Frist grow doubts, can't choose a path - DWC concerns

[blarg88]

I've had my room, tent, light, filters, res, buckets etc setup for almost 2 weeks now but I'm stuck at the age old crossroads of what setup to run?

DWC, Top Feed, Ebb and Flow?

They are all fairly easy, and quite similar to each other that most of the parts are interchangeable and at this point I can pretty much have any of them without buying more parts :L

I've got a 30 gallon res, 10 gallon controller unit, and 4 5 gallon pots. Various water and air pumps, all types of manifolds, tubing, pipes and fittings.

The only thing I'd be lacking is the actual electronic controller module itself (like the one from the standard cab setup) but I'm trying to avoid purchasing that if I can make something else work.


I'm leaning towards a DIY recirculating water farm type setup (like the 8 pack but with only 4 buckets). 30 gallon res on a shelf draining into the 10 gallon unit with a float valve installed that drains into my 4 buckets. The 10 gallon unit would also have a pump in it either going to feeding rings or recirculating the nutes in each bucket. Each bucket would then have air stones in the bottom and a feeding ring on the top.


My concern with this setup is the fact that each of my buckets will *ALWAYS* have water in the bottom of them and that's where DWC confuses me.

What happens once the roots fill the entire 5 gallon bucket? Do they lay in the water?
Wouldn't having them covered in nutrient solution the entire life of the grow be bad?
How often should the air stones be on in the bottom of each bucket?
How often should the feeding rings be on?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Closet Farmer]

If this is your first grow I would ditch everything and go with a simple bucket system. For my first grow I would use the least complicated system possible. There are a lot of grow forums and experienced growers that use a simple bucket system. I did my second grow on this system and grew some big plants.

This is a White Widow plant I grew in a simple self contained bucket with an airstone about a week away from harvest

 

[Closet Farmer]

The plants grow big roots in the buckets are easy to service.

This is how they looked in my tent starting out

Here is how the three plants looked closer to harvest. They really filled up the 4 by 4 tent really good!

 

[blarg88]

Thanks for the reply!

Although this will be my first full grow, I have experimented a few times. Soil mixes most. Made a nice ebb and flow for a friend but never anything myself.

I do also own a half dozen fish tanks fresh and salt, maintaining water parameters is nothing new to me

Thanks for the pictures. So the root mass just sits atop the nutrient mix the entire cycle of the grow? Are the bubbles on a timer or do you have them on 24/7?

Your setup looks good. I'd use the same, except I'm going to add the nute rez, and the control unit (for automatically topping off each bucket, easier maintenance)

I just went into further thinking by trying to employ the use of a pump to either recirculate the water for each bucket, or provide some sort of top feed I just wasn't sure if the feed to the top could be constant like the bubbles or if I would have put it on a timer and water 'X' amount of times a day?

Also looking through your journals I noticed you were using LEDs. I have a 120w LED I was thinking of using for this grow as well. How were your yeilds with the UFOs? (reading your journals now)

 

[Closet Farmer]

Thanks for the reply!

Although this will be my first full grow, I have experimented a few times. Soil mixes most. Made a nice ebb and flow for a friend but never anything myself.

I do also own a half dozen fish tanks fresh and salt, maintaining water parameters is nothing new to me

Thanks for the pictures. So the root mass just sits atop the nutrient mix the entire cycle of the grow? Are the bubbles on a timer or do you have them on 24/7?

Your setup looks good. I'd use the same, except I'm going to add the nute rez, and the control unit (for automatically topping off each bucket, easier maintenance)

I just went into further thinking by trying to employ the use of a pump to either recirculate the water for each bucket, or provide some sort of top feed I just wasn't sure if the feed to the top could be constant like the bubbles or if I would have put it on a timer and water 'X' amount of times a day?

Also looking through your journals I noticed you were using LEDs. I have a 120w LED I was thinking of using for this grow as well. How were your yeilds with the UFOs? (reading your journals now)

I have an ebb and gro journal now you could check out. This system does not have airstones in the buckets. I put them in the res tank instead. This is a more complicated system. It does work very well. The results are no better than the bucket system. However. I only have to change one res instead of each individual plant as in the bucket system. The ebb and grow does have a pump that will fill up the buckets and drain at time intervals. I do every 4 hours when the lights are on.

Yes, I have LED's. They are great for veg. They are TERRIBLE for flowering. My first grow was with my UFO LED lights. I ended up with no useable buds whatsoever!!!! I would not recomend LED lights for flowering because they are not intense enough to make big buds. I use them for veg only. I have heard if you use the same wattage for led that you would use for HID you can get the same results. I do not find that to be a very economical way to get the most bang for your buck.

The only reason I though you should start with the most basic system is you will come up with alot of issues that will be confusing and having a complicated growing system will only add to that.

 

[Closet Farmer]

I forgot to answer a question on my last post.

The bubble in the individual buckets are not on a timer and run 24/24. I really did have great results with this system. It is very simple.

 

[blarg88]

Thanks for the speedy reply! I'm still reading through your journals so far I'm impressed!

Your absolutely right about keeping it simple for when other problems occur. I'll probably stick with the basic DWC system with the separate res for easy water changes.

I really appreciate your input and all the pictures on your journals, a lot of help to a newbie like me!

 

[flogger11]

"Your absolutely right about keeping it simple for when other problems occur. I'll probably stick with the basic DWC system with the separate res for easy water changes."

Good call!

 

[Closet Farmer]

Thanks for the speedy reply! I'm still reading through your journals so far I'm impressed!

Your absolutely right about keeping it simple for when other problems occur. I'll probably stick with the basic DWC system with the separate res for easy water changes.

I really appreciate your input and all the pictures on your journals, a lot of help to a newbie like me!

No problem. Me helping you makes me feel better myself!! When I first started using this site. People like Pit Viper and other respected growers that have come and gone, helped me and I appreciated it too. Even though I have bought and read grow books. I usually just use them for references. I get more information from these pages that anywhere else.

You are very welcome!