Blazeoneup's Recirculating Dwc Construction Tutorial!

[blazeoneup]

Mrgrowman

I mix the nutrients into the main reservoir not the controller. Here is how it works the ro system is hooked up to the float valve on the main reservoir.Then the controller is hooked up to the reservoir through a float valve. Every week I tie the float valve up on the controller preventing the main res from topping off the system why I am draining. I then mix my nutrients into the main res, Begin draining the system. Once the system is fully drained down to like 1" of solution left throughout the whole system, I test the ppm and ph make sure everything is accurate in the main res then I release the float on the controller and the res is emptied into the system, Then the ro will auto refill the main res with plain ro water, and topp the system off through-out the rest of the week and come the weekend I repeat the previous steps...

 

[HyGradeChronic]

*yawn*

*yawn*

.....
..... wow, they talk about censorship here at icmag and HELL YEA HGC's SEEN IT 1ST HAND . I NO LIKEE, BT NOT MY SITE.
..... blaze, i stopped by to say hi and see how things are going. are you running 2 rooms, that dwc sucks canal water ese, too many nutes/water, imo. but you do well with it. lol, did we have fun fecking w/krusty or what??? hope he pops in my pg treez thread when i'm bored, trolling anf]d flamin' add so just flair to otherwise dry subject.
..... bwaaaaahahahahaha, yaa think BIG TOKE or GYPSY, or DG, or OP coulda/woulda put up with it. proll not, thas why this site just doesnt do it for hgc anymore. but i still respect members and mods and admin as much as they deserve. hohoho,
..... yea, BT WOULDA BURST A BIO BLOOD VESSEL TRYING TO DEAL WITH KRUSTY/KRISTY.
..... Alla best ese to you n yours i get to your place soon i promise.
..... peace
..... HGC

 

[cobain420]

Nice setup man, good to see your still doing your thing

 

[XGovernor]

So i think im going to switch over from doing a simple dwc, to do an easy 2 bucket recirc dwc. It will probably be easier to maintain, and i think it will work well with scrog. Thanks for the tut.

 

[Hempstress]

Return line and feed line question

Return line and feed line question

I am running 3 rows of 4 buckets and will have 3 return lines. Can I tee these 3 lines together, increase line size to 1" or 1-1/4" when I tee them and only have 1 connection to the controller? I would put the shut off for each row at the end of the row before they tied together.
Because of space constraints, I would like to locate the controller and res in the adjacent room and I would rather only have 3 holes through the wall--1 for the return lines, 1 for the feed line and 1 for the air line.
Also does the feed line need to be on the same level as the return lines? You used 2 90s to lower the feed line to floor level. Is there a purpose for this or is it just for neatness sake?

 

[blazeoneup]

Hempstress

I guess it could be done that way, Though I feel its better to run one return for each row seperately to the controller.
The feed line doesnt have to be ran along the return lines that was soley for neatness.

 

[simpleword]

Mrgrowman

I mix the nutrients into the main reservoir not the controller. Here is how it works the ro system is hooked up to the float valve on the main reservoir.Then the controller is hooked up to the reservoir through a float valve. Every week I tie the float valve up on the controller preventing the main res from topping off the system why I am draining. I then mix my nutrients into the main res, Begin draining the system. Once the system is fully drained down to like 1" of solution left throughout the whole system, I test the ppm and ph make sure everything is accurate in the main res then I release the float on the controller and the res is emptied into the system, Then the ro will auto refill the main res with plain ro water, and topp the system off through-out the rest of the week and come the weekend I repeat the previous steps...

Apparently I misunderstood this earlier. So this means that I will have to have a large enough reservoir to fill the buckets and the controller to the right level? Crap that means that I need a 100 gallon reservoir. Is there any reason I couldn't do it in 2 stages, as in fill the res, mix in my nutes, empty into the system, and repeat?

Another question if you don't mind: I have a ecoplus commercial air 5 air pump which puts out 88 LPM of air. According to my calculations, that should be enough for 24 buckets. However, distributing it between 24 buckets seems difficult. If I just ran the air line in a similar manner to the feed line, how it tees off at every bucket, do you think that the air distribution would be equal between buckets?

