My UCWFRDWC Setup - Check it out!

UCWFRDWC - Under Current Waterfall Floomed Recirculating Deep Water Culture

Alright so i originally planned on doing a RDWC setup (with air stones and air pumps etc.), but then i started reading into flooming and how a simple waterfall system can oxygenate just as good, if not better in most cases, than air stones can. So i revised my setup:



*Sorry about the shitty drawing, just something quick i drew up on break.*

My system will consist of:

• 4 - 5 gallon buckets with 6" net pot lids
• 1 - 18 gallon reservoir
• 2" PVC pipe connecting the res to the buckets
• 1" PVC pipe for the return with valve
• 1 - 950gph pump to recirc
• 1" PVC pipe for waterfall in res
• 1 - 396gph submersible pump in res
• 1" PVC piping from submersible to all 4 buckets with waterfalls
• Uniseals to connect eveything

So basically how it works is the 950gph pump will pull water from the res, through all of the buckets, into a return line (with a valve to adjust flow volume) and then it will be pumped back into the res above the water level creating a waterfall for oxygenation. This pump will completely recirc the entire systems water volume every ~2 min. At the same time, the 396gph submersible pump in the reservoir will pump water straight up, then "T" off and go to each bucket where there will be a waterfall for each bucket. That's it....pretty simple huh?

The 5 waterfalls, along with the very fast recirc speed will insure that massive amounts of DO are introduced and recirculated throughout the whole system. The res and pump will be outside the 4x4 tent to keep temps down, and i will use frozen ice packs placed in the res (and switched out for fresh ones periodically) to regulate water temp. This *should* (I have not tested it yet, but I will be building the system this weekend) promote fantastic growth.

So let me know what you guys think! Questions, comments, suggestions, tips, and advice are all welcome!

Chadster152

Looks good, but you might also need a valve on the feed manifold (the one pumping water to the buckets)

I could see having level issues or maybe even flooding with this setup.

you can actually have too much air in the UC systems.. I was having problems with mine and I told them how much air I was pushing.. basically 30lpm into each site.. and they said "there is your problem right there".

redi jedi said:

Looks good, but you might also need a valve on the feed manifold (the one pumping water to the buckets)

I could see having level issues or maybe even flooding with this setup.

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I could add a valve to each line that goes to the buckets, but i would like to see if it works without it first...but yes i agree, flooding is def a possibility i will test for.

legallyflying said:

you can actually have too much air in the UC systems.. I was having problems with mine and I told them how much air I was pushing.. basically 30lpm into each site.. and they said "there is your problem right there".

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When you say "30lpm into each site" are you talking about an air pump? Cause my system doesn't have any air pumps.

Also, what kind of problems were you having? Cause i've never heard that too much air is a bad...

Slime problems.

When I called and asked UC that was the first question they asked me "what kind of air pump are you running".

I would love to fire up the UC again but I killed it so hard with DWC last round and I really need a good harvest this round to finance some things.

legallyflying said:

Slime problems.

When I called and asked UC that was the first question they asked me "what kind of air pump are you running".

I would love to fire up the UC again but I killed it so hard with DWC last round and I really need a good harvest this round to finance some things.

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I wouldn't say that it was the fact that you were using "too much air" rather the fact that using an air pump period can introduce airborne pathogens (such as pythium...google it its some nasty shit) into your system, which is another reason i decided to floom instead of using air pumps...flooming completely eliminates this risk. Look in the stickies in the DWC/Bubbleponics page and read Heisenberg's thread on fighting DWC slime. Here is an excerpt from it:

"Several root conditions will cause a slimy build up; doesn't mean you have the brown slime. Common root disease is almost always caused by improper res conditions, and they improve greatly when those conditions are corrected. This isn't true of the slime. When to suspect brown slime algae is when you are doing everything right and still can't get rid of it. People who get this try the normal stuff... More bubbles in the water, cool res temps, and h202 treatments. The slime may appear to be gone at first, but comes back strong in as little as 12-36 hours. It starts out subtle like a clear coating of mucus on the roots with no odor. Plants often still appear healthy for a while, but all root production stops. In a very short time it will cover the entire root base and become thicker and sometimes turns yellow. Eventually it strangles the roots which causes pythium to set in, and at that point turns brown and finally has an odor."

