Simple DWC in 25 gallon tote

Here's my proposed DWC build, with no prior experience and little research. Originally was going to use a 15 gallon HDX tote, I grabbed a 25 gallon instead so that's what I'm going with.

1 - 126GPH air pump with 2 ports
1 - 253GPH air pump with 4 ports, in case the smaller one doesn't cut it
50 ft black plastic tubing 1/4"
4x large cylindrical air stones
3x 6 inch wide rim net pots
10L Hydroton
GH Flora 3 pack
Spigot type deal for easier drainage, I still have no idea if this'll work without leaking.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J5K5VA0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Something to raise it off the ground

Here's a beautiful artist's rendition of the final product

The blue circles are the proposed location of the tubing and thus the air stones, I bought 4 just in case

Black circles are where I plan to locate the 6 inch net pots
Yellow is another net pot or porthole thing for quick access
The little tail is the spigot, placed as low as I can to assist in easy drainage.

I chose not to run a waterfall or water pump.
I may choose to run 4 sites instead of two.

The goal is some wide ass plants, 6 feet tall or less if I can help it.

Tell me why this won't work.

Mgalekgolo said:

The goal is some wide ass plants, 6 feet tall or less if I can help it.

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you "might" be able to fit 2. def not 4. i could do 2 4 footers pretty easy per 27g tote

when you grow more than one in one res, you risk the roots geting intertwined and if one gets rot, the others will too. but it can be done.

rkymtnman said:

you "might" be able to fit 2. def not 4. i could do 2 4 footers pretty easy per 27g tote

when you grow more than one in one res, you risk the roots geting intertwined and if one gets rot, the others will too. but it can be done.

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a 4 footer sounds reasonable, I'm running low wattage QBs(4x HLG120) for this run and I don't want to be in veg forever anyway. I have a couple autoflower seeds I wanted to run in hydro, two of the same autos running side by side sounds manageable.
I hear hydroguard is good for protecting against rootrot, I'll drop the money on that after I get everything set up but for now it's not in the budget. I need to get that and rapid rooters. Not sure if I can use the peat pellet things or not, I have a bunch of those I use for soil.

Any other suggestions?

i use rapid rooters, they work great
and get southern ag garden friendly fungicide instead of hydroguard. way cheaper and much more concentrated of the same stuff

I agree about the root tangle. You might also want to reinforce the tote lid, I had problems with the weight of the plants warping the hole.

Good luck

You can grow trees in 27 gal totes. Another option to consider if you want to run multiple plants would be using 10 gal totes. eliminates cross contamination/root issues and also allows you to fine tune nute strength to each plant. I run in 17 g totes and veg for 6 weeks-each 'plant' completely occupies a 2.5x2.5 area. That's why I said 27's can grow trees.

Skip the spigot.. Get a submersible pond pump to do you water transfers. Just stick some tubing on the output.
This might be helpful.
https://www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/hydroponic-growing-schedule/

rkymtnman said:

get southern ag garden friendly fungicide instead of hydroguard. way cheaper and much more concentrated of the same stuff

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$7.95 on Amazon and good reviews? Sold, thanks for the tip.

I think I'll start out with two, and if it proves to be too much next run I'll run a single plant.

Jypsy Dog said:

Skip the spigot.. Get a submersible pond pump to do you water transfers.

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I have an extra 300gph water pump from my cloner, I could probably make that work with pvc and a tube. Sounds like a good idea, thanks!

I might have a head start, the two with long roots are both critical kush cuts

For future reference, if I were to cut a couple inches off the bottom of the roots, would the plant recover?

keep an eye on that front right one. hard to tell if it's nute stain or maybe some rot in that brownish area.

i would ask why you'd want to cut roots. they will recover but no need to put undue stress if not needed.

rkymtnman said:

keep an eye on that front right one. hard to tell if it's nute stain or maybe some rot in that brownish area.

i would ask why you'd want to cut roots. they will recover but no need to put undue stress if not needed.

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I had clonex in there which seemed to stain the roots, but the sprayers were getting clogged so it could be root rot. I pulled on the roots and they didn't pull out, it smells normal and isn't really slimy so that's good? I'll leave it for a little and see what happens.

The roots are getting so long they're clogging up the sprayers, that's why I'm thinking I could cut them shorter

yeah, if they aren't slimy and don't pull right off, probably just stain.

i'm sure you are, but i would try to get those 2 big ones in a dwc ASAP. and running 2 of the same strain in the same res is preferred. that way they should require the same feed ratios.

