Heath Robinsons undercurrent RDWC setup

C

Cboyhehe

Member
Hi guys,

Ive been searching the internet all morning to try and find details on his undercurrent setup that utilises no air pumps.
Specifically how he plumbs the outlet at the top of the netpot to get that DO content?
Is he just pointing a 13mm pipe at the base of the tree and allowing water to trickle down the roots back into the grow chamber?
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
Not sure who that is or what he’s doing but all you need is a 90 degree 1/2” barb to spray water into the site, no need to hit the basket. I did a permanent setup and went a bit further. I’m assuming you are referring to a RDWC waterfall setup. This uses no air stones, 6x7 space.

26F6D47B-3EF1-45F2-A003-F46470FF0498.jpeg

I GOTTA LOSE THE AIR PUMPS! HOW?! Plus my awesome mini DWC :)

Hello folks. Many of you have probably seen my mini RDWC. It’s still kickin ASS and preps all my vegging clones for flower. BUT I have upgraded the setup and have gone with some short and wide storage containers with netpots in the lids for keeping moms and weeding out males. I just HATE having...
www.rollitup.org


This was my update to waterfalls, it worked well. I’m between runs now making some changes but no changes are being made to the hydro part.

70gal RDWC Waterfall update

Alright, it wasn’t the most fun I had at 3am on a Monday night, but I got it done. After the idea was planted to update my month old system to waterfalls I just had to do it ASAP. I currently have a grow on the go but I am at half capacity so it worked out. Systems is 5x25gal totes filed to...
www.rollitup.org
 
Last edited:
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
spliffendz said:
@Heath Robinson Click his name and see if any posts come up, I know a lot of stuff was online also, so a google search may come up
Click to expand...
Interesting, pics are dead but reading this isn’t what I was thinking. Flooded tube..

Heaths Flooded Tube Vertical

Welcome to my latest vertical grow, this time around I am using 4" soil pipe, a 4000 litre per hour pump, and one 600w bulb. The internal diameter is 4 ft. The build used 27 = 45 degree double sockets 4 = 90 degree double sockets 5 = Double socket pipe couplers 35 = pipe clips and approx...
www.rollitup.org
 
spliffendz

spliffendz

Well-Known Member
J232 said:
Interesting, pics are dead but reading this isn’t what I was thinking. Flooded tube..

Heaths Flooded Tube Vertical

Welcome to my latest vertical grow, this time around I am using 4" soil pipe, a 4000 litre per hour pump, and one 600w bulb. The internal diameter is 4 ft. The build used 27 = 45 degree double sockets 4 = 90 degree double sockets 5 = Double socket pipe couplers 35 = pipe clips and approx...
www.rollitup.org
Click to expand...
Sorry I'm not clued up on all these water grows, I'm coco/soil. I just remember Heath's grows and there were many
 
C

Cboyhehe

Member
J232 said:
Not sure who that is or what he’s doing but all you need is a 90 degree 1/2” barb to spray water into the site, no need to hit the basket. I did a permanent setup and went a bit further. I’m assuming you are referring to a RDWC waterfall setup. This uses no air stones, 6x7 space.

View attachment 4705229

I GOTTA LOSE THE AIR PUMPS! HOW?! Plus my awesome mini DWC :)

Hello folks. Many of you have probably seen my mini RDWC. It’s still kickin ASS and preps all my vegging clones for flower. BUT I have upgraded the setup and have gone with some short and wide storage containers with netpots in the lids for keeping moms and weeding out males. I just HATE having...
www.rollitup.org


This was my update to waterfalls, it worked well. I’m between runs now making some changes but no changes are being made to the hydro part.

70gal RDWC Waterfall update

Alright, it wasn’t the most fun I had at 3am on a Monday night, but I got it done. After the idea was planted to update my month old system to waterfalls I just had to do it ASAP. I currently have a grow on the go but I am at half capacity so it worked out. Systems is 5x25gal totes filed to...
www.rollitup.org
Click to expand...
J232 I actually prefer what you've done here, but my only consideration was how does fresh air actually get inside the container to keep the oxygen level in the air above the water replinished if its constantly being dissolved into the water?? Thats the other reason I was thinking of going a "Heath robinson" style and running like halo drip rings on top of the hydroton so the waterfall is constantly exposed to ambient air.
If I'm making sense??
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
Cboyhehe said:
J232 I actually prefer what you've done here, but my only consideration was how does fresh air actually get inside the container to keep the oxygen level in the air above the water replinished if its constantly being dissolved into the water?? Thats the other reason I was thinking of going a "Heath robinson" style and running like halo drip rings on top of the hydroton so the waterfall is constantly exposed to ambient air.
If I'm making sense??
Click to expand...
Bubbles my man.. top feed till the roots dip, happens quick. I’m new to this, I did a 4 month run after growing in peat over the years. Wish I did it sooner. I’m going to fire it up again in the next couple weeks. Here’s a video of it running when I was cleaning it. They say I went overkill on pump and 3/4” pipe but I can feed roots threw the entire system (if it happened) and not worry about plugging, the pump is a 1800gph magdrive.

