Building own hydroponic DWC - Asking for some help or info

PTSD I shouldn't have to worry about smell from any kinda plants because I have a carbon scrubber filter coming with a inline fan that will take care of the smell so it should be ok on that stage of it . I like the cabinet how tall is that cabinet that 300 should rock that size of cabinet. question for ya that storage tub you are using for your DWC how does that work with the several plants in it is their enough room in that tub for the roots ? I am just going to use 1 five gallon bucket for now and scrog it .
 
shorty011 said:
I like the cabinet how tall is that cabinet that 300 should rock that size of cabinet. question for ya that storage tub you are using for your DWC how does that work with the several plants in it is their enough room in that tub for the roots ?
Click to expand...

While the roots eventually "filled up" the reservoir, I only lost about 1 quart of total volume capacity. Instead of holding 1.25 Gal of water from empty, it holds 1 gallon, now. So, I _need_ to top every other day now that the ladies are sucking up water and nutrients so fast. I do like to let the roots "air out" before water changes.

The big factor for me is I can, even with my physical limitations, easily remove the entire tub with plants from the cabinet, take them to a table & chair or the sink, and tend to them at a comfortable work height. And it's not too heavy to cause a strain on my neck, back and gimpy shoulder.


Because of the Mars-300 head space requirements, this could only work if I had enough cabinet height to accommodate a long flowering stretch, and had done LST to form the main in a flat spiral (pinwheel).

The cabinet was ordered as a Dealzer Cash Crop 4.0 Deluxe CFL, 6x hydro.
Dimensions: 34.75" T x 16.5" W x 11.25" D

The new Cash Crop 5.0 - 6 Plant LED Hydroponics Grow Box would have been ideal, if it were available at the time.

Just because I was curious to see how far I could push it, I'm now running the externally mounted Mars-300, with (2) additional Dealzer Quasar 20 Watt LED's



And the plants are loving it:




In hindsight I could have built the entire system for 1/2 the cost, but I needed a "simple, open the packaging and start growing" solution to start. Especially since I invested literally a years' worth of "medication money" to afford it and the seeds, and the water. I'm running power off a previous upgrade to the yurt: DC/AC inverter, with (4) 12v deep cycle marine batteries behind it, and solar power to augment and recharge, so that's keeping cost down, but with the LED's cost is really negligible.
 
DukeO said:
That looks like a nice little setup.
Click to expand...

Pretty good for "stock". When I have to abandon it next April, someone is going to be very happy.

When I rebuild at the other end of my journeys, I'll follow the same design, but with stainless steel "hotel pans" (same size & depth) and the "cabinet" will simply be an old restaurant speed rack wrapped in reflectix. Infinitely (and easily) adjustable height, and on wheels. For the sake of my physical limitations, I NEED to work at a comfortable height. I greatly under-estimated how much this would be a factor for me tending to my plants.


DukeO said:
That works well to to get some long roots to pull though the net pot in the DWC.
Click to expand...

Indeed this was right before I flushed to make the switch to flower nutrients:
 
does it matter what ph up and down I order their is a cheap brand then their is general hydro 8oz bottles the cheap brand is 16oz bottles for the same price as the GH ph up and down ?????
 
shorty011 said:
well we are ordering the incredible bulk seeds which should be pretty good starter for us. we are only going to use 1 5 gallon bucket with the 6 inch wide lip net pot for the bucket the tent we ordered is only a 2'3x2'3x5'3 its small but it will do what we need it to cant get the top feed system right now so we just going to have DWC but the air pump I got should rock that 5 gallon bucket like a hurricane lol I figured I would just hand feed it every day till it gets roots deep enough . I'm at the moment deciding if I want to get a humidity dome and go that way after I germinate or just put my germinated seed in rockwool or rapid rooter and put straight in the hydroton DWC not suer which way I am going to go yet still figuring that part out.
Click to expand...

If I were you I would use the humidity some for germination. As soon as you see the two leaves I would open up the vents in the dome and just let it root out a bit and theeeeeen put it in your system.


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shorty011 said:
does it matter what ph up and down I order their is a cheap brand then their is general hydro 8oz bottles the cheap brand is 16oz bottles for the same price as the GH ph up and down ?????
Click to expand...

