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Snype's Guide To RDWC - Part 1 - Featuring Chemdog Double Diesel & 2,000 Watts!
- Thread starter Snype
- Start date
sahdgrower
Member
Hello Snype,
My first post on any growing forum
. I used to grow when I was a teen and had some middlin success. Now I am a grown man with a card to do it legally and twenty years life experience under my belt plus the internet.... Should be a cake walk! Arrogance never gets you far. Let me detail my parade of errors as briefly as possible...
First a fair amount of internet research led me to DWC and Scrog. So I made my first DIY Setup... a four bucket and a fifth control interconnected with 1/2" flexible tubing and a 400gph pump in the control with 1/2" flexible to each bucket. Utter failure!
Back to the internet and I find you..... Ok clearly bigger pipe and no BS. Get some undercurrent goin etc. So I am trying to do this on a budget and cannot find your specific washers and all the parts you list cost twice as much at my local Home Depot so I decide F it Uniseals cant be too bad and I found em at 2.25 each. Rock on!!
Or not. First attempt with uniseals. Drill holes and deburr with my pvc deburring tool. Damnit!!! Five buckets wasted! The deburring took off just enough to make every bucket leak and I was stupid enough to put the whole system together without testing each bucket first. Let me tell you 1 1/2" pipe in uniseals is tough but add a bucket to the other end of the pipe and it is infuriating. Note to self. LISTEN TO SNYPE!!!
Anyway new buckets, careful drilling, no deburring just minor cleanup with 180 grit. Wrestle those bitches back together (after individualing testing each bucket) and still get some leaks here and there. A little minor tweaking mostly solves this.
Finally I can get some water in this system and get it running and stick my poor mistreated clones in their new home ( I know having the clones before having the room ready is idiotic but I had to motivate myself to work extra hard). Not so fast buddy... Bluelab Ph pen is misreading my Ph and I have no other way to test it. Next day Hydro store replaces but 24 hour soak till it is ready to use.
Yay! 24 hour soak done ready to Ph my water and get my babies in bed! Into the grow room, what's that stink?? Look in the system and foamy stinky slimy mess! Overnight. WTF? Oh idiot!!!! I used BioThrive Nutes!!! Why would I do that? No clue! LISTEN TO SNYPE!!! Ok so now I have meticulously cleaned all buckets wiped down and removed sludge. Have a bleach solution pumping through the system now and will empty it completely and run another clean fresh bleach solution through it and then flush it 2 or 3 times till I feel its clean and then add in new GH nutes, PH it and a tad of bleach to maintain sterility. Jeez I thought I could do better!
Sorry for long post, I look forward to posting updates and hopefully I can listen better to your advice and keep on the right path!
My first post on any growing forum
. I used to grow when I was a teen and had some middlin success. Now I am a grown man with a card to do it legally and twenty years life experience under my belt plus the internet.... Should be a cake walk! Arrogance never gets you far. Let me detail my parade of errors as briefly as possible...First a fair amount of internet research led me to DWC and Scrog. So I made my first DIY Setup... a four bucket and a fifth control interconnected with 1/2" flexible tubing and a 400gph pump in the control with 1/2" flexible to each bucket. Utter failure!
Back to the internet and I find you..... Ok clearly bigger pipe and no BS. Get some undercurrent goin etc. So I am trying to do this on a budget and cannot find your specific washers and all the parts you list cost twice as much at my local Home Depot so I decide F it Uniseals cant be too bad and I found em at 2.25 each. Rock on!!
Or not. First attempt with uniseals. Drill holes and deburr with my pvc deburring tool. Damnit!!! Five buckets wasted! The deburring took off just enough to make every bucket leak and I was stupid enough to put the whole system together without testing each bucket first. Let me tell you 1 1/2" pipe in uniseals is tough but add a bucket to the other end of the pipe and it is infuriating. Note to self. LISTEN TO SNYPE!!!
Anyway new buckets, careful drilling, no deburring just minor cleanup with 180 grit. Wrestle those bitches back together (after individualing testing each bucket) and still get some leaks here and there. A little minor tweaking mostly solves this.
