My Hydro Set-Up. +Rep For Constructive Input

So I've grown pretty tired of dirt. There is so much about growing in dirt that just sucks. So after this crop I'm going to be switching to a DWC system. That will be about 3 weeks from now. So I am gathering the parts to start building my system. I was hoping someone with some experience in hydro would look at my plan and make sure they see no flaws in it. I would be very grateful.

My scanner is broken so here is a very very rough MS Paint Drawing:

It is 5 18-gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck containers linked together using pvc pipe. Each Rubermaid will house 2 plants in netpots with hydroton. I am unsure what size net pot to use. So my first question is what size net pot should I use? I usually veg for 3-4weeks before flower.
A 1000GPH pump with the help of gravity circulates the water between all the containers. There is a 5 gallon bucket for easy ph testing and the filling and emptying of the system. The bubbles come from two air pumps, either the 35 Watt Commercial Grade Air Pump or the 80 Watt Commercial Grade Air Pump. Which of those two air pumps is more suitable (both are links above)? The 35w seems to give off almost as much air at a fraction of the electricity but maybe I am reading it wrong.

Finally I want to get a .1 HP water chiller and hook it up to the 5 gallon bucket. The problem is that is the most expensive part and I don't have that money right now. Will I be good without a water chiller for the winter months? I will have one by spring. Also is a .1HP chiller big enough or would I need a .25HP chiller for a system of this size.

Like I said if anyone with more experience than I could share some of that expertise I'd be might grateful. I will rep you for sure and maybe one day I will be able to return the favor.

Your system looks similar to the under current style systems and should work fine.

There's something called a uniseal that can help with connecting each 2" or 3" pvc
to the roughnecks.

You can avoid having to get a chiller by using heisenbergs method of beneficials
https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html
or there's the frozen water bottles option, that's just a bit more work.

If you do get a chiller, get the bigger of the two. I bought my 1/10 cuz the specs seemed
like it could handle it and it wasn't able to fight the heat during summer months. I had to
then buy a 1/4 to make sure it was good to go and it works much better.

The more oxygen you give your roots the better, but take into account that your reservoir
temps will directly effect the amount of dissolved oxygen your water can hold. This is really
where a chiller comes in handy.

Being that the roughnecks lids arn't the sturdiest I wouldn't go too large on the netpots
as the rocks can become heavy. If you're using something like sure to grow or a lighter
medium you could probably get away with larger but I think the size doesn't really matter.

Gotta agree with Disp84 on the roughneck tote,. I personally like the Black with yellow Locking Lid tote from Home Deopt, they are like $11 Each But can hold like 450Lbs easily and the tops are strong enough to hold another Black/yellow Tote on it. I have 2 myself as resivor's for my ebb/flood system, Full of nutes they don't flex at all. I never did a DWC System but from all the research Ive done on many different systems it looks like you have all your bases covered.

Erdericks is completely right on this one the black tote from Home Deopt is the shit. I built my system out of it and cant say enough good things about it. A little bit of weather stripping between the Lid though goes a long way into making it much more waterproof.

thxs stoner i can steal that idea where ur using seperate containers for each plant [or 2] i also wanted to do a dwc myself but my bros moaing about the water and getting a massive bath like container in to his flat without raising eyebrows, but is the benefit of having a seperate res rly worth the money? and have u read the diy pages on water chillers fuking unreal some shit theyv done
one idea that made me buzz was having a large bucket of water in a fridge or freezer then circurling a pipe [submerged] round and round in like 15 loops or w/e then drilling holes for the pipe so the fridge door can stay shut cooling the water
ill see ifi canfind it

if im not mistaken(witch i may be) and enyone feel free to correct me if i am wrong(never done a rec DWC before) but from what i read about these systems is the PVC connecting the res's should be much bigger for the fact that when the roots grow out they can clog a small pipe and cause allot of problems but i see you have 2 3" pipes so i dont know but hell looks like it would work good. and get the good totes i used 2 25 gal totes for my flood tables(cheap ones) and when full looked like they where about to burst lol

By putting in the PVC it's seems more like an ebb and flow bucket system or really deep NFT... When I Did my Every 2 week system In 18 gallon rubbermaids they were never connected to each other? I don't get the point of connecting them? am I alone in this?
You may find you have no need for a water chiller I have had water temps In the mid 70's with no problem, Just as long as their is a lot of air going to it, it's dark and slightly cooler than the air temp it should be fine, My root balls don't lie
2" Rockwool In 3" net pots works great for me for the last year

Some Vids of my old setup Check out the roots In that second Video Towards the end, That's warm water no chiller And A year later it still is

[youtube]7cHQwywPBDw[/youtube]

[youtube]KDgeY8A3j4U&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]

[youtube]5m6nOqS1A1E&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]

looks like a decent DWC setup to me.

