Supercharged RDWC v1.0

Greetings all

First and foremost, I wanna give a big shout out to Petemoss, who has served as a RDWC Guru to me over the last 3 mo's as I picked his brain over countless PM's.

Back in Sep, I reached out to Pete, telling him that I wish to build an RDWC system and wanted to know what his perfect system entailed. He then started breaking the concepts of RDWC down to me and basically designed this system. I have made some mods to the design that I will cover later but it's important to note that Pete was instrumental to every step of this build.

Links:

buckets: 13 Gl square pails from:

http://www.bayteccontainers.com

Pumps: Danner 1200 for the feed and a 500 for the chiller lines

ebay.com sellers name: 'wminnovations'

-DIY bulkheads here:

http://www.truetex.com/bulkhead.htm

PVC fittings: http://flexpvc.com

HD and Lowes didn't carry specialty fittings such as spigot to barb adapters for the feed hoses.

Now on to the construction. I apologize in advance, I should have taken more pics for visual aids but I am the type that once I have acquired a target, I have trouble focusing on anything else. Hopefully the limited amount of pics that I present will illustrate this build. If not, feel free to fire away with ?s.


Bucket Construction:

for each bucket, you are going to need:

-outer bucket
-inner bucket
-2 rubber washers, one for each, feed and drain DIY bulkhead that you will construct
-1/2" slip, thread male adapter
-1/2" slip, thread female adapter
-3/4" slip, thread male adapter
-3/4" slip, thread female adapter
-3/4" slip spigot to barb adapter
-2" PVC stub 3/4"
-1.5" slip spigot to barb adapter
-2" PVC stub 1.5"

-teflon tape



First, you have to determine the water level in your buckets. So the first step is to cut the lids to fit an inner bucket like so



Remember to leave enough clearance between the outer wall of the inner bucket and the inner wall of your outer bucket so the fitting will fit. I had to order more lids because I learned this the hard way.

Once that is done, determine where the bottom of the bucket will be and mark it. This will be your drain. In my case, I rounded it off to 14" from the bottom of the bucket for simplicity purposes, my water line sits just above the bottom of my buckets. Find a hole saw that isn't too big and drill it out, build your bulkhead and tape the male threads. The fit should be tight, in my case, I had to punch the first thread in and then thread it the rest of the way. Note: the washer should be on the outside of the bucket as shown above, male threads should be penetrating to the inside of the bucket. I used a 1.5" drain, the grey PVC fittings and the washers depicted above are the materials that I used and are readily available at HD or Lowes. Now use the 1.5" PVC stub to attach your 1.5" spigot to barb adapter to your drain bulkhead.

Now that you have accomplished your drain, you need to drill and bulkhead the feed. My feeds are located 2.5" from the top of the bucket a la Big Tokes Bio Buckets. After this is done, attach the 3/4" spigot to barb adapter using the 3/4" PVC stub cut to 2". Same process, different size. I bought washers that I had to mod as the inner hole did not fit the 3/4" fitting, simply trace the thread onto the washer and cut it out. Repeat this process on all your buckets.



One your buckets are built, it's time for the manifold.

Parts list:

-3/4" slip, slip, ball valves x 6
-3/4" slip, slip, slip T x 6
-3/4" slip, spigot to barb adapter x 6
-3/4" slip, slip 90 degree elbow x 4
-3/4" slip slide tees (for scrog applications only)

I didn't take many pics of the manifold construction because it's pretty simple. Build a 4x4 square using the 4 elbows and 3/4" PVC. Lay your buckets inside the manifold to determine where your manifold will break off to feed the buckets.



Feed Tee assembly:

You have to splice into the manifold with the tees once the tees are in, shove a PVC stub in your tee to your ball valve, then use another stub to connect the spigot to barb adapter to your ball valve. Once this is done, it should look like this.



Now that your buckets are complete and tied into the manifold, you are ready to connect your drains.

Drains:

-Wayne 1.5" sump pump hose discharge kit found at Acehardware.com
-zip ties

Connect your sump pump hose length to your 1.5" slip spigot to barb adapter and waterfall it into the res. I used a 14 Gl Rubbermaid tote because the height allowed for a waterfall to add aeration and agitation. I zip tied the drains to the res handles to secure them in place.



Res:

-3/4" bulkhead for feed pump
-1/2" bulkhead for line into chiller
-1/2" slip, thread male adapter
-1/2" pex poly fitting to secure poly tube to side of res

Same story here folks, drill the holes, place the bulkheads and plumb your lines. I places the return chiller line to also waterfall adding additional aeration and agitation.