Finally I can get some water in this system and get it running and stick my poor mistreated clones in their new home ( I know having the clones before having the room ready is idiotic but I had to motivate myself to work extra hard). Not so fast buddy... Bluelab Ph pen is misreading my Ph and I have no other way to test it. Next day Hydro store replaces but 24 hour soak till it is ready to use.
Yay! 24 hour soak done ready to Ph my water and get my babies in bed! Into the grow room, what's that stink?? Look in the system and foamy stinky slimy mess! Overnight. WTF? Oh idiot!!!! I used BioThrive Nutes!!! Why would I do that? No clue! LISTEN TO SNYPE!!! Ok so now I have meticulously cleaned all buckets wiped down and removed sludge. Have a bleach solution pumping through the system now and will empty it completely and run another clean fresh bleach solution through it and then flush it 2 or 3 times till I feel its clean and then add in new GH nutes, PH it and a tad of bleach to maintain sterility. Jeez I thought I could do better!
Sorry for long post, I look forward to posting updates and hopefully I can listen better to your advice and keep on the right path!
sahdgrower
Member
Oh yeah, my setup now is a 5 bucket, growing 2 grandaddy purp and 2 blackberry kush. I have a 400gph pump recirculating water and a big airpump I think 700lph. I am growing in about 3.5'x3.5' area under a Gavita 600.
alilderanged
Member
Mr snype. What's the amount of clorox you add per gallon for your rdwc? Thanks in advance
merrblah
Member
Source:
Snype's RDWC Construction Tutorial For 250 Watts - 7,600 Watts!
Page 2, Post #16
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=267918&page=2
"Chlorine as a preventative measure
Anyone who doesn’t use live nutrients or supplements in hydroponics, I would advise to keep a residual level of 0.50 PPM Chlorine at all times as a preventative measure against plant pathogens and future root problems. Always remember that too much Chlorine will kill your plants and you never want to put more than 1.0 PPM of Chlorine for large healthy plants. Cuttings and smaller plants are more sensitive to Chlorine and you will want to keep only 0.50 PPM of Chlorine so that you don’t risk killing them. My dropper gives 22 drops / 1 mL of liquid. Before giving Chlorine to small reservoirs you will want to see how many drops per mL your dropper gives so you give a safe amount of Chlorine. My dropper gives a 0.50 PPM of Chlorine at the rate of 1 drop of Clorox Bleach / 2 Gal. To give 0.50 PPM of Chlorine using Clorox Bleach, the equation is 1 mL of Clorox Bleach / 44 Gallons. Always take into account if your tap already has Chlorine in it and adjust your equation. Remember in a well aerated solution, Chlorine naturally disappears in 3-4 days so add in your Chlorine every 4 days as a preventative measure against future root and pathogen problems. Add this to your normal schedule and you will see how hard it is to get root problems again."
Snype's RDWC Construction Tutorial For 250 Watts - 7,600 Watts!
Page 2, Post #16
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=267918&page=2
"Chlorine as a preventative measure
Anyone who doesn’t use live nutrients or supplements in hydroponics, I would advise to keep a residual level of 0.50 PPM Chlorine at all times as a preventative measure against plant pathogens and future root problems. Always remember that too much Chlorine will kill your plants and you never want to put more than 1.0 PPM of Chlorine for large healthy plants. Cuttings and smaller plants are more sensitive to Chlorine and you will want to keep only 0.50 PPM of Chlorine so that you don’t risk killing them. My dropper gives 22 drops / 1 mL of liquid. Before giving Chlorine to small reservoirs you will want to see how many drops per mL your dropper gives so you give a safe amount of Chlorine. My dropper gives a 0.50 PPM of Chlorine at the rate of 1 drop of Clorox Bleach / 2 Gal. To give 0.50 PPM of Chlorine using Clorox Bleach, the equation is 1 mL of Clorox Bleach / 44 Gallons. Always take into account if your tap already has Chlorine in it and adjust your equation. Remember in a well aerated solution, Chlorine naturally disappears in 3-4 days so add in your Chlorine every 4 days as a preventative measure against future root and pathogen problems. Add this to your normal schedule and you will see how hard it is to get root problems again."
paperchaser825
Active member
This is neither here...nor there....but I'm blazed so here goes...
