undercurrent turnover rate

oakley1984

Well-Known Member
just starting to piece together a new undercurrent system, it will be 8x 13g buckets with a 13g epicenter, so when running should be around 70g of water volume....

would anyone be able to provide some insight on waterpump sizing? turnover rate? im *thinking* im looking for around 10x an hour turnover rate (so 700gph pump)

thoughts? corrections? comments?
 

oakley1984

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you already have your answer.
lol yeah, sounds like.... im just making an educated guess as no actual solid info can be found, eg, pump flow rate vs volume of system, water chiller sizing (room temp, water temp, desired temp)

right now looking at 700gph pump, 1/4hp water chiller, and a 110lpm air pump

fairly sure that is all accurately sized, thing im really questioning the most, is water chiller, 1/4 hp, or 1/2hp
 

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
What are you using for netpots? I say this cause with 6" netpot lids my 12gal totes fit 6gal which would put you around yeah prolly 70gal 1/4HP would do it. I oversized mine so it runs for less time.
 

FennarioMike

Well-Known Member
Mine Undercurrent system is a 6 plant, gallon and it came with a 350gal/hr motor for a total 56 gal capacity. Which made a turn over rate of 6x/hr. If you go to 10/hr make sure you dial back the nutes a bunch or they'll get nute burn.
I'm thinking that anything over 400 gal/hr will get you right on the money with their turnover rate. I find their feed charts to be a very good starting point.
 

JSB99

Well-Known Member
just starting to piece together a new undercurrent system, it will be 8x 13g buckets with a 13g epicenter, so when running should be around 70g of water volume....

would anyone be able to provide some insight on waterpump sizing? turnover rate? im *thinking* im looking for around 10x an hour turnover rate (so 700gph pump)

thoughts? corrections? comments?
12 cycles/hr (unofficially) qualifies as UC, from what I've gathered from research..
 

JSB99

Well-Known Member
just starting to piece together a new undercurrent system, it will be 8x 13g buckets with a 13g epicenter, so when running should be around 70g of water volume....

would anyone be able to provide some insight on waterpump sizing? turnover rate? im *thinking* im looking for around 10x an hour turnover rate (so 700gph pump)

thoughts? corrections? comments?
How did you come up with 70-gallons? Even if you only fill your buckets with 10-gallons each, that still amounts to 90-gallons. I would go with at least 1000gph. Are you planning on using airstones, and/or a waterfall? If you're not planning on using airstones, you'll probably to over-compensate and go more than 1000gph, to make sure there's enough flow to get DO to the center roots.
 

oakley1984

Well-Known Member
How did you come up with 70-gallons? Even if you only fill your buckets with 10-gallons each, that still amounts to 90-gallons. I would go with at least 1000gph. Are you planning on using airstones, and/or a waterfall? If you're not planning on using airstones, you'll probably to over-compensate and go more than 1000gph, to make sure there's enough flow to get DO to the center roots.

how did i come up with 70g? by knowing the dimension of my buckets, and what the approx water level would be by using a 10" netpot

roughly equates to ~60% full based off bottom of netpot and waterline either just touching, or barely below netpot

9x13g = 117g x 0.6 = 70.2g

and yes ill be using airstones, and a 110lpm air pump.

and how do you get 10gallons from a 13gallon bucket? you would have to be running the water level so high in the system, that first off, you'll end up killing the plant by having 100% of the rootmass submerged, as well as, if there is the slightest problem with flow, you would end up overflowing the buckets and flooding your room? 10g in a 13g bucket is neither feasible or logical? and i based my flow rate of ~750gph to achieve approx a 10x per hour turnover rate
 

oakley1984

Well-Known Member
12 cycles/hr (unofficially) qualifies as UC, from what I've gathered from research..
also, undercurrent never stops flowing, it is not a metered drip system. its a re circulation system, interrupting re circulation will only make for slower growth rate?
 

oakley1984

Well-Known Member
Mine Undercurrent system is a 6 plant, gallon and it came with a 350gal/hr motor for a total 56 gal capacity. Which made a turn over rate of 6x/hr. If you go to 10/hr make sure you dial back the nutes a bunch or they'll get nute burn.
I'm thinking that anything over 400 gal/hr will get you right on the money with their turnover rate. I find their feed charts to be a very good starting point.
interesting, wouldnt of thought that a higher turnover rate would attribute to nute burn, but i will deff be keeping an eye on that now
 

oakley1984

Well-Known Member
What are you using for netpots? I say this cause with 6" netpot lids my 12gal totes fit 6gal which would put you around yeah prolly 70gal 1/4HP would do it. I oversized mine so it runs for less time.
ill be using 10" netpots in 13g EZ-stor buckets
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Im using a 900 gph pump for 30 gals lmao
4 10 gal brutes and a brain bucket.
I have been told its a wee bit oversized but i wanted good flow

Its not too violent or anything in my setup as i was trying to make a system that hopefully used less water...

But i have the same setup basically but with 5 gallon buckets and a 400gph seems to be working fine

Although i would say using big totes allows for more surface area for waterfall aeration that the roots wont block like a 5 gal bucket would
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
and how do you get 10gallons from a 13gallon bucket? you would have to be running the water level so high in the system, that first off, you'll end up killing the plant by having 100% of the rootmass submerged, as well as, if there is the slightest problem with flow, you would end up overflowing the buckets and flooding your room? 10g in a 13g bucket is neither feasible or logical? and i based my flow rate of ~750gph to achieve approx a 10x per hour turnover rate
:clap:

10g in a 13 g bucket will distort like a mofo lol
 

oakley1984

Well-Known Member
:clap:

10g in a 13 g bucket will distort like a mofo lol
lol ikr?

Im basing my turnover/flow rate off of my extensive experience with aquariums, ideally 10x/hr will have the highest oxygenation rate, at ~5x an hr, it is sufficent but become susceptible to anaerobic conditions. at 15x or higher turnover, your oxygenation rate does not increase... but high flow creates its own issues of possibility of being damaging to livestock, as welll has creating current channels which creates dead zones within the tank that basically become/remain stagnant... which in turn also creates the possibility of anaerobic pockets within the tank... figured it was a good basis to start from as those numbers apply to planted aquariums as well, dont see shit growing in white water rapids right lol
 
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