DIY RDWC system - First try with hydro

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

So here we go!! My first try with hydroponics. I've grown in soil for many years and always enjoyed it. But now I feel that I must expand into something new.
This is actually only a temporary set up, as I am in the middle of a multi room build in my barn. Full final size will be 8'x 35' with 3 rooms. 10' x 8' Clean/extracts room, 10' x 8' Veg/Equipment room, 10' x 8' Flower room, and before you enter is the 5' x 8' Entry/Disinfectant chamber. Glorious experiments shall take place soon growing cannabis and mushrooms.

Any way back to the fun at hand. This is set up in my basement for now and is the "trial run" for me to get my feet wet running a RDWC sys. I am still going to be having grows in soil, but need more avenues of growing under my belt.

STRAINS - Seedsman Northern lights Auto and Pyramid seeds Tutankhamon Auto

SPACE- 16 inches x 48 inches (40.64 cm x 121.92 cm) Yes I know!! So skinny right!?! Just temporary!!

SYSTEM- RDWC, 5.3 gallon (20 liter) buckets, 6 inch net pots, 37 gallon (140 liter) res., root plugs, clay pebbles, vivosun 210 gph (795 lph) Water pump, vivosun 950 gph (3596 lph) Air pump, 2 inch round air stones (x4)

NUTRIENTS- Master blend Tomato & Veg 4-18-38, Calcium Nitrate 15.5-0-0, Magnesium sulfate, Bloom City Silica Boost, Bloom City Clean Kelp, Flower Fuel (All for growing those mini baseball bats to club your friends with)

LIGHTING- QB 288 w/660nm, IR, UV Light boards (x4), max 460 watts( set just under Max, driver max 240w each) (No suntan lotion required!!) Light schedule is intermittent 5hr on/ 1hr off. (Had nice results from Auto flower soil grows with this method)

Badchoice · Nov 10, 2020

Nice set up, good luck with your first try hydro can be a little bit more tricky than soil on certain things but the output is gonna blow your mind well unless your use too growing trees outside than most likely not lol but, best advice I can give ya is be easy on the nutes. I’ve never used any of the brands your doing but if it’s anything like fox farm, GH, Botanicare etc only need 1/2 or 1/4 of the recommended full dosages will mostly burn them easily specially at those npk values. And make sure you got testing pens for PH,PPM, and EC.

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

On 10/28 I had to clean the entire system and run new return hoses from each bucket into main res. Plants wilted and show beginning signs of root rot (only minor spots). Sooooooo, a full cleaning was done, new water and nutrients mixed. The buckets were covered in reflective metal foil to prevent ALL possible light leaks. Cleaned roots in plain water for few hours to gently remove any residual slime/rot.
Northern lights: Was a champ the whole time, minimal shock.

Tutankhamon: Was very angry with me!

TheGreek_978 · Nov 10, 2020

Are you chilling the water in any way?

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

Badchoice said:
Nice set up, good luck with your first try hydro can be a little bit more tricky than soil on certain things but the output is gonna blow your mind well unless your use too growing trees outside than most likely not lol but, best advice I can give ya is be easy on the nutes. I’ve never used any of the brands your doing but if it’s anything like fox farm, GH, Botanicare etc only need 1/2 or 1/4 of the recommended full dosages will mostly burn them easily specially at those npk values. And make sure you got testing pens for PH,PPM, and EC.

Thank you!! Yes I have all the equipment. Im at around 380ppm at 6.2 ph, water 65-68°F, I did a lot of research before trying the Masterblend, didn't get a lot either just in case I wanted to switch.

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

TheGreek_978 said:
Are you chilling the water in any way?

Right now the main res. sits on the concrete basement floor and stays a nice temperature, minor fluctuating depending on the outside temps
But for my Barn build I'm installing a geothermal cooling system.

AnselAdams · Nov 10, 2020

M0nStarNuggety said:
So here we go!! My first try with hydroponics. I've grown in soil for many years and always enjoyed it. But now I feel that I must expand into something new.
This is actually only a temporary set up, as I am in the middle of a multi room build in my barn. Full final size will be 8'x 35' with 3 rooms. 10' x 8' Clean/extracts room, 10' x 8' Veg/Equipment room, 10' x 8' Flower room, and before you enter is the 5' x 8' Entry/Disinfectant chamber. Glorious experiments shall take place soon growing cannabis and mushrooms.

Any way back to the fun at hand. This is set up in my basement for now and is the "trial run" for me to get my feet wet running a RDWC sys. I am still going to be having grows in soil, but need more avenues of growing under my belt.

STRAINS - Seedsman Northern lights Auto and Pyramid seeds Tutankhamon Auto

SPACE- 16 inches x 48 inches (40.64 cm x 121.92 cm) Yes I know!! So skinny right!?! Just temporary!!

SYSTEM- RDWC, 5.3 gallon (20 liter) buckets, 6 inch net pots, 37 gallon (140 liter) res., root plugs, clay pebbles, vivosun 210 gph (795 lph) Water pump, vivosun 950 gph (3596 lph) Air pump, 2 inch round air stones (x4)

NUTRIENTS- Master blend Tomato & Veg 4-18-38, Calcium Nitrate 15.5-0-0, Magnesium sulfate, Bloom City Silica Boost, Bloom City Clean Kelp, Flower Fuel (All for growing those mini baseball bats to club your friends with)

LIGHTING- QB 288 w/660nm, IR, UV Light boards (x4), max 460 watts( set just under Max, driver max 240w each) (No suntan lotion required!!) Light schedule is intermittent 5hr on/ 1hr off. (Had nice results from Auto flower soil grows with this method)
View attachment 1054363 View attachment 1054365 View attachment 1054366 View attachment 1054367

Welcome to The Farm;

Nice clean setup you have there! I think I'll follow and see how it goes! If there is anything i can help you with, just add @AnselAdams anywhere in the post and I will be notified. If i don't know the answer (and there is a good chance i won't) then i'll help find someone who can.

