Scrogdawgs 400W RDWC White Widow Fem Scrog Grow

Scrogdawg said:
For this first ever grow I put together a simple 2 bucket RDWC system with 5 gallon buckets a 320 gal/hr submersible water pump and 2 - 4 L/hr air pumps (1 in each bucket). It has served me well and functioned great. My plan was always to build a more permanent larger system, and armed with a little knowledge from this first grow I've started construction. Here's a picture of the first system that I'm currently using.
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After much discussion with another member on material, piping size, water volume, air volume and many other aspects that would make a good compact system, the member produced diagram of what we had envisioned and I built a prototype. Although not in service yet this system should function very well for many grows for many years.

It is a 4 bucket RDWC system with a 56L (14.7 Gal/US.) reservoir. I will be using a 1000 gal/hr submersible water pump and 1 - 20 L/hr air pump split 4 ways to each bucket. We decided on 3/4" PVC on the pump side and 1.5" PVC on the return side. I used Uniseals in the buckets instead of bulkheads. A 2 valve manifold was incorporated on the return side and if you follow the flow you'll see it is designed to operate with the bottom valve closed forcing the return water through the top side of the manifold back to the reservoir. By doing this the water level in the buckets will never run below 1.5 inches below the netpots. In the event of a power failure or water pump failure the roots will always be submersed in the nutrient solution. The bottom valve is used only to drain the system completely when you do a reservoir change. A standpipe was incorporated into the return line as a fail-safe measure to prevent any possibility of a siphon occurring and overflowing the reservoir in a power outage. This system is very compact and measures 30" W X 60"L X 15"H and I've allowed for expansion to more buckets if they were ever needed.

Heres a few pictures of what I've constructed so far although I still need to hook up the reservoir and run the air lines to each bucket. Please let me know if you see anything blatantly wrong with the design or have any ideas for improvement.
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That right there is impressive! Make me one that'll fit in a fridge...
 
Tunkers! Ya know what? You need a bigger fridge! Like maybe a walk-in cooler. :)
 
Saibot said:
Tunkers! Ya know what? You need a bigger fridge! Like maybe a walk-in cooler. :)
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Fuck it I'll build a coolroom. Would you believe my old boy has a dismantled one he purchased in hopes to slaughter his own livestock. Wouldn't have a clue if it worked still but that would be fucking spectacular. There is no way I'd have the time and could be arsed to even bother.. maybe if it becomes legal in oz.
 
Gotta agree with WR420. I think you're there, Dawg. Woo Hoo! It's almost harvest time. :slide:
 
In the celebratory spirit of the impending flush, I thought it would be fitting to order a 5'x5' tent this evening. So I did.
No more getting smacked in the head by stairs or jamming old shirts under the door at lights out every friggin night.
 
I'd flush. And a tip for you that I noticed on my flush. I'd change the water daily. The water was nasty the day after I changed it. Nutes and stuff trapped in the root ball.
Yours look so awesome. Good job scrogdawg. Congrats on the tent.
 
Your plants look so good, Dawg. Have you done any research into flushing hydro vs soil? It seems like the hydro would be way more hypotonic than possible in soil and the flush would go faster.
 
5x5! Yes! You've got a good woman there!
Uh... you still have her, right? It wasn't a trade off, either/or kinda thing? Cuz, seriously, she sounds like a keeper. :)
 
Saibot said:
Have you done any research into flushing hydro vs soil? It seems like the hydro would be way more hypotonic than possible in soil and the flush would go faster.
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I could buy into that easily. My plan is to change the water every day and with my growboss meter I can monitor ppm's and tds 24/7. Whenever I notice the solution isn't picking up or flushing any more nutes etc. I can call time of death. If that happens in 4 or 5 days then all the better. Make any sense?
 
The Germinator said:
I'd flush. And a tip for you that I noticed on my flush. I'd change the water daily. The water was nasty the day after I changed it. Nutes and stuff trapped in the root ball.
Yours look so awesome. Good job scrogdawg. Congrats on the tent.
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Good stuff to know. I am planning to do that but still nice to get a heads up as to what to expect, thanks.
 
Saibot said:
5x5! Yes! You've got a good woman there!
Uh... you still have her, right? It wasn't a trade off, either/or kinda thing? Cuz, seriously, she sounds like a keeper. :)
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The old saying, "Its cheaper to keep her". Pretty sure if I couldn't hurt her feelings to bad 25 years ago I'd have a tough time doing it now. For sure she's a keeper.
 
Give thebroots a good rinse before the "flush". My water was dark DARK after a week and a half of nothing but h2o. Next time thats what im going to do... Run a couple gallons through my rootball. 3 dwc grows now and i still dont get much color fade on the fans. Still tastes fine but i want those "autumn" colors.
This grow im going to do a lot more root rinses. Defo between veg and flower and at the end.
 
Started flushing. Changed to PH'd RO water with Florokleen this morning. 60 ppm when I started, built to 300 ppm in 2 hours. Drained it and refilled, ppm's at 200 after 10 hours. I'm going to change again in the morning and let it go for a couple of days.
 
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