RDWC but with feedring on the bottom feeding up?

G

goofy81

Well-Known Member
Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has done this and with any success.
A bucket with 1 hose on top (drain hose) with a feed ring on the very bottom attached to a bubbler which also pumps out the nutrient to the top.
The only difference i see is that the drain hose is near the top compared to the conventional method.
 
WubbaLubbaDubDub

WubbaLubbaDubDub

Well-Known Member
Your thinking like an over flow in an aquarium so as fresh pumps in the extra spills out.

seems like it could work.make sure your bulkheads and pipes are as big as you can find to prevent clogging with roots.
This method leaves a issue of watering in the beginning before the roots hit the nutrient solution.

could be a fun build and definitely possible with some tinkering but I’d just go with a tried and true system
 
G

goofy81

Well-Known Member
I honestly thought there would be some advantages with this method.
1. feeding from bottom up you have the ability to not miss some of the very top roots if you had a dripper like in top down.
2. You would only need to drill 1 side hole on the container. (or 1 just above it for the feed ring)
3. Say you have a feed ring on the bottom aimed all in center you could have a swirling affect if its desired.(may twist your roots though).
4. Air pumped into a water pump seems more evenly dispersed then with just fat bubbles coming into contact above an air ring
5. All pots will remain at the same level as long as the recirculating reservoir is not empty.
 

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ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
goofy81 said:
I honestly thought there would be some advantages with this method.
1. feeding from bottom up you have the ability to not miss some of the very top roots if you had a dripper like in top down.
2. You would only need to drill 1 side hole on the container. (or 1 just above it for the feed ring)
3. Say you have a feed ring on the bottom aimed all in center you could have a swirling affect if its desired.(may twist your roots though).
4. Air pumped into a water pump seems more evenly dispersed then with just fat bubbles coming into contact above an air ring
5. All pots will remain at the same level as long as the recirculating reservoir is not empty.
Click to expand...
Biggest issue i see is trying to dump the system.
Its nice to have the drains low as possible for this reason usually
 
redi jedi

redi jedi

Well-Known Member
goofy81 said:
I honestly thought there would be some advantages with this method.
1. feeding from bottom up you have the ability to not miss some of the very top roots if you had a dripper like in top down.
2. You would only need to drill 1 side hole on the container. (or 1 just above it for the feed ring)
3. Say you have a feed ring on the bottom aimed all in center you could have a swirling affect if its desired.(may twist your roots though).
4. Air pumped into a water pump seems more evenly dispersed then with just fat bubbles coming into contact above an air ring
5. All pots will remain at the same level as long as the recirculating reservoir is not empty.
Click to expand...
Over flow return wont work if the amount of water in the system changes.
 
B

BigBrotato

Member
goofy81 said:
Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has done this and with any success.
A bucket with 1 hose on top (drain hose) with a feed ring on the very bottom attached to a bubbler which also pumps out the nutrient to the top.
The only difference i see is that the drain hose is near the top compared to the conventional method.
Click to expand...
Yeah i done this but had the water pumping into bottom of buckets via bulkhead.then ran pipe to bottom of res and attached pump to that, so when i needed to drain i just detached pump from pipe.
I only half fill the res as well, so the overflow back to res ends in a nice waterfall effect
 
Blakhash

Blakhash

Well-Known Member
I’ve done it before a few years back with GREAT SUCCESS. Here are my tips:
  • Run as many buckets as you want but have the buckets up on say a home depot brick for gravity purposes
  • Have a return BLACK pvc pipe for the water to flow back into your res
  • Have a water chiller chilling the res
  • Use as many of those hydro plastic turn valves as possible
  • Use the metal O ring screw clamps around each connection.
  • Use 1/2 inlets with a powerful pump, like a danner.
  • Use a 3/4 or 1 inch return
  • Don’t forget about airstones
  • FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET A ONE WAY CHECK VALVE on the inlet pump, if it dies you’ll flood the whole room.
  • Make sure to black everything out, foil, paint, tape whatever you want just make sure its Lightproof.



 
Blakhash

Blakhash

Well-Known Member
Feel free to ask me for any more questions. The term is called “ reverse dwc” it’s my absolute favorite way of growing. Pair it with a digital ph meter to lock In your ph and you are GOLDEN.
 
B

Budzilla1z

Active Member
I really like the idea. The best part is that the buckets always stay full even as the res drains.
Probably not good for multiple sites but I want to grow 1 tree in 60 litre bucket with 60 litre res(prob will be 45l actual water volume in each when full)
I am worried about how high to drill the hole though as iv read some people have the water level end up higher than the overflow pipe as it struggles to keep up. I have 2inch return so don't think that will be an issue. The buckets were really expensive so don't want to mess it up.

I like it because I can let the res drain down before complete nute change out meaning less waste but can still run a chiller without worrying about clogging lines.

This all sounds good in my head. The real world is sometimes very different though so will have to just build it and see if it works.

Any thoughts appreciated
 
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