NEWB – DWC water levels

Hey guys, need some clarification on water levels in my (soon-to-be) DWC:

I'm in my first grow (journal) right now the babies are just in rockwool cubes, one or two are starting to have the roots come out a bit, thinking about transplanting into the DWC with net pots and clay pellets... BUT

Where should the water level be if the roots don't extend outside the net pot??

I've hear all the way to bottom of rock cube, I've heard just a bit above the bottom of net pots, I've heard still under the net pot and splashing water will reach up...

Help

Thanks

Out

...anybody?

what kind of system? buckets? and you have air coming from the bottom of the dwc system? right? how many ? damn i see what you have going! this is waht you need to do? go get some soil and bags and go with soil? are they still in the state you have on your journal?

Everything you've heard is right, i've had my nutrient level 1" above, 3" below and level with the bottom of the net pots. I don't think it really matters the main thing to remember is to not saturate the rockwool with your nutes. My choice would be to have the nutes level or an inch below the bottom of the pots, because too high you'd have too much salt build-up on the pellets, and too low the short roots won't get nutrients and dry up. Later on in the grow it's near impossible to keep the level perfect when the plants take up a lot of nutes. I don't like adding too much water to the solution.

1/2 inch below the bottom of ur net pots.

Thanks guys! So even if the roots aren't near the water, the media will supply enough from the bottom??

MrGreenTsi420 said:

what kind of system? buckets? and you have air coming from the bottom of the dwc system? right? how many ? damn i see what you have going! this is waht you need to do? go get some soil and bags and go with soil? are they still in the state you have on your journal?

Click to expand...

Wha?

yes as the bubbles pop below the net pots the water will creep up and water the rockwool

yea I just did this exact same thing. it is true you are suppose to leave the water line 1/2 inch below the net pots. I left mine about 1 1/2 inch below because otherwise the rockwool was saturated. I got roots coming out of the net pots within about 2 days.

just remember to put a layer of pebbles in the bottom of the net pots before you add the rockwool cube then have water level about 10 mm from bottom of net pot
take a look at my D/W/C im in the middle of flowering some white russian

When I cloned into my DWC I had the water too high, touching the bottom of the rockwool (bad advice from a know-it-all friend). Later I did more research on here and decided to lower the water level to about 2" below the pot. Got way more root growth and yes, the bottom of the pots was still damp / wet from the splashing bubbles.

Spicolli said:

When I cloned into my DWC I had the water too high, touching the bottom of the rockwool (bad advice from a know-it-all friend). Later I did more research on here and decided to lower the water level to about 2" below the pot. Got way more root growth and yes, the bottom of the pots was still damp / wet from the splashing bubbles.

Click to expand...

yeah I knew the bottoms would be damp either way... Just didn't know if it would be damp enough up top that's only where the roots are at first...

As long as the bottom of the rockwool gets damp it will wick all the way up to the top no problem.

Either way, if the water is a bit too close or a bit too far away the clones are still going to take, just might not be as quick or as perfect as trial and error experience will provide in the long term.

Aloha

Groovy, I am getting excited about putting those in there... right now I need to get my reflector before anything (maybe today), and finishing up DWC prep the next week or so?? But I'm also waiting to see which 4 out of my 7 seedlings do the best (7 seedlings... 4 buckets in my DWC...

Could I "double up" on a bucket with two RW cubes (at first?) until I decide which 4 are the strongest?? (wish I could wait to see which were female)

Will I notice sudden faster growth once they go in??

if you double up seeds in 1 rockwool cube you will be sorry. the roots grow so fast that they will just tangle up and the plants will be a bitch to pull apart without damaging the roots. and this will be especially annoying if you have males tangled up with females. as soon as they establish some root structure, they will take off really fast. way faster than soil in my opinion. start off with a low ppm like 300-600 and a p.h. of 5.8 I have a setup similar to yours except I'm using an 8 site rubbermaid container. check out my grow journal. starting flowering yesterday....

thanks. I would be using TWO cubes, by one basket.... By I'm sure the roots would tangle just the same... Didn't think of that,

I'm setting up everything tomorrow I think, couple more questions

– I'll have four baskets, would 2 airstones be enough? I had hear 1 stone for 2 plants??

– How do I make sure the pump has the one way going on so water doesnt flow into the pump?

- I have an airstone under each basket. Not sure if it's right, but why not? Can't have too much air in the water.

- As long as a portion of the airline is above the water level you will not get water in it. Also, as long as the pump is turned on (which it should always be) you won't have to worry about it unless the power goes out.

Aloha

I was trying to sort out the water level issue for my DWC buckets. This was a great thread for it, thanks

good info lol bubblers rock

Spicolli said:

- I have an airstone under each basket. Not sure if it's right, but why not? Can't have too much air in the water.

- As long as a portion of the airline is above the water level you will not get water in it. Also, as long as the pump is turned on (which it should always be) you won't have to worry about it unless the power goes out.

Aloha

Click to expand...

you can get cheap UPS(uninteruppted power supplies) that will hold your pumps up during small outages for cheap, people use them for computers and such, they will run a computer for 20 minutes. can also parrallell car batteries to those UPS's and get longer power for longer outages.