Hi everyone! I'm coming back for my second grow and have decided to move from DWC to RDWC. So after lots of research I've completed my design in sketchup and am getting ready to start purchasing everything. Before I do that, I was looking for some opinions on the system design and some of the components.
Quick rundown of the system:
It's a waterfall system (feed lines go into the top of the buckets) with 3/4" feed lines and 3" return lines. Feed lines will be black PVC and return lines will be black ABS. The feed lines will be aerated using Flow Rite PowerStream Nozzle Aerators. No plans on using air stones or air pumps.
RO unit will be connected to an outdoor hose faucet which I've installed in my bathroom shower, from there it will fill up a 150 gallon top off res which will be connected to the control bucket with 3/4" PVC pipe, it will operate manually with a true union ball valve I need to open to fill up the system with 0 ppm RO water once a week. This will be gravity fed and will have a float valve to automatically shut off the RO unit.
Inside the tents our plant sites will be elevated to 8.5 inches, the control bucket will be elevated to 4 inches.
The control bucket will have a hole in the bottom which will be piped directly to the pump. I'm thinking about a Hydor 1600GPH pump, will this be enough for 8 plant sites, 13 gallons each? Important to mention is I will be starting with only one tent, so 4 plant sites + control bucket at the beginning, planning to double the system later on but would like to purchase a big enough pump right from the start. The Hydor Seltz D pumps have a controllable speed feature with 6 settings you can choose from, for example, the 500GPH pump can be set to: 83 gph, 167 gph, 250 gph, 333 gph, 417 gph and 500 gph. They have 500, 750, 1000, 1600, 2400 and 3600gph models. Which one would you choose for a 4 and 8 plant system? Considering they can be dialed in.
Coming out of the pump there will be a pvc manifold with 4 true union ball valves. One goes to 4 sites in one tent, another goes to the second tent, another goes back to the control bucket for aeration and the 4th will be a drain line which goes directly to the tub in the bathroom. Idea is that when I need to drain the system I open the drain line and close the other three valves and it drains the entire system.
All piping will have pvc unions in key spots so I can easily dissasemble the entire system if need be, without having to cut and throw out a bunch of pipe.
Another question I have is how would I go about having my top off res always open and supplying water to my system? I know how it works mechanically, but how do I manage nutrients? Do I mix nutes in top off res and maintain to a certain PPM level. Or is it not worth it and it's better to just drain the system once a week and manually top off/mix nutes?
Any opinions and suggestions are very much welcome!!
I've updated my original buy list, the new stuff I'm purchasing is in the 2020 UPGRADES sheet, you can check it out here: https://bit.ly/32FKjoJ
Some shots of the design:
Quick rundown of the system:
It's a waterfall system (feed lines go into the top of the buckets) with 3/4" feed lines and 3" return lines. Feed lines will be black PVC and return lines will be black ABS. The feed lines will be aerated using Flow Rite PowerStream Nozzle Aerators. No plans on using air stones or air pumps.
RO unit will be connected to an outdoor hose faucet which I've installed in my bathroom shower, from there it will fill up a 150 gallon top off res which will be connected to the control bucket with 3/4" PVC pipe, it will operate manually with a true union ball valve I need to open to fill up the system with 0 ppm RO water once a week. This will be gravity fed and will have a float valve to automatically shut off the RO unit.
Inside the tents our plant sites will be elevated to 8.5 inches, the control bucket will be elevated to 4 inches.
The control bucket will have a hole in the bottom which will be piped directly to the pump. I'm thinking about a Hydor 1600GPH pump, will this be enough for 8 plant sites, 13 gallons each? Important to mention is I will be starting with only one tent, so 4 plant sites + control bucket at the beginning, planning to double the system later on but would like to purchase a big enough pump right from the start. The Hydor Seltz D pumps have a controllable speed feature with 6 settings you can choose from, for example, the 500GPH pump can be set to: 83 gph, 167 gph, 250 gph, 333 gph, 417 gph and 500 gph. They have 500, 750, 1000, 1600, 2400 and 3600gph models. Which one would you choose for a 4 and 8 plant system? Considering they can be dialed in.
Coming out of the pump there will be a pvc manifold with 4 true union ball valves. One goes to 4 sites in one tent, another goes to the second tent, another goes back to the control bucket for aeration and the 4th will be a drain line which goes directly to the tub in the bathroom. Idea is that when I need to drain the system I open the drain line and close the other three valves and it drains the entire system.
All piping will have pvc unions in key spots so I can easily dissasemble the entire system if need be, without having to cut and throw out a bunch of pipe.
Another question I have is how would I go about having my top off res always open and supplying water to my system? I know how it works mechanically, but how do I manage nutrients? Do I mix nutes in top off res and maintain to a certain PPM level. Or is it not worth it and it's better to just drain the system once a week and manually top off/mix nutes?
Any opinions and suggestions are very much welcome!!
I've updated my original buy list, the new stuff I'm purchasing is in the 2020 UPGRADES sheet, you can check it out here: https://bit.ly/32FKjoJ
Some shots of the design:
