Hydroton pulling moisture from air?

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berkman858

Well-Known Member
I have noticed sometime weird since I put a humidifier in my grow tent. The water level in my reservoir and tanks seems to be rising, could this possibly be the Hydroton pulling moisture from the air and dripping it into the tanks? The level has risen about a half inch (per tank) which means there is at least an additional gallon of water in there after I topped it off a couple days ago.

Anyone ever heard of such a thing or am I just overlooking another reason for the water level rise?
 
JoshTheMadTitan

JoshTheMadTitan

Active Member
You are most likely over looking another reason, what is your humidity % right now? The only way I could see to add a humidifier is because the % is below 10 on average, as30-40 is ideal and you don't want much above that(save for clones, which a humidity dome works much better). My relative humidity is around 70% sometimes and I use hydroton, and my res is always decreasing, I would image you would need 95%+ for anything like that to happen, in which case you should not be running the humidifier.

On another note, if the humidifier is discharging directly on the hydroton/reservoir or on something above and dripping down, that could account for it.
 
bird mcbride

bird mcbride

Well-Known Member
How are the plants reacting to this. To much humidity could cause a plant to experience problems such as mold. I would have to say the humidifyer is somehow responsible. If nothing else you may have stumbled across another way of toppong up the res.
 
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berkman858

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the reply, I have the humidifier air outlet pointed towards the fan so it blows the moist air around my tent. There is nothing dripping around or on top of the plants, at least that I can see. It is so weird, its def a lot of water so it has to be coming from somewhere.

Here are pics of my setup, any ideas are appreciated. The red circle is where the humidifier is.
 

Attachments

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berkman858

Well-Known Member
JoshTheMadTitan said:
You are most likely over looking another reason, what is your humidity % right now? The only way I could see to add a humidifier is because the % is below 10 on average, as30-40 is ideal and you don't want much above that(save for clones, which a humidity dome works much better). My relative humidity is around 70% sometimes and I use hydroton, and my res is always decreasing, I would image you would need 95%+ for anything like that to happen, in which case you should not be running the humidifier.

On another note, if the humidifier is discharging directly on the hydroton/reservoir or on something above and dripping down, that could account for it.
Click to expand...
My humidity before adding the humidifier was around 30-35% and after is around 45-55%.
 
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berkman858

Well-Known Member
bird mcbride said:
How are the plants reacting to this. To much humidity could cause a plant to experience problems such as mold. I would have to say the humidifyer is somehow responsible. If nothing else you may have stumbled across another way of toppong up the res.
Click to expand...
The plants are reacting very well now that there is more humidity in the tent. I think that 30-35% humidity is ok for flowering but I have heard it stunts growth during veg.
 
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berkman858

Well-Known Member
Could it have anything to do with the air pump pumping humid air into the airstones?? I am grasping at straws here....
 
legallyflying

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
I think your not measuring the water level correctly. The heat of the lights and your fans are going to eliminate some of the moisture from the air. Even if you had a huge humdifier and you were at 90% humidity, the only increase to your water levels would be = to the volume of your humidifier water tank.

Your hydroton will absorb some moisture, but it will also give off that moisture as it gets warma nd air blows off of it. So the hydroton thing is a red herring.
 
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berkman858

Well-Known Member
legallyflying said:
I think your not measuring the water level correctly. The heat of the lights and your fans are going to eliminate some of the moisture from the air. Even if you had a huge humdifier and you were at 90% humidity, the only increase to your water levels would be = to the volume of your humidifier water tank.

Your hydroton will absorb some moisture, but it will also give off that moisture as it gets warma nd air blows off of it. So the hydroton thing is a red herring.
Click to expand...
I have a marked line on the res. that I did when there was exactly 15 gallons of water in the system and now the water is clearly above the line. I really don't think its the Hydroton, but I just don't know what it could be. I was just throwing some ideas around and nothing really made sense so I went with the idea that I thought would get people on my thread to help me..... how selfish of me! :o
 
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berkman858

Well-Known Member
I found out the issue has nothing to do with the Hydrton but it may have to do with the air pump. I have some type of algae clogging my mesh fliters in my reservoir and this was causing the water pump to put more water in the res. than it could pull from it. I created a new thread about the algae, here is the link. Thanks everyone.
 
bird mcbride

bird mcbride

Well-Known Member
The only other thing I can think of is that you topped up before all the water was returned to the res. My bed will drip for almost half an hour after a watering.
 
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berkman858

Well-Known Member
bird mcbride said:
The only other thing I can think of is that you topped up before all the water was returned to the res. My bed will drip for almost half an hour after a watering.
Click to expand...
You are correct, the issue was the mesh filters in the reservoir were clogged and this prevented the pump from pulling the same amount of water from the reservoir as it was dumping back into it, so it seemed like the water level rose when it didn't rise at all.
 
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