Rdwc setup
- Thread starter pjd907
- Start date
nomofatum
Well-Known Member
I would skip the Recirculating and just build a networked DWC system.
Parts:
5x 3/4" ebb flow fitting
5x 3 or 5 gallon buckets
4x net pot lid
1x normal lid
3/4" irrigation line or other hose/pipe
3x 3/4" tee or 1x 3/4" manifold with 4 outlets + intake
1x 4 outlet air pump
air hose
4x air stones
Drill 3/4" hole in bucket, install ebb flow fitting, connect buckets with irrigation line/hose. Run air hose through the net pot into the bucket, install air stone on end. Done. The 5th bucket is your control bucket. You can also exclude that and just plan on lifting one plant out and just keep an extra bucket handy to put it in while you use it's bucket as the control bucket. The recirculating thing only really has an advantage on large systems and even then it's quite debatable.
Parts:
5x 3/4" ebb flow fitting
5x 3 or 5 gallon buckets
4x net pot lid
1x normal lid
3/4" irrigation line or other hose/pipe
3x 3/4" tee or 1x 3/4" manifold with 4 outlets + intake
1x 4 outlet air pump
air hose
4x air stones
Drill 3/4" hole in bucket, install ebb flow fitting, connect buckets with irrigation line/hose. Run air hose through the net pot into the bucket, install air stone on end. Done. The 5th bucket is your control bucket. You can also exclude that and just plan on lifting one plant out and just keep an extra bucket handy to put it in while you use it's bucket as the control bucket. The recirculating thing only really has an advantage on large systems and even then it's quite debatable.
jcommerce
Well-Known Member
Check this out, but with 4 vs. 8 plants. You could get a great canopy out of 4, but I'd go for 6 plants in 10 gallon totes like this...(as well as those in my sinature) Not looking for cred...just sharing after years of trying to improve my tactics...I will always continue learning with the understanding that I will never "perfect" it.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/rdwc-1000-watt-gorilla-tent-t5-mother-area-t5-pre-veg-tent-cloning-station.789036/
https://www.rollitup.org/t/rdwc-1000-watt-gorilla-tent-t5-mother-area-t5-pre-veg-tent-cloning-station.789036/
jcommerce
Well-Known Member
p.s. - RDWC vs DWC will save you a lot of trouble. With RDWC, you know your nutrient levels, ph, water temp, etc, etc. within seconds. With multiple DWC buckets or totes, you're always having to refill, adjust, play catch up, etc. If one were to ask me what the best part of my systems are, it would definitely be the float valves run off my reverse osmosis tank. Same as a reef tank....never have to worry about top offs every again.
nomofatum
Well-Known Member
I'm guessing you have a water chiller and a bunch of Calmag?
The only real advantage is that pump greatly speeds up the mixing of the whole system. And as a trade off you heat your water and burn extra electricity. Any time I need a quick mix I just pump 50% of the system out into a tote, then pump it back in with a transfer pump. The transfer pump is an absolute requirement if you don't have a drain in your grow room.
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BongboyMMA
Active Member
Sorry to thread jack but I've been looking into running 2 18 gal totes rdwc but each separate. I started with 1 tote and just a sub pump and it got two hot the roots responded much better with extra airstones. However I'm a newb and I change my res every week and it's working bc by day 7 the water level is low and the pH swings from day 1-7 so she's eating but it's a bitch to change the res once she got big how's the whole transfer pump work? And if I just set up a 5 gal bucket and connect with bulk heads the water level in the bucket will be the same as in the res so I can just pump the old water out and I can monitsr pH and add nutes and water to the 5gal bucket so I never have to really lift the root ball out of the tote. It's huge and a pain but doable if I build I shelf over this Room to clone and veg I won't have enough room to raise the lights enough to lift out the ball so this whole other control bucket can work I just thought I needed a pump in it to recirculate the water
nomofatum
Well-Known Member
I have this with hose adapters on the in and out ports: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200578549_200578549
But it's overkill for this purpose. I use it outside with a rain barrel for the vegi garden, it gives me decent pressure. You could use much cheaper options too. You could actually even use this pump, an AC/DC converter, and some hose adapters from the local hardware store.
If I want to a flush I just pull one plant, put it in/on an empty bucket, put the intake hose into the "control" bucket and pump the contents to the drain or a container. If I just want to mix something or make a quick PH change I pump 50% of the system into a tote/barrel, PH it (you can either do this multiple times or learn to over adjust the 50% to bring the whole solution to correct) and pump it back. The solution will mix anyway slowly in the system. The extra heat that gets to the water in the hoses causes it to rise and stir the buckets, including between buckets. PH isn't very far off between buckets for long, or ever without you causing it..
nomofatum
Well-Known Member
You really should also just get a PPM meter and top off your system, you are flushing away perfectly good nutes. To start with just mix up a batch as normal, then take a PPM meter and get a reading of that normal batch. When levels get low, check the PPM of the rez, make your top off mix stronger or weaker to adjust back to original levels. Use the tote and pump to make sure it mixes well if you have to add a strong nute mix.
jijiandfarmgang
Well-Known Member
@jcommerce has spent a lot of time documenting his hydro setups. I believe he posted before that it seems nobody really cares, but he had a pretty decent setup and more people should experiment with what works for them, and when it works well show it off.
