LEDgardener

Hey guys, first post here so be easy on me. Right now, I have a pex line run into my flower room and hooked into a spigot to supply water for my grow rooms. I'm planning on buying a shelf shortly and putting a fresh water res next to, and above, the res attached to my DWC system. I'm planning on just using a simple float valve and gravity to feed the DWC res, but my issue is topping up the fresh water res. I'd love to automate filling the fresh water res with HA but I'm not sure of the best, and safest, way to do it. Obviously water sensors on the floor and an automatic shut off would be necessary, plus something like a normally closed solenoid to regulate water flow, and a water level sensor of some type. I have ordered the DIY weigh scale kit ordered that you provided a link to on youtube, but I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on the best way to get this done. Thanks

Why not use the same concept for the fresh water res, use a float valve and connect your pex line directly to it? That would also avoid the whole solenoid and water level sensor.

You can use ultrasonic sensors to check waters levels too.

Perhaps I am missing the big picture, I don't see the point in measuring the fresh water levels. I have read to top of your DWC rest with fresh water as needed in between res changes.

the fresh water res will be fed directly from the house water line, I wouldn't want to put that much trust in a simple float valve without at least some sort of automatic shut off. Maybe I'm just overthinking it and should just run a hose from the spigot to the fresh water res and just manually fill that one as needed. If thats the case then I will need a decent water level sensor so I can get a notification when the res needs to be topped up. I've been playing around a little with a nodemcu and a hc-sr04, but the farthest I got with it so far was to give me the distance in meters

I see. Valid concern.

I use a automatic dog water bowl with a float valve directly to my spigot with 80 psi of pressure and in the 8 years that I have had it has never overflowed. Indoor toilets have the same setup.

Pressure reducers and flow restrictors exist.
The pressure reducer gives you peace of mind that the float valve doesn't have to work so hard, and the flow restrictor gives peace of mind that should something break, it won't flood too fast.

Sounds perfect, thanks.

I decided to go with a pressure reducer and a float valve to keep my reservoir topped up, but I'd like to also implement an automatic shut off for the water in the grow rooms. I have some Aqara flood sensors on the way, and I was thinking a sonoff mini r2 or sonoff basic r3 hooked up to a motorized ball valve would be a good way to have home assistant shut off the water if the sensors detect any water on the floor. Advice is very welcome as I'm still very much a novice in this arena. Thanks

I'm leaning towards a 1/2" normally closed motorized ball valve thats plugged into a smart plug unless anyone has a better idea

i'm filling my reservoir remotely and i need different amounts of Reverse Osmosis water depending where i'm at on my growing cycle .

i just ordered this for my Reservoir Plan :
https://www.amazon.ca/Optical-Infrared- ... 988&sr=8-2
im planning on plugging them into a node mcu (esp8266 or esp32 ) running ESPhome or Tasmota .
i also need a Logic Level Converter 3.3 to 5V since the sensors run on 5V and the ESP pins are 3.3v .
i will be putting 1 sensor every 20 to 25 Liters on my 200 Liters Reservoir with a 12volts solenoid valve coming from the RO , connected to a 12v Sonoff running on tasmota or esphome .

I've had a problem with using RO water in bottles. I run the machine while I'm doing a res change for the following week. By the end of the week the 5 gal jugs have a slight smell of mildew. Probably not an issue but I decided to switch to a 20 gal RO tank from freshwatersystems.com. I ended up going with the 3 wire stainless ball valve that was supposed to be 24v AC or DC. Unfortunately that was false and only DC will close the valve the AC tries to turn it in the same direction, then the board cuts voltage to the valve. Same valve you pictured but not auto return.

I used a float valve with 1/2 inch OD poly connected to the valve. Works great but the grow is on my top floor. I ended up buying large under bed storage bins and plumbing bulkhead from them to the drains. I've got several to catch spills and route water to the drain in the event of an emergency. Water sensors in the bottom of the bins as well. You can fit a res with a external pump in the bin no problem.

The water no longer has that mildew smell coming from a closed loop system. It's straight from the house, to the RO machine, then the tank. The only problem is half the tank is bladder so I'll be adding another when the grow expands.