Evening all,

Having recived a shead load of valuable help from this site over the couple of years or so i have been popping in, i thought it was about time to offer something of use(i hope) back. After doing numerous grows in soil i decided to have a bash at hydro. At first i started with just a basic dwc system but having to check and adjust 6 buckets every day soon became a right old ball ache. So....after a search around the web i found Blazeoneup's guide to making a rdwc. The following is basicly a re-hash of his tut so all credits must go to him all.

I must apologies in advance for the quality of some of the pictures but these were take between 12-4 am on Monday after a 12 hour day plastering so the quality is not the best. I will be adding another 6 buckets to the system withing the next few weeks so anything with doggy photos or any thing i've missed completly i will add then.

Anyway here goes;

For a six bucket system you will need:

6 x 20L food grade black plastic buckets
4 Meters of 19mm pipe
2 Meters of 16mm pipe
6 Meters of 4mm supply pipe (you could use 3M of supply pipe and 3m of aquatic air pump hose if you wish)
4 x 19mm T-pieces
2 x 19mm Elbows
1 x 16mm End stop
6 x 4mm Elbows (I used t-pieces as thats all the local hydro stroe had but TBH it probably don't make much difference)
6 x 4mm Nipples
1 x 16mm Tub outlet
8 x 19mm Tub outlet
1 x Maxijet 1000 (or equivalent)
6 x 6" Net pots
4l bag Expanded clay pebbles(you won't need this many but it the smallest bag the shop had)

I managed to get the above for £100 all in at the local hydro store. If you can, always pay cash. If you do you generally you can get at least 10% off as long as you have the cheek to ask for a "discount for cash mate" this applies to all shops

You will also require:

1 x small length of hose pipe( free from the garden)
1 x 70L tub with lid (£4.99 from Ikea, this will be the controler)
1 x 6 outlet air pump(but i use a 4 and a 2 outlet, both from ebay for a total of £22)
6 x 4" Airstones ( the toblrone type, £1 each from local pet shop)
2 x rolls of pdfe tape (£1 from local plumbers merchant)
1 x hand dril (cordless makes things easier)
1 x set of hole saws
1 x 4mm dril bit
1 x tin of blak spray paint(for plastic)
1 x tin of spray laqur(optinal)

Right to begin......

First of all you need to spray the 70l controler tub & lid black and allow to dry.This is to prevent alge building up inside the system.After the paint has dried a coat of laqur can be aplied to stop the paint from peeling but this is not absoloutly essential. Please don't do what we did and drill the holes, insert the fittings, just to have to take them all out again.....doh

Then, using a dril and a hole saw(3/4", i think, just check it against the outlet fitting), we drilled 3 holes into the side of the tub. The first two, an inch or so from the bottom of the tub(these will be for the the return lines) and the other just above the first (this will be the feed line).
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Next insert and screw in two of the 19mm outlets(return) into the bottom two holes and the 16mm outlet(feed) into the top hole taking care not to shatter the plastic and making sure the washer is on the inside of the tub.
Click to view attachment

Now before you put on the screw top wrap the thread of the outlets with a liberal helping of pdfe tape, this will help guard against leaks from the outlet.
Click to view attachment

Now we move onto the buckets,

With the lids on the buckets,Use a 5" hole saw and slowly drill the holes into the lids being care full, again, not to split the plastic.
Click to view attachment

In these the netpots will sit
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when you'r done you should end up with something like this
Click to view attachment

next up we use the 4mm dill bit to drill two hole just under where the handle joins the bucket. These will be for the air line and the supply line.
Click to view attachment
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Once this was done we then went on to drill the holes in the bottom of the bucket's for the return outlet. Unfortunately the camera decided that it didn't like these pictures and decided to delete them.
When i add on the other six buckets to the system i will take some more pictures of this bit but the process is exactly the same as it was with the outlets on 100l tub but this time Cut the holes 1" from the bottom and inline with the air/feed line holes.

Once you have finished prepping the controller tub and the buckets go and have a brew and a spliff, you've earnt it. This is exactly what I'm going to do now....part two to follow in a bit....

