sD's 6 bucket recirc. DWC White Rhino / Orange Crush

[skunkydelight]

Ok everyone...ever since OG shutdown, this is my new home, so I'm going to start a thread that I had at OG from the beginning...Hope everyone joins along for the fun!

Here's my current setup:
Veg room - [3'wx2'lx3'h]
* 150w Growlux
* 70w MH
Flower room - [4.5'wx4.5'lx8'h]
* 1000w Hortilux HPS
Ventalation - 465cfm Dayton Blower aircooling the lights and the room

The past 6 months I've been running 10gal tubblers and a few 5gal buckets....Well, once you get enough of those into the room, they are pretty hard to maintain by themselves as things like PH and Nute/Water levels were different in every bucket, everytime. This was hurting my results, so I decided to go with a 6 bucket recirculating Deep Water Culture setup. Since I already had the DWC down to a pretty good science, all I needed was learn how to make a recirculating system like the WaterFarm systems. In the end, it was very easy and is a very good setup in my opinion for people who need to not have to worry about there plants for a week to ten days at a time. Now, I'll run you through a quick breifing of how this system is setup and works, of course with full pictures.

The idea behind the entire system is fairly simple. You have as many buckets as you want to run plants in, plus one extra that will be outside the room as the controller. If all of these are connected, at the bottom of the buckets mind you, then the water level set in the controller bucket will be the same height that is maintained in every other connected bucket. That solves the water level issues....then if put a water pump in the controller bucket and have it go through 1/4inch feed lines to every other bucket, then you have a recirculating setup...so if PH and nutes are maintained in the controller, they will be the same in every other bucket as well! Now the only thing left to do is to add a toilet float valve to the controller bucket, which is hooked up to a gravity fed 20gal topup reservoir, which is set to keep the water/nute level in the controller bucket to the exact height you want it. Now add airstones to each bucket in your room and woila.....I know that was kinda straight forward, but you will see from the pictures how everything is hooked up....
So here's before and after photos, then I'll get to building the system...

[Gen]

Looking good skunky. Keep posting those pictures. Be safe.

Very tragic to hear about overgrow and heaven's gate. All that research gone from the message boards. I'm glad I had a chance to read them before they were attacked. I copied some stuff, but not all. What a waste.

Even though people aren't posting, we're here to support you. Keep up the good work.

[skunkydelight]

hey Gen! Yeah, it is a tragedy. Luckily, I had just started my thread there and wasn't very far in, so I'm looking forward to getting it going. You're right about it being a waste of good material. There was years and years of research on that site....it made me the person I am today, which I am sincerely greatful. Anyway, let's get on with it!
-sD

[skunkydelight]

OK, here are the materials you will need (all stuff can be obtained at Lowes or HomeDepot except water pump and airpumps/airstones, which can be found at any pet supply store, i.e. PetSmart):
1. # of buckets you are going to run (wee will use 6 for now)
2. 50 ft. vinyl 1/2inch tubing, BLACK (can be bigger, but everything must match)
3. 10 - 1/2" (inside diameter) grommets (always want more than exact on hand)
4. 10 - 1/2" barbs
5. 10 - 1/2" T's
6. 2 - 1/2" shutoff valves
7. 50 ft. green/black 1/4" drip line
8. 10 - 1/4" barbs
9. 10 - 1/4 " drippers 0-10 gph
10. 3 1/2" net pots
11. red lava rock
12. 250 gph waterpump (29.99 petsmart)
13. 6 airpumps, 6 inch airstones to match

[skunkydelight]

** I forgot to mention that you will need a drill and a 1/2" wood hole drill bit **

Step 1: You want to drill 1/2 inch holes (about 1 and 1/2 inches from the bottom) in all your buckets you are going to run. Now I chose to run a 18gal rubbermaid container as my controller, just giving me more space to work around, plus the water level doesn't drop as fast. Now, there are 2 ways we can set this up...I have my setup as 1 out of the controller to a loop around the 6 buckets. This makes for slow draining/filling when changing the nutes/water. Next time I will do it this way: make as many holes in the controller res. that match the number of buckets you are going to run. That way they fill/drain individually, thus being quicker...but for all intensive purposes, my setup works great and gives me the option of having a shutoff valve at the controller res. where it connects to the 1/2" drain line for easy res. changes.
See Pics.

