In response to Lisa Thoerle's request for information on wet pad
maintenance, are you using the wet pads that have been painted with the
thick stiff black coating? I have these installed on our greenhouses and
they have held up much better than the non-coated version during the
past 5 hurricanes. The coating reinforces the leading edge of the
corrugated paper pads.
I installed copper ion generators immediately past the water
pump on our pads that are 250 (756 meter) feet long X 6 feet (1.8 meter)
high X 6 inches (15 cm) thick - there are 2 generators and 3 X 450
gallon (1700 liter) above-ground plastic storage tanks for the
circulating water (I use softened well water instead of the reverse
osmosis water that is used throughout the nursery because you need
electrical conductivity for the generators). The generators are made by
Superior Aqua Enterprises in Sarasota, FL (Tim Piekarz is the owner -
800-225-0119 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] and their website is
http://www.agri-ions.com/ ). I have been using their generators for the
wet pads for over 2 years now and the pads look and feel like they are
still brand new. The units I use are clear plastic tubes about 12 inches
(30 cm) long X maybe 3 inch (8 cm) wide and have 2 copper plates
installed on the opposite sides of the tube inside. Alternating polarity
48 volt DC current create the copper ions and the amperage is adjusted
from the electronic control panel. The units turn on with an in-line
flow switch whenever the water pump supplies water to the pads. With
above-ground storage tanks, I can drain and clean the tanks twice
yearly.
Hope this is informative.
Terry A. Glancy
Pine Ridge Orchids, Inc.
21100 SW 300 Street
Homestead, FL 33030-7812
ph (305) 247-4839
(305) 247-3086
fx (305) 247-8853
Website = http://www.PineRidgeOrchids.com
Email = [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc Email = [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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