Materials for Recirculating DWC

I'd like to rebuild my hydro dwc system and use rigid pvc only. Does anyone have experience plumbing pvc into buckets? Are there thicker, square buckets that exist with square baskets for dwc? I've always used round ones with the fittings and tubing from a grow show. Any info is appreciated.

Yes there are specific square dwc buckets with netpot lids, but they are kinda expensive. You can also get square buckets and drill holes to make netpot lids which is cheaper but still kinda higher then i'd pay. I used 5gal buckets with netpot lids and uniseals with 2"pvc for my udwc system. The uniseals are great, and ive heard nothing but good things about them...

webguy16 said:

Yes there are specific square dwc buckets with netpot lids, but they are kinda expensive. You can also get square buckets and drill holes to make netpot lids which is cheaper but still kinda higher then i'd pay. I used 5gal buckets with netpot lids and uniseals with 2"pvc for my udwc system. The uniseals are great, and ive heard nothing but good things about them...

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I don't mind using round buckets, I'll look for the uniseals now...

from user experience it seems uniseals tend to leak, anyone got ideas on best way to plumb pvc into buckets and reservoirs?

Dude you don't want to use uniseals .. There are much better ways for around the same price . I would go with square totes and round net pots. If you are dead set on uniseals pm me . I've got some I will hook you up with cheap.

Bulk head fittings

Thanks guys, Could you snap a couple pics from the inside of that res/tote savana? I have been doing recirc dwc for 3 years and am wanting to really upgrade from the loose black hose they sell at grow stores to pvc. The reason for the material change is I'm going to be running all my flow from a res in a control room that is about 30 feet from the grow room. I'm trying to figure out all my plumbing right now and how to best connect the systems. The only problem I can forsee using the black totes as plant sites is they are large, I need to conserve space in my room since it will be a bit cramped with 4k watts in a 10x10 space and dong 8 or so totes just won't be space efficient, I'd rather have my water volume be mostly in my reservoirs and my plant sites be somewhat small (no smaller than 4+ gallons though) any thoughts? ideas? Thanks!

I will put up a couple pics later today. I'm running 4k watts in a little less then 10x10 space. I got 8 totes with 2 plants in each tote. Last run I ran with 8 plants , 1 in each tote . The tank fittings I use makes it real easy to put togeather and take apart. I found mine at a farm supply ( agri supply), I'm no grow king by any means but I do have a pretty nice set up

Hey thanks any pics would really help, do you use the yellow lids for where the baskets go? My set up will be very similar to yours savana. I've never used pvc before but am pretty good with engineering things, I don't want to make the mistake of doing this the HARD way first which is what I tend to do, make things harder and later figure out "o hey there is a product just for this problem". Is pvc glue safe for hydro or should I use silicone to seal fittings? Should I even worry about an adhesive to seal fittings/pipes with pvc?

I am going to locate my res and my chiller in a room that is about 3 rooms over from my grow room. I figure I can run a pump pushing from a rez in my control room, into my crawl space, over, and up into my room, then make a return from a rez in my grow room. I think if I pump water from the control room have a backflow valve installed before it gets to the room, then the only place for gravity to return water to my rez room will be through the output from the grow room. Water will be having to travel down and then up through the pipe but I think the rez and the plant sites will want to even out and this way I can have a pretty constant water exchange between the two rooms. Any thoughts on this?

I'm dont know about the going up and down on the pipe running to rez. I think that may be a problem . I'm sure there is a way to make it work tho. In mine the water is sucked out of rez and pumped back in . My system is pretty much the same as Sqydro ( thanks).
I really like the totes I use ( walmart) . This run I covered 1/4 plywood with the insulation you see.and drilled 5 inch hole for my net .pots

Are the rez and your grow totes gonna be on the same elevation? If so the water level should level out. If the offsets you putting between rez and grow room is an issue , putting a pump on your return line should take care of any issues. You may be able to get away with the 1 pump that's pumping out of your rez.

nice yeah that's what i'm thinking, if the elevation is off between the two rooms i can put a pump on the return. I figure I'll use this method http://www.truetex.com/bulkhead.htm to plumb my totes/rez's across the house with pvc and probably just do a black tubing drip kind of system in my room that will flow back into the rooms rez which will have an out back to the control room. any ideas on running a control room and how to then take water into the room and distribute it efficiently would be appreciated, thanks for the pics and the help so far

PVC glue should be safe because it is used in pipes and shit for drinking water... but you can double check on the internet or something.