Recirculating DWC - # of Buckets / # Lights

[Racerx]

I normally like to figure stuff out on my own without asking questions but this is relatively uncharted waters for my roommate and me and we dont have a lot of time to mess around. I am looking for some input on the amount of buckets and lights to do with my new recirculating DWC hydro setup that is currently under construction.

A new room has become available to me and its time to put it to use. The plan has been to do a recirculating deep water culture (DWC) setup with between 8 and 16 buckets. I got the inspiration from Snoop but we are pretty much copying a setup that is on cannagraphic, forgot the guys name.

Simply put, the setup uses a large rez (60gallons), with a smaller 20 gallon control rez (which pumps the nutrients around and where the water gets chilled), and then is pumped around 8-16 5 gallon buckets with a 300gph pump. The buckets are aerated with air lines and airstones from a large airpump. Essentially there is a feed in at the top of each 5 gallon bucket and a larger return line at the bottom which carries the nutrients back to the controller rez.

The room is about 10x11 feet with a 2x4 (wide x deep) foot closet for the rezs. The room is sealed. We are exhausting out of the ceiling. Air will be drawn from the open window which has a tiny room built around it to shield light and sound from prying eyes and ears. There is a dehumidifier. Due to cold temperatures we have, we are going to try to get away without an A/C for the time being (ambient temps in my other grow rooms are around 65-70). CO2 will also be used (tank, dripped from ceiling and fanned around, controller). There are 4 x 600 watt Lumatek aircooled lights, lots of exhaust. I do not have hoods yet, so the modelis open to opinion (the light spread for each is around 4.5x4.5 feet).

So enough of the background, the questions. How many buckets??! With 4 lights we were thinking that 16 would be a nice # of buckets, limiting 4 per lamp. That is 150 watts per plant (which is actually more equivalent to around 230 watts per plant when we compare 600 digitals to normal 1000 watt magnetic ballasts). We would like 1.5 pounds per light, so around 6 ounces per plant would be great. We do have a time constraint but they have time to veg for 4 weeks from very established clones (the clones will be in a small bubbler getting roots going in the netpots so I can potentially do over 5 weeks of veg and around 9 of flowering.

What would be the best way to utilize the light spread? If we do 16 plants, we were going to do 4 rows of 4 plants (with the rezs in the closet out of the way). Each light would sit over 4 plants, but over 2 different rows, 2 plants from each row. Sound alright? Can people give some input on the yields they experienced with DWC systems with the amount of veg they did? I have pulled over 2 ounces easily from a DWC plant that was vegged for 2 weeks and flowered for 9. It didnt get nearly the light and ventillation or water temps it should have so 6 ounces per plant seems conservative with twice the veg, better nutrients and control, and more light. I am open to screen of green and other suggestions.

We use Advanced Nutrients (Bloom, Micro, Grow, Vitaboost, Big Bud, Growth Excel). Temperature is not a problem. Really just want to know if this is a good plan (# of plants to lights). I have done larger scale ebb/flow systems but we had no water chiller and it was almost a disaster. I have only done small scale DWC setups, not recirculating. I am not interested in getting more then 4 lights, but if people feel I can get away with only 3 lights I always have use for the extra one.

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

PS. I am a little lost on what I should grow for this setup. I have the following available to me (Purple G, Blueberry, Graprefruit, Cindy 99, Romulan, Purps, and thats pretty much it as Im done with Trainwreck for awhile). I know the heavy indicas will have the longest flowering time, but are they a good choice for 16 pots within a 110 square foot room? Cindy 99 has a shorter time but its a lot taller. Etc.

Racerx Reviewed by Racerx on 11-28-2006. Recirculating DWC - # of Buckets / # Lights I normally like to figure stuff out on my own without asking questions but this is relatively uncharted waters for my roommate and me and we dont have a lot of time to mess around. I am looking for some input on the amount of buckets and lights to do with my new recirculating DWC hydro setup that is currently under construction. A new room has become available to me and its time to put it to use. The plan has been to do a recirculating deep water culture (DWC) setup with between 8 and 16 Rating: 5

[JackdaWack]

Ur electric bill is gonna suck lol. and u should yeild about what ur guessing, maybe alittle bit less. But who knows. 4plants per light u can do more then that. 400wtt hps covers a 4x4 area. plus more plants = more buddddies. but then again u will be able to make trees with that room. so it might work out. Its all in your technique. If u have less pplants vegg longer and they will be bigger, or u can do abunch of smaller plants its your call.

[BlueBear]

I know that thread that you are talking about on IC Mag I filed it away just yesterday for a reference. Well, I would think about doing two wros of buckets, each row with 8 buckets side by side with 2 lights over each row. Also, 4 may be too many per light if you go with a bushier strain and let them veg for 4 or more weeks. I think that the Grape Fruit might be a good pick, but if you do go with them I would watch them around the 3rd week to see if you want to flip them early or not.
I think the room will be allright with the CO2 and current room temps, but just as a thought if you wanted you could miler the sillings, go without reflectors and hang the bulbs vertically. That is how allot of BC growers do it and with a few fans it can grow some jungles.
I don't know if you ever caught a thread on OG about a room that was about 13x15 with 9K vertical hanging lights and 12 buckets in a recerculating DWC/top Drip, it yielded 20LB per cycle and was in BC. Thinking about that, if you are only doing 16 plants you could do the DWC/Dripp. Maybe you are and I just didn't catch it. The benefits are double the O2 , more safe guards do to felling air pumps and the ability to switch to just top feed if the water temps get 2 warm, because you could just lower the water levels and use the top feed until you got the res temps under control even if it took a few days or more without losing a crop do to root rot.
Well, hope this helps a little
Adieu

[Racerx]

Well Im not to worried about the air pump. One of us is always home once a day and the feed line coming in agitates the water quite a bit if the pump fails. As far as hanging bulbs vertically, I too have seen it done well. For some reason I am just really skeptical about the results. I like aircooling and being able to cool the lights without taking CO2 out.

