Snype's RDWC Construction Tutorial For 250 Watts - 7,600 Watts!

[jointventure420]

I noticed that you changed your formula to 1 part Micro and 2 parts Bloom..Is this from day one in the EZcloner to the last day of flowering? Hope I'm not over simplifying this...just looking for some clarity on your formula/method..

Thank you again

JV

 

[Snype]

I noticed that you changed your formula to 1 part Micro and 2 parts Bloom..Is this from day one in the EZcloner to the last day of flowering? Hope I'm not over simplifying this...just looking for some clarity on your formula/method..

Thank you again

JV

I use 1 part Micro to 1.5 parts Bloom in VEG and 1 part Micro to 2 parts Bloom for flowering. No additives or boosters.

 

[jointventure420]

thank you for the clarity...!!!!

JV

 

[ChemDoubleDs]

Yeah I guess my water has a much lower PPM than yours because I added the same ratio of nutes as you and ended up with a lower concentration of nutes. I will check the PPM tomorrow to check the rate at which they have been eating and change the PPM as I see necessary. If everything looks good when I take my measurements, I will try to approach a PPM close to 700. I don't want to burn them out, though, so I will probably go closer to 650. I haven't been able to see the girls for a few days but I set the timer up properly before leaving so I'm confident that the roots are fish-boning nicely. I'm thinking that I will switch to flooding every 3 hours by day five or six, but I will be sure not to rush the process and respond to what my plants are telling me.

As far as the height of flooding goes--

I cut 15 holes with exactly 5" diameter (using a 5" holesaw) and with the Hydrofarm netpots that I bought from a nearby hydrostore, they sit into the tray and hang by the lip at the top of the pot. I was a little nervous at first thinking that the pots would fall into the tray, but the small lip that my netpots assure that they will not fall. Using the two Elemental 171 GPH pumps, the water floods to roughly 0.5" up from the bottom of the netpot. I had to add a few shims to the front side of my Hydrofarm 2'x4' Light Stand to achieve an even distribution of water. That stand was not that cheap but I know it will be worth it. Thing is so convenient. Girls are looking mint right now so I will continue accumulating data and most likely upping the dosage within the next few days.

Another thing to note is that the clones were unfortunately taken about 10 days into flowering. I know you highly stress against the practice of Monster Cropping (cloning during flowering), but I was not seeing the results I wanted to see in Rockwool before flipping my MOMs into flowering. As a result, I went out and bought an EZ cloner in order to ensure that I achieved a strong root structure, and my MOMS were into flowering by that point. I know it will slow the Veg process down, but since they were no more than a week into flowering, I think they should bounce back pretty quickly in bushy fashion.

 

[Snype]

Yeah I guess my water has a much lower PPM than yours because I added the same ratio of nutes as you and ended up with a lower concentration of nutes.
Well, why don't you start off by giving any data as to how much PPM your water is?

I will check the PPM tomorrow to check the rate at which they have been eating and change the PPM as I see necessary.
Sounds good but you didn't even let us know how much PPM your system is at?
If everything looks good when I take my measurements, I will try to approach a PPM close to 700. I don't want to burn them out, though, so I will probably go closer to 650.
I think my water at that last location that the data was from was about 150 PPM. So subtract that from the data and then add your water PPM to your calculation
I haven't been able to see the girls for a few days but I set the timer up properly before leaving so I'm confident that the roots are fish-boning nicely. I'm thinking that I will switch to flooding every 3 hours by day five or six, but I will be sure not to rush the process and respond to what my plants are telling me.
The roots will tell you when to switch. If the root tips start to turn color, they need to be flooded sooner.
As far as the height of flooding goes--

