BCboys said:

I have been adding pH adjusters and nutes to the epi for the time being to keep these moms vegging. Could it be something related to this practice that is affecting this wild swing? I'm all ears.

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dankworth said:

Hey dude I built and ran rdwc for a while, and in my experience, ph drop meant either food strength was way too low, or you have bad stuff happening to your roots. RollinEndough is absolutely right about undiluted stuff added to res frying roots. Once you have damaged roots, pathogens have the opportunity to attack. Then ph drops like you are describing.

I moved away from rdwc because it is so touchy. I now topdrip into a redi-roots aeration frame suspended in the lid of a 27 gal tote. There is an inch and a half of water at the bottom of the tote. I aerate this water. Topdrip reliability, and once the dangling roots hit the water, they fucking explode. Since each station is a standalone unit, non-recirc, no pathogens get spread to everybody else. My shit survived 77 degree irrigation temps with aplomb, and the 1.5" of water helped them survive a 90+ degree day in the room, unscheduled, due to a mishap.

You can find info(pics) in my grow diaries somewhere, super cheap and easy to build.
It is the highest-performing 100% reliable system that I know of. It was built so things could go wrong, several things could go wrong, and I would still get a crop out. It works like a fucking charm.

Rdwc is cool too, but holy shit is it easy to make plants stall or take a shit with that system unless ALL your ducks are in a row.

I can move my plants. Flexible irrigation and drain tubing. Can't do that w/rdwc.

All of us who ran rdwc have wondered, as we pulled up to the site, what we were going to come to. "Fuck, I hope they are all still okay." That thing. I don't do that anymore.

My system beats rdwc on an annual basis because unlike rdwc, you have to try like a motherfucker to make plants stall in it. You have seen stalled plants, right? When you are trying to get a clock ticking on a paycheck?

Oh and I can use teas and organics with absolutely no fear. Can't do so much of that w/rdwc.

Pretty fucking happy with myself right about now. I fucking love being right.

Hope some of this helps.

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BCboys said:

Looking for some ideas on why my pH is dropping such an insane amount daily? Cap, I bumped up the ppm to 410 yesterday hoping it might help to stabilize the pH, however I checked it when I got to the shop today and it had dropped from 5.7-5.0! ppm's read the same at 410. any ideas, and should I be concerned? I'm still waiting on my 250g res for top off, so I have been adding pH adjusters and nutes to the epi for the time being to keep these moms vegging. Could it be something related to this practice that is affecting this wild swing? I'm all ears.

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dankworth said:

I would have to dig. It is kind of late.

Take a 27 gal tote.
Cut a hole in the top of it.
Position a redi-roots aeration frame of whatever size filled w/chow or coco/perlite in the hole.
Drill your drain fitting into the wall of the tote at whatever height you want, this will govern the height of the runoff water layer in the bottom of the tote.
Aerate that water with an airstone.
Topdrip into the chow mix periodically. Get that 20% runoff.
The 20% runoff, instead of draining away, feeds hydrophilic roots that crept out the bottom of the aeration frame. Then drains away.
Just like topdrip, but the runoff kicks it for a little bit to feed the dwc roots.
Oh yeah, you want an air gap between the aeration frame and the water layer.

That easy. There are pics in my grow diaries somewhere. I became apprehensive about showing the room close to the end for lots of reasons.

Dude anybody can build this. This is engineered with the lessons of
Hempy buckets
Topdrip(non-recirc)
Standalone dwc
being applied here. I wanted safety. I wanted the ability to not have to babysit a system.

Rdwc is cool when it works but is too touchy. One stalled crop and you are already fucked for annual output.

I just topdrip and have some roots dangling into a swc layer. Like a chow-based dtw Krusty bucket.
I was like "that 20% runoff could be feeding more roots for free."
So I built it. I do not see myself running another system again besides this one, too many advantages.
Fucking plants told me what they wanted, showed me pictures, weird weird shit happened to me when I almost died earlier this year.

This system is based more on what they told me that they wanted than anything else.

I am not trying to claim that I am some kind of plant whisperer motherfucker, simply reporting what happened.

Edit-Rdwc turned my hair grey. My current system does not have any surprises except for the cool one when the roots hit the water and they go off. Nothing tricky, just topdrip w/a little something added to increase performance while retaining the 100% reliability of a periodic topdrip into chow.

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Capulator said:

As much as I love this style, I am not sure this is the place for the hate. Poor guy needs to finish a successful run in his UC first. let's help him get to the finish line, then hate when the time is right... or not.

Oh yeah, I have your hat.

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dankworth said:

https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/attachments/img_1711-jpg.222830/

https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/attachments/img_1712-jpg.222828/

https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/attachments/img_1710-jpg.222833/

Hella ghetto, hella cheap, works well. As you all can see there is plenty of optimization that could occur with this system. I built this while all fucked up with pain holding my intestines out of spare parts mostly. Eventually it will be more pimped out.

Like now I can afford real airstones hahhaha

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Capulator said:

http://www.alita.com/diffuser/siliconehose.php

^^^^ $8 / ft. direct from alita. you just need to call them. expensive, but once and done.

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RollinEndough said:

Is he basically doing an uglied up version of what you do Cap? You posted pics that made sense.

I have a UC Earth coming and feel like it's pretty much the same thing by descriptions in text, but made for me already.

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RollinEndough said:

I believe they made a last minute design change to make the Earth either recirc or DTW. So it's a 4 gallon Smart Pot insert with a mesh bottom with a 4-gallon in 4-gallon square bucket module to keep a gap between the pot and water. Top-drip feed.

What goes in your baskets? Hydroton and coco?

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BCboys said:

Thanks for the responses fellas. And dankworth, I appreciate the sentiments and looking out, I do have that same feeling everything I pull up to the shop. However, as cap stated, the goal is to finish with this system...I'm already there and 45k deep. I have the complete setup to go the distance and eventually have everything dialed. I'm going to put in the time.

So anyways...I have been doing add backs with my pH adjusters slightly diluted...I diluted about a 200ml bottle in a 2L jug of filtered water. Doesn't sound like this is enough, so perhaps this is the root of the problem. Excuse the pun. also...I've been adding a+b completely undiluted to the Epi, although I've only done this twice and in relatively small amounts since the plats were introduced.

The root ends are all springy and pearly white and I would say 75% of the mass is the same. However there is browning in some of the masses, at least a bit. But this mass discoloration occurred the second day I put them into the uc. I think it may have been uchq(?) that I remember reading said that some discoloration of the roots is typical in the uc. Anyways, sounds like I need to use my 80 litre res or somethig for top offs until I get the 250g. So I would then mix my a+b, wait a bit, then adjust the ph? Then add slowly to the Epi?

Thanks for help gentlemen.

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