Step 2: You want to insert rubber grommets wherever you drilled holes. You will also have to insert a 1/2" barb in each grommet so half is on the inside and half on the outside to connect to line. This must be watertight, so make sure you only drill 1/2 inch holes. It will be a very tight fit if you did everything correctly...use some oil to make the barbs slide it a bit easier.

Step 3: Cut all your 1/2" line to match how you will have your setup...don't put together yet!

[skunkydelight]

Step 4: Now that you have all your line cut, you are ready to start a try run...Make sure your grow room is clean and ready to go otherwise. I like to keep my control res. outside the grow room, because it's very important to keep the nute temps from 68-78 degrees...anything higher and you're gonna have a problem with algea and other unpleasent things. Go ahead and setup all your buckets and your control res where they will be for the entire flowering period. I forgot to mention that if you have the stiff black feed line that is for sprinklers like I used you will probably have to heat it up to get it to slip over the barbs/T's easily. Use boiling water and that should do the trick. No connect all your lines together once your sure you have everything in it's final location. You can take it apart, but I would just recommend replacing the tubing ever 2 or 3 times since it's so cheap.

Step 5: Now assuming you checked each bucket prior to setting them up for leaks!!! we can continue.....fill the controller res. up with reg. tap water...It should fill every bucket in your room...fill till every bucket is at the height you prefer (about 1 inch below the netpots is default) Let it sit and see if there are anymore leaks. If there are leaks, goto Lowes and get the leak fix tape stuff, it works well.

[skunkydelight]

Step 6: Take a hit...chill out, think about the future!

Step 7: Hook up your airpumps. I use the walmart kind for 60 gallon tanks...they have 2 nosels and I use 1 airstone per bucket, 1 per nosel. Make sure they are in order and everthing is working properly with your lines. I have added a 12" airstone to my controller res. for added O2, but that is optional.

[skunkydelight]

Step 8: Ok, now that you have everything in order, there is one last thing we need to do...hook up the water pump. So you put the water pump into the control res. I had a lot of issues with the 1/4" barbs leaking, so this is my genious way of fixing this issue. Refer to pics. You get a 10ft. line of clear or black vinyl tubing from Lowes/HD. cut a piece about 3 feet long....buy a 1/2" endcap and connect the cap to one end of the vinyl and the other end to the out on your water pump. (In my case 250gph from Petsmart - more than enough for 6 bucket system, probably overkill) Then use a 16penny nail and make as many holes as buckets near the end cap...insert the 1/4" barbs into these holes...now cut your 1/4" spaghetti tubing line to length from each of these barbs to each bucket....that way if the cap and barbs leak, they are still over the control res to leak back into, no harm done. then connect your 1/4" lines to the barbs and the other end to the drippers you bought earlier...and put each one in a bucket...I just rest the lid on the airline and dripline. I have it set at a pretty good flow coming out and the level is consistant in each bucket to a 1/16"! If everything is working right, you now have you system completely recirculating! Take a breath and give yourself a pat on the back....

[skunkydelight]

Step 9: Last Step....you need to hook up the toilet float valve in the controller res. and attach it to a hose connected to an ELEVATED auto-topper res. (In my case another 18gal) - Set the level and you're good to go...Add your nutes, check your ph and tds/ec water temp and your good to add plants!



-----Now to the good stuff! White Rhino / Orange Crush / HashPlant #10
:thumbsup:

[skunkydelight]

-P.S. - I change the nutes/water in the entire system ever 7-10 days depending by switching the hose connected to the pump and just pumping it all to my bathtub...then i re-fill and yada yada...and bam! consistency like you've never seen before! I also check the PH everyday, which seems to go from 5.3 to 5.8/5.9 in one day, which is good, that means they are eating, but you need to set the ph in the auto-topper res. to about 5.1/5.2 to accomadate this swing....plus i auto top with half strength lucas veg nute formula...i use lucas veg nute formula for flower and 1/2 veg for veg...works just as good and conserves nutes.

