A Modest Attempt At DWC From Scratch

Hey my 420 friends. I have a really silly question. See how where my return line goes through the tent from the bucket it has to go slightly up. Is this ok as long as the highest point is below the water level or is it bad in general and I should make that level? I am not good when it comes to this type of common sense but I followed a YT video where the guy had is going up a bit. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!
 
Modest Grower said:
Here's where I called it quits for the day. I'll straighten everything out and tidy it up when I get ready to glue all of the connections but I'm tired and still sort of moving in here. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

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Hey there I hope your good. Looking good brother and I see you’ve been busy play system builder/ plumber nicely done.
Some things to watch: You may not have a problem with the 2 inch but if we call the bucket beside the res bucket #1 and the farthest one bucket number 2. You will have to watch bucket # 2 because when I ran a straight line that bucket always had more water in it.
I was using 1and a half inch drain lines so maybe you won’t encounter that problem but something to watch because you won’t notice it in a wet test but it happens when the roots balls r huge and changing the volume in each bucket.

Also I see reflecting tape around that uniseal making it way inside the bucket??
IMO that that will wick water out along it because the rubber from the uniseal isn’t in contact with the bucket. I think water will slowly make its way out along that tape as a very slow drip.
I may be completely out to lunch on this but as mentioned before I’m legit OCD and it just jumped right out at me immediately.
Whatever you do run a 24 hr wet test with everything running and straight water and no plants incase you have to tinker.

play safe and enjoy my friend
 
Modest Grower said:
Hey my 420 friends. I have a really silly question. See how where my return line goes through the tent from the bucket it has to go slightly up. Is this ok as long as the highest point is below the water level or is it bad in general and I should make that level? I am not good when it comes to this type of common sense but I followed a YT video where the guy had is going up a bit. Any guidance is greatly appreciated!
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Try to make everything level if possible as all things in these systems r built on level. As well it will keep the same amount of water in the buckets when you drain your system. You won’t get as much out when you drain the system.

you can raise the buckets by putting something under them. The under side of your res should be the same as the bottom of the buckets and all drain lines level or a very very slight slope from buckets to the res.
 
Modest Grower said:
Haha I saw that too! I was kicking myself a bit. Ill definitely make sure that tape isn't in there. May have to take a few steps back but worth the fix
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Not sure if possible now but it’s way easier to push those pipes through to get them out then trying to pull them out. Either way keep them lubed not to damage the uniseal
 
Lookin good in there so far! Are you planning on covering the rest of the piping in the tent with foil tape? None of the pvc is light proof. Not a big deal once you have a canopy established, but if you’re starting from seed it’ll be weeks before the plants shade the pipes enough to keep the light away from them.

As @KCCO 77 mentioned, your stystem is going to “self level” every time you fill it. Its nice to get all your water levels established in your buckets in relation to the level in the reservoir. That way even if the res is lower than the system, you’ll know where the water line is in your buckets based on how high you fill the res. The level wont change even with roots in the buckets just the volume of water going in.

Our res is slightly lower than the buckets by about 1” and each bucket is 1/4” higher/lower than each other working from the back of the system forward. This helps drain everything into the res for a clean out.

Cant wait to see your system running :high-five:
 
Happy Monday everyone! @Michael Hunt I will definitely be wrapping all of the pipes when all is said and done. I just ran out of steam last night. I also had to save a little energy for the to do list to keep the wife happy.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Have a fantastic week!
 
dick23rk said:
and I'm kind of curious about root clogs. How susceptible is the 2" line to clogging with roots?
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Lining the buckets with a paint strainer bag will stop the roots from ever becoming a clog problem!

