Rate My DIY Set-Up! 6 place 33 gallon RDWC

This is my first hydroponic set-up and I've had it up and running for a little over 2 weeks now. The system consists of (6) 4.5gallon square buckets attached to a main 27 gallon resevoir. The system takes 33 gallons to fill to 1/2" below my 3" net pots. Water runs from the rez in 3/4" poly tubing through 3 buckets on either side to a central T-fitting which reduces down to 1/2" poly tubing, through a cheap irrigation filter and into my water pump. The water pump then pushes the water up and waterfalls through the lid of the rez. I added 2 ball valves after the recirculation pump to allow easy rez changes with the pump sending the water to a floor drain instead of back to the rez. I have a 6 way splitter air-pump and 1 airstone in each bucket. Water flow appears pretty decent from bucket to bucket (I watched the micro mix move through the system)

I intend to top and scrog my way to filling the 4x8 side of the tent completely. The Lights are (3) 250watt LM301B quantum boards with 2 additional 100watt DIY 3000k cheap LED bulb strips that will be added during flower.

All the plants are either cloned or started from seed in my Aerogarden Classic. I'm currently running GH Trio, but will be switching to Jack's when I finish these bottles.

*This is my "dip my toes in" build to see if I like growing DWC over soil. Everything was budget or free by design. I spent $150 in total building the entire system including pumps, fittings, and all tubing.(Not including Lights or nutes)*

I've watched all of Hygro Hybrid's videos and Lokigro as well as untold numbers of other hydro related youtube videos. Provided that this run goes well I think I'll eventually swap out for 17 or 27 gallon totes with 2 inch PVC to fully fill up the 8x8 tent.

Am I on the right track here? How much am I going to hate having such small buckets? 3/4" lines are small, but with regular root examinations and pruning when necessary it should still work fine right? For the future 17-27gal build I'd like to try waterfall only. Any pointers are greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

I just built a 4 bucket RDWC system myself. I opted to plumb the discharge from the pump to waterfalls in each 5 gallon bucket and I have a 2” gravity drain returning the water to my 27 gal rez.

I would reconfigure your pump to waterfalls on your next grow. The way you have it set up you have the benefit of a larger rez which is great, but you are wasting the potential for better aeration by discharging the pump into the bottom of your buckets and plumbing a larger return line.

Just my 2 cents, looks like you are getting nice rootmass and you should still get a nice crop, you can just do more with what you’ve already got.

Nice system! Especially for your 1st RDWC design. If your anything like me, you’ll continue tweaking your system to make improvements until you run out of things to improve.

I agree with EtownPaul about adding waterfalls & larger return lines. As long as you keep a really close eye on your roots & manage them so they don’t restrict flow or clog your lines, you should be ok. I use 5 gallon buckets with 1-1/2” return lines & i’ve yet to have Flow-related issues, but I also have preventative measures in place & watch my roots & systems closely. I have an external reservoir auto-filling each system & I also just switched from waterfall spigots to sprinkler heads for increased DO & it keeps my suspended roots wet.

Also, keep a close eye on water quality & root rot. Look for cloudy water, film on the surface & foul odor for signs of bacteria. I use both hydrogaurd & a water chiller because nothing sucks worse than loosing your crop to root rot 3 months into your grow & only a few weeks away from harvest!

I run 3 different systems about 4 weeks apart in grow cycles with 4 plants in each tent to run a perpetual grow & harvesting monthly. If one system fails or succumbs to root rot I have 2 others in progress & I can’t imagine having to trim more than 2 lbs per harvest. (that’s my least favorite part about growing)

Here’s a few pics of one grow about 4 weeks from seed & another in flower under SCROG.

Sdh777 said:

If your anything like me, you’ll continue tweaking your system to make improvements until you run out of things to improve.

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Or that's what you'll tell yourself. And if you're anything like me, 20 years later you'll still be tweaking things.

Looks really great for a first iteration though. Good job!

Overall, a nice effort.
Be prepared for the netlid pushing through the lid under a heavy plant. That's why I like my 6" netlids, they have a nice flange to hold some weight.
Keep an eye on the returns-roots will creep into them.

GBAUTO is right. I’ve had a crappy net pot with a small flange push right through the bucket lid due to the plant’s weight, plus the resistance from a heavy duty scrog net above. It was a bitch!

Agreed on the net pots. I like to net pots that are like a hat, small pot but 5 gallon bucket lid sized flange. They click right on a 5 gallon bucket but if just set on a lid with a hole made for the pot the flange will prevent any sorta silly business. I did that with large totes and it worked great. Then all you gotta worry about is a top heavy plant trying to fall over if it's not supported properly during flower since the roots aren't weighed down by any medium.

Roots will plug those return lines and cause an overflow if you aren't careful. I agree with the suggestion to upsize big time. If not then you may want to consider some sort of overflow prevention.

