kumar
- Posts
- 43
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- 31
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2020
- Points
- 18
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have a dilemma before I invest shit load of money, so I would like to ask your opinions about it. I would like to build a recirculating DWC system in a big scale. Instead of buckets, I would use long discharge pipes. Each pipe would be 410 cm (13.5 feet) long, and there would be 16 pipes total. The pipe diameter is 160 mm (6.3 inch). I would use 5 cm (2 inch) deep netcups with a collar to hold the plant. The water level in the pipes would be 9-10 cm (3.5 - 4 inch), so it gives 1-2 cm (0.4 - 0.8 inch) gap between the water and the bottom of the netcups. From the pipes the water would run into one big control reservoir tank, where I put airstones for DO. The pump would run 24 hours a day and pumps back the water to the pipes. I hope you understand how I imagine it, see attached drawing.
- According to the calculations, the amount of the water JUST in the pipes would be 867 liters (229 gal). How big control tank I'll need for this amount of water? I would change the full tank of water+nutes in the CONTROL tank once a week, while leaving the standing water in the pipes. I set the pH to 5.8 and then I don't want to adjust pH between those water changes. I'm guessing 2000 liters (528 gal) would be fine to avoid pH swings and enough nutes for a week? Therefore I have 867+2000 liters (758 gal) mixing and running around for a week.
- Those pipes are wide enough, or may I go for a wider? The next step is 200 mm (7.9 inch) diameter, but in that case the water consumption would be even way more.
- The water flow speed would be something like 1-2 liters (0.25 - 0.5 gal) per minute per pipe, is that enough?
- Water temperature 20 Celsius or 68 Fahrenheit. Good?
If you have any opinions or advice for this system, please share it too.
Thank you
I have a dilemma before I invest shit load of money, so I would like to ask your opinions about it. I would like to build a recirculating DWC system in a big scale. Instead of buckets, I would use long discharge pipes. Each pipe would be 410 cm (13.5 feet) long, and there would be 16 pipes total. The pipe diameter is 160 mm (6.3 inch). I would use 5 cm (2 inch) deep netcups with a collar to hold the plant. The water level in the pipes would be 9-10 cm (3.5 - 4 inch), so it gives 1-2 cm (0.4 - 0.8 inch) gap between the water and the bottom of the netcups. From the pipes the water would run into one big control reservoir tank, where I put airstones for DO. The pump would run 24 hours a day and pumps back the water to the pipes. I hope you understand how I imagine it, see attached drawing.
- According to the calculations, the amount of the water JUST in the pipes would be 867 liters (229 gal). How big control tank I'll need for this amount of water? I would change the full tank of water+nutes in the CONTROL tank once a week, while leaving the standing water in the pipes. I set the pH to 5.8 and then I don't want to adjust pH between those water changes. I'm guessing 2000 liters (528 gal) would be fine to avoid pH swings and enough nutes for a week? Therefore I have 867+2000 liters (758 gal) mixing and running around for a week.
- Those pipes are wide enough, or may I go for a wider? The next step is 200 mm (7.9 inch) diameter, but in that case the water consumption would be even way more.
- The water flow speed would be something like 1-2 liters (0.25 - 0.5 gal) per minute per pipe, is that enough?
- Water temperature 20 Celsius or 68 Fahrenheit. Good?
If you have any opinions or advice for this system, please share it too.
Thank you