Water Farm/DWC club

Hello folks ,
I'm back to help continue bashin -n- crashin on all the faults we've been finding w/ the G/H Waterfarms and fixing and modifying them as we go along .

About the only thing left from G/H now w/ my w/f are the actual coloums/pressurised tubes and driprings . I went to a 3gal. bucket inside a 5gal. bucket for the added ease of spinning the plants as needed w/o having to pick them up to do it . This uses about an extra gallon of hydroton which will probably make for a larger and happier root sys. also .

I only run 4 Farms at a time w/ the big dual diaphram air pump from G/H so the valves on the manifold were hardly open at all to power driprings last grow . So we added an airline to each Farm going down the pump coloum down into the lower res. and an airstone . Now were gonna reap the benefits of both DWC and Drip systems and make that big pump work a lil harder.

Other changes in the next grow will be the addition of the LiquidKarma to Latewoods 3pt. G/H recipe . I followed his recipe to a T last grow minus the L/K <-didn't have any- and had incredible results . 3lbs. outa 4 plants . 3/4 lb. per bucket just like he said . I also got my new Limited Edition "Pampered Chef" turkey baster to measure hydro nutes . <- Thanx L/W . LOL .

Crispi ordered 3 new strains from GSA -> "The Church" , "Nexus" , "Sour N/L X Nev. Haze" anyone know anything about them ? We put together a new clone cabinet and are gonna start playing w/ it and my 250w c-13 cabinet in search of a strain w/ crazy potency before trying out the new Super / Waterfarm Hybrids . Got enough meds. for a year now anyways .

Peace all
G/B
The Crispis' :s3:

I just ordered a 8 bucket WF system to make my first attempts at hydroponics. This thread has been an amazing source of great info and I cant wait to get it going and make some of the great mods that have been shared here. I'm using Xcrispi's excellent recirculating bucket method (ordered a eco plus 396 pump - should be enough?) and Im going to snag his ideas with the shut off valves to drain the whole system to check tds/ph etc. in one bucket to keep it uniform.

Anyway, Thanks to all who have contributed here!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by doco

I just ordered a 8 bucket WF system to make my first attempts at hydroponics. This thread has been an amazing source of great info and I cant wait to get it going and make some of the great mods that have been shared here. I'm using Xcrispi's excellent recirculating bucket method (ordered a eco plus 396 pump - should be enough?) and Im going to snag his ideas with the shut off valves to drain the whole system to check tds/ph etc. in one bucket to keep it uniform.

Anyway, Thanks to all who have contributed here!!

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Hey Doco ,
Is that Eco 396 an adjustable output pump ? all i have in the lil 5 gal. controller bucket is a $7.00 via / aqua 302 . On full blast its only 120 gph w/ 12 in of head . When on full blast in 2-3 hrs time it drains the 5 gal. bucket faster than gravity can refill the controller bucket and inturn runs the pump w/ bucket dry -n- roaches the pump . I run the lil pump at 50% prob. 60 gph. w/ my sys. of 16 gallons it gets recirculated aprox. 4 times an hour .

The 1st. very important improvement is opening up all the lil poked holes in the brown netpots . i use a 3/8 drill bit . Weedhound forgot to in some of hers man and roots plug the lil pissant factory poked holes fast . The engineer at G/H needs a good kik in his jimmy for that stupid design . Eveything dripping outa the rings eventually overflows n floods your room once holes are plugged . Once this happens how do you fix it w/o killing the plant in the containers beyond me ?
good luck w/ em Doco , you can grow some amazing bushes in em
Peace
The Crispis':S5:

Thanks Xcrispi for that response - I checked and that Eco Plus pump was not adjustable so I ordered another, a Via Aqua 306 adjustable which can do 0-596 gph. The reason I wanted a little more powerful is that I will be feeding it back into the the top res and need the head to be at least 3-4 feet...hopefully I can adjust the via aqua to be a good balance. Thanks again - you probably saved me a week of headache and maybe a smoked pump! :D

Ive been thinking about the recirculation modification aspects of these waterfarms and I see some great ideas but a thought occurred to me was about the "T" s that connect the buckets together. In that configuration, maybe more water is being recirculated much more through the connecting hoses than though the buckets themselves?

