Heisenbubbles Do it yourself RDWC build

[inthetrees]

I wrapped all of my lines with the thin foil insulation wrap to block out light as best I could. Along with all the buckets and lids. Once you get a canopy growing there is even less direct lighting.

I wouldn't get too caught up worrying about the flow of water. Even if one side gets 10% more than the other, in the end its really irrelevant and the same goes for offsetting the bulkhead holes. You've got air stones in each bucket that are diffusing the solution as it enters into the buckets so its not like the water is blowing straight across the bottom and isn't mixing in each bucket.

For example, My epi bucket use a "T" that pulls water from the bucket into each side. Heisen's design uses bulkeads on each side of the bucket to branch off to each row. Even with me doing this I get allot less flow efficient but I still get amazing results. I'll throw a pic up here to show what I mean... Lots of people seem to get caught up with trying to re-design these units but its not needed. Make sure your measurements are all equal and its a nonissue.

The real focus should be on your source water, water temps, nutrients, and environment. Learn from the mistakes of those before you lol. God knows I've made almost all of them. Get a RO system, UV scrubber, and a chiller if possible otherwise your rolling the dice.

Just my 2 cents anyways

 

[inthetrees]

 

[inthetrees]

If I rebuilt my systems again I'd definitely use bigger buckets and connecting pipes. I'd drop the 4 gal and go with square 8 gallon and 3" bulkheads and pipes versus 2".

If your growing smaller plants like 3'-4' then the 4 gallons buckets are okay. The problem with the 4 gallons is that you run the water level at the bottom of the netpot, which means you only get about 2.5ish gallons of solution per bucket. Wait till you hit flower and your buckets are full of roots. That root volume is displacement = less nutrient solution = less buffer. If you go with 3" pipes and bulkheads you also don't need to worry about root pruning before flip. Cost goes up doing that though.

 

[cedew]

Yeah that's a great point. A smaller space that's absolutely packed with roots is going to hurt circulation. More space means less root density which means better circulation. I was just browsing the "making your own nutrients and uc roots" thread and that changes the game on nutrient cost if you're willing to do a little extra mixing. At that point, go ahead and grow in a bigger buckets. I think most people buy the 1/4hp chiller and that can certainly handle the extra volume in a temperature controlled room.

What's the reason for 3" pipe? That since it's a larger area, it can handle more roots in there without affecting flow as much? 1.5" plugs up too easily?

 

[inthetrees]

If you don't root prune before you flip you'll end up with insane long roots that grow into your connecting pipes. The higher the GPH pump you have, the more they will travel into the pipes. Once the pipes start to fill with roots you will get unbalanced water levels in your buckets. The water level on the buckets closest to the epicenter will be right, but by the time you get to the last buckets they will be up to 50% lower. The water just can't get past the roots fast enough. So you can either add bigger pipes and/or root prune before flip to get more lateral root growth versus length. You can also do what I do and throw a ball valve on your return line that flows back into the epicenter. That way you can throttle the flow back which will allow the water level to balance out better.

 

[inthetrees]

This will put it into perspective for you... Hence the bigger buckets and pipes.

 

[cedew]

Yeah that's nuts...

So if you had what looks like a Vivosun 96x48x80 and your lights were 8" from the top and your buckets are 13" tall and you wanted to maintain a 15" minimum clearance, you'd be limited to a 44" plant. Do you think with those size limitations, you could avoid pruning altogether with an 8g bucket and 3" pipe?

Do you notice a little shock with pruning?

One slight bummer is that the only bulkheads I'm finding in 3" are either $50-$60ea with internal threads(much prefer slip), or they're the Under Current ones that look super flimsy. I'm sure they're fine though, people seem to love their systems.

 

[angel4us]

Yeah that's nuts...

So if you had what looks like a Vivosun 96x48x80 and your lights were 8" from the top and your buckets are 13" tall and you wanted to maintain a 15" minimum clearance, you'd be limited to a 44" plant. Do you think with those size limitations, you could avoid pruning altogether with an 8g bucket and 3" pipe?

Do you notice a little shock with pruning?

One slight bummer is that the only bulkheads I'm finding in 3" are either $50-$60ea with internal threads(much prefer slip), or they're the Under Current ones that look super flimsy. I'm sure they're fine though, people seem to love their systems.

Go to Alliedaqua.com for bullheads great prices and service

 

[cedew]

Right on, thanks for the resource.

Just starting the planning stages here. I have this bad habit of getting all cracked out on something and then later on wishing I'd have dialed it back a bit. Think I'll probably build a small kit to try it out and get the process dialed in, then think about where to go with it.

 

[inthetrees]

Yeah that's nuts...

So if you had what looks like a Vivosun 96x48x80 and your lights were 8" from the top and your buckets are 13" tall and you wanted to maintain a 15" minimum clearance, you'd be limited to a 44" plant. Do you think with those size limitations, you could avoid pruning altogether with an 8g bucket and 3" pipe?

Do you notice a little shock with pruning?

One slight bummer is that the only bulkheads I'm finding in 3" are either $50-$60ea with internal threads(much prefer slip), or they're the Under Current ones that look super flimsy. I'm sure they're fine though, people seem to love their systems.