Peace

Tommy K

Good tip there. Most people fail to realize it actualy costs money for a store to charge credit cards and i believe debit cards fall into the same deal too. On top of that, checks can bounce and when you pay in cash, the money is right there. transaction done. So never be afraid to ask for a discount, worse that can happen is they say no.

Anyhow Good luck on the new system mate, feel free to pop up a grow diary once you get things going. would love to see how this system works out. Only problem i can see is if one plant's roots get infected, it can spread quickly. if you see signs of sicness be on top of it and flush the system quick. Honestly that's a problem with most systems. Good luck on the grow mate

Great thread my man, i've grown dwc before with excellent results, Recirc dwc must be great with stable nutes and ph

excellent, just what im looking for! he's taking a while with that brew and spliff tho!

'elo all,

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry for the delay in posting part two but i got caught up fixing Mrs Ketchup's laptop, damm i hate windows vista!!

Anyway where was we.....


Right now you got all your buckets drilled and the outlets securely in place the next step is to add all the joint's to connect the system together. What we need to do here is cut 6 1" sections of 19mm pipe and attach one to each off the bucket. If you having troubles getting the pipe over the knuckles on the outlet use a hair dryer to warm the pipe and it should slip over with minimal fuss. Once all the buckets have a 1" piece of pipe attached to the outlet you need to attach a 19mm t-piece to 4 of the buckets and a 19" elbow to the remaining two. Again, i'll update this bit with more pictures when i add the other 6 buckets but for now it should look a little something like this.
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Right, now you attached all your joints to your buckets and spaced as evenly as possible you need to measure the distance between one of the joints. As long as there spaced out evenly you should only have to measure one and cut 4 piece of 19mm pipe, the same length. When cut, use the pipe to join the buckets together. Again, if you having troubles just use the hair dryer to warm the pipe before pushing onto the joint.
Click to view attachment

Next you need to cut the lengths of pipe that will go from the buckets back to the controller. wow you do this will depend on your grow room. Where growing in a Bud box xxl so we just added 1m of 19mm pipe to each set of buckets, cut a small slit in the side of the tent and came straight through the side.
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Next, Attach one end of the of the 16mm pipe the tub out let on the controller. Then run the 16mm pipe down the length of the system and about 6" past the last buckets in the system. Cut the pipe and insert the 16mm end stop in the hole.
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This is what the controller should look like once connected up
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TBH, we tried to bring all the pipe work out of the bottom cable hole on the tent using a series of elbows and shorter pieces of pipe, but because the hole for the cables isn't at floor level it made the pipes go through an incline which when the system was filled with water caused problems. The pump would pump water to the buckets but because of the incline it was not returning fast enough. We also tried sitting he bucket on brick but this caused different problems of it own and it just didn't look safe.

O.k, Were now gonna put the pump into the controller and connect it to the feed out let. The hole on the back of the outlet diameter is 25mm but the out let on the pump is much smaller. so we put the pump into the controller and attached one end of the hose pipe to the pump outlet. To make the other end of the hose pipe fit into the ack of the out let we used our old friend Mr PTFE tape again.
Click to view attachment

and it look a little something like this
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This seemed to work fine but when i was at work tuesday the was some spare central heating pipe(which just happens to be 25mm) and fittings knocking about. So using the Ch pipe, a T-piece and an end stop i knocked up this manifold
Click to view attachment

This work out much better and was a lot more secure.

Were almost there now... We have all the buckets return lines connected, The controller sorted and we've run the main feed line from the controller down the length of the system what we have to do now is connect the individual feed lines to the buckets.

We need to punch some holes in the feed line(6 in total) easiest way to do this is with a skewer. make sure you puch the holes in the feed line in line with the two small holes on each bucket.
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when you have punch your six holes you need to insert a 4mm nipple into each hole like so
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Then measure and cut a piece of 4mm supply pipe and attach one end to the nipple and the other end goes into the bottom hole of the bucket
Click to view attachment
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then repeat the process on the other 5 buckets.

