Under Current DWC In DR120 Tent

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Hi, I have been growing DWC style for 4 years and have perfected my nutes of choice(maxibloom, koolbloom and gravity) and can predict how my plants will use them. I normaly grow 4-5 buckets and I veg under a 1000w MH bulb 20/4 . I get really short dense plants which I top 2 times then put them into flower a week later. I run a powerful linear piston air pump to micropore XL air stones in each bucket. Depending on the season I can run my HPS at 600, 750,1000 or 1000+. At times when I can't control the temp (87 sometimes) I run co2 from a 20lb can to the tent. It's pretty easy to keep my co2 levels at 1500ppm but I go thru a can every 6ish days. I only use co2 during flowering and I dont consider the first 2 weeks of 12/12 flowering.

Ok So that's my background and here is my problem. I have to go away on business a lot and sometimes I'm gone 5 weeks. I used to have someone I would pay to take care of them. I made it super easy on them. I mixed up 2 55gal drums with 600ppm of maxi/koolbloom. There was a pump connected to a hose so all you had to do is drop the blue labs ph and nute probe into the bucket plug in the pump and fill the bucket from the drum, Adjust ph to 5.8 by adding drops (Pro tip: I use old 1 liter plastic bottles with a nail hole poked on top for my ph up and down bottles. 40% solution 60% distiled water. This way you dont get drastic changes when you add a few drops).

This person can't help me anymore due to medical reasons. I have ghetto rigged a system before I trusted anyone to tell them about the grow but I had to go away for 25 days. I bought 4 very small pumps and ran tubing from 4 30gallon totes of 500ppm 5.7ph water to each of my 5 gallon dwc buckets. I used a digital timer to make the pumps come on every 3 or 4 days for 1 or 2 minutes (I forgot). I didn't care if the dwc buckets overflowed. When I left They were 1 week into flower, almost week 5 when I returned. With no human interaction they looked great!

I grow tired of tending to 6-7 buckets (4-5 flowering, a mom and clones) every 3 days. I don't do this for profit, I have a shitty job for that. Under current dwc looks sexy to me. The thought of hooking up an automatic ph controller to my control container and a 55gallon drum above the control container, connected by a float valve.....Jesus christ I won't have to do shit. I can finally super corp because i'm not sliding lids off buckets or wrestling plants when I have to do a 100% change, not wasting co2 opening the door.

Check out my UCDWC design. I feel it's better then some of ther others I have seen. I don't need a chiller (yet) but when that weather rolls around again it will be the first thing on my list.

Notes:

2" or 3" pvc not sure
100% uniseals
Containers will be 10gallons+ Most likely square white buckets wrapped in foil tape.
Getting away with smallest quality pump possible 4x per hour ish
Controller containers return from pump will be a long pvc spray bar with multiple 1/8" holes drilled in it.
My air pump and stones kick ass so I don't care too much about turnover rate
My roots are always big and white but they never really go Super low in the bucket (It's always a big mass in the center). I don't have much fear of roots TOTALLY clogging a 2" pipe really low in the container, I don't veg monsters . I plan to mount the controller bucket slightly higher then the sites.
55 drum will be on a cinderblock and wood plank above the res. Are float valves more reliable then a pump on a digital timer?
My nutes always make my water go down in ph I will be adding a automatic ph up controller

Trying to upload the pic

Looks good mate..with fluming you could probably get away with no air pump or stones, maybe 1 in the rez..
Maybe isolating valves between each bucket, in case you wanted to work on a particular site without dropping all the water back to the rez..i think the float may be better for not flooding the joint..this creating an electrical fault..

I feel you. Right now I'm doing my first UC run. Built the system myself and have everything
hooked up, including a top off res @ 1/3 nutrient strength. I had 2 days to set everything up and
dial it in before going on a week long vacation and also installed IP cameras in the area so I could
remote monitor it while I was gone. Feel free to check out the post in my sig.

Easy way for water is a float valve. I have floats on everything these days. Then just gravity feed
the water by elevating a top off res and running pex tubing to the float valve.

Prototype coming along so far. The square pvc thing in the rez is a spraybar, multiple 1/8" holes drilled on the underside. 2 Alita 3.75" Sintered Air Stone Discs per container. I can keep my air pump in a 65F or less area so I'm ok on temps until next summer when I will either go 10k btu ac or 1/2 hp chiller and icebox.

The 2 containers with the net pots on them will be going in the tent. The other is the rez which will be topped off buy the 55gal barrel (outside the tent). I'm going to put the barrel on cinder blocks and 1/2" plywood.

