Budslingers RDWC vs Current Culture UDWC

I can't comment on undercurrent setups, but when I ran recirculating (although briefly) I found out very quickly that I like to have all my water/nutes in one container and not spread out through a system... it made it annoying to check pH or change the reservoir.

Both systems will work fine, however the recirculating buckets will end up being much cheaper so if you're on a budget I would go that route. You won't have problems with roots clogging, but I recommend having a controller bucket to drain the system to a single reservoir - you'll be glad you did.

 

either way is fine... they both work... the only difference is exactly what you mentioned... the large pipes are harder to clog.... and budslingers build is much, much cheaper

 

The controller bucket is where the res would be in a simple rdwc, however it has a pump to a seperate, much larger reservoir that can hold