Wouldn't this whole setup benefit from just springing a few extra buck on some square containers? Like a black tote thingy or something? That way your seal point is flat and should be easy to just put a 1-1/2" O-ring found at most hardware stores on it and be done. Just thinking out loud....
Wouldn't this whole setup benefit from just springing a few extra buck on some square containers? Like a black tote thingy or something? That way your seal point is flat and should be easy to just put a 1-1/2" O-ring found at most hardware stores on it and be done. Just thinking out loud....
sahdgrower
Member
I do not have a chlorine meter yet. Didn't realize I needed it.
sahdgrower
Member
Paperchase, I agree completely. Next go around I will use different containers. Actually saw a nice black tote at Costco for $9 was thinking about using those to make a new system . They are large enough that it could accommodate 2 plants per tote and I will fashion some type of divider to separate root masses. When I get a chance I will post some sketches I worked up and maybe you guys can stop me from making more dumb ass mistakes.
sahdgrower: in my personal experience with cleaning things with bleach, even if i rigorously scrub the surface while it is constantly under a powerful stream of water there will be bleach residue that i can feel to the touch.
maybe take that into consideration when/if you add bleach after running the system with bleach. hard to tell without the meter.
maybe take that into consideration when/if you add bleach after running the system with bleach. hard to tell without the meter.
sahdgrower
Member
I am half way thinking about throwing out the system I built and rebuilding it better with all new parts (except pump). I feel like if I don't start from super clean and well setup I will be playing a game of catchup all the time. I would like to eliminate as many variables for failure as possible.
Snypette what would you suggest I do about the bleach residue if scrubbing wont remove it?
Btw.... SAHD= Stay at home Dad, I am not sad
Snypette what would you suggest I do about the bleach residue if scrubbing wont remove it?
Btw.... SAHD= Stay at home Dad, I am not sad
Skunkpassion
Member
@ Snype, I take my hat off to you dude, very impressive write up....
A credit to the community...
Should help a lot of peeps out...
A credit to the community...
Should help a lot of peeps out...
sahdgrower
Member
My design idea...
My design idea...
Ok so here is what I had in mind for new go at this system. Let me know what you think.
I varied from Snype in that I made the pump draw from the control and waterfall into the grow buckets. My thinking is this will improve the recirculation. Also by reducing the pipe size it will increase water pressure at the point of exit from the pipe and thus increase oxygenation of the water (in my mind this is true anyway).
I thought using a shower drain was an easy all-in-one solution to the male/female/washer connection. I even saw an offset drain which would position the recirculation pipes very close to the bottom of the buckets making it easier to empty the system completely (agin true in my mind).
Is there any reason not to use a bigger bucket/tote to house 2 plants each instead of just 1 per? I like the squareness of the design and makes everything feel more compact plus I saw some really good totes at costco that were black and sturdy for cheap. Would love to hear all opinions.
Thanks guys and gals!! This forum rocks.
My design idea...
Ok so here is what I had in mind for new go at this system. Let me know what you think.
I varied from Snype in that I made the pump draw from the control and waterfall into the grow buckets. My thinking is this will improve the recirculation. Also by reducing the pipe size it will increase water pressure at the point of exit from the pipe and thus increase oxygenation of the water (in my mind this is true anyway).
I thought using a shower drain was an easy all-in-one solution to the male/female/washer connection. I even saw an offset drain which would position the recirculation pipes very close to the bottom of the buckets making it easier to empty the system completely (agin true in my mind).
Is there any reason not to use a bigger bucket/tote to house 2 plants each instead of just 1 per? I like the squareness of the design and makes everything feel more compact plus I saw some really good totes at costco that were black and sturdy for cheap. Would love to hear all opinions.
Thanks guys and gals!! This forum rocks.
Attachments
sahdgrower
Member
forgot to mention I figured I would put some easily detacheable filter on the inlet pipe end. This would make it so I could remove it and clean it with the system still running and without spilling any water on the floor (which is what currently happens when I clean my inline filter even if I shutoff the intake to the pump).
