my new waterfall rdwc system (credit to bigtoke and blazeoneup borrowed many ideas)

[eL artist]

For the past 2 months i have been working on a rdwc system that incorperates the waterfall effect but does not require the amount the hiegth that bigtoke's biobuckets have (main reason dont have cieling space)

got to give a lot of credit for design to bigtoke and blazeoneup.

i have been running a blazeoneup style rdwc for over a year now and have a 7x9 20 girl 2400w room running it now but have had issues with it, mainly 1/4 feed lines are very easily disconnected from buckets and i hate air pumps and air stones. so i studied bigtokes bio buckets and then changed it into my design. so here it is, complicated but achieves everything i want

the reason i designed this system is i wanted to achieve several things 1. no air pumps and air stones (only things i have every had failed) 2. need buckets as close to ground due to limited height 3. wanted to be able to flush system quickly (i flush every two weeks to insure proper nute levels for each stage of flo) and never have to move a girl to do so

first part is overall exterior


so my control consists of three part the return bucket the waterfall bucket and the feed bucket

 

[eL artist]

the waterfall bucket

the waterfall bucket

so first the water fall bucket this bucket is basically same concept of biobuckets control bucket


consits of 1000 gph water pump, float valve, and 4" pvc that has a 11"+ drop to water level
waterfall

 

[eL artist]

now the new part the feed bucket

now the new part the feed bucket

the purpose of this bucket is first makes another water fall effect this one being forced by pump pressure, second gives me spot to drain entire system (some part nutes are left in return bucket)

lid of bucket

so the 1000 gph goes through a cut off valve then tees. one outlet will go to girls, second tee flows into feed bucket. also on the lid there is a line coming out, that line is attached to a 350 gph pump inside bucket that will be used to flush system every two weeks

exterior of bucket

there are 8 outlets on bottom of this bucket 4 of these will go to the 4 lines of girls the other four will go straight to return bucket, reason for this is to insure as much flow through waterfall as possible and to keep bucket from overflowing, need a lot of holes to relieve even a teed off 1000 gph pump flowing into 5 gallon bucket
second set of return lines at water level

just another set of relief holes to keep bucket water level as low as possible
interior of bucket

lots of flow lots of surface distubance and oxygen getting pushed into system
buckets stand

this bucket is on a stand to keep level even with girls and return bucket if power is lossed or feed pump fails alos stand is removable during flush to insur best drainage as possible from girls

 

[eL artist]

last part of control the return bucket

last part of control the return bucket

the return bucket keeps girls water level correct as well as creates pool for water fall to start at
outside

so there are two sets of return inlets the first from the girls the second from the feed buckets relief holes the relief holes are higher than the return holes not sure if the was nesscary but in next pic you can see just creates four more waterfalls
inside

you can see the returns from the girls are actualy below water level this is because of the amount of flow that must be created to flow 1000 gph through pvc
this sits on cinder blocks for height

 

[eL artist]

now for the how it all connects to the girls

now for the how it all connects to the girls

so if you have been counting there are actually two feed lines per 1 return, the first feed line is from feed bucket

the bottom holes in picture
the second line comes from the tee of the pumps line

first tee in picture that line runs to this
which splits to each of the 4 lines of girls

the feed line from the splitter runs to top of bucket and insures good flow in bucket, the second feed line flows from the feed bucket and flows into the end of the return lines there maybe little exchange with bucket but there is tons of flow through return lines which helps insure good flow in buckets
inside of buckets

the pump pumps directly into bucket through top then returns through bottom, when filling system feed begins from bottom and top due to dual feeds. Also return line rises when entering return bucket this ensures proper level in buckets as flow will not start until it reaches proper water height

 

[eL artist]

the room

the room

the buckets sit in a custom built 7'x7' or 49 square foot room




this is the height that my buckets sit at two 2x4 stacked long side on top of long size and a 3/4' wood board, this ensures the 7"-12" required water fall and that pump stays submerged to insure the recommended flow of entire system 7-10 times an hour through water fall

 

[eL artist]

the girls 4 lines of 5 each, need some serious training went in last night still need to finish room by putting in windows will update this thread with girls as they grow



so what do y'all think suggestions on improvements or comments. one thing i plan to do next ime is put pvc pipe lower in return bucket to keep the girls water level lower, i like it right at bottom of net cup right now is 1/4-1/2 inch or so above net cup but i believe just lowering pvc will help with this

 

[mountainberry]

that's a really nice looking setup you've made yourself. how long did it take you to build it?

