Whatsup everyone, hope all is well in the land of tokers and growers. Ive been growing off and on for a little over 10 years now. Moving back and forth between prohibition and non-prohibition states has contributed to that. fast forward to today and Ive had my medical license here since last fall. Ive been growing indoor soil + synthetic nutes like I always used to. Then my last grow I went to organic live soil. As much as I like the taste and quality of the bud, it takes a lot longer, and the yields are not what I would like considering that I grow Autos now. I just finished my live soil harvest and cleared out the main grow space in my grow room. Its a 5x5 area under a 550V2 quantum board. Back in my college days I had the opportunity to mess around with some aeroponics and really enjoyed it. This time around I decided to go the Deep Water Culture route but being the cheapo geek I am, had to build it myself. I built the entire set up for under 150$. I had some air lines, a few buckets, and a pump laying around from an old fish tank so that helped with the budget. Its a 6x 5gal bucket system. Each bucket has a 6in air stone at the bottom and a 6in net pot up top. I have a 6 port 950GPH air pump for the buckets and a little top-fin 2 port air pump from my fish tank for the main res. I have a larger res that all together with the buckets holds around 35-40 gallons. The buckets are all connected in line to the res. The final bucket has a pump that pulls water at around 80GPH and dumps it back into the res making the system "recirculating" Ive tested it out and the system runs pretty well. No leaks, no issues. The only thing I may add at this point would be a 7th bucket to place the pump in that returns water to the res. Im not sure how its going to do when all the roots start really growing. its a very small pump with a decent intake grate on it that sits flush with the bottom of the bucket so it should be fine but just in case I may. I used 1/2 fittings with 5/8ID tubing for the res lines. The pump line is a little 1/4in but its just fine with the pump. I have a PH/EC/RH/Temp active monitor on the way that I plan to mount on the wall above the res with the sensors running into the res itself. This should make life a little easier for when Im checking on things. I will still have a handheld of course to double verify and help with calibrating. The grow closet that I built is in a guest room next to a window on the back side of my house. This is going to make my services a little easier. I have a hose line right outside the window. If I pull the pump out of my 6th bucket and place it in the res, I can run the line out the window and bail all the water out. Then ill turn around and use the hose outside to fill the system back up. I hate lugging buckets of water around the house. The tap water here isnt the best so I plan on either using a 5micron carbon sediment filter for the hose, or spending a few extra buckets and installing something similar on the water supply for the entire house. So far I plan on running 3 part GH Flora. Havent decided what others I need yet still doing my research. As far as genetics go, I have 3 Dark Devil Auto Seeds and Im still deciding on the other 3 for this grow.
Hi Han-Bolo - water needs to be around 68 to 70 - looks like you're on carpet as well. You can skip the chiller if all the buckets are sitting on the basement concrete floor. Can also skip the chiller and use frozen water bottles but there's quite a bit of upkeep to that step.
U need that chiller and I'd move the res outside the grow room too that way you can maintain water levels/nutes at your convenience and not just when the lights are on. I like the setup man, looks well laid out
I just use ice packs, but I got small reservoirs. My buckets are on concrete in the basement, but still needs cooling due to the pumps, which are set to 15 ON /15 OFF. *I've lost crops near the end due to no chiller*
agreed - the setup is fantastic for low cost on the go! I would only be worried about the transition tubes between buckets being only what looks to be an inch in diameter. If you don't put a mesh screen or something in front of that it's going to clog with roots.
I've been experimenting a lil with this. Using biological barrier helps to stop some roots, but I've also stuffed a copper scrub pad into the drains and its slowed down the roots (I think). I need to re-examine the effect soon. I've posted the details in the Aero Thread.
Oh fuck, get that copper out of there. It will start to kill the plants and you will scratch a bald spot on your head trying to figure it out. Been there done that, that's why I'm bald
I have to wonder how you know what the grow room temp is going to be after you turn everything on and you go into flowering ? Compressed air is hot is it not ? Pond pumps do create heat right ? black plastic does soak up heat correct ? How would you know what your water temp in your RDWC system would be ? Normally my RDWC systems run on the average 3 degrees higher when the room temp is 67 to 70 degrees F when my grow room reaches 75 to 78 degrees my RDWC systems run 5 degrees more then inside tent temp . Bucket lid basket size . That size of basket is know for the plants wanting to fall over inside the basket .. If you are doing clay balls buy some 3 inch plastic baskets and place them inside the plastic basket bucket lid and pack clay balls in as much as you can to stabilize the plant so it doesn't want to fall over in the grow baskets . I always cut a hole in the bottom of the basket so when I transplant the plant from the cloner I can pull a good portion of the roots all the way out the bottom of the baskets . That way I have 6 to 8 inches of roots hanging out the bottom. That way the plants will not die when the water level drops a little. Those little blue bubblers ( aka air stones suck ass ) Buy some real air stone …. Need to tie those things down to something heavy . the roots seem to grab them and pull them up to the surface of the water because plastic floats when filled with compressed air .
I use 6 inch net pot lids with hydroton and don't worry about the plants falling over. After a short while they build a root ball that is massive.
holy fuck - i should be able to achieve something similar in a 3" netcup right? I pull my CDLC out of a DWC bucket in a week or two.
Hey TG, you need air 24/7, I know the heat poses a problem, but drowning a plant is a bigger problem. Smaller roots etc....
the plants not dead silly peeps. It just stops the roots a little. The pad is pressed into the drain, well... maybe not anymore lol. That plant is big too! It needs to settle down lol. I think the copper scrub pad is ok. hey man that was a really nice answer btw @Headhunterpipes
Thanks bro, I dont want to run the res outside the closet because I use the room for guests. Ive had people stay over and never even know the closet is a full on grow room lol. Im on 24hours of light I only grow autos so thats not a big deal for me I go in all the time. I might relocate it but with the way I have it now the pond liner will hold all the water in an event of a total loss/failure. Not sure I could pull off a fail-safe like that if I relocate it. Ill still consider it though.
bubblers always on. I meant the water sprayers/sprinklers etc I don't even think I need a bubbler in the aero system ttytt