Hydro-Cloner complete!

ISO2BWELL

Thanks to all of the great help you folks freely gave, the new "EZ-Cloner" style cloner is done, and working like a champ..

Here is how it was built.

First, I took an ice chest/cooler (Coleman). Inside dimensions are about 10" wide and approx 13" deep inside (I think it is a 36 qt.)



I wanted to use the EZ Clone foam rounds to hold the cloning candidates, and also to keep the water from splashing out the top, so I needed something that would "form fit" the hole. The cooler lid has an inner "liner" of plastic that needs to be cut out, first, before we cut holes in the top to hold the sponge/rounds. This was accomplished with a Dremel tool and cutting wheel (took about 10 min.)



Using a hole saw, I then cut 15 of the 1-7/8" holes in the top, which keeps the foam round very snug, but not too tight, and provides a good water seal too.



The "spray ring" (gotta call it somethin'!) was made out of 1/2" Sch. 40 PVC. Design style seemed to be somewhat flexible, so I made it a rectangle plus one down the middle (where the feed comes in the center). In total there are 26 sprayers.



I had no idea how many would actually be needed...but then coming from the school of "Go Big or Go Home".., and with the space to put 'em I wanted to make sure that the inside of this cloner was a literal "mist-storm" running 24/7!!

Each one of the holes for the misters had to be drilled and tapped. If you are only making one cloner and don't have a thread tapping set, you might want to take one of the little EZ-Cloner misters to the hardware store and ask for a proper tap. Should be pretty cheap. If you need it, I can send you (PM) the size of the tap I used. It is time consuming and has to be done right, so be patient!

Next chore was getting the water from the res. to the Spray Ring. Since I don't like external hoses, etc. the only way was to do this internally, and in the easiest possible way to allow a 3/4" hose from the pump to attach to the Spray Ring, and allow for the water to flow back into the reservoir. This was accomplished with the 6" long X 1-1/2" in. diameter (1-7/8 exterior)PVC pipe that I installed in the bottom/middle of the cooler, and drains back to the res. (see pic above).

To install the pipe, I drilled a 1-7/8" (perfect, snug fit for the PVC pipe!) hole in the middle/bottom of the cooler and in the middle/top of the res lid, and used PVC cement to make sure it stayed snug to the cooler, and did not leak (even if it didn it couldn't hurt anything.). The bottom of the cooler is insulated, and about 1/2" thick, so it has enough mass there for the pipe to glue to. The pipe just fits snugly in the hole in the res top, and when lifting the cooler off it just slieds out and goes with it (cooler). This way you can easily change the res fluids, etc.



A few drops of leakage around the outside of the pipe should not cause any issue at all, as it is all on top of the reservoir unit and just drains in the hole in anyway. STILL, if you have the time, cover the pvc-cement guled pipe edge inside the cooler with GOO or a waterproof sealer (Silicone?) that is NON-toxic to your plants. So far, just gluing it in with the PVC Cement is doing fine for me. the pipe was a snug fit in the first place.

This res is your basic E-Cheapo 18 Gal. tub available at Lowes, Fred Meyer or a hundred other stores for less than $10. I added 15 gal of rainwater (super clean) Ph'd to 6.7, and 15 drops of SuperThrive for good measure.

The pump is a 675 GPH (2,565 lph) Mag-Drive, and it rests in the middle/bottom of the res. and the 5/8" hose extends straght up from the pump, thru the PVC pipe and connects to the Spray Ring (see the pic of the inside of the cooler, above). The Spray Ring sits on a couple short 2X4's to maintain stability and the right height.



Here it is in operation. I have a few Purp. Kush clones in there that I took about day 15 of their flowering (because the ones in my old, bubble-cloner died and never rooted), and they do have small buds present...but hoping they will root soon! I also added (not shown) 4 healthy BlackBerry clones, yesterday.

Has not produced any roots yet, but has run since Saturday and the res. temp is still not over 76F., so I think this one's a winner.

ISO

ps.s Now, all I need it to do is GROW ROOTS on those clones!

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2stoned

looks great iso..but can i ask why you didn't just rig up a 30doller bubble cloner..peace az

ISO2BWELL

ROTFL!! (If you only knew..!)

I did build one about 3 months ago, and it rooted my first clones real well, but after that I never could really get anything to root, even after being in there 30 days!

I figgered out, after talking with a few folks, that the Hydrogen Peroxide (2 tbl in 5 gal) was sufficient to keep the clones from rooting. I had been adding it to keep the algae down...

So, I thought..."the hell with it", and figgered this critter out. It was a project I've really been wanting to do, so what better time? I read some of the write-up's in the FAQ, got a few ideas and went to town. First effort failed (couldn't keep it cool) so this was the second proto-type, so to speak.

Just installed a digital thermometer in the res. and it's running at 78.5F, steady. Seems to be a good temp for rooting, although a bit cooler would be better...and I have room in the res to add another 3 gal of water.

ISO

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the.fatman.cometh

Beautiful. Ingenious. Awesome. Cool.
Stoners somehow get the McGuyver bug pretty easily. Excellent work friend!

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tokecrazy

Nice job ISO,they should root now. PEACE

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Anything I may say or do is stickly for entertainment only.This is all make believe and is not To believe by me or anyone

tokecrazy

Here's that saddle stand.I couldnt find one I have made.But here's a drawing of how to make one. PEACE

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__________________
Anything I may say or do is stickly for entertainment only.This is all make believe and is not To believe by me or anyone

Monday Murphy

very ingenuous ISO... good luck !!!

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"The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, somebody to love, and something to hope for."
~ Allan K. Chalmers ~

"Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in
~ Thomas Carlyle ~

"I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I may not pass this way again."
~unknown~


... murf

green_nobody

the setup is great ISO - did you treated the wood blocks to water-proof em? if not they could easily start to mold on you... did you use any silicon or similar to proof the drainage between the two main pieces or does it work without that extra fine enough not to worry?

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Keep the gun oiled and the thumb green!

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp...Canada-eng.MP3

ISO2BWELL

Toke, Green:

The 2X4's are now gone from there. They were just a temp support during set-up and test...but then I had to find something else just that height to use and finally found a couple empty pint bud containers that are in there now.

Permanent replacement will be in there tonight as I can't get to the store till then for more pipe.

The design seemed pretty common-sense once I got to thinking about it. I did have to cool it down a little last night, as it reached 79F, so I added 2 frozen water bottles that cooled it to 75F, and this AM it is still only 76.8F. It'll do!

Crap...after all this I'm going to have to toss a party just to celebrate the first root..I keep telling them (clones).....-do it...hope they are listening!

ISO

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blakeb

nice iso thats a great idear