Eric Farley
Active Member
I've been growing with DWC for about a year now and I'd really like to upgrade to a RDWC setup so it's a little easier to manage since I'm lazy and daily check-ins aren't happening like they should. Anyways I've done some reading on various systems and looked at some off the shelf solutions and in the end decided a DIY was the right way to go.
One thing I noticed when looking at other systems/builds was they most people have the inlet at the top of their bucket above water level and the drain at the bottom of the bucket. To me this seems problematic for a couple reasons, first the roots seem like they would almost certainly grow and be sucked into the drain, eventually blocking it as the roots take up more space. Second if the drain were to get blocked by the roots or anything else the bucket would quickly overfill and flood all over the floor, which would obviously be bad...
What are your experiences with these concerns? Have you had you system overflow and flood the floor? Do the roots grow into the drain? How do you deal with that; do you have to monitor it and pull the roots out of the drain as needed or do you use some kind of screen to block the drain?
I have been thinking instead of dealing with those issues that I'd flip the system and have my inlet at the bottom of the bucket and my drain at the top. This would make it impossible for the roots to be pulled into the drain and the system would be much less likely to overflow since the drain works on the same idea as a bathtub or sink overflow drain in that any excess water above a desired level is drained.
Has anyone tried a setup with the inlet at the bottom and the drain at the top; how did it work and did you run into any issues? Does anyone know why you don't see this idea in more systems, is it flawed in some way?
One thing I noticed when looking at other systems/builds was they most people have the inlet at the top of their bucket above water level and the drain at the bottom of the bucket. To me this seems problematic for a couple reasons, first the roots seem like they would almost certainly grow and be sucked into the drain, eventually blocking it as the roots take up more space. Second if the drain were to get blocked by the roots or anything else the bucket would quickly overfill and flood all over the floor, which would obviously be bad...
What are your experiences with these concerns? Have you had you system overflow and flood the floor? Do the roots grow into the drain? How do you deal with that; do you have to monitor it and pull the roots out of the drain as needed or do you use some kind of screen to block the drain?
I have been thinking instead of dealing with those issues that I'd flip the system and have my inlet at the bottom of the bucket and my drain at the top. This would make it impossible for the roots to be pulled into the drain and the system would be much less likely to overflow since the drain works on the same idea as a bathtub or sink overflow drain in that any excess water above a desired level is drained.
Has anyone tried a setup with the inlet at the bottom and the drain at the top; how did it work and did you run into any issues? Does anyone know why you don't see this idea in more systems, is it flawed in some way?
