From hobby to commercial on shoe string budget seeking advice on drainage

Hey guys. I’m trying make some decisions on how to best deal with my irrigation leachate. the building is 40x80’ long and there is only 1 drain and its for the bathroom and across the building form the grow rooms and all the way in the corner. I plan on extending that bathroom drain 10’ straight back to add a shower in the bath and a utility room with a wash basin. that means all my grow rooms (4 rooms 18x23’) and my pump room (in-between the 4 grow rooms like a narrow hallway 7x23’) are far away from any drains. if I cut new drains id have to redo my entire sewer system to meet the proper slope. my question is how are you returning the water from the grow room to the pump room?

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Paging @Jess…Can you help out our friend @vinny ?

@jess is our resident water and irrigation Mentor :sweat_drops: :+1:

I would also love to hear strategies and solutions from other @GrowOpEmployees, @growopowners, @mastergrowers on @vinny’s query. Thanks GN!

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would Love to pick @jess 's brain on this one. thank you

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I worked in greenhouses that had to be kept dry but the women had a problem with over using the hose when cleaning up. Sweeping builds excellent arm muscle tone, believe me, I have nice guns for a woman. My boss was tired of hearing me say the words, “robotic sump pump” but that’s basically want you need, a roomba sump pump that seeks the water with a long hose attached that directs the water outside.

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I was thinking sump pump too. I had the idea to just cut out a square in my slab in each room to add a sump basin thats sub floor level to help if I ever have a spill. my concern with that was that I thought it would leave a ton of water in the plumbing all the time and I was thinking that might be an issue.

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That was going to be my suggestion. Sumps, or Lift Pump Stations are what we will use on a residential application. Pretty simple to maintain and set up.

I’m really interested in how is been done in the growing community. Thanks for asking the question.

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I also had the idea of a septic system that held my leachate… if I create new drains to a septic I don’t need to connect to the sewer and that might be a lot easier to work with…

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I guess my biggest concerns are stagnant water in return pluming and plumbing being in the way. Im not sure if those are even concerns to worry about or not

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The return line will certainly have bacteria and be pretty nasty.

Curious. Where do you run the waste from your water treatment?

A leach field is an option, but keep in mind that what is getting dumped out there will make it back to the water table. In the long run it could start to cause issues.

I bet @JoeGrow would have some good insight on a set up.

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Leaving water/nutrients in the plumbing is definitely something that will start killing your crops after awhile when it turns septic. Have seen it happen in top feed systems and a couple DWC systems after 18 months of use due to just the accumulation of nutrients around o-rings at plumbing connections. I believe most of those DWC systems have been redesigned to mitigate this.

The key to not leaving nutrients in the plumbing is proper plumbing installation and evacuation pumps at the low points.

Also, 502 regulations require toxic waste handling of disposed nutrients so it is best to minimize that to minimize disposal costs. Recirculation saves 60-80% in nutrient waste compared to a recommended 20-30% runoff.

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“I’m really interested in how is been done in the growing community.” Not sure what your statement means but I’ve been growing cannabis on a commercial scale for over 15 years, in greenhouses. Yours happens to be built with an inefficient design. If you want to reclaim the water draining off, put the frikin hose from the sump into your runoff reservoir.that’s filtered and sent to the nutrient reservoir. Your ppm and pH sensor pump will add what is needed to the used nutrients. If you need a male name attached to this post, I’ll log back in under a bro code name.

With a properly tuned feed formula, yes.

With a properly designed system and properly installed plumbing there are no issues. Keep in mind I’m not referring to a drip system. These baby’s can flow 60+ GPM off a table.

The plant is able to drink what it needs. This is even more true with a high-flow system where salts do not build up. The plant can select the ions as they flow through the rhizosphere, similar to NFT. Though some growers do add amendments during the week, experience has shown there is no need to do so. Thus the 60-80% in savings.

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I can design a system for you, though I recommend you purchase the feed halos from GrowoniX as those requires special manufacturing techniques. There are other ring-type emitters, but I don’t have experience with them. I know some of them get brittle and break easily under UV. Either way, they need to flow a good 1/4 GPM each.

You’'ll need a vertical drill press, custom jigs and lots of precision and patience.

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Definitely need to plan for that ro waste. I might just run a hole thru the wall for it… cant do that for leachate tho. The more I think about it the more a septic system makes sense

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i have been talking with a company out of Ohio about Evap systems. Zero waste, but it is at a high cost $$. A single system can evap up to 40 gallons an hour, and can be daisy chained to increase the Evap rate. I was surprised that the industry hasn’t approached them yet until i saw the cost lol. The idea is great for a zero watse set up, but the average grower will have a hard time scraping up the capital to install one.

Met-Chem is the company I was talking with.

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You can use the RO waste to feed the toilets. Doing that in my house.
Also, make sure your RO waste is minimized with an efficient RO. Commercial units should be able to provide as low as 1/4:1 waste ratio depending on your water.

Don’t forget that capturing dehuey condensation can provide 50% of your water demand. Run it through UV and make sure no ion-leeching is occuring (0 ppm).

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shoe string budget…

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will it grow better plants then drip to waste?

returning the water to the pump room seems to have a lot of issues too. draining from a flood table down to a sump pump then over to the pump room then up to enter a holding tank. how would you ever have empty plumbing?

I feel like if youre not able to add back nutrients correctly then you are experiencing off balanced nutrient solution after the first few feeds. is that not accurate?

ive figured out exactly how to deal with my leachate. I’ve been over complicating it. thanks for all your help.

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Hi @vinny,

Sorry I didn’t get to this post in time to help with the formation of a solution.
What conclusion did you come to?

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