Building another RDWC system

Medhatgrower

New Member
Hey Everybody,
I'm at it again with another DIY RDWC build... :)
I've been wanting to build this for a very long time... Finally gonna pull the trigger!!!
Please keep in mind that this build is for my 4' x 4' VEG tent...
I plan on building the same but with 13 Gallon EZ STOR Buckets for my 6' x 6' FLOWER room...
Please give me your thoughts...RDWC5.png
 

Streetpro09

Tester
I think that's too much water for a 4 bucket veg system in a 4x4. I have been vegging mine in DWC in 2 gallon buckets and there's plenty of room. Maybe rdwc needs for room for roots?
 

Skunkle Justin

Active Member
I think that's too much water for a 4 bucket veg system in a 4x4. I have been vegging mine in DWC in 2 gallon buckets and there's plenty of room. Maybe rdwc needs for room for roots?
I agree. Too much water for a veg system. Veg rooms are warmer and that’ll also make it harder to keep the water temps down. Also, plants are smaller when in veg so unless you are trying to grow ten foot tall plants out of trash cans in your flower room, you should back down to at least a 5 gallon bucket system which works adequately for flower too. I always try to minimize the amount of resources I need to keep my grow running. It’s not to be too cheap, but it can be the different between buying and maintaining an RO filter or just swapping water jugs at the grocery store once a week
 

Armdog

RDWC GROWER
Hey Everybody,
I'm at it again with another DIY RDWC build... :)
I've been wanting to build this for a very long time... Finally gonna pull the trigger!!!
Please keep in mind that this build is for my 4' x 4' VEG tent...
I plan on building the same but with 13 Gallon EZ STOR Buckets for my 6' x 6' FLOWER room...
Please give me your thoughts...View attachment 74558
Run your line into the first buckets and then to the other two. Then return out the back two. I have the same space and it works great. And by the way 8 gallon ez store buckets are plenty big , you won't need the 13 gallon buckets. Just adds a bunch more water that is not needed. Return your chiller to your rez. A 400 gph pump is plenty big, if your water flow is to fast the roots will travel into your lines to far. I use a alita AL40 linear air pump in mine with alita air stones in all the buckets including rez and topoff
 

Armdog

RDWC GROWER
Run your line into the first buckets and then to the other two. Then return out the back two. I have the same space and it works great. And by the way 8 gallon ez store buckets are plenty big , you won't need the 13 gallon buckets. Just adds a bunch more water that is not needed. Return your chiller to your rez. A 400 gph pump is plenty big, if your water flow is to fast the roots will travel into your lines to far. I use a alita AL40 linear air pump in mine with alita air stones in all the buckets including rez and topoff
Heisens method works great. Just look up his build and follow it. You might be over complicating it a bit . You won't have the room to fit it in the 4x4 space as it is designed now. Run the return line out the back and to the middle. Saves a ton of space.
 

inthetrees

Active Member
Hey dude. I recognized the color scheme of your design and then remembered your post back from August... I commend the effort and thought you've put into this but its kind of the same deal as what you had before... It appears your trying to reinvent the wheel once again.

There's a ton of reasons to run DWC totes and not an undercurrent system for veg. Lower cost, no need for a chiller, no connections to leak, less water, less space needed to veg more plants, time saved on building, yadda yadda..

Even if this was a flowering setup there's some things that are backwards with this design. Too many lines and improper placement to be an efficient recirculating system. Flow decreases with every corner it encounters.

You should be pulling water through the system with the pump and discharging into the epi using a single line, not the other way around. That way you're getting the waterfall effect and adding in DO to the nutrient solution. Assuming how you have it the 2" bulkheads are tied into the bottom of the epi. Now your relying solely on airstones to add oxygen. You would only need a 1/10 HP chiller for this setup.

Not sure what the purpose of the sample pot is either given your epi is outside of the tent and would do the same thing.

One of the many great contributions of this forum is the tutorial Heisenbeans put on here to help people build and operate UC systems. Seems counterproductive to not use that information to build a similar system as the rest of us have.

13 gallon buckets for a 6x6 is far beyond overkill. I've got 4' - 6' plants in my system with 4 gallon buckets.

BEst of luck regardless
 
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