Nice Setup. Still curious as hell to see how you are controlling the floods and stuff exactly. I can see the components, but just can't make out exactly what kind of system it is, or how it works, lol. 
Indoor At it again!
- Thread starter AutoToker
- Start date
I'm adding the pump in the control bucket now to a 3/4" ebb and flow fitting, to the outside of the control bucket. I'm gonna hook the 3/4" lines individually to each bucket and make a hole in the 3/4" hosing to fit the 1/4" barb fittings, I bought, to hook 1/4 air lines as the real feed lines. So it will top feed and have the air intake hole directly under the feed line. Question is will my system still recurciulate since I have each bucket connected individually since they all hook directly to the control bucket? All the other RDWC systems have all the buckets connected in rows, mine have individual drain lines. And do I want to focus the aeriation on the res or the control bucket? I've seen people put the pump on the outsdie, I don't understand that shit yet. Will it still work properly? BTW the pump is a 450GPH pump I ordered off Amazon, think that will suffice? Or go bigger?
BTW: These little fittings and shit cost alot of money when your buying like 10 at a time and shit. I got 180$ in hoses and fitting only. I had everything else, except the smaller 290GPH pump. I'm very happy I got that big ass air pump (450GPH) . It pumps 20x as much air as the walmart branded ones.
BTW: These little fittings and shit cost alot of money when your buying like 10 at a time and shit. I got 180$ in hoses and fitting only. I had everything else, except the smaller 290GPH pump. I'm very happy I got that big ass air pump (450GPH) . It pumps 20x as much air as the walmart branded ones.
Yeah, that's why I asked if it was going to be a top feed system. Heck yeah, it'll circulate just fine. I don't think whether your return lines are individual, or manifold style matters as all. I think they just put them that way to make em look nice, and neat. As far as functionality goes though I would rather have individual lines so you can move the buckets around if you need to. As long as you are top feeding, it has no choice but to circulate back to the main bucket. Very simple design, and works GREAT. Recirculating Deep Water Culture is a bad ass system. Are you still planning on having it flood, and drain? That's not really necessary. I think the Deep Water Culture will out perform an ebb n flow any day. I would put an airstone in each bucket.
You could have saved quite a bit of money by just using rubber grommets, and barbed fittings from Lowes or Home Depot. The grommets are only like 30 cents, and the fittings are not much more. They push right into the grommets, and I've never had one leak. You don't really need a huge pump for a top feed system, but what you've got is probably perfect. I used a smaller 250 and moved enough water to make the levels in my bucket uneven because I didn't have individual drain lines which is why I say they are a good idea.
Having the pump internal, or external doesn't matter. It's a great system, but if you decide to add on use rubber grommets and barbed fittings from the hardware store. Sucks you put so much money into it, but it'll be a good system and you learned a lot. It shouldn't cost you more than 10 bucks including everything per bucket to add on if you use hardware store stuff.
The first system I build was an under current. I vowed that I would go with top feed after that. It worked ok, but the middle bucket was always a bit higher than the two side buckets since the pump was pumping into it. Bigger drain lines would have fixed it, but I retired it after a while. Next system will be top feed recirculating.
You could have saved quite a bit of money by just using rubber grommets, and barbed fittings from Lowes or Home Depot. The grommets are only like 30 cents, and the fittings are not much more. They push right into the grommets, and I've never had one leak. You don't really need a huge pump for a top feed system, but what you've got is probably perfect. I used a smaller 250 and moved enough water to make the levels in my bucket uneven because I didn't have individual drain lines which is why I say they are a good idea.
Having the pump internal, or external doesn't matter. It's a great system, but if you decide to add on use rubber grommets and barbed fittings from the hardware store. Sucks you put so much money into it, but it'll be a good system and you learned a lot. It shouldn't cost you more than 10 bucks including everything per bucket to add on if you use hardware store stuff.
The first system I build was an under current. I vowed that I would go with top feed after that. It worked ok, but the middle bucket was always a bit higher than the two side buckets since the pump was pumping into it. Bigger drain lines would have fixed it, but I retired it after a while. Next system will be top feed recirculating.
Yup, I have decided to top/side feed through the plant buckets. My question is, I put alot of that GE silicion shit on the fitting to make extra seels, and my nutrient soloution is def going to come into contact with it. Is that okay? Will it harm the nutrient solution? Set is almost done. I did so much extra un-needed work its incredible. Learning curve. The system really is 95% complete now. Pics tonight. Please get back at me about the GE Silicion damaging the solution. Thanks!
Nah, as long as that silicon is dry it won't hurt anything. Can't wait to see the system. I've actually bought 40 1" Grommets about 6 weeks ago for a 12 bucket undercurrent build, but I'm thinking of going top feed with it. I know going from 1/2' tubing to 1' pipe will fix the problem with the buckets being uneven, but I'm still thinking top feed would be the best. I always leaned toward the undercurrent route because I figured I could cycle the water faster. I hate having to wait 30 minutes between PH or EC measurement everytime I need to adjust it.
^ Ya I totally got ya man. Same shit here. I heard its always better to have large return lines (1"), smaller feed like (1/2"), and even smaller air lines (1/4"). I guess it makes the re-circulation work alot more effective. I had some other shit come up today so I did get to much done but I am really at the point to where I just need to seal the res to the float valve, run some tests, figure out the water levels, and clean all that nasty tap water I've been using out of the system. So def pics tomorrow, since I'm off all day and that is my only priority. I have all the parts (even all hooked up), but 1 part (3/4" threaded male to a 1/2" female adapter) to make my res return line super secure, can't have 32 gallons of water just spill out. I've seriously have taken so many extra percautions with this build because I'm so paranoid of leaks and shit. Every where a hose connects is silicion sealed and barb sealed. It actually looks real tight. So pics tomorrow for sure! Thanks for keeping interested Taviddude, makes doing all this shit fun!
This is for you Tav: [video=youtube;mRxfyWrpuKo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRxfyWrpuKo[/video]
About 30 minutes after this video, the weak ass tote that was supporting my res broke. You can guess the rest of what happened :no:! FML. Luckily everything in the tent was fine. Thank god for shut off valves. Anyway, Fixed the res up, bought a new table to that supports up to 500 pounds. No worries. Just waiting for the res to fill up. I'll keep yall updated.
About 30 minutes after this video, the weak ass tote that was supporting my res broke. You can guess the rest of what happened :no:! FML. Luckily everything in the tent was fine. Thank god for shut off valves. Anyway, Fixed the res up, bought a new table to that supports up to 500 pounds. No worries. Just waiting for the res to fill up. I'll keep yall updated.
Btw, my Nebula died this morning =/ I need 4 photo's so I just germinated an Afghan Kush x Skunk. I used it for its shorter flowering time so it should finish around the same time as the others even being 3 weeks behind.
Updated video. Everything is finally done!!!!!!! Thank god. That was seriously so hard, prop just because it was my 1st go at it. but anyway here is the latest status of everything.
[video=youtube;_fy1DVzDSc4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fy1DVzDSc4[/video]
[video=youtube;_fy1DVzDSc4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fy1DVzDSc4[/video]
Similar threads
