DWC GROW Jedi Knights Thread.

[onthedl0008]

LOL just bored with all the old DWC Grow Club threads and thought id start a new one to gather info and help newer DWC growers out with the more frequently asked questions arising from problems in newly established DWC grow's.
Im all out of ideas. But im sure there are alot of questions and info out there. Im sure i dont have alot of the answers but am also sure there's alot of knowlegdeable peeps here that can answer them.
Hopefully.
Or at least help sift thru the B.S.
PEACE

 

[Illegal Smile]

I think the thread will be welcome, thanks. I'll have some Qs tomorrow.

 

[SkunkWorX]

ive been trying to get peeps to help me out with a little knowledge as im in the middle of building a new RDWC system...seems like no one has any answers or just dont care to help us new guys out? just dont understand. you would think a bunch of people with the same interest would stick together and lend a hand when needed. Ill check back with this thread after class tomorrow and see whats up...if anyone has the time or is interested look up my thread and you can see what it is that im trying to accomplish..maybe somone will have some advice of ideas? im open to anything!

 

[redi jedi]

Jedi Knights thread?....what are you really getting at here?

 

[Illegal Smile]

I have 3 plants started in a plain dwc (8 gal tote, 6 gal ro water, rockwool (all I had), 4 good airstones and a powerful air pump). I was skeptical when I started that breaking bubbles would keep the seeds wet enough but I'm amazed at how well that works. I remember onthedl0008 saying that he used to water from the top out of paranoia but it wasn't really necessary. I'm in the same place I guess.

They now have a strong set of edged leaves and look healthy. My question is this: if they get to where it is time to start nutes (I ususally go with a clear second set of edged leaves), before any roots are in the water, what then? Which is better?

1. can breaking bubbles be relied upon to also carry nutrients?
2. top feed
3. raise water level with nutes to bottom of netpot

Any of these seem preferable to a water pump and feeder tubes.

Also I've read that when roots do touch water, to lower the water level to make them reach down lower. Can you do that when you are first starting nutes, will they still get sufficient feeding? I'm guessing that if the answer to #1 above is yes then this is yes for the same reason except now the breaking bubbles are carrying water and nutes to the descending roots.

 

[onthedl0008]

I think the thread will be welcome, thanks. I'll have some Qs tomorrow.

Thanks man.

ive been trying to get peeps to help me out with a little knowledge as im in the middle of building a new RDWC system...seems like no one has any answers or just dont care to help us new guys out? just dont understand. you would think a bunch of people with the same interest would stick together and lend a hand when needed. Ill check back with this thread after class tomorrow and see whats up...if anyone has the time or is interested look up my thread and you can see what it is that im trying to accomplish..maybe somone will have some advice of ideas? im open to anything!

Ill try to check out ur thread man.. Recirculating DWC has alot of advantages if u have the room.Ive never actually tried RDWC tho. But when dealing with several station's id reccomend RDWC any day. Just for the simple ease of one reservoir. The fact it can be mobile for temp control and ETC.

Jedi Knights thread?....what are you really getting at here?

Luke I am ur father.J/K man.

I have 3 plants started in a plain dwc (8 gal tote, 6 gal ro water, rockwool (all I had), 4 good airstones and a powerful air pump). I was skeptical when I started that breaking bubbles would keep the seeds wet enough but I'm amazed at how well that works. I remember onthedl0008 saying that he used to water from the top out of paranoia but it wasn't really necessary. I'm in the same place I guess.

They now have a strong set of edged leaves and look healthy. My question is this: if they get to where it is time to start nutes (I ususally go with a clear second set of edged leaves), before any roots are in the water, what then? Which is better?

I also used to talk about not adding nutes until the roots hit the water...
SCRATCH that man...
Start urself off with a small dose of at least 3-400 ppm.. PH ur res daily and keep it tame around 6. Watch it and correct it once daily..
THIS is going to serve several purposes. Most importantly its going to give ur res the needed time to help establish its own perfect balance..(PH)

Shoot for 6.0 PH during this time man.. Id reccomend only Ph'ing once daily. Maybe twice the very first day of set-up..
The pro's say that ur plants are more able to readily use the actual nutes ur feeding ur plants between 5.8 and 6.2..
They also say that some strains like it a little lower but i wouldnt allow it to get over 6.2 unless u want ur plants locking most of the nutes out defeating the purpose.