When all 6 fed lines have been attached you need to push a 4mm elbow(or t-piece) onto the end of each supply line.
Click to view attachment

last but not least you need to measure your air lines from your air pump
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to the top hole in each bucket
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once in the bucket attach a air stone to each air line
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and that my friends is the system built. All you need to do now i run a huge hose pipe from your bathroom(which in my case is down stairs) to your control tank(in my case upstairs:headpain:) and fill the system with enough water so that the level of each bucket is roughly one inch above the net pots.

When the system has leveled off turn on your water pump and let the system run for at least 10 minutes all the while checking for leaks. If after 10 min you have no leaks turn on your air pump/s to check all your airlines are working. With any like all your buckets should look a little like this.
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Now you need to run a weak bleach solution round the system to make sure it's squeaky clean. I left it running over night(well,what was left of it) and the following day. After which you need to drain the system fully. To do this attach you long hose pipe to the pump and put the other end in the bath/drain and it will do all the hard work for you. You will have to tip the buckets up to get the last inch or so of water out of them. Once completely empty allow the whole system to air dry.

While this is happening you need too soak you clay pebbles in water. If you don't your Ph will go nut's. I used the bath for this, again, leaving over night.
Click to view attachment

Once your clay pebbles are clean(your be amazed at how much crap comes out of em. put a thin-ish layer into each net pot. then take your rooted cuttings place gently in the net pot and fill in with more clay pebbles.
Click to view attachment

On a side note this is a pic of my home made areo-cloner
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it's as good as a retail one, 2/3rd's of the price and in 5-7 days you get roots like this
Click to view attachment

If any one's interested i write up a tut for the homemade areo cloner too.

Right, this is it, you've got your system built and tested. your clones are potted up into the net pots all you need to do now is fill the system with clean water add your nutes(I use General Hydroponics 3 part which so far seems very stable) to the required strength and Ph adjust.

As a note add all your nutes and Ph up/down to the controller then allow 10 minutes or so for them to work round the system then check again and if necessary adjust.

And Robert's your fathers brother, you have your very own Recirculating DWC. Congratulations!! hopefully in a few week you will have roots like these
Click to view attachment

Hope this helps a few of you out there, if you have any questions just shout and I'll do my best to answer.

Take it easy peeps

Peace

Tommy K

e2a Once you see root's emerging from the bottom of the net pots you need to drop the water level to 1" BELOW the bottom of the net pots.

Thats top notch man, good work.

Fantastic mate, this is really good stuff, i'm going to attempt to start building this shortly.

wish me luck

Hey Ben, how's tricks?

Sorry it's taken me so long to look in but we've had a few issues at Castle ketchup. Good luk with the build mate and if you get stuck with anything just ask in here and i'll do my best to help

Take it easy

Tommy K

i would love to see how you made that aero cloner mate. this wright up is top notch.
nice work

Top notch Tommy, i too would like to see your areo cloner m8

Healthy

Say if i'm going with 12x 13l buckets, do i need a really big rez ? like a 160l rez or something, bit confused about this bit.

Will having a system like this require vast amounts of nutes? If i have to refill 160l worth every two weeks thats gonna be litres worth of nutes after a few weeks isnt it?

Im pretty confused, never done any hydro as you can probably tell.

Ok I've read the rez should be 1/2 to 3/4 so i'll need a 100l or so for 12 buckets @ 13l.

So when I add nutes i'll have to take into account thats theres gonna be around 200l of water altogether including the stuff in the buckets? Does this sound right?

it depends how often you want to top up really bigger the res less topping up


if there 200l of water then it all need mixing with feed , not sure quite what you mean

run your bubblers at a low ec

Ok, thanks jiffa, by low ec what would you recommend as starting flowering ec and also peak flowering ec too?

something like week 1 - ec about 1
and week 4/5 ec 1.6 ?

or lower than that?

If you having troubles getting the pipe over the knuckles on the outlet use a hair dryer to warm the pipe and it should slip over with minimal fuss.

Hi man, I just read this, and this get me smile why you do not use just boiled water(very hot), after put for 5-10 sec in water your end of pipe, then it is easy go on fitings.
Regards

Evening all,

Sorry i missed you post ben but things have been a little hectic here at ketchup towers.

I've now completed the system, so i now have 12 20L buckets attached. you only need enough water in each bucket to bring the water level to an inch under each net pot. My whole system including res hold 160l of water/nutesoloution.

