which pumps for DWC?

[pipeman]

I'm gonna build my DWC bubblers in the next week or so. I'm planning on 15 to 20L buckets (does this sound about right?) One plant per bucket. All hooked to a control bucket which feeds from a main res. I reckon I'm gonna have 6 buckets in total and am mainly interested in recommendations on air pumps. One big pump for all buckets, or smaller pumps to run 2 buckets each? Also are there any brands that I should stay away from?

[white_cluster]

I run a 9500cc air pump for each 4 buckets, 1 9500cc air pump could run 6, but generally the more air the better, but those big pumps are pretty big.

 

You gotta get sum bubbles to the control bucket and resevoir to, just to keep it from going stagnant, I use a 7500cc air pump for that which also aerates my cloning water, I also run a aquarium filter, rio powerhead thing.

 

I read those links at that overgrow site and there is heaps of stupid things in their article, The main one is that they run 7 tubes out of the control bucket for each bucket, you're heaps better off having 2 tubes and connecting the buckets with T connections and an L connection for the last 2. It'd be a waste of space to have a tube for each bucket, cos if they crossed over etc.. it could make a difference in water levels, and more chance of leaks, the only reason they have 7 tubes is because they copied their system straight off the water farm, which I did to, but not exactly, the only reason for 7 tubes would be quicker drainage, but for quicker drainage use 19mm poly instead of 13mm.

 

I use 15Ltr buckets, and they easily fit my shrubs, If you don't have buckets don't buy any yet, go check out bakeries, donut shops, cafes, etc.... As these guys throw the things out all the time, Most of the buckets I've got originally contained fondant, just wash 'em out with detergent, then h2o2, then heaps of plain water, much better than paying $20 a bucket,

 

Also in that article they tell you to wrap the buckets with 3 rolls of duct tape, this is really stupid, $15 per bucket!!!, I just wrap mine in panda film, white side out.

 

I dunno about airpump brands, all mine are precision which is a fairly cheap brand.

 

Another tip is carbon filters in the airline and using black 4mm poly instead of proper airline, cos airline gets dirty quickly, I dunno if the airline being chunked with mould would effect the plants, but its better to be safe than sorry, also its alot harder to crush the poly tube.

 

I've found no difference with any airstones I've tried and have done side by side comparisons, I like the cheap little porous ones, the plastic ones are no good, (best for fish tanks though), and the stone ones are too expensive.

 

Anyhoo, good luck with the bubblers.

[pipeman]

hey thanks heaps for the tips whitecluster.

[pipeman]

hey whitecluster, a couple more questions.

 

I assume you suggest the black pipe because light causes algae/sludge build up in the lines? If this is so I think I'll still use clear lines and just cover them up, so that I can look inside them if I suspect a problem.

 

Also, why do you need an airstone? Can't I just have the air line fixed to the bottom of the bucket?

[white_cluster]

Yeah, you need an airstone, it makes the air dissolve into the water as well as supplying many fine bubbles instead of a couple of big bubbles, the finer the bubbles, the more air will dissolve into the water.

 

They only cost about $1.50 each for the small porous ones, and the plastic ones only about 50c, the plastic kind will give off the biggest bubbles and is real easy to clean, If your real poor and lazy go with them as they will last forever, but the other ones need a good scrub after each crop, and you need to replace them every year or so. I replace my air line every year too. The other good thing about the plastic ones is you dont need any suction caps because they are heavy enough to hold themselves down. The difference isn't really noticeable.

 

on the black airline, its not that big a deal, it might be better to have clear air line outside the crop and black airline in the crop, then you can see the carbon build up, which is worse than the algae build up. I doubt it would ever block, but I think it would be really hard to cover the stuff. I dunno what would be bad about algae build up in the lines, I just like to have clean air going to the roots, but the black airline is cheaper and the strongest, they have 2 kinds of clear airline, one is made of soft rubber, and the other is clear polytube, the polytube stuff is alot better, it costs a bit more, but the soft rubber airline will easily get crushed and fuck your pump and it seems to build up carbon residue more quickly, maybe that would be a good thing, but using carbon filters in your airline I think is a must.

 

Anyhoo hope that helps.

[pipeman]

ok cool. so thats for a DWC, but with an aero cloner where the idea is to splash the clone above the water would bigger bubbles with bigger splashes be better?

[white_cluster]

You'll need a real big air pump to get splashes, I thought you we're talking DWC cloning, we're the stems are in the water with the bubbles, to get splashes you'll need a much bigger airpump, I did a test 'cos I was pretty interested, and 19000cc couldn't get 1" of froth out of 2" of water, but there was plenty of air in that water, I used to clone like this with the stems in the water, I'd say to get froth above the water you'll need a real big noisey pump, which would be more expensive than building a misting cloner, I dunno how you do it.

 

anyway, the airstones still gave the most froth.

[Tom]

Sounds like you have an effective and low cost system there WC, any chance of some photos?

 

http://www.gamers-forums.com/smilies/contrib/ruinkai/coolgleamA.gif http://64.207.13.28/mysmilies/otn/glasses/smokin.gif

[white_cluster]

no sorry, I'll try to see about getting one off my missus mum to get some pics of my next harvests, but I doubt we'll see her. But a Camera and a new PC are both on my list of things to buy.

[pipeman]

You'll need a real big air pump to get splashes, I thought you we're talking DWC cloning, we're the stems are in the water with the bubbles, to get splashes you'll need a much bigger airpump, I did a test 'cos I was pretty interested, and 19000cc couldn't get 1" of froth out of 2" of water, but there was plenty of air in that water, I used to clone like this with the stems in the water, I'd say to get froth above the water you'll need a real big noisey pump, which would be more expensive than building a misting cloner, I dunno how you do it.

 

anyway, the airstones still gave the most froth.

Well, I am doing both, a bubbling "aero" cloner and then a DWC bubbler to grow them out.

 

This is the "cheapo aero" article from overgrow that I am basing my cloner design on:

 

http://www.overgrow.com/growfaq/?qa=835