Which would produce more DO in a DWC?

[JSB99]

Excellent was just curious. Thanks for posting all this. I had been looking at my dusty rdwc system that has been sitting idle for 5 years. Read this whole thread and started setting it up

It's a lot of fun, but an important part of DWC for me, is the ability to really dial things in, and see the results of adjustments very quickly. But, it's only fun if you're not having to fix things all the time, and constantly chase leaks. Plan a rock-solid system from the start, and the rest will be smooth sailing

PS: one of the most important things I did with mine, to avoid leaks and hassles, is to use actual bulkheads, and the 27-gallon HDX totes.

 

[jamers]

Nice bulkheads def the way to go. I use the 27 gallon tote as my res and these square buckets with bulkheads. The plastic isn’t great on the white buckets and I have had to repair some with g flex epoxy, but other than that it has worked great in the past. Happy growing mate

 

[JSB99]

View attachment 4415418
Nice bulkheads def the way to go. I use the 27 gallon tote as my res and these square buckets with bulkheads. The plastic isn’t great on the white buckets and I have had to repair some with g flex epoxy, but other than that it has worked great in the past. Happy growing mate

Those buckets should work great. I used the totes to hold more water in the system, but as far as growing, they'd probably do about the same.

You might want to go larger on the pipes/tubes, to avoid roots clogging them up. I use 2" pipe, which is the biggest size before prices jump substantially. I've never had a problem with the roots. Although, having larger containers might be helping.

 

[Renfro]

Those returns are pretty small. Roots will plug them frequently causing overflows.

2 inch is minimum IMO, 3 inch better.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Some of the best results I had was top feeding with Hydro Halo drip rings, except the ring holes ket getting clogged with algae

this is on my short list to try

AirCube Active Oxygen 6 Site Grow Cubes

AirCube Active Oxygen 6 Site Bucket System is with proprietary fabric pot inserts, is the only way to air prune your roots, resulting in a massive root system.

growace.com

 

[2com]

I'm checking out the odd cola, and it smells like it's already drying and curing. It has that cut grass smell to it. There's another cola starting to look similar, but for the most part, the rest look and smell normal.

Got an IR gun, and the temps were always between 75 and 79. The other colas are fine, so who knows. They don't smell rotten, more of a cut grass kind of smell. It's almost like they finished early and started to go bad. Thankfully it's isolated

I somewhat recently saw the exact same thing you're describing It was pretty bizarre. It was like two or three branches were already drying, on the plant. That smell, and appearance. They were removed, they didn't appear to be "rotting" though. Also, I think it was triggered by the first 'flushing', and reduction of nutrients after that.

Well that's good to know its not rot. Last thing anyone wants at this point.
Im only guessing here but somethings stopping nutrients getting to that part of the plant. A bit of damage to the roots somehow? or a branch or just a cold spot in the corner of your res? I imaging you would of seen something similar before if that were the case though.
Either way its close to the end so it may just be a mystery that goes unsolved.
Damn fine plant pics man. Worthy of a breeders catalogue.

Interesting points, and I was considering similar things too.

 

[2com]

also I have read cvpvc grey is best for them sealing together as they are tapered and the pvc is not which maybe why your having leaking issues

Yup. It's the electrical PVC conduit fittings that have straight thread, plumbing PVC has tapered thread, iirc, for water tightness.

 

[2com]

Just some pics of my current grow. Same two, Jack Herer on the left, and a mystery hybrid on the right. I've got at least a couple weeks. Got some pretty meaty buds growing!

Good job, man. Nice grow. Really neat, organized setup too. I like your recording area as well.

 

[OldMedUser]

Some of the best results I had was top feeding with Hydro Halo drip rings, except the ring holes ket getting clogged with algae

this is on my short list to try

AirCube Active Oxygen 6 Site Grow Cubes

AirCube Active Oxygen 6 Site Bucket System is with proprietary fabric pot inserts, is the only way to air prune your roots, resulting in a massive root system.

growace.com

That's just a 6 pot expansion kit. What would that cost for the full monty with pumps, (air and water), controller reservoir etc ?

