RDWC (waterfall) inline pump size and DO questions

ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
Hydro noob here, building a 4 site RDWC: 4x 5 gallon buckets, with a 5 gallon res, so probably 15-20 gallons when full (going into a 4x4 tent/res outside tent). I live in a hot climate so I’m thinking instead of hot noisy air pumps, I’ll go waterfall, with an inline pump pulling water from the res and connecting to a spout-like attachment at the top of the side of each of the bucket sites. So my questions are, what size (GPH) inline water pump will I need to circulate enough water for the waterfall? Will a waterfall in each bucket provide enough dissolved oxygen for my ladies all the way through veg/flower? Will I still need a small air pump in the res to keep the solution from settling? Any advice is appreciated!!!!
 
memoponics

memoponics

Active Member
1) 300-600 gph should be fine as long as you have a good manifold layout that provides equal flow (or adjustable flow via valves) to all the sites and the water is falling several inches out of the inlet
2) Definitely but monitor your water temps. Higher temps = lower DO
3) No air pumps are needed with a waterfall, the DO is generated right there on the spot in the buckets, and your flow rate will be high enough that it would never go stagnant unless you had some sort of circulation dead spot in your design
 
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ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
memoponics said:
1) 300-600 gph should be fine as long as you have a good manifold layout that provides equal flow (or adjustable flow via valves) to all the sites and the water is falling several inches out of the inlet
2) Definitely but monitor your water temps. Higher temps = lower DO
3) No air pumps are needed with a waterfall, the DO is generated right there on the spot in the buckets, and your flow rate will be high enough that it would never go stagnate unless you had some sort of circulation dead spot in your design
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Ight, was looking at a 350 GPH mag drive inline pump, sounds like that should work just fine? Also for design I was thinking about doing something like this (see photo) with the tubing connected to the pump running into the very center between all 4 sites, running up into a T joint, then splitting off into each site. By looking at the picture, could you tell me things to look out for in terms of room for error?
 

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J232

J232

Well-Known Member
I would recommend a variable dc pump, running a half inch manifold will do enough for pressure. Not much to it, suck water from the res and spray it into the tops of the sites with 1/2” elbows like the link in the other post. I went bigger with a mag drive pump and 3/4” manifold, 5/16” holes in my stay bars.. I could achieve the same without spraybars I just chose to get fancy. This is before I shortened the bars from 4 to 2 holes and during the build.
403F06DA-FF22-4FD2-8A8B-4281AE56CC58.jpeg
 
ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
J232 said:
I would recommend a variable dc pump, running a half inch manifold will do enough for pressure. Not much to it, suck water from the res and spray it into the tops of the sites with 1/2” elbows like the link in the other post. I went bigger with a mag drive pump and 3/4” manifold, 5/16” holes in my stay bars.. I could achieve the same without spraybars I just chose to get fancy. This is before I shortened the bars from 4 to 2 holes and during the build.
View attachment 4673891
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is a variable dc pump better than a mag drive pump? Sorry I’m kind of a noob here, this is my first system I’m building so I’m not entirely sure what the pros/cons would be of a variable dc pump
 
memoponics

memoponics

Active Member
Just get a regular inline eco plus or comparable other brand that is made for fountains ponds or hydroponics and youll be fine
 
ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
memoponics said:
Just get a regular inline eco plus or comparable other brand that is made for fountains ponds or hydroponics and youll be fine
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ah shit, forgot I had another question. I’m probably going to buy a chiller. Would I need another pump for the chiller? Or could I pump the water into the chiller, and then run the water that’s coming out of the chiller directly into the manifold for the waterfall?
 
memoponics

memoponics

Active Member
A chiller would be the only thing you would need another pump for. In my experience you would want to go directly from the feed pump to your feed manifold and have a separate pump to feed your chiller and return back to the res. You will need to have some pressure in the manifold for the water fall to work best, the return from the chiller just wont cut the mustard.
 
ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
memoponics said:
A chiller would be the only thing you would need another pump for. In my experience you would want to go directly from the feed pump to your feed manifold and have a separate pump to feed your chiller and return back to the res. You will need to have some pressure in the manifold for the water fall to work best, the return from the chiller just wont cut the mustard.
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Awesome. Thanks!
 
ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
With a "manifold" training, the plant ends up with a row of colas, like a menorah.
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we are talking about a manifold that directs water into each RDWC bucket side for an waterfall effect. I didnt know that effects the way the plant grows? Or did u think we were talking about something else
 
memoponics

memoponics

Active Member
Renfro is talking about a training method called manifolding that involves progressively training the plant to take a menorah like shape. Its different thatn the "manifold" we are talking about.
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
I would run a much bigger rez,25 gallon.Out side the tent where cool air can reach it.You should have more water in rez then whats in the tent.
 
ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
myke said:
I would run a much bigger rez,25 gallon.Out side the tent where cool air can reach it.You should have more water in rez then whats in the tent.
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I do plan on putting the res outside the tent to keep water temps down. And really? I see a lot of people using the same size res as they use for sites. What’s the benefit of having so much more water in the res?
 
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