I need a fan for my little hydroponics nook so my plants stop getting tip burn but it's just a tiny setup for some beans, a tomato plant and a basil so the small fan I have is way too powerful and drilling through anything isn't really an option. How do I find a low power AC unit that isn't just a square I have to screw into something? I need something about as strong as a computer fan.
You could power a computer fan with an ac to DC converter. People do that when they make those soldering fume fans.
Yes, but how can I mount it. That's why I said I just want a normal fan, but low power. I don't have many options for constructing an entire apparatus for a 12 v fan.
>constructing an entire apparatus
You don't need an entire apparatus. Just hot glue it to a small board so it won't fall over. Maybe screw a grill on so you don't stick your fingers into it.
OP seems like the kind of person who sticks his fingers into fans lol
It's fun.
just use a variac.
Get a thermaltake 200mm fan. Absolutely quiet. Run it off any old 12v power supply. I like the clear (blue) and pull the blue LED's off so it's just clear. They are like $14 and run forever. Brushless. Absolutely silent.
You guys are not getting this. I'm not a homeowner and I'm not in a good situation. I don't have my own toolkit, nor the money to create one. I'm growing my own food for survival at this point. I need something simple like a desk fan that I can simply plug into an AC outlet and pack up and take with me. I'm living like a refugee at this point. This hydroponic garden will have to travel with me. It's simple and I have seeds collected. Buckets aren't hard to move. I realize this is DIY and pretty much everyone here is some upper class parasite living in a mcmansion, but that's not my situation and these solutions don't match what I need. I literally just need a weaker desk fan.
Put a cloth over the fan you've got or, move the fan away, you completely moronic useless spack.
Just get a usb powered desk fan and plug it into a phone charger
I hadn't thought about that. That's actually a good idea. I'll look into it. Thank you.
That's probably not good for the motor is it? I mean induction motors aren't like LED lighting. I don't think you can just "dim" them without significant consequences. That's why they put high next to off on fans.
its not great for the dimmer either lol (house fire)
>That's probably not good for the motor is it?
>its not great for the dimmer either
>You can't slow down a fan with a dimmer, you'll burn the motor out.
Thanks.
I take back my previous comment/suggestion.
I assumed a three-speed fan must work with some kind of resistor to control the speed, but it's actually managed by different length windings around the motor that determine the speed.
I still don't understand how a dimmer would ruin it, but it's certainly a different kind of mechanism from what I originally thought.
Motors have a LRA rating: locked rotor amperage (also called stall current). When a motor is sitting at 0 RPM and you give it full voltage, the in rush current is way over the nominal current. As the motor accelerates, this current goes down. When you use a dimmer, you're chopping the voltage but you are still pushing a lot of current.
As you can see in the graph, there are portions where the current is high while the voltage is low, resulting in a very poor power factor. Because of power laws, the power dissipated by the motor is proportional to the square of the current, but its torque is to the square of the voltage. What the graph does not represent is as the RPM goes down, the current will scale up based on pic related.
>I assumed
This is grifter mentality that causes deaths. This is why you will never hold an important position. That walkway incident that killed hundreds was due to a contractor "assuming" he could use three 12-foot long rods staggered instead of one continuous 36-foot rod. What he failed to account for is that the nut on the top walkway would have to support not only its weight, but the weight of the two walkways under. A continuous rod meant that each point load would be transferred to the ceiling anchor independent of the other loads.
>what is a 3 speed fan
your tips are more likely burning from excess nitrogen and you need to quit smoking so much of your "basil".
I actually had a Spearmint too, but it got all black and died because of the lack of circulation. I didn't have him long, but I was pretty broken up about it. The basil does smell good on and off randomly though. It's not excess nitrogen either. They're not burning they're like dehydrating and turning crispy. The nutrient balance is good. I know because it was a bit off at first and I fidgeted with the iron and nitrogen until my plants looked great, until they started having crispy leaves.
try diffusing the air with a screen or something?
It's really not possible. I'm going to have to get a small fan like a USB like that one anon suggested. But honestly, this entire experience is making me question why the frick hydroponics even exists.
>I'm growing my own food for survival at this point.
Can you explain how you could grow enough food for survival in such a small space? Even a $5 usb fan can buy you like 10 pounds of potatoes.
That's not the point. What I'm doing right now is ironing out the wrinkles so I can apply my strategy to a larger space.
>so I can apply my strategy to a larger space.
Which you will need more money for and can buy even more potatoes.
You'll never break even if you're using artificial light.
I will if I'm generating my own power. Again, I'm planning for the future. I want a system that doesn't rely on the health of the local ecosystem or climatic conditions. I want reliable, indoor ecosystems 24/7/365.
What's your fuel source that isn't going to expire? The sun being blocked out is almost certainly extinction. This sounds like a bad larp. We've all been there, the "I'm going to live in a van" mentality teenagers have. If you don't have money now you're probably not going to have money to survive the apocalypse.
None at the moment. Many are planned. I'm specifically focusing on power sources that don't require the sun or non-renewable resources. It's niche, but it has to happen.