Looks like you’re almost ready to test, MG!
:thumb:
 
Happy Friday! I did the first test run today. I see one spot that has a small leak but I think it should be relatively easy to fix as it is the pvc outside of the buckets. I do notice a bit of a difference in water height which was mentioned. I am not sure if it will be enough to matter yet. I was able to adjust the feedline rate a bit to getvit much better I am not sure how much bubbles is enough haha but I'm happy its seemingly working

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beauty looking system.
i woulda used paint instead of the silver long term.
 
also nice lighting choice
 
Thanks @bluter I definitely agree. I think even buying black buckets straight away would be the way to go. For this run, I am having fun with it and learning a lot. The more expensive purchases will carry on to the next build. I may lose some buckets and pvc along the way. I am trying to avoid waste and will be using some of my practice buckets for a dwc set up for 2 cbd seeds I have going.
 
Modest Grower said:
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Hey brother I hope all is well. Looking great man and don’t sweat the small things you don’t like to much. I don’t know to many that hit a home run on the first swing.
Once up and running do a grow or two and tweaking the system for your liking and needs.

Black buckets r the way to go and everything you can do when building a system to keep it simple is best.

Also now you have water running what kinda air pump r you running?
Dissolved oxygen is key in the system and you want as much as possible.

play safe and enjoy my friend
 
Looking good, and very shiny!
Glad to see the test run faired out good with only 1 small fixable leak.

I see you set it up as a waterfall, good choice from what I've been reading. But have also read up on some other undercurrent and waterfall builds, a lot of people are saying you can eliminate the air pumps and stones when doing waterfalls. That the key to dissolved oxygen is water turbulence and breakage, hence the waterfall, always catching air as it drops into the bucket. Can you clarify any of this @KCCO 77 ?? I was kind of curious about it myself, I wanted to do undercurrent buckets, with a double waterfall back into the res. Would it be enough?
 
dick23rk said:
Looking good, and very shiny!
Glad to see the test run faired out good with only 1 small fixable leak.

I see you set it up as a waterfall, good choice from what I've been reading. But have also read up on some other undercurrent and waterfall builds, a lot of people are saying you can eliminate the air pumps and stones when doing waterfalls. That the key to dissolved oxygen is water turbulence and breakage, hence the waterfall, always catching air as it drops into the bucket. Can you clarify any of this @KCCO 77 ?? I was kind of curious about it myself, I wanted to do undercurrent buckets, with a double waterfall back into the res. Would it be enough?
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Never run without air. These systems r based on DO and unless your water is below 10 C you’ll never get it saturated with DO.
DO is the super charger to the plant and if you’ve ever lost a air stone or had a kink in a air line in multiple site system it’s noticeable within a week in the plants vigour.

Will it work yes but 100% will loose yield.

It took me one week to see one plant slowing down compared to my other 7. I found a kink in my equipment room right in here.
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Within 48 hrs of fixing it the vigour of the plant started to look like the others.
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You can see above at the temp we keep our res range at we r never near saturation so more is better for many reasons.

I won’t run without air and so much so I run my chiller cooler at around 65 just to try to increase my DO every little bit.

Play safe and enjoy everyone
 
KCCO 77 said:
Never run without air. These systems r based on DO and unless your water is below 10 C you’ll never get it saturated with DO.
DO is the super charger to the plant and if you’ve ever lost a air stone or had a kink in a air line in multiple site system it’s noticeable within a week in the plants vigour.

Will it work yes but 100% will loose yield.

It took me one week to see one plant slowing down compared to my other 7. I found a kink in my equipment room right in here.
19A01335-FC44-4884-AF9D-911C3DC3C2A3.jpeg

Within 48 hrs of fixing it the vigour of the plant started to look like the others.
C3F620F7-054E-4789-9F9D-7C486AF339D1.jpeg

You can see above at the temp we keep our res range at we r never near saturation so more is better for many reasons.

I won’t run without air and so much so I run my chiller cooler at around 65 just to try to increase my DO every little bit.

Play safe and enjoy everyone
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Good info, thank you sir!
So with undercurrent though, would 2 of my big 5inch stones be enough in the res along with a waterfall into the res? Or would I still need a smaller stone in each bucket? Just trying to watch costs and hoses being everywhere lol
I believe I seen an undercurrent system built that had waterfalls in each bucket and air stones, that was a crazy setup
 
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