Regarding nutes i use General Hydroponics 3 part at a rate of

in grow

15ml grow / 10ml / 5ml bloom per 10 liters of water

2 weeks after switching to 12/12 the mix is

15ml bloom / 10ml micro / 5 grow per 10 liters of water

for cuttings it's

2.5ml grow / 2.5ml micro /2.5ml bloom per 10 liters

This brings my ec up to 1.4.

i then will not do a nute change until i have replace the entier system with water. i.e once I've topped up the system with 160l of water i will drain the system and do a nute change. this has helped me cut down the amount of nutes i use and ensures I'm not dumping loads of chemicals down the drain.

I used to use double this concentration but over the course of a couple of grows have drop down with no loss of yield. Over the course of a grow i will use roughly 1 1/2 bottles of each nute.

mardavarot you sure can use hot water if you want but we was working up the for a good couple of hour's so if we used this method we would have been up and down the stairs all night getting fresh hot water. Also i'm a stoner and wouldn't trust my self round a bowl of scalding hot water. The hair dry work well enough and is hot at the touch of a button.

Hopefully this has hellped.

Take it easy,

Tommy k

Excellent work...those cuttings look great for 7 days
[/quote]

Tommy K
[/quote]
sorry mate,
i am trying to get my head around this, could you draw plans and post them
thanks for a great post and keep up the good work!

Nice thread, Tommy. You should write this up as a report and put your photos in the report and have the site post it as a sticky. Then you could get everything in order, with step-by-step instructions for people who are totally brain dead like me...

I did a FYI on making oil for the members of this medical community I belong to and found out from the people that read it that step-by-step instructions plus the pictures make a big difference in comprehending what the job entails and how to go about completing it.

hi . i was wondering what size plant would you get in each bucket??

Greetings all,

herb9998, thanks for stopping in and thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you like it.

mr munchie, i'm a bit confused what you want plans of. The system is full of plant's at the mo but when it's next empty i could take an overhead shot of the whole system if this would help?

playground, that's a great idea mate but time is not something i have a great deal of at the minute. If some one else want's to take this on there more than welcome to use all the info here and I'll try and help out as and when i can.


joeninty. At the mo I've got 11 plant's in there the heights range from just over 1ft to the largest are pushing 5ft. Here's a pic(all be it bad quality) of the system from a couple of weeks ago. so you can get an idea.

Click to view attachment

Next time I'm up there I'll take some more photos as it's filled out a lot more now.

For all those that was asking about the aero-cloner i have just sen't a rough guide on building it to vangraffe. He has assured me he will do a full write up on how it's done when he has ago at making, one so watch this space.

Any way think that's it for now

till next time,

Take it easy

Tommy K

Hi,

Thanks Tommy,

I'll do the write up on Monday, if that's ok with everyone,
as I will have some time then.

I'll do the write up here as a reply, as it's Tommy's project.

I'm assuming Tommy has sent it to my pm, so I'll go and have a look.

vangraffe

Checked my pm, nothing there yet!

As soon as it is, I'll write it up!

vangraffe

sorry mate for some reason i sent it to myself. Should be there now matey.

Actually, that was my mess-up - I agve you a *.com address instead of the *.co.uk.

Sorry.

Writing it up now and sorting out photo's.

vangraffe

Okay, guys, here's what Tommy has sent...

I'll write it up Tommy-style
but with my twist!

DIY Aero Cloner

Right first of all you need to get yourself a tub with a lid.
I used a 100L rectangle job but if I was to build this again
I would use the 70l tub as a controller in my recirculating dwc thread - £5 from Ikea.

What ever size tub you go for the first thing you need to do is light proof it.
Easiest way, spray-paint the bugger black. If you can, get some spray on lacquer as well.
Once the paint has dried add a coat of this. This will stop the paint getting chipped.
Just in case you didn't know - and I'm sure you do -
the reason you have to light proof is to stop algae growth inside the cloner.

Next up - drill all your holes in the lids.
I use the 1" net pot's so I used a 3/4" hole saw to drill the holes.
Sorry i haven't got any pictures of this part but i don't actually use the cloner right now.
I've taken the manifold out and use the tub as a dwc to beef up some cheese mothers I've kindly been given.