Thanks

 

[kiwi quad]

hi,hempstress this is my first try doing dwc,only three wks into flowering,i have 4 rows of three buckets and have 2 rows coming into one so i have two lines going to the contoller which i have outside the room,i would think as long as the return hose is bigger than the sum of the hoses going into it it would be impossible for it to overflow the buckets,i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed so i could be wrong but ive had no overflow problems with mine so far,touch wood,infact every day i get more amazed how quickly they are growing,thanks for the plans blaze

 

[WhoAmI?]

A little help...

A little help...

Blaze - Thanks for the bangin' tutorial! It takes a unique person to dedicate the time and sweat as you do, to encourage the GROWTH of such a great cause!! You've definately inspired me to take a stab at such an attractive method of growing. The only problem is that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist...I hope it is not my downfall!

My goal is to make the most efficient/low maintenance system possible. Money IS NOT AN ISSUE. To begin with, what size rez and controller would you say I need for an eight-bucket system (two rows of 4)? Also, what size water pump would be necessary for more than an optimal exchange?

The room is 10x11 with 8' ceilings, of which I will use a 4x8 area for flowering. The room will be completely sealed. I'll be running two air-cooled digi 600s for flowering and a low wattage MH for the selected mothers (not sure on mother wattage, any suggestions?)

As per your plan, I'm going to run air stones in each bucket as well as the controller and rez. What size air pump would you recommend for my system? Also, would a 1/15 hp chiller do the trick or should I shell out for the 1/10 hp??

This is about all the questions I have for now...hope its not too much to ask. I'm very confident that I will make the most of this system and hope that I can contribute to this community as much as I have taken. Bless!

 

[MID TOWN]

WhoamI- If i were you I'd go with a 1/4 hp chiller

 

[blazeoneup]

Blaze - Thanks for the bangin' tutorial! It takes a unique person to dedicate the time and sweat as you do, to encourage the GROWTH of such a great cause!! You've definately inspired me to take a stab at such an attractive method of growing. The only problem is that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist...I hope it is not my downfall!

My goal is to make the most efficient/low maintenance system possible. Money IS NOT AN ISSUE. To begin with, what size rez and controller would you say I need for an eight-bucket system (two rows of 4)? Also, what size water pump would be necessary for more than an optimal exchange?

The room is 10x11 with 8' ceilings, of which I will use a 4x8 area for flowering. The room will be completely sealed. I'll be running two air-cooled digi 600s for flowering and a low wattage MH for the selected mothers (not sure on mother wattage, any suggestions?)

As per your plan, I'm going to run air stones in each bucket as well as the controller and rez. What size air pump would you recommend for my system? Also, would a 1/15 hp chiller do the trick or should I shell out for the 1/10 hp??

This is about all the questions I have for now...hope its not too much to ask. I'm very confident that I will make the most of this system and hope that I can contribute to this community as much as I have taken. Bless!

For 8 buckets the controller size isnt an issue you can use another 5 gallon bucket if you want to for the controller. All the controller size matters for is having room for the pump chiller and anything else you may have in there airstones ect. So you can go with basically whatever is most suitable for you on the controller it needs only to be big enough to hold what will be housed in it, And be tall enough to set the water level properly.The RES needs to be large enough to fill the complete system controller and all buckets full with one fill up. So with a little quick math 8 buckets will require a res around 32 gallons.

Well a 400+ gph pump will give more then optimal exchange however the method I used in this system for the feed lines may leak under high pressure. So you may either want to go a different route on the feeds or just keep the pump around 200ish gph per hr.

On the air pumps bigger the better so go as big as you can with the air pumps. If you actually want to me tell you what size as in how many lpm then just let me know but bigger is better when it comes to the air pumps.

You can do a big mom under a 400mh works fine for a mom specially when you only need 8-16 clones max.I would get at minimum a 1/10th hp chiller but IMHO when your spending 400-500$ on a 1/10 hp chiller why not throw 300-500$ more with that and get a big chiller like 1/4 or 1.3 so if in the future you decide to go bigger you wont need a new chiller. And it will be much easier for the chiller to cool the system meaning runs less time and drops the temps faster.

 

[WhoAmI?]

Thanks for the advice Blaze and Midtown! I got a lot of work to do. You guys will be the first ones to see my progress.

 

[Kosmo]

Just wanted to say... Thanks.... this is amazing thread, i take alot of my construction and control environment ideas from this thread, thanks again...

 

[simpleword]

After reading this thread and pretty much finishing my system, I just realized that I have no idea how to drain the buckets.

