Frank Lopez Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 (edited) Howdy, I'm currently modding my Wilma 4 so I can go DWC and also use the drippers. Has anyone done this before (apart from Heath)? I need to drill a hole in the res tank so I can sort out a drainage point for my auto-top up system. My query is; How much of a gap should I have between the top tray and the water level?? I was thinking maybe 1/2 an inch but I'm not 100% sure, would one be required to leave quite a large gap or would it be best to minimise the gap so the water level is more or less at the same level as the tray, give or take a few mm's? any help would be awesome, thanks. FRANK Edited April 3, 2012 by Frank Lopez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lopez Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 ahh don't worry. I'll figure it out myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joint hogger Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Howdy, I'm currently modding my Wilma 4 so I can go DWC and also use the drippers. Has anyone done this before (apart from Heath)? I need to drill a hole in the res tank so I can sort out a drainage point for my auto-top up system. My query is; How much of a gap should I have between the top tray and the water level?? I was thinking maybe 1/2 an inch but I'm not 100% sure, would one be required to leave quite a large gap or would it be best to minimise the gap so the water level is more or less at the same level as the tray, give or take a few mm's? any help would be awesome, thanks. FRANK im not 100% sure but i think you might need a bigger air gap, im thinking along the lines that your water level might rise due to the extra displacement caused by the roots growing down into the water ? or im just wasted, been a kinda wake n bake day today :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lopez Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Cheers for the reply. But that shouldn't matter as the drainage hole will keep the level the same if displacement happens. I was just questioning if there would be any reason for a gap but I ended up drilling the hole so the level sits just a few mm's below the pot seating. I did initially drilled a hole further up which caused the level to rise and this made a puddle in the empty pots, so I ended up just using this as a secondary drainage/ overflow pipe. Sorted now, this is gonna work a treat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joint hogger Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 any chance of some pics ? im considering moving from soil back to hydro & im interested in a DWC setup myself, i've even got enough bits lying about for a diy setup :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lopez Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 any chance of some pics ? im considering moving from soil back to hydro & im interested in a DWC setup myself, i've even got enough bits lying about for a diy setup :wink: Sure thing dude. I went all out and annotated my Photo! I'm pretty happy with this. Just running the fluming pump on its own is about as close to silent as I think any system can get. I had it running all night (in my wardrobe) and I couldn't hear a a thing. The dripper line does make some noise though so I plan to also use a wicking system so once the roots are in the res I can experiment with turning the dippers off and see if the system can self regulate itself by just using the flooming res and the wicks. In anycase I only intend to run the drippers once, twice maybe three times a day cycle for 15mins. I'm planing to use a mix of Fytocell and perlite in the modified pots (was 11ltr now cut down to 6ltr as this will help with A. minimising Dripper frequencies and D. aiding in the tertiary wicking action. So basically this system will be a DWC / dripper / wick system with the option to passive feed aswell. I might enter the sweet seeds diary and test out some auto's in this system, I want to see some BIG auto's!! Thanks for taking interest dude 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joint hogger Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 (edited) thanks for the pic that explains things better, i didnt realise that you were using a secondery res anyway i like the overflow drainage holes in the wilma res, i'll borrow that idea for when i finalise what im doing myself :wink: do you use an air pump + air stones & tank heaters in the 2 reservoirs ? Edited April 4, 2012 by Joint hogger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lopez Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 (edited) I might have to use a heater in both tanks, but I think I should get away with just heating the wilma tank, hopefully most of the roots will be in there and thus the dripper temp would be insignificant. Air stones are not necessary as the pump is fluming the water, making it turbulent and this will make it hold more dissolved Oxygen than a bubbling system would. Bubblers add o2 to the water by breaking the waters surface tension when the bubbles pop (by process of osmosis), fluming makes the water ''boil over'' and thus causes the surface tension to break at a more rapidly accelerated rate and the process of osmosis occurs much quicker due to the whole surface area turning over so quickly, almost violently. Basically if I did add a bubbler to the system it would not increase the oxygen levels as fluming increases it beyond that any bubblers potential DO level. Edited April 5, 2012 by Frank Lopez 