My RDWC

[Stltoed]

Im proud of my RDWC rig for a few reasons, 1. Its clean without pipes going every which way. 2. It works. The bins are from 2 GH Rainforest aeroponic systems. I bought one, but the power cable was wonky, and i had seedlings that needed to go somwhere so i went DWC. I was fairly seccessful and bought another Rainforest to make it RDWC.


This system has 2 pots 17gal. And a res. 27 gal. I call it 50 so it makes nutrients easier and leaves some padding so burning leaves dont happen so much.

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• Stltoed
• Apr 17, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Apr 17, 2019

The pictures above have the tops removed from the bins to show the amount of airflow in the tubs. Right now my air pump is an 85 liter

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• Stltoed
• Apr 17, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Apr 19, 2019

These show the net pots and their locations. If i added some holes i could SOG 14 plants, i may do that someday. Right now i have 3 plants. 2 Lemon Zkittles and a Strawberry Banana

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• Stltoed
• May 24, 2019

I have always used the Gen Hydro trio for base nutes. I use Botanicare CalMag, and Silica Blast, ive used Armor Si, and Aptus Fasilator for Silica in the past, i like Aptus, but its stupid expensive. I also use Thrive Alive to help the Micro nutes, Fulvic acid ( i like Fulpower from Bioag). I use Koolbloom wet for a PK booster and Mendicino Avalanche to finish. Ive used Koolbloom Dry in the past to finish, but i like Avalanche more

I usually SCROG... I made a frame and velcroed it to the wall on one side. Right now its height is set up for 25 gallon Smart pots, (i dont always grow in hydro) and a bit lower than i like. When the net isnt in use i hinge it up and mount it to the wall.

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• Stltoed
• Apr 18, 2019

The pots and reservoir are connected together with 2" hose and bulkheads. This large hose allows the return line to travel back through the hose from the res. and its pump to the bin farthest away. This is kinda hard to explain without a picture so here goes...

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• Stltoed
• Apr 17, 2019
• 2

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• Stltoed
• Apr 17, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Apr 17, 2019

The first pictures shows the res., the pump and feed line.
This line pushes the nutes to the first, farthest bin. Water pressure pushes the water back through the 2" hose to the res. When adding nutes it takes a few minutes to normalize, nothing too long. I use an autofill valve coming from a Hydrologic 300 RO filter... i LOVE this piece. If you dont have an autofill get one. Ive added a 6 inch round stone and an Eco 3 pump to the res. recently to do away with any dead spots.

I use a Hanna meter to give the vitals.

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• Stltoed
• Apr 19, 2019

I like this thing, but it gave me a scare and i thought i was going to have to replace the probe. At $175 its rediculously expensive. The meter seems to be working now, but i have been double checking it with a handheld Millwaukee meter for giggles.

I grow in a heavily insulated shed. For environment, i have a window AC, a dehumidifier, an 8 inch inline fan that pulls are through 3 6 inch holes in the wall and a through a 3M filter. This fan is exhausted through the roof.

On the res is a 6 inch fan that blows through the lid and cools the water. It sounds ridiculous, but i can cool it down by 10 degrees from the ambient. No need for a chiller.

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• Stltoed
• Apr 17, 2019

Im using an MH/HPS with an XXL reflector. I keep it at 650, but i guess its good for 1100watts.... though i will never need it. Im still on the fence with this light. This is my second season with it. Historically ive used Platinum (two different styles) G8, Perfect Sun, Spectrum King and Black Dog LEDs. Im new to HPS.


Here are a few pictures of this system at work

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• Stltoed
• Feb 22, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Feb 22, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Feb 22, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Feb 22, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Feb 22, 2019

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• Stltoed
• Feb 22, 2019

I hope you enjoyed my show and tell. If you have questions please ask

 

[irie lion]

Awesome looking setup @Stltoed!! It's running well that's for sure. Some monster buds you pulled there! That is a big haul, what was your final weight?

 

[Stltoed]

Awesome looking setup @Stltoed!! It's running well that's for sure. Some monster buds you pulled there! That is a big haul, what was your final weight?

That season was 2 plants. The yield was 27oz for the both. The plant with the big buds weighed just over a pound the other weighed almost 11oz. If you look at the picture of the table with the buds you will see the 1 pound plant laid out and the other in the jars at the other end of the table.

Thanks man. That grow was fun, hoping to do it again this season

 

[Bluesunshine]

Dear Lord,, that's amazing!
Just look at those roots,,, and those jars!!

