How to change res in a dwc scrog setup?

Hi guys,
Very grateful to see RIU back up and running.
I have a question that I cannot find an answer to. I've looked everywhere to no avail.
I am a soil grower wanting to experiment with hydro. I want to do a test run with a dwc bucket in a 4x4 tent and scrog it. My only issue is I have no idea how to top off the res or do a res change or even how to check the ec and ph daily.
I already know that a 4x4 scrog plant in a dwc bucket will drink a lot of water daily and for that reason, I plan on using a 15-20 gallon res instead of a 5 gallon bucket.

So, can anybody chime in and tell me how they change their res and check ec and ph daily when they're growing scrog? Have no idea how you guys do this? Please help. I could easily do this with soil, but I wanna try hydro. My goal is to try to find a feeding regiment for hydro that will produce flavors comparable to soil. If I can produce a product I enjoy, I will transition from soil to hydro exclusively. Maybe run a 4x4 organic dirt run for those extra picky patients. But that's it.

I appreciate any help you guys can offer!

I use an rdwc type system that I made with 5 gal buckets in the tents, which are all piped together to a res that sits outside the tents for easy access. I do all my topping off, adding nutes, water changes, pH checking etc from the external res, and drain the system using using its own pump via a Y valve at the pump outlet that allows me to divert the flow to a drain. Using an external res like this also allows me to easily cool my water with coils from a chiller running into the external res allowing me to maintain stable temps (65-68f).

This may not be the answer you are looking for and is more expensive initially, but to me it seems like any other way would be nearly impossible with a scrog, or at least much more difficult and time consuming.

With hydro... i dont change medium/res... i just add on. root rot doesnt happen often (for me)

i use 5 gal hydroton buckets. i submerge the more than half the original rockwool w/seed in liquid nutes. there is large round airstone i connect at the bottom (sometimes id use two air blocks avail at the fish/pet store) to an air bubbler.. and thats it... checking ph is simple as testing the surface liquid... the bubbling mixes everything and adequate oxygen cycling

I use Rubbermaid tubs for DWC and always make an inspection port in the lid about 2" in diameter for taking samples, adding water and/or nutes or sticking in the hose for sucking out the nutes with a drill pump when doing it ScroG style.

A drill pump is only $10 or so and if you already have a drill you're all set. If you're using a 5gal pail with those ridiculous 10" net pots there probably isn't enough room to make an inspection hole in the lid. I make no holes below the water line so I never have leaks.

By Attaching It To The Top Of Your Bucket

I'm a soil guy, but if you stay away from organic nutes in the hydro setup then you will avoid nasty issues like root rot and having to constantly change your res.

OldMedUser said:

I use Rubbermaid tubs for DWC and always make an inspection port in the lid about 2" in diameter for taking samples, adding water and/or nutes or sticking in the hose for sucking out the nutes with a drill pump when doing it ScroG style.

A drill pump is only $10 or so and if you already have a drill you're all set. If you're using a 5gal pail with those ridiculous 10" net pots there probably isn't enough room to make an inspection hole in the lid. I make no holes below the water line so I never have leaks.

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Thank you brother. And everybody else who has chimed in. The rdwc was the only thing that made sense to me. I see these guys on YouTube with a single 5 gallon bucket with a full 5x5 scrog. Couldn't imaging the ph and ec swings in a res that small with a plant that big.
I was thinking of exactly what you mentioned. Maybe use a tote and create a little door on top of the res next to the plant that would allow me to stick a pump in there to change the res and check ph and ec. I think this is what I'll do.
Last question. It seems much easier to simply through a table in there with a res underneath it and just scrog the table. May just go this route for it seems like it would be much easier.

The Dawg said:

By Attaching It To The Top Of Your Bucket

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Whoa dude! What am I looking at. It looked like the plant is levitating. How are you doing this?

I'm beginning to think a flood and drain setup will be much easier. Easier to control temps and manage ph and ec. Any tips on maximizing flavor in hydro? Have never smoked hydro I would go back and buy more of. Flavor is one of the most important qualities to me. But I'm envious of hydro growers in the amount of time they save. Hand watering every two days is a lot of work. I'm dream of merely topping of a res daily instead of having to pull out a bunch of plants to access the rest. I'm tired of being sore every dayum day from crawling on my hands and knees below the canopy. I'm getting old. Can't go hard like I used to. But, I'm OCD and follow things to a T. If hydro can be tasty, I think I can do it. 2013 in Amsterdam and it was Chocolope kush. That's the only memorable hydro I've ever had.

