Wanta try RDWC in a 4x2

SoggyCashew

SoggyCashew

Active Member
Hello, I have been growing in soil for over two years in two different size tents and I want to try my luck at RDWC in my Gorilla 2x4 running Photos. Right now i have 2 photos in there spread out wal to wall and all is good.

My question is can someone suggest a setup for 2-3 plants in a (DIY) RDWC system? Im looking for a parts list and images or even better a video of a how too...

My second question is what is your opinion on the difference between soil and RDWC, are the flowers bigger in which, whats easiest to fix issues with and so on.

Thanks
 
SoggyCashew

SoggyCashew

Active Member
@Greengrouch i was looking at the Hydramax systems. I see your running a 3 plant system from gary at pahydroponics. Whats your thoughts about running a 3 plant compared to a two plant system? I also see you have a chiller is that a must?

Another question is i never messed with anything other than soil so we always just pop our seeds in the soil. How Do you go about popping seeds in your rocks? Do I have to start them in cubes?
 
Greengrouch

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
I start them in root riot plugs, you can probably get away without a chiller depending on your climate, the 3 plant system is pretty tight and in hindsight I would have gone with two.
 
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Delps8

Well-Known Member
Greengrouch said:
This is what I’m using in my 2x4 https://shop.pahydroponics.com/3-plant-5-gallon-inline-stirponic-rdwc-system-made-for-a-2x4-grow-tent/

This is what I should’ve gotten and will probably switch to https://www.hydraunlimited.com/product/hydramax-2-bucket-1-row-dwc-system/
Click to expand...
Heh, great choices!

Why would you switch from PA Hydro to Hydra?

Also, I'd very much appreciate your insights about how growing cannabis might be different if I were to switch from my current setup to either PA Hydro or Hydra.

I've looked at both of those vendors as alternatives to my current setup. The res in the picture is a SuperPonics 12XL which holds 28 gallons of nutes. It's a PITA to swap the res but it's very stable, in terms of pH, and I end up only doing 3 or 4 changes over the course of a 110 day grow.

Having only one "bucket" has its downsides so I've been growing just one plant for a couple of years. Yields have been good but there's a lot of photons hitting the floor so I want to start growing two plants.

Per the bottom picture, I'm space constrained - to the left is a door that opens to the back yard and to the right of the tent I've got 14" for a shelf and then built in cabinets that extend to the wall of the garage.

I like the PA Hydro stuff but I'd have to route the external res to the front of the cabinets and there's less room there now than shows in the photo (new car). :-(

The Hydra stuff looks really nice but I'm leery of going to a bucket that's "only" 8 gallons. With the big res I've got now, the root systems get quite large and the plants get to 50"+.

With (all that) as a prelude, what would the change be like to grow in either the PA Hydro or the Hydra systems?

Many thanks for your reply and, to the OP, I'm thinking/hoping answers to my questions will prove helpful in your decision making.


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Delps8

Well-Known Member
SoggyCashew said:
@Delps8 I decided to go with Garys (Pahydroponics) design BUT in a two bucket system. I purchased some of the he parts today, i got a little while my plants in my 2x4 just started flowering so I have time to build.

Im using this style system with 2 pots
Click to expand...
That's exactly the system I had settled on, also with 2 buckets. Nice that you've got the room for the external res. I'd have to get a custom cut tube to get it to fit in my (cramped) grow space.

I think that setup will serve you well. The external res makes the system more stable, in terms of pH, because it adds more volume to the system. Another plus is that, since it's outside the tent, you don't have to open the tent to do maintenance. I'd really like to have that for my setup!

"just started flowering" - great! Things will really start to change in the next few weeks.

Oh, yeh, water chiller - I bought mine when I did my grow in 2017 (then I archived my tent until 2021). A water chiller was not cheap back then but they're eye-wateringly expensive now. If you don't get a water chiller, you'll need to either run sterile (I think using H2O2) or use "bennies"//beneficial bacteria. I run my chiller at 68° (which is apparently the optimal temp for trade off between temperature and O2 saturation but I can't cite a source for that) and I use HydroGuard. In theory, the HydroGuard isn't needed at the temperature but it's cheap and I'd rather err on the side of caution.
 
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Yadam

Yadam

Active Member
I also just grabbed the two site stirponics setup from PA hydro with an outside reservoir. @Delps8 i think the 5gal is 12” so you could run with an outside reservoir in your space if you wanted too.

Is anyone running with their reservoir top-off kit?
 
SoggyCashew

SoggyCashew

Active Member
This is what I have so far... At first I brought home the 13 gallon EZ Stor buckets 's. But took them back and got the 8 gallon instead because what I'm going to do is 3D print four legs and run a drain on the bottom of each one of those two buckets. Next im running 2" pvc for the flow and 1/2" pvc for the return. Im using a 13 gallon rez so i can put pluming valves inside the rez for the water cooler im buying.

Not sure what size net pot I should buy? Also should i get net pots with mesh that goes to the rim OR should i get net pots that have a solid ring so you dont have to fill to top to block light. Suggestions....
 