Reg lucas formula is GH Micro/Bloom: VEG 5ml/10ml
BLOOM 8ml/16ml
(where 5ml = 1 teaspoon)

** Ok, now we can move on....

[skunkydelight]

Ok, currently, I have a lot of things goin on in the room....The 2 buckets on the left are empty, meaning they don't have plants or airline/airstones, but they don't have the dripper lines hooked up....Once I can fill them, I'll hook the airstones up. the back middle is hashplant10...the backright bucket is orange crush, the backright tubbler is hashplant10, the front middle bucket is o.c. and so is the front right bucket....the back left 1gal planter is O.C. and is a hydro experiment with gradan growcubes...also I have two White Rhinos from seed in 1gal planters on the floor. They are being sexed. Everything else is obviously female.

In the veg, the mom is Orange Crush...

Also, they are all at different stages of flower....I harvest 2-4 plants every two weeks or so...

I run Ph 5.5
TDS is about 1000
water temp 72
room temp 78-85

-sD

[skunkydelight]

Ok, here are some updated photos I took about 5 mins ago...enjoy...
-I adding 2 plants to the system every 2 or so weeks once they are vegd for at least 2 weeks after rooting....I took those babies about 2 days ago...I also topped the White Rhinos...
-sD

[skunkydelight]

no comments? common guys.... :)

[Harvesthetic]

Damn skunkydelight, VERY nice to see the OverGrow wisdom relocate :) this is a kick-ass first post!! Perfectly described, hat's off to you man.
I'm very much considering this method to be my next experiment, don't have that much experience (check my sig) but it's threads like these that allow a brother to learn.
I think this thread hasn't been answered because there aren't a lot of people checking it. Try redirecting it in Indoor or Cabinet growing ;)
Also, is this an expensive method? Already have lights, fanning & nutes.
Cheers ;)

ps great strains too, looking forward to seeing the trichomes on them

[skunkydelight]

hey Harvesthetic! Thanks for stopping by...I'll link this thread to the Indoor section and see what happens...
-Anyway, to answer your question, this is the most inexpensive system I've ever built....with h20 pump, I think it ran right around 100 bucks...the most expensive part is probably the 5 gal buckets, at least for me, at around 5 bucks U.S. per with a lid....I can give you a parts list with prices if you want, just let me know...Try it out man, you can leave it for a week and not have to worry...unless the power goes out of course...then you have a once a day babysitter to make sure all is well! Welcome to DWC!
-sD

P.S. Little White Rhino for your pleasure... :thumbsup:

[Gen]

Nice grow. I'll be checking back to get the bud and smoke results.

[BloodShot420]

looks good my man...

i'm still hesitant to post all the info i had on OG... :stoned:

i'm not sure i'll be making any logs anywhere, maybe .pdf format - and upload when i'm done :D

[Gen]

Hey Skunky,

What's the white stuff in with your plants? I don't recognize it? Looks like croutons.

[tomknox]

are you dumping nutes into your bath tub? you might start some unwanted growth!!!!

[skunkydelight]

Hey Skunky,

What's the white stuff in with your plants? I don't recognize it? Looks like croutons.

Gen, it's called GrowCubes by Grodan...the same people that make Rockwool Starter cubes, Rockwool slabs, etc....I'm switching to lava rock at the end of this cycle because I've been having problems with algea growing in the medium when it gets hit by light, because it stays so damp...I've also lowered my water level which helps the top stay dry...I've already lost like 5 plants to this damping off tho, so don't mess with growcubes unless you know what your doing....They seem to work very well to just stick in a pot and go soiless tho...you have to keep the ph above 5.5 or they will break down is another big problem with them... :thumbsup:


are you dumping nutes into your bath tub? you might start some unwanted growth!!!!

tomknox, that's a great point that I've never really even thought about...has this happened to you? What's your best alternative solution, the sink has the same issue, correct? :confused:

-sD

[skunkydelight]

looks good my man...

i'm still hesitant to post all the info i had on OG... :stoned:

i'm not sure i'll be making any logs anywhere, maybe .pdf format - and upload when i'm done :D

Hey bloodshot....I'm sorry you feel so uneasy towards the internet right now...that sucks, but I totally understand if you were very active on OG. I however, wasn't, which is good....I don't think anyone really has anything to worry about...there are a lot of legal issues with using a website like that to catch people who are actually growing...I think Canada is gonna see a lot of heat because of this...heat they don't even know exists, like with the Emory battle and they will realize it's a war they can't win...which they've already known, but the new politics around there will have to see for itself first...that's just my 2cents on the issue. Plus if you are safe and use a proxy server or secure connection..there is really nothing they can do. Keeping safe is #1 priority tho!
-sD

[Gen]

If you dump hydrogen peroxide down the sink or tub that will kill off funky things growing. Skunky thanks for the show. What's your method of drying? I've got a food dehydrator and wondering if I should use it.

