New closet setup, running an under current system , looking for feedback and suggestions

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to growing the cheeb with 4-5 small grows under my belt, some more successful than others but I'm definitely hooked and plan on making it a life long hobby. Anyway, I'm moving from a BC Northern Lights Bloombox to a URDWC setup in my closet. I'll be DIY for everything, I paid for the Bloombox and granted it was a great tool to learn on and the people at BCNL are a great help, now I'm ready to make some weight (hopefully 2-3 pounds, but I'm humble, the Bloombox helped with that lol). Anyway the intention of this post is to get some feedback and suggestions from some of the experienced people here and maybe learn a few things along the way. I know to ask what I can expect for yield is a bit cliché as it depends on so many factors, but I'm open to thoughts there too, I'm definitely a perfectionist and probably a bit OCD as I am always thinking of what I can do to optimize my grow. The Bloombox lasted one grow before I started to modify lol. Long winded, I know lol, the Skywalker OG shatter I just dabbed is working great =) I'll get to the stats.

My room - it is 50" x 85" interior space. Door is on one end of the 50" side.

Lighting - 2 x 600 Watt HPS (switchable ballasts run 2 x 400 Watt MH for VEG)

Fixtures - 2 x 6" x 24" Cooltubes

Ventilation - 6" Vortex fan draws air through sealed ducting through door from other room and exhausts out through a dryer vent to outdoors, room will be sealed for CO2 enrichment and grow area will be exhausted to adjoining room in lights off condition or is critical temp is reached via 4" Vortex.

CO2 Enrichment - Titan controls CO2 Controller and regulator.

PH Monitor - Nutridip

Air pump - AP40 running 9 air stone discs.

I will also have at least one oscilating fan in the room moving air.

As for the URDWC, I have looked around on quite a few different forums at different setups before settled on the undercurrent design. I will be connecting all of the 5 Gallon Pails via 1 1/2 ABS at the bottoms, which will gravity feed back to my 300gph pump which then pumps the nutrient solution through a chiller and then back into the Controller/Res. I also plan on running a drip system from the controller to the pails so that I can have my plants in the system as early as possible. I'm not too concerned about the recirculating pump size as flow shouldn't be an issue with airstones in each pail., my thought anyway. The plumbing and construction will be easy. I plan on putting the whole thing on a low profile rolling tray measuring 33" x 66". With the plants placed on that foot print in this size room I think I can give each plant 1 1/2 sq.ft. for area and still have a 15" pathway to walk and access the back of the 'room'. I'm hoping to grow 4' plants at finish and would like to see 3 pounds from the room.

The lighting, I will be suspending via pulleys for nice even movement, not sure if I will build a 'backbone' and attach both lights to it so they raise and lower evenly and together or if I will go with two separate setups for more options? Because of the rolling tray idea for the DWC, I plan on hanging the lights a bit offset to one side leaving a 17" walkway to the back of the room.

With the Bloombox I was using Rockwool. I have been starting my plants in Root Shooters and love them, I would like to continue to use the root shooters, but I've been thinking about ditching the rockwool for hydroton? Thoughts there? I use RO water right now but may make the switch to 250PPM tapuntil I get my own RO system. As for Nutrients, right now I'm using Innovating Plant Products line and love it, night and day difference from the in-house brand BCNL uses with the Bloombox. I plan on continuing to use Innovating Plant Products.

Any feedback, thoughts or criticism is welcome. I'm here to learn and grow in more ways than one.

Sorry, I should have also mentioned; I have drawn the system out with floor plan software and using 1 1/2 cu.ft. per plant I think I can run 8 plants. I know it will be tight, but that's where I'm hoping the rolling tray will help for access.

damn u have done pretty good


i would change your air stones or from those to micropore stones ........these are klin fired stones so they will never degrade in the water .....they are designed to make very tiny bubbles witch will cling to the roots a little longer then the larger bubbles ......plus it will oxygenate the water faster
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_lawn-garden?ie=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=Deep+Water+Innovations&node=2972638011

those are the stones i am talking about i did alot of work on picking them ..............u can youtube it and see what i am talking about

i am one of those ppl that likes overkill ...........so the air pump i would increase the size i try to pass a gallon of air a min tho the water

Justugh, thanks for the reply. So as far as the air stones go, I was planning on going with Alita air stones, sintered and supposedly indestructible and unpluggable. I've used their 12" cylinder style before, unfortunately those are bit to big for my buckets.

From my calculations and the specs on the air pump.
Supreme AP-40, it puts out 12.55 gallons/minute of air. Divide that by 9 stones and I get 1.39gpm per bucket and the controller. I think that should be plenty.

