DWC planning for 2nd grow

[blacksaint]

just about to harvest my first grow, and have been planning my second grow.

 

I'm gonna give DWC bubblers a bash. It seems to have have many positives, and few negatives, which seem to be manageable. Hopefully, I won't fuck it up I'm all armed, with a dangerous amount of knowledge, and one grow almost behind me.

 

Have made up some buckets - bought a few the other day and some other things. Got the soldering iron out on some 150mm pots and made myself some netpots.

 

Ended up also that some 290mm pot saucers I bought fit perfectly over 2 different size buckets. The 2 sizes are 10L and 20L .You think the 10L one is too small? See pics below of the 2 buckets.

 

I'd have probably 4 buckets at most, plus a control and maybe a top up reservoir. The water management I think I'm gonna have to pay close attention to, as it seems pretty critical in this type of grow.

 

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Oh yeah, here's a pic of my 1 Celtic Stone, smellin sweet, and all systems go to pick tomorrow.

 

[bufo marinus]

Wow, nice Celtic Stone plant.

Yes water temps are critical in DWC, really need to buy or make yourself a chiller, plus get a water heater for when temps drop

Like to see you have a win with it

[blacksaint]

yeah thanks bufo.....

 

I was just working out the water requirements for the grow. If I have say 4 20L buckets, plus a nute tank. Then the 20L buckets will need to be say 3/4 full, thats 60L, plus the nute res, say another 30 L at least..thats nearly 100L all up.

 

I understand it's best to flush the buckets once a week. Got a coupla questions though.

 

 

Do you dump the bucket contents back into the nute res or toss it on the garden?

Also, how often is usual practice to dump the nute reservoir and mix a new batch?

 

If anyone can offer some advice, it would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

[Chato]

hey blacksaint good to see another dwc convert

 

few things bro and some answers, firstly i'd recomennd light proofing the buckets although i see the smaller one is already black. your right with your calculations and you can expect to be drinkin around 10l a day when they firing. flushin depends a lot on how clean your water is and what sort of additives you use, for example addin pk13/14 or rockjuice or monsta bud will require you to flush the system.

 

as rough guide i usually flush once during veg, i leave rezzy go for up to 2 weeks without changing and in flower i flush 3 times roughly according to addivities as explained above. good luck bro.

 

peace

c

Edited January 7, 2007 by Chato

[blacksaint]

yeah thanks chato....just what I was after...

 

the other bucket's liteproof too..maybe its the photo..I'll probably end up getting 4 black/dark 20L buckets, so they match

 

yeah I was thinkin 2 weeks for the nute res, including a couple of times in veg, once at 12/12, once after PK13/14, and again a week before harvest.

Sweet.

 

When you flush the nute res, do you flush the buckets as well with Ph adjusted water or similar?

 

I'll have another good read of some of your dwc threads again....couple a CS cones first though

 

Thanks again Chato

[Chato]

hey mate no worries always down for shootin the shit about dwc.

 

when you flush it's full water change for 24hrs, means bigger system more water needed which is on the negatives about dwc.

 

good reason for having good water and keepin system clean as possible so as to avoid havin to do unnecssary water changes. i use r/o water and it has a really slow flow rate so doin wate change for me means collecting water for almost 2 days . i try to flush as little as possible and also use ozone in the water for extra protection. enjoy the cs bro!

 

peace

c

Edited January 7, 2007 by Chato

[blacksaint]

yeah thanks for the tips chato......

 

just perusing some of ya grow threads. Some wicked and top shelf stuff there mate.

Stuff to aim for.

 

Re the water, yeah I'd like as minimal number of waters changes as possible. My tap water is pretty clean. Doesn't even register on the Bluelab, so it's under 0.2 EC. So I was thinking of just using this.

With the size of my last water bill though (not grow related), it might be cheaper for me to buy it

 

Ozone in the water? I'll have to read up on that one. I was thinkin of some sort of sterilising additive to the water....like pythoff or similar.

[loylty gets u nothing]

hey guys

i love the dwc style

i limit my use of buckets to winter only

that way i have some control of the water temps

i also run 1 day of straight phed water per 14 days

in both grow and bloom, try it some time the plants love it

lookin forward to sein ya set up growin n flowerin

all the best

bil

[blacksaint]

Well guys, I've ditched the DWC idea...too many water probs after 5 days. I'd done my homework, just didn't work out this time.

Will certainly give it a go next grow. Got some wicked root growth in 5 days.

 

Have started a new thread for me 2nd grow.

Thanks for the tips fellas....will be referring to for next grow.