[elcheapo]

Cool thread. Thanks for the detailed description of the setup. Hopefully this helps others implement a simple, lower maintenance DWC setup. Nice White Rhino plant too. Keep up the good work and welcome aboard.
Gen, don't use a food dehydrator. At least not the ones I'm thinking of. If you snap dry buds you will infuse the chlorophyll into them. Will taste and smell of lawn clippings. I would recommend chopping, trimming, leaving in a darkened room for around a week well spread out. Then placing in jars or bags, opening and closing twice a day for at least another week.

[Gen]

Thanks, elcheapo

[skunkydelight]

sorry about no updates...I've been away for 3 days getting my knees MRI'd. I ski a lot and they are real messed up...anyway, I will update as soon as I get some free time today, I have tons of work to do. I get home last night to find out that my glass had somehow fallen out of the hood and crushed two plants and nocked out 2 drippers which proceeded to begin to flood my room....I have 2 tarps underneath everything and they literally saved me cause i'm on the second floor, so keep that in mind when using this setup...So I kept the glass out and just have the blower at the top blowing out and it's keeping my room cooler than aircooling the lights, so maybe this was a good thing...besides the crushed limbs of some innocent bystandards and a couple of sopping wet towels, everything is back to normal...Oh well, at least it can't happen again now...and better now than when i'm gone for 10 days or something....Anywho, I'll be updating soon...Peace!
-sD

[Gen]

Skunky, sorry to hear about your knees. I have a couple of questions for you. Do you drink alot of water? Two quarts of plain water a day? Have you ever tried taking glucosomine with chondriton? This is very good for the joints. I hope you don't have to have surgery.

[Gen]

Hey Skunky,

Mj can also be made into an ointment and applied topically. This is very soothing to muscle spasms.

[skunkydelight]

Skunky, sorry to hear about your knees. I have a couple of questions for you. Do you drink alot of water? Two quarts of plain water a day? Have you ever tried taking glucosomine with chondriton? This is very good for the joints. I hope you don't have to have surgery.

Thanks for the concern! I'm a pro skier, and my specialty is halfpipe...I just didn't let them heal after I hurt them last season so in turn, I hurt them even worse...I did medial miniscus in both knees and acl in my right...I will be getting orthoscopic surgery next month...I kinda can't wait to get back to skiing...anyway, here's an update pic...
-sD

[Gen]

The girls look great. I wish you a swift recovery. Hmm I used to ski, was never very good. The snowboarders scared the crap out of me. I almost got run over a couple of times.

[Gen]

Skunky, sounds like you lead an exciting life. What is a halfpipe.

[skunkydelight]

ever seen the x-games or the olympics? it's what the skiers and snowboarders do...

[Gen]

Oh, okay I get it. Very dangerous. Be safe, Skunky.

[skunkydelight]

Hey everyone...just wanted to give a few updated pics....I also have a smoke report for the Hash Plant....

First off, only grow this if you are looking for the highest grade marijuana with no ephasis on weight....this is the "lightest" as in non-dense bud that I've ever grown....This stiff is 15% T.H.C. which is about the max you can get these days, so it def. does the job...Keeps me high for HOURS on end and it's a happy, non-couchlock high from what I have felt. I let it go about 65 days....A quarter of this stuff looks like a freakin ounce, but it's some of the best I've ever smoked...I guess I know now where the name Hashplant comes from since it's so crystally and would be EXCELLENT for making hash...even the trim is just exceptionally loaded with crystals. Anyway, here are some pics. Coming along nicely since I put the recirc DWC system in and have been able to regulate everything...
-sD

[Gen]

Hey skunky, nice smoke report. Where did you get seeds for hash plant? Could you take a picture of your cloner? I had to bail on the skunky cloner. Afte five days of being in a jar with way toooo much light. I didn't have any roots. So I stuck them in a bubble cloner I had going. I put them under fluoros for 3 days and they curled up awful bad. So I stuck them in the dark and they straightened out. Amazing. They were trying to get away from the lights. I do want to try your method again.

