GH Waterfarm issues
- Thread starter 305guy
- Start date
Absolutely. Continually surprised by the effectiveness of this community. And to think, at one point I was too shaded out to even make an identity here!
Grow on
I have used WF for years. With airstones. without airstones, modified and unmodified. The OP specific issues is caused by the circulation method.. Its just not feasible enough to push the nutes and cooled liquid throughout the system in a timely and confident matter which will give the OP wild PH swings and inconsistent reading on nutes.
As for the air stones...I had 2 in each WF bucket and 5 or 6 in the main rez........
Also cover the lids of the WF. You do not want contaminants entering the WF or you will catch a bad case of root rot...
Also fully wrap and insulate the WF and hoses for added temp control.
Wrap with mylar? I was hoping to avoid reflective materials up on my deck. Ill def be adding more airstones, but I am very interested in turning the system into a true RDWC so looking forward to hearing your expertise.
Can you marfact that hybrid system into more of an ebb n flo? hooked to a rez some where cool. I grow in water to make it easier on me. Maintaining 1 rez is much easier IMO
I think he meant wrap in legit insulation. THEN maybe mylar. As i suggested giving the buckets a white painting/wrapping and increasing circulation should fix our problems.
However, after looking at Neo's fully modified WF i want to mimic his set up...
What I mean by true RWDC is to have a flow of water exit from your controller and loops it way back into your controller (This isn't the only "true RDWC" but you get my drift) Centralizing the controller can exhibit an imbalance like you see in the ebb and grow rigs. They can work but you need much bigger widths on the pipes with a strong enough pumps to push it. (some people have done a superb job by using only gravity but thats a different topic) I recommends connecting all buckets in a point to point method to and from your controller. Use 1.5 to 2.5 inch piping (depends on the # of buckets and pump size) Insulate everything. Cover the tops of the WF buckets. You will see a noticeable stable difference in temp and Ph acclimation. Have your cooler pumping from the controller and distributing back to your controller (or you can do it like me and have the cooler receive the returning water and distribute back to your controller) BTW what size is your cooler? Is it a coil over or a loop system?
View of the inside air bubbleer
Cooler receiving water from pump and distributes back to the controller
Sterilizing after a grow..
The pump connects to a T junction that splits to the last 2 buckets. It pulls te water from the end buckets and sends to the cooler. Cooler then dumps it back in the controller/rez to cycle threw all the buckets This idea can be hexpanded to as many buckets as you pipping and pump allows..This is a negative pressure system that works effectively.
You are absolutely correct. You will be amazed the stabilization insulation can provide. If you look in my last post,, you can see I started to wrap the pipes in insulation also.
Thats what I was thinking, taking an inline pump that sucks from the middle of the system, between buckets 4 and 5 and having that push water right into my 1/10hp chiller (not sure if its coil over or loop) the chiller's out would then dump cold water right into the controller. Your telling me that the 1/2" standard lines are insufficient? Should I add more lines, or just increase the size? Is it imperative? Will the system still recirculate without bigger lines?
THanks for the help NEO
THanks for the help NEO
When I was growing in a Water Farm, I used to elevate the res above the buckets.
This would force the water into the 8 grow sites. I would let it run like that for an hour or so, and then set the res back on the ground.
Doing this 1 or 2 times a day kept the PH and PPMs all the same. Got about 6 zips each off these, under 800w.
This would force the water into the 8 grow sites. I would let it run like that for an hour or so, and then set the res back on the ground.
Doing this 1 or 2 times a day kept the PH and PPMs all the same. Got about 6 zips each off these, under 800w.
i agree.. we are doing a side/side now with airstones in 1/2 our farms, the other 1/2 without (older type of farms, no recir).. today is day 68 of 12/12, and see no diff in the plants.. ofcourse the proof will be in the weighing, but after 6yrs of growing (and still a noobie) you can tell...
Single units is one thing but in a Recirc with rez system you should have the air-stones. You do not wand the anaerobic bad guy's to start put a whoopng on them roots...
@ZACK No difference in the root ball sizes? I ran single WF before and I used to fill up the container with just roots. It would engulf the airstones..... Did you drill holes bigger on the top bucket?
yep the holes were drilled bigger, but we have 32 buckets going, and at 69 days, with all the plants branches intertwined, dont dare try and pick em out to check the root mass. i will report back in a week/or so when we cut if i see any diff in the root mass... have to say that seeing no visual diff between the plants was a bit disappointing.. and we ditched the shitty gh air pump, that is always clogging for a much larger/better flow one , and that solved the clogging issues we always have had with the gh pump... an excellent investment for $70 bucks each...
neo... bro, i'd rep you but don't have ability atm... will hit you latter in the day when they open me back up... lol ;-) that system is lucky to have you for an operator... damn nice looking!
305... don't know if you'r pickin up on what Neo is layin... he put a lot of modification to get the system to perform well... a lot of modification... basically could've got parts himself & built it from scratch, which many do. caps, greentrees, waterfarms... all the ones that work well are modified, not outta the box. just for starters, you will need to ditch all the 1/2" line & retap all the buckets & rework the fittings... just for starters.
assuming you do a lot more, including more chillers, heaters & larger pumps, then you still have the enormous problem of being outside in a water medium... massive outside temp fluctuations, hence the additional heaters & chillers... in a water culture, without insulation, which you'll also need to do.
the system is wrong to start... and it wasn't even thought to be run outside to boot. top on this being your first rodeo... trying next to the hardest system to run... outside again... that's just over the top crazy difficult.
outta left field maybe... why not just pull the baby plants & plop em into big ole soilless pots... top feed every 3 to 5 days, depending on the size of the pots...??? good opportunity to save yourself a whole bunch of work... and the headaches are just now starting w the weather. hope this finds you well.
305... don't know if you'r pickin up on what Neo is layin... he put a lot of modification to get the system to perform well... a lot of modification... basically could've got parts himself & built it from scratch, which many do. caps, greentrees, waterfarms... all the ones that work well are modified, not outta the box. just for starters, you will need to ditch all the 1/2" line & retap all the buckets & rework the fittings... just for starters.
assuming you do a lot more, including more chillers, heaters & larger pumps, then you still have the enormous problem of being outside in a water medium... massive outside temp fluctuations, hence the additional heaters & chillers... in a water culture, without insulation, which you'll also need to do.
the system is wrong to start... and it wasn't even thought to be run outside to boot. top on this being your first rodeo... trying next to the hardest system to run... outside again... that's just over the top crazy difficult.
outta left field maybe... why not just pull the baby plants & plop em into big ole soilless pots... top feed every 3 to 5 days, depending on the size of the pots...??? good opportunity to save yourself a whole bunch of work... and the headaches are just now starting w the weather. hope this finds you well.
MIWAY - well it looks like you may be right. I think im just gonna give up growing for good. ;-) This WF is an EXPERIMENT. Just trying to make it work as easily and cheaply as possible, if possible. I welcomed and still look forward to the challenge. "First" rodeo yea, but I still have a brain, and well... just subscribe, and see what happens. ;-)
Thanks for the well wishes, and help.
Thanks for the well wishes, and help.
Word? We didn't pick up on this ourselves... thanks for clarifying...
Thanks for reiterating the problems we've all agre
ed are present. Perhaps you might use your brainpower to help solve some instead of wasting thread space?
Gonna leave that one alone...
Suggestions that involve revamping an entire system, changing the location, medium, and environment, are not really suggestions... sounds more like 'i wouldn't try what you're trying, so why don't you try what i'm trying'.
Keep doing what you know how to, we'll keep doing what we don't, and we'll keep setting the trends you follow.
PEACE
