DWC questions!! Help please

I’m looking to run a 4 site RDWC in a 4x4 tent. Each plant taking up about 2x2ft space. Plants won’t be super tall cuz tent is only 80in. I’m thinking about using 4 gallon square buckets, and I’m wondering if 4 gallon buckets will be big enough for the plants all the way through both veg and flower. Another thing I’m having trouble deciding on is an air pump. Been looking at the GH dual Diaphragm 320 GPH air pump. Will 320 GPH be enough for 4 buckets? Also, should I put the air stones in the reservoir, or in each individual bucket? Thanks.

This video is a good watch. It's an hour long but could give you some ideas.

A 5 gallon individual can be hard to keep stable, 4 would be worse. I would look into a waterfall setup. To answer the questions, yes 4 gallon is doable, I believe you want 1watt per gallon for the air pump, use a stone in each bucket. I haven’t seen the video above but I recommend checking that out as well.

J232 said:

A 5 gallon individual can be hard to keep stable, 4 would be worse. I would look into a waterfall setup. To answer the questions, yes 4 gallon is doable, I believe you want 1watt per gallon for the air pump, use a stone in each bucket. I haven’t seen the video above but I recommend checking that out as well.

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what do you mean 5 gallon individual? I was planning on 4x 4 gallon buckets recirculating from a 5 gallon reservoir. So around 15-16 gallons total when filled

J232 said:

A 5 gallon individual can be hard to keep stable, 4 would be worse. I would look into a waterfall setup. To answer the questions, yes 4 gallon is doable, I believe you want 1watt per gallon for the air pump, use a stone in each bucket. I haven’t seen the video above but I recommend checking that out as well.

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Also, yeah I’ve heard 1 watt per gallon. But is that really a good measurement method? Cuz I’ve seen 320 GPH pumps that are 8 watts, and 360 GPH pumps that are 20-25 watts.

ddeck96 said:

what do you mean 5 gallon individual? I was planning on 4x 4 gallon buckets recirculating from a 5 gallon reservoir. So around 15-16 gallons total when filled

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Brain fart, missed the R part, my comment applied to basic dwc. I would use watts, I ran 100 watts for 80 gallons, then I switched to waterfalls and didn’t use air pumps anymore. If you are doing 15 gallons, I would aim for that 20 plus watts. Pumps are noisy. Also, the more water you can get in the system, the more stable it will be.

J232 said:

Brain fart, missed the R part, my comment applied to basic dwc. I would use watts, I ran 100 watts for 80 gallons, then I switched to waterfalls and didn’t use air pumps anymore. If you are doing 15 gallons, I would aim for that 20 plus watts. Pumps are noisy. Also, the more water you can get in the system, the more stable it will be.

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okay cool, also would 4 gallon buckets be big enough to flower in? 4 plants in a 4x4 tent btw. I want to use square buckets for a better seal, and I can’t seem to find 5 gallon square ones.

J232 said:

Brain fart, missed the R part, my comment applied to basic dwc. I would use watts, I ran 100 watts for 80 gallons, then I switched to waterfalls and didn’t use air pumps anymore. If you are doing 15 gallons, I would aim for that 20 plus watts. Pumps are noisy. Also, the more water you can get in the system, the more stable it will be.

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sorry I know you already answered the above question, what I meant was what would the cons be of using a 4 gallon instead of 5 gallon buckets?

ddeck96 said:

okay cool, also would 4 gallon buckets be big enough to flower in? 4 plants in a 4x4 tent btw. I want to use square buckets for a better seal, and I can’t seem to find 5 gallon square ones.

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Have you considered storage totes? I’m not sure the difference in 4-5 gallon, same square just taller? I’m sure it would be fine, just make sure to use 2” plus for the return.

ddeck96 said:

sorry I know you already answered the above question, what I meant was what would the cons be of using a 4 gallon instead of 5 gallon buckets?

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Less water, ph will be harder to control, I’m basing this off what I have seen/read. I went from peat growing right into 5 x 27 gallon totes, did air stones then was told to do waterfall so I went that route. Plants got huge. Will dig up some links..

A

J232 said:

I GOTTA LOSE THE AIR PUMPS! HOW?! Plus my awesome mini DWC :)

That thing is way overpriced. The whole thing sits on a very simple method of splitting the water to oxygen and hydrogen. In big system I’d be worried about the hydrogen gas... I was looking around and saw 2 more very interesting thing. First one called Carmin. I don’t really get how it...

www.rollitup.org

70gal RDWC Waterfall update

Alright, it wasn’t the most fun I had at 3am on a Monday night, but I got it done. After the idea was planted to update my month old system to waterfalls I just had to do it ASAP. I currently have a grow on the go but I am at half capacity so it worked out. Systems is 5x25gal totes filed to...

www.rollitup.org

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Awesome. I think I’ll go waterfall!!! Save me some issues with heat too, correct? (I live in a hot climate)

ddeck96 said:

A


Awesome. I think I’ll go waterfall!!! Save me some issues with heat too, correct? (I live in a hot climate)

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Water temps will have to be controlled and or use a beneficial bacteria as well.

J232 said:

Water temps will have to be controlled and or use a beneficial bacteria as well.

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going to use hydro guard to help with temps until I can afford a chiller. Gonna be winter here soon so shouldn’t really have to worry about temps much. I guess what I meant was, considering air pumps heat up water, losing the pump and going with waterfall should help lower temps some.