 

[Stltoed]

Dear Lord,, that's amazing!
Just look at those roots,,, and those jars!!

Thank you! The only time I ever grew a 1 pound plant. Are you a soil guy?

 

[Bluesunshine]

Thank you! The only time I ever grew a 1 pound plant. Are you a soil guy?

I think so,, I only know that plants grow in dirt,, anything other than that I tend toward thinking it's witchcraft. While I try to keep everything in my life as natural as I can I'm not opposed to change,,it's more about ones learning and experience to date I suppose.
This little grow will be soil.

 

[bluenoserjoe]

Great job on the set up @Stltoed , love the ingenuity. also run a evaporative fan in my system. A very inexpensive way to keep water temps. under control. One of the most important but overlooked aspects of hydro. That is one awsome looking harvest you had there.

 

[Stltoed]

I think so,, I only know that plants grow in dirt,, anything other than that I tend toward thinking it's witchcraft. While I try to keep everything in my life as natural as I can I'm not opposed to change,,it's more about ones learning and experience to date I suppose.
This little grow will be soil.

Nothing wrong with soil. Some say you wind up with a better product. I grow in soil too. I grow one of the same strain in my closet that I'm growing in hydro to see which does better. My King Tut season was all soil. There were other soil grows too.

Hydro is fun when everything goes right. I had a bear of a time sorting out water issues in the last round... no fun. I recommend trying a bubble pot some day. You will need a Ph/TDS meter and acid/base solutions, all that stuff is easy enough to learn. When its dialed in you will see bigger plants faster. It's kind of fun. I started with hydro.

 

[Stltoed]

Great job on the set up @Stltoed , love the ingenuity. also run a evaporative fan in my system. A very inexpensive way to keep water temps. under control. One of the most important but overlooked aspects of hydro. That is one awsome looking harvest you had there.

Curious. Where did you get the idea for using a fan?

 

[Bluesunshine]

Nothing wrong with soil. Some say you wind up with a better product. I grow in soil too. I grow one of the same strain in my closet that I'm growing in hydro to see which does better. My King Tut season was all soil. There were other soil grows too.

Hydro is fun when everything goes right. I had a bear of a time sorting out water issues in the last round... no fun. I recommend trying a bubble pot some day. You will need a Ph/TDS meter and acid/base solutions, all that stuff is easy enough to learn. When its dialed in you will see bigger plants faster. It's kind of fun. I started with hydro.

I think that's the stumbling block for me with hydro,, having to suss it out and not knowing anything about it. At least with the soil I had an idea as I have a friend that dose a few plants each winter and gets him enough to see him through the year eeking it out just a little each night.
I was fascinated with the plants,, probably just the forbidden fruit factor, as being stoned has never been an attraction for myself !
I did however learn the basics from him doing it,,, also as this we grow is rather necessary to get my prostate sorted out I feel safer with the soil.
I bought two Phillips 31k CMH 315's and I am going to throw a we LED panel in there as well.
I'm hoping to manage two grows before the summer comes but not sure if it's possible.
Perhaps you could give me your thougts,, my thoughts are to maybe start off ten seeds two types 5 NL the other 5 being one of the high CBD strains.
I rekon veg for 5 or 6 weeks and before I flip I could take some clones form in under and maybe get a little clone tent.
The bit that I am not sure of is if I would be able to keep the clones from getting to big over the flowering period by using a low wattage light and keeping the pot sizes down.
I have a 2ft square 4000K led panel which is only about 40W.
It would save y seed and enable me to maybe get that second batch before the better weather,, I'm just afraid of not being able to control the smell if the temp goes up.
Realistically I have to May so six months to get packed away for the summer.
Whatcha think?

 

[Stltoed]

I think that's the stumbling block for me with hydro,, having to suss it out and not knowing anything about it. At least with the soil I had an idea as I have a friend that dose a few plants each winter and gets him enough to see him through the year eeking it out just a little each night.
I was fascinated with the plants,, probably just the forbidden fruit factor, as being stoned has never been an attraction for myself !
I did however learn the basics from him doing it,,, also as this we grow is rather necessary to get my prostate sorted out I feel safer with the soil.
I bought two Phillips 31k CMH 315's and I am going to throw a we LED panel in there as well.
I'm hoping to manage two grows before the summer comes but not sure if it's possible.
Perhaps you could give me your thougts,, my thoughts are to maybe start off ten seeds two types 5 NL the other 5 being one of the high CBD strains.
I rekon veg for 5 or 6 weeks and before I flip I could take some clones form in under and maybe get a little clone tent.
The bit that I am not sure of is if I would be able to keep the clones from getting to big over the flowering period by using a low wattage light and keeping the pot sizes down.
I have a 2ft square 4000K led panel which is only about 40W.
It would save y seed and enable me to maybe get that second batch before the better weather,, I'm just afraid of not being able to control the smell if the temp goes up.
Realistically I have to May so six months to get packed away for the summer.
Whatcha think?

