Pimp Your GH Waterfarms! Waterfarm Mods.

[Thaniel]

I think that there may be a few threads like this but here are my waterfarm mods.

First thing that needs to be done is drilling more holes in the brown buckets. I've grown with the farms before and this is actually the first time doing this. However, I think it is definitely a good idea.

 

[Thaniel]

This is now the part that I have not seen anyone else do. Smoothy told me that it would be a good idea. You use less hydroton and I like it better with everything just about an inch deeper in the bucket.

All you have to do is hack off the dripper tubes about an inch. I think maybe even hacking off a bit more would be better, but this is what I did.

 

[Thaniel]

I hear the complaint all the time about how waterfarms the way they are "supposed" to be setup, have the problem of different nutrient levels in each of the buckets because it is normally setup in a chain, with the tubes connecting waterfarms from one to the next. What I do is plumb them individually from the resevoir. In order to do this, you need some elbows, t's, and like a lot more blue tubing.

 

[Thaniel]

I think others have done this too. It is so much damn easier to drain the waterfarms when you have a pump in controller bucket of the res. It is also nice to do this because you can quickly refill the farms fast when you do a res change. I really like this mod a lot. The pump is just a cheap eco plus cost $24.

 

[Thaniel]

Now we should be pretty much ready to party. Get your farms, and fill them with some nice clones. I am very impressed with this one clone of NRS Chrystal. So, I just made a few more and installed them in the farms today.

Also, one thing I forgot. I dont know why I did it, but I also put on/off valves on each of the buckets. I haven't done this before, but I had a few extra valves, so I just did it anyway.

Great!

 

[Thaniel]

Also, I keep the resevoir in a seperate room to stay a bit cooler.

 

[Thaniel]

Okay, thats it. Anyone else have any watefarm mods that I failed to mention, post them here.

One thing that I don't do is put individual airstones in each of the buckets. I did this once, and didn't notice a bit of difference. Maybe because air is already being injected into the system via the drippers, it doesn't make any difference.

I know that it definitely won't hurt. I just don't know how necessary it really is.

 

[Guest]

Nice set up and Nice thread you started here...Great pics as well...

Good luck with everything!

 

[Keefhead]

I'll be sending this addy to a friend with a bunch of these. I know he'll appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

My understanding is that the drip action (especially if run continuously) is more than sufficient to oxygenate the nutrient solution. The roots also get lots of aeration in the upper zone, where the hydroton is.

One modification I made was adding feed lines to each individual WaterFarm to actively recirculate the nutrients between the WF's and the controller. I put a 6" airstone in the main reservoir and controller, but not in the individual reservoir.

Another modification I've been thinking about was to modify the drip system so that the feed line is feeding the drip ring, not the air pumping column. Instead, the air pump would be used to add extra aeration to the individual reservoirs... although now that you've mentioned how you didn't see any difference I'm not so sure. But then again, it can't hurt either!

 

[Paul Huston]

you forgot the airstone in the bottom bucket. waterfarms are the shit!

 

[krustytheclown]

I glued velvet to the outside of mine.

The velvet also has flames embroidered on it, too. It makes it go faster.

 

[Dozee]

taggs..

 

[xcrispi]

hey thaniel ,
good stuff man . you'll be glad you enlarged the holes in the top buckets . they tend to get clogged w/ roots n cause flooding .

i had a hell of a time w/ p/h -n- ppm flux from cell to cell until i did something of this nature , i ended up making my w/f recirculate constantly to cure it .
peace
crispi

 

[BlueBear]

Hay Xcrispi, funny meeting you here, LOL.
Adieu

 

[Legit_User]

Do these water farms fight off heat issues better?
Get root problems easy?
Are we still under the rule of 73f and lower for water temps?
Stay peaceful

 

[stretchpuppy]

Good tips...

I cut my drip tubes too but not to put less hydrotron in it. I cut them so I could push them down further in the bucket and have the hydrotron cover the tops completely and there was not a tube sticking out. I see it's your preference to have less in the bucket which is cool but I don't think it necessarily makes it better.

Air stone on the bottom your roots will love.

There is a 6" airstone buried in here somewhere...



Legit_user:

I had no root or heat problems running two buckets crammed in a cabinet under a 400w. Water temps apply like any hydro system, but I never had a reason to check... lush growth throughout the cycle.

 

[Bigge]

Raise buckets 3" off the floor....drain is better. Great old thread!

 

[supermanlives]

sweet I used to run em and made mods like you did too. adding another reservoir at end and a pump in it that runs a few times. kept everything fine for me. had em in a greenhouse.

 

[Max is the MAN]

I use cyco coco and hydro clay 50/50 for medium..... my AK 47 loves them! sorry dont have pics yet