How many water changes per hour for DIY RDWC Waterfall/Fallponics?

V

Verdant Vicar

Active Member
We have seen conflicting information from multiple changes per hour to once every 1-2 hour.

What is the target number of water changes per hour for a DIY waterfall / fallponics system (PA Hydroponics) to each grow site?
What about for a DIY undercurrent system (like cch2o).

Much smaller scale, 3 x 15 gal totes returning to a 5 gal bucket reservoir. Total = 50 gal.
Then I could calculate the pump required and piping.

Looking to use an inline pump next to the reservoir to avoid heating up the water.
 
GBAUTO

GBAUTO

Well-Known Member
My 4 tote UC style setup uses a 700gph mag drive with a 45 gal total.
I've used this setup for a couple of seasons and it works really well.
 
JSB99

JSB99

Well-Known Member
Verdant Vicar said:
We have seen conflicting information from multiple changes per hour to once every 1-2 hour.

What is the target number of water changes per hour for a DIY waterfall / fallponics system (PA Hydroponics) to each grow site?
What about for a DIY undercurrent system (like cch2o).

Much smaller scale, 3 x 15 gal totes returning to a 5 gal bucket reservoir. Total = 50 gal.
Then I could calculate the pump required and piping.

Looking to use an inline pump next to the reservoir to avoid heating up the water.
Click to expand...
For a true UnderCurrent setup, you need a water pump that will cycle the total number of gallons, 12 times/hr. You wouldn't run the pump intermittently, but all the time.

For example, if you had 100 gallons in your system, then you would need a 1200gph pump.
 
GBAUTO

GBAUTO

Well-Known Member
Verdant Vicar said:
Thanks!!! What size tubing and which connectors have you used?
Anything at the end to have a bigger splash agitation?
Click to expand...
This pump has a 1"npt inlet and 3/4"npt outlet, so I just run pvc in those sizes.
My inlet bulkhead is a 1 1/2" and I reduce that to 1" for the pump.
I currently use the mag drive to also circulate through the chiller but next year I'm going to use a separate 396gph pump for the chiller and use the 700 just for circulation/waterfalls.
I think the simplest method for a spray head is using a pvc cap that has multiple small holes drilled into the end to act as a showerhead.
 
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