Waterfall RDWC

[Airwalker16]

What's kinda cool is, I'm doing this as experiments. I'm almost 70 years old and been smoking and growing since 1969. Back then we didn't know anything about how to make buds. We just grew the plants and smoked the leaves haha... I've come a long way since then. I have two 315 CMH lights, so I'm thinking, I'll build two systems, one for each light. I'll try the bottom return for one, and the top return for the other and run them side by side to see how they compare. Then the next run I'll do the "no res. change" for one, and Airwalker16's formula for the other. The real kicker is, I don't even really smoke that much anymore. Mostly later at night when I'm playing chess online. I give a lot of weed away to friends and family. I just love growing this shit hahaha!!!

Res changes rarely happen with GH too.

 

[Kndreyn]

Ok, I've been thinking about all of this, and for as small as I want to keep it, wouldn't something like this work? Home Depot has a 55 gallon tote that is 21" x 45". I'll attach a drawing of what I have in mind. For a 4 plant setup, wouldn't this work, and eliminate the reservoir/.bulkheads issue? I didn't include it in the drawing, but I'd need to cut an opening in the end where the pump goes for maintaining/topping off. I'd run 3/4 pvc over and up to a 1/2" manifold that runs along where the plants would sit.

 

[DaFreak]

Looks like doc with a recirculating pump? That won't add O2 to the water but it's not bad, pumps have their own screens, you could also pump up and down and create a waterfall. Same limitations of any such system.

Change subject but another reason I like the overflow design for return line is you keep a constant water height and your Rez just runs low till you top it off.

 

[Kndreyn]

Looks like doc with a recirculating pump? That won't add O2 to the water but it's not bad, pumps have their own screens, you could also pump up and down and create a waterfall. Same limitations of any such system.

Change subject but another reason I like the overflow design for return line is you keep a constant water height and your Rez just runs low till you top it off.

I was thinking running the 1/2" pvc along the top with 1/4" holes drilled spraying water down to generate the oxygen.

 

[Kndreyn]

I could even plumb it so the 1/2" pvc runs through the middle of the tote spraying down between the plants.

 

[Kndreyn]

And now that I'm thinking more... add a hole for a short piece of PVC and through that run a small stick of some kind with a piece of Styrofoam on the end of it that floats and indicates the water level.

 

[Kndreyn]

Looks like doc with a recirculating pump? That won't add O2 to the water but it's not bad, pumps have their own screens, you could also pump up and down and create a waterfall. Same limitations of any such system.

Change subject but another reason I like the overflow design for return line is you keep a constant water height and your Rez just runs low till you top it off.

Oh I see what you mean about the return at the top maintaining the water height. That's a good point.

 

[Kndreyn]

Here's a side view of what I'm thinking.

 

[Kndreyn]

Maybe even put an inline pump to keep it out of the reservoir.

 

[DaFreak]

Depends on your environment. People use remote reservoirs for ease of top offs and to add chillers etc.

 

[Kndreyn]

Depends on your environment. People use remote reservoirs for ease of top offs and to add chillers etc.

Yeh definitely I would add a reservoir to it if I would need to add more sites. But just playing around with a dinky system, I'm curious if this would work. I'm gonna try it. If it doesn't work I'll only be out a couple fittings and a little time.

 

[DaFreak]

I’ll be honest with you if all you wanna do is 1 tent and a few plants I would highly recommend doing drain to waste. Actually I would recommend drain to even if you wanna do 100 plants and that’s a different issue

 

[Kndreyn]

I’ll be honest with you if all you wanna do is 1 tent and a few plants I would highly recommend doing drain to waste. Actually I would recommend drain to even if you wanna do 100 plants and that’s a different issue

I have a 16' x 16' grow room with 10 foot ceiling I built in my garage. I divided it in to two 8' x 16' rooms. One for veg one for flowering. I'm currently running drain to waste. I'm just playing and experimenting with some ideas. I run tomatoes out there too sometimes. Just enjoy the hobby and it keeps me up off my ass.

 

[FuqStiK]

Very cool dude!
Like I said, I really prefer the whole system Including CaliMagic. It just works so well with this chart:View attachment 4586411

Thanks for that

 

[Airwalker16]

Maybe even put an inline pump to keep it out of the reservoir.

Here's the issue man. you'll only have about 10-15 gals worth of water volume, if even that, and the pump is going to heat that water up within a few hrs. I'm just warning you now, it's not going to work. Unless you hook a chiller up to it then it will for sure. But regardless, I'd do 15min on / 15min off.