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bongboy8200

Active Member
Greengrouch said:
This is what I’m using in my 2x4 https://shop.pahydroponics.com/3-plant-5-gallon-inline-stirponic-rdwc-system-made-for-a-2x4-grow-tent/

This is what I should’ve gotten and will probably switch to https://www.hydraunlimited.com/product/hydramax-2-bucket-1-row-dwc-system/
Click to expand...
This is the way I'm doing it. Too You have to run it outside the tent. I have a veg and a flower. Both are getting 20 gal res outside the tent to auto feed the control buckets. I forget how much these ladies drink.
 
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Delps8

Well-Known Member
Yadam said:
I also just grabbed the two site stirponics setup from PA hydro with an outside reservoir. @Delps8 i think the 5gal is 12” so you could run with an outside reservoir in your space if you wanted too.

Is anyone running with their reservoir top-off kit?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I'm more likely to go the Fallponics route if I take the leap. I really light not having to deal with swapping a res so I like the larger volume of the Fallponics.
 
D

Delps8

Well-Known Member
SoggyCashew said:
This is what I have so far... At first I brought home the 13 gallon EZ Stor buckets 's. But took them back and got the 8 gallon instead because what I'm going to do is 3D print four legs and run a drain on the bottom of each one of those two buckets. Next im running 2" pvc for the flow and 1/2" pvc for the return. Im using a 13 gallon rez so i can put pluming valves inside the rez for the water cooler im buying.

Not sure what size net pot I should buy? Also should i get net pots with mesh that goes to the rim OR should i get net pots that have a solid ring so you dont have to fill to top to block light. Suggestions....
Click to expand...
I've grown plants 50"+ in 4" net pots and I can't quite get my head around how large the net pots are for these systems. The only downside to a 4" net pot is that the trunk of the plant grows so much that the net pot bulges so I have to cut it apart. If there's a 5" size, that's the one I'd go with.

Re. blocking the light - never needed to do that but I did it at first "because".

If moss were to grow in the hydroton, it wouldn't be an issue. Even with a top feed, I never got anything growing in the net pot…other than the cannabis plant. Within a couple of weeks, the plant has grown to cover the net pot and, if you run a PAR/light meter around down there, you'll see that there's just very little light getting through ("dark as a whale's ass").
 
Greengrouch

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
Delps8 said:
Heh, great choices!

Why would you switch from PA Hydro to Hydra?

Also, I'd very much appreciate your insights about how growing cannabis might be different if I were to switch from my current setup to either PA Hydro or Hydra.

I've looked at both of those vendors as alternatives to my current setup. The res in the picture is a SuperPonics 12XL which holds 28 gallons of nutes. It's a PITA to swap the res but it's very stable, in terms of pH, and I end up only doing 3 or 4 changes over the course of a 110 day grow.

Having only one "bucket" has its downsides so I've been growing just one plant for a couple of years. Yields have been good but there's a lot of photons hitting the floor so I want to start growing two plants.

Per the bottom picture, I'm space constrained - to the left is a door that opens to the back yard and to the right of the tent I've got 14" for a shelf and then built in cabinets that extend to the wall of the garage.

I like the PA Hydro stuff but I'd have to route the external res to the front of the cabinets and there's less room there now than shows in the photo (new car). :-(

The Hydra stuff looks really nice but I'm leery of going to a bucket that's "only" 8 gallons. With the big res I've got now, the root systems get quite large and the plants get to 50"+.

With (all that) as a prelude, what would the change be like to grow in either the PA Hydro or the Hydra systems?

Many thanks for your reply and, to the OP, I'm thinking/hoping answers to my questions will prove helpful in your decision making.


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After more thought idk how I feel about the hydramax, the lack of control bucket looks like it’d make res changes add backs and ph adjustment pretty difficult
 
D

Delps8

Well-Known Member
Greengrouch said:
After more thought idk how I feel about the hydramax, the lack of control bucket looks like it’d make res changes add backs and ph adjustment pretty difficult
Click to expand...
Couldn't you just add backs and pH from one of the buckets? I think that would be OK because the pump will circulate the nute water pretty quickly.

Re. changing the res - I use a sump pump (330 GPH TruPow from Amazon) and, just thinking through it, I'd drop the hose in one of the buckets and start the pump so the circulation pump would work to refill the bucket that I'm draining. Lather, rinse, repeat. Yeh, that would be a different but I think.it would be doable.

What strikes me about the Hydra, and I just looked at it more critically now thanks to your posting, is that I'm tied to one vendor. Their "snap together" plumbing is slick and could be an advantage in a large system but for a small system, it's very much a nice to have. If the pump dies, I have to contact Hydra for a new one. If they're out of business, so am I. PA Hydro, in contrast, is selling commodity plastic parts that have been cut to fit and assembled. All of the "moving parts" are commercial off the shelf so I can get a replacement from many sources. Also, if tubing cracks, I don't need a special fitting the way I do with Hydra.