What brand is it? And ph down shouldn't be a huge factor. Although the best ph down to date is imo is advanced nutrients it's super concentrated and hold the ph to the number desired. For dwc I haven't found a better ph down. I put 3 ml in a 5 gallon bucket and it drops it from 8.2 to 6.0. Just my 2 cents.


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its made by 5gallonbuckethydro 2 16oz bottles for 14.95 and the one I was interested in was GH for 16.67 2 8oz botlles. haven't checked the advanced nutrients will definitely check on them
I have taken all yalls advices duke green laz ptsd and I am getting a humidity dome just now looking for the cheapest one for me since I will only be doing 1 plant at a time lol
 
I use GH up and down and 3part nute. All easy and cheap for me to get and have worked great for years now. That and z7 and a little calmag from time to time and a lot of love is all that is really needed.
 
shorty011 said:
does it matter what ph up and down I order
Click to expand...

I just chose one source for my water, (local Wal*Mart R/O & UV "purified drinking water") and never varied from it. Plants don't seem to mind much.

I believe sound advice would be to first test whatever water source you are going to consistently use, from there you can decide if you need up or down, or anything at all.

My grow is using the "starter bags" of NPK's Raw Grow, and Raw Bloom, and Cal./Mag. and doing fine. BUT, with all the humidity, even the zip-top sealed bags are starting to get moist and clumpy. I don't like that because it is a lot harder to get dissolved!

Once these are used up, or they get too hard to get into solution, they will be replaced with a liquid based system.
 
which dome would be better in yalls opinion the first one is the traditional and the cheapest I can find the second one is something I have never seen before

EarlyGrow 70738 Medium Domed Propagator, 15" x 9" x 7", Black/Dark Green

1666645565320.png


12 Cell Self Watering Seed Success Kit

1666645579477.png
 
DR fish like the pics not bad at all I went thru some of your posts like your waterloo scrog pretty cool and informative I also went and read the scottyballs pineapple g13 seed to harvest very informative just not sure on just using the flora nova only but very very informative it has me rethinking my 5 gallon bucket DWC and thinking about the Waterfarm drip recirculating but that journal was from years and years ago not sure what to think now things change over the years . Lazarus PT Green and Duke what yall think just stick with the 5 gallon Bucket DWC
 
If you'll notice there's no drip ring in those pics.... I was thinking you might use the tomato cage and screen idea.... There is a pumping column hidden under the lid whose only purpose is to circulate the reservoir..... Didn't show that because you weren't asking how to circulate a reservoir... You can run a non circulating dwc in a gal jug if you want.... Someday you may feel the rdwc urge to move on up...

Not sure when years and years old information expires? must have happened years and years ago before my time...
 
first the tomato cage screen is a good idea but wouldn't the plants push that thin wire up unless you mount it to the lid . second I was talking about scottyballs journal it was in 2010 so yes things do change things get better things get worse manufacturers change products change and chemicals change heck even in 2010 scottyballs mentioned Monsanto trying to buy out flora nova so yes old information can change. also I only have a 2x2 footprint I cant get 2 buckets comfortably in their if I wanted to for rdwc and being my first grow I am going to try and keep it simple as possible exspecially since I am starting my first grow with hydroponics vs soil I am sure when I can later om I will move on up to RDWC but I'm limited on space as it is so as they say make do with what ya got lol. I do like the Waterfarm idea thou
 
There are pros and cons to any system. After some experimenting i have decided in my case to stick with my single 5 gal buckets for the time being but i may branch out in time to rdwc. It comes down to personal preference, space and funds.
Dr Fish that is a very nice scrog set up. I already built pvc scrog frames but if i hadnt i would have borrowed your build.

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actually Dr Fish if you read my message I said the cage to the bucket lid not the cage to the screen thank you, I asked if the weight of a fully screened plant could easily push that whole cage idea up off the bucket is what I meant and no I don't need a detailed instruction exspecially since I am already making my scrog out of thin pvc the wire cage is a good idea but not from a smart ass . if you want to comment like that don't keep your comments to your self. This is supposed to be a place for discussion and asking questions not smart ass comments .
 
duke0 have you ever heard of using just floranova for a entire grow and not anything else ? I know you have done very very good on GH 3 part which I am going to do but this floranova idea has my curiosity. I just finished ordering everything I need all that is left is to go to Walmart and buy me a 6inch clip on fan and wait for everything to come in
 

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