I cut 15 holes with exactly 5" diameter (using a 5" holesaw) and with the Hydrofarm netpots that I bought from a nearby hydrostore, they sit into the tray and hang by the lip at the top of the pot. I was a little nervous at first thinking that the pots would fall into the tray, but the small lip that my netpots assure that they will not fall.
I don't use Hydrofarm net pots because they don't fit in the bucket lids that I use. Hopefully you will find a way to insert them into the RDWC system.
Using the two Elemental 171 GPH pumps, the water floods to roughly 0.5" up from the bottom of the netpot.
That sounds good as long as you transplanted the clones all the way to the bottom of the net pot. If you added a layer of hydroton below the roots, the solution might not be able to saturate the root and you will need to top feed the plants until all the roots hit the solution.
I had to add a few shims to the front side of my Hydrofarm 2'x4' Light Stand to achieve an even distribution of water.
I have no idea how a light stand holds up a tray. Doesn't make sense to me. You should have built a tray stand for $10 by using wood from home depot.
That stand was not that cheap but I know it will be worth it. Thing is so convenient. Girls are looking mint right now so I will continue accumulating data and most likely upping the dosage within the next few days.

Another thing to note is that the clones were unfortunately taken about 10 days into flowering.
You're still taking your cuts from flowering platens? You are going to add more time to your VEG process. Not sure how long. Keep some MOMs in VEG forever. If you want root nubs in 3 days, it won't happen with flowering clones.
I know you highly stress against the practice of Monster Cropping (cloning during flowering), but I was not seeing the results I wanted to see in Rockwool before flipping my MOMs into flowering.
MOMs shouldn't be flipped to flowering. They should stay as moms and veg forever.
As a result, I went out and bought an EZ cloner in order to ensure that I achieved a strong root structure, and my MOMS were into flowering by that point. I know it will slow the Veg process down, but since they were no more than a week into flowering, I think they should bounce back pretty quickly in bushy fashion.

Answered above in bold.

 

[salgado]

Answered above in bold.

Can you explain flooding in a RDWC system? I thought the roots were always submerged in a RDWC.

 

[salgado]

My PPM Meter sucks, its a cheap Hanna Blue PPM Meter. Its all over the place. It usually tells me my PPM's are going up. Is that even possible? So im finally going to get a good ec meter and learn to use it properly. In the $200 range are either of these good meters.

Hanna Instruments HI9813-5N or Bluelab Combo Meter

 

[ChemDoubleDs]

Whats up man, sorry about the lack of info in the last post. I did not have my data with my at the time.

The ppm of my tap water is 60 (500 scale). The top-off ppm was 560 on day 1 Veg A, giving me 500 ppm nutrients. This matches up to your previous log, if in fact the ppm of that location was 150, since your day 1 ppm was 650.

On day 4, I topped off the rez. Here is the data for that:

ppm pre top off: 500
pH pre top off: 6.4

I added GH FloraMicro and FloraBloom at a ratio of 1:1.5 and pH down to achieve:

ppm post top off: 600
pH post top off: 6.0

Flood Cycle: every 3 hours

Just as you had suggested, the plants hinted that the watering cycle could be increased from every 4 hours to every 3. I will be looking out for any root-tip discoloration as a sign that the watering cycle can be further increased. I am anticipating that they will be ready to be flooded every 2 hours within a few days.

As far as the netpots go:

The 5" netpots I am using fit snugly into the 6" bucket lids I will be using in the RDWC system. I made sure to transplant them deep enough so that water would reach all roots, Here is the link to the stand I was talking about. It is actually called the Hydrofarm 2'x4' Tray Stand with Light Kit:
https://www.monstergardens.com/2x4-...re-2x4-white-tray-active-aqua-2x4-flood-trays

The tray fits in it perfectly. I will post pics when they become available to me. So far so good.

 

[ChemDoubleDs]

Update from last post:

When I checked the ppm tonight I noticed that it had risen from 600 to 620. Therefore, I changed the solution to a ppm of 570.


Veg A Day 5:

ppm pre top off: 620
pH pre top off: 6.1

Some solution was removed and replaced with tap water to get:

ppm post top off: 570
pH post top off: 6.0

The light is still at 18". The plants are now revegging so I would think that it will add a few more weeks to veg. Roots don't look as good/plentiful as yours but healthy.