IMHO, with DWC hydro you have two options when your growing multiple plants. Either you go recirculating DWC or you grow large plants with large reservoirs that don't need constant maintenance.
- Jiji
IMHO, with DWC hydro you have two options when your growing multiple plants. Either you go recirculating DWC or you grow large plants with large reservoirs that don't need constant maintenance.
- Jiji
jcommerce
Well-Known Member
I do have a chiller, but it rarely runs....only on the hottest of summer days and, even then, usually only during the last couple hours of light since it takes a long time for the room to warm the water after it's been sitting in the cool, dark for 12 hours. My setups are in basements which are plenty cool in the winter and summer (especially when the AC is running). I run a very efficient mag drive pump that maybe adds pennies to my daily power bill. I'm almost certain that it costs less than two 12 valve airstone pumps would cost (not to mention the heat those things put off...they are mini radiators...you could use them just to heat a bedroom in winter if they weren't so loud...lol).
Not trying to argue, but I've found many more advantages to RDWC over DWC (and I did a lot of DWC before RDWC). Mixing nutes wouldn't even be in my Top 5 reasons. To reiterate, when you have more than just a couple of buckets or totes, it soon becomes a real pain in the ass to top off (unless you have float valves)...some plants drink a lot more than others, even if they're the same clone strain. Some take up more nutes than others, this throws off the ph, etc. etc. etc. With an RDWC, you have a much larger overall volume of water, this creates a much more stable environment for the plants. Think of a fish living in a 1 gallon tank vs. a 20 gallon tank. The water chem of 1 gallon tank will quickly go bad with food, feces, urine, etc from the fish. That same fish in a 20 gallon will fare far better as the aforementioned are much more greatly diluted as well as more space in the substrate and water column for beneficial bacteria, enzymes, etc.
Put it this way. If each of the totes in my 24 plant setup (with 14 gallon bins) were independent, it would take hours upon hours, if not a full day or more, to drain, top off, adjust nutes, ph, etc. With the RDWC, it takes me less than 5 minutes. I won't even get into the whole spaghetti airstone thing. I don't use airstones, just jet sprayers.
All this being said, I do keep my mothers in 27 gallon totes and run DWC with airstones and float valves. I like to keep their systems separate in case something goes bad in one, I won't lose the strain/genetics entirely as I have clones in separate bins. I have them under minimal T5 lighting and they require very little maintenance. Ph stabilizes within a few days of a full water change (every month or so) and with the low lights and cool temps, they grow slowly. I just turn on more lights and raise the room temp a week or so before I cut clones.
Cheers, jcom
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nomofatum
Well-Known Member
Connecting the buckets doesn't make it RDWC. Adding a pump makes it RDWC. The pump is what I see no point in. You don't need a pump to make topping off easy, you need a NDWC (N= Networked, aka connected by hoses) system. Gravity will make all the networked buckets have the same height of water.
jcommerce
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the very enlightening insight. Check my system and see if you think it's RDWC or not. 8000 Watt Recirculating Deep Water Culture Setup:
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pjd907
Active Member
Wouldnt want that electric bill. Nice setup tho dude
jcommerce
Well-Known Member
Ha ha....its output makes the power bill nominal. Actually cheaper to run than, say, a coco setup of the same size since the nutrients are recirculating and not drain to waste. This is considered a smaller to mid-sized setup in my neck of the woods. ; ) 18k & 24k setups are quite common.
pjd907
Active Member
All i gotta say is im pretty jealous. I would do anything to be able to have that size of a grow. All i got is a 5x5x7 tent for flowering and a 4x4x7 for veg. What strain are you running by chance? I need to find myself a high yielder
BongboyMMA
Active Member
This thread deff helped me out. I'm going to use two 18 gal totes each with a 5 gal contol bucket. I don't need rdwc bc it's small and I started getting root rot when I was using a sub pump connected to an air line. I would need a chiller and got way better results with just 4 airstone. However it's a bitch to lift the ginormous root ball out of the tote to clean it once a week if I have a contol bucket I'll just monitsr my ppms, use bennies and I can do everything through the contol bucket and only deal with cleaning it once a month. I already went from a 4 gal tote to the 18 with 8 gal of water and nutes and pH is so much more evened out.
This is random but is it normal that the pH drops over time when in flower as the plant is feeding? I didn't check it all week last week and I started at 5.6 but dropped to 4.8 by the 7th day (she looked fine, that was a close one) When she was vegging the pH would raise over time as she used up the nutes. So I'm thinking it's the opposite for the flower nutes
This is random but is it normal that the pH drops over time when in flower as the plant is feeding? I didn't check it all week last week and I started at 5.6 but dropped to 4.8 by the 7th day (she looked fine, that was a close one) When she was vegging the pH would raise over time as she used up the nutes. So I'm thinking it's the opposite for the flower nutes
Beezcheeze
Well-Known Member
I just built my rdwc setup. Still have one more to build. I chose it to make oh and ppm adjustment easier. I also am setting up an automatic top off bucket making it less maintance.
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Beer Belly
Well-Known Member
Bad ass system man. I believe the more automated the better. Not enough hours in the day, why not use technology to save you some time.
Beezcheeze
Well-Known Member
Thanks man. Exactly. I'm trying to make it as easy as possible