RDWC. 8 x 55 Litre system.

Hi all at Roll It Up. Been looking around the hydro section over the last couple of weeks, there is a good solid amount of knowledge on RDWC systems here.

Thought I would throw my grow room up here.

This is my first grow with RDWC but I'm not new to hydro, I've had an NFT system before, I have quite a few Coco grows behind me. Tried the Wilma out for a few grows too.


The grow room was built by myself in the garage, it's 3.6m x 2.4m, or 12 x 8 ft. I have an active intake being run by a T&D silent 8", and my extraction fan is a Can Fan QMax 10", which is being pulled through a 12" Mountain Air Filter. The fresh air is pumped into the grow room via 4 rectangular ducts in each corner of the room to aid even fresh air distribution.



I'm lighting my grow with two Dimlux expert series 400v 1000w de HPS and two D-Pillion 315w CMH.

The RDWC system is an Alien Hydroponics Pro 8 pot 55 litre system. I've also got the chiller in place to keep the res temps low. Something that is a right nightmare at the moment.























Strains in the groom at the moment are KillerSkunk from Underground Originals taken from my favourite mother plant. And there is also a UK Psychosis clone taken from another mother plant I crossed myself using a male KGBeans Psychosis BX1 and an Original UK Psychosis Clone mum, she's a very fragrant plant with a nice mellow effect, thought it would be nice to have at least a little choice come harvest time.

The 4 plants closest to the front were placed in the system a few weeks after the back 4, hence the size difference.

I'm using Growers Ark nutrients, which have been fantastic so far. My measuring equipment is all BlueLab.

My EC is 0.9 or 630-600 ppm at the moment. My PH is set at 5.9. Buckets are about 2/3 full and the roots are all healthy and doing well.

Average room temps are around 27C lights on and humidity sits around 55%. Res temps are kept below 20C or 68f. I'm using PythOff at all times for those heat wave days that the chiller cant keep it below 22C and so far roots are happy.


So now I'm just filling out the screen until the end of July then I will switch to 12/12.


Thanks very much for taking the time to read through and feel free to drop a comment.

Take it easy all.


GV.

I will try to get some root shots. I thought I had a few kicking around the computer, but cant seem to find any.

GV.

So you only need to change the water in the main tank, which pumps water through all the individual reservoirs? You don't need to manually change and add water to each reservoir like you do in a dwc? I'd imagine that would help considerably with bacteria build up in the reservoirs. Do the plants grow faster this way than with a standard dwc?

I'd like to maybe try setting up a scrog also (first grow). I'm only doing 2 plants, dwc. I'm curious though, and it may be a silly question with an obvious answer...but it seems to me, once the plant has traveled through the scrog and fills through it, wouldn't it prevent the dwc user from lifting off and removing the reservoir lid (with deep net cup) from the buckets to empty and replace the water? Seems there would be a lot of resistance from above, with the plant attached to and filling the screen, for me to lift the lid off 6 inches to clear the net cup from the bucket top.

Yes you can fill the system from the header pot (the stand alone pot), you add the ready mixed nutrient solution into the system from there.

As for emptying the system, I have a bucket and small pump with a piece of hose attached. You can lift the lid enough to do what you need to do. But most of the water is removed from the system by removing the "Out" pipe from the chiller and replacing it with a longer piece of hose going out my garage door. I then just switch the systems pump back on and the water flows out the pipe.

This leaves about a inch of water remaining in the system. Every second fill I use the extra pump to drain that excess water off.

Really is an easy job. Much easier than NFT was.

As you can see I got a little staining from overdoing the nutrients in the earlier stages, but the roots are still thickening out at the net, so still going well. The middle picture is the roots on the smallest plant, it has started grow a bit now.

Love having the bigger images on here over the smaller on 420. Saves fucking about making them smaller.

Looking good. I've done a bit of RDWC in my time.

zypheruk said:

Love having the bigger images on here over the smaller on 420. Saves fucking about making them smaller.

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Hi matey. Was hoping you flew over lol. Looking through your diary here the other day as it happens.

I'm going to try to keep the pics separate, one for each. I started reading through the Hydro section here 2 or 3 weeks back. Seems like there is a ton RDWC growers here, and hundreds of DWC. Trouble is with them being in the US the time zone thing can be a bit of pain in the ass.


