DWC, I need some advice and guidance

[Salvein211]

Hello, this is my first DWC grow, but I have quite a few soil grows under my belt. I haven't started yet, Im trying to get preparation done first :thumbsup:

So I am doing a 15 basket DWC grow. I am using eight 18gal totes made by steralite. I have 12" diameter baskets, 2 per tote, which means one tote will have one lady all by itself. The air pump im using is a 385 watt pond aerator, 300L per minute, 0.05MPa, and it comes with a 20 outlet adapter. Here's my first question: If I plan on running eight 5" air discs, one per tote, will I need to do something with the other outlets on the air pump? Will I need to buy an adapter to fit just 8? Also, will a 5" disc from this pump be enough for one 18gal tote? Something else I'm unsure about is air pump power quality. If it's possible to run 8 legs off a 20 outlet adapter, would running additional legs to the same tote increase the amount of air pumped into the tote? Or By adding another leg, (#9), to say one tote, will it just divide the power by that fraction? Hope that question made sense..

The other thing I really wanted to ask about is nutrient solution in the reservoir. Starting out, and further along in the grow. So I have foxfarms hydro nutrients. Tigerbloom, bigbloom, and Growbig. So in the beginning, I wont be using tigerbloom as it says not to. But with bigbloom, it calls for 2tsp > gal. And with growbig, it calls for 1tsp > gal. Here's my question: When making up the reservoir, do you add the BB and GB doses per gal, or individually per gal? So should every gallon of water in the tote have a ratio of 1tsp GB and 2tsp BB? I haven't tested how much water I will need to get about 2 inches of a basket underwater, but lets say it's 10gal. The only other way I could think of mixing the nutes, is say 5gal treated with BB, and the other 5gal treated with GB. Also, do nutrients go bad after so long? I've had the fox farms trio pack for over a year. I placed half the concentrations in jugs, then kept the other halfs in their original containers. Can I use these for the grow? I would imagine air has gotten to these for a while now...

So I do plan on using hydrotron and rapid rooter plugs. I've read that you don't put the newly sprouts into the dwc system right away, but actually to grow them a little before? If I plan on transplanting them into there baskets, how big should they be when I do so? I realize these are big baskets, and I didnt know what size I needed when I bought em, but I know I can just veg longer to make up for it. Also, I'm using two 400 watt MH/HPS batwings as my light setup. Im thinking I may need one more...

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post but I figured I'd get it all out there.

Salvein211 Reviewed by Salvein211 on 08-01-2011. DWC, I need some advice and guidance Hello, this is my first DWC grow, but I have quite a few soil grows under my belt. I haven't started yet, Im trying to get preparation done first :thumbsup: So I am doing a 15 basket DWC grow. I am using eight 18gal totes made by steralite. I have 12" diameter baskets, 2 per tote, which means one tote will have one lady all by itself. The air pump im using is a 385 watt pond aerator, 300L per minute, 0.05MPa, and it comes with a 20 outlet adapter. Here's my first question: If I plan Rating: 5

[tinytoon]

1) with your air question I guess the input I could give there would be to buy 8 more 5" disks and run 2 disks per tote. The more air the better and this will cut u down to only 4 ports to block off on the adapter.
2) I have never used FF nutes but as for mixing, you can do that anyway you want to. Using your 10 gal estimate you can fill the tote and add directly to tote and stir or you can put 9 gals in tote and last gal mix 10x strength or lastly mix each gal seperatly. I would go with #1 and just mix all in tote.
3) Make sure you rinse and soak that Tron in PH balanced water until the water you are soaking in stays at the PH you started with while soaking.
4) Yes your gonna need another light. Using the batwing style I hope you have a way to deal with heat.

[Salvein211]

Thank's for the reply!

For #1, that makes sense. Are there things you can by that block the outlets on the air pump divider?

For #2 I was kind of confused a little still... On the nutrient bottles, for GB it says 1 tsp >> gal, and for BB 2tsp >> gal. So if we use a 10 gal estimate, each gallon in the tote will need 1 tsp of GB and 2 tsp of BB OR is it that 5 of the gal's will need the 1 tsp of GB and the other 5 gal will need 2 tsp of BB? So in option 1 we'd have a total of 10tsp of GB and 20 tsp of BB instead of option 2 of 5tsp GB and 10tsp of BB. I think im convinced it's option one, just wanted clarification cause I'm new to rez mixing.

