two 25 gallon rain barrels. In order to keep up with the volume of water being pumped out, a second pump connected to the well was filling the rain barrel. Results of test, no leaks. Pump is now in storage as a backup to replace the one currently being used when it fails.
Water from rain barrel was used to water garden. There was in fact a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
We need to talk about rain barrels. Great blog. Looks very nice.
Hi Bob, more than happy to share information about rain barrels and all that we post. Our objective is to share informaton that others may use and learn from, on the other hand when we are wrong, we need to learn and apply to our knowledge base.Thank you.
What is your growing media? Most pepole water just to the top, maybe a little more. How often you water depends on your media, some holds water much differently than others. In any event, you want to keep it slightly moist, and only start to dry out at the top. The water does more than just water, it also draws fresh oxygen down around the roots, an important factor for growth. Many systems water 3 or 4 times a day under lights, start your first watering when the light first comes on, then water at intervals in the day, with your last watering about 4 hours before the light turns off. You don’t want to water at night, this causes problems with fungus. There’s no reason to run the pump any longer than it takes to get the water to a high enough level, although most timers have a minimum on period of perhaps 1/2 hour.There are probably 1000 s of nutrient mixes, and pepole that will argue for each one. I’d look for what you can find locally. It’s fine to add a little organic material to your hydroponics, I like to add bat guano and seaweed powder. If the plants aren’t growing fast enough, sometimes I’ve added a little extra ammonium nitrate to the mix. This is getting to fine points, and you’ll want to do some reading up on it. It’s also important to get your local water analyzed, if you’re on a well or someplace that the water supply might have a weird hardness or other mineral problem or ph imbalance, this can affect the nutrients.
A good point. Thank you for the comments. But it is a test of a pump repair project to make sure that the pump is working.