one month stand alone system

As of current I have a DWC running four plants. They were vegged for two and a half weeks or so under two t5 CFL's, and then another almost three weeks under a 1000watt HPS up until now.



The problem I have is that I will need to be gone for about a month in this grow cycle and am wondering the best way to do that. I currently put in about two gallons every two days, at least now. I was wondering how to make a stand alone system that could last for a entire month.

What I am thinking of doing is flowering out two weeks before I leave. This way the stretch part will happen before I leave, and when I go I can place the light a good amount up since no more stretching will occur, they should just nicely grow into it. I don't know though how much water they will keep on sucking up during the flowering stage, as this is my first successful hydro, and first dwc.

I think I may need to convert my system to a top drip system, that flows back into a resovouir that is about 50 gallons or so full of water. That way they won't suck as much up. I have a 5x5 grow tent and am wondering the best way to do this. I want to put the res out side of the tent so it won't be as hot, and hopefully not as much will evaporate. This should make the 50 gallons sufficient. I just am wondering the best way to get the water to drip back into the res efficiently. I may just have to get four separate chambers, one for each of the plants, lift the plants up since they will need to be above the res in order to drop back down, but I might just put them a little above a secondary res, which will also have a pump to pump right back into the initial res outside of the tent. This way the plants will not have to be taller than a 50 gallon res, and as long as the pumps are matched in strength, it shouldn't be a problem. Or at least the pump out should be stronger.

Anyone done this before and have any advice? The only reason I switched to hydro is to have a system that could stand alone for this time and at least be mostly ok.

Anyone got any ideas? I thought about just adding a resivour to pump like half a gallon into the dwc system and keep it like that. I'm just not sure if the water usage will increase or decrease during flowering. That's why I thought half a gallon, the roots might be a little dry during the night, but should be filled up at least more in the morning. Maybe 3 liters. Since I am starting to add a lot these days.

I think I know what to do. One of my concerns is that if I wanted to drip back into a 50 gallon res my plants would have to be up so high in the tent that they would hit the light at some point I believe. So instead what I think I will do is keep it as a dwc. Have one pump from a 50 gallon res pumping into the 15 gallon bucket I currently have, while a pump of the same or greater strength pumps water filling up past a certain limit (the limit I think best for my plants) will be pumping water back into the res. This way I will only have to buy two pumps, and a big ass tub, with little need to change how things are going. I will have two airstones inside the big res, positioned right next to the pump out, and have two airstones inside the actual dwc chamber.

One question i have though, would it be bad for the water pump to sometimes be pumping air? Because the one inside the root chamber only pumps when the water level rises above the nossel. So is it bad for the water pumps to sometimes be just pumping air?

im not sure but i think it would be bad to pump air. if you simply plumbed the big res to the little res via a hose at the bottom the water level in both would always be the same therefore no need for a pump as long as u ran airstones in both res u should be fine.

forgetiwashere said:

if you simply plumbed the big res to the little res via a hose at the bottom the water level in both would always be the same therefore no need for a pump as long as u ran airstones in both res u should be fine.

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The problem with that is that the bottom would need to be higher than the top of the res tank, and that could be an extra two feet something which might make my plants hit the roof, since the light is also about a foot and a half down from the top at the highest it goes. which leaves about after the tub at 6 inches, 31/2 feet for my plants to grow right into the light. Which they are about 2 something already.

Anyone else thoughts on the pumping of air through water pumps?

no you would need to keep them level then the water in both would always be at the same level as water finds its own level if one was higher it would just overflow the lower one.
it would essentially just increase your res volume.

1 month is a long time to leave the ladies.. all kinds of shit can happen... I left mine for 3 weeks in a ebb and flo system with a 55 gallon res.... they were hurting units when I got back.. had to flush and renute and left for another 2 weeks.. It is possible but if your pump shuts down your screwed, so redundancy is key.... 2 pumps running for air, large res.. good timers..... not those cheap ass plastic ones from home depot.... But even the high dollar industrial timers take a shit every now and then.... good luck!

find a friend and offer them 1/4 of the harvest to babysit lol

Sounds like you need an ATO (auto top off). Check this website they have a view options. http://www.aquahub.com/store/autotopoffcomp.html

Yah, i guess ima have to go with gravity on this one. Just need to find some wide buckets that won't push the bottom of my plants up too much. Make it so every time the water level is pumped above the water just falls down a tube into the res, which are constantly pumping water back into the root section. Maybe I'll connect two buckets at the bottom through another tube, so their levels are always equal, so I just need to pump from one, and then it's with the water capacity of two.

Someguy15 said:

find a friend and offer them 1/4 of the harvest to babysit lol

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What he said.

so this is what ended up happening to my grow. This was months ago, but I just never got around to posting, cuz no one likes to post on the stuff they did wrong =P So two problems, one was the 60 gallon resivour I chose ended up drying out probably a week before the three months was up. And then also the mother fucking mites came back. There were webs over the best nugs, pretty sad when I saw that. Deceded to vacuum them all off, and then coffee grind them up. The piles you see are after almost half was grinded up already, didn't trim to well because it was all going into edibles and eventually some hash oil. The hash and the edibles got me pretty fucked up still, but was no where near as satisfying as a whole harvest would have been.

the pictures below are my other grow... don't know how to delete, don't really care...

Live and learn.