Keeping up with me so far?

Right, next you need to measure the in side of the tub.
Once you have done this you need to make the manifold to hold the sprayers.
For this you need a length of overflow pipe.
I'm not sure what size overflow pipe is these days
but if you goto a plumbers/builders merchent and ask for:

- 3m length over flow pipe
- 4x overflow corners
- 3x overflow T pieces

They will know exactly what you mean

Basically, cut your pieces of overflow pipe to length and connect it all together with the t-pieces and elbows
so you have something like this

Click to view attachment

Notice that the T in the middle has the spare socket facing down.
The pic below shows you what I mean, and why it is pointing down.

Click to view attachment

Next, drill the six holes for the sprinklers be careful doing this.
I used a drill for the first couple which worked OK.
For the rest I used a Stanley knife.
This was much more fiddly but gave a much better fit.

You can see the location of the holes in the first picture.



I used these sprayers - they just screw straight in and cost about 80p from the hydro store.

Click to view attachment

But these ones are cheaper and equally as good!

Click to view attachment


You're also going need a pump.
this is the most expensive but most important part of the whole system so don't scrimp and get a maxi jet 1000

Click to view attachment


Ok. Now you got the manifold built and the sprayers in.
What you need to do is place the pump in the middle of tub
then measure the distance from the base of the spout on the pump to about 4 inches from the lip of the tub.
Basically this measurement is for the upright to attach the pump to the manifold.
I can't remember if it's exactly 4 inches from the lip but you want the top of the sprayers to be around two inches below the lip of the tub so have a play around.


When you finished you should have something like this:

Click to view attachment

To get the overflow pipe to attach to the pump you just need to shove a small piece of hosepipe into the overflow pipe like so:

Click to view attachment

then just attach the manifold to the pump



Now just place the whole lot in the tub will with enough water to cover the pump and then a little more
plug in your pump and all being well you should get something like this:

Click to view attachment

The water level in that picture is much higher than it needs to be
but that's because I'm now it using for dwc as stated earlier

Right now all you need to do is attach the lid & put your net pots in.
I use cut out bits of card to support my cutting but suggest you use the neoprene collars -
much easier and cleaner and fit perfectly into the net pot's

That's pretty much it - just add clones and off you go.
Keep the ph around 6.3 mark.
I use general hydroponics flora nutes at a rate of 2ml grow/ 2ml micro / 2ml bloom per 10l of water.
This is only once roots have started to show a you could just use rhizotonic if they're going to be transplanted quickly.
All i would say is if the cloner is gonna be in a cold room stick an aquarium heater in the bottom of the tub to keep the water temperature at around 73 f.

Right i think that's about it!
I hope it makes some kinda sense and is of some use!

any problems/questions just shout.

Take it easy!

Tommy K

(posted by vangraffe)

Thanks for that, Tommy, that's solid!

However, just one quick question:

Do you leave the pump spraying 24/7?

Cheers!

vangraffe

e2a:

Oh, yeah, what is the spread/diameter of spray?
Or how far apart do the sprayers need to be - like 6" apart from each other?

Ta!

cool

big thanks go out vangraffe for posting this for me. It actually resembles a proper tut now. Nice One matey.

With regards too your pump question. While your waiting for root's to form you could just put the pump on a timer for, say, 10 minutes per hour. just to stop them drying out. I run 24/7 as the energy you save would be negligible as the maxi jet only uses around 10 watts of power, if i remember correctly. E2A- Once you get bumps(the beginning of root formation) keep the pump on 24/7.

As for the sprayers. The spinner ones i use, have a spray diameter of about 8". When i first put together the cloner i only had the 4 sprinklers which covered the whole tub easily. I only really added the other two 1) because i had them spare 2 By adding them it just made sure the spray from each one overlapped the next.

I've gotta say I'm no expert, i'm still very green when it come's to hydo/areo so if anything i have written is wrong please feel free to step in. This is just what i have tried and what works for me.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Tommy K

P.s Your take cut's in the usual way and dip them in rooting hormone. I've read on other forums that some people put rooting gel into the tanks. While i can see the theory behind this it's never seemed to make any difference for me.

