My Recirculating 6-Bucket 1kw DWC - Quick questions before firing it up

[IlEagle]

I have been putting this together (Six 5-gallons and a 30 gallon Res to Blazeonwup's spec) and am nearing completion of our growspace, and a few questions popped in my head to ask you all...

Does the water pump in my controller have to stay on 24 hrs/ day, or can I use an on/off pattern?

thanks!

I had another question, but I'm at a loss, so I'll ask that in here later...

 

[Haps]

I do not know what your system calls for, I just check my ph, then add water/nutes and any ph adjustment needed each day to my res. I have air pumping in my res so I do not need to stir or mix. I pour my addback through a screen to make sure I do not contaminate my res.
H

 

[IlEagle]

I do not know what your system calls for, I just check my ph, then add water/nutes and any ph adjustment needed each day to my res. I have air pumping in my res so I do not need to stir or mix. I pour my addback through a screen to make sure I do not contaminate my res.
H

I have air stones running on the bottom of each bucket rather than putting o2 in the Res.

Do you have a water pump circulating your solution? If yes, how is it timed to be on... Constantly, or on/off?

 

[Haps]

IlE - My system is home made, so once it was made, I pumped water and timed it in and out, then set my timers on a four hour cycle. So one pump floods the tide in, and an hour later, another pump sends the tide out, 6 times each day. But this is my comfort zone, other folks do differently, and it seems to work for them. What system do you have, and what do your instructions say? I have air in my reses and my buckets, can't get too much, or at least it does not hurt to have extra air.
H

 

[IlEagle]

IlE - My system is home made, so once it was made, I pumped water and timed it in and out, then set my timers on a four hour cycle. So one pump floods the tide in, and an hour later, another pump sends the tide out, 6 times each day. But this is my comfort zone, other folks do differently, and it seems to work for them. What system do you have, and what do your instructions say? I have air in my reses and my buckets, can't get too much, or at least it does not hurt to have extra air.
H

My system is a scaled version of BlazeOneUp's DWC Buckets -

 

[hurricane]

I have been putting this together (Six 5-gallons and a 30 gallon Res to Blazeonwup's spec) and am nearing completion of our growspace, and a few questions popped in my head to ask you all...

Does the water pump in my controller have to stay on 24 hrs/ day, or can I use an on/off pattern?

thanks!

I had another question, but I'm at a loss, so I'll ask that in here later...

While i've never used the system you mention either, i have done quite a bit of research here and there over the years and think i understand how this system is supposed to work.

The general answer would be yes, leave it on all the time. The benefit of your whole thing being connected is that the nutrients will circulate, and you will have the stability of a large water system, as opposed to the individual pots each having their own ph/tds. More water makes for more stable pH and TDS.

If you turn the pump off, but leave the air stones all on for a short time i doubt there will be any problems, but as long as the system is recirculating you know that the mixture you read in the res is very similar to what the plants roots are seeing in each bucket.

Hurricane

 

[blazeoneup]

Good post hurricane, Good explanation.

Eagle good luck with your system, Im sure you will be more then pleased with the outcome!

 

[IlEagle]

This is a quick sketch of the way I have the system set out right now... I'm building a screen much bigger than directly above the buckets - I hope to grow and train them towards the Resevoir.


Does this look beneficial to use a screen in this application, or am I heading in the wrong direction putting a screen in here? The room is about 5'x5.5' so since there isn't much space, I hope the screen with help utilize the unused space above the res. Any comments welcome...



Thanks!

 

[libby]

forgive my ignorance,what fetches the waste back, ? your return ? gravity ?

 

[mrgrowman]

In blazeoneup's dwc setup , yes, I think it is just gravity. The table with buckets are couple feet up and the rez is ground level.

I hope that helps.
please correct me if i'm wrong.

Peace and good luck
Mr.Growman

 

[libby]

In blazeoneup's dwc setup , yes, I think it is just gravity. The table with buckets are couple feet up and the rez is ground level.

I hope that helps.
please correct me if i'm wrong.

Peace and good luck
Mr.Growman

Perfect answer, just what i wanted to here, thanks.

 

[blazeoneup]

In blazeoneup's dwc setup , yes, I think it is just gravity. The table with buckets are couple feet up and the rez is ground level.

I hope that helps.
please correct me if i'm wrong.

Peace and good luck
Mr.Growman

Thats both right, And wrong...

It does return by gravity, However the controller/res is level with the buckets, The reason it is gravity return is because the buckets are all linked to the controller. And as water is pumped from the controller to the buckets gravity forces the same ammount back to the controller to level it off. If you link 2 5 gallon buckets together and keep them level and poor 8 gallons of water in one of the buckets you will end up with 4 gallons in each bucket because gravity will force it to level off considering they are linked together. Same rule applies to this system, When you pump water from the controller to the buckets the same ammount of water is forced back to the controller to level it back off.

The buckets should remain level with the controller, If you were to put the buckets up on a table and kept the controller on the floor, The system would spill out through the controller until it was low enough to reach the same water level as the controller, Which if the buckets are higher then the controller completely the whole system would poor out.