Vivosun DWC kit setup questions

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bobbjoedope

Member
Hi all, first post! I just got the vivosun 4 bucket dwc kit. First foray into hydro. Got some questions:

1. The kit only came with 4 knob adjusters to control flow to the 4 air stones. I only plan on running 2 buckets. How do I shut off the air to the other 4 nozzles on the manifold?
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2. I plan on running 2 buckets and have the other 2 buckets on stand-by to hot-swap. If I need to change the res I can mix a fresh solution in the empty bucket and take the plant and net pot and plop it in the new bucket. In order to do this I'll need to drill and run the 2 air tubes through the top of the net pot instead of the side of the bucket.
Is the hot-swap thing a practical approach?

3. All along I was calculating nute mixes for 5 gallons. I didn't realize how low the net pot goes. I also read that it's good to have some space above the water to allow oxygen to the roots. So, it looks like I'll only have about 2 gallons of liquid in these buckets? (When the plants mature).
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Thanks!
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
1 connect both sides of a short hose to both nipples you want to close.

2 yes switching net basket to another pot is convince. Theirs a better way then drilling.

3 Switch to 6 inch net baskets, will let you put like in 3 gal.
 
B

bobbjoedope

Member
1 connect both sides of a short hose to both nipples you want to close.
Ah, brilliant!

2 yes switching net basket to another pot is convince. Theirs a better way then drilling.
What's the better way?

Thanks!
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
bobbjoedope said:
1 connect both sides of a short hose to both nipples you want to close.
Ah, brilliant!

2 yes switching net basket to another pot is convince. Theirs a better way then drilling.
What's the better way?

Thanks!
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Run your hose thru the net basket before you fill with rocks, cut the hose above the rocks and add a connecter. Now when you move the basket u can disconnect from the pump easily and move around and the hoses go with the basket
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
Also I highly advise not using the air stones. It's kinda bro science and just an assumed thing that u need stones. They clog up super fast from salts and such, get attacked by the roots and swallowed up, and become very ineffective with out you noticing till the grow is over. I would suggest attaching the stones as sinkers to keep my hoses down but let the hose just blow air. Breaking water surface is the most effective way to oxygenate water. Big bubbles do that very well! I stopped using air stones for the last couple years I ran dwc.
 
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bobbjoedope

Member
ProPheT 216 said:
Also I highly advise not using the air stones. It's kinda bro science and just an assumed thing that u need stones. They clog up super fast from salts and such, get attacked by the roots and swallowed up, and become very ineffective with out you noticing till the grow is over. I would suggest attaching the stones as sinkers to keep my hoses down but let the hose just blow air. Breaking water surface is the most effective way to oxygenate water. Big bubbles do that very well! I stopped using air stones for the last couple years I ran dwc.
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ah good to know. I'm kinda remorseful that I didn't get the Hydrobucket system instead. That side opening is genius.

Curious why you stopped DWC?
 
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bobbjoedope

Member
ProPheT 216 said:
Run your hose thru the net basket before you fill with rocks, cut the hose above the rocks and add a connecter. Now when you move the basket u can disconnect from the pump easily and move around and the hoses go with the basket
Click to expand...
What kind of connector did you use? Assuming it was easy to take on/off.
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
bobbjoedope said:
ah good to know. I'm kinda remorseful that I didn't get the Hydrobucket system instead. That side opening is genius.

Curious why you stopped DWC?
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Res changes are more work than watering Rockwoll. Also I feel like the nutrients aren't balanced anymore by day 5 in the dwc bucket, the plant has consumed more of one thing than another. I feel a daily feeding provides a better plate of food. The daily feeding allows eating and dropping of ppms quickly, in the dwc even tho the plant is eating the ppms stay very high because it's 5 days of food not 1 day. So even tho they eat the plate stays full. If I went back to dwc I would let the res sit for 1 day for every gallon of nutrients. 3 gals 3 days, change res out on day 4
 
B

bobbjoedope

Member
ProPheT 216 said:
Res changes are more work than watering Rockwoll. Also I feel like the nutrients aren't balanced anymore by day 5 in the dwc bucket, the plant has consumed more of one thing than another. I feel a daily feeding provides a better plate of food. The daily feeding allows eating and dropping of ppms quickly, in the dwc even tho the plant is eating the ppms stay very high because it's 5 days of food not 1 day. So even tho they eat the plate stays full. If I went back to dwc I would let the res sit for 1 day for every gallon of nutrients. 3 gals 3 days, change res out on day 4
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That makes sense, and that's a very interesting approach. I spoke to master blend on the phone the other day for about a half an hour. They recommended when topping off the reservoir to use the same dilution of nutrients every time. The plant is going to consume what it needs and you won't be able to know what exactly that is. So when you refill the reservoir with the same exact dilution every time, you are refilling that lost nutrient the plant is consuming. But when I asked about increasing the concentrations of all the other nutes, they said it really didn't matter. The plants will use what they need and ignore what they don't.

I'm not sure how that fits in my ear, but maybe that's the difference between hydro and soil. Being you're changing your reservoir once a week, maybe the buildup of nutes is negligible.

