BEST DWC, DO YOU HAVE IT?

ellio187 · Aug 30, 2011

Hey guys, I have done several DWC cycles and I am currently with extra cash and trying to design the absolute best DWC system.

This is my Question

1) 5 Gal max, What would you do with no limit to cash to build the best DWC system including airstones, basket, bucket, and with low current or not? (simpler for my setup without).

Just a note I have a flower chamber and veg chamber. My veg chamber isnt very large and in-order to do large DWC and veg for longer I would need to tranfers between bucket sizes.

THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP!

this is the tent they will go in after this cycle. My plan is to take up half the tent.

budshoteyes · Aug 30, 2011

It's a shame seeing all the wasted space around the tents...lol

Seriously no one can tell you what will fit best...only you can decide by researching this site and others!

WelderDan · Aug 30, 2011

I used the cheapest .99 cent airstones (don't see any diff between them and the expensive ones, finally ditched them altogether and run just a straight air line) and ditched the basket/hydrotron for mediumless. I use a hunk of pool noodle. No hydrotron to wash, or roll all over the place. Neat, clean, endlessly reusable.

stinkyigloo · Aug 30, 2011

Ha ha ya that hydroton stuff finds itself in every corner of the room during grows

dune · Aug 30, 2011

? to dan

? to dan

So do you just cut out a foot long piece and plop it in the hole? sounds to easy. please explain a little.

WelderDan · Aug 31, 2011

dune said:
So do you just cut out a foot long piece and plop it in the hole? sounds to easy. please explain a little.

Not a foot long, just a few inches. I used 4 inch net pots, so I had 4 inch holes in my bucket lids. The pool noodle is like 5 inches in diameter. I cut a slice about 3-4 inches thick. Then I make a slice about 1/2 inch deep around the circumference. I then work it into the hole in the lid until the lip slips into the slice. It won't slip through the hole once the lip is seated in the slice.

I use a couple small pieces of the noodle to hold the seedling or clone in place. Friction keeps it in place until the plant grows out the lower branches, then it just rests on the lower branches.

You'll have to tie the plant upright, since it will have a tendency to be top heavy when the res is full and the roots float. But I had that problem with the net pots too. A few screws in the lid and some string does the trick.

It sounds more complicated than it really is, but one pool noodle will provide enough slices for 10-12 buckets and it's only a couple bucks at Wally World.

I can post a pic if my explanation wasn't clear enough.
I picked up the idea on OG a few years ago and liked it so much I never went back.

Hack · Aug 31, 2011

I have been obsessing for the last few grows about a replacement for hydroton in the net pots only being needed for support so what could be used just to support the plant and not cause any problems? what is this pool noodle you speak of?

WelderDan · Aug 31, 2011

Hack said:
I have been obsessing for the last few grows about a replacement for hydroton in the net pots only being needed for support so what could be used just to support the plant and not cause any problems? what is this pool noodle you speak of?

A pool noodle is just a foam pool toy. It's round, about 5 ft long and is hollow.

Let me drag out the camera and I'll take a pic. It will explain everything

WelderDan · Aug 31, 2011

Pool noodle

end view

pool noodle slice with slit

pool noodle slice inserted in lid

It's so easy. Cheap. Reusable. No mess.

The plant I use as an avatar yielded 7 dry oz using a pool noodle as medium and PBP under 1000 watt HPS and el cheapo Wally Mart air pumps. Nothing else.

The CBxC99 below yielded 8 dry oz in the same setup. Both were vegged until nodes began to alternate, then flipped.

ellio187 · Aug 31, 2011

Nice idea there, I will have to look into that. How many air stones do you use per bucket? I am currently running four per and getting about 5-7 fters in the end

WelderDan · Aug 31, 2011

ellio187 said:
Nice idea there, I will have to look into that. How many air stones do you use per bucket? I am currently running four per and getting about 5-7 fters in the end

2 airlinenes. I get dual outlet pumps, run one line to one bucket, the other line to another bucket so each bucket has a line to two separate pumps. If any one pump fails, there is a backup.

I've gotten 6 footers with strains like Jock Horror and Cherry Bomb. I just LST them to manageable heights.

Also, IMO, one air line works fine once a root system is developed. Bigger plants tend to draw up solution pretty fast, leaving roots exposed to air when the res drops.

Hack · Aug 31, 2011

Thats a fantastic idea, I have been transferring aero rooted clones to 4 x3 rockwool and then transfering to bucket top and filling in spaces with hydroton. I am so tired of finding it all over the room and one little rock will blow out a knee cap in a new york second.
Thanks for the great idea.