1. can breaking bubbles be relied upon to also carry nutrients?
This is actually the reason ur applying oxygen to the water.. To carry the nutrients to the plants roots. And at the same time help keep the water fresh and bla bla bla..
2. top feed
Never needed too. But im not going to knock it till i try it. All i can say is its not really neccesary in a simple DWC set-up. At least not for my needs..But to each his own.
3. raise water level with nutes to bottom of netpot
The amount of air u put in ur res is going to depend on where u want to keep ur water levels..
U only want ur rock wet that ur medium is sitting on.The more bubbles well u know just adjust ur water level from there..
Once u get roots in the water let um feed...
Then u can start allowing ur water levels to naturally drop on there own..
On Edit: I left another very key JEDI knight piece of information out again!
Keep at least the bottom third to half of ur actual root mass submerged at all times.


Just watch ur PH and PPM and adjust accordingly..

Any of these seem preferable to a water pump and feeder tubes.

Also I've read that when roots do touch water, to lower the water level to make them reach down lower. Can you do that when you are first starting nutes, will they still get sufficient feeding? I'm guessing that if the answer to #1 above is yes then this is yes for the same reason except now the breaking bubbles are carrying water and nutes to the descending roots.

Its completely insane what u can do with a simple bucket or tub. Some air stones. And the proper measurement tools..
Spend ur money on what ur going to need to grow jungles.

 

[Illegal Smile]

onthedl0008, I know the reason for the bubbles is to carry nutrients to the roots, when the roots are in the water. I see no reason why the nutrients, if dissolved, would not also be carried by the mist of the breaking bubbles up to the netpots BEFORE roots are anywhere near the water. But I'm not confident on that. As for when to start nutes, I've always gone by the adage to start when the second set of edged leaves appears. You are saying earlier?

 

[onthedl0008]

onthedl0008, I know the reason for the bubbles is to carry nutrients to the roots, when the roots are in the water. I see no reason why the nutrients, if dissolved, would not also be carried by the mist of the breaking bubbles up to the netpots BEFORE roots are anywhere near the water.

OK yea Bro.. Must have misunderstood. Ur right on point tho. That would be just a bubble form of Aero i guess. And thats exactly what my tubs end up doing as my plants mature and my grows progress.
This helps for many reasons. One less water= less nutrient supply for equivelant PPM.. As well as dropping water levels also raises the concentration of oxygen in ur water supply.
Most of my tubs end up in the combination of the two grow styles..
DWC simple tub set-up..
Just use my air bubbles as another form of Aero i guess and it all seems to work out. At least for me.
But I'm not confident on that.
Im pretty confident about that.

As for when to start nutes, I've always gone by the adage to start when the second set of edged leaves appears. You are saying earlier?
Yes start feeding ur reservoir as soon as u set it up. This helps with PH balance. As well as gives ur plants what they need as soon as they start feeding..Soon as they get roots. They dont have to be in the water either bro. Feeding only helps them get there faster.
Go easy on the nutes during this stage unless ur completely confident u know what ur strains like suring the early stages.

BTW man Im starting my beanlings res right now at 900 ppm before the roots even hit the water.
Play with that and see what it does for u.
Hopefully u get lucky like i have.

 

[Illegal Smile]

BTW man Im starting my beanlings res right now at 900 ppm before the roots even hit the water.
Play with that and see what it does for u.
Hopefully u get lucky like i have.

A lot of people would benefit from you writing all this down in one place as a tutorial. You have a grasp of what I think is a very important concept and a lot of new growers are being swayed by hype instead of striving for simplicity. If you ever need any help with anything like that.......

 

[onthedl0008]

Thanks man for the compliment. Much apprechiated.
But id be lieing if i didnt tell u i owe alot of my success to sound advice given by many of the pro's here at Riu.

 

[Illegal Smile]

Do you change res water at regular intervals or only if you see an issue?

 

[onthedl0008]

I used to change my res every 2 weeks without fail.
Probably out of fear that i would get one of the root rot or slime issues i see.
However.Ive changed up my water change program.
It is not neccesary to change ur water every week.
Ive now gone to weekly partial changes. And every 3rd week full change i guess.
Im still playing with this tho.
I do know that plants like fresh water. I see major growth spurts just by doing the partial changes. So without a doubt the plants like the fresh water.
But i also know that u can run one res thruout a plants entire Veg and Flower stage.
Meaning one RES during VEG.
And a full change before Flower.
As long as u do ur partial changes and keep good records of what ur putting in ur res.. I will be playing with this more.

But id still reccomend new growers especially ones without a PPM and Ph meter to change res at least every 2 weeks if ur adding nutes in between res changes..

Hope this helps man.
May the force be with u.
Haha. Seriously tho. U really need to pay attention and stay on top of ur plants if u want a great grow..

