Rider509: Two Thais & G13

LB07 said:
We both popped seeds under the same fixture so I'm excited to see the contrast :)
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Great minds think alike. I got those fixtures for cheap and loaded them with 6500K 65W CFLs and they rock for seedlings and vegging smaller plants.
 
TheMadDabber said:
Not sure how I missed this rider. But here we grow! Let a see what kinda dank my favorite pirate can grow 
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Fingers crossed for all females! They're all regular seeds so it's a risk. The laws in Washington are so messed up. We can grow up to six plants. But if you have twelve seedlings with plans to cull the weak and/or male plants you become a criminal. It's stupid. And given my ex's and daughter's whacknut obsession with making my life difficult I have to play by the rules.

It's a custody thing. The wife and I had full custody of our granddaughter for almost 11 years (her whole life!) and recently had her taken from us and given back to the womb donor due to, essentially, a technicality.
 
OntarioGro17 said:
Scrog was not kidding when he said I need to talk to you about making a rdwc system holy Jesus! Yours is a little more than I'm looking at but something along the lines of what you helped SD make would be light years ahead of what I cobbled together. Teach me Obiwan!!!
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LOL, I crack myself up.
 
My first attempt at RDWC was all Scrogdawg's fault. He was killing it with his system and I was inspired to give it a go. Once I saw how much sense it made, and how easy it was to control nutes and O2, I've never looked back.

This was my first system. A simple gravity feed that was brought about by necessity.

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And the current design is even more simple. The water level in the buckets is set by rotating the drain valve assembly after loosening two clamp screws. The valve is only used to drain the system without disturbing the water level setting.

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LB07 said:
Ahhhh you're in Washington as well? Woot woot. 253 over here :) I can give you a little clone my friend if one of the girls turns into a dude.
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That would be awesome! If luck doesn't favor me I may take you up on that. I'm in the Tri-Cities.
 
Rider509 said:
Fingers crossed for all females! They're all regular seeds so it's a risk. The laws in Washington are so messed up. We can grow up to six plants. But if you have twelve seedlings with plans to cull the weak and/or male plants you become a criminal. It's stupid. And given my ex's and daughter's whacknut obsession with making my life difficult I have to play by the rules.

It's a custody thing. The wife and I had full custody of our granddaughter for almost 11 years (her whole life!) and recently had her taken from us and given back to the womb donor due to, essentially, a technicality.
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Oh no. That sucks... Well fingers crossed for ya bud.
 
I found that the level shown is correct for static conditions.
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However, during pump on, the return is always almost full and the tank level is at the top of the return side. If I were to rebuild mine I would set the height of the drain bypass so that the top of the return line was at the same height as the bottom of the net pot. In doing so you can have the bottom of the hydroton touching water and surface tension will pull water to the roots of seedlings and negate the need for a top water drip. As the plant matures into veg you can rotate the return to set the water level as far below the net pots as you wish.
 
That's good to know, Scrogdawg. I was looking at it today and realized that if I cut the vertical risers in the middle I could use flex or No Hub couplers to raise the top tube even higher, but my system is already set up to wet the bottom inch of Hydroton at max water level. I'm just hoping that the two additional 90s don't restrict flow too much. I didn't want to punch straight out of the tent through the vent screen. I may have to do that regardless if it doesn't flow well. I've got unused 800 and 600gpm pumps that I want to try out. Too much ya think? What are you using?
 
Don't say that, Ontario! The higher the pedestal the farther the fall! And I'm old! Could break a hip! How would you like that on your conscience, huh? :)
 
Rider509 said:
Welcome, InTheShed! Someday, somehow, I'd like to do an outside grow and have a massive tree/bush like some guys here grow. Living in the inland desert of Washington we have long and hot summers and over 300 days of sunshine a year. I'm betting I could grow some serious trees. I'll have to jump on your grow journal and see how it's done. :)
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Har, you won't find that with my little guys in pots. Dunno if you have followed Sphnx's grow but he grew monster plants...this is just one of many:
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Rider509 said:
I've got unused 800 and 600gpm pumps that I want to try out. Too much ya think? What are you using?
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I put in a 1000 gph pump at the start but it was to much. I changed out and now am using a 550 gph pump the works great. I think I'd try the 800 gph for your 6 pod system and pinch it back a bit if necessary. Even the 1000 gph pump I used never came close to flooding out the vent it just kept the water level in the pods higher than I wanted by an inch or so.

Also remember that during normal operating with a pump the reservoir level will always be lower than the pod level and will only equalize when the pump is turned off. If you have to much water in the reservoir the extra head pressure will back up into the pods and force them to run with a higher level. In my case I tweaked the gate on the intake side of the pump to where I wanted the pod level at and then marked the inside of the reservoir. I fill the reservoir to 1" above the mark and don't refill until its 1" below the mark. Using those increments barely makes a notable difference in the pod level. Whats shitty, is that you can't really fill the reservoir to the top and leave home for a couple of days. A float valve in the reservoir and a storage tank for nute water would correct that but its more hardware to maintain.
 
I have this but didn't want to use it. Just one more thing to go wrong. I'll fire it up tonight and let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed for no leaks!

I'll likely use the 800gph pump for draining the system.

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Had a very successful wet test today. It's about a 40 gallon system. The water rose to one inch above the bottom of the net pots and stayed there. I didn't experiment with rotating the level/drain assembly so that may yet give me grief. I had to step back to a 400gph pump though. The 600 was too much. Only one leaky Uni-seal so I count myself lucky. You can see that I'm going to have to bolster the middle of the shelves since they don't much dig the weight.

And Scrogdawg, I noticed that as the water level filled the top tube there was a siphoning effect as the result of putting the siphon break on the upstream side. So it works as an automatic siphon when flow is high but stops siphoning when the flow is low. Sometimes being lucky is better than being good!

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Oh yeah, this happened and the pirates weren't even involved!
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Rider509 said:
Had a very successful wet test today. It's about a 40 gallon system. The water rose to one inch above the bottom of the net pots and stayed there. I didn't experiment with rotating the level/drain assembly so that may yet give me grief. I had to step back to a 400gph pump though. The 600 was too much. Only one leaky Uni-seal so I count myself lucky. You can see that I'm going to have to bolster the middle of the shelves since they don't much dig the weight.

And Scrogdawg, I noticed that as the water level filled the top tube there was a siphoning effect as the result of putting the siphon break on the upstream side. So it works as an automatic siphon when flow is high but stops siphoning when the flow is low. Sometimes being lucky is better than being good!

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Oh yeah, this happened and the pirates weren't even involved!
growboss.jpg
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Haha looks like something i'm about to buy myself in the blue lab. I don't know how to get my hands on a growboss in canada so blue lab guardian it is!
 
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