The biggest issue for me is the 8 gallon bucket and the lack of a control bucket. With PA Hydro, two of their small buckets + an external res would be in the region of 21 gallons (8 gallon bucket holds 7'ish gallons?) and their 13 gallon buckets would be 33-36 gallons for a 2 + 1 system.

What are your thoughts about bucket size? Is an 8 gallon bucket going to limit plant size?
 
Greengrouch

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
Delps8 said:
Couldn't you just add backs and pH from one of the buckets? I think that would be OK because the pump will circulate the nute water pretty quickly.

Re. changing the res - I use a sump pump (330 GPH TruPow from Amazon) and, just thinking through it, I'd drop the hose in one of the buckets and start the pump so the circulation pump would work to refill the bucket that I'm draining. Lather, rinse, repeat. Yeh, that would be a different but I think.it would be doable.

What strikes me about the Hydra, and I just looked at it more critically now thanks to your posting, is that I'm tied to one vendor. Their "snap together" plumbing is slick and could be an advantage in a large system but for a small system, it's very much a nice to have. If the pump dies, I have to contact Hydra for a new one. If they're out of business, so am I. PA Hydro, in contrast, is selling commodity plastic parts that have been cut to fit and assembled. All of the "moving parts" are commercial off the shelf so I can get a replacement from many sources. Also, if tubing cracks, I don't need a special fitting the way I do with Hydra.

The biggest issue for me is the 8 gallon bucket and the lack of a control bucket. With PA Hydro, two of their small buckets + an external res would be in the region of 21 gallons (8 gallon bucket holds 7'ish gallons?) and their 13 gallon buckets would be 33-36 gallons for a 2 + 1 system.

What are your thoughts about bucket size? Is an 8 gallon bucket going to limit plant size?
Click to expand...
Yeah I didn’t say it’d be impossible, just kind of a pain in the ass. Especially come flower when you’re needing add back eod at least, an external control bucket just makes all that so easy. Also 8 gallon buckets plenty big, my setup uses 5gallon buckets, between the 3 plants and the control buckets it’s about 13 gallons when full
 
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marzig

marzig

Member
I'm having trouble seeing the advantages of RDWC over DWC, for me personally, in a 2x4 tent with just 1 or 2 buckets or totes. It just seems like extra components and nutes to deal with for 1 or 2 plants.

When I have 2 plants going full throttle, I do complete nute changes every 6 to 7 days. It's not that expensive for me to mix 12 gal of nutes (4 gal/bucket and 4 gal for topping off both buckets through the week). As far as time involved, it takes me no more than 1.5 hours to mix and exchange nutes in my 2 Hydrobuckets.

My tent is in an upstairs closet over a finished basement so I would also be concerned about roots plugging the drain pipes and causing an overflow event. As far as the capacity of 5 gal buckets holding only 4 gal, I totally fill up my tent wall to wall every grow and still have several inches of free space under the root mass at harvest.

I like to think I have an open mind, although my exes would probably strongly disagree lol, so what am I missing?
 
Greengrouch

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
marzig said:
I'm having trouble seeing the advantages of RDWC over DWC, for me personally, in a 2x4 tent with just 1 or 2 buckets or totes. It just seems like extra components and nutes to deal with for 1 or 2 plants.

When I have 2 plants going full throttle, I do complete nute changes every 6 to 7 days. It's not that expensive for me to mix 12 gal of nutes (4 gal/bucket and 4 gal for topping off both buckets through the week). As far as time involved, it takes me no more than 1.5 hours to mix and exchange nutes in my 2 Hydrobuckets.

My tent is in an upstairs closet over a finished basement so I would also be concerned about roots plugging the drain pipes and causing an overflow event. As far as the capacity of 5 gal buckets holding only 4 gal, I totally fill up my tent wall to wall every grow and still have several inches of free space under the root mass at harvest.

I like to think I have an open mind, although my exes would probably strongly disagree lol, so what am I missing?
Click to expand...
Larger quantity of water gives better ph and temperature stability, filling and draining one reservoir without having to lift plants makes things easier, being able to hookup a water chiller. It’s a huge advantage over standalone dwc buckets. I’ll never go back
 
marzig

marzig

Member
Greengrouch said:
Larger quantity of water gives better ph and temperature stability, filling and draining one reservoir without having to lift plants makes things easier, being able to hookup a water chiller. It’s a huge advantage over standalone dwc buckets. I’ll never go back
Click to expand...
I have to admit that ph stability is very appealing, especially at lower ec levels in early veg. Do you find your ph is more stable even at lower nute concentrations?
 
amneziaHaze

amneziaHaze

Well-Known Member
Its a
marzig said:
I have to admit that ph stability is very appealing, especially at lower ec levels in early veg. Do you find your ph is more stable even at lower nute concentrations?
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Its a lie.i have 1 plant in 70L still ph drives daily.its just harder to know how much she eats since ppm changer a lot slower
 
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