I was also curious if running different strains at the same time in this setup would be an issue. I encountered problems with this in the Bloombox, I was told the plant compete for the nutrients when they're different strains?

brewster81 said:

I was also curious if running different strains at the same time in this setup would be an issue.

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Always is, in any sharing setup, imho. Sometimes its not much of an issue and sometimes its a big deal.

brewster81 said:

I was told the plant compete for the nutrients when they're different strains?

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I don't think I would say that. Certain strains may feed heavily on certain nutrients. Some plants are deficient at certain ppms while others may be burnt at the same ppm.


- Jiji

what the nice lady said


since this is a new grow for u i would say to try auto plants out .............they remove the light varible and timing problems allowing u just to work on the feed ....with the quick flip if u mess something up u can back on track with in 30 days ........i avg seed to smoke in 75 days this includes drying time pulling 7 and half ozs off soil......the 2 dwcs i ran did much better 26 oz on one and 11 oz on the other

I will be running a batch of Sharksbreath from a mother I have going right now for my first run. If I stick with rockwool I will just keep the same timing as the Bloombox. Stake drip emitters on for 15minutes every morning before lights on. That seems to work really well with only a couple days before the roots are in the dwc drawing food from there. If I go with hydroton, which I'm strongly leaning toward I will have to figure out a drip schedule and I would like to run emitter rings for dripping with hydroton. I think I have someone that has experience with the hydroton that would give me a good working baseline to start with but I'm totally open to suggestions. With hydroton I would think that you could pretty much go with constant drip given that it doesn't retain any water. I was thinking 3 weeks +/- for veg with the Sharksbreath as they're supposed to be a short plant.

JiJi- Thankyou for that bit of information, it makes total sense.

dude in hydro nothing is short

it is all a matter of the water and feed ............the plant i did was not to be more then a few ozs it grow 4x4x6 a whole tent it took up................ one plant in a 4 gallon dwc 26 oz 22 grams out of a plant that does a avg of 120 to 150 grams

see in soil the plant has to find the food and water .........in dwc u are offering it to them as much as they can use right there it is the whole reason hydro buds are thicker/more amount then soil ..............and your are running a Rdwc so that even more food in the water ..............the plant is going to be big


as for the drip ring they work good for the first 2 weeks maybe 3 weeks to keep the roots wet and help the plant grow down into the water ..........after that there is not point to them anymore hydro farms .....they have a nice ring.....the system is not run off a water pump but a air pump ...........it is this 2 tube system with air bubbles to make the water travel up and drip out (so it adds more oxygen to the system) ..........but this will mean u need to make a hole in the basket to allow the tube to make it to bottom of the bucket

hydroton is great shit u can reuse some of it other parts get broken up by the roots ...................if u do get it there is stuff call one step ..........it is used in brewing to clean things ..............the shit is great it will clean your used one up nice so u can get a anouther run out of it (plus it is plant /eco safe)

https://www.rollitup.org/t/my-under-current-dwc-grow-shed.557923/#post-7927371

This was a setup I built a couple years ago. A couple things: do you know how you're going to plumb the buckets? Uniseals are the way to go... but get square buckets if you can. Easier to drill out and less of an issue getting a good seal with the uniseals. Also, if you get a magdrive pump, you can add a ball valve to regulate flow without harming the motor. I mention this because it's probably a good idea to get a bigger pump than you think you need. They lose power very quickly with any sort of vertical climb.

I don't think the dripper system is really necessary. If you use hydroton, starting with a well rooted clone (couple root tips poking out) it will do fine with just the splashing from the air stones. You could dump a little every morning while they're very young if you want to make sure they don't dry out, but again.. not really necessary. I was skeptical about it at first but the clones found the air and then the water very quickly.

What's your water source?

Dam dude!u just mentioned a easy 3000$ in supplies.it all sounds good.But remember this saying,GROWING IS ONLY AS HARD AS U MAKE IT.please post some pics.id love to see that little bc box running at full flower!
As far as hydroton,it's a good base for a established plant.i have cloned using it,but it always seemed hard to keep a new cut steady and still.i used to have to use the foam inserts to hold the little stems.i used rock wool to with great results.till soma said it's just like aspestis.dropped that all together after reading his book.i was looking the other day at a new foam plug that resembles the rockwool,but almost like a solid block of perlite.post some pics!!!!!