I think we are fairly decided on the 4 rows of 4 because the room is essentially a square and this would enable use to get the most equal distance between plants. I dont know about the drip though. I am not concerned with water temps at all (in fact I know with just an A/C it would be fine because the outside temps are around 50-60 and shady, but we have a 1/3 hp water chiller which can easily bring temps down over 12 degrees F). The only time the temps will get high is during the CO2 and the chiller will keep things nice then (were going to have a problem getting temps high enough for proper CO2 absorbtion cause its so cold but the dehumidifier will hopefully take care of that).

I feel like we have almost everything taken care but I am always open to opinions and looking for suggestions.

Bluebear, I also feel like 2 plants for 600 digitals is excessive. The 600 digitals really are putting out nearly the light of the 1000s magnetics. I mean I know they will be trees, but wow. I think we will do a lot of LST because my roommate is afraid to do screens for some reason. Trying to convince him otherwise. I think right now the most ideal choices are Purple G and Purps, the Grapefruit might have to wait.

[The White Snoop]

Whats up Racer??

Sounds like a very nice show is comin up. Lots of room and lots of light.

I would go w/ 4 plants per 600. Are plants going to be sativas, indicas or a cross? If there indicas your gonna have to veg a bit longer than 4 wks to grow out trees.

Looks like your have everything else under control. Ill be watchin this one for sure!

[Racerx]

Whats up Racer??

Sounds like a very nice show is comin up. Lots of room and lots of light.

I would go w/ 4 plants per 600. Are plants going to be sativas, indicas or a cross? If there indicas your gonna have to veg a bit longer than 4 wks to grow out trees.

Looks like your have everything else under control. Ill be watchin this one for sure!

Thanks for the words Snoop. They are going to be indicas or atleast a cross. Ive been doing strictly sativas for awhile and they just dont seem as resistent to mildew, mites, etc. Maybe its the strains/clones Im working with. Anyways, we decided that we are going to get veg going early with a couple 25 gallon tubs that well start the 16 plants in. This way, by the time they go into the 5 gallons theyll have established roots and a couple weeks of veg, allowing us time to get the veg we need. Im moving out of my house in April so I need to be done by then. Moving on to bigger and better things w00t. Im really a big fan of the fruity weeds and they just seem to be prodominantly indica. Although these Cindy 99 sure are fun and I have a lot of them...Id just rather do something new.

Next weekend were going to grab a lot of the stuff and start building the system. We want it fully tested and functional by the time the room is done (Jan 1st).

Think a 300 GPH water pump is going to be sufficient for 16 buckets? Cant freakin wait. Ive been wanting this space for days but it only recently became available to utilize.

[Cornelius]

If you hang your lights vertically, you can put them below the top of the canopy to give some excellent side light. Also, since you can surround a light with plants, light that would usually go up to a reflector instead goes directly to a plant (more efficient energy usage) Plus side light will help your side shoots to grow big fat buds. I would recommend having three rows of plants, and in between each row hang two lights. You would have to rotate your plants and shift them around, but I think this could be the way to go as long as you can keep your temps in order.

[Racerx]

If you hang your lights vertically, you can put them below the top of the canopy to give some excellent side light. Also, since you can surround a light with plants, light that would usually go up to a reflector instead goes directly to a plant (more efficient energy usage) Plus side light will help your side shoots to grow big fat buds. I would recommend having three rows of plants, and in between each row hang two lights. You would have to rotate your plants and shift them around, but I think this could be the way to go as long as you can keep your temps in order.

Rotating the plants would be a huge inconveniance. They are going to get very large and heavy and this would mean lifting up the plant from the netpot and rotating the entire thing around. We plan on having these plants bushy enough that that is not easily possible. The buckets themselves cannot be rotated, as they are connected to hard water lines. The vertical bulb idea sounds fun but I dont think I am ready to risk an operation like this on something thats not proven to me yet.

We decided we are going with Daystar A/C hoods because they are relatively cheap, have a polished reflector, and are lightweight aluminum. 6" ducting has proven to be more then enough. If we end up switching out to 750 digitals then we will run larger 8" hoods, but the Daystars can do a 4x4 area which is what we need. Lights are going to be exhausted by a 750cfm 8" fan and the room is exhausted with a 700cfm 8" fan. The lights get exhausted into the attic, however the room is going to be exhausted elsewhere because of the CO2 (dont want CO2 leakin in from the attic!!!!). A roof vent most likely. I think a single 8" will be ok doing all 4 lamps (8" Y to two 6", and each 6" duct cools 2 hoods which are inline). I run a single 6" fan on 2 hoods and its more then enough.

We are going to setup a nifty little contraption for when temperatures get to cold that will allow us to take the hot air being sucked from the hoods, and direct it back into the grow room for cheap heating. CO2 schedule will be about 60 minutes on and 15 minutes off, ppm matched with that of the nutrients.

The clones are most likely going to be "Purps". You can find pictures of these in "Indoor Growing" under "quick purple pics". They go a very serious purple, give a nice solid bud, and are pretty resistent to insects and mildew. They are also pretty bushy. They are going to go into veg Next Week, veg for 2 weeks in some simple single container DWC bubblers, and then go into the large setup with established roots, veg for 3-4 more weeks, and then flower for 9 weeks. If they arent done in 9 weeks, to bad, stuff has to get cut and the room cleaned.