Waterfalls beat air stones any day. The air stones not only raise the temperatures of the nutrients but they can also cause the pH to drop.

What sorta leaf surface temps are you running under the LED lighting?

Pruning roots to prevent plugged return lines seems all fine and dandy until the plants are large and have buds. Just not a good solution IMO.

I use 1-1/2” bulkheads & UC pipe, so to fight root clogs I use an elbow fitting in my bulkhead that directs suction downward towards the bottom of each bucket. (see pic below) It also allows me to drain the entire system to under an inch deep in 2 minutes using the built-in RDWC pump. I also use paint strainers in each grow site that fit perfectly in 5 gallon buckets. They help keep roots away from my pipes & root debris from circulating throughout the system. Then I drop a big-ass air stone in each strainer to help redirect roots away from the bulkhead fittings & they also keep the strainers from floating. And just to make sure I get good DO & circulation, I use waterfalls in addition to air stones.

I haven’t had any root clog issues yet, but I’m gonna add overflow pipes to each bucket next round for safe measure.

The air pump hanging in the heat is not good,put it outside on the cold floor with some air moving over it.

Thanks everyone for all the feedback and advice! I'm already drawing up the eventual replacement 27 gallon tote system in CAD using a lot of your feedback as improvements.

The current build is running strong and the plants are looking beautiful.
I really haven't had to change much. I decided to try some Southern AG GFF as I was having leaf rust issues running only drugstore peroxide and everything cleared up beautifully. Now I add 3ml total each week to the system and the plants are thriving.

I added a cyber power pc UPS to the the air pump as a safeguard against power outages(They're very rare here, but Amazon Lightning deals, you know).
The air pump will be staying where it is. It never gets too hot to touch and its been running a full month straight now. Also I've read plenty of horror stories about it backflowing without a check valve attached. Also suspending it makes it much quieter.

I also added a really cheap aquarium thermometer to the resevoir and it always reads between 59 and 68 degrees averaging 62 sitting on my cold basement floor despite the unseasonably warm weather we have going on here.

I'll keep a close eye on the netpots falling through, but I think it will be ok. If not I'll zip tie the pots to the lids.

My biggest gripe is that I had delays in getting the last 2 plants started and now they are significantly behind the first 4.

Anyways here are some current photos of the grow.

Everything’s looking really good. The stalk on the big plant & the roots are already huge & you haven’t even flipped to flower yet...I’m dying to see if that bucket & lines are big enough to get by until harvest!

Beautiful setup man, those plants are looking on point.

Best of luck

Looks good! Keep it up! Good luck! Only issue I see like other suggested is the return lines. Its better to oversize.

Very nice mate, and have a good Xmas too...

Quick Little Update before I throw these girls into flower.


I've been doing some heavy defoliation on the 4 bigger plants while waiting for the 2 small ones to reach a worthwhile size. I'll take clones and finish lollipopping 10 to 20 days into flower on them as well. So far I haven't had to do any root pruning.

Renfro said:

What sorta leaf surface temps are you running under the LED lighting?

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Leaf temps are pretty much a degree or 2 above ambient which is low 60s lights on and a degree or 2 below that lights off.

*Everyone who pointed out that the net pots are gonna be an issue are correct on the biggest plant, my Baddazz OG Cheese(stupid name, but pretty impressive growth). The rest of the plants appear fine, but that plant is ridiculous with a stem over an inch in diameter.


I'll have to sort out some way to prevent it dropping through. I'm leaning towards drilling a few holes and using zipties.

I'm pretty happy that the root balls haven't grown much on the 4 big plants which has led to no issues with clogged lines yet, but we'll see what happens in flower.

My GF picked up a Wifi cam for me for christmas so now I can check in on the Hydro tent while I'm at work.


Also I'm doing the final touches on my replacement design to fill the whole 8x8 tent with 6 or 8 (27 gallon totes), 3" PVC piping, and a combination waterfall and airstone RDWC. I intend to move this setup into my 4x8 "soil" tent and either use it to veg the plants in the 8x8 totes or just flower them smaller than this. The 4x8 has been mostly for autoflowers so far.

Additionally I scored a 2'x4'x60" tent that I plan to house seedlings and mothers(in dirt maybe coco) in. I'm DIY'ing some cheap 14watt household LED bulb grow lights for that tent.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice and encouragement.

LedHydro said:

Leaf temps are pretty much a degree or 2 above ambient which is low 60s lights on and a degree or 2 below that lights off.

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Thats very chilly for LED. I would expect much better growth rates / yields in the 80's BUT that could cause issues with nutrient temperatures.

Those stalks are huge! That little net cup is gonna look like David Banner’s shirt when it’s all said & done!

u could put 2 sticks wedged from your lid edge to the first strong branch,maybe keep them from falling in?

You can improve the canopy coverage...

1. Tight the net scrog
2. LST
3. Topping on younger plants ( right)