[Gen]

What's the strain your growing white rhino or hash plant? I've got the big book of buds and can look up your strain to see if they recommend different flowering time. For white widow, The Greenhouse (I don't know who they are, but are very reputable) suggests 8 hours of light last two weeks of flowering in order to halt regrowth on the buds and produce just enough stress to coax out the maximum amount of sticky resin per inch. They claimed they got tighter buds this way.

[skunkydelight]

Gen, thanks for the advice! Currently, I use a 11/13 flowering light cycle as I believe you get the same amount of product but it finishes about 1 week ahead of schedule usually. I can believe about the 8 hour light cycle helping tho, I may try this eventually. The only problem is I do a continuous harvest cycle, so I'm at all stages of flowering in the bloom room, so cutting the hours on the lights is not possible right now...
As far as the clones go, You had the right idea...btw, for you to get roots in 5 days you have to have absolutely perfect conditions and a strain that roots fairly quickly...I don't know your strain, so....but what you wanna do is get a deep rubbermaid or whatever with tranparent lid, make sure the temps don't exceed 85, make sure the medium is pretty wet and put the lid on...Put them under flourescent light 18/6 light cycle because you're right, they root in the dark, so there must be some dark time...20/4 works as well, but maybe not as quickly. If all of this is good, you should def. have roots in 7-10 days time with most strains. Hope this helped! Goodluck.
-sD

P.S. - Make sure you are wetting the medium (i.e. spraying) if need be for the duration of the week..if it gets too hot, they could dry out, but usually don't since closing the lid keeps all the moisture in. You want to start taking the lid off for about an hour a day after about 7 days...once you see roots, get them in the bubble cloner or system...

[Gen]

Skunky, 11/13 flowering cycle. Is that 11 on, 13 off? I'm growing white widow. By continuous harvest, do you mean you are chopping every 2 weeks? I can only dream of that. Wow. How long did it take to perfect that method?

[skunkydelight]

Gen, it's not really that difficult once you get everything up and running...The only hard part is timing the clones and veg time and having them root ontime is crucial as well. And yes, 11 on, 13 off will make any strain finish up about 5-7 days early...Some people run 12/12 for 4 weeks and 11/13 for 4 weeks, but I think 11/13 works just as good all the time. Just my opinion tho....
-sD

[Gen]

I'm going to give your method a try.

[skunkydelight]

Ok, so it has come to my attention that my system can be tweaked yet again. Last week I was running a airstone to each bucket in the room, plus a 12inch airstone in the control res. I also run my drip lines wide open at 10 gallons per hour which creates a 5 inch waterfall in each bucket as well. I thought to myself, do they even need the airstones in each bucket, since a Krusty Bucket setup is pretty much the same thing and they don't use airstones in each bucket. So I gave it a try and what do you know, you don't need them! The plants look better than ever. This creates kind of a running stream/current type waterfall thing (if you've ever read of Krusty Bucket or Freedom Bucket setup you will know what I mean, minus the helpful bacteria) that I guess keeps the plants really happy. Plus they seem to be eating more in general as a whole too! Maybe this will work for your system as well...Just wanted to throw it out there for everyone!
-sD

[Gen]

Thanks, skunky for that info. I'm running a system ala Nimby from overgrow. I replaced the bubblers with a pond pump. Very little noise coming from my containers now. To add the bio part I just threw in a few lava rocks into my containers. Seems to take care of the algae. I tried the waterfall set up and needed some thing even quieter. I do llike the sound of water splashing.

[skunkydelight]

To add the bio part I just threw in a few lava rocks into my containers. Seems to take care of the algae.

Gen, did you just throw the rocks in from the bag so they were dirty a little? I've heard you can just go outside and get a couple rocks and this works...So you are saying I could put some unwashed lava rock in my control res. and it would help with algea in my buckets? This would work with my system?