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest komodod Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 i like the idea there but id add a couple of things. osmosis is just basically, something(molecules) moving from an area of high concentration to low. its not how airstones work, air stones physically disperse and dissolve oxygen into the water. not sure where you got your other explination from. unless i miss read it? i like the idea, its good if you want big plants, i would say aswell, the clear bottom res needs to be blacked out, ive used a clear on before and it fills up with algae which use up oxygen and nutes. there are a few people who have tried this idea and its the biggest yielding indoor method ive seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lopez Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Well that's not my take on it I'm afraid. I've kept fish for years and its pretty well known that bubblers only add o2 by breaking the surface which allows osmosis to occur. I've seen test results with bubbled tanks compared to flumed tanks and the flumed tank holds about an extra 50% DO to that of the bubbled tank. I cant relay all the test numbers etc, I Just remember the scale for Bubbled tanks being at 1.4 and the flumed tank being about 2.2. Anyhow, beans are here. Time to start working! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest komodod Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Well that's not my take on it I'm afraid. I've kept fish for years and its pretty well known that bubblers only add o2 by breaking the surface which allows osmosis to occur. I've seen test results with bubbled tanks compared to flumed tanks and the flumed tank holds about an extra 50% DO to that of the bubbled tank. I cant relay all the test numbers etc, I Just remember the scale for Bubbled tanks being at 1.4 and the flumed tank being about 2.2. Anyhow, beans are here. Time to start working! same here mate, ive kept fancy guppies for years, but what you are saying still isnt true. ive seen an experiment where they got a glass container, bubbled pure oxygen into it, held the mouse underwater and basically didnt drown because of the oxygen in its lungs, like i said before osmosis is molecules moving from and area of high pressure to low, and actually water pressure would be higher underneath the surface than the air above it. id love to see a working fish flume tank if you can link one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lopez Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 (edited) same here mate, ive kept fancy guppies for years, but what you are saying still isnt true. ive seen an experiment where they got a glass container, bubbled pure oxygen into it, held the mouse underwater and basically didnt drown because of the oxygen in its lungs, like i said before osmosis is molecules moving from and area of high pressure to low, and actually water pressure would be higher underneath the surface than the air above it. id love to see a working fish flume tank if you can link one. Yep sure thing dude. here's the link - www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=263773 It basically shows that fluming alone produces more DO than Bubbling. It also shows that if you have a flumed tank and introduce a bubbler the DO levels actually drop, hence therefore bubbling is absolutely unnecessary and potentially detrimental!! Edited April 6, 2012 by Frank Lopez 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eurasian_farmer Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Very interesting! Im sure airstones are for all intents and purposes a bit shit. Ive been through most kinds except the ceramic disc ones (next on the list) and all are pretty much the same thing. Id be interested how the additional DO from fluming would make it to the satellite buckets without drippers, ALL passive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Lopez Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 I've canned the idea about using wicks as I would still need the drippers to keep the top res toped-up. I will most likely put another circulating pump in the lower res to do the same fluming action but I was hoping that the drippers would draw in O2 when the water actually comes out of the flood dripper stakes. I might have to adjust this system slightly so I can get more flow out of the drippers, maybe upgrade to a top-spin 12 outlet manifold but I think I'll start by running it as it is and see what the plants make of it. My only reason for wanting to up the flow rate is to try and maintain the same PH and EC in both tanks, which might not be so easy with a slow flow rate. I might get over this by just running the drippers for longer so it re-circulates more. I think to answer your question ef, I cant see a problem with the DO in the water travelling down to the satellite buckets (I guess your talking about a linked bucket grow with a control pot etc), once the O2 is in there it will stay for quite a while + when its travelling to the other pots/buckets it will pick up more o2 as it would be effectively fluming between the pots, as long as the flow rate is up and you can see the water surface moving / boiling over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eurasian_farmer Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Theoretically then, i could just switch off my compressors... Tempting!! But scary!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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