SCROG:

I'm scroggin this bitch this time. I have the frame built but still have to weave it. Once completed, it will slide right in and will be held in place using slip slide tees that are attached to the manifold and PVC lengths cut to place the screen 12" above my inner buckets.

Drip:

I have top hat grommets and 1/4" poly tubing, I just need to find a suitable location to punch into the feed and go and pickup a 1/4" drill bit as I seem to have misplaced mine.

This is what the system looks like now



The SCROG will be added sometime today or tomorrow as well as the drip. Once my second set of lids come in, we can get this show in the road.

Stay tuned...

oh boy !!! pulled up my bucket already :-D Gonna def be checking this thread out for the long haul :-D

Nice my friend, VERY NICE finishing reading thread now.

Thank you sir! Hoping for a good show.

I just got done with something about just like this and it worked well. Instead of having just the water fall effect for the feed line I also feed from a 1/2 feed line as low as I could go on the bucket. I would like to know how the waterfall feed works in terms of mixing the nutes. I was just concerned if I feed from the top and drained from the top that I might not get proper mixing of nutes. I was also hoping that I could bypass the air pump with the waterfall but that only lasted about 3 days. No reason at all except I pussed out a little.

The only problem that I ran into was when my water would get a little lower than the drain pipe, the roots that had grown in to the drain pipes would get funky from dryness. I added quite a big res to a float in the active res and it helped out a little in that regard.

Another thing that I might of over looked is how you plan to drain the entire system? If you change your nutes often it would be smart to address that now if you haven't. Once those bad girls are through the screen it would be a disaster to trying to change nutes.

The first time I beat 1 GPW was with the system that was almost exactly like this and scrogging 4 per 1k. Good luck

Looking good brother,

Feijao said:

I just got done with something about just like this and it worked well. Instead of having just the water fall effect for the feed line I also feed from a 1/2 feed line as low as I could go on the bucket. I would like to know how the waterfall feed works in terms of mixing the nutes. I was just concerned if I feed from the top and drained from the top that I might not get proper mixing of nutes. I was also hoping that I could bypass the air pump with the waterfall but that only lasted about 3 days. No reason at all except I pussed out a little.

The only problem that I ran into was when my water would get a little lower than the drain pipe, the roots that had grown in to the drain pipes would get funky from dryness. I added quite a big res to a float in the active res and it helped out a little in that regard.

Another thing that I might of over looked is how you plan to drain the entire system? If you change your nutes often it would be smart to address that now if you haven't. Once those bad girls are through the screen it would be a disaster to trying to change nutes.

The first time I beat 1 GPW was with the system that was almost exactly like this and scrogging 4 per 1k. Good luck

Looking good brother,

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking in bro. I conducted extensive research prior to assembling this prototype. According to some of the RDWC gurus that helped me along, nutrient agitation is achieved via the 7-10 full exchanges/hour. Nutes are constantly being mixed or recirculated. In theory anyway. I don't plan to use airstones, I am hoping that the high flow rates will provide enough agitation, aeration and re-circulation.

The top feed design was specifically engineered to defeat the root issues common with bottom feed rigs.

The buckets are high with a more vertical footprint and the scrog will be 12" above that, I still have a ample room to roll a rolling stool next to it and do res maintenance. I don't plan to drain, just top up. If needed, I could just throw a pump with a hose on it and drain it into the utility sink in the room. Or, I could just pull the scrog off temp, while I conduct maint as it's only affixed via slip, slide tees.I'm hoping that I covered all angles, if not, it's back to the lab.

You're inspiring me, I hope to hit 1 g/W.

I did lots of research before I put mine together as well, kind of the fun part for me. Anyways I talked to probably the same guys and got the same advice on exchange of water agitating nutes sufficiently. I have no knowledge of hydrodynamics so I am by no means correct about this but it seems to me that if you feed from the top and drain from the top that there might be slow spots of agitation. Especially when the buckets are all filled up with roots. I am sure it will work either way though.

BattleAxe said:

The top feed design was specifically engineered to defeat the root issues common with bottom feed rigs.

Click to expand...

I have never got root issues with the bottom feed systems that I have run. What I was talking about was the drain line. At about 3 weeks of flower I started getting lots of roots going down the drain pipes. When my system would get a little low on water the drain pipes would dry out causing the roots to get a little brown. With this being said I never got root rot but was paranoid as hell until harvest.

Do you know what type of genetics your going to be putting in the buckets yet? Nutes? Lights?

