It’s my first post on this awesome platform, woohoo! Hello everyone.
I’ve encountered a specific problem that have been bothering me in a previous cycle - root system, when grown in RDWC, tends to clog the drain holes. How do you guys cope with that?
I guess that is where a handheld 3D printed would be handy, but surely there is another solution.
Thing is, clogging results in unwanted water level raise and may even cause flood. Previous cycle I was forced to drop water level in my control tank to manage, and unstable PH and temperature followed right after.
What size pipes are you using? The bigger the return pipes the better…you won’t get clogged pipes. I used 1 1/2 inch pipes for my system but I’ve seen people using as large as 2 inch pipes
I’m currently on 1/2 inch pipes, both feed and return. I guess you right and I need to somewhat rework my current setup. Gosh, that roots are enormous) Maybe I need to use more than 2 gallon buckets
Yeah I’ve used 1/2 inch ones in the past and they clogged on me also… You will probably want bigger buckets also which will mean bigger plants too… The roots go crazy in RDWC. It’s all that “DO” or dissolved oxygen. You’ll get it dialed in.
My setup has two constant level tubs ; You can do the same with just one tub and from here on I’ll describe it as if there was only one.
The tub has:
-A drain hose at the bottom,
-An overflow drain on the top.
-A Feed line (which you can see going over the tub, in the back)
Water level is set using a section that goes back up on the drain line, set right Under the level of the overflow.
The overfllow has a short crystal section: If roots clog the main drain line, water level will rise to the overflow level and I will be able to spot it in the crystal section.
This is when I reverse the flow for a couple hours : Using the shutoff vavles, I can make it so that the drain become the feed(and overflow become the drain).
This will push back all roots into the tub, and then I switch the valves back to normal.
Problem Solved
Hope this helps !
I might create a thread to explain the design better if you guys ask for it
I can run anywhere from 2 plants (1plant/tub) if I’m around to grow Scrog style, and I’ve been doing up to 16 plants (8/tub) one-bud SOG style when I travel and can’t be around to tend to the plants. (I do have one person coming over once a week to do a flow reverse and change nutes when I’m away, but I wouldn’t trust them to traing the plants in scrog !).
hopefully this will solve your problem. If It did, I would imagine that all dwc systems would come with instructions for doing a back wash every week or x days to eliminate this problem as It seems to be a common issue. I would agree that a larger diameter hose would allow more flow regardless of root mass.
Well, I have never seen any system other than my DIY that actually HAS a reversable flow design.
Which is exactly why I created it.
Premade commercial systems can only circulate one way…
My system is a bit more like the traditional commercial systems and if i want to reverse the flow i can do it during a res change/clean using a strong enough pump in my control bucket.
Bringing back an old thread but this could help someone. Instead of using underflow tubing I made it overflow instead. Still a very simple setup and I used 1.25” pvc for the overflow/return and used 1/2” tubing for the pump. With this setup the water level stays the same in the plant totes.