If you haven't built the tub yet don't put you air lines thru the lid. PITA when you want to take the lid off. I've used Rubbermaid tubs for about 50 DWC grows and found that out the first one. I drill slightly smaller holes under the handle on the tub at one end and had 2 - 12" airstones lying in the slots along the bottom.

A drill pump works really well to empty tubs quick and use garden hose fittings. The end to go into the tub I covered with window screen held on with a SS hose clamp tho a nylon tie would work well too.

If you use the pond pump cover the inlet area with plastic screen attached with a glue gun. Keeps the roots out. I use one to circulate my nutes thru a water cooler to chill the nutes.



Wouldn't hurt to cut those long roots off a bit. The ones further up will branch out and new ones will grow quickly. I've cut them right off to the net pots when doing reveg in DWC and they are back really fast. Roots are not the delicate things most people think they are.

They take up little space as well. After this grow I cut the roots off and left them in the tub. Made a mark at the water level, took the roots out and then measured the amount of water to get back to that mark. Only 2L out of a 50L tub. There was 4 plants in each of the 4 net pots in that one.



I like to veg in the shorter tubs that hold 35L then when ready to flower switch to a taller tub that holds 50L with pots in. The lids are the same size so just have to prepare a new tub full of nutes then pop the lid off and drop it onto the fresh tub. I built a little cloner from a small rubbermaid tub that just uses a chopped down 12" stone and it roots cuttings pretty well without sprayers.

Plastic screen with a glue gun... It's so simple. I never liked the idea of hoses through the top anyway.
Really appreciate the input and suggestions guys, you're all incredibly helpful.

I have till Tuesday before all the stuff arrives and I start hacking away at this bin

So basically, if I use a water pump it's gonna have a permenant place at the bottom of the tub? That makes more sense then moving it in and out once the root mass gets larger.
With a drill pump, would I have a bulkhead near the bottom of the tub with a hose fitting, where I just screw that on and pull the water out? Not sure I understand exactly how it works

Mgalekgolo said:

With a drill pump, would I have a bulkhead near the bottom of the tub with a hose fitting, where I just screw that on and pull the water out? Not sure I understand exactly how it works

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With a drill pump you just connect a piece of garden hose on one side to stick into the tote. If you have a pail right beside the tote you can shoot the water into that or connect a hose to run it down the hall to a toilet or sump for disposal. I got mine at a CO-OP store but other hardware stores have them too. Just need a reversible electric drill to run it. For the inlet side on mine I just bought a brass hose fitting male end and a couple of feet of clear plastic tubing to stick on it. Had some window screen laying around from a repair kit to wrap a piece around the end. Damn new cats are hard on screen door screens.

If you got the hoses from an old clothes washer laying around they'd work great. Same size fittings.

Have to hang on to the pump when you pull the trigger. It'll spin and wrap up the hose making a mess if you don't. Ask me how I know.

@rkymtnman turned me on to this Milwaukee 101 pH meter. Less than 100 bucks... and I can leave the probe IN THE TANK while getting any pH issues under control. Beats the piss out of the smaller Hand Held. Had for a couple of years and is still my Fav.

Mgalekgolo said:

So basically, if I use a water pump it's gonna have a permenant place at the bottom of the tub? That makes more sense then moving it in and out once the root mass gets larger.
With a drill pump, would I have a bulkhead near the bottom of the tub with a hose fitting, where I just screw that on and pull the water out? Not sure I understand exactly how it works

Click to expand...

or plan C works well too. either lift up the lid enough or make a access port on the lid for the hose of a wet/dry vacuum.

So here's my setup

6" net pots
212PPM (Floragrow and micro)
6.56PH
15ML fungicide
Water level is about a half inch below the net pots
2 large cylindrical air stones standing up
Currently still figuring out how I want to pull the water out of the res
I'm leaning towards the drill pump as of now

I know those aren't the clones with long roots, I have 4 clones of CK growing in soil and none of the Incredible bulk, so I'm running two of the IB.

I didn't pull the roots through the hydroton, not sure if I should have or not.

With a temp gun I was reading 78, not sure if those work with water temps though

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

first, get 2 cans of spray paint for plastic. cover the yellow with black and then with white.

as you can see in that one pic, the yellow lets in too much ambient light.