The thought I had was to add another connector to the opposite side of each bucket and have the solution actual draw through the bucket on it's way down the chain to the recirculating bucket. I've attached a drawing to give a better idea. What does anyone think?

I would think that it would maintain a contestant ph and ppm through the entire system this way, whereas in the standard WF "T" system I think the water in the buckets recirculates much less often than in the hoses, since the T' feeder hosed essentially form a straight line and water travels the path of least resistance.

Am I just high???

Smart thinkin Doco ,
I thought the same thing too , i dyed the farms themselves w/ red food coloring and recirculated the system and it took 20 min. to draw all the red outa the farms and replace it w/ clear water from res.
Keep in mind the more you tie these thingz together the harder they are to rearrange n move around as the plants devolop .
also man set up entire system w/o plants or nutes n run it for a day to see if theres any probs . I dont use the top half of my controller either . The float valve lets water transfer from top to bottom so slowwwwwwwwww . be careful w/ the big pump .
Peace
your cuz
Xcrispi

Just to be on the safe side with the pumps, in addition to the bigger adjustable one, I also ordered the exact one you recommended.

I do plan on using the controller and the resevoir together....I see that BGhydro sells a 3/4" float valve...maybe that would solve the slow transfer from res to controller? Maybe even add another one so there are two valves to fill the controller??

Thanks for your help!!

doco -

like Crispi, I only use 120 gph pump for recirculating, but I'm running 12 buckets. If it's good for 4 and good for 12 it will probably be good for your 8.

With a stronger pump, you also run more of a risk with quicker water movement that the "new" water wouldn't make it into those "T's" into from the main water line. Having less GPH means less negative pressure in your connecting lines, and a higher likelihood of the contents of the bucket circulating out, IMO. I wouldn't worry about having two holes in the bucket, with just one hole my ppms and phs stay fine, especially with the $1.39 shutoff valves from the reservoir.

how big is your reservoir? can you have the 9th bucket with the pump in it at a lower height than the rest of your growing buckets? As long as you have a height difference and a good sized res, you shouldnt even need float valves or texas controllers or anything like that, at least I didn't. With 12 buckets and 6th week of bloom, you can still skip 2-3 days without topping off -- can't beat that.

It's weird that GH doesn't sell the HF with simple netpots instead of that top bucket, the more holes the better IMO, especially if you're doing a DWC hybrid.

3 gallon netpots: $3
5 gallon black buckets: $5
GH HF kit: $12

for anyone-
for 20 bux each you can DIY a HF that'll work great. All u need is a good strong air pump for about $60 that can power up to 16 farms. 8 x $20 + $60 + $10 for 1/4 inch tubing and fittings and you've got a 8 piece high performance HydroFarm for $230. For another $20-$30 you can make it recirculating. Not to mention that you can get a 50 gallon reservoir from Target for about 8 bucks, instead of the 13 gallon res that comes with the pre-packaged 8x setup. For those without a hydro store near them you can't beat the convenience of the pre-packaged deal, but DIY-ing will save you money and get you a higher-performance system in the long run. My local store will even drill all the holes for you and give you a 10% discount on everything, plus no shipping $.

these are at about 5.5 - 6th week of 12/12.

Colas the size of your arm, and growing. lol. No CO2

Great idea with the dye test Xcrispi!! I'll try it....sounds like I won't need to mess with the "T"s though...20 mins to recirculate each bucket sounds fine. I'm only going to use 4 buckets so it should be good and I'll use the Via Aqua 302 as you both suggest.

Also, elevating the buckets and the res but not the recirculating bucket also sounds like a great idea Bud Luv.

Why do so many people not choose to use the WF Res/Contoller combo??

Thanks for all the helpful advice for this hydro n00b.