Ebb and Flow issue--please help

Hey Guys--

Having some issues with my ebb and flow system and I was hoping for some help. I've checked out the 120 something page thread concerning the ebb and flow system, however there is a lot of material there and I wanted to create my own thread to try and solve the issue.

Basically I went to change the res today because I was going to induce flowering. I emptied the res, refilled and and ran a flush flood cycle with clean water and now my buckets will not flood. I rearranged my controller bucket/res in my grow area to try and make i a little more efficient. I undid the tubing leading into the controller bucket and reran it under my intake duct and reconnected the tubing, making sure there weren't any kinks in the system and all of my tubing was connected properly. I then ran a flood cycle, and now my buckets wont flood. The controller bucket fills properly, but it will not run into the buckets.

I took a few troubleshooting steps to try and determine the problem. The first thing I did was check the tubing to make sure it was kink-free (which it was). I then undid the tubing at each of the buckets at the end of the line (the bucket with the elbow connector) and sucked water through the line. Once that didn't work, I did it at the other end of the line at the controller bucket, put my mouth on it and sucked water through that end. I did that for each line, and still having the same problem.

One of the lines has about 3 inches of water in each bucket in that line, so it's not draining properly either.

I've ran out of ideas and I need help. The plants haven't had a flood cycle today so I'm sure they're getting thirsty--any input helps and is much appreciated.

Thank you,

FattyCaps

Do you have something plugging the line? I use a 3' x 3' x8" bed and I put about 6" of clay gravel/lava rock per 1000w/hps with 25 clones. You could get a lot more use out of your gravel. I cut both ends of a dog food can punched full of small holes secured in the drain section to keep the gravel out of the plumbing. I keep the dog food can about 1/8" above the bottom. There great cause you can reach in an clean the drain if something like a pebble gets in it. Do you have a pump up sprayer?

I figured it out. I just needed to lift the controller off the ground and let gravity do the rest of the work...apparently the lines were higher than the bucket so I just needed to get rid of the air in the beginning part of the lines by lifting the controller bucket off the ground a few feet and it did the trick. Funny that a few hours of work could be corrected by such a simple thing...

FattyCaps

hhahah

Damn that gravity

Another problem now---two of the lines aren't flooding and two of them are. If I lift the controller bucket up about 3 feet during a flood cycle, then the two non-flooding lines will begin to flood. However, you could see how this would be annoying considering I would have to do this for EVERY flood cycle, 6 times a day. Any idea how to fix this so they flood naturally? I've been vegging for 4 weeks, just switched to flowering and this is the first time I've had this issue so I can't figure it out.

Any help is appreciated---thanks!

FattyCaps

Another problem now---two of the lines aren't flooding and two of them are. If I lift the controller bucket up about 3 feet during a flood cycle, then the two non-flooding lines will begin to flood. However, you could see how this would be annoying considering I have to do this for EVERY flood cycle, 6 times a day. Any idea how to fix this so they flood naturally? I've been vegging for 4 weeks, just switched to flowering and this is the first time I've had this issue and I can't figure it out.

Any help is appreciated---thanks!

FattyCaps