For #3, excellent, I bet this solves a lot of Ph problems down the road. So you want to essentially get the tron to a 5.8ish Ph? Any idea on what Ph is expected of the tron before I soak it? So like what water Ph will I need to soak the tron in is my question.

For #4, yeah those lights dont output much for heat which is nice. Optimal room temp is 76 degrees I believe, and water temp in rez is optimal at 68 degrees? Fahrenheit that is.

[tinytoon]

1) I would check into some vaccum caps, bought at any auto parts store or Lowes and Home dePot.
2) For 10 gal mix you would need 10 tsp of GB (50 ml) and 20 tsp of BB (100ml)
3) First start of soaking new Tron PH is probably high 7's or so. 5.8 would be the magic number you want to get to and that is what you want your soaking water at, 5.8
4) Yes rez at 68 is great. Have you used these lights before?? You might be surprized how much heat they put out. What size area are we talking about??

[Salvein211]

I went to my local Nursery and found that they have those clamps that go on the extra outlets I will have for my air pump. :thumbsup: I just need to run a little bit of hose off each outlet, then clamp it up.

So for the Tron soaking... Adjust water at 5.8 Ph and drop the Tron in, let soak for a few hours? After, check Ph, see where it's at, and repeat until you are at 5.8?

I have used these lights before, on a few grows. But, I have never had a grow in the summer months... The two I would run kept the room at about 78-80 degrees. The room is about 90 sq FT with approx 8' ceilings.

One question I just thought of: When doing DWC, if your Rez is like 80gal total (estimation of 8totesx10gal) and it will probably go down to maybe 65-70gal, do you have a crap load of water off hand for the topping off/change process? The whole purpose would be to eliminate chlorinated water by letting it sit, but to do that I would need a LOT of sitting water... Any suggestions, tips? All I have access to is tap water..

Oh and lastly, I was browsing the DIY carbon filter and couldn't help but think they only apply to inline systems? I have a very small intake/outtake for fresh air for the room, something that would never fit a filter I'd like to make. Could I make a filter that just sits in one place, has a fan that pulls the air from the room into it to scrub? Maybe put it up high near the ceiling because odor rises? My theory is if I did that, it would stop the stinky air from filling up the room, and possibly leaking out. (Just a theory, I could be way off). I would also have a fan on the other side of the room where it would be pulling outside air in.

[SmokeMyPiece]

Those are some giant res' man. Why not use a 5Gallon bucket per plant, or are you goin for Trees?
This way you could individually address each plant, should they have a problem. (deficiency).

Always use fresh nutes.
When you see that your res is low, top with ph-d plain water.
--Say I had a 5G res; Once iv'e put in 5G of plain(topping water), its time for a fresh mix.

Could I make a filter that just sits in one place, has a fan that pulls the air from the room into it to scrub?

Make one, it works! I made one as a back up and it works well.
Attachment 277709

[Salvein211]

Hey SMP, I figured they would be big, I just didn't know if they'd be overkill or what. Those totes are the only size of container I could think of that would fit the baskets I bought without spending the extra money on individual black 5gal buckets which are like 7-8$ each. So in hindsight, I spent half of that. Also, when I bought the totes, drilled the holes and etc, I thought only having 8 air stones would be nice as opposed to 15. But as Tiny said, I should put two in a tote so I didn't plan that right. But, like you said, I'm hopeful to grow trees since I've got the space to do it. Today I shined a 500W MH into a tote to check if it was light proof, its not. So it looks like good ol fashion spray paint?

[Salvein211]

Oh and I forgot, that is an excellent looking filter! I imagine thats how I'm going to make mine. How big of a fan is that?

[SmokeMyPiece]

Today I shined a 500W MH into a tote to check if it was light proof, its not. So it looks like good ol fashion spray paint?

Havnt tried spray paint, but I use black duct tape.

I think its around 6" diameter fan.

[Salvein211]

Black duct tape works good, do you 2ply it?

I had a question about watering right when the sprout is introduced to light. If using RR plugs and when they jump out, they'll get placed in a bowl like pot that roots can grow through with the tron. Can I just use ph'd water for the first week, or do I need some kind of nute mix? Also, Im thinking hand watering for the 2nd week will be needed. Same question.