http://imgur.com/a/DUzN3eO
 
C

Cboyhehe

Member
J232 said:
Bubbles my man.. top feed till the roots dip, happens quick. I’m new to this, I did a 4 month run after growing in peat over the years. Wish I did it sooner. I’m going to fire it up again in the next couple weeks. Here’s a video of it running when I was cleaning it. They say I went overkill on pump and 3/4” pipe but I can feed roots threw the entire system (if it happened) and not worry about plugging, the pump is a 1800gph magdrive.

http://imgur.com/a/DUzN3eO
Click to expand...
I meant more like.... Once the lid is on the container with the netpot... you've got the same volume of air almost sealed inside between the waterline and the lid..... Would you not eventually deplete the oxygen content of that air?

I was thinking about putting a venturi onto my feed line to my waterfalls. This would replenish that "stagnant" air between waterline and container or lid.

I really like your setup. It sounds really loud and I have to keep my setup super quiet. Im guessing it would be quieter once you raise the waterline a bit more.
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
No, the containers are far from air tight, any further then that, I never really thought about it. What issues would you anticipate from this? Some are running Venturis but I don’t think it benefited a pile, would have to go back reading, that first post I put up there I think has some setups with. The guys are not around much anymore.
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
Cboyhehe said:
It sounds really loud and I have to keep my setup super quiet. Im guessing it would be quieter once you raise the waterline a bit more.
Click to expand...
I can’t hear anything over 1000cfm of fan, ballasts, ac, chiller, 2 pumps and wall fans. It’s loud as fuck :lol:
 
C

Cboyhehe

Member
J232 said:
No, the containers are far from air tight, any further then that, I never really thought about it. What issues would you anticipate from this? Some are running Venturis but I don’t think it benefited a pile, would have to go back reading, that first post I put up there I think has some setups with. The guys are not around much anymore.
Click to expand...
My dwc containers are going to be ice coolers or eskys whatever you call them where you're from so will be fairly sealed.
My thoughts were that you would eventually deplete the air inside of those containers of oxygen as it not really being replaced. I may be wrong but it's just my thinking at the moment.

I may also be overthinking it. I just don't see a reason for air to cycle through the container like it would with an air pump or ebb and flow.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
When I started growing many years ago, I went through Heath Robinson's threads with a fine toothed comb. Turns out he liked to exaggerate about some things, including yields.

His RDWC tubs were very simple and while it took me awhile to replicate them, they did end up working well provided you kept the water cool enough. In England that's apparently not a problem but it's another story in the American desert southwest; using a chiller was necessary.

I ended up running 27 gallon tuffboxes with a waterfall style inlet in the lid. They worked well and were not sensitive to varying water levels because the splash kept things wet.

Simplicity is your friend because as Elon Musk likes to say, the best part is no part; if it's not there, it can't break!
 
C

Cboyhehe

Member
ttystikk said:
When I started growing many years ago, I went through Heath Robinson's threads with a fine toothed comb. Turns out he liked to exaggerate about some things, including yields.

His RDWC tubs were very simple and while it took me awhile to replicate them, they did end up working well provided you kept the water cool enough. In England that's apparently not a problem but it's another story in the American desert southwest; using a chiller was necessary.

I ended up running 27 gallon tuffboxes with a waterfall style inlet in the lid. They worked well and were not sensitive to varying water levels because the splash kept things wet.

Simplicity is your friend because as Elon Musk likes to say, the best part is no part; if it's not there, it can't break!
Click to expand...
What was the setup that you used??

Was the outlet a pipe just shooting water at the base of the tree or was it splashing directly into the water inside the tote?
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Cboyhehe said:
What was the setup that you used??

Was the outlet a pipe just shooting water at the base of the tree or was it splashing directly into the water inside the tote?
Click to expand...
I dropped the circulation pump into the control bucket. It fed a manifold that delivered water to a hole in the top of every tub, where I placed a tee fitting so the water would churn the surface and splash as much as possible.

This arrangement distributed water so evenly that adding something to the control bucket sent it evenly through the system in seconds.
 
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