I contemplated doing dwc at first but had to think about how I grow and all the things involved and decided to go with rdwc.
My grow space is 3x5 and have thought seriously about putting one big cooler inside so I could grow several small plants instead of two med size plants. They have some huge coolers. I would get the biggest cooler that would fit my space. Attach a scrog so I could lift the lid if needed to.
It would hold cooler water longer. Frozen water bottles would last longer. 
@Retiredoldguy if you look into aquaponics you may see some. Once i connected the fact that i have a plant fish tank, except im doing exactly what you dont want in a fish tank the bacteria made total sense. Barley straw is harmless and is used in little floaty rafts in coi ponds to keep algae away. Dr. Tims eats cyanobacteria, and muck away eats anything dead.used for turning a pond into a swim hole.
Yah I’d say that would work for sure. Tho wouldn’t having 2 plants per tote get really crowded for the roots?
I did learn me lesson on my last grow, ha, I’ll only be doing 2, MAYBE 3 tops.
Yes I do, my tent is sitting inside an empty room, seems fairly idiotic. Main concern for converting the room would be pest control.
I was very vigilant and pro active last grow about them, also helped they were in the tent. But yes doing up the room would be 1000x better.
I have my exhaust fan routed out a window, so that helps for sure.
I already went ahead and bought the Active aqua chiller, the 1/10 one. Figured I’d get the most expensive part out of the way first 
I would happily swap nutes because I have noticed the GH trio is salty as hell. I’ve never heard of Jacks, it’s better in that regard I’m assuming?
Oh one other question, did you rig up your system with a bottom drain? Or do you just pump the water out by placing it inside the totes?
After carrying pales of water back and forth multiple times a day my entire last grow, I want simplicity!!!
Oh ya, I’d happily swap nutes if I hadn’t already bought 3 gallons worth of GH trio 
Yeah I meant one plant per tote.
I don’t know if it matters to you, but if you exhaust air outside, you need to be sure and bring air in from outside. Your home AC will work itself to death. It will shoot your elect. bill through the roof.
A good option would be to buy a portable ac with two hoses. That way you’re not loosing any air from the house and the AC will cool and dehumidify so much easier and better.
I can’t say it’s better but it’s cheaper and supper easy to use. You can’t hardly mess the plants up using Jack’s. You can add other stuff or you can use just Jack’s.
I use Armor Si, Jack’s 321, and Hydroguard and that’s it. Others use other stuff but that’s all I use.
I’m fortunate enough to have a sink and running water in my grow room so I just unplug the feed hose to my res and stick in the sink and let my inline pump empty my system out.
If I didn’t have a sink, I would buy a transfer pump and have a 3-4 ft hose on one side to stick down in the totes to siphon the water out of the and however long of a hose on the other side to go to a shower or tub in another room.
I would fill another tote in the bath/shower, mix up my nutes, switch the pump around and pump it back to my grow room.
This is where more water comes in handy. That’s why I chose to go with larger totes. More water not only keeps the root system and pH in check, but also you don’t have to change the water as often
This grow, I’ll probably only change the water at the beginning of the transition and the end of transition.
It works great for a flower bed or a garden… 
OR a mini split unit. That way you can heat and cool if you need to.
Right right I understand the concept, are you referring more to if I was using the room instead of the tent? I feel like exhausting to outside from the tent didn’t have much impact. Or I could be completely wrong, perhaps why I had water temp troubles. Anyways
Alright illl look into it, if it’s any bit less salty then GH’s stuff I’ll go for it.
And ok ok I see what your saying about draining. There’s a bathroom right next to the grow room, I can reach the tub with a 20ft hose.
I had to do this on my last grow for the big plant I moved from the bucket to the tote. And it was an absolute nightmare, mainly because of how rigged I had it.
The pump I’ve got right now only had 1 connection on it, so I was having to place the entire pump in the tote, watching the whole time to make sure it wasn’t sucking up the roots.
And I’ll definitely be going bigger totes, cause when that plant hit flower stretch phase it was drinking 2 1/2 - 3 gallons a day, in a 8 gal tote. So much work
This weekend I’ll be going out and piecing together everything I’ll need to build the system
I think I’ll be doing a 2”.