 

[Kndreyn]

Here's the issue man. you'll only have about 10-15 gals worth of water volume, if even that, and the pump is going to heat that water up within a few hrs. I'm just warning you now, it's not going to work. Unless you hook a chiller up to it then it will for sure. But regardless, I'd do 15min on / 15min off.

I went last night and picked up the stuff to make this. I bought the 38 gallon tote. I put it together today. We have a water well, and I didn't want to fill it from that, so I took a 27 gallon tote down to the spring and fill that, then pumped that in to the 38 gallon tote. That put it right at the level I was needing. I put the manifold down through the middle of it between where the plants will be sitting. I drilled four 3/16" holes in the bottom of it, and a 1/8" hole pointing at each plant site. Plugged the pump in and that thing is moving some major water. I was pretty happy with the way it was agitating the water. I took a video. If I can figure out how to down size it to upload I'll post it. I have four Burnout Chem x Dominion G I made that I'll put in it to try it out. And yeah, I'll put it on a timer. Actually I was going to ask you about putting it on a timer. We'll see how it goes. If it doesn't work, I'll just add the 27 gallon tote as a reservoir and use the 2" bulkheads I ordered to connect them.

 

[Airwalker16]

I went last night and picked up the stuff to make this. I bought the 38 gallon tote. I put it together today. We have a water well, and I didn't want to fill it from that, so I took a 27 gallon tote down to the spring and fill that, then pumped that in to the 38 gallon tote. That put it right at the level I was needing. I put the manifold down through the middle of it between where the plants will be sitting. I drilled four 3/16" holes in the bottom of it, and a 1/8" hole pointing at each plant site. Plugged the pump in and that thing is moving some major water. I was pretty happy with the way it was agitating the water. I took a video. If I can figure out how to down size it to upload I'll post it. I have four Burnout Chem x Dominion G I made that I'll put in it to try it out. And yeah, I'll put it on a timer. Actually I was going to ask you about putting it on a timer. We'll see how it goes. If it doesn't work, I'll just add the 27 gallon tote as a reservoir and use the 2" bulkheads I ordered to connect them.

Ya 50gals of water will help. But I'd get a very small pump. Maybe 100gph and build a really small manifold with just a few 1/16" holes. You want something that won't make a lot of heat and as long as you're holes are small enough, the small pump will be plenty of pressure to move the surface of the water. That's what's important. Breaking surface tension over and over.

 

[Kndreyn]

Ok, here's what I ended up doing. I've got 3/16" holes shooting water straight down to the reservoir, and 1/8" holes angled to shoot in to each net pot. I ran the plants in my GH Rainforest until roots were coming out the bottom of the netpot, then moved them in to this under a 315 CMH on 12/12. For now I have a timer on the pump so it comes on every 2 hours for 5 minutes during lights on, then it comes on once half way through lights off. My timer only has 8 programs so that's why I set it up that way. I have another timer coming that is just an on/off timer. I'll probably set that to come on every hour for 5 minutes. We'll see how it goings. This is how we learn....

 

[Airwalker16]

Ok, here's what I ended up doing. I've got 3/16" holes shooting water straight down to the reservoir, and 1/8" holes angled to shoot in to each net pot. I ran the plants in my GH Rainforest until roots were coming out the bottom of the netpot, then moved them in to this under a 315 CMH on 12/12. For now I have a timer on the pump so it comes on every 2 hours for 5 minutes during lights on, then it comes on once half way through lights off. My timer only has 8 programs so that's why I set it up that way. I have another timer coming that is just an on/off timer. I'll probably set that to come on every hour for 5 minutes. We'll see how it goings. This is how we learn....

With 6 plants per 17gal tote, shits gonna get Cramped TIIIIIIIIIGHT, in no time.

 

[FuqStiK]

Ok, here's what I ended up doing. I've got 3/16" holes shooting water straight down to the reservoir, and 1/8" holes angled to shoot in to each net pot. I ran the plants in my GH Rainforest until roots were coming out the bottom of the netpot, then moved them in to this under a 315 CMH on 12/12. For now I have a timer on the pump so it comes on every 2 hours for 5 minutes during lights on, then it comes on once half way through lights off. My timer only has 8 programs so that's why I set it up that way. I have another timer coming that is just an on/off timer. I'll probably set that to come on every hour for 5 minutes. We'll see how it goings. This is how we learn....

That looks like it would work as a Cloner better than it would to fully grow 6 plants in a 17 gal tote. If you're going that route, you could do 2 per 17 gal tote. I'm newer to hydro, but from my understanding, this would be way too over crowded.