DO question on an new system

So I'm getting ready to build a new system and I'm hoping to can get some opinions on whether or not I'm going to need air stones. I have plenty of pumps and stones but I'd rather not use them.

I've had issues with roots clogging up the works so I'm going at it from a different angle this time around.
Here's the plan:

And then use this for the reservoir to get DO:

So what do you all think? Enough DO for 4 x 5 gallon buckets?

Any help / advice / opinions are welcome, thanks for looking.

2WorldsFrog said:

So I'm getting ready to build a new system and I'm hoping to can get some opinions on whether or not I'm going to need air stones. I have plenty of pumps and stones but I'd rather not use them.

I've had issues with roots clogging up the works so I'm going at it from a different angle this time around.
Here's the plan:
View attachment 4361750
And then use this for the reservoir to get DO:
View attachment 4361754
So what do you all think? Enough DO for 4 x 5 gallon buckets?

Any help / advice / opinions are welcome, thanks for looking.

Click to expand...

Your approach to preventing roots from clogging your pipes is incorrect. You really don't want a bunch of elbows. It decreases the flow substantially.

What you want to do is use large pipes. For what you want to do, use 2" pipes, with at least a 3/4" polyvinyl tube back to the pump. At a minimum, use 3/4" PVC for your pump manifold.

Calculate the number of gallons you'll have in your system, and multiply that by 12, which is the number of times you want to cycle the total number of gallons an hour. That is the size water pump you need to get if you want to build an undercurrent system, with a waterfall. For example, if you have 100 gallons in your system, you will need to get a 1200gph pump, at a minimum. With that setup, you don't need an air pump.

If you don't want to run a pump that big, you can build a hybrid system, which is really just an RDWC. You would have a water pump to circulate the water, and air pump(s) to send air to airstones. With a larger water pump, you're going to be adding heat to your water, which you want to keep around 68 degrees. So, you might have to spend a few hundred bucks on a water chiller.

Mine is an RDWC, and it works great. If I were to build a system with as many totes as yours, I'd go RDWC. Reason being, by the time the water gets to the last reservoir, with an undercurrent and many totes, it has lost so much momentum that it would probably have trouble getting DO to the centers of the roots. To solve that, you could increase your pump size, but that adds more heat that you have to fight. With air stones under each plant, in an RDWC, you're getting the same amount of DO to all the plants. Something else you might run into, with getting a large water pump, is the current sucking the roots into the pipes.

Also, your waterfall is much larger than it has to be, and may not work as well as water u der pressure, jetting the water into he reservoir.

If you want to see how I built mine, click on the link in my signature box. A few pages in, I switch my design from buckets to totes. Probably around page 12.

Good luck

In my current RDWC setup I have a 550gph pump pushing into two separate totes with pvc pipes with holes like the pic above. It works really well, but the roots keep finding their way through 2 foot of pipe and getting into the pump. The pipes aren't clogged, the roots are just getting too long. So the plan is to have the water pumped in at the bottom of the buckets, with the pipe at the top taking the overflow to keep the water levels where they need to be. The only waterfall will be in the reservoir (pictured above).
I think I'll just throw an air stone in each bucket to be safe. I run the water pump inline and heat hasn't been an issue.
Still rockin' the 4x4 tent? I took down 18 oz. of super potent GG4 and Cheese out of mine last run. Kind of overcrowded it with a scrog though and I think the yield suffered a little. It was my first time with a tent, and RDWC, but it turned out really nice even with a few minor goofs.
I might do a build/grow journal on this next one, if I can remember to take pics.
Thanks for the input.

How can the water line at the reservoir be lower then the one in your bucket?
The Law of Communicating Vessels will also apply to your system.

I would ditch that design to be honest. I don't even want to get started on most of the design so I will just answer the DO part of it. Since your returns are going to be higher than your Rez level the water fall effect should give you enough DO without sprayers in there. High volume RDWC with water falls rocks.

2WorldsFrog said:

In my current RDWC setup I have a 550gph pump pushing into two separate totes with pvc pipes with holes like the pic above. It works really well, but the roots keep finding their way through 2 foot of pipe and getting into the pump. The pipes aren't clogged, the roots are just getting too long. So the plan is to have the water pumped in at the bottom of the buckets, with the pipe at the top taking the overflow to keep the water levels where they need to be. The only waterfall will be in the reservoir (pictured above).
I think I'll just throw an air stone in each bucket to be safe. I run the water pump inline and heat hasn't been an issue.
Still rockin' the 4x4 tent? I took down 18 oz. of super potent GG4 and Cheese out of mine last run. Kind of overcrowded it with a scrog though and I think the yield suffered a little. It was my first time with a tent, and RDWC, but it turned out really nice even with a few minor goofs.
I might do a build/grow journal on this next one, if I can remember to take pics.
Thanks for the input.

Click to expand...

You don't want to be pushing the water. It's more efficient to pull it.

Also, I misspoke. I meant to say that the tote at the beginning of the chain might not have enough flow to get DO to the center of the root balls in the first tote.