Hi Tommy

Nice little tidy setup you have there, I'm thinking of using his method for my first Grow along with 5 soil grows. Could you tell me, is the system noisy because I'm going to have this in the loft and the floor and wall are not to thick. My daughter is sleeping directly below so i need it to be as quite as possible.

Hey dan, Thanks for stooping by.

The nosiest thing is the vibration from the air pumps. I get round this by siting the pumps on pillows & bricks. If you using the loft maybe you could suspend a shelf with bungees to the rafters this would be a great solution and would pretty my eliminate all vibration noise. Another alternative is the so called whisper pumps but there pretty pricey.

Hope that helps mate and good luck with the grow.

Nice, I've never been tempted to grow dwc but after a total disaster (After 7 weeks of veg my babies finally showed sex, 8 males out of 10 seeds and 2 didn't germinate, pot of gold, flying dutchman) I'm seriously thinking of starting a grow this week using dwc with some femmed seeds.

I think I get it, do I have to run the feed pump 24/7 or can I run it say 15 minutes every hour just to keep the solution topped up and changed in the buckets.

If I want to start from seed am I alright starting them in fleximix cubes and then when rooted put the rooted cubes in the hydroton in the net pots, otherwise how do I grow from seed in these things.

How long realistically do you think from seed to be able to flower assuming all other conditions are met.

'elo Tutu, how's it going?

I'm not to sure what flexi mix cubes are but i'm guessing there a bit like root riot cubes? If so then, yeah, there fine. just start them off in a propagator till there are roots coming out of the cubes. When you transfer them to the system you may need to water from the top for a couple of days till the roots get out of the net pots.

i personally use the coir jiffy pellets pre-soaked in a weak nute solution and I've never grown from seed in this system always from clones altho i cant see why it would not work?

How long will they take to show sex really is down to the genetics in the strain you are growing. What i can say is when this system is running in optimum conditions the growth rate is explosive. I only give my clones 1 week veg then flip to 12/12 and i still get plant around 1.2m high.

Hope this helps mate any other questions just ask

Take it easy,

Tommy K

Thanks, I'm sure I'll have many more questions I just spent £300 on some equipment for the experiment, I'm sure I forgot stuff.

I'm going to be growing BB feminised cheese, I've only got a short amount of time until summer and I have a couple of cool tubes but i don't want to try and grow in summer.

If I had longer I'd grow a non feminsed strain, probably blueberry or maybe try POG again I had some in the dam and I really liked it.

outstanding piece of diy mate! been doin plain bubblers up till now but after seeing this thread think ill be doin a spot of diy myself. save me having to change 8 buckets every 3 days

Nice on kung fu, big it up.

the way i look at it is if i can do it myself for less than half the price it cost's in the shop then it's gotta be worth doing. This is by no means a definitive guide to RDWC there is much room for improvement. I think Tutu has had a go at building one based on this and made a few mods of his own. Don't be scared to experiment a little #

Great info looks like a really good system

what air pump did you use?
also how often do you change out your res?

CB

50 20lt pods that's like 12 lights worth, £2000 might not be that bad depending on how it was built but you could build it yourself for under 1/2 that including a proper air compressor (You wouldn't want to f*ck about with air pumps when you have 50) but it's going to be massive done right you talking 8 kilos+ that's a lot of personal smoke no matter which way you cut it.

I've never used DWC before 3 weeks ago and I almost killed my plants but they're growing well now, Algae has been a problem (Really remember to light tight) and high EC I found rotting leaves in the res which really affected EC and caused me big headaches and cost 2 seedlings. When done right though the root growth is unreal and the plants look very healthy, my advice is with Nutes and DWC less is most definitely more, I keep my EC around 1 at the moment (My ec of tap water is 0.4) and don't forgot oxyplus.

I would get some photo's but I can't get in the grow room in the day due to nosy neighbours.

If you build the system in this thread it'll cost around £150 for the buckets, air pumps (Buy from aquatic places and save £20), piping, water pump, fittings, a bluelab truncheon and a cheapo PH tester. Done right you will get stunning results, if I had to make a mod now I would add misters to the recirculating line in each pot, drastically up the water pump I bought and then pu the pump on a timer.

