How To: DWC

@chronicals77 lol thanx man yea ive put good money into this system to get it right the first time. I'm really just gonna use t5 to supplement the leds I have already up....the rez is already set up outside the tent. I ill look Into the insulated clamps as well....im waiting on the fan speed controller I think that will reduce noise significantly.....one question I forgot to ask how do you measure gallons in a rez ?? I have a water transfer pump but my rez is made for 25 gallons but each bucket is 6.5 so when calculating amount of water for nutes I'm thinking 103 gallons of water is my overall amount right?? So I measure nutes based off of 103 gallons of circulating water.....I think that's right lemme know if I sound completely stupid lol

Im not entirely sure on that, even though your buckets are 6.5 there wont be 6.5 gallon circulating through each bucket. My buckets are 5 gal, but at start they only use 3.25 gal then once the roots are in the water it goes down to 2.5 gal. If you are unable to keep your nutes under 70f please use Hydroguard so you dont get root rot and have lots and lots and lots of bubbles. If things arent right root rot grows easily in DWC. I dont have a res, I use single buckets but your tent is twice my size.

What kind of nutes you using? When you transplant your plants into the buckets you want you water level a half inch up the baskets, once roots are several inches long drop the water to about 2" below the basket. For the very first week after transplant use no nutes or no more than 100ppm, once recovered and you have roots(usually 7-10 days) use half strength of what the bottle says for week one. I burnt my plants following the chart and I made the mistake of adding nutes soon as I transplanted. Start week one officially once the plant recovers and statrs growing not the day you pot them up. Ive never used a res so unfortunately I cannot tell you how to mark and keep track of your gallons. Monitoring ppm and ph however is crucial. During flower your plants will use a gallon a day at times, you have to check ppm to know if you add nutes or just water when its low. If your ppm goes up your plants have only used water so only add water, if your ppm goes down add nutes. I also rinse my roots each time I change nutes but again I have single bucket systems. Oh and make sure if you only need to add water it needs to be PH'd water. I ph at 5.8-60.

Ok got ya see I had to ask I prob would have made the same mistake and fed nutes the first week to. I'm definitely getting hydro guard with some cal mag I ordered fox farm recipe for success. I will be chilling water with f frozen water bottles as well just in case. I guess ill have to just eye the water levels and adjust accordingly . What about seeds do u suggest ordering online?? I have exactly 12 black striped seeds that I've picked out of a bunch of fire bud bags.....Idk if their male or female but I figure to do a test run in case I mess up what u think

Trapgod1728 said:

Ok got ya see I had to ask I prob would have made the same mistake and fed nutes the first week to. I'm definitely getting hydro guard with some cal mag I ordered fox farm recipe for success. I will be chilling water with f frozen water bottles as well just in case. I guess ill have to just eye the water levels and adjust accordingly . What about seeds do u suggest ordering online?? I have exactly 12 black striped seeds that I've picked out of a bunch of fire bud bags.....Idk if their male or female but I figure to do a test run in case I mess up what u think

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Its too hard to explain on here but I know a trick by looking at the seeds how to select the female seeds. Its always been 90% or better for me, out of 10 seeds ill get one or two males instead of 50%-60%. You only need cal-mag if your using coco coir or RO water. I use distilled, 001ppm. IMO frozen bottles are basically useless unless you want to change them every 3 hours especially if your water is in the 80's. Im not trying to tell you what to do though. If you have the power and the money I would get a decent chiller. Oh and since your using a res you can drop you temp by 10f just by positioning a fan to blow accross the surface of your water. You have to top off more often though. My nutes stay 74f-76f so I just use Hydroguard. Do you have a private contact? I can teach you the seed sexing trick, like I said though its not a 100%, it is however 90% at least for me it has been. Even 75% is better than mostly males.

All good I appreciate any help honestly. Ok so forget cal mag....I'm using tap as it's not too far off proper ph... Yea btw I have a snap chat app if u wanna communicate that. It's fiasco2wild. And yea dam Idk bout the chiller I looked those up and those are kinda expensive on top of the other stuff I still need to get....