I am excited to watch brother,
Thanks again

nice setup. very clean

Feijao said:

I have never got root issues with the bottom feed systems that I have run. What I was talking about was the drain line. At about 3 weeks of flower I started getting lots of roots going down the drain pipes. When my system would get a little low on water the drain pipes would dry out causing the roots to get a little brown. With this being said I never got root rot but was paranoid as hell until harvest.

Click to expand...

I dont understand what you mean here...

How would your drains "NOT" have water flowing down them;
did you let the system get so low that the feed pump is pull air instead of water?

If so thats pretty low brother man :-D

il19z8rn4li1 said:

I dont understand what you mean here...

How would your drains "NOT" have water flowing down them;
did you let the system get so low that the feed pump is pull air instead of water?

If so thats pretty low brother man :-D

Click to expand...

In a system like this and the one that I ran I would have lots of roots heading down the drain pipes following the current. After plants get through the screen its almost impossible to remove the lid and pull the roots so I was stuck with roots all the way back to the rez. I was using 2 inch returns and at full capacity I think the water was a little over half the diameter of the pipe. That means that when my plants would drink heavily and drop the fill level by 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch my roots in the pipes would no longer be fully submerged by water.

My system was not perfect by any means. Just thought I would mention a problem that I ran into. I had much longer return (drain) lines than Axe does so that might make a big difference.

Thanks,

Feijao said:

In a system like this and the one that I ran I would have lots of roots heading down the drain pipes following the current. After plants get through the screen its almost impossible to remove the lid and pull the roots so I was stuck with roots all the way back to the rez. I was using 2 inch returns and at full capacity I think the water was a little over half the diameter of the pipe. That means that when my plants would drink heavily and drop the fill level by 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch my roots in the pipes would no longer be fully submerged by water.

My system was not perfect by any means. Just thought I would mention a problem that I ran into. I had much longer return (drain) lines than Axe does so that might make a big difference.

Thanks,

Click to expand...

ahh i see what your saying now..
you had so many roots in the drains that
they created a significant displacement in the water running through the pipe.

So ya.. less running water.. would indeed drop the lvl it is inthe pipe.. I GET IT :-D hehe

humm.. though... how close where your drains to the net pots.. and the roots never got large enough to just weigh themselves down to the bottom? Or is it already to late when you tried to lift them.

Feijao said:

I have no knowledge of hydrodynamics so I am by no means correct about this but it seems to me that if you feed from the top and drain from the top that there might be slow spots of agitation. Especially when the buckets are all filled up with roots.

Do you know what type of genetics your going to be putting in the buckets yet? Nutes? Lights?

I am excited to watch brother,
Thanks again

Click to expand...

This is my first attempt at RDWC but given my understanding, I would like to think that the waterfall effects in each bucket and multiple waterfalls in the res coupled with the high flow rate would be sufficient agitation for the soup, I guess we will find out for sure though once the lids get here.

Phillthy said:

nice setup. very clean

Click to expand...

right on braddah, thanks for stopping in.

I enlisted the help of my oldest daughter to help me weave this scrog. Told her it was a trellis for the mato plants that will soon inhabit our outdoor garden. It was a perfect opportunity to bond and sing some christmas carols with the kids.



Still no lids, but these recruits, once rooted more, look like they can be molded into some mean, green machines.


I let the rig run all day today, no leaks

I am however having a problem with my cheese cloth filter, I used for the pumps, trapping shit and restricting flow. I gotta find some fittings for the filters that come with the pumps, I thought I would be able to to use a PVC stub but each of the reception points are off just a bit. Gonna all Danner tomorrow to get the right dimensions so I can source the parts.

Pulling up a seat for this one, great design! AND a great mentor you have

Landmark said:

Pulling up a seat for this one, great design! AND a great mentor you have

Click to expand...

Glad to have you LM, welcome to the site. I couldn't have done it without him.

as far as your filtering goes.. why dont you just place a panty hoe over each drain hose.

After a few days it will clean out all the garbage in the water.. and anything else will sink to the bottom of the res or buckets.


Your letting that baby run for a nice lengthy period before you place plants in it right?

Im letting mine sit for at least a week before I throw my babies in. But once im able to
develop a means of building a home INSIDE the res for the microbes it will take some time to get this baby fully organic :-D

Nice on the no leak factor :-D I didnt have bulkheads on my current run, normal 5gallon buckets and limited funds, but only had 3 SUPER SUPER SUPER slow water drop leaks out of the 18 buckets total. 90 gallon system total.

il19z8rn4li1 said:

as far as your filtering goes.. why dont you just place a panty hoe over each drain hose.

After a few days it will clean out all the garbage in the water.. and anything else will sink to the bottom of the res or buckets.