 

[eL artist]

took me about 2 1/2 days to build room and system, second room i built so that wasnt hard, system design has taken weeks


these are the 20 girls a week ago in my ebb n flow tray under 600 fim them a week into veg then flo them week later. i do perputual between two rooms, rooms are about month behind each other and run simlar day strains i always fim havnt found a strain yet that didnt do well with it probably and helps with my semi scrog grow style

 

[hereigrow]

Impressive. Do u have problems with water temps from all those sub pumps? What kind of yield u lookin at. I love these type systems; those girls r gonna blow up! I didnt c any ocilating fans how r u stirring the air?

 

[cyat]

a true artist!

pretty complex stuff

 

[eL artist]

Found out something in last 24 hours this system need full scale test for days and days and days before girls got put in cause small scale test with smaller pump is not the same as full scale operation. Learned in this design water heighth in bucket is not regulated by bottom of waterfall but instead top and heighth of waterfall is determined by pump size and diameter of pipe. Will update tomorrow with new design for now I am regulating pump flow and hope one night of to high a water level and one night with less dissolved oxygen doesn't hurt any girl too bad.

 

[eL artist]

so had issues with water height, first solution rose room slightly by putting 2x4 under corners and side, helped but not enough so second solution is to allow more flow than just one 4" pvc pipe to res, also i have simplified design will post actual pics after hd trip tomorrow and completed install


this is just biobucket with a dual return bucket one raised above other to achieve water fall

and this was first design and will be implemnted again when my other room is finished in couple weeks

 

[eL artist]

hereigrow thanks for checking out my work, only actually have one pump running most of time so hope no temp issues, my yield will be atleast 3+ lbs from room hope for much more but coming from my previous very innefiecent set ups with this strain that was my average. also it isnt pic'd but yea got a 16" wall mount and will be adding another one next week, also got a 8" vortex fan blowing in pulling from central ac vent and another one connected to my carbon scrubber exhausting air, fans are flow matched with speed controller, so should have pretty good air movement

cyat, thanks man now just working out kinks, got to perfect it

 

[hereigrow]

Nice! I can't wait to this progress.looks awesome, the waterfall type dwc is a new concept for me.I like the idea of no air pumps a lot though;air pumps do add a lot of extra clutter with hoses plus they draw power even if its small aount.

What cutting r u working with it?

 

[eL artist]

herigrow, i have had issues with airpumps and airstones, so many airstones, and my cuts are bogglegum

so had some leaks from the caulking around my soultution to water level issue so need to go get some more and redo caulking (damn it)

 

[Chunkypigs]

wow, that's quite a system. great job with all the pictures of the plumbing. its so cool to see all the different ways creative people grow meds. great work!

 

[eL artist]

slight redesign

slight redesign

so found out leak was caused cause drilled hole to close to another so need new return bucket

this is now how i have set up flowing


this is same waterfall bucket but now has two smaller pvc coming in under old 4" pvc

looking for some do numbers and other research found some one online saying that more waterfalls are better this will be incorperated much better when my other room comes down and i can put this system in there but needed to keep this as simple as possible with girls already in system, learned my lesson hard on testing thourghly full scale also bent float valve a little so water fall has straight shot to water

this is new return bucket flush pump is in here and is below minmum girls bucket level so should suck out everything pretty good

no need for other bucket so return lines go right into this

 

[eL artist]

stay tuned

stay tuned

also raised room with hydrualic jack and put another two by four under corners and mid points, not easy


all to achieve this

the correct water height
so now that everything is working will be updating weekly with root development and girl development.
still havent done my training yet but atleast my windows are installed

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

its a very impressive system, i personally dont like the idea of one pump controlling everything, but all in all damned impressive indeed!