One thing I was curious about that I didn't notice in the Part 2 BYTCH thread is regarding airstones in the Rez. I currently have two 5" cylinder airstones in the Rez connected to a GH Dual Diaphragm Air Pump (20 Lpm). Also, I found that the ElementL pumps don't pump water so fast into the tray that it needs screens to prevent water shooting into the air. That way, The water clearly drains faster, causing bubbles in the water for some added DIssolved Oxygen, as you mentioned in that thread or maybe an earlier one.

 

[Snype]

Can you explain flooding in a RDWC system? I thought the roots were always submerged in a RDWC.

If you read that thread that I linked to you last time, you'd know what we were talking about.

My PPM Meter sucks, its a cheap Hanna Blue PPM Meter. Its all over the place. It usually tells me my PPM's are going up. Is that even possible? So im finally going to get a good ec meter and learn to use it properly. In the $200 range are either of these good meters.

Hanna Instruments HI9813-5N or Bluelab Combo Meter

Just get a Blue Lab PPM pen for $100. When you learn how to calibrate and use your meter, you'll know what's going on. You need to have a standard to compare your PPM to so you know that you can trust the readings that you're getting. A standard could be as simple as your tap water as long as it always reads the same.

In the thread that I linked you to before, I have a whole section on pH meters and the problems that they can have. For example rF interference.

Whats up man, sorry about the lack of info in the last post. I did not have my data with my at the time.

The ppm of my tap water is 60 (500 scale). The top-off ppm was 560 on day 1 Veg A, giving me 500 ppm nutrients. This matches up to your previous log, if in fact the ppm of that location was 150, since your day 1 ppm was 650.
Sounds good!
On day 4, I topped off the rez. Here is the data for that:

ppm pre top off: 500
pH pre top off: 6.4
You should have also added how much tap water it took to top off the rez.
I added GH FloraMicro and FloraBloom at a ratio of 1:1.5 and pH down to achieve:
I'm not sure why you added anything besides pH down. You're supposed to have data after you topped off the rez that is going to tell you some important information. For example, say it took 2 gallons to top off the rez or it could have taken 1 pint to top it off. That's why you need the other data to be able to know if you even needed to add anything besides pH down.
ppm post top off: 600
pH post top off: 6.0
The only reason that this data here is good is that it'll help you on your next data entry if you record all the data. Not just the data that you did before but how I explained.
Flood Cycle: every 3 hours
Sounds about right. I'd would probably stay at 3 hours for at least a few days. Once you get down to every 2 hours, I wouldn't go to flood every hour. Your roots are going to get too big they are going to be very difficult to squeeze through the RDWC bucket lids. That was a big mistake by taking pre flowering clones. You have to hope that it only takes a few days for the plants to come out of flowering and start growing because if you take more than 5 days, you'll run a serious risk of your roots in your RDWC system eventually becoming clogged. Once that happens if you are not around the plants all the time, you will surely affect the health of the crop. There is always space in a house to keep a MOM in VEG at all times. Even in a cardboard box if you have to. A closet. Anythig.
Just as you had suggested, the plants hinted that the watering cycle could be increased from every 4 hours to every 3. I will be looking out for any root-tip discoloration as a sign that the watering cycle can be further increased. I am anticipating that they will be ready to be flooded every 2 hours within a few days.
Again, my techniques are for growing roots fast and getting them into the RDWC system within a reasonable period of time (up to 2 weeks). Continuing with my VEG-A techniques may grow your roots too big that can affect the RDWC system. If you had bigger buckets, it would be much better. Some plants are going to come out of flowering faster than others which will also affect having an even canopy. Just another thought.
As far as the netpots go:

The 5" netpots I am using fit snugly into the 6" bucket lids I will be using in the RDWC system. I made sure to transplant them deep enough so that water would reach all roots, Here is the link to the stand I was talking about. It is actually called the Hydrofarm 2'x4' Tray Stand with Light Kit:
https://www.monstergardens.com/2x4-...re-2x4-white-tray-active-aqua-2x4-flood-trays
Cool tray stand but you could have build one with wood for $20 in parts.
The tray fits in it perfectly. I will post pics when they become available to me. So far so good.