-sD

[Gen]

Skunky, do you live where there are lava rocks outside? If so then yes. I have reused these rocks a few times. The first time I washed them, there is some sediment that comes from the rocks. So if you get them from outside, rinse them off the first time. The lava rocks work because you're creating a porous surface for the good bacteria to live in. Ponds are kept clean with filters and the filters can be made of anything plastic or nylon. I saw pictures of a pond filter made with a large bucket filled with green kitchen scrubbies. Next time you're at Home Depot look at the pond stuff.

On overgrow, someone threw algae into his system, just to prove that the beneficial bacteria would take care of the algae. It did.

[skunkydelight]

Gen, you can buy lava rock at any home improvement store...I'm going to take back what I said earlier about not needing the airpumps and stones...I think this made a small algea problem very bad since I'm not running any kind of beneficial bact. like a stream to take care of the algea. It's also very important to have water temps around or below 70 degrees...and take into consideration that your pumps are blowing the hot air from your room into your buckets if the pumps are inside the room. That is why it is also fairly important to keep temps in room as low as possible as well. I've learned a lot more since going to this recirc. system, but I think next round will be MUCH better...and will be all ONE strain...White Rhino...also with a recirc system such as mine, if one plant gets algea or disease, they all get it, so just keep this in mind...the system, room and res's need to be VERY clean and maintained clean (which isn't hard to do) for the system to work well...it's def. not for the lazy until you get it super dialed in.
-sD

[Gen]

Your right skunky, I got my lava rock at home depot. I just threw the lava rocks in my reservoir and use a pond pump. Wave action. I have a pond set up outside in full sun and I haven't had any problems with algae yet. I'm only growing white widow and there are alot of differences in height. I'm going to try growing clones from the same plant and see if I can get them to grow the same height.

[skunkydelight]

http://growfaq.marijuana.com/
Here are the overgrow faqs...finally found them...enjoy.
-sD

[DroopyJones420]

damn skunky, I'm jealous of your knowledge! lol, i know nothing about growing. keep up the awesome work, hope everything keeps going well.

[skunkydelight]

damn skunky, I'm jealous of your knowledge! lol, i know nothing about growing. keep up the awesome work, hope everything keeps going well.

Thanks Droopy....

Hey everyone, sorry about the leave of absence, I've been totally redoing everything in my room.

There is a lot to report...First off, I'd like to begin my retracting my earlier hopes in not needing air pumps for each bucket in a recirc. system. This leads to low DO (dissolved oxygen) contents which kills plants by disease and algea. Another thing I figured out...today, actually, is that my Milwaukee Ph Meter hasn't been functioning correctly since purchase about 4 months ago. I'm pretty sure it's broken now, but if I would have calibrated when I got it, I think I would have been better off. Anyway, I was putting lots of PH down into my nutes, which as I look back, was probably all my problems. I bet it was running in the 4-5 range more than not and probably lower, but I had no idea. This, now that I look back, caused very slow growth, and deficiencies of almost every major nutrient. I mean, just for example, my meter would read my tap water at 7.5 when really I find out it is around 6.2 to begin with...that right there is a detrimental swing. Anyway, I'm glad I finally found my main issue.

Another huge problem I had was that I put no lid on my control res and light was just permitted to enter whenever, as well as not having my buckets lightproofed. When I cleaned out the pump filter on a res change day, it was COMPLETELY blocked with algae and slimyness. This, in turn was just re-distributing the bad stuff all throughtout the system. This can be avoided by key lightproofing and keeping res temps acceptable, 62-75. Needless to say I had to chop eveything salvagable immediately and tear the whole system down.

Now that I know these key points, I think my next attempt will be much more successfull as I really never even gave myself a chance this run. Oh well, I am thinking positive. Some new pics soon!
-sD

[Gen]

Skunky, that's where the lava rocks come in. They take care of of the algae. Put a few rocks in your reservoir for the good bacteria to live in. I grow outside and don't light proof my boxes. I haven't had any algae.

[skunkydelight]

Skunky, that's where the lava rocks come in. They take care of of the algae. Put a few rocks in your reservoir for the good bacteria to live in. I grow outside and don't light proof my boxes. I haven't had any algae.