 

[JSB99]

Grow Room v2:

I had to take everything down a couple months ago, and thought I'd switch to led, as well as rebuild everything. Pipes and totes are cheap, and bulkhead holes are easy to cut with a jigsaw and a Dremel.

The pipes are all welded, but I have to rebuild my pump output manifold.

New spill tray, big enough to hold more water than the system:

With the pond liner. I'll be putting a strip of wood on top of the spill tray frame to secure the liner, plus it'll look better

Laying things out

All welded up and ready for a wet test...as soon as I have a way to drain it.

Broke down all my inline fans, and cleaned them.

 

[JSB99]

Slowly getting there...

I'll be replacing my pump with an Alita 40 or 60, haven't decided yet. I'm only using four stones, but I want an abundance of bubbles. Anyone want to chime in?

Keeping things nice and neat...

Just started some White Widow

Starting seeds in my cloner, using Rapid Rooters

I chopped off the bottom of the cloner net pots, and the remaining strips grip the rooters, regardless of the shape or size.

 

[Keesje]

If you want more bubbles on a wide spread surface, you could maybe use some kind of tube

 

[2com]

I'll be replacing my pump with an Alita 40 or 60, haven't decided yet.

You definitely did some research, I'd say. Alita pumps are real nice. I don't have experience with a model that large, but they're great.

I know this part probably help, but just before the last time I set up an rdwc I stopped using air stones - and used waterfall(s). I tried many; cheap ones that disintegrate, to micro pore top end ones (which make nice small bubbles). I still have the micro pore ones actually, they're pretty good. It's been a while since I've looked into that/them.

You're setup is coming along, and looks very neat and tidy. Sweet.

 

[JSB99]

If you want more bubbles on a wide spread surface, you could maybe use some kind of tube

View attachment 4484772

I actually like using the stones because I can put one beneath each root mass, and the bubbles make the roots spread out. The result is that all the roots, no matter how dense they would normally get, receive an abundance of bubbles.

 

[JSB99]

You definitely did some research, I'd say. Alita pumps are real nice. I don't have experience with a model that large, but they're great.

I know this part probably help, but just before the last time I set up an rdwc I stopped using air stones - and used waterfall(s). I tried many; cheap ones that disintegrate, to micro pore top end ones (which make nice small bubbles). I still have the micro pore ones actually, they're pretty good. It's been a while since I've looked into that/them.

You're setup is coming along, and looks very neat and tidy. Sweet.

I like using stones, as opposed to just using a waterfall. I believe they are much more effective at providing DO to all the roots. Doing this also means I don't have to use a big water pump, which adds heat to the water. Undercurrent is a cool idea and all, but I'm not convinced that it evenly provides DO to all plants as well as stones placed directly under each one.

 

[2com]

I like using stones, as opposed to just using a waterfall. I believe they are much more effective at providing DO to all the roots. Doing this also means I don't have to use a big water pump, which adds heat to the water. Undercurrent is a cool idea and all, but I'm not convinced that it evenly provides DO to all plants as well as stones placed directly under each one.

I didn't realize this wasn't undercurrent, and just straight DWC.
The main thing I liked and used R-DWC for was having a control bucket/res for easy measurements, additions, changes, and constant mixing of the solution. And even being able to have that control/res outside of the room/tent or whatever.
DC water pumps are extremely low power consumption compared to mag-drive/similar and barely heat up the water at all, nowhere near the standard mag-drive (like danner, etc) style ones do. Same reason I used diaphragm styles air pumps instead of piston style, heat mainly.

There was and probably still is a thread at ICmag (biobuckets), one singular waterfall, at the res - no other aeration at all from what I remember. Great results, no issues, I build a few.
Now that I know about ORP meters I'm very curious to actually test some of this stuff out because I'm yet to see someone quantify DO from either or, though I haven't looked in a pretty long time...long time. I bet the aquarists have though.