Update from last post:

When I checked the ppm tonight I noticed that it had risen from 600 to 620. Therefore, I changed the solution to a ppm of 570.
That was good that you took it down. But it showed that you didn't have to raise the PPM so much when you did. Because your plants came from pre flowering clones, they are not going to require a higher nutrient strength until the plants are growing in the VEG state. I have no idea how long that will take. I think you said that your plants were 10 days in Flower. My plants have decent size buds at 10 days of flower so they would surely take a long time to get back to veg.

If this is the path that you chose to take, you should not have put them in the cloner. You needed to have a better plan and your details are coming out a bit late to change things. If I knew that your plants came from pre flowering clones, I would have told you to root the cuts in 1.5" rockwool cubes. Then you could have easily controlled the root growth by keeping the medium more wet so that root growth would be minimal. Once they started to show signs of real veg state, then you put them in the VEG-A system. You have to really plan things out better.

Veg A Day 5:

ppm pre top off: 620
pH pre top off: 6.1

Some solution was removed and replaced with tap water to get:

ppm post top off: 570
pH post top off: 6.0
Again, your data is lacking. We have no idea of the room that these plants are in. The rH, temperature of air and water is also going to have an affect on how your plants eat. You have to include much more data. It's very hard to give advice without having all the data. I don't know if taking out some of the solution was required here because you are lacking data. You may have just been able to add water to the rez to top if off. Your data is too lacking to know what is going on. It's all just speculation.
The light is still at 18". The plants are now revegging so I would think that it will add a few more weeks to veg. Roots don't look as good/plentiful as yours but healthy.
You can't expect to see anything like the plants that I show unless you are anal about every aspect. Once you cut a corner, it may have to change the other techniques that you use.
One thing I was curious about that I didn't notice in the Part 2 BYTCH thread is regarding airstones in the Rez. I currently have two 5" cylinder airstones in the Rez connected to a GH Dual Diaphragm Air Pump (20 Lpm). Also, I found that the ElementL pumps don't pump water so fast into the tray that it needs screens to prevent water shooting into the air. That way, The water clearly drains faster, causing bubbles in the water for some added DIssolved Oxygen, as you mentioned in that thread or maybe an earlier one.

Yeah air stones are fine but if you have the screen off on your E&F kit then it will also create a waterfall technique that usually delivers more D.O. than the common air stone.
Replied above in bold.

 

[Snype]

For the future, if you have more questions to do with growing plants with my techniques, please stop asking them in this thread because this thread has more to do with the construction phase. Please ask your RDWC grow questions in the thread stated below:

Snype's RDWC Grow Along!
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=286661

 

[jointventure420]

Neoprene Washers

Neoprene Washers

Hello Snype, Wanted to show some gratitude to you for all the effort you put forth here...I have a few hundred extra neoprene washers i had made up that i don't need...I don't think i have enough posts to pm you..so..if you have a use for them...please let me know...

JV

 

[Raid]

Thanks snap. I really appreaciate this effort!

 

[JJGold]

Hello Snype, Wanted to show some gratitude to you for all the effort you put forth here...I have a few hundred extra neoprene washers i had made up that i don't need...I don't think i have enough posts to pm you..so..if you have a use for them...please let me know...

JV

Jointventure,

If Snype does not want those washers I'll buy 100 or so off you.

 

[jointventure420]

If you have an address.....you can have them....

 

[Snype]

Let's not get the thread closed from exchanging addresses. You know the site won't be happy about this type of talk. If you guys had enough posts for PM's, you wouldn't need to talk about this in open forum. Just saying. If the thread were to get closed, how am I going to give you guys new info. I'm just thinking about the future. No point in letting a few dollars in washers affect the thread.

 

[jointventure420]

My fault^^^^...Did not know about exchanging addresses(I'm sure its clearly stated in forum rules and regulations....) You are very correct about getting this shut down over a few $'s worth of washers...

JV

 

[JJGold]

Sorry about that.

 

[JJGold]

What size of washers would I need if I up the pipe size to 2" PVC? 2 3/8" ID X 3" OD?

 

[Snype]

What size of washers would I need if I up the pipe size to 2" PVC? 2 3/8" ID X 3" OD?

You have to get a the PVC fittings and take a measurement. I have no idea.