Hopefully a few pick this thread up over the next couple of months.

ATB mate.

ttystikk said:

Looking good. I've done a bit of RDWC in my time.

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Thank you.

Beginner with the system personally. Been very kind to me so far. Have run NFT a fair bit, but if I'm honest this is a totally different method of growing. Really liking it so far.

G.V said:

Thank you.

Beginner with the system personally. Been very kind to me so far. Have run NFT a fair bit, but if I'm honest this is a totally different method of growing. Really liking it so far.

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Keep your water in the mid 60s Fahrenheit and well oxygenated and Bob's your uncle.

ttystikk said:

Keep your water in the mid 60s Fahrenheit and well oxygenated and Bob's your uncle.

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Been struggling a bit with this actually. The chiller is over rated for my system but in the really hot weather its finding it hard to keep up. Ice bottles have helped keep it in check, I hope to insulate the buckets before flower, hopefully this will help keep them stable.

@G.V just a little thought, would running a duct from outside the groom to the intake on the chiller help, fresh cool air being sucked in then.

zypheruk said:

@G.V just a little thought, would running a duct from outside the groom to the intake on the chiller help, fresh cool air being sucked in then.

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What I have done is removed the vent on the side of the chiller and placed in in front of one of the 4 intake ducts. Trouble is that during the day even travelling through 10 meters of ducting the air is entering the room warmish. But atm the heat has dropped off outdoors so things have been good as gold the last week. It is the insulation that will help the most I think mate. I should have done it earlier but I went well past my budget on just getting it going lol .

G.V said:

Been struggling a bit with this actually. The chiller is over rated for my system but in the really hot weather its finding it hard to keep up. Ice bottles have helped keep it in check, I hope to insulate the buckets before flower, hopefully this will help keep them stable.

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Covering the top of the buckets to keep your lights from warming them up made the biggest difference for me. I use down core insulation board.

Reflective bubble wrap for the sides if you think it's necessary.

@G.V I understand having to hold back when budget has been used up. If you can manage until harvest, then you have all winter to finish off the extras at your leisure.

ttystikk said:

Covering the top of the buckets to keep your lights from warming them up made the biggest difference for me. I use down core insulation board.

Reflective bubble wrap for the sides if you think it's necessary.

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I just did this with my Under Current RDWC. With it being hot, the room air conditioned, condensation was forming all over the modules and pipes. Wrapped everything and no more condensation - and probably gave my chiller a break as well

I couldn't tell if your chiller is in the room or not, but I'd try to keep it out of the grow room if possible.

The cooling capacity of the chiller is reduced as the air temp goes up. And summer always poses more challenges for the indoor grower.

Nice room by the way..

Peace
BL

Hi, didn't really update here as there hasn't been much interest in the diary. But thought I'd come back and give a little more info on how things went.

The system has been good to me all round, I am very pleased with it.

My KillerSkunk has come along and I am now 3 weeks into bloom.








My first RDWC grow so had a few ups and downs. But as it stands at the minute I should pull this off.

GV.

do you have access on the sides of the screen to go back and maintain the plants in the middle and rear of the room?

the one thing i cannot understand with scrogs is how you are able to access the res underneath the plant (when it's filled out in the screen). i'm doing dwc this grow and would love to try a scrog next grow, but how would I raise the net pot and plant if the screen is stabilized and keeping the plant from being pushed up? I have a heck of a time now just taking the plant out of the bucket to exchange the res for a fresh bucket. can't imagine how difficult that would be holding the plant up, unable to move it around at all because of the screen, and then sliding a new res bucket in there somehow at the same time.

BadlyDrawnBoy said:

do you have access on the sides of the screen to go back and maintain the plants in the middle and rear of the room?

the one thing i cannot understand with scrogs is how you are able to access the res underneath the plant (when it's filled out in the screen). i'm doing dwc this grow and would love to try a scrog next grow, but how would I raise the net pot and plant if the screen is stabilized and keeping the plant from being pushed up? I have a heck of a time now just taking the plant out of the bucket to exchange the res for a fresh bucket. can't imagine how difficult that would be holding the plant up, unable to move it around at all because of the screen, and then sliding a new res bucket in there somehow at the same time.

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RDWC = recirculating DWC. No replacing tubs needed because the water flows through them. The plants can stay in place for the entire cycle.