Hydro can be daunting. It's worth it, but I wont sell it too hard. You have a friend that knows soil, so keep it simple.

When starting clones you want to think about when they will be used. It you pull a clone from a 5 week old plant, you still have whatever time is left in veg then all of flower so more than 2 months. That's a long time to keep a plant without really doing anything with it. But it's possible. You can pull clones just prior to going to flower, which is good because the mother should be an "adult" by then. Or, you can pull clones from a flowering mother. This takes more time to get a clone going, and will promote very strange growth when it starts to veg again. The resultant plant might have curly leaves or an unusual number of leaf fingers. The plant will probably grow super dense. Doing this requires some tutelage, let me know if cloning a flowering plant is your plan and we can go through it.

A clone tent is a great idea, especially if you are doing everything in the same room. Light pollution is a real problem for flowering plants. It also keeps the clones clean, and helps a little with humidity. Pick yourself up a 75watt CFL in the 4000k to 5500k color temp, and you're set.

A CMH is a great light. It doesnt take up too much power, its cooler than a HPS and has a better color spectrum. The down side is you gotta buy the bulbs. And you need two different bulbs per light for a full season. But, i think you'll be happy with your lights.

 

[Bluesunshine]

Hydro can be daunting. It's worth it, but I wont sell it too hard. You have a friend that knows soil, so keep it simple.

When starting clones you want to think about when they will be used. It you pull a clone from a 5 week old plant, you still have whatever time is left in veg then all of flower so more than 2 months. That's a long time to keep a plant without really doing anything with it. But it's possible. You can pull clones just prior to going to flower, which is good because the mother should be an "adult" by then. Or, you can pull clones from a flowering mother. This takes more time to get a clone going, and will promote very strange growth when it starts to veg again. The resultant plant might have curly leaves or an unusual number of leaf fingers. The plant will probably grow super dense. Doing this requires some tutelage, let me know if cloning a flowering plant is your plan and we can go through it.

A clone tent is a great idea, especially if you are doing everything in the same room. Light pollution is a real problem for flowering plants. It also keeps the clones clean, and helps a little with humidity. Pick yourself up a 75watt CFL in the 4000k to 5500k color temp, and you're set.

A CMH is a great light. It doesnt take up too much power, its cooler than a HPS and has a better color spectrum. The down side is you gotta buy the bulbs. And you need two different bulbs per light for a full season. But, i think you'll be happy with your lights.

I think I could manage it,, perhaps get a slightly larger tent maybe 2 ft X 4 X 6 it would give me more scope than a clone tent,, I could ever turn it on it's side to give me 6 X 2 of acerage to work with repot as I go,, add a bit more light maybe grab another two of those 4000k panels and try and get them to the stage were they are more or less ready to flip when I transfer to the 8 X 4 that I currently have.
I'm thinking time wise it might be about manageable thinking a total of 21- 22 weeks to do it,, dose that sound like a reasonable proposition time wise or am I being a little ambitious with my times?
I can't remember from the grow that I did,, I was all just a bit of a wing and a prayer, making decisions as I felt right at the time but I wasn't really counting days.
I'm more or less thinking 5 to 7 veg 7 to 8 flower and another 7 to 8 to flower the clones,,, any thoughts?

 

[Stltoed]

I think I could manage it,, perhaps get a slightly larger tent maybe 2 ft X 4 X 6 it would give me more scope than a clone tent,, I could ever turn it on it's side to give me 6 X 2 of acerage to work with repot as I go,, add a bit more light maybe grab another two of those 4000k panels and try and get them to the stage were they are more or less ready to flip when I transfer to the 8 X 4 that I currently have.
I'm thinking time wise it might be about manageable thinking a total of 21- 22 weeks to do it,, dose that sound like a reasonable proposition time wise or am I being a little ambitious with my times?
I can't remember from the grow that I did,, I was all just a bit of a wing and a prayer, making decisions as I felt right at the time but I wasn't really counting days.
I'm more or less thinking 5 to 7 veg 7 to 8 flower and another 7 to 8 to flower the clones,,, any thoughts?