I will be adding a T and 2 ball valves just above the pump, I have a drain like 2 feet away

To "insulate" the piping and containers I'm going to use a 49x49" 3/4" sheet of Styrofoam with Mylar on top (The internal footprint of the tent is 47x47 but the walls ant that level stretch). I'm Just going to lay it on the 2 containers and cut holes for the netpots. I will bleach the airstones after each grow when I will be able to remove the sheet. This will waste less co2 and insulate the whole bottom half of the tent. I think it should work great once I'm sure I don't have any leaks.

@LivingCanvas- Nice set up! I use the sentinel co2 and environment controller. AWESOME product. I had two $65 CAP high temperature shutdowns melt on me, what junk. I do use a cap Ozone gen but I think it's just re-banded. Why the chiller and the AC tho? I'm thinking 10k btu AC should cool 2000w to the low 70's. Was it just to go that extra mile for max DO @ 60F? I will be adding a T and ball valve just above the pump, I have a drain like 2 feet away


Still waiting on a float valve,airline tubing, automatic ph controller, Blueprint Digital timer and a mag drive pump. This pump has seen alot of work but it's just a prop. I want a band new pump that I can rely on.750 gph should keep that spraybar blasting....

My idea is veg in my small tent under the 400watt MH, about 4 weeks from seed. Put them into the system @500 ppm first week of 12/12. SCROG the first 2 weeks of flower. Adjust nutes, They like 700ppm at this point. Fill 55gal drum with 1000ppm nutes @5.8ph. Leave the system for 30 days. I'm not sure if a second 55g drum will be needed. I'm sure this system can THRIVE for weeks 2-7 of flower. At that point it I would flush it and refill the system and 55gal with new nutes and gravity. 3weeks later or a littler sooner, drain and refill with tap water to flush for 3 days. Wish I could automate that too but that's just a personal preference, I'm sure I could get through all the weeks if I had enough barrels and didn't care about the gravity.

My plant centers are pretty much 20" apart and 23" apart.

poopstain2 said:

@LivingCanvas- Nice set up! I use the sentinel co2 and environment controller. AWESOME product. I had two $65 CAP high temperature shutdowns melt on me, what junk. I do use a cap Ozone gen but I think it's just re-banded. Why the chiller and the AC tho? I'm thinking 10k btu AC should cool 2000w to the low 70's. Was it just to go that extra mile for max DO @ 60F? I will be adding a T and ball valve just above the pump, I have a drain like 2 feet away


Still waiting on a float valve,airline tubing, automatic ph controller, Blueprint Digital timer and a mag drive pump. This pump has seen alot of work but it's just a prop. I want a band new pump that I can rely on.750 gph should keep that spraybar blasting....

My idea is veg in my small tent under the 400watt MH, about 4 weeks from seed. Put them into the system @500 ppm first week of 12/12. SCROG the first 2 weeks of flower. Adjust nutes, They like 700ppm at this point. Fill 55gal drum with 1000ppm nutes @5.8ph. Leave the system for 30 days. I'm not sure if a second 55g drum will be needed. I'm sure this system can THRIVE for weeks 2-7 of flower. At that point it I would flush it and refill the system and 55gal with new nutes and gravity. 3weeks later or a littler sooner, drain and refill with tap water to flush for 3 days. Wish I could automate that too but that's just a personal preference, I'm sure I could get through all the weeks if I had enough barrels and didn't care about the gravity.

My plant centers are pretty much 20" apart and 23" apart.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the AC shouldn't be needed in the winter, just the summer. In winter I will turn my vent fan around and pull cold air
from outside through the lights and dump it into the room. The chiller is something I had from a Icebox setup I used temporarily as an AC.
I want my water at 65* for max DO/preventing pathogens and root rot.

-Just one though on your 55gal top off res: I wouldn't not suggest filling it @ 1000ppm. As the plants drink water, the res will top off.
However, they are not necessarily using as much nutes as they are drinking water, which means, you will get nutrient buildup, pH will
likely drop out of range, you will get lockouts and deficiencies, and harvest will be greatly reduced if it's left to run unattended for 30 days.
I would recommend more of a 1/3-1/2 ratio of nutrients in top off. IE: If you run the system @ 1000ppm, do your top off res @ 300-500ppms.
Also, I doubt one 55gal will be enough. My UC runs @ 40 gals to bottom of the net pot. I've already used 40gal of top up water in the last 2 weeks.
Your res + 2 "pods" I would assume use at least 15gal pet tub = 45gal, so you're already needing to top off even more than me.

Just a thought. Nice work on the build!