Thank you Mr Ketchup ;-) I'm glad I did it even if only for the novelty value.

really nicely worded ketchup. Thumbs up to you for taking the time to write this all out for us. I was asking myself this morning, which hydro setup would be best for me, now Im sure this is it. I have a grow space of 4ft x 8ft (which I might extend to 6ft x 8ft). Can you tell me how many buckets youd put in there? Also, how many plants per light do you put in?
Being as this will be my first hydro grow, im unsure about e.c numbers and have heard dwc requires lower readings to other forms of hydro. Ill start asking about all that once ive built the setup.

Fantastic guide, I really enjoyed reading it. I'm in the process of planning my own hyrdoponics system, aslo DWC. However, I was hopeing to implement a drip feed system into it.

The problem I am trying to figure out is how to get the buckets to drain and remain at the same level, since the dripping will build it up. Obviously, I get the pump to pump into some feeding tubes, but how do I get the water to drain out at an equal rate? Will I need more pumps? Possible one with (somehow) all the buckets feeding it, which then pumps the water to the res. I'm guessing this would have to be quite the monster pump to manage at an adequte rate.

Evening all,

Sorry it's take so long to reply but, as always, things have been pretty hectic round these parts.

CupboardBound. I started off using stanad aquarium pumps but they soon gave up the ghost. I now use the compressor type air pumps like this

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I've got the 40l/min one(i think) and this is more than enough to do the 12 buckets as well as a couple of air stones in the res.
As for changing nutes. i only change out the res when i have added back an equal amount of water. I.e in my cas i will only do a res change when i have topped up the res with 160l of water. Some will disagree on this but it works for me and you won't loose anything if you wanna do changes on a more regular bases except money.

Tutu, your more than welcome mate, i'm glad it was of some use. If you ever get round to putting them misters on then wack up some pictures, i for one would like to see how that works out.

overgrown, That size space sound ideal for a 12 pot system(like the one shown). I have six plant's under each light.

Skiddywinks, No need to worry about pumping out as the returns are gravity feed. The water will find it's natural level and never over flow even in the event of a power cut.

Hope that helps any more questions just holla.

Keep safe fellas


Atb Tommy K

Been looking at the ebay rdwc's and it looks as though they dont circulate the feed with a pump from the res. Would this make a huge difference? I would have thought it would as mainly all the pod water/feed solution would stay put, as would the res solution, wouldnt it? But what do I know, Im a soil grower.

All the comercial rdwc's i've seen pump the water down to the end bucket only, This then fills the other buckets by gravaty. Weather this is any better or worse than this setup i don't know. My system should be empty in the next few weeks and then i'm gonna have a go at doing a full grow diary here, to show people how i do it. Now where did i put the batterys for the camera..

Take it easy fellas

ATB

Tommy K

Greetings all,

Right, gonna start a new grow. The system was emptied then refilled with a strong h202. The system was left running for 24hrs then drained and flushed with water for a further 24hrs. A bit over kill but hey. Made a slight mod to the system,. I've removed the 100l controller and replace it with a 20l bucket. This was initially because the plastic in the old controller cracked and was a temporary measure in the last couple of weeks of the last grow. But it actually works just as well an it cuts down the amount of water slightly and there's no need to paint it. Oh yeah that and the fact i've ditched the grow tent.

Anyway, I'll be using GHE flora 3 part, Hesi super-vit, Canna Pk13/14, Big bud & over drive.

I've been given some hygrozym so once there in full swing i may use that along with some oxy-plus, were see.

Any way we have 12 U.K cheese cuttings under 2 600w hps on a feed of 7ml/ 10L of flora grow,micro & bloom and 3ml of super vit. There on a 18/6 cycle at the mo and will stay that way until they all have a good root system in the buckets.

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I'll try and update this at least once a week but for the next week or so there wont be much going on.

Anyway, until next time take care all.

