I’m not sure… it seems like an under current system right? And in those you have a pump that circulates the water through the big pipes that connect each individual bucket.
Usually in a setup like that there is a line coming off the manifold (the end of the circuit on the far right side in the pics above) and back to the control bucket. - like in the first picture, but the pump would actually be in-line (not submerged), and would pump the water back into the control bucket. Gravity and physics will circulate the water through each side of the circuit.
At least that’s my understanding - in any case it has too many parts and places for failure so I steered clear of RDWC multi-bucket setups myself. Like Peachfuzz I prefer a single large res and one place for all my plants - trying to keep it simple. As a result, I use either big DWC totes like him, or ebb and flow:
Man @peachfuzz I’m not sure I understand what your setup is as you describe it. Do you not have lines that feed the water to the plant sites? Where does the water go after that?
How is it my four plants are going to have different ppm and ph and temps when they are all connected to a common reservoir that recirculates water…?? I’m more confused than I was when I asked the question.
@Bogleg yeah that’s my understanding of a standard RDWC. But conceptually, pushing the water through that line to plants should have identical results as pulling the water through the line to the reservoir, right?
Thanks for the pic. Maybe I’m just stoned but, how does your water make it to your plants and where does it go after that? I don’t see any hoses or pipe at all.
However you can get the water to flow evenly throughout the whole system should work.
I am using an ebb and flow system. The reservoir is under the tray, and there is a water pump in the reservoir connected to a valve on the tray. When the lights are on, the water pump is on a timer to flood the table every two hours. The tray has an overflow valve so it will stay at a consistent depth during the flood cycle, and the water pump allows gravity to drain the water back through it when its turned off.
The pots are sitting in slots cut into a sheet of panda film - the water stays under the sheet. This it to prevent light from getting to standing water and causing algae growth.
Well dudes, mission success.
Super healthy clones from what I can tell, way bigger than I expected in this time frame. I assume it’s fine to just curl up the roots in the net pots (see pic) and back fill with clay pebbs.
I think the transplant went well but we’ll see how they respond to their new digs!
Thanks a lot for the help so far. I’ll probably be back to this thread the moment I run into a snag!
Also, @peachfuzz@Bogleg, I decided to just rig up both pumps so I have a top feed pumping water to each net pot (while roots grow into dwc) and another pump pulling from the manifold and dumping back to reservoir as a recirculating DWC. I decided to submerse the pump to reduce risk of leaking.
You guys have given me a lot to think about. Next system will be ebb and flow but I’ll definitely have to warm up to this system for the next year or two.
All looks good for now!
Lookin good…
As soon as your roots hit the water , drill a hole on the side of the lid and stick the water feed in it , instead of it squirting into the clay balls …
The way you have it set up right now , you run the risk of damping off and getting trunk rot…
Other then that , everything is looking awesome…
Yes- totally fine. I usually use a stick of some sort (pen, whatever) to push the roots down into the slots on the bottom, and then I actually grab them and pull them through. That’s not needed, but helps them get to the water right away.
It’s not a matter of putting it on a timer …
You need at least a 1 inch air from net basket to water line and once roots hit the water you want the trunk of the plant and about 4 to 6 inches down to stay dry , so if you just run the water line into a hole on the side of the lid, than you can still run the rdwc …
I hear you on that, for when the roots grow into the water.
What I mean is, might it be helpful, while the roots are still not at the water line yet, to cycle the pump on off? Almost like ebb flow so they have a chance to aerate instead of just getting a straight bath?
How often do you guys check and/or adjust ph and ppm? I have some cheap digital meters and I double check pH with test kit.
Sept 10: pH 6.0 ppm 720
Sept 12: pH 6.5 ppm 780
At this stage of early growth, how much should I expect to add water to the reservoir? I am using tap but we have really good quality city water from a lake that comes in around pH 6.8 and ppm 80.
Can you guys help me with understanding the relationship between ppm and nutrient uptake…
So my novice thought process is that ppm should stay the same if it is the right concentration for the plants at their current level of growth. If the concentration goes down that means the plants are taking up less than they have available meaning the ppm can be lowered, and if the ppm goes down it’s a sign the plants are hungry taking up nutrients and you can bump up ppm. Did I nail it?
Last questions, should I dial ppm down? Like way down? To 500,600, or maybe 700 ppm?
Right now I am focused on getting it to where we started which is 700 and getting pH lowered.
They are showing a few little signs of reddish brown patches, my guess is due to pH.
Yes you are somewhat right…
I am super stoned right now , so let’s see if I can make any sense…lol
Ppm is the amount of solids in your water …
Ph , is like burning hot and freezing cold…
But it’s kinda like pizza , I can’t eat it if its frozen…
And I’ll burn my mouth if it’s to hot…
That’s your ph…
Either it’s too cold to eat or it’s too hot to eat… …
Then comes your diet…
What stage of life cycle is the plant in and what do you want it to do…
That’s when you adjust the amount of bloom fertilizer and vegg fertilizer to find the right combination for the stage of growth that your in… and then you find out the right ph for the amount of nutrients that your providing to allow the plants to take up all the nutrients it needs during its stage of life…
Ok… I’ll get back to this tomorrow…
I’m zipped and i still have to go get stuff done …
If you’re measuring runoff then you have a decent handle on it. Figure you put 1000 ppm solution into a completely inert medium. Your runoff should come out at 1000 ppm. If you came back later and did a thorough watering with another 1000 ppm, that 1000 ppm plus whatever is left built up in medium is what will come out. I wouldn’t expect it come out at exactly 1000 ppm and say that’s perfect. But you don’t want to see your ppm levels continually building by what you’re putting in either.
Ph is what keeps those nutrients available to your plants. Slight variation from what you put in shows which way your root zone is trending.
