DWC bucket design

[donmekka]

I have been considering going back to hydro ,DWC as a matter of fact. I just want to make a 4 bucket system using 13 gallon buckets. I am considering incorporating some of my old aero sprayers in each bucket roughly 10-12 per bucket and a membrane air diffuser in each bucket. All chilled with a 1/4horse chiller.

Now for all of you hydro pros is there a Rule of thumb on pumps for example X gph / X buckets, and X cfm /X BUckets?

I am considering using 2 750gph water pumps To much? To little? For air I have a 3.9psi super luft I think that should be enough.

The water level will be 1" from the bottom of the basket .

Anyone have any pointers? Sound like a good setup? Please let me know what you think.

 

[dutch69lover]

Are you planning on building a recirculating dwc system ?? I assume so since you talking about a water pump. Anyways you should recirculate your solution every 5 minutes so you would add up all your containers solution on your case your 13 gal buckets probably only hold 10 gallon of solution and 4 of em would be 40 gallons. Now recirculating every 5 minutes means that each hour has 12 of these 5 minute cycles. So your divide your pumps rating of 750 gph by 12 and your pump will circulate 62.5 gallons every 5 minutes. So your pump would be fine. Use the biggest air pump you can afford and the large 4" cylinder style air stones in your buckets. You can never have too many bubbles the more the better. Keep light out of the buckets by keeping lid on control bucket and hopefully you can have your control bucket outside of the grow area to svoid the high light levels. For your plant buckets I would take old dark colored shirts to wrap at base of stalk to keep light from penetrating the buckets into the root zone. It seems that light getting in is the major cause of slime buildup in your buckets. When I use to run this system my water chiller consisted of two 32 oz jugs of water that was frozen and that's what I put in my 10 gallon control bucket.... I just switched them out everyday with fresh onrs and I was fine. But if you all ready have the chiller then use it.

 

[donmekka]

Cool thanks for the info! Yeah its gonna be RDWC. What are your thought on the aero good idea or just a waste of energy? That would be on another 750 or 500 gph pump so my flow rate would be 125 every 5 minutes .I am thinking of using 4'' to connect the buckets since I have plenty.

 

[dutch69lover]

Aero sprayer will just get clogged as you will have massive root system in those buckets. Best use it to build your own aero cloner IMO. 4" pvc to connect the system?? Maybe overkill but if you got a bunch already go with it. Make sure you get some of that spray paint for plastics and paint all of it as regular pvc will let light penetrate or you could always cover them up by wrapping the pipe. Are your pumps strictly submersible pumps or ae they both inline/ submersible? I only ask as this will affect the final design of said system. One final piece of advice is NEVER run organic nutrients through your system!! This is another major cause of getting slime and funky buildup in your system as living organic microbes and the like love a aerated environment and will build up like crazy. Stick with total synthetics and keep it simple. All you need is the good grow/bloom/micro formula and cal mag IMO as this system leans towards fast growth anyways. I always stuck with general hydroponics flora series 3 part and cal mag and did weekly changes and never had problems. I always bought it in bulk 6 gallon sizes as that made the price for each run uber cheap!!! Private message me if you want some design plans on building this system for cheap!

 

[donmekka]

Ok so I am still trying to make up my mind on witch direction to go. I am thinking 6'x12' area with 6 600's 1 plant per light each with its own 3'x3' area. What do you guys think?

 

[dutch69lover]

One light for each is great. Guess you plan on going for the gusto lol