Until Then... Happy Growing!!

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

The main res.

And a lil root porn. This was just a few days after the full system cleaning.
N.Lights
Tutankhamon
I meant to start this a week ago, but hey life happens so I'll get all the pics caught up to date soon.

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

Last Tuesday 11/3
N. Lights

Tutankhamon

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

And this brings us up to date with pics. Both were fimmed 5 days ago and most fan leaves removed. Growth has taken off very well. I expect about another week or so and they will start their flip to flowering. Still around 380 ppm, 6.2 ph, 66.8°F water temp,
N. Lights, appears to be getting some minor brown spots on oldest fan leaves.

Tutankhamon

Which decided to throw this at me....

TheBioMaster · Nov 10, 2020

What's that Bloom City Clean Kelp like? Is it clear or dark?

Good luck!

TheBioMaster · Nov 10, 2020

I'm not so sure about the Master Blend in RDWC......I think you have to much magnesium possibly. Or you have the beginning signs of root issues.

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 10, 2020

TheBioMaster said:
What's that Bloom City Clean Kelp like? Is it clear or dark?

Good luck!

It is dark in color and I did find people using it in DWC, and I looked into everything I used for nutrients. I found many using the Masterblend. But this is my learning run so we shall see. I already had to do a full clean and water change once. My fault for blindly believing that just cause the bottle says "for use in hydroponics". Live and learn

TheBioMaster · Nov 11, 2020

The organics in that nutrient are gonna cause issues.....period. Its already caused you issues, and will again.....Unless you incorporate proper controls, air flow etc....Which u currently don't have. Your circulation pipes are to small for starters.

Why not try and increase probability for success??? Use the right nutrients, there are nutrients designed for recirculation systems.

If you did all this research then why choose such small containers and pipe sizes?? How many gallons does the system circulate per hour??

RDWC is for sure NOT for micro grows.....There is a minimum amount of total water needed to maintain a stable system.

Your not the first to try this.....by week 6 of flower there will be problems with circulation and keeping water levels constant when your buckets fill with roots and become root bound, or worse they will grow all inside the pipes stopping water flow completely.

Just because someone else used masterblend doesn't mean you should...

I could go on.....

There is a fine line between "learning" and wasting time and money.

Just trying to help......good luck!

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 11, 2020

TheBioMaster said:
The organics in that nutrient are gonna cause issues.....period. Its already caused you issues, and will again.....Unless you incorporate proper controls, air flow etc....Which u currently don't have. Your circulation pipes are to small for starters.

Why not try and increase probability for success??? Use the right nutrients, there are nutrients designed for recirculation systems.

If you did all this research then why choose such small containers and pipe sizes?? How many gallons does the system circulate per hour??

RDWC is for sure NOT for micro grows.....There is a minimum amount of total water needed to maintain a stable system.

Your not the first to try this.....by week 6 of flower there will be problems with circulation and keeping water levels constant when your buckets fill with roots and become root bound, or worse they will grow all inside the pipes stopping water flow completely.

Just because someone else used masterblend doesn't mean you should...

I could go on.....

There is a fine line between "learning" and wasting time and money.

Just trying to help......good luck!

Your right I'll just unplug everything and chop it down. No reason in wasting my time or even trying right?

Bean_Boy · Nov 12, 2020

Are those litter buckets, or specific hydro containers? The litter buckets have been working great for me, a flap to check on things, and higher capacity than a 5 gal.

Masterblend also seems to be working well for me, but I'm still new. I'm at 60% strength

Best of luck

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 12, 2020

Bean_Boy said:
Are those litter buckets, or specific hydro containers? The litter buckets have been working great for me, a flap to check on things, and higher capacity than a 5 gal.

Masterblend also seems to be working well for me, but I'm still new. I'm at 60% strength

Best of luck

Yes!!! They are litter buckets that were originally for dutch bucket method, 5.3 gallon. Thought I could reuse them for now.

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 17, 2020

Was away for almost a week hunting, everything ran well and no issues. Wife was peeking in just to be sure.

N. Lights-

Tutankhamon-

Probably going to do a little defoliating, just to open centers up a bit more. Want those smaller branches to even out canopy and thicken up. Can't wait to see these girls start stretching any day now.

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 30, 2020

Been a little behind lately, but here are some pics of before and after the defoliating. They will be getting new containers tomorrow when I upgrade the whole system.

N.Lights

And the Tutankhamon

M0nStarNuggety · Nov 30, 2020

Well since my barn build is taking longer than expected. I went and upgraded the system and will just finish these 2 ladies out in my basement. Installed the 2 extra lights for flowering, all running at 150 watts for nice even canopy overhead. New totes for plants, 2 in circulation pipes, and 6in support net.

DIY RDWC system - First try with hydro

DIY RDWC system - First try with hydro

M0nStarNuggety

Badchoice

M0nStarNuggety

TheGreek_978

M0nStarNuggety

M0nStarNuggety

AnselAdams

M0nStarNuggety

M0nStarNuggety

M0nStarNuggety

TheBioMaster

TheBioMaster

M0nStarNuggety

TheBioMaster

M0nStarNuggety

Bean_Boy

M0nStarNuggety

M0nStarNuggety

M0nStarNuggety

M0nStarNuggety

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