RDWC position of Pipes

ryikk

ryikk

Member
Hey all, building out my first RDWC that will be running in a 4x4 grow tent and wondering what happens if your pipes don’t connect at the very bottom of your containers?

I want to leverage the hole near the bottom of the tent to run said pipe through but that would mean it would be roughly 6” up from the bottom of the container to stay level.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
It's honestly fine and can be an advantage to avoiding root blockage. You just reeeally have to keep up on keeping that main res FULL UP all the time
If it gets below that 6" mark, your water will become stagnant. A good fail-safe is to run a pump inside the res going out on 3/4" pipe to a manifold(the length of where the middle of the furthest bucket is) and teeing off to 1/2" lines to a 90* elbow coming out through a grommet from the inside, pointed down, through the highest spot on the bucket wall. That way the main way will drain and fill the buckets until the hit that 6" high pipe to bring the water back to the res finally. If you do it the original way current culture systems use, it pulls from all the buckets via that pipe which will be 6" high and waterfalls once into the res. You will have stagnant water once it goes below it.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
You would wanna make your main res quite large to make this fail safe work well too. If you use 5 gallon buckets, you'd want at least. 3 gallons for each bucket site. So 4 in a 4X4 is a 12gallon, or even larger, reservoir.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
But avoid all that and just cut into your tent. It's not even a hole that's needed. Just an "X" cut as wide as the pipe diameter. Not very large. You can just cover it with a nice piece of foil tape when you wanna cover it up.the outside wont need anything since no material is removed. Just slices made into it.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
You also have what some would call a disadvantage of not being able to drain the system very well if the pipe is up 6". But for me, regardless of where your holes are I think using a large 20gal or so shop vac to suck out any remaining water left after a drain is the best option.
Unless you have "Sluckets" which are square 5gal buckets with downward angled bottoms going to a protruding thread at the very bottom and enable a COMPLETE draining of the water when using the main reservoir/drain line.
 
ryikk

ryikk

Member
The containers are 12 gal rectangle heavy duty totes. I plan to setup a 55g filler res to fill the controller on a float valve. Trying to add some redundancy to it in case I have to travel for work or family unexpectantly.
 
ryikk

ryikk

Member
And @Airwalker16 the issue with the height of the cut is that the ideal spot is right where the zipper is on the bottom. If it was a nice flat spot I wouldn’t be as worried and would have just went on and cut it. Just my luck right?
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
ryikk said:
And @Airwalker16 the issue with the height of the cut is that the ideal spot is right where the zipper is on the bottom. If it was a nice flat spot I wouldn’t be as worried and would have just went on and cut it. Just my luck right?
Click to expand...
So plumb the pipe over to a spot that works....
 
ryikk

ryikk

Member
If you are feeding from a 55g into the control does it need to be vertically higher or is the water pressure alone enough if they are both on the ground?
 
scurfer

scurfer

Active Member
I built my first RDWC this Spring for a 4'x4' tent. First I ordered a 4'x'4' pan to put in tent floor to catch leaks and spills. I drilled the bottom of each tote and then built an up and over elbow over the pan's lip with tees and some 90deg elbows. The reservoir is sitting on a 2" platform to compensate for water levers.
 
TIMtoKILL

TIMtoKILL

Active Member
scurfer said:
I built my first RDWC this Spring for a 4'x4' tent. First I ordered a 4'x'4' pan to put in tent floor to catch leaks and spills. I drilled the bottom of each tote and then built an up and over elbow over the pan's lip with tees and some 90deg elbows. The reservoir is sitting on a 2" platform to compensate for water levers.
Click to expand...

If you have leaks your doing it wrong. Drain pan would be nice to catch any drips you get from checking water levels or filling up but you shouldn’t have any leaks in your system. Leaks will get worse and it would absolutely suck to have to fix a leak and worry about your vegging or flowering plants.

Learn from other people’s experiences man.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
ryikk said:
If you are feeding from a 55g into the control does it need to be vertically higher or is the water pressure alone enough if they are both on the ground?
Click to expand...
Needs to be higher. The line needs to be at the bottom of the feeding tank.
 
5BY5LEC

5BY5LEC

Well-Known Member
I did the exact thing you were thinking.
I raised everything up with 4x4 stands. I put catboxes under the buckets thinking if it leaked they would catch it. I didnt need them in the end but they are nice for peace for mind.
When I do it again I will build it on the ground and cut out the tent like airwalker said. I could use the extra 8" of space or whatever. FWIWWP_20180819_06_48_37_Pro.jpg
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
ryikk said:
Another question for you guys. Would a setup like this work? 2” PVC from controller throughout and 1/2” return. Not 100% sure on the science and I know lots of systems are completely symetrical so figure I would ask.
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That's fine. But you might wanna consider waterfalls in to each site. Eliminates all need for an air pump.
 
ryikk

ryikk

Member
Airwalker16 said:
That's fine. But you might wanna consider waterfalls in to each site. Eliminates all need for an air pump.
Click to expand...
I already have an air pump and built a manifold to run some soaker hose rings in place of air stones (kind of a super air experiment).

Any other hints?
 
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