Gen, yeah, it was beyond the point of fixing by the time I realized what had happened. It's because the pump in the res. runs hot, so it's perfect conditions with just a minimal amount of light. There are two approaches as I see or a combination of the two. The only problem with using Lava Rocks for good bacteria is that when you change the system out, you will lose a lot of these bacterial colonies. The best solution, imho, when growing indoors, is to lightproof everything and keep the res temps in the adequate range. But, the bottom line is, algea CAN'T grow without light, so make that your first priority.

I've been dreaming lately about the pump issue as well and regardless of whether my res it lightproof totally now or not, I want that big pump out of there. So, I have come up with a new recirc system, with a new infamous way to auto-top your control res with just a pump. Everything I have planned about this system makes its better and more efficient than the last.

Here's how it goes:
I have reduced the # of buckets in the system to 4. I have covered each bucket with aluminum foil, head to toe and all are bitch black under a 1000 watt hps. I have also made a new 10gal control res (sterilite, dark grey) and drilled 4 1/2" holes, one for each bucket in the system. Last time, I only had one hole, where all the buckets drained too...this will make the system drain 4 times faster while doing res. changes and keep the nute mix a lot more stable throughout the entire system. I Also made 3 holes above the the waterline and 1 WHERE YOU WANT THE WATERLINE in the control res. 3 up top, one for the incoming auto-topper res water (waterfall action), one for the outgoing pump feeding the system and one for the pump wire to the wall. The hole at the waterline will feed down a tube to another "catch" res, if you will, that then in turn pumps that water back up to the auto-topping res, which sits ontop of the "catcher" res, which sits right beside the control res on the floor. [SEE DIAGRAM PIC] - This is my new, auto-topping system which keeps the waterlevel exactly where you want it for up to 2 weeks, depending on the size of the AT res and CATCH res. (however, they should be the same size as if the top did flood to the bottom, the catcher res could hold plenty so it wouldn't overflow.) I light proofed every res with aluminum foil. Now, this new setup requires two pumps. A smaller gph pump for the control res, like say 100 for a 4 bucket system. Then you want a larger pump for the catch res as it will need to pump the same amount of water up back up to the AT res as the AT res is losing to the control res. Just a matter of simple math. It's kinda like a double recirc. system which in turn will circulate new nutes to the system ALL the time! Also, each bucket has a 60gal airpump min. now, which also deters fungus, algea and disease....Whereas if you have enough air in the water, they simply can not grow, another key principle.

I'm stoked to have come up with this system all on my own. If their are any questions you have, feel free to ask. I will probably do a thread on the auto-topping system alone as I think it is a easy, cheap alternative to things like toilet floats and drip drivin ideas as all you need is a pump from the pet store.

[mountainman]

I had this problem, so I though other people would like to hear about my solution.

I continue to have leakage problems even with the grommets and sealing them with silicon. The silicon has a week bond and is easily broken when flexed, so silicon wasn't a good option for sealing it.

Polyeurethane sealant, on the other hand works great! I used Vulcem 116. It takes 3-4 days to set up enough for you to use it, but it's worth it. First off, it reacts with water to cure, so it likes being submerged after it's set. Second, it's got great strength and flexibility, and third it's great at holding water back. It'll cost just under $5 at most hardware/home improvment stores.

[green hornet]

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OG RULED

[varki01]

Thank you for posting this thread, it has been very useful and informative i think i might give it a go and see how it pans out.
Mountainman, great idea with the polyeurethane.

[Dnutz]

Hey sd, can you give me a parts list with prices? I too grow in a closet and to maximize space, this set up would be perfect! I am currently using individual dwc buckets and like you said its a pain to drain and fill and all that! j

[Daddynobucks]

Newguy here
I have been useing a DIY aeroponic systen in 5 gal buckets
for about 4 grows now and after reading all this will be changing to a DWC system.
was a uk grow forum that has a lot of OGs faqs
in a section,but I gotta say there is more up to date,more knowledgable folks here.:thumbsup:
as a medical patient and grower for two other patients
this site is a god send.
thanks
war on drugs is cultural genocide