Trapgod1728 said:

All good I appreciate any help honestly. Ok so forget cal mag....I'm using tap as it's not too far off proper ph... Yea btw I have a snap chat app if u wanna communicate that. It's fiasco2wild. And yea dam Idk bout the chiller I looked those up and those are kinda expensive on top of the other stuff I still need to get....

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You can get a chiller for $100 on Ebay, I know thats not exactly cheap. I would get one, I just have no where to plug it in. lol. Call your water dept, if they use chloramines or flouride you dont want to use it. Niether evaporates like chlorine. I have a still and make shine so I can make all the distilled water I want. Lol.

Well dam lucky u.....lol im stuck on tap for time being I might have to just get water chiller with hydro guard and shoot for the best. Dam I want some of that shine though bottoms up

Are you eastcoast or westcoast? The only prob with flouride and chloramines is it can cause nute bind and a few other things. Try to find a diff source, IF you absolutely cannot then you must do what ya gotta do. Ask around, see if anyone in your area knows where there is a natural spring(human safe). That would be better than tap IF you're water DOES have flourides and chloramines. If it doesnt you dont have to worry about it. Just let it sit open to the air for 48hrs before using.

I'm east coast down south deep south . And yea I need to start looking into the water sources here your right. I thought as long as ph and ppm was according to standard I'd be ok. For privacy and security I honestly don't ask too many questions regarding my hobby being that where I'm at its still looked at in a negative manner compared to west coast. Got a bunch of homies in co I hit for advice but out here hell no! Lol I mean I've thought about ro water and distilled but that's more money when I can just use tap especially at first. Once I get my first grow under my belt maybe then ill consider doing ro.

I have friends in low places, lol. I too am East Coast but 8-11hrs north of you. Im hoping medical cannabis passes here this fall. Its just ridiculous, Nixon and Regan made the worst call on cannabis. It should be legal nationally, its not a drug its a medicinal plant. Period! Drugs undergo a chemical process for production, ALL drugs. Cannabis is a damn plant and needs no processing other than drying. Everyone that thinks its so bad has never tried it, even the current President of the U.S. has smoked it!! Its helps soooooo many.

Sorry bout the rant. Lol. Ignorance pisses me off! You'll more than likely be ok with tap, a lot of people grow successfully using tap water but it doesnt have flouride or chloramines. The way to buy distilled is find it as cheap as you can in bulk BUT your using a lot more water than I am and I may be partial due to the still. Lol. I would never use RO myself because for ever 1 gallon of usable water you waste 3-4gal. With the tap just allow it to evap for 48hrs before use and you should be ok. I use straight tap water when I run out of rain for all my bonsai trees and it seems to have no effect at all but DWC is much different than soil growing outdoors.

I know this is random but I just recieved a new carbon filter in the mail and its heavier than shit! It may have to sit on the floor but I dont think they work as well as hanging them.

Yea I actually have fam where I think your talking about.....I saw y'all are trying to legalize it medically maybe even recreationally...red Sox fan right?? Yea the fan runs kinda loud hung up but not that bad. Yea I'm definitely using tap so ill just have to make it work best I can. Will let it sit 2 days like you said. At least on my first run I know to go super light on nutes. I need to figure out this window vent exhaust situation lol everything is almost ready and that's my last hurdle.....fuck lol

Trapgod1728 said:

Yea I actually have fam where I think your talking about.....I saw y'all are trying to legalize it medically maybe even recreationally...red Sox fan right?? Yea the fan runs kinda loud hung up but not that bad. Yea I'm definitely using tap so ill just have to make it work best I can. Will let it sit 2 days like you said. At least on my first run I know to go super light on nutes. I need to figure out this window vent exhaust situation lol everything is almost ready and that's my last hurdle.....fuck lol

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Thats right, you got it. Lol. Recreationally was last year, it didnt pass but medical will pass this year. I believe it! Never know though, since that family of 8 was killed last month over 3 large grows they may pass it all together. People should not be getting killed over a plant, decriminalization completely would remove it from the street market all together and produces OVER a billion dollars yearly for that state. They want to keep us poor though, so they have all the power. Politics is such horse shit! Lol.

