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Hydroponic Growers Group!

OK, then I don't understand. What do you mean by "sludge"?

In 1-3 hours the water becomes super-saturated with O2 with the emitter. It doesn't need to be run constantly to maintain high levels of O2.
 
If you are running temps in that range you would probably want to cycle it more frequently. They seem to be the type of company that would offer advice about this.

The bacteria really couldn't grow though... It wouldn't have enough time even if O2 levels dropped for a couple hours.
 
OK so you've convinced me to get wet after playing in the dirt. Air stones - cylindrical, round, disk, or grid? I'll be using two per for 10 gallon totes, or one per if the grid wins.
 
ALSO - I've decided to make the additional investment for top-fed. 3 sites per 10 gallon tote. I obviously want it to have enough power to be effective, but I don't want to send the Hydrotron through the wall like shotgun pellets! For the submersible pump, what gph should I go with? Thanks in advance, you folks are awesome!
 
I prefer 4” cylinders myself, cheap, effective, and you won’t break the bank replacing them after 2-3 grows. 1 stone for every 5 gallons of water and spend the extra $$ on a larger air pump with a manifold. For a top feed pump I would follow the GWE hydro tutorial, I believe a 185 gph pump is recommended which is more than enough.

You mentioned 3 sites per 10 gallon. Can you clarify how many plants you intend to take to harvest per 10 gallon? I do not recommend more than 1 plant per bucket after the roots reach the water.

The totes work well for most growers but I love a system with a reservoir that is outside the tent, makes for easy all day access to check pH, PPM, and water level.
 
Obi-Wan
No more than two per, with one being far more likely.

​​​​​​​(I apologize if I'm mussing up the format and making seperate postings - I can't figure out how to comment on an existing post.)
 
here's my dealio that I took apart because of bacteria. Now i hand water until I can figure it out

20 gallon top feed to waste into coco. FloraFlex drip caps and bubbler, 20 gallon trash can, fill to 16 gallons, 2 lines per plant, crappy air pump for a fish tank that is too weak and a big pump connected to the bubbler. I think it;s 250 GPM.

The caps keep algae from growing on top of the coco. It was working great until about 70 degrees, then forget it. it watered 4x per day and pumped out the waste into a 5 gallon bucket, that part I still use.

I have an air conditioner in my space but It's really inefficient to run it all the time because of the space and how it's used. I plan to restart it int he fall using a large hydro air pump.

Things I don't know:

will the pump feed enough O2 to the water and will it stay at temps of 75 F? Some really good info above Obi-Wan , what pump /air stone thing are you using?
 

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Hello everyone,

Got a question for the group.
I'm growing in a recirculating DWC system consisting of 4 plant buckets & a main res.
A week back I posted about the pH of the water dropping fast over the course of a couple of days and I asked myself a question:
(Post: https://forum.growweedeasy.com/foru...1422-dwc-hydroponics-water-ph-drops-over-time )

How much influence does the location of the water pump in the main res affect the mixing of the water returning from the plant buckets back into the res have?

In my system, the return hoses come back to the bottom of the main res (can't change that easily) which is also where the pump sits, right where that return water comes back in.

With the pump being there, i'd imagine that the return water doesnt get much of a chance to mix properly with the water already in the main res, and would therefore be recirculating the 'waste' water straight back into the plant buckets without picking up much of the goodness in the main res.

i've added a rough sketch of the system for better understanding.
Pump was in location 1 (on the bottom), but i took it up to position 2.

any thoughts on this?

thanks.
 

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I would recommend maybe adding a "stirring pump". Just a small submersible pump in the Res with a small hose or even no hose. If you want to get really fancy you could make a little candy cane hose to also oxygenate the water.
The issue here is the pump will create a little heat when it runs.
 
Cronk Could you use frozen water bottles on those hottest days? They should be effective in a tank that size. Probably 1 frozen 2 liter bottle would drop it from 80 to 70 in under an hour.

Also, don't forget the issue about the water in the lines that Obi-Wan raised earlier. You should try to have the lines go up out of the tank and then down to the plants, rather than down from the tank and up to the plants.
 
Campesino, yes the lines. problem is swapping position of the tent and res. The layout of the building dictates their placement. Also, finding a pump to send the water 12' vertically if I want to put the res a floor below. not sure what kind of pump will do that. good call with the water bottles.
 
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