I used 4" PVC pipe and will never do it agian as the roots clogged the pipes. All i would say is keep an eye on the roots. I built a new setup 3.5 feet by 7 feet flood and drain table dont have to worry about clogging the PVC pipes this way.

hydroalltheway said:

I used 4" PVC pipe and will never do it agian as the roots clogged the pipes. All i would say is keep an eye on the roots. I built a new setup 3.5 feet by 7 feet flood and drain table dont have to worry about clogging the PVC pipes this way.

Click to expand...

I will put up some pics later today!!! Plants are almost 4 weeks old 12'' tall with 3/4 inch between nodes

i agree flood and drain is my setup used DWC and they work good too just easier for me to manage flood and drain tables here is my 11 girls in my flood and drain almost 4 weeks in flower 1 week of veg.

Thanks for that link disposition, that's some good reading. I'd rep you but it says I gots to spread it around first. Soon as I have the money I am just going to get a .25 chiller, it's only 50 bucks more.

Those black and yellow home depot totes look cool but they're big 27 gallons. The Roughnecks come in 18 gallon. Do you think 2 4" net pots with hydro ton are really going to bring the lid in?

Bauks the reason for connecting them all is it is much easier to change 3 reservoirs than it is to change 30 reservoirs. Nice perpetual by the way. I also have a perpetual grow but I grow under HID lighting. If I had 5-6 plants per tote they'd be too cramped under there. When I put the screen on them (for a SCROG) it would be instantly full leaving me little to no room to fill the screen as they stretch in the beginning of flower. By having 2 per tote they all get their own part of the screen to fill; and by having the totes connected I only have to change one reservoir instead of 5. The pump just keeps the water circulating so when it's ph'ed it only needs to be added to one bucket. But it's still a DWC system, the bubbles are still the most important part here. So really the only point of the connections is a time savor, there are only so many hours in the day.

drgreentm said:

i agree flood and drain is my setup used DWC and they work good too just easier for me to manage flood and drain tables here is my 11 girls in my flood and drain almost 4 weeks in flower 1 week of veg.

Click to expand...

nice setup man

Ractagon said:

nice setup man

Click to expand...

thanks man much appreciated flood and drain very easy to maintain

Are your roots suspended in air or do they actually "sit" in the PVC tubing?


If its the latter then why do you need the rubbermaid bins to begin with?

You can just make rails or pvc tubbing thats supported by a saw-horse type structure, line the your post with the plants every 12" or so, and have one rubbermaid unit as a resevoir.

I didnt get any pics up when i said i was so here they are now. All white widow from seed. Veg for 2 weeks under 1000w MH and been flowering for 12 days under 2x600 HPS. I built my table with 3/4 plywood for top cut holes for 15 plants, 2x 3/4 plywood glued together for the bottom, 2x6 for the sides and then i wrapped it all with a 10x10 10mil pond liner. the table size is 4x8. I bought my res at a farmers store 110 gallon horse feeder and it's black. 500gph pump, 1 air pump with 2 outlets with 1 24inch stone and 1 12inch stone, 150 watt aquaium heater, i use the full line of DNF gro a/b, bloom a/b, dnf black, dnf gold, dnf green, dnf clear, dnf bloom fortifier, dnf veg fortifier, dnf carbo logic and most important a PH meter and EC/PPM meter a must have for hydro growers. But anyway here are some pic and more will follow

midwestfunkmaster said:

Are your roots suspended in air or do they actually "sit" in the PVC tubing?


If its the latter then why do you need the rubbermaid bins to begin with?

You can just make rails or pvc tubbing thats supported by a saw-horse type structure, line the your post with the plants every 12" or so, and have one rubbermaid unit as a resevoir.

Click to expand...

The plants sit in net pots in the rubbermaids above bubbling water, like a normal DWC. The PVC is used only to connect all the rubbermaids together so I change one reservoir instead of 5. The PVC pipe is horizontal, the plants sit in the rubbermaids.

Hydroalltheway that's a nice set-up I guess, but it's of no relevance to this thread at all. Not really trying to be a dick but you come in here, misunderstand my drawing, then just post pictures of your unrelated grow using an unrelated method. So even though you may have used 4" pipe and roots clogged it, my roots don't actually sit in the pipe. If you'd of actually looked at that picture you'd see they sit in 18 gallon storage totes.

You and DrGreentm are right flood tables are easy. They are probably the easiest and most maintenance free way of growing hydro. But I am not necessarily looking for the easy road. Don't get me wrong, one can get fantastic results from flood tables, but a perfectly maintained DWC system will out produce a perfectly maintained flood system. One big problem with DWC is it's hard to grow larger numbers of large plants because then you end up with a shit ton of reservoirs to change. My design is meant to help combat that.

Unrelated to this thread, but one thing I don't get, why make DIY flood tables? Because of their simplicity and many other perks so many hydro growers use flood tables. They are relatively cheap and readily available. By the time you buy pond liners and wood you must of spent close to the $150-$175 it would of cost to buy a plastic commercial flood table that will last forever, not to mention your time. You're not the first I've seen make a flood table, but I just don't get it.

I like that, a lot.

One question hydroalltheway, what do you use the strings for? (to tie down the plants)