Maybe take a few pictures of what your needing to do and your materials and I might be able to help you figure something out.

Yea tell me about it. One thing I've noticed is laws only get passed in this country when money is involved. The minute big bro sees a potential profit the masses magically manifest a new concept towards an idea. It amazes me how gullible the masses are lol lemme stop with my conspiracy theories ill go for days......but yea so I've pretty much figured I'm better off using my central a.c. and buying heaters for the gf when she's cold.....in the summer mind u that should say everything about this beautiful crazy ass woman.....Lemme stop on that one to. Lol so I'm going to make a wicker blind exhaust like the growweedeasy example they have. Being that my ducting is 10 inches idk if that will be a good idea trying to make it fit in a really skinny window kit from a portable ac tell me if u think different. I'm about to start testing the rdwc seeing how loud everything is and making sure everything is running smoothly with no leaks. Will give update on what happens.

I think it would pull better if you reduced the 10" duct to an 8" or 6" but thats just me.

Maybe this will give you an idea, when my window AC is running that's all I can hear. When I turn that off all I hear is the 8" exhaust fan, when I turn that off all I hear is the air pump and I never turn that off. My air pump is louder than my ballast. When I hook my carbon filter up that will quiet my fan even more. The more air tight your exhaust system and ducting the quieter it will be and if you use rubber cords for your fan that will remove vibration and more noise. This is all just suggestions by the way.

And that is exactly right, when big money wants something that's when it goes up for election. But that's also why it didn't pass last year because it would have caused a monopoly. It would have only allowed 10 preselected people to grow for dispensaries and allow no small farming. That's why it was shot down. Again, the rich wanting to get richer and keep the poor people poor! If something reasonable isn't passed this year everyone in this country will know who I am when I go on a political attack!! Lol. No joke...

Right on brother I wish the sunshine state would have had the balls to get it passed medically at least.....over half voted yes and they still said it had to be overwhelming majority what a crock of shit lol......Yea I'm gonna get this water going soon I'm getting anxious to test it

Trapgod1728 said:

Right on brother I wish the sunshine state would have had the balls to get it passed medically at least.....over half voted yes and they still said it had to be overwhelming majority what a crock of shit lol......Yea I'm gonna get this water going soon I'm getting anxious to test it

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That is rewriting the Constitution right there, this country is has already become a communist country right under our noses! There's more that we can't do than we can do. Such ribbish.

Cannabis should have never even become considered a drug let alone being illegal. It used to grow wild in places in the U.S. and since the 40's-50's they have eradicated it in the wild because they believed once you used it one time it transformed people into a permanet state of psychosis. Unbelievable!

Hope you get your set up going, if you need anything ill help you the best I can. Im surprised no one else said anything or had any suggestions.

@chronicals77 hey man I set everything up but 3 of fly buckets have a small leak any tips on how to seal individual buckets that are part of 12 bucket system?? I tightened everything good but it still leaks a bit...other than that system is ready to go I just wanna figure these leaks out....any advice from anybody else highly appreciated for real.Lemme know if u need pics thanx again

Trapgod1728 said:

@chronicals77 hey man I set everything up but 3 of fly buckets have a small leak any tips on how to seal individual buckets that are part of 12 bucket system?? I tightened everything good but it still leaks a bit...other than that system is ready to go I just wanna figure these leaks out....any advice from anybody else highly appreciated for real.Lemme know if u need pics thanx again

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Did you use mild soap like dawn to lube the rubber gromets and plastic fittings? They should seal, if you didnt lube them and they were tight and you forced them its possible to have torn something. The only thing I know if you cant get them to stop is use a thin layer of aquarium sealant. 100% pure silicone with NO additives is the exact same thing and much cheaper. Maybe someone with a little more DWC experience has some suggestions. If you use the sealant make sure you allow it to fully cure before using your system. Ive never had fittings leak but I do use the sealant to keep my air stones from moving around but it will work for your leaks. If it were me id gently take the leaky ones appart and reattach everything using a little mild soap. Rinse all the soap completely out of your system afterward.

@chronicals77 ok will try taking everything apart and trying again hopefully it works right ill give update tomorrow thnx