I finally got everything i need to build this system today so sometime this weekend i will post a build thread and link it here possibly with a video of it working. So if anyone is interested in it then feel free to chime in!

Chadster152

chadster152 said:

I wouldn't say that it was the fact that you were using "too much air" rather the fact that using an air pump period can introduce airborne pathogens (such as pythium...google it its some nasty shit) into your system, which is another reason i decided to floom instead of using air pumps...flooming completely eliminates this risk. Look in the stickies in the DWC/Bubbleponics page and read Heisenberg's thread on fighting DWC slime. Here is an excerpt from it:

"Several root conditions will cause a slimy build up; doesn't mean you have the brown slime. Common root disease is almost always caused by improper res conditions, and they improve greatly when those conditions are corrected. This isn't true of the slime. When to suspect brown slime algae is when you are doing everything right and still can't get rid of it. People who get this try the normal stuff... More bubbles in the water, cool res temps, and h202 treatments. The slime may appear to be gone at first, but comes back strong in as little as 12-36 hours. It starts out subtle like a clear coating of mucus on the roots with no odor. Plants often still appear healthy for a while, but all root production stops. In a very short time it will cover the entire root base and become thicker and sometimes turns yellow. Eventually it strangles the roots which causes pythium to set in, and at that point turns brown and finally has an odor."

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LOL, I'm not here to debate you and I'm looking forward to seeing how the system works, but it WAS that I was using too much air. The recommended air is 1l/gallon and I was around 3x that. And BTW... your also introducing air porn pathogens into your water. Air is air dude, whether you get it from a pump, or its entrained into solution from the impact of failing water... its still just the air in the room.


and yes, I'm aware of EWC tea. Good stuff for sure.

legallyflying said:

LOL, I'm not here to debate you and I'm looking forward to seeing how the system works, but it WAS that I was using too much air. The recommended air is 1l/gallon and I was around 3x that. And BTW... your also introducing air porn pathogens into your water. Air is air dude, whether you get it from a pump, or its entrained into solution from the impact of failing water... its still just the air in the room.


and yes, I'm aware of EWC tea. Good stuff for sure.

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Fair enough. I guess I am only reducing the amount of airborne pathogens into the water by flooming with water falls instead of air stones since, like you said, the air is the same, the difference being one is just surface contact with ambient air and the other is air passed through an airstone, which can hold bacteria.

BTW, your sig is great.

Thanks man. Some newb just PM'd me just to insult my avatar!! WTF? Anywho, you get the bugs worked out yet? When are you going to put some plants in there?

legallyflying said:

And BTW... your also introducing air porn pathogens into your water.

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lol...air porn?

I made the same thing pretty much, 4 10gal buckets connected to a main red w a water pump feeding plants from above, water cascades into 10 gal buckets, fills to appropriate lvl for drain valve which is connected back to the resevoir above water lvl to splash into it and it repeats also air stones in each bucket watch out for clogs, do not use permits or any other small particulate grow medium

legallyflying said:

Thanks man. Some newb just PM'd me just to insult my avatar!! WTF? Anywho, you get the bugs worked out yet? When are you going to put some plants in there?

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Haha the South Park one? I think Randy is hilarious.

As for an update, i came down with bronchitis and i have been out of commission for a little over a week but i started building the system last night. I am going to be working on it tomorrow after i get off work. I bought the valves for the 1" line as you suggested, but i was thinking...i don't have an easy way to drain the system for res changes. Any suggestions on how i could do that? But i am planning on putting the plants in sometime this weekend.

Anyone have any ideas on how to add a quick and easy drain system to my set-up?

Also, legallyflying...why the avatar change? lol