It sounds great, but slow growing due to any number of reasons may hold you up. You gotta choose the path of least resistance. I never flip on a date, iflip when I know the plant is ready. The time you've allotted looks good. I would add a couple weeks to flower though. I constantly make changes to suit. The overall timeframe really shouldn't go past 16 weeks for a strain like Northern Lights. Veg time may go as long as 8 weeks depending on how well your plants take to your medium. Length of flower is purely dictated by the plant. And they are usually all different. Sativas can take as long as 12 weeks just in flower. Girl Scout Cookies is one like that. I usually go a couple weeks past the reported finish date. It's all about the trichomes. The due date given by the breeder comes from SOG grows, in perfect conditions. This leaves the rest of us checking trichomes to check ripeness

It sounds like you want a perpetual grow scenario. It's usually multiple tents that are timed to produce a harvest every so often at an expected interval. So you always have a harvest coming up. The more tents the less the gap between harvests. This is a super simplistic definition. There are a few people that would be happy to share the magic if you ask nicely. This is an advanced grow method, because anything can hang up your plants for a while. It isn't hard, you just need to know how to grow pot to curb the issues. I dont believe it would work for me unless I seriously adjusted my room. it's a great way to go if your trying to make money, I've thought about it

The clones will take a couple weeks to get going. I'm not sure of your rooting method. Once they are in the pot and roots are really going for it you're probably looking at another week. All this is a rough estimate, and can be much different in real life. Be sure to root more than you need. Pull the clones from the lower branches not the top. These branches flower easier, and faster. Be sure to use a humidity dome if you can

 

[bluenoserjoe]

Curious. Where did you get the idea for using a fan?

The idea sure isn't anything new ,well maybe to growers, I ran aquariums many years ago and believe me when I say tropical fish can be way more finicky when it comes to water temp. It came up in conversation on here a year or so ago while talking about the cost of chillers. While a chiller is great for med to large res. set ups, I only run twenty liters so it would be cost prohibitive for me.
This set up is relatively cheap to build and to run. No heat and quiet as can be.

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• bluenoserjoe
• Sep 29, 2019

 

[Stltoed]

I kinda came across it by accident. I grow in a shed (I think you know that) in Southern California. It was super hot and I needed a place for my new seedlings. The chiller showed up in the mail but it was broken. I put a couple holes in my res lid plugged in the fan and it worked. I dont know of anyone else that uses a fan. A couple friends have tried it but seem to have abandoned the idea. I've gotten in to spicey debates with folks over its effectiveness.

 

[Bluesunshine]

The idea sure isn't anything new ,well maybe to growers, I ran aquariums many years ago and believe me when I say tropical fish can be way more finicky when it comes to water temp. It came up in conversation on here a year or so ago while talking about the cost of chillers. While a chiller is great for med to large res. set ups, I only run twenty liters so it would be cost prohibitive for me.
This set up is relatively cheap to build and to run. No heat and quiet as can be.

20190929_084946.jpg

• bluenoserjoe
• Sep 29, 2019

Perhaps for anyone wanting to complicate there lives a bit more in the wonderful world of hydroponics,, they could try doing in organically by keeping fish in the water,,,,
theirs probably somebody already doing.
Blue

 

[bluenoserjoe]

My fan will keep my res. approx. 5 to 6 Degrees cooler then without. So the naysayers can stuff it. You can buy purpose set ups for aquariums, they just clip over the lip. Although they work great I had to diy mine to fit the cover of the res.

 

[Bluesunshine]

My fan will keep my res. approx. 5 to 6 Degrees cooler then without. So the naysayers can stuff it. You can buy purpose set ups for aquariums, they just clip over the lip. Although they work great I had to diy mine to fit the cover of the res.

It makes perfect sense that it would cool the water,, especially if there is a bubblier in the tank and the air going through the line is below the temp in the tank as the tiny bubbles or air are absorbing the heat as they are coming up through the water the warm air is then being removed from the top by the fan so it dosen't provide an insulating layer of warm air.
Some people just are not capable of thinking and unless they are sold and told by a company that something will do something by the printing on the box then it won't work.

 

[Stltoed]

There was a local hydro place that dealt with aquaponics. Everytime I went in there they would try to give me a tilapia. Haha

 

[Stltoed]

There was a local hydro place that dealt with aquaponics. Everytime I went in there they would try to give me a tilapia. Haha