Need to circulate my DWC... how?

[Mr. Nuggets]

I realized my main problems with my system is that the circulation from the reservoir to the 4 buckets is slow, and by the time I need to add anything, whether it's adjusting pH or adding nutes, I would need to directly add it to each bucket rather than into the reservoir. I was going to add a small pump into the reservoir, and run a tube to each bucket, which would then circulate the water. Problem is, the pump will pump water faster than the water can be returned to the reservoir via the 1/2" tube. Are there any alternatives? I know I can probably find a slower pump, but has anybody done anything like this?

 

[legallyflying]

You can set it up like a reverse ebb and flow. Hook all the buckets to an empty bucket. Put a pump in that bucket and when you want to drain your system for mixing and what not, turn the pump on and fill your rez. When everything is good, then move the pump and hose to the rez and reverse the process.

I do this exact thing for 12 10 gallon buckets except I have an ebb and flow control bucket so it does it automatically.

You can't just pump water into the first bucket or what not as the water levels will not be even. the first bucket will be much higher than the last one. You need big pipe to do something like that.. undercurrent. TO avoid roots and what not I would say 2" minimum.

 

[mytwhyt]

This is what you need to do to increase the recirculating speed of the water. Remove the pumping column setup that goes in the reservoir. You need to install in its place a 1-1/4" stand pipe that ends above the surface of the water in the reservoir. Much like the one in this picture.. This reservoir set up is for a one plant grow..
With a standing 1-1/4" water column you can drop in 3 WF pumping columns.. 3 times faster. .Also they are removable by simply lifting the pumping columns out for cleaning. Thats not possible with the WF system.. The one shown is 3/4" thin wall PVC, with 1 pumping column.. Its not shown, but the top of the stand pipe needs some stabilizing support. I'll dig up a pic of what I mean..

Attached Thumbnails

 

[hotrodharley]

This is what you need to do to increase the recirculating speed of the water. Remove the pumping column setup that goes in the reservoir. You need to install in its place a 1-1/4" stand pipe that ends above the surface of the water in the reservoir. Much like the one in this picture.. This reservoir set up is for a one plant grow..
With a standing 1-1/4" water column you can drop in 3 WF pumping columns.. 3 times faster. .Also they are removable by simply lifting the pumping columns out for cleaning. Thats not possible with the WF system.. The one shown is 3/4" thin wall PVC, with 1 pumping column.. Its not shown, but the top of the stand pipe needs some stabilizing support. I'll dig up a pic of what I mean..

Attached Thumbnails

+rep for knowing something that is actually useful and not just an opinion.

 

[legallyflying]

Usefull for sure, but not for the OP in this case. How does that increase circulation BETWEEN buckets? Not familiar with WF so could be missing something but I do know that WF are stand alone units

 

[mytwhyt]

After I posted I realized it might not apply to the OP. Here's the WF recirculating setup.. It uses a single pumping column, permanently plumbed into the system. The WF pumping columns will always clog where the air enters the bottom of the column. http://generalhydroponics.com/site/gh/docs/instructions/WF_Upgrade_instructions.pdf The pumping column pumps the water from the last bucket and gravity keeps them all at the same level... I figured the stand pipe was the simplest way to increase the flow..
Thanks for the hot water heater/CO2 thread. Plan on that upgrade soon.

 

[Mr. Nuggets]

Thanks for the replies guys. So this is what I did... I had an extra pump lying around from a cheap cloner, it's around 150 gpm. It's connected to a 4" horizontal 1" diameter PVC pipe with 4 holes already put in it. I added little nipples to the holes, and simply attached 4x 1/8" black tubing to each one, then placed each one in a bucket. Fortunately, the pump in the res doesn't put out so much water that it fills the 4 buckets, it reaches an equilibrium and works out perfectly. I can already see a difference, and the nutes and pH are evenly mixing incredibly well.

 

[legallyflying]

Sweet! I have absolutely no idea what your talking about but if it works then it works!

People that understand physics make better growers for sure!

 

[Mr. Nuggets]

Aaaaand here's what inside the res looks like. Pump on bottom feeds into small horizontal PVC tube, which then splits into 4 tubes, each going to a plant. @legallyflying... your signature quote has just added minutes of laughter to my day.

 

[onthedl0008]

Theres so many ways to do this all effective heres what i did only thing ive changed is the drainage lines from 3/4 to 1 inch id recommend as big as drainage line as possible due to root clogs 1 inch dont clog tho not with minimal maintenance..

 

[legallyflying]

This is what I was talking about.. reverse ebb and flow bucket... See the 3/4" line leading to the bucket on the far back wall... (orange timer dial)

Empties all the buckets into the big mutha of a rez... I have it set to empty every 2 hours or so. That broken dehumidifer is my 3/4hp chiller. Don't laugh, cost my $180 to make, keeps 200 gallons at 65F, runs about 8 hours a day total.


Same set-up, these are early veg plants. The above picture is the flower room.