Mine I have the SCROG framing mounted straight on the lid so if need be I can lift the lid up but iv setup it so I dont need to.


Bottom left side has a access hole I can fit my EC and PH meter into as well as used it to drain and fill though.


I used this for draining and filling.


I can get about 99.9% of it out with it over 2mins of pumping.
Then I usually just add back 10L of a low dosage pain water with h202 in it to give everything a clean.
That sits in there for about 10-15mins as I mix my next batch up to refill the res.

Suck out that 10L mixtures. Then use it to add in my fresh mixtures for the res.
My res is 35L so all up I have about 6mins worth of hand pumping once every 1-2 weeks.

This is it so far

I've seen some elaborate frames for ScroG setups when they really aren't needed. I just use sheep fencing hung with bailing wire over the tub. When I want to head a grow tip across a big gap I just tie in some twist tie to make a bridge for it. The plant will still grow in height so it's good if the screen can "float". The same type of screen could be suspended from the ceiling with light chains and S hooks to adjust the height.



In the grow corner of my grow room I used the same fencing with panda film on the back to round out the corner and give me vertical support for colas at the back. I used some other stuff for the horizontal part and cut it so it hooks into the vertical section and can be supported in the front with chains. It's 5 ft across the front and 2 ft deep in the middle.



For the last grow I had 4 plants in 4gal pots and used a light mover with an air-cooled hood that had two 400W HPS bulbs in it.

Runbho said:

Whoa dude! What am I looking at. It looked like the plant is levitating. How are you doing this?

Click to expand...

PVC Attached To The Bucket Lid With PVC Jack Stands To Hold It While I Clean My Lower Res

majins said:

Mine I have the SCROG framing mounted straight on the lid so if need be I can lift the lid up but iv setup it so I dont need to.

Bottom left side has a access hole I can fit my EC and PH meter into as well as used it to drain and fill though.


I used this for draining and filling.

I can get about 99.9% of it out with it over 2mins of pumping.
Then I usually just add back 10L of a low dosage pain water with h202 in it to give everything a clean.
That sits in there for about 10-15mins as I mix my next batch up to refill the res.

Suck out that 10L mixtures. Then use it to add in my fresh mixtures for the res.
My res is 35L so all up I have about 6mins worth of hand pumping once every 1-2 weeks.

This is it so far

Click to expand...

Awesome, brother! Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. So, I'll just create an Access door and buy a pump for filling a draining. Looking forward to it. Thanks everybody!

Once you go RDWC you'll never look back to simple DWC. Putting the reservoir outside the tent helps keep the res temp down and you check the pH and EC of all your plants at once. I went one step further and added drip rings to trickle water down over the roots. Not shown in my setup are the airstones in each bucket and the reservoir. Mine is an elevated RDWC so I use a stack tube to control water height in the buckets. This way I can maintain bucket water levels regardless the level in the reservoir.

The Dawg said:

By Attaching It To The Top Of Your Bucket

View attachment 3901148 View attachment 3901149

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Lol. That's the best I've seen dawg.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Rider509 said:

Once you go RDWC you'll never look back to simple DWC. Putting the reservoir outside the tent helps keep the res temp down and you check the pH and EC of all your plants at once. I went one step further and added drip rings to trickle water down over the roots. Not shown in my setup are the airstones in each bucket and the reservoir. Mine is an elevated RDWC so I use a stack tube to control water height in the buckets. This way I can maintain bucket water levels regardless the level in the reservoir.

View attachment 3903179

Click to expand...

sweet bejeeses.!!! thats what i call elaborate setup!!!

ManBat said:

sweet bejeeses.!!! thats what i call elaborate setup!!!

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Not really, that's the same as I have in one tent and it's honestly the easiest way I've ever grown. I hardly ever even open the door to my tent and I can do top ups or water changes anytime of the day, lights on or off. It's piss easy to make yourself if you can get the parts or there's a few on ebay. Think I payed around £120 for a 33l 5 bucket set up and it works a treat.