Bluezdude
Well-Known Member
Up to July that I started getting interested in growing, I had no idea what DWC or RDWC was. But that's why rollitup is, the amount of info here is amazing. So I kinda dedicate this grow to all the people here who taught me to grow and what a lovely experience it is.
As amazing are some of the journals that have been written. I drew my inspiration from Dayzt's Tangerine Dream and decided that I should give it a go as well.
Being an unemployed musician (we play a lot but there's no money for it
) I wasn't going to give my petty cash towards something that I thought I can build with half the money. So I made myself this:
The bucket is a 21 litre ordinary bin, on top of it sits a small basin that should be about 4-5 litres. There are some amazing plans on the net about how to build a RDWC unit which I followed successfully. It's no big deal really. If you can handle a drill then you're ready to give it a go.
The total cost of the unit was at 52 euros (10 for the bucket and basin, 39 for the two air pumps, the airstone and the tubing, and the rest 3 are more or less the plastic parts, rough estimate). I'm using 2 air pumps instead of one, the one is recirculating the water, the other one is on the airstone. With the extra pump I can send cooler air from outside the tent into the reservoir so I can keep the temperature down, and hell, the extra oxygen will only do good
The hydroton was washed thoroughly and the unit was working for 6 days with just water to work it a bit and check for leaks from where the grommet is placed. I had a tiny one but managed to fix it after some thought. What happened, was that the hole I created for it was a tiny bit larger that it had to be (about a millimetre). To fix it, I placed some tubing at the ankle which increased its diametre.
Also, not having the ability to pay for a RO filter, I'll be using my tap water. This is not as bad as it sounds since it's water from a drill that goes down to 140 meters, I draw from 107m depth and there is about 30 metre rock on top of that. Yes the ppms are at 225 (tho sometimes i did measure it at 240) but at least it's all natural. No chlorine or any other additives. So yeap, I'll go with that at least till I can spare some money for a filter which might take a while.
I've planted a White Widow feminised from amsterdammarijuanaseeds.com
On the 28th of October it was put in a coco cube and placed on a plate covered with a transparent party cup to help with the moisture. Once the seed cracked it was placed in the RDWC unit on the 1st of November.
For the first days it was covered with the plastic cup to improve the humidity and to avoid it drying up. Once the cup left since the plant outgrew it, a piece of black and white plastic was placed over the hydroton.
This picture is from today. The cover has been there for about 7 days or so, took it off on Friday and placed a new one today. I took it off since I replaced the ring at that time as I explain later on.
As said, the cover was there to avoid spillage. When I drilled it to create the holes, accidentally in some places I drilled all the way through which created holes on the top of it as well. The holes on the new one were made with a tiny screwdriver and were enlarged a bit using a larger one, so that's fixed now.
Today we're on day 13 since germination. Some roots as you can see are already making their way down.
So far I've been trying to keep my ph at 5.4 to 6.5. I'm not trying to be a control freak, the fluctuations aren't that bad and it'll get steadier when I start using more nutes.
Talking about nutes, on it's second week I gave it foolishly 600 ppms (final read, including the water ppms). She showed me almost immediately that it was a bit too much for her, so after a couple of hours took it down to 460 which she liked. At the moment it reads 530, she doesn't seem to mind so I'll let it ride a bit. I'm also thinking on changing the rez tomorrow, give the roots some fresh water as they'll start to settle down there.
And that's about it for now. All comments/advice/anything are welcome
As amazing are some of the journals that have been written. I drew my inspiration from Dayzt's Tangerine Dream and decided that I should give it a go as well.
Being an unemployed musician (we play a lot but there's no money for it
) I wasn't going to give my petty cash towards something that I thought I can build with half the money. So I made myself this:
The bucket is a 21 litre ordinary bin, on top of it sits a small basin that should be about 4-5 litres. There are some amazing plans on the net about how to build a RDWC unit which I followed successfully. It's no big deal really. If you can handle a drill then you're ready to give it a go.
The total cost of the unit was at 52 euros (10 for the bucket and basin, 39 for the two air pumps, the airstone and the tubing, and the rest 3 are more or less the plastic parts, rough estimate). I'm using 2 air pumps instead of one, the one is recirculating the water, the other one is on the airstone. With the extra pump I can send cooler air from outside the tent into the reservoir so I can keep the temperature down, and hell, the extra oxygen will only do good
The hydroton was washed thoroughly and the unit was working for 6 days with just water to work it a bit and check for leaks from where the grommet is placed. I had a tiny one but managed to fix it after some thought. What happened, was that the hole I created for it was a tiny bit larger that it had to be (about a millimetre). To fix it, I placed some tubing at the ankle which increased its diametre.
Also, not having the ability to pay for a RO filter, I'll be using my tap water. This is not as bad as it sounds since it's water from a drill that goes down to 140 meters, I draw from 107m depth and there is about 30 metre rock on top of that. Yes the ppms are at 225 (tho sometimes i did measure it at 240) but at least it's all natural. No chlorine or any other additives. So yeap, I'll go with that at least till I can spare some money for a filter which might take a while.
I've planted a White Widow feminised from amsterdammarijuanaseeds.com
On the 28th of October it was put in a coco cube and placed on a plate covered with a transparent party cup to help with the moisture. Once the seed cracked it was placed in the RDWC unit on the 1st of November.
For the first days it was covered with the plastic cup to improve the humidity and to avoid it drying up. Once the cup left since the plant outgrew it, a piece of black and white plastic was placed over the hydroton.
This picture is from today. The cover has been there for about 7 days or so, took it off on Friday and placed a new one today. I took it off since I replaced the ring at that time as I explain later on.
As said, the cover was there to avoid spillage. When I drilled it to create the holes, accidentally in some places I drilled all the way through which created holes on the top of it as well. The holes on the new one were made with a tiny screwdriver and were enlarged a bit using a larger one, so that's fixed now.
Today we're on day 13 since germination. Some roots as you can see are already making their way down.
So far I've been trying to keep my ph at 5.4 to 6.5. I'm not trying to be a control freak, the fluctuations aren't that bad and it'll get steadier when I start using more nutes.
Talking about nutes, on it's second week I gave it foolishly 600 ppms (final read, including the water ppms). She showed me almost immediately that it was a bit too much for her, so after a couple of hours took it down to 460 which she liked. At the moment it reads 530, she doesn't seem to mind so I'll let it ride a bit. I'm also thinking on changing the rez tomorrow, give the roots some fresh water as they'll start to settle down there.
And that's about it for now. All comments/advice/anything are welcome
) As for the setup, cheers but it wasn't really that difficult to make, I'm sure that anyone that can change a light bulb can do it 
