How To: DWC

I'm still having trouble working out which is best
Only going to try one bucket dwc first time as an experiment hoping to learn heaps
I have read a lot about the topic in the last week or so,,
A few grey areas for me are
What do we put in our water to stop root disease?
And why is RDWC ,, better than dwc,, when you have two pumps running full-time,, or have I got it wrong
 
Poontanger said:
I'm still having trouble working out which is best
Only going to try one bucket dwc first time as an experiment hoping to learn heaps
I have read a lot about the topic in the last week or so,,
A few grey areas for me are
What do we put in our water to stop root disease?
And why is RDWC ,, better than dwc,, when you have two pumps running full-time,, or have I got it wrong
Click to expand...
RDWC systems normally only run one pump. Air stones/pump doesn't really count because you need i with both systems either way(maybe not at all if you run waterfalls).

RDWC is easier to operate because you have only one reservoir for all plants and only one point to adjust EC and pH. Also with greater water volumes you make the system more stable in terms of keeping EC and pH stable.

Bigger water volumes = Greater stability and less time fiddling with the system. In DWC you will have best result running the system sterile with an oxidizer. I've always used regular bleach, running chlorine at 3ppm from start to finish. Here's a dilution calculator: Chlorine dilution calculator
 
So could I just use this ??
The available chlorine is. 4.0%m/v
 

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There’s got to be an easy way to change out the reservoir in regular DWC 5 gal bucket without actually switching buckets, or is there a benefit to switching the bucket and not just the solution?
 
FlowerPower88 said:
There’s got to be an easy way to change out the reservoir in regular DWC 5 gal bucket without actually switching buckets, or is there a benefit to switching the bucket and not just the solution?
Click to expand...
I installed a water level indicator, that seconds as a drain hose.

Screenshot_20210901-161701_Gallery.jpg

I wrapped some tape around a paper towel roll, and I keep it over the tube, so no light gets to it. Seems like algae will still grow even with the blue tubing.
 
FlowerPower88 said:
There’s got to be an easy way to change out the reservoir in regular DWC 5 gal bucket without actually switching buckets, or is there a benefit to switching the bucket and not just the solution?
Click to expand...
What I do when I run a single DWC is just remove the lid/ basket and place it on an empty bucket while i change the nutes/ water. Gives the root ball a little air. You could always ad a drain port, but removing 100% of the water is still an issue. Even when i run my RDWC setup ( i use same DWC buckets) i still wont get all the water out. But its minimal, and the left over PPM is negligible.

Single DWC's aren't efficient for grows with more then like 2-3 plants IMHO.
 
DirtyJerzey said:
What I do when I run a single DWC is just remove the lid/ basket and place it on an empty bucket while i change the nutes/ water. Gives the root ball a little air. You could always ad a drain port, but removing 100% of the water is still an issue. Even when i run my RDWC setup ( i use same DWC buckets) i still wont get all the water out. But its minimal, and the left over PPM is negligible.

Single DWC's aren't efficient for grows with more then like 2-3 plants IMHO.
Click to expand...
I had to do the drain, since I scrog, it would be difficult to remove the lid and put onto another bucket.
 
DirtyJerzey said:
Yea, that would be a PITA. Do you DWC and Scrog? I would set my RDWC up if I was gonna Scrog.
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Yea, my growroom is on the second floor of my place. I don't wanna do rdwc, because the water volume is greater, and there's more potential for water leaks, so I just keep it to one 4 gallon bucket. It does suck having to top off twice daily though.
 
Hollatchaboy said:
Lol yea I got faith in that. It's just the whole Murphys law thing that I can't get past.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. Ive been looking into a leak sensor that will shut off what is plugged into it. My main worry is my return line clogging and supply pump is constantly running. 120$ for the sensor thing
 
kushnotbush said:
Hey VoidObject, love the tutorial bro. DWC is so simple in design it amazes me that it even works when you see how complicated some of the other systems are. Anyway just thought I would throw out some advice since it happened to me recently. I went in to my tent to change a res and low and behold no F'in bubbles, plant was looking terrible almost like a drowned soil plant. Found out one of my older pumps went out leaving two of my reservoirs without air! Man I was so pissed.

I also run two stones in each resevoir so to correct this I decided to run each res off of two pumps, meaning each stone gets air from a different pump. This gives me redundancy now so if one of my pumps goes out at least one stone is still pumping in oxygen. Now, I know in a power outage your still SOL but I hope this helps because these pumps do fail and if it goes unnoticed too long well you know...

Also anyone that experiences high reservoir temps in DWC I recommend trying a cooler as a reservoir and if your still too high then add the frozen water bottles. Using the cooler also helps making trips to the freezer less frequent.
KnB
Click to expand...
You can buy pc psu they can keep a pc on for an hour.and airpump is 5w soo it will be more than a day
 
All this DWC representation is using it in an inefficient way; tiny buckets, expensive heat chillers, etc. Instead of looking to manage the water in little buckets, just use a much larger reservoir and fashion your own lid with construction grade styrofoam. Drill some holes for the mesh pots. And you can't go overboard with the bubbles; the more bubbles bursting the surface, the better.
 
I put a large grow tray (42" x 42" x 6" deep) on my floor because my room is short. I got a lid for the reservoir and cut holes in the top. I have a large reservoir in the other room. I use synchronized timers to move the water back and forth. I do have a chiller.

It's more of a modified recirculating deep water culture. The rez used to be under the traybut the girls regularly hit the ceiling. It was an ebb and flow. I gained 18" switching over.

One downside is I can't move the plants at all, but if one uses a scrog you can't anyway.
 

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Canadian_Growing said:
All this DWC representation is using it in an inefficient way; tiny buckets, expensive heat chillers, etc. Instead of looking to manage the water in little buckets, just use a much larger reservoir and fashion your own lid with construction grade styrofoam. Drill some holes for the mesh pots. And you can't go overboard with the bubbles; the more bubbles bursting the surface, the better.
Click to expand...
I always was taught that multi site DWC with nutrient hungry plants like cannabis wasn’t good due to root competition. Have you ever experienced a more competitive plant dominate and stunt out a less vigorous one?
 
FlowerPower88 said:
I always was taught that multi site DWC with nutrient hungry plants like cannabis wasn’t good due to root competition. Have you ever experienced a more competitive plant dominate and stunt out a less vigorous one?
Click to expand...

Nope. That happens in soil/inert mediums with larger beds, but all the roots in a DWC seem to live in a happy symbiosis of entanglement.
 
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