PH is the key...
Peace.

 

[Illegal Smile]

I used to change my res every 2 weeks without fail.
Probably out of fear that i would get one of the root rot or slime issues i see.
However.Ive changed up my water change program.
It is not neccesary to change ur water every week.
Ive now gone to weekly partial changes. And every 3rd week full change i guess.
Im still playing with this tho.
I do know that plants like fresh water. I see major growth spurts just by doing the partial changes. So without a doubt the plants like the fresh water.
But i also know that u can run one res thruout a plants entire Veg and Flower stage.
Meaning one RES during VEG.
And a full change before Flower.
As long as u do ur partial changes and keep good records of what ur putting in ur res.. I will be playing with this more.

But id still reccomend new growers especially ones without a PPM and Ph meter to change res at least every 2 weeks if ur adding nutes in between res changes..

Hope this helps man.
May the force be with u.
Haha. Seriously tho. U really need to pay attention and stay on top of ur plants if u want a great grow..

PH is the key...
Peace.

Thanks for the response. Speaking of root rot etc, do you use anything regularly as a preventive or only when you see an issue?

 

[onthedl0008]

Not really. But as preventative measures ill put 2-3 ml/gallon of hydrogen peroxide in my res just for peace of mind. Doesnt seem to hurt anything and clones and beanlings tend to do alot better with it.
Also if im doing a multi seed grow in the same tub and end up cutting males out ill use hygrozyme as directed.No real reason for that either other than they claim it helps to break down dead root matter in the food supply.
Ive done well not using either of the previously mentioned additives but its what i do cause i havent had any of the problems mentioned.

 

[redi jedi]

onthedl & illegal smile, you guys really seem to know your stuff. This is my first attempt at indoor growing. Me and my pops have grown outdoors at the cottage for 4 seasons now. Considering these plants get minimal attention, we do pretty good. Biggest problem we usually have is the fukin deer eating our buds. Anyways, I just finished building my grow room and my DWC system and I would like you guys to critique my setup.

My grow room is a spare bedroom, it measures 15'x9'x8' I built a partition wall so my grow space is 8'x9'x8' All the walls in the grow space have been covered with mylar. A 440cfm inline fan draws air threw a Can-75 carbon filter and vents out a window which has been blanked off with plywood. I also have a 190cfm inline fan to cool my single 1000w MH/HPS, obviously using a air cooled reflector. The cooling fan draws air from another empty bedroom and vents out the same window the vent fan does. Not using any intake fans, all fresh air comes in from under/around the door. This setup keeps the room under negative pressure so hopefully my house won't reek and the neighbors shouldn't smell anything either.

My DWC system consists 6, 5gal buckets connected to a central res. The res has a 18gal and a 30gal rubbermaid tote connected by a float valve. There's 15 shut off valves in total so I can valve out any of the 5gal buckets or the upper res from the lower, should make maintenance/water changes pretty easy. For air I have a 885gph pump. The pump has four outlets which feeds into two aquarium gang valves (2 in, 3 out) so I can shut off the air supply to each bucket. There's a 5" airstone in each bucket.

In all our outdoor grows we started with 10-12" tall clones, but the person we get the clones from got busted for drunk driving, so he's outta action for a while. So I'm starting from seed for the first time. I got the seeds from nirvana, I don't think I will do business with them again cause they are taking forever to sprout. I germed them in rockwool. I soaked the wool in tap water ph'ed to 5.8, shook out the excess water, put them on a plate and cover ed with a glass bowl and stuck them in a cupboard. That was almost two weeks ago. Outta ten seeds, two have sprouted but haven't broke the surface of wool, 5 have cracked and the tap roots are just starting to emerge and 3 haven't even cracked. I don't have a/c in my house so its been bout 85f inside for the past two weeks, figured thats plenty warm?

Please tell me what you guys think. I would like to take care of any potential problems before I put my seedlings into the system. Also, for nutes I will be using sensi grow/bloom and I do have a nute meter and ph pen.

 

[fraggles]

Hey nice thread, Ive got a quick Q for ya... I have a dwc setup two 54g rubbermaids for some reason after cleaning the basin for algae I can still see algae at the bottom of the net pots near the hydroton, how do I stop this and will hyro peroxide treatment be enought???

 

[redi jedi]

I'm not sure bro, still a DWC noob myself. But if you search around the plant problem thread you might find the answers your looking for?