 

[blazeoneup]

You drain using the pump in the controller that would normally be used for the feed lines just run a hose from the pump in the controller to a nearby drain and it will drain the system, You will be left with around 1" of solution through-out the system after the drain. I just leave it and refill with fresh batch of nutes. Once after every harvest I drain fully and clean the system. I use a shop vac to remove the last 1" of solution in the system after draining break it down and clean it...

 

[simpleword]

Okay, that's the only way I could think of doing it. I just didn't know if it was okay to run the pump in such a small amount of water.

Thanks.

 

[Hempstress]

Using a powerhead in the controller.

Using a powerhead in the controller.

Way back on page 1......you mentioned that you could use a powerhead in the controller as an alternative to running airline and using an airstone in each bucket. I don't know what as powerhead is. Is a powerhead like a powerful aerator? Could you recommend a brand and model? I am looking to run 24 buckets. My controller(s) will be located in an adjacent room, so I could use 2 controllers for the 24 buckets if that was better. It seems like not having to hassle with air pumps, air lines, and air stones/diffusers might be nice.

 

[le4chnation]

you are a genius! I am going to definitely keep this thread in mind for when i do a larger scale grow.

thanks for all your help, you are the man!

 

[kovenant]

blazeoneup. ive been setting up my first grow for weeks now (as time permits) and my lovely ladies have been in veg for 12 days. im willing to go as far as a 21 day veg, so im trying to plan out & assemble my (your) recirc DWC bucket system asap.

i have a ton of questions... and it seems everyone here has asked a lot, so i will try to keep it brief (i wish i was not at work so i could be even more specific with WHAT the specs are on all the items i have... but ill do my best)

you can get an idea of how my system is with the link to my 1st Grow, in my sig. so - let me ask a few questions that are still puzzling me.

1) i keep wanting to have an 18 bucket system. my flower room is 10' x 12' and i have (2) 600W HPS aircooled lamps. i see many people DWC'ing 1-6 buckets under (1) 600W lamp and am wondering if im over-thinking the amount of buckets possible under my current lighting setup. i could easily scale it back and follow your tute for 12... but i will normally be doing a quick veg and believe i can accomidate 9 buckets per lamp (3x3 buckets per lamp in a 4x4' footprint). your thoughts, experience, advice?

2) if i do go with 18 buckets... would you recommend doing 6 return lines? 3 rows of 3 buckets... 3 rows run under each lamp?

i have most of the supplies to start building and nearly finish the system. still lacking the 3/4" ID tubing, i have the fittings for 12 bucket setup... so need to add for the extra 6 if i do 18, and... think that's it. i purchased and just received the Ecoplus 1/10hp Water Chiller but now wondering if i should not have spent the extra $150 to go with the 1/4hp. ive just been spending more and more over what my original budget was - but didnt want to op without a chiller. 18 buckets @ 3.5 gal each + 18 gal controller = 81 gal. the chiller is rated for 92 gal, and it 'could' get around 85 in the highest part of summer... maybe i should return and swap it out. whats another couple hundred dollars at this point, right? lol

now that im asking (and dealing with work issues that keep arising) im at a loss for what my other questions were. when you drop by - please take a look at my setup and offer some advice. thnx mate! this is an incredible tute - love it.

---edit---

i also tossed the idea around in my head - i know, scary - of doing 8 buckets per light for a total of 16... in case 9 seems to tight a fight under a 600W. arranged in this type fashion:

------------
|.X.....X.....|
|.....X.....X.|
|.X.....X.....|
|.....X.....X.|
------------

 

[MID TOWN]

Well for 1200 watts your not gonna want a footprint any larger than 4x8. this only gives you 37 watts per square foot and you idealy want arround 50wpsf so you may want to make it even smaller. your also gonna want to box in the area from the rest of the room as much as possible so that your not losing half your lumens.

As for the plant #s I'd go with 6-12, no more. and unless you only run 6 buckets and even then I'd go upgrade to the 1/4hp chiller. It's just like with an AC. if you get to small of one it may be able to get the job done but the unit is going to have to be constantly working and working HARD. skyrocketing you electic bill. if you get a bigger one than actually needed then it only has to work every once in a while and NOT very hard, saving you money on you electric bill and it will extend the life of the unit. the recomendations for aquariums on your chiller are not correct for hydro.

If you have anymore q's ask away.