DWC Links...

[kmac]

having individual lines back to the control bucket is how its done in the overgrow faq so naturally thats how most overgrowers do it.  a pretty experienced bubbler grower here has said this is a waste of time, and one line branching off into buckets is fine.  he will probably chime in if he sees this thread but I can't be sure, he's pretty gay you know.  

 

if you are doing recirculating system you got to be carful of the water flow encouraging the roots to grow into the line and blocking it.  bubbler roots get pretty solid.  a way I thought of overcoming this is putting a second airstone with a powerful air pump right next to the outlet which would keep the roots away, but I haven't tried this yet.

 

I can vouch for the fact that PH/nute levels do not balance between control bucket and plant buckets.  at each check I would scoop up a few litres of water from the control bucket and pour it through the top of the netpots.  this would help balance the system.  you could setup a pump and drippers as you said to do this automatically.

Pipeman have taken note of your comments to the dwb,system and would like to make a few comments. One the use of various tubes and extra pumps etc. I have run a DWC system for the last three years. I have this evolve over this period to mark 5.

MY system consists of 14 buckets linked together and runs to a single tank. the tubing is run at ( lowest level at bottom of the buckets,to act as drain) The upper line is run at 25mm below the bottom of the net buckets by the use of tees on all but the last bucket where an elbow is used. The same applies to the upper line. They both are run back to the tank,in my setup it is a sixty litre tank and all buckets are 20 litre buckets.

AT the tank the drain line is connected to the bottom of the tank with a cut off tap just ajacent to the tank. The upper line is connected via a Filter to a pump placed at bottom of tank. The comment that it is diffucult to keep PH levels & nute levels even is very easly covered by opening the bottom tap and switching the pump on,this circulates the entire volume of tank and buckets to an even level.The air pump is a small compressor so no more comment is needed.You will have noticed that I have no air pump to tank, no need.as pump is set to run for 30mins three times a day.The one thing that I need to use is that is to use Epson Salts in my mixture

kmac

[white_cluster]

heres a pic of how I run mine, at the bottom there is two lines, could be run with one by putting 2 tees next to each other. (theres 6 buckets but I couldnt get high enough to fit them in cos the lights were in the road and I was too lazy to move them)

All buckets are raised about 1/2 a foot even the control bucket, when I drain the buckets I lower the control bucket which lets me pump the total of the nutrient out of the main buckets. then raise it back up when running the crop. the bottom line is 19mm poly, with the off lines that go into the buckets being 19mm rubber tube from hydro store, middle sized tube is all 13mm poly, and goes in above the waterline so doesn't need to be airtight, if you decide to recirculate, do not pump constantly and do not use a decent pump, use a pump that struggles to get the height of the top of your buckets like a 200lph or under. (regardless of how many buckets, can get them at bunnings for $10 right now), last crop I used a rio800 and lost about 50ltrs till I realised and shut the pump off. the thin line is 4mm poly, its airline from the airpumps, usually its tighter than that and looks nicer, hanging off the 13mm lines is a insect strip.

the next pic is the control bucket, usually that hose coming out of the crop above the bucket goes into the bucket connected to my pump (I was cleaning the pump), there is a tee in the line with a tap after that and to drain the buckets I put a bit of tube on the bit sticking out from the tee and close the tap and instead of going to the buckets the water goes out of the crop, at the end of every crop and sometimes in the middle of the crop if root dieseases are getting to the crop I will slide out the wood from under the control bucket (its not in the picture actually), and pump all the nutes out of the buckets, but usually I just pump as far as my pump lets me so there is still like 20-30ltrs of old water in there.

3rd pic is the raised resevoir, its about 50ltrs, doesn't need to be lightproof as my room is complete darkness 99% of the time. and lets me easily see how much work I need to do just by looking in the door.

the float valve in the control is a simple reln valve, they are much more simple and reliable than the ball type valves, it works by having a ball inside it that when the water is at the right level floats up and seals around the rubber water outlet.

in the hose between the raised res. and the float valve there is a tap, I keep the tap closed and mix my nutes in the raised res, then let them go through to the buckets, usually 2 and a bit of my raised res fills all the buckets. Airpump goes to both raised res and control bucket but without airstones. the airpumps for the buckets are 3 precision 9500, but if I was starting this shit again I would use 1 big fucker. and the air for the res's is a precision 7500.

Remember to keep your system clean with H202 product (I use Oxyclear 6%) and fongarid wash, use 6% H202 at rate of about 3mls per ltr and fongarid as per directions on box. never give your plants a dose of peroxide like that though, especially not in bubblers, keep it under 1ml per 10. and dont try to keep tube to long, it'll need to be either replaced or blasted with water every year or two, especially the soft rubber stuff it gets dirtier than the poly tube. anyway what was I getting at, oh yeah, leave the h202, fong wash in your sys bubbling away for a day or 2 before starting your next crop.

I carried on alot here, all I was trying to show was how to run the lines.

[Black_one]

Talking of O.G has anyone seen the 600 plant colli grow?

 

Im thinking of getting half of one to grow in( Bottem half = 2 bottem modules) Looks very nice i may even get a full one .... Keeping under the ammount of *legal* plants and putting in some garden herbs in the rest of the setup.

 

Whew that was one kickass grow It got me wondering why are yanks so thick? Cumon if your growing 600 plants you dont take pics and post them for your mates to see in some sort of pissing ritual

 

Up the yanks O.G is good 4 a laugh and most of there info is utter shit like cumon if you dont take care to seal your res your going to get mold in it. I could banter on all day but i hear a cone calling me later all

[red13]

just a thought i would mention with all this talk about not linking og to often. i got the link 4 this site off of a posting from there.

 

how ever i use this site where i can because its more relivent when it comes to product availability etc...

plus of course i like to here from oz growers. just thought that i would mention that this really is a good site and i don't think u will lose customers to og; which is also a good site but not as relivant to aussie growers

 

thanx

[red13]

opps i forgot to say i do agree that peeps should type some answers to the posts. just dropping the thread is a bit lazy. also its good to hear opinions of peeps from this site. i like to hear as many opinions as i can. trouble is if we all share the same thread and the thread is wrong we all doing it wrong.

 

ozzy ozzy ozzy

[pipeman]

yeah I think the moderation at overgrow has gotten a lot better and its a much better site now. not so much of the nasty stuff. they are a bit elitist though ::

[phreakah]

All the threads at the top of the page are dead in case noone noticed.

if you go to the overgrow home page it says it has been confiscated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

What a laugh

[MongyMan]

Overgrow was taken down along time ago now phreak. Did you notice this thread you bumped is 7 years old

 

 

Peace MongyMan

[phreakah]

I noticed but didn't know if this thread was useful anymore

No worries