 

[JSB99]

I didn't realize this wasn't undercurrent, and just straight DWC.
The main thing I liked and used R-DWC for was having a control bucket/res for easy measurements, additions, changes, and constant mixing of the solution. And even being able to have that control/res outside of the room/tent or whatever.
DC water pumps are extremely low power consumption compared to mag-drive/similar and barely heat up the water at all, nowhere near the standard mag-drive (like danner, etc) style ones do. Same reason I used diaphragm styles air pumps instead of piston style, heat mainly.

There was and probably still is a thread at ICmag (biobuckets), one singular waterfall, at the res - no other aeration at all from what I remember. Great results, no issues, I build a few.
Now that I know about ORP meters I'm very curious to actually test some of this stuff out because I'm yet to see someone quantify DO from either or, though I haven't looked in a pretty long time...long time. I bet the aquarists have though.

Originally, I was going to go Undercurrent, but decided just to do an RDWC. My pump is only about 1/3 the size that would qualify as UC. But even with the right sized pump, I'm still not convinced DO would make it through the root masses as well as air stones. Especially the last roots in the chain, when momentum has been lost by the previous root balls. Not to mention that with the high current of a UC, roots can be drawn into the pipes.

 

[JSB99]

I didn't realize this wasn't undercurrent, and just straight DWC.
The main thing I liked and used R-DWC for was having a control bucket/res for easy measurements, additions, changes, and constant mixing of the solution. And even being able to have that control/res outside of the room/tent or whatever.
DC water pumps are extremely low power consumption compared to mag-drive/similar and barely heat up the water at all, nowhere near the standard mag-drive (like danner, etc) style ones do. Same reason I used diaphragm styles air pumps instead of piston style, heat mainly.

There was and probably still is a thread at ICmag (biobuckets), one singular waterfall, at the res - no other aeration at all from what I remember. Great results, no issues, I build a few.
Now that I know about ORP meters I'm very curious to actually test some of this stuff out because I'm yet to see someone quantify DO from either or, though I haven't looked in a pretty long time...long time. I bet the aquarists have though.

Forgot to say that this IS an RDWC. The controller is the one with the yellow lid, where the pump manifolds are.

 

[2com]

Forgot to say that this IS an RDWC. The controller is the one with the yellow lid, where the pump manifolds are.

Oh...well, to me a recirculating deep water culture system, where the water is being moved and circulating in this way (like yours) is an "undercurrent" system. Haha.

The last I remember looking into R/DWC things, which was a while ago, one topic was DO. And a question was how well do 'bubbles' actually aerate or impart oxygen into the water on their short travel upwards. And the answer, from what I remember, was not very well/very much, and that it was the surface agitation doing more of the gas exchange - it happens at the surface. Even with "very small" or small(er) bubbles, like from the 'fancy micropore air stones, it wasn't as effective as the actual agitating of the surface was (which air stones do, obviously).

But that's just floating around in my head, from memory. And clearly air stones'll work, no doubt.
When I mentioned water fall, in a system exactly like this, I'd have one going to each plant site, not just the controller/res. And now that I think of it, the biobuckets I reference had a "feed line" that went to each bucket as well.

Looking forward to seeing your system up and running, dude. It's gonna be dope.

Just chatting about it makes me wanna RDWC, and I've been super interested in getting a DO/ORP meter as well - curiosity.

 

[JSB99]

Oh...well, to me a recirculating deep water culture system, where the water is being moved and circulating in this way (like yours) is an "undercurrent" system. Haha

We could probably call it a "hybrid", because I do have a waterfall going into the controller

From what I learned about UC is that, at a minimum, you need a pump capable of circulating the total gallons in the system a total 9f 12 times an hour. So, if a system has a total of 100 gallons, a 1200gph pump would be needed. Reason being, enough flow is created to get dissolved oxygen to the dense part of the roots.

And yeah, just chatting