 

[Illegal Smile]

redi, I'm pretty much a noob myself. I have kind of done it half-assed in hydro and gotten what I needed so didn't care. Now I'm trying to learn to do it better but still on a small scale. That's an impressive operation you are building! I don't think I would have the patience. I run just one simple 10 gal tote with 4 plants, but I'm trying to get them just right. I'm lucky in never having had algae or root problems, but I'm trying to learn how to deal with them if they occur, and how to prevent them.

I hate to say you may have a problem with your seeds. I usually get a 1cm taproot in 48 hrs. Try attitude seeds and use code 420 for a 10% discount. So will each of your buckets be just bubbles or will you pump water up to netpots? My most significant light bulb has been that the water pumps and tubes aren't necessary, just plenty of bubbles will do it.

 

[redi jedi]

Nah, no water pumps and tubing. I might've used them if I did a single tote grow (wasn't too big on that idea cause I figured the plants were too close together, didn't even think about the fact that all the roots tangled together) but I wasn't about to buy 6 more pumps if I went with multi buckets. A lot of what you've said in previous posts helped make up my mind, which way I wanted to go.

Ya I think your right about the seeds...I went cheap, guess I got what I payed for? Thx very much for the code but I'm gonna go hit a seed bank in Toronto. At least I can see what I'm getting?

 

[onthedl0008]

onthedl & illegal smile, you guys really seem to know your stuff. This is my first attempt at indoor growing. Me and my pops have grown outdoors at the cottage for 4 seasons now. Considering these plants get minimal attention, we do pretty good. Biggest problem we usually have is the fukin deer eating our buds. Anyways, I just finished building my grow room and my DWC system and I would like you guys to critique my setup.

My grow room is a spare bedroom, it measures 15'x9'x8' I built a partition wall so my grow space is 8'x9'x8' All the walls in the grow space have been covered with mylar. A 440cfm inline fan draws air threw a Can-75 carbon filter and vents out a window which has been blanked off with plywood. I also have a 190cfm inline fan to cool my single 1000w MH/HPS, obviously using a air cooled reflector. The cooling fan draws air from another empty bedroom and vents out the same window the vent fan does. Not using any intake fans, all fresh air comes in from under/around the door. This setup keeps the room under negative pressure so hopefully my house won't reek and the neighbors shouldn't smell anything either.

My DWC system consists 6, 5gal buckets connected to a central res. The res has a 18gal and a 30gal rubbermaid tote connected by a float valve. There's 15 shut off valves in total so I can valve out any of the 5gal buckets or the upper res from the lower, should make maintenance/water changes pretty easy. For air I have a 885gph pump. The pump has four outlets which feeds into two aquarium gang valves (2 in, 3 out) so I can shut off the air supply to each bucket. There's a 5" airstone in each bucket.

In all our outdoor grows we started with 10-12" tall clones, but the person we get the clones from got busted for drunk driving, so he's outta action for a while. So I'm starting from seed for the first time. I got the seeds from nirvana, I don't think I will do business with them again cause they are taking forever to sprout. I germed them in rockwool. I soaked the wool in tap water ph'ed to 5.8, shook out the excess water, put them on a plate and cover ed with a glass bowl and stuck them in a cupboard. That was almost two weeks ago. Outta ten seeds, two have sprouted but haven't broke the surface of wool, 5 have cracked and the tap roots are just starting to emerge and 3 haven't even cracked. I don't have a/c in my house so its been bout 85f inside for the past two weeks, figured thats plenty warm?

Please tell me what you guys think. I would like to take care of any potential problems before I put my seedlings into the system. Also, for nutes I will be using sensi grow/bloom and I do have a nute meter and ph pen.

Sounds good man.. Dont be disocuraged about the beans.. Ive screwed up my fair share..
I found the most simple way to germ is by putting the seeds into a cup of tap water. Sometimes it takes a day or sometimes it takes 2. But they will drop to the bottom of the cup into the water.
From thier. Just put them into a moist papertowel for a day or 2 until u get a nice tap root..
By the way man. Look into some grow plugs.
It makes life alot easier especially growing this style.

Hey nice thread, Ive got a quick Q for ya... I have a dwc setup two 54g rubbermaids for some reason after cleaning the basin for algae I can still see algae at the bottom of the net pots near the hydroton, how do I stop this and will hyro peroxide treatment be enought???

U need to cover ur tubs. The most simple solution would be to take some black garbage bags around the tub.Ive done this plenty of times just lazy lately. U need it light tight or u will never get rid of it..
Unfortunetly algea is already in the water. Oxygen in combination with light is a bad mixture and exactly what it needs to flourish.

Some others may have a simple solution like possibly an additive or something but to be honest im not sure. Ive always listened to the pros and tried to keep my tubs and buckets lightproof.