I was also thinking I would connect the buckets using a no hub connector so I could easily separate each bucket from the system.
I was also thinking I would connect the buckets using a no hub connector so I could easily separate each bucket from the system.
merrblah
Member
@sahdgrower - I think the largest drawback to your design is the elimination of the undercurrent.
In Snype's design, when water is leaving the controller it leaves the bottom, it enters and leaves each bucket through the bottom, and then returns to the controller being pulled from the bottom of the last bucket -- basically water on the bottom of the system at any point is always in motion. This is great because it makes it practically impossible to develop any sediment deposits. Everything is always getting mixed up which is great for pH stability and nutrient delivery.
While I could not accurately predict the fluid dynamics in your design without exact measurements of the totes, I would predict (based on the general design) the nutrient solution would be pulled from the waterfall down to the exit point is downward-sloping fashion that would great a 'dead zone' (poor circulation) at the bottom of the waterfall.
Outside of that, I do not see any problems with your design. Having more than one plant in a container is not a problem. However, having each plant in a single bucket does make it easier to guide/confine the oxygen flow of the bubblers.
Side Note: That would be a MASSIVE controller, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Just my thoughts. Best of luck!
In Snype's design, when water is leaving the controller it leaves the bottom, it enters and leaves each bucket through the bottom, and then returns to the controller being pulled from the bottom of the last bucket -- basically water on the bottom of the system at any point is always in motion. This is great because it makes it practically impossible to develop any sediment deposits. Everything is always getting mixed up which is great for pH stability and nutrient delivery.
While I could not accurately predict the fluid dynamics in your design without exact measurements of the totes, I would predict (based on the general design) the nutrient solution would be pulled from the waterfall down to the exit point is downward-sloping fashion that would great a 'dead zone' (poor circulation) at the bottom of the waterfall.
Outside of that, I do not see any problems with your design. Having more than one plant in a container is not a problem. However, having each plant in a single bucket does make it easier to guide/confine the oxygen flow of the bubblers.
Side Note: That would be a MASSIVE controller, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Just my thoughts. Best of luck!
sahdgrower
Member
Thx Merr. Now you really have my mind buzzing. I think I will have to put this together and apply some die to the water to observe the fluid dynamics. And boy let me tell you I never thought I would say I will observe the fluid dynamics. But the things we do for our babies. So now I am thinking if I extend the waterfall tube to the bottom of the buckets and put an elbow to direct the water flow I can enhance circulation.
My current system is designed just like Snypes. However when it is running the undercurrent doesn't feel that strong and seems to just a flow directory from the inlet to the outlet and doesn't really agitate the surrounding water.
My current system is designed just like Snypes. However when it is running the undercurrent doesn't feel that strong and seems to just a flow directory from the inlet to the outlet and doesn't really agitate the surrounding water.
sahdgrower
Member
This is fast becoming an obsession. I have done a very small outdoor crop for the past 2 years but that was very low maintenance compared to this! Just put it in a whole with my bitchin organic compost, run a drip line to it and occasional maintenance. Pretty much set it and forget it until harvest time.
Anyway I ramble on. I think I am finally starting to feel comfortable about my setup and a little less panicky only thing is my plants look like shit. It's very sad. I was hoping if I post some pics you guys could tell me if they are past the point of no return and if I should just start fresh. I thought this might happen as I bought the clones before I bought my light or even framed my grow room but I needed a motivator. Impractical but I know myself and that's how it had to be.
I must admit I am a little shy to post my pics. Its kinda like going to the doctor for something embarrasing you know you need looked at. Not that that has ever happened to me
Anyway I ramble on. I think I am finally starting to feel comfortable about my setup and a little less panicky
only thing is my plants look like shit. It's very sad. I was hoping if I post some pics you guys could tell me if they are past the point of no return and if I should just start fresh. I thought this might happen as I bought the clones before I bought my light or even framed my grow room but I needed a motivator. Impractical but I know myself and that's how it had to be. I must admit I am a little shy to post my pics. Its kinda like going to the doctor for something embarrasing you know you need looked at. Not that that has ever happened to me
