RDWC - 2nd Run - Blue Power

I thought this would be a better place to post about my 2nd run with my diy rdwc build. I ran this setup for the first time a few months ago and had great results. Just started to go for round 2 and we had to move, so I've been delayed for a few months. All settled and set everything back up. I even managed to keep some nice cuts of my last blue power grow around so I'm going to run that again, mainly because my bp jars are empty and they need to be refilled. I like the strain a lot so I'm going to stock up real quick before I move on to the next strain.

I'm all about simplicity and efficiency, so I'm trying to keep it simple although sometimes these systems take a minute to dial in. I had trouble getting my clones to root properly, but because they would not die, I finally got them on board with some help from these forums. Everything seems to be on track now, so I'm hoping for another successful round.

I built a rdwc undercurrent system after I saw a friend's. I love to build things so I thought, why not. Of course in my mind it was going to cost about $100, but in the end, the rdwc system itself from pumps to chiller to buckets was $563. It's a 6 site system w/ an epicenter and holds 28 gal of water. It fits great in my 4x8 tent and is relatively automated. I'm running Lucas formula 8ml micro and 16ml bloom/gal plus calmag and dutch master zone with ro water. I do this because it's easy, works, and nasa uses gh.

I tapped into the house pex water system and found a quick connect adapter from pex to 1/2 male fitting. A couple pieces of pvc and I was able to hook it up to my RO filter. $17


I fill up the rez with ph'd ro water and the system keeps itself topped off with a float valve. Last run i filled up a 25 gal rez and left it alone. Changed out the water once a week. I think the system can go much longer between changes and with a large enough rez, you don't really have to do much. Just check ppm and ph, it usually doesn't require many alterations between water change outs, at least the first run didn't...


The girls are finally starting to show roots out of the bottom of the pot and are starting to show new growth on top. I was having trouble with the roots until i added DM zone. Last run I ran aquashield, but this round I'm running zone instead. It lasts way longer than h2o2 and so far, roots are super white.


I found a 1/10hp chiller on CL for $80. Seems to work really well. Keeping the water at 67 is no problem.


I can see roots coming out of every pot and everyone is recovering very well from taking forever to root. Not sure on veg time, hoping for just a couple weeks. Last time they absolutely exploded after the roots starting hitting the water. Should be a good run, can't wait.


Link to first grow: https://www.rollitup.org/t/rdwc-build-so-far-so-good.852489/

Had to replace a leaking bucket. Sometimes they will split where you drill the hole for the uniseal. Caution!
I was able to catch it after about 5 gal came out. Tent floor did an excellent job of holding the water and as always, I keep all my electrical equipment off the floor. For a crappy situation, it worked out and I was able to get it all fixed up and back up and running.

Girls are thriving, roots are exploding. Maybe only 2 more weeks of veg I'm hoping. Took a minute to get everything dialed in...

Update for the journal.
I've been reading a lot about undercurrent systems recently and have changed a few things up. First, I switched from dm zone to hydroguard, which I used on my first run. Zone worked great for awhile, but I started to see the very early stages of a root issue. Everything up top looks very good, I just noticed a stall in the overall root development and under white light, they were starting to tan a bit. No slime or smell, but I know it's coming. After reading some info on current culture's site, I discovered they recommend .75lpm of air per gallon. I have a 28gal system which technically should require aprox 21lpm air pump. I currently have a 951gph pump which equates to 60lpm, or 2.14lpm air per gallon for my system, way too much according to current culture, which in these systems from my understanding helps proliferate the nasties. I was running Lucas formula 8/16 with cal mag and have cut that in half and now and ppms are 500, ec 1.2 (ec pen finally arrived) Might have to reduce even more? I ran some h202 to kill anything in the system, then put in a fresh change out with hydroguard instead. I used this last time, but wanted to experiment with a sterile system and after tons of reading, this seems to work best in these types of systems, so obviously we'll go this route. Water temps are 66-67 and tent temps are 77ish. Some very nice root development happening again now, so I hope we are in the clear for awhile. Looking to start flowering in a week or 2. I also picked up a 2x4 to hold my others in. I have a small inline fan pulling air from the small tent and blowing into the big tent to get scrubbed cause the ladies in the small tent are really smelly too. Lots to learn still!

Getting bigger...

