Re: Bassman's 6th - Blue Planet Nutrients - RDWC - Hi-Defoliation Martian & Master Ku
Check out the following link to grow #4.
Bassman Strips The Kosher Kush! Hi-Defoliation - DWC-RDWC - 1K Watts Of Madness!
Granted that's an assembled running pic before plants were transplanted. But to give you the details:
The bucket with the lid and 3/4" tubing running into it is the main res. It's only a 5 gal bucket. I'm never gone 24 hours so that's all I need.
At the bottom of the res are two outlets with 1.5" pvc. Uniseals are installed into holes drilled into the sides of the bucket. When using uniseals, it's imperative to drill the holes perfectly square and round. Then deburr with an exacto knife very carefully and cleanly. When cutting the pvc, also deburr the edges, rounding them with a hand file. It doesnt take much. Make sure the uniseals are installed flush to the bucket and you hear them "snap" into place.
Lubricate the pvc and uniseals with tons of window cleaner (windex) when ready for installation. Try to push them in to proper length on first attempt as they are a bear to adjust. The windex will evaporate fast. Cut lengths of pvc don't need to be perfect and probably shouldn't be. This allows you to fudge during installation.
Use regular PVC pipe glue at elbows and joints to glue and seal. Be liberal with it but use clean, dry, pvc.
At the far end, you'll notice a "T" with a red handled shutoff valve. Thats a 1.5" - 3/4" T. We use this taper down to a threaded 3/4" fitting then hose clamp 3/4" tubing. This reduction in size prevents cavitation and air locks in the system which could ruin a pump.
You see on the floor, right along side the res bucket and the left full bucket a pump. I use a 396 gph submersible pump to pump out of the system, into a 1/10hp water chiller, set to 54-55f. This maintains 57.6f water temps and you'll never get root rot with those temps.
The pump feeds the chiller and back to the main res. This creates a very nice flow through the entire system. Large pvc prevents roots from clogging and slowing the flow which tends to happen with 3/4" hose. This also keeps nutrients mixed well and just adding 1 qt of water mixed for 1-2 gallons of nutrient when ya need to bump the ppm up works fine. Nutrients mix very quickly this way.
Inside each bucket is a 3" long, 1.5" diameter air stone. I run the air pump at high. iirc it's the model 8000, 4 outlet. These air stones are awesome, cheap, and deliver lots of really tiny bubbles for 6 months or more easily.
I can't think of anything else off hand. I hope I explained it well. I do suggest getting 6-8 extra uniseals and 2-3 extra buckets, just in case you mess up a hole. A perfect hole won't leak. Imperfect on burrs, will cause leaks in the system and they are no fun to deal with in the middle of flower.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.