ATB

Tommy K

Brilliant read, like your style T.K. - d.i.y. is half the fun I've always reckoned...,
looking forward to watching the cheese grow (hope you got some top notch smell busting gear...I grew exodus cheese a couple've times, freaked me out with the stench though )
Is hygrozym like cannazym? if yes then don't use with any kind of h2o2 products as the oxy kills the good bacteria and stops it working... definitely pulling up a chair for this one, good luck with em

Hey prawn thanks for stopping by and the kind words, hope that chairs nice an comffy for ya. The way i look at it is if you buy a system from a hydro you still have to put it all together when you get home. so why not just measure and cut all the bits yourself and save a few quid.

As for the cheese, altho I've had a mother for a while it's the first time I've actually grown it out. I've got a 10" fan and brand new filter so I'm hoping that will be o.k. Seams to be doing the job at the mo even in this lovely were having at the minute the temps haven't gone over 26c, but you not the first one to put the shits up me with scare story about smell.

Hygrozyme is like cannasym,sensizym etc but unlike the others it can be used with h2o2. I'm not sure if that justifies the price tag of £35+ per liter or not we'll see i guess. I may save it and do a side by side test next time round, i'm not sure yet.

Not much to report on the ladies, every things pretty much the same

Ph 5.6 Water temp 20c room temp 25.2c

Take it easy,

Tommy K

Greetings all,

Just a quick update. Most of the cheese cuttings now have roots poking outta the bottom of the net pots. These have taken a fair bit longer to root out and i believe this is cos i used the small rockwool cubes for the cuttings rather than the peat jiffy pellets. Jiffys root out a good 3 days before the rockrool ones. There still on 7ml per 10/l of GHE grow/micro/bloom but now the roots are starting to show I'll start using some oxy plus at a low dose.

P.H 5.6(haven't had to adjust all week ) Room temp 21c Water temp 18c

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As you can see from the pic i've added a few extras to the setup. Swapped out the reflectors for diamond ones. The difference these make is quite impressive as all the light is fired straight down at the ladies. Only down side is the edges are razor sharp, I'm now sporting plasters on two fingers. doh! Also covered the walls with diamond reflective sheeting.

Think that's about it for now, there have at least another couple of weeks i guess till the get flipped but hope fully i'll do an update before then.

Take it easy

Tommy K

Evening all,

Hope all is well with every one?

Decided to flip the ladies over on Friday due to time constraints(mainly Mrs Ketchup wanting to go on holiday early September ) So the fun can now begin.

Here's couple of pic's
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These babies haven't grown as fast as the other strains i've grown in this system. This maybe due to the strain but i'm pretty sure it down to the rockwool cubes.

This is a pic of my Blueberry mum. She's gonna be thrown in as well. This is an oldskool blueberry, it was given to me as a cut of a famly member i didn't know smoked let alone grew a bit of Percy. he said he's been growing this stain for the past 20 years and if mine turns out anything like his then I'm in for a treat.

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The nute ratio has now change and there on:

All per 10 liters

15ml Gro

10ml Micro

5ml Bloom

5ml Oxy-plus (2ml top up every 2 days)

next week start the big bud and i'll run that for 2 weeks.

Room temp 26c Water temp 23c (bit worrying, might have to start adding ice bottles to the controler to help) P.H 5.8

that's about it for now

Take it easy.

'Elo all,

Time for another quick update.

Week 2 of flower and the girls are shooting up. Added Dr Hornby's Big Bud at 4/ml per ltr. Not really much else to note. here's a few pics.

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I share my grow space with another member of these board and i keep nagging at him to upload some of his picks up as his can show what this system can do. He's have had around 2 and a bit weeks more veg than mine and are huge compared.

Having a few problems with the lovely weather were having but two, two ltr bottles of ice in each controller seems to be keeping a lid on it, for now.

As no one really seems to be following the grow I'll be updating as and when from now on but tbh not really exciting will happen for a couple of weeks or so anyway.

Room temp 29c water temp 23c CF 1.8(starting CF 0.4) P.H 5.8


Until next time,

Take it easy,

Tommy K

Interesting read mate, I for one am following, I just don't post that much.
Thinking of building something like this myself soon as my grow space is finished...

Blueberry, nice :} Looking forward to seeing how these develop.

Grow on!

Peace

taffy