Your letting that baby run for a nice lengthy period before you place plants in it right?

Im letting mine sit for at least a week before I throw my babies in. But once im able to
develop a means of building a home INSIDE the res for the microbes it will take some time to get this baby fully organic :-D

Nice on the no leak factor :-D I didnt have bulkheads on my current run, normal 5gallon buckets and limited funds, but only had 3 SUPER SUPER SUPER slow water drop leaks out of the 18 buckets total. 90 gallon system total.

Click to expand...

My clones still have another week or so until they are able to establish more roots. I plan to run it up until then. Are you using lava rocks or hydroton? Many people say that the lavarock, because of it's porous nature is awesome for harboring the bennies.

Nice work on the buckets. 1/6 leaks aint a bad take. I was actually expecting some leaks in my rig but I guess the gods were with me that day.

I have some cheese cloth over both pump inlets inside the res. They are doing their job fine but I constantly have to clean them out as the matter becomes stuck in the cheesecloth weave. It shouldn't be too much trouble to find the right fittings for the original filter. If not, I planned on using the short, foot stocking length pantyhose as my next option.

BattleAxe said:

My clones still have another week or so until they are able to establish more roots. I plan to run it up until then. Are you using lava rocks or hydroton? Many people say that the lavarock, because of it's porous nature is awesome for harboring the bennies.

Nice work on the buckets. 1/6 leaks aint a bad take. I was actually expecting some leaks in my rig but I guess the gods were with me that day.

I have some cheese cloth over both pump inlets inside the res. They are doing their job fine but I constantly have to clean them out as the matter becomes stuck in the cheesecloth weave. It shouldn't be too much trouble to find the right fittings for the original filter. If not, I planned on using the short, foot stocking length pantyhose as my next option.

Click to expand...

Nice thanks for checking out my setup as of thus far. Ill be updating it soon.. probably today or tomorrow. Its Been running for a week now, Just refilled my 3 buckets that I fixed, so shouldnt have any leaks now... maybe 1 leak left.. but its literally like 1 drop of water ever 10 hours... I can live with that for 2 runs.

When I filter I try and filter both the return and feed lines... before
they leave to the buckets.. and before they drop back into the res.
I did a little test last night with one of my DWCs...

It had a bunch of old broken off roots floating around.. and its never been changed for its entire flower time so far(4 weeks).

It was kinda dirty.. so instead of flushing with new water... all i did was put a "wife beater(the shirt thingy) over another bucket to act as a screen, and poured that root debris filled water through the "screen wife beater" and BAM... dropped my PPMs by 10-20... Was pretty excited about that because pH stayed exactly the same hehe


Its a nice sign to have crystal clear water :-D

cheers my friend.

good stuff!

Hi BA, nice job constructing the system! I PM'd you about the height of your drains, but now that I read through your thread, I see that your water level is correct and the inner bucket is sitting in 2"-3" of water. Ideally, I'd like to see the water level about half way up the side of the outer bucket. That would give the air roots plenty of space in the inner bucket. And instead of 9-10 gal of water, each bucket would hold 6-7 gal, giving you 20-25 X turnover. (each bucket is changed out 20-25 times per hour). Since you've already plumbed the drains and have no leaks (congrats!), I'd leave it alone and go with the Waterfarm inner buckets. I think you need more and bigger holes in the bottom of the inner container. Look at the holes in Heath's bucket:


One important change you should make is to replace the feed bulkheads with a 3/4" barbed elbow mounted as high as you can without interfering with the lid. Feed will shoot out of the elbow and flow down the inside of the bucket. Better feed circulation and plenty of surface agitation, producing more DO where it counts - near the roots. I don't think you will even need a waterfall from the drain hoses. Those drain hoses can enter the res just under the lid (you do need to cover the res). Those drain hoses will be above the water level in the res, so you don't need a bulkhead, just a hole. A dark res won't grow algea, will be less noisy, and will be insulated from the heat of the lights.

If your cheesecloth filters are clogging, just eliminate them. I advise not using any screens as they will eventually get blocked by the mucous-like slime that is actually beneficial bacteria. The bennies also clog airstones BTW. Your water pump should have come with a intake filter, a black cylindrical foam piece about 4" long that you can attach to the pump intake pipe in the res. That should catch most of the larger pieces of plant matter.

For your SCROG, I believe four plants would easily fill the screen. It doesn't seem like it, but you'll be surprised by the rapid lateral growth under the screen. But six plant should work fine. You're almost finished, BA! Hope it wasn't too hard...I can't wait to see those clones in their new home!

Where's my chair??? Subbed should be a great watch........