Small tent exhausting to big tent

Ladies in the 2x4

Finally got my EC pen in the mail, so that is how I'll be measuring going forward for hydro. Makes things easier because you truly don't know if someone is using the .7 or .5 scale when they talk about ppm's. Changed out the water today and added some GH grow in this batch because they looked like they could use a little more N. Undercurrent systems recommend running a fairly low ec/ppm but I'm not convinced just yet. I tried to cut back on nutes and they just didn't look as happy. For this water change out I used 5ml/gal GH grow, micro, bloom plus 2.5ml/gal cal mag, 2.5ml/gal hydroguard and .6ml/gal roots excel. EC came out to 1.6 (800ppm on the .5 scale) ph to 5.5. Since changing to hydroguard from zone and roots excel, the roots are exploding again and they are really starting to take off. I've topped them a couple times each, so each one has 8-12 heads. They should at least double in size when I flip them, so I'm hoping to do so in 1 week when I change out the water again. Stems are about thumb size and they are growing a couple inches a day again. Lesson learned. I might use zone when I first put them in the net pots until I can see roots coming out and then switch to hydroguard, or run hydroguard the whole way though. BTW, note to self. Zone worked great for the clones I put into soil. I just used the same water from the hydro system and when I took them out of their solo cups to transplant, crazy white roots in the cups, massive. I also changed out my air pump to a smaller one. I was pushing 60lpm and downgraded to 36lpm. According to undercurrent's website, I should be running .75lmp per gallon which is like 21lpm air. This is close enough imo. It sounded crazy to need to run less air, but we'll see. The goal is to use a 2 layer net again and try to get as many tops as possible this time, and really fill out that canopy. A blanket of buds is my goal. We'll see...

Decided to flip them tonight, mark that 11/01 as day 1. Looking at 56-60 day finish. Roots are bleach white, and they are growing like crazy. Going to add the first layer of netting her in a day or two and they should stretch and fill out he canopy nicely. The smell even with a phresh filter in the tent and another outside of it, is overwhelming, but pleasant. I needed a fresh air intake, but my exhaust runs into a window well, so i built a snorkel intake which runs into a tub with a lid on top that sits on a window grate (same as exhaust window well) and has some inconspicuous slats cut out for air intake. The air within the window well is pretty warm, so no use in drawing that back in, so I needed an intake that was drawing fresh air in, this seems to be working very well. Right now it's just passive and I have it directed to the lower part of the tent. This is keeping the temp within 1 deg of the air outside the tent, so it's normally 72-75 in and outside of the tent now. Right now, everything is firing on all cylinders and I'm at the point where I'm changing nutes and filling up a rez for the week and that's it. It did take a minute to get everything dialed in again from leaks to early root issues to air pump
questions. Not sure what the next strain will be, but it will be much quicker from clone to flip now that I have the root issues worked out. Will update soon...

(sorry about taking pics in HPS lighting, I'll get some others up soon)

blackforest said:

Decided to flip them tonight, mark that 11/01 as day 1. Looking at 56-60 day finish. Roots are bleach white, and they are growing like crazy. Going to add the first layer of netting her in a day or two and they should stretch and fill out he canopy nicely. The smell even with a phresh filter in the tent and another outside of it, is overwhelming, but pleasant. I needed a fresh air intake, but my exhaust runs into a window well, so i built a snorkel intake which runs into a tub with a lid on top that sits on a window grate (same as exhaust window well) and has some inconspicuous slats cut out for air intake. The air within the window well is pretty warm, so no use in drawing that back in, so I needed an intake that was drawing fresh air in, this seems to be working very well. Right now it's just passive and I have it directed to the lower part of the tent. This is keeping the temp within 1 deg of the air outside the tent, so it's normally 72-75 in and outside of the tent now. Right now, everything is firing on all cylinders and I'm at the point where I'm changing nutes and filling up a rez for the week and that's it. It did take a minute to get everything dialed in again from leaks to early root issues to air pump
questions. Not sure what the next strain will be, but it will be much quicker from clone to flip now that I have the root issues worked out. Will update soon...

(sorry about taking pics in HPS lighting, I'll get some others up soon)

View attachment 3533820
View attachment 3533821
View attachment 3533822
View attachment 3533823

Click to expand...

Love your setup.