Any particular reason you went for 3/4?
Where does your tent get it’s air from?
The connection on my Inline water pump only goes up to a 3/4". The way I have my netpot located near the back part of my totes enables me to not have to worry about roots getting clogged up in the 3/4" outlet, therefore not needing bigger pipes.
I mean, the room has central AC blowing in it, also i’ve got the velcro vents open on the bottom always, and several mini fans throughout.
Think of a home AC, as a unit within the house. So, basically the air circulate within that space.
If you start dumping air from that space outside, your house has to replace that air.
Your house then becomes under negative pressure it will suck in air from any crack, window, door, wherever possible, even hot air from your duct work when your AC is not running. We have seen lots of folks do that and regret it.
In theory, doing like your doing sounds reasonable, but it does take a toll on your AC.
That’s why I mentioned either a mini split AC unit or a portable AC with dual hose.
Hope that makes sense.
Wow damn yah that makes sense, I never thought of it like that.
Hmm so between the chiller & dehumidifier I think adding a portable ac would be a bit much. But then again, if I had the portable ac unit I’d rarely have to use the dehumidifier.
What if instead of venting to outside the house, I just vented to another area of the room, or even out of the room.
I’ve got just 1 6” fan and filter, guess even that is enough to impact it.
But overall, the ac vents for that room are much weaker then the rest of the house to. So hell, guess I’ll make the investment for a small ac unit!
It’s not just the vents in the room that might make a difference, it will also be affected by the a/c sensor. Your grow room may get hotter than the rest of the house depending on where that sensor that triggers the a/c to kick on is. The rest of the house may be a cool 68F, but your grow room could get up to 80 if it is semi-sealed (door closed).
A small a/c just for your lung room would definitely help!
That’s exactly what I’ve done. The heat from the grow room will dissipate into another room much easier and, you’re not loosing house air.
Growing in a room, as long as you don’t over do it, you may not even need an AC.
Getting creative and focusing the grow to a certain part of the room, along with placement of the exhaust will make a huge difference.
For instance, I have a 5’ x 10’ room. I’ve curtained off a 3x5 area to grow in. My intake exhaust is focused towards my grow area. My exhaust is right above it. There is a definite temp difference from inside the grow area and the area that I’m not growing in.
Keep in mind, the same principle remains. If you exhaust out into another room, then you have to intake from another room, preferably one that is conditioned (AC wise).
it’s definitely an adventure to get it all dialed in but I believe you’re gonna get it.
Hey Happy reading your thread from say 1 with Chris36. Brother system exactly like that is what i have in my for my 9x10 room when i set it up. And as stated I’d like to vent the whole room. Im going to follow this ckosely; I like the way you built and attached the framing.is that 1in pvc?
I had it all made out of 1/2”
I just got through redoing it so I could make my scrog adjustable. Now the base is 1/2” and the actual scrog is 3/4” so it will be adjustable.
Now thats a novel idea , so one piece just floats over the other, did youcdrill holes for say diff. heights
Drilled a bunch of holes. Yeah, I’ll see if I can get a picture tomorrow and put it on here.
Jesus! So today will be day 3 of a trip to Home Depot or lowes getting all the right pvc pieces and attachments for my configuration. Also ordered some bulkheads from tractorsupply and they were double threaded and huge as hell. So gotta get some new ones.
Anyways I’m doing 1.5” pvc with 3/4” return.
I’ve got a layout down I think it should work good.
Question @HappyHydroGrower , do you have both pumps sitting in your control rez? I figured one wouldn’t hurt, but adding a second one for the chiller seems, counter productive? Just making the chiller work harder but idk.
Tried to set this up to where it would have as little impact to move around the tent
@robert365 hahaha sound familiar?
Threads are in opposite direction on 1 1/2 and be sure to use plenty of plumber tape of all of the bulkheads.
I only use one pump.
Hang on let me tag you in Roberts thread where I just posted.
Hey Chris36 i see Happy is helping you set up the same system as myself, are you using 2 totes in your tent? Im using 1 27 gal tote inside and 1 outside for my res