I run 650w led 8 bar panels and they were as high as they could go. There was 2" between the roof and panels as the ballast for each are mounted on top. They grew so big I had colas pressed up against the strips and the roof. That's why I scrapped the tents. I had some runts between both tents that only ended up being 3' - 4' and they still had roots running into the pipes. Had I just clipped them down it would have been a nonissue.

There is some shock associated with root pruning it, but its minimal. Current Culture goes over it on their website as well as there are videos on youtube. Your're only trimming off the bare minimum on the runners. Once they are cut they wont grow any longer. No different than root tips that hit the side of an air pot and burn off.

Current cultures bulkheads are far from flimsy, its just the cost that's bullshit. 2" bulkheads were $12 CAD each for me online whereas CC's 3" were like $35 each. I sure af wasn't paying $1500 in bulkheads so I went with 2". Slip is a requirement versus preference.. Threading your own pvc pipe doesn't make much sense in this application.

If you only change one thing, get the 8 gallon buckets and run the 2". Twice the volume would have made a huge difference for me in more ways than one. There's too many variables to list but always better to have too much than too little.

 

[cedew]

Awesome, thanks for offering your thoughts on this. It makes sense. I'm a fan of fewer plants anyway, so I like the idea of going a little bigger on the kit, even if it means vegging a little longer, which really it sounds like 8g would still have worthwhile benefits even with smaller(3-4ft) plants.

 

[Thedadjokeguy]

Thank you for posting this. Honestly best guide I've seen. I glanced at the prices of premade systems. Not sure what those vendors are smoking to have those prices. I certainly don't want to try said bud and loose touch with reality to that degree.

After doing a 4 bucket DWC on my first grow, gathering water from my bathtub (fast fill time vs sinks) carrying those down a bunch of steps. Then hauling up all the old water up a bunch of steps and outside (bad for septic system so I use it on the garden outside) my back demanded after months of that not to do it this way again. Time I was done I had to get a shower every time.

I have the drainage part sorted now. Pump and long hose out the window when needed.

4 Plants at this point is way to much for my personal needs but being new I get to try a bunch of strains. I ordered everything today to make a 5 bucket system (4 grow 1 control) using your build plans.

Seriously thanks for sharing this. You've condensed down at least a decade of hard work to jump start a newbie like myself. You saved me having to deal with all the headaches that came with that experience. This is going to be a big change in convenience not to mention the other benefits!

I'm a DYI guy and while down in my basement to measure what I'd need to plum that room for water to save on my back, I realized my kitchen sink has a 3M 3 filter RO system. Filters aren't bad in terms of price compared to what I've seen. Best part the sink line goes up just on the edge of the grow area wall where I'd want it, I just need to cut that and put a fitting on it and I'm done on the water plumbing part. It's even plex making it easier to move it where I need it.

With Covid, figure it's going to take a few weeks before everything arrives. Needed to do a lot of third party ordering to get what I need. Lot of links broken as expected, they never last long. When everything arrives and times allows I'll report back with the finished product.

So I still haven't finished this build yet. Made a bunch of goofs, but have learned a lot so far.
I ordered the wrong size bulk heads. Ate that cost and ordered the correct size
Correct size came, but wrong bulk heads, weren't smooth inside to allow pipe from the bulk head side.
Ordered correct and right sized bulk heads
Installed correct and right sized bulk heads.
During install The blade kept skipping in the whole saw holes and I was afraid of messing up my buckets so I ordered and used a file. Worked nicely.
Can't find channel locks, ordered
Channel locks ordered just a tiny bit too small to use. Plus wouldn't be able to turn anyway with bucket in the way. Will need to order a socket.
Over a month of duration on this project so far, lol.

 

[inthetrees]

Oh man thats no bueno. I had a similar issue with my bulkheads but it was the shippers fault. Sent me half slip and half thread and figured it wouldnt matter.

Imo cutting the bulkheads doesn't really matter for 2 reasons.... First off, the flow of water is being diffused by the air stones in each bucket. Second point is that once the plants get big the roots are the biggest roadblock in flow. Look at the post I made with the pics of my roots and you'll see.

Not sure what sort of channel locks you ordered as I have x3 different sets from different manufacturers and they all work. Remember your not torquing the shit outta them so even if your teeth grab on the angle its fine. They don't need to grab on the flat parts. We call them "hospital bites" in my industry. Its a shit bite on the connector which risks slipping off, but it works so long as you don't need a pile of torque.

I hand tightened both my systems and then filled them up. I then knew which fittings were leaking and just slightly tightened until the leak stopped.

One last tip is making sure that your bulkheads slide into the bucket easily. I've seen a few guys that make the hole saw cut but then the threads of the bulkhead catch as your trying to install the bulkhead into the bucket. If that happens the gasket wont seal. Then you end up over-torquing and will crack the bucket. I resolved this issue with a $25 dremmel and round sanding head. Just do 2 laps around the hole with minimal pressure. Its a trail and error on the first bucket, and then repeat on the rest.