>YOU'RE LARP
>EVERYTHING IS LARP!!!
The eternal midwit refrain.
How about adding an inline AC dimmer to your current fan to slow it down?
You can't slow down a fan with a dimmer, you'll burn the motor out.
an ac uses a compressor to cool the air plnts cool themself by ablation of water transpiration. a peziocooler will cool things down but it is over kill plants do this shit themself just blow air.
I've also noticed that the plants I have in SOIL under the LEDs aren't losing all their leaves and/or getting tip burn. I think this is a hydroponics-exclusive (or dominant) problem. Which begs the question, what the frick are the advantages of hydroponics? Because from what I've seen so far there aren't any.
>Which begs the question
That is not what this expression means.
But to your actual question : my understanding is that hydroponics gives you much greater control over how much nutrients are getting to the plants.
>That is not what this expression means.
Language means what people think it means, and that cow left the barn before you were born. Which begs the question, when you use that expression correctly, how many listeners think you used it wrong.
I bet you go around pronouncing forte "correctly", and everyone thinks you're a moron.
It kind of doesn't though. I add the same amount of nutrients to the plants in the buckets as the ones in pots, but the ones in pots are doing much better, though the ones in the buckets are growing faster (when they're not drying to a crisp).
I had similar results with wheat. I grew a bunch for my cat, but she didn't like it so now I'm just seeing if it will set seed. I did several just in a small container with only water and nutrients and this last batch in soil. The previous few tries were failures, the wheat looked like shit and the roots STANK. Now that I just put them in soil, the wheat is going great. I'm really being turned against hydroponics by my experiences here. And the more I research the less of a reason their appears to be for the technology. Some plants can't even be effectively grown hydroponically, like potatoes (no, I'm not talking about little tiny pissant potatoes).
>I'm really being turned against hydroponics by my experiences here.
Hydroponics seems to be a bit more finicky than soil, but once I had success it became comically easy to have great yield every time. My big learning point was that (for me) kratky sucked, but add some nice air bubbles and keep the nute level 3-4 inches from the base of the plant and stand back and watch the plant explode. My other advice is to consider dry nutes and mix them with your tap water. If that works you save quite a bit. Also, "they" say to change the nutes weekly; bullshit. Mine are good for a month or so.
>Hydroponics seems to be a bit more finicky than soil, but once I had success it became comically easy to have great yield every time.
Did you compare these yields to soil grown plants though? I assume you had to use fans to prevent tip burn.
>Did you compare these yields to soil grown plants though?
I did not do a full-up scientific study, but compared my experiences of years with soil to a year or two of hydro. I'm just one more clown with anecdotal information, so ignore my post.
>I assume you had to use fans to prevent tip burn.
Why would you assume that? How do fans prevent "tip burn"? Is tip burn due to heat? Anyway, I use fans to have good air circulation and to reduce the chance of mold in hot humid conditions.
Reply to me if you like; this thread seems to be turning into silly time, so I'm out. Have a nice day and I wish you success with your gardening.
I've NEVER had tip burn with soil grown plants. But I'm having it with ALL of my hydroponically grown plants. And yeah, if you were using a fan, that helps with tip burn I hear.
Error: Our system thinks your post is spam. Please reformat and try again.
No matter what I do. Fricking garbage.
Just screencap your reply, we'll tell you what the offending string is.
Just 1/3 of this I tried posting. It was also triggering 'the spam filter'. oO
>That post
>oO
God damn, I'm surprised the system didn't send an automated drone strike to your house.
'rub it in'. Tried to post only up to that. 'Spam'. Sure. moronic.
try opening the window and blowing on the plants through a long cardboard tube. if you spin it properly it will blow air. maybe attach it to something out in the breeze
it was blocked for "go back to r*dit"
I planted a new tomato seed in soil and I'm going to compare how it grows to what appears to be the monumental failure of hydroponics without constant fans.
My beans in soil are also starting to bloom and show no tip burn, while the ones in buckets look like shit.
If it's the tips nearest your lights anon you may just need to raise the lights a little. Air movement in a hydroponic setup is to strengthen stems and branches to hold up your produce and to deter mould growth in dense vegetation.
Weird though for led to burn them. How many watts of led are you running?
Also, if you can't see a noticeable difference between the hydro and the soil plants growth there's something wrong with your hydro setup.
It isn't. It's the older leaves. They just wither away and die. On the tomato they dry out and wither. On the beans they turn yellow and fall off. bot ONLY the ones in hydroponics. I've started another tomato and soil and I'm going compare how it does to the one doing terrible in hydroponics. The hydro buckets are just Kratky. Nothing fancy. The light is some cheap chinkshit. Supposedly rated at 85 watts but I don't buy it. I'm only getting PAR readings of about 150-200 for most of the plants. But my beans are already flowering and producing pods. The ones in the buckets are two weeks younger than the ones in soil, so we'll see if they produce anything.
Seriously though, trying REAL hard to find the advantages of hydroponics here. I'm starting to wonder why the technology was engineered in the first place. Every plant I've tried to grow hydroponically has had problems, while every one I've grown in soil seems to fix the problems.