First Time DWC W/ Water Farm Buckets

[GreenLeaf420]

Very nice:thumbsup: I completely agree and was telling my buddy that we needed to make it recirculate and I'm probably going to try to make it run on one big Rez. I would like to try a 55 Gallon Rubber maid not full of course but I will only need one chiller. That should not be a big project. I was going to go to the local fish store to pick up the hose. They should carry some I just hope enough... LOL:jointsmile:

[GreenLeaf420]

I see the valves to shut down. I also see the return line with more shut off valves. Do you basically bleed the system a few times daily pull out and then recirculate back to pots. That seems the possible way considering that it's all gravity that feeds the pots.....

[herbie the love bud]

Jesus Christ dude, you need to smoke some weed and slow down. You're giving me, and your plants a head ache.

Stop chasing your plants with the pH meter. Set the course and make an adjustment no more than once in a day. TOPS. If you need to make an adjustment more than once a week or so, you need to learn to work your nutes better. But that is an advanced lesson.

For now, fill your controller with fresh water and don't touch the pH! Now add your nutes and your calmag. Now check your pH and tell me if it's not 5.5 to 6.5.

Feed your plants and walk away. Check in a day or so and tell me.

[GreenLeaf420]

Jesus Christ dude, you need to smoke some weed and slow down. You're giving me, and your plants a head ache.

Stop chasing your plants with the pH meter. Set the course and make an adjustment no more than once in a day. TOPS. If you need to make an adjustment more than once a week or so, you need to learn to work your nutes better. But that is an advanced lesson.

For now, fill your controller with fresh water and don't touch the pH! Now add your nutes and your calmag. Now check your pH and tell me if it's not 5.5 to 6.5.

Feed your plants and walk away. Check in a day or so and tell me.

Your post is just negative take that some were else " Advanced Section". Did you even read the thread? The Hydrotone was not washed which is causing the PH to rise as high as 8.0 and is not balancing out yet. What the hell are you talking about just use my tap water 7.8 PH that rises when it runs through the system?

"It's in the advanced section" Just post that advice there.... Good luck Herb.
:jointsmile::jointsmile::jointsmile:

I Attached some reading material for your "Advanced Section"

[Weedhound]

Leaf there's a couple ways to do it....X-Crispi sets his up by "daisy-chaining them" instead of one entry/exit hole they come with. This is not hard to do with a good drill and some grommets.....you can get 1/2 grommets at the hardware or hydro store. I set mine up to drain from one set of lines and fill from another using the pump you see there.

You seem like a sharp cookie so let me dig up an old thread for you to look at.....I think you'll like it.

[Weedhound]

http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponi...-dwc-club.html

This is a TERRIFIC thread you will want to bookmark or something....not a brief read through but full of different ideas to change/update your system etc..... Hope it gives you some ideas.

Ps. I LOVE my stop valves.....they allow me to take the entire system apart down to each single unit and change the way they are set up, add or take away a pod or to stop the water flow to a section I want to work on. Worth every penny and I have big box full I keep on hand. :thumbsup:

[GreenLeaf420]

What's Happening Ms H. How is your day absolutely beautiful here in NYC. The valves are a great way to be able to disconnect:thumbsup:. I wonder if they sell exactly that like a coupler or a quick disconnect that will allow you to disconnect one or many pots and halt water. I will look for that when I go to buy my Valves maybe experiment on a few. I just want to get everything stable and still seem to have PH issues on day 5 or so. I was able to check PH but did not down it yet. it was @ 7.2 I'm actually going to handle that now along with the A/C... Thank God 650 and worth every penny.

OK the big question So with the Recirculation of your system is it constant or do you open and close valves to redistribute water? I hope a few more hour and a few more $$$$ and I can put a handle on it and buckle everything down.... I remember fixing sprinkler heads and with the underground water pipping I remember it would never kink and they sell huge rolls it's Black with like a double yellow stripe that runs down the sides. With the pump hoses I hope to find a really strong pump and hang all lines from ceiling and dropping into the pots. I can't stand a messy room more then anything no good can come from it.

Thanks for the post to that DWC thread I was referring back to that thread alot GREAT thread.:thumbsup:

[Weedhound]

Well since you ask there's a couple ways to do that too.....I found the best way (since the pics are there) was to set it up on a timer so that once every few hours the entire system would recirculate. The stop valves are all set in the on position generally unless I want to change something.

In the pics above the scenario goes like this....pump turns on and runs for two minutes. In that two minutes it pulls all the water out of the buckets and sends it to the top rez.
The pump then shuts off.

Because I've set up the tubing from the BOTTOM rez to the buckets in a VERY meandering style with a bunch of L turns AND because the system fills on gravity the refill is extremely slow. The water follows the patch of least resistance.....so with a (pretty straight) line from the buckets to the pump your chance of pulling out NEW solution from the line instead of what is in the buckets is very small. The timer is set up to run four times a day......every six hours.

I dont know if this will work for you with your 8-16 buckets so daisy-chaining them with a circulating pump may be a better idea for you. X-Crispi uses the very small pumps (120 gal/hour I believe) and he would put them inside THE BUCKETS themselves. But again......you'd need an entry AND an exit hole in each bucket to work with.

Is it worth the work and expense? Yes..I think so. It will help a LOT keeping your ph stable in general as it tends to rise during flowering at a fair rate. This is normal and once the plants get big....trust me.....you WONT want to be adjusting the ph's one by one. It will also help keep your nutes ratios in balance and provide better 02 saturation in your water.

Keep in mind that it won't solve ALL your problems......it will have it's own drawback and "side effects" you'll have to monitor but it's better than the check-one-at-a-time buzz kill. :jointsmile:

[GreenLeaf420]

Hey WH I also agree that the set up is worth it cause once it's done it becomes a $$$$$ Machine.. LOL

Well I put the A/C into the sealed room Thanks to Tranobles wonderful post (MAYBE TO GOOD TO BE TRUE). Now Temp is an Issue I can not find a water cooled unit. So I picked up a 14,000 BTU A/C W/ De humid built in as well as heat. installed and put on highest setting @ 8PM. Last night was the fist time I shut the main door. When I went back @ 2 AM the Temp was @ 102. Shut off A/C and opened doors back up. I really hope I can get an A/C to handle the room or else I'm going to have to cut the perfect Sealed Rooms Up. I did not want to do an Intake and exhaust. I've already invested over $10,000 into the build and equipment and I may be to determined to get this to work. Yet I have to much ridding on it now to stop. I don't want to start hacking up the Rooms. Thank GOD I'm not working now and have time to deal with all these issues.

Thanks for everything WH I will keep you posted...

[Weedhound]

I hate to tell you this but do you really have 3k watts?

Your only chance is inline fans and cool tubes or mostly sealed reflectors......trust me. Intake and outtake. Where's X-Crispi when you need him?