Looking to up my bubble game!

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Um bleach , alcohol not together of course lol

Your alita should have come with a rubber adapter that you put a manifold on with 2 spring clips.
Looks like a rubber elbow.

Yea you dont want a high grade pump like that to sit in the mud lol
remember to cool it :)
 

Tstat

Well-Known Member
It did come with that. I'll need to get some type reducer though to go from the rubber elbow to the correct size tube to attach to the manifold. Heading to The hardware store later today.
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
About a year ago, someone started a thread suggesting to eliminate air stones. Intrigued, I tried it. Had to make a few adjustments but highly recommend it

Depending on you rez you can simply place the output tube with an elbow or two (plus a venturi) on a separate pump on a separate timer. I run mine 4 minutes . /hour. This keeps the rez cool while maintaining dissolved oxygen

Due to height limitations, I run mine horizontally
 

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Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
My rdwc can is capable of running without stones .
I just have mine there for redundancy and because it adds fresh air to my set up.
If i where to run without the stones i would think i would need to add vents at the very least to allow for fresh o2 exchange.

But i agree waterfalls and flooming kick stones ass as long as the water is exposed to air :)
Or you use a venturi to feed it .

I was originally going to setup my rdwc with a venturi hot tub jets as i had seen it done.
I opted out of them though if favor of waterfalls

After seeing the results of DO using all the different methods
They all equaled about the same with waterfall and venturi areating the best by a point or 2 if i recall correctly.

So i figured if there isnt a preformance boost then im not paying for it ha ha :)
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Here i found the old thread(edit to add thisnis not my post)

The results are IN!

PH 6.2
PPM 820
Measured in mg/l

DO levels at 67F:
Air stones: 8.0
Ventruri: 8.0
Water fall: 8.1
Flooming: 7.9
CapnStyle: 8.1
All at the same time: 8.2

DO levels at 78F:
Air stones: 7.2
Ventruri: 7.2
Water fall: 7.3
Flooming: 7.1
CapnStyle: 7.3
All at the same time: 7.4

I also tried adding 5ml/gal of H2O2 at the request of sky in the warm water. This raised the DO to 7.6. Still, not even close to the DO levels in cooler water. 10 hours later I checked it again, and the DO was back down to 7.4 H2O2 is not a good solution.

My hopes are crushed. I was hoping there would be a technique that would compensate for high water temps. If you have warm water, can you add more air to compensate? Nope. Take a look at the numbers. No matter how much air you add, you can't get DO levels past their saturation point.

It's all about temp. I don't care if you if you use 100 airstones or a hot tub venturi, water has a certain oxygen saturation point, at a certain temperature, and you can't get it any higher. All of the methods are acceptable methods. It is not possible to compensate for higher temps, by putting in more air.
 
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JSB99

Well-Known Member
Dont know if an o2 emiiter would be better as i have not tried one or saw any results yet
Those emitters are pretty cool, but I think they're still a little pricey to make it feasible to use in home grows. I've only seen a blurb here and there about them.
 

Tstat

Well-Known Member
I should have my room re-set tomorrow afternoon. I harvested 6 plants yesterday so I have two tubs open. I'm going to drain the whole thing, wash everything really good, add some more reflective material to the walls, and hook up the new pump. I actually bought a shelf to put the pump on, so it sits higher and gets fanned.
I'll post some pics tomorrow once it's all operational again. I'm glad I ran into you guys, I'm shamed into cleaning up and being more proactive, lol. The problem with a system this big is I can't just yank it out and sterilize and clean. I mean, I could but there would be an unacceptable amount of downtime.
 

JSB99

Well-Known Member
I should have my room re-set tomorrow afternoon. I harvested 6 plants yesterday so I have two tubs open. I'm going to drain the whole thing, wash everything really good, add some more reflective material to the walls, and hook up the new pump. I actually bought a shelf to put the pump on, so it sits higher and gets fanned.
I'll post some pics tomorrow once it's all operational again. I'm glad I ran into you guys, I'm shamed into cleaning up and being more proactive, lol. The problem with a system this big is I can't just yank it out and sterilize and clean. I mean, I could but there would be an unacceptable amount of downtime.
You may also want to fill a spray bottle with a semi-strong mix of bleach and water, and spray down the tubs, after cleaning. That'll disinfect everything and help keep the slime to a minimum. Dry everything before spraying with bleach, otherwise your spray will be diluted by the remaining water.

I would start thinking of ways to improve the maintainability of your system. You want to be able to break down your system as far as it can go (within reason). The more you can break it down, the easier it'll be to clean everything. If there are pipes you can't get to, your clean, new water will instantly be gunked up the second you start running water through the pipes. It'll lead to faster sliming.

There are a few ways you can make your pipes detachable:
  • Use threaded pvc adapters, instead of cementing everything together. This isn't the best way to solve your problem though
  • Use rubber couplings. These are fairly inexpensive and use hose clamps to secure the pipes.
  • Use PVC unions. These are more expensive, but really makes it easy to take pipes apart, without the need to slide a pipe out (like with a rubber coupling). It really helps with components in tight spots. You can get slip unions, as well as threaded unions.
On my manifold, connected to my pump, I use two unions. This makes it really easy to pull the pump and clean it. I do this every one to two weeks, to keep things running optimal. It's in a really tight space, especially when the reservoir is in place.
20180114_150630-2035x1401.jpg
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Thos is a big reason im going to be testing a new setup.

Ive had my ups and downs with rdwc enough
And its been fun .

But i want something as problem and maintainence cut to a minimum
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Dont get me wrong though i love rdwc .
Its Just not perfect.

But alas no system ive ever tried yet has been perfect. Even groing organic in dirt has its own set of issues imo

I made my rdwc to be as simple as possible yet have better flow then most rdwc i have seen (my own theories on this)

Here she is yesterday i just netted up and flipped last night :)

The setup on the right will be going out next round.20180218_181837.jpg
 

JSB99

Well-Known Member
Dont get me wrong though i love rdwc .
Its Just not perfect.

But alas no system ive ever tried yet has been perfect. Even groing organic in dirt has its own set of issues imo

I made my rdwc to be as simple as possible yet have better flow then most rdwc i have seen (my own theories on this)

Here she is yesterday i just netted up and flipped last night :)

The setup on the right will be going out next round.View attachment 4092661
Very nice!
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Thanks @JSB99S .

Nah not as clean as yours :) but it works

definitely looks like crap in the hps light.

But planning a big led (big for me) setup after this run and for summer use

Just gota see what this one little light can do first for a baseline. :)

How bout my high end coffmate bubbler not even light proofed :lol:
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Dont get me wrong though i love rdwc .
Its Just not perfect.

But alas no system ive ever tried yet has been perfect. Even groing organic in dirt has its own set of issues imo

I made my rdwc to be as simple as possible yet have better flow then most rdwc i have seen (my own theories on this)

Here she is yesterday i just netted up and flipped last night :)

The setup on the right will be going out next round.View attachment 4092661
Simple Flood and Drain for the win
 
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