Everything is running well. Growth is nice to say the least. I flipped them on 11/1 and put in a double layer net. The lower net was right at the top of them and they should stretch about 8-12" above the second one. Looks like the canopy should fill out nicely. I cleaned up the lower part to ensure adequate air flow on the lower part of the garden, and installed a nice air king up top. Super dank smelling already, I might need a bigger filter, or find a way to install the second one I have in the tent as well. Keeping it simple here, GH 3 part right now because they like extra nitrogen when in veg and transition, will drop the grow part and just use micro and bloom. EC is coming in at 1.6, kinda high by some opinions for rdwc, but they like it and I've tried lower EC's. We'll see, still experimenting. Hydroguard is working very well, roots are still bleach white. Key to hydroguard and keeping root rot away is low water temps. Chiller keeping it at 64-65 constantly. Should be a very nice harvest, due new years eve.

Day 15 of flower and they are stretching nicely. Pretty automated at this point. I am going to change out my small 10gal rez for the 32gal because they are drinking about 5 or more gallons per day. I saw first signs of pistils on day 9, and everyone is really healthy. Not sure when I'm going to cut out the grow from the GH 3 part because they are apparently using all that extra nitrogen. Roots are healthy and white, hydroguard plus 65 deg water really seems to be doing the trick keeping them healthy. Canopy is filling in and I simply can't wait for the buds to start forming. I stated them when they were at the first net level, so they have grown quite a bit since then. Should be pretty spectacular over the next 2 weeks.

Very nice run there.

Looking awesome all my Blue Powers ended up being male so far still got one in veg hoping for at least 1 female it's meant to be a good strain keep up the great work looking forward to seeing the girls in full swing

inspiring!!! i sunk a grand into an undercurrent system over a year ago and havent had the guts to get started on it. I run perpetual harvest organic soil with like dozens, yes plural of strains. It is hard for me to dedicate centerstage to the uc and then have growing pains on top of it.

fine job, you are gonna be real good at growing the good stuff!

Velvet Elvis said:

inspiring!!! i sunk a grand into an undercurrent system over a year ago and havent had the guts to get started on it. I run perpetual harvest organic soil with like dozens, yes plural of strains. It is hard for me to dedicate centerstage to the uc and then have growing pains on top of it.

fine job, you are gonna be real good at growing the good stuff!

Click to expand...

You should totally give it a shot, just to broaden your horizons.

ive done dwc buckets, hydro trays for years but not recirculating with high oxygenation.

Velvet Elvis said:

ive done dwc buckets, hydro trays for years but not recirculating with high oxygenation.

Click to expand...

Keep your roots in the dark and keep your water in the mid sixties and the rest will fall into place.

Nice setup, I'm about to run a RDWC system - with 6 plant site - completing the build out as we speak. I will start another grow journal and post pics and design build list.

Stay tuned! Great looking ladies by the way - let the fun begin!

~WidoW~

Day 22 flower, everything running well. I decided to add nutes to my top off rez because the ec was dropping from 1.7 to 1.0 in only 4 days because they are drinking about 4-5 gal per day. In the past I've put nutes in the top off rez, but it always had hydroguard in it because I just made a larger batch of change out water and put the extra in the top off. The top off rez is not chilled, although blacked out, but it would always grow the bacteria in the rez. While this was 'good' bacteria (hydroguard) that was growing (I'm guessing), it was creating enough mass to clog the 1/4" water line or block the float valve that tops off the system. So I added nutes to the top off rez minus the hydroguard and we'll see what happens. Might have to move up to the 3/8" water line and fittings.

I also pruned a bit of the canopy a little because it was overgrown and also trimmed up the bottom a bit mainly for air flow and to prevent any pm. Tried to spread out all of the tops with the net as well. Now it's time to start packing on some flowers.

I love the root porn!
I had less success with my EBB-N-GRO.
Roots did awesome in the beginning, but then it suddenly went bad and nothing could keep t clear. made it through flowering by draining and refilling every other day day and using chlorine in the chilled res.
I think the water lines and black buckets let nutes get too hot during flood cycles

Quick update. I lost about 5-6 days of growing due to low ph in my system. PH pen was reading higher than actual ph, so I'm certain I was running low 5's for a few days. All is fixed now and they are back to drinking normally and bud growth is increasing again. Calibrate those PH pen's!

I cant keep a ph meter functioning right. I just use he drops now,