I'll be using RO water, that's what I've been using in my Bloom Box and looking after the nutrient solution I've got down pretty good and this should basically just be on a bigger scale but even more stable with res auto filling the system over the week between changes. As for plumbing the buckets I found and since lost but already retained what I needed for the bucket seals, a forum where a member had plumbed 5 gallon pails, same as I'm using together at the bases with 1 1/2 black ABS with threaded socket fitting in combination with a threaded plug that you drill out. He also used a 300 series rubber o-ring. It looked really great, he said no leaks in 3 years of constant use. Nice big flow area, never have to worry about floods. Also, Jumokee I checked out the system you have in that link, I am using the exact same mag drive pump. How do they last? Dunnaman, I've never heard that about rockwool? I was thinking about just sticking with rockwool for now as I've done pretty well with it. My main concern with the hydroton was that I start my cuttings or seedlings in root shooters and I'm not sure if by doing that with Hydroton I would need to worry about the root shooter eroding into the system and causing issues?

FOUND IT! Here is the thread with the stellar setup, notice the abs connectors for the pails.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=155064

Strait from Soma's book:
“I do everything in soil, so the clones start in soil also. Most people these days use rockwool but it’s too toxic for me. Breathing the dust in from dry rockwool isn’t much different from asbestos.”

Excerpt From: Soma. “Organic Marijuana, Soma Style.” Perseus, 2010-08-11. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=384675094

I built what you're starting. I have a while thread chick full of advice for you, much of which will be revolutionary if you're ready- or nonsense if you're not.

I grow two pounds plants, consistently. For me it's a revolution.

Hint number one; stop looking for some ma assoc setup!

Hint number two; I don't use airstones at all in my flowering rooms.

Read my thread, it's in my signature line. I'll be happy to answer your questions.

Thedunnaman said:

Strait from Soma's book:
“I do everything in soil, so the clones start in soil also. Most people these days use rockwool but it’s too toxic for me. Breathing the dust in from dry rockwool isn’t much different from asbestos.”

Excerpt From: Soma. “Organic Marijuana, Soma Style.” Perseus, 2010-08-11. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=384675094

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Thanks for the info, I actually found more reference to rockwool vs. asbestos lastnight. Definitely food for thought.

ttystikk said:

I built what you're starting. I have a while thread chick full of advice for you, much of which will be revolutionary if you're ready- or nonsense if you're not.

I grow two pounds plants, consistently. For me it's a revolution.

Hint number one; stop looking for some ma assoc setup!

Hint number two; I don't use airstones at all in my flowering rooms.

Read my thread, it's in my signature line. I'll be happy to answer your questions.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your input here, I will be checking out your journal on your system. Different points of view are always welcome, and two pound plants sounds like you have some great perspective lol.

TTYSTIKK - As far as the trelace idea goes, it looks like a great idea and obviously its working. I just don't think I have the space in my room. One thing that is new to me is the aeration without the air stones. Would you mind explaining that to me? You must have your recirculating pumps flow partially diverted back to each of your pails where it drops the water in over something that is creating turbulence? Just a guess. I would like details as to what it is you are using to create the turbulence? This sounds like an awesome idea in place of an air pump.

Man, Swype makes me sound like a drunken idiot sometimes, damn!

Smaller wattage bulbs allow for smaller diameter silos.

Instead of just pumping water from one end of a line of buckets to the other, I installed a manifold where the pump now supplies a line feeding a fitting in the lid of every tub. Water falls- waterfalls, get it?- from the elbow fitting in the lid into the water reservoir in every RDWC tub, thereby aerating, agitating and evenly distributing nutrients to all tubsites. It's the same pump, I figured it might as well put the water someplace more useful THAN THE ONLY BUCKET CC DOESN'T WANT YOU TO PUT A PLANT IN?! LOL

Anyway, I got lots of lil tips like that. Glad you like!

ttystikk said:

Man, Swype makes me sound like a drunken idiot sometimes, damn!

Smaller wattage bulbs allow for smaller diameter silos.

Instead of just pumping water from one end of a line of buckets to the other, I installed a manifold where the pump now supplies a line feeding a fitting in the lid of every tub. Water falls- waterfalls, get it?- from the elbow fitting in the lid into the water reservoir in every RDWC tub, thereby aerating, agitating and evenly distributing nutrients to all tubsites. It's the same pump, I figured it might as well put the water someplace more useful THAN THE ONLY BUCKET CC DOESN'T WANT YOU TO PUT A PLANT IN?! LOL

Anyway, I got lots of lil tips like that. Glad you like!

Click to expand...

So from what I've been reading it sounds like flooming and waterfalls are used a lot for aeration in hydro. What size of line do you have the water dropping into the bucket with? I'm trying to get an idea on how much water I should have dropping in and to see if I possibly need a larger pump? Also, how does this type of aeration work in a sealed co2 enriched room? I'm know your roots don't use co2, they need o2 so in that type of room would this be a problem? With air stones and an air pump I would run the pump in a separate room that isn't co2 enriched and plumb the airlines in to the buckets in the enriched room.