What do you do with all that wasted reservoir liquid? Just dump it outside?

And thanks for the link with the hose connectors. I was hoping there would be some type of quick disconnect/connect system so I wouldn't have to feed that hose onto the end of a coupler every time. I do drip irrigation outside for my pepper plants, didn't realize how similar this is. And those couplers often break off in the hose. Maybe I'm of just overthinking this. I don't plan on disconnecting it that often I guess.

Thank you so much for your help.
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
bobbjoedope said:
That makes sense, and that's a very interesting approach. I spoke to master blend on the phone the other day for about a half an hour. They recommended when topping off the reservoir to use the same dilution of nutrients every time. The plant is going to consume what it needs and you won't be able to know what exactly that is. So when you refill the reservoir with the same exact dilution every time, you are refilling that lost nutrient the plant is consuming. But when I asked about increasing the concentrations of all the other nutes, they said it really didn't matter. The plants will use what they need and ignore what they don't.

I'm not sure how that fits in my ear, but maybe that's the difference between hydro and soil. Being you're changing your reservoir once a week, maybe the buildup of nutes is negligible.

What do you do with all that wasted reservoir liquid? Just dump it outside?

And thanks for the link with the hose connectors. I was hoping there would be some type of quick disconnect/connect system so I wouldn't have to feed that hose onto the end of a coupler every time. I do drip irrigation outside for my pepper plants, didn't realize how similar this is. And those couplers often break off in the hose. Maybe I'm of just overthinking this. I don't plan on disconnecting it that often I guess.

Thank you so much for your help.
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Increasing ec/ppm as the plant gets older to try to make the res changes less frequent is every new growers mistake. Feed more often, don't give them more food and make it harder to eat. Topping off is also not advised. You can if you like here and there. Even tho you are replacing what was used, your also replacing what was not used and you will quickly have a imbalance that causes one thing to lock out another.

Just like you can't go off the feed instructions on the packaging most of the time and have to cut the suggested feed in half, I would be careful believing what any manufacturer says. They can't put good info on the bottles then say overfeeding won't hurt. I would ignore that conversation completely
 
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B

bobbjoedope

Member
ProPheT 216 said:
Increasing ec/ppm as the plant gets older to try to make the res changes less frequent is every new growers mistake. Feed more often, don't give them more food and make it harder to eat. Topping off is also not advised. You can if you like here and there. Even tho you are replacing what was used, your also replacing what was not used and you will quickly have a imbalance that causes one thing to lock out another.

Just like you can't go off the feed instructions on the packaging most of the time and have to cut the suggested feed in half, I would be careful believing what any manufacturer says. They can't put good info on the bottles then say overfeeding won't hurt. I would ignore that conversation completely
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Ok, So my buckets hold 3 gallons of solution. Mix 3 gallons of masterblend/mag/cal at 1/2 strength. Every 3 days dump the entire res and refill the same as the first time. Maybe less frequently at first (like 7 days), but then 3 days when the plant is mature and thirsty?

I'm assuming do this the entire life of the plant? I'll monitor for decreasing/increasing nute strength.
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
I'm not saying I know masterblends proper feed strength, just saying in general the labels on almost all packaging lead to overfeeding.
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
bobbjoedope said:
No I got you. I'm just asking about the schedule
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Yea, they will be fine a week at a time in the begining. But once stretch starts and flower hormones are introduced, expect them to drink ¾-1 gal a day. The drinking slows down for the last few weeks also. You can top off after day 3 or 4 and do a weekly res change if u want. Don't long term top off tho, stay with weekly total res refills.
 
B

bobbjoedope

Member
ProPheT 216 said:
Yea, they will be fine a week at a time in the begining. But once stretch starts and flower hormones are introduced, expect them to drink ¾-1 gal a day. The drinking slows down for the last few weeks also. You can top off after day 3 or 4 and do a weekly res change if u want. Don't long term top off tho, stay with weekly total res refills.
Click to expand...
Thank you!!!
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
To shut off the other 4 outlets on the air pump manifold, you can simply run a small piece of tubing from one to the other. 2 tubes will close off 4 of them. Odd ones you can still run a small length of tube, and then jam something in it, or even kink it and hold it with a small zip or twisty tie.
 
B

bobbjoedope

Member
Drop That Sound said:
To shut off the other 4 outlets on the air pump manifold, you can simply run a small piece of tubing from one to the other. 2 tubes will close off 4 of them. Odd ones you can still run a small length of tube, and then jam something in it, or even kink it and hold it with a small zip or twisty tie.
Click to expand...
Nice! Will do!
 
marzig

marzig

Well-Known Member
I'm using two Hydrobuckets which make res changes a breeze. With their HydroPod and Plug I can get 4 gal in no problem. I use the Botanicare line of nutes and mix about 1/2 strength with autos. I get best results with an EC between 1.0 to 1.2 when plants really start stretching and into flower. I top off twice a day with the same nute strength. When I have to start adding 3/4 gal or more per plant each day, I do complete res changes every 5 to 6 days.
 
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