WelderDan · Aug 31, 2011

Hack said:
Thats a fantastic idea, I have been transferring aero rooted clones to 4 x3 rockwool and then transfering to bucket top and filling in spaces with hydroton. I am so tired of finding it all over the room and one little rock will blow out a knee cap in a new york second.
Thanks for the great idea.

Glad you like it. I can't take credit for the idea, I got it from someone else. My main bitch with hydrotron was the same. It rolls all over and I stepped on it and busted my ass more than once. I also hated pulling roots out of net pots to reuse them and having to wash hydrotron.

Now I just snip the stem with pruning shears and the roots fall out one end, the stem out the other.

And I'm STILL finding hydrotron in weird places after using this system for several years.

GP73LPC · Aug 31, 2011

i too am gonna try this, seedlings/cones in 1 inch rockwool then inserted into modified noodle with a square hole. if necessary, a dowel rod inserted into the noodle for upright tying off...

no more hydroton to clean or having it all over the floor, no more net pots to clean. i'd say, just stick the noodle in the dishwasher with no soap, but hot water to reuse...

i am also about to cut out the airstones in my DWC also as they are supposedly not needed if you can live with the bubbling...

so if i can make these changes my dwc will be even more K.I.S.S. !!!

noodle, 1 inch hydroton, tub, water, lucas formula, air pump and air line.

ha, ha, even thinking about going GH Nova Bloom instead of the lucas formula to simple it out even more... :tiphat:

WelderDan · Aug 31, 2011

GP73LPC said:
i too am gonna try this, seedlings/cones in 1 inch rockwool then inserted into modified noodle with a square hole. if necessary, a dowel rod inserted into the noodle for upright tying off...

no more hydroton to clean or having it all over the floor, no more net pots to clean. i'd say, just stick the noodle in the dishwasher with no soap, but hot water to reuse...

i am also about to cut out the airstones in my DWC also as they are supposedly not needed if you can live with the bubbling...

so if i can make these changes my dwc will be even more K.I.S.S. !!!

noodle, 1 inch hydroton, tub, water, lucas formula, air pump and air line.

ha, ha, even thinking about going GH Nova Bloom instead of the lucas formula to simple it out even more...

Better hurry to get a pool noodle though. Pool weather is almost over and a lot of places stop stocking them, though Pool supply houses still have them in the off season usually

GP73LPC · Aug 31, 2011

WelderDan said:
Better hurry to get a pool noodle though. Pool weather is almost over and a lot of places stop stocking them, though Pool supply houses still have them in the off season usually

lol, i was just thinking about that very issue when posting

thanks again...

GP73LPC · Aug 31, 2011

now i remember, i have a friend that used to grow years ago that used a similar simple method. he cut square holes in his dwc tub and just used 4 inch rockwool cubes as his medium (crammed into the slightly smaller square holes). it worked (he was scrogging, so no plant support really needed), but if i remember correctly the rockwool was pretty nasty looking by harvest.

still it's less to clean up

one Q · Sep 4, 2011

i agree with pool noodle. I'd spend the money to make everything mediumless. This requires some support system like scrog or tomatoe cages. These can be made with PVC pipe.

I'd also, assuming youre doing Rdwc, go with 1" drainlines and 1/2" fill lines... which means a bigger pump. Higher turnover volume is best. If you havnt already, read info on BioBuckets. It's a high volume system that doesnt use airstones in each bucket only in the res. Not saying to use that system, but just read it and see if it gives you new ideas to your new system.

I'd also use this instead of airstones Silicone Air Diffuser tube

I'd also add cock valves to each bucket so that if you needed to run less buckets you dont have to do anything but turn off the ones you dont need. Like if you have one or two less clones that it takes to fill your system.

I'd also do all the math for volume and nute dosing before hand and laminate it as a chart. This will save you sooo much time later. you wont have to calculate doses ever again. Then Minor adjustments can be done in your head.

Strainhunter · Nov 26, 2011

Here's the BioBucket thread previously suggested in case someone can't find it:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=8182

FreezerBoy · Nov 26, 2011

GP73LPC said:
now i remember, i have a friend that used to grow years ago that used a similar simple method. he cut square holes in his dwc tub and just used 4 inch rockwool cubes as his medium (crammed into the slightly smaller square holes). it worked (he was scrogging, so no plant support really needed), but if i remember correctly the rockwool was pretty nasty looking by harvest.

This definitely works (used in a net cup and buried to 1/2 inch keeps rockwool "unnasty") however, it works against the concept of DWC which is massive amounts of O2 to the upper roots. Upper roots housed in rockwool receive far less fresh O2 than those in hydroton, which receive less than those that hang free.

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