New RDWC

First I am new to this so criticism is welcome but be easy. I will say I first built a system with 5 gallon buckets and uniseals. I believe people can make it work but mine leaked like crazy and I knew I would never sleep well with it so I did this. I built this with 13 gallon ez stir buckets it has a 2 inch pvc between all buckets and 3/4 inch pvc for waterfalls. I use a 1110 gph pump in the controller. I used shower drain fittings with aquarium silicone on the inside seal. Quite a few unions but I have already had to dismantle once because i put the gaskets on the inside at first and that is a mistake, water feels free to leave. I think the spacing needs to be worked on. Eventually I would like to get two of them in the room once I prove it out. The plants are at week 6 since planting seeds. Using culture solutions nutrients.

Hey Jaggz,

Good looking setup there, very clean. When you said you used shower drain fittings, what did you mean? Is this a type of bulkhead? Any photos of the inside of each bucket would be great. I'm going to build a similar system myself shortly and am wondering about spacing. Are you using a central HID light source or are you using something like LED bars or a COB array? The plants look like they'll be a little close together when flowering time comes around but they're definitely going to grow like crazy.

Thanks BornGreen1987. These shower drains in the photo below were 7 or 8 bucks a piece at Home Depot. They are a pain to screw together cause theres nothing to grip except the drain cover so next time I will probably order bulkheads online. This is my first grow so I went a bit cheap and got a 1200w ViparSpectra LED light. We'll see how it does but it seems to be fine right now. I plan to get into the COB lights next. The plants are super short and bushy. I would say 12 inches tall and a 18 inch diameter. Not sure if thats normal but they seem healthy, tons of nodes and thick stalks. I was considering starting flower so they don't get out of hand. I'll get a picture of the inside of the bucket tomorrow. I will probably either turn this into a 4 bucket system or take the whole thing into the veg room and just use it for that.

I ran 1" bulkhead fittings and flexible hose. Everything modular, I basically have a kit of parts that turns the whole thing into Lego for hydro. I can completely reconfigure a 6 site setup in an hour. Just thinking about moving your setup makes my head hurt by comparison! Props for the clean work, nonetheless.

Besides, who cares if it grows the dank, right?

Its actually not too bad as far as break down and I can easily change between 2 4 and 6 buckets because of the unions. I can make a straight PVC with unions to adjust between the buckets and If I add a few unions in the front I can actually easily adjust the width spacing. the only problem there is the cost runs up cause the 2 inch unions are $9 a piece and I'm pretty sure I cleaned out the county with the ones I already bought.

This is inside the bucket at the top. The air hose goes through the side so I don't have to mess with it when I take the lid off and the waterfall price is actually a 3/4 to 1/2 to give it a bit of pressure.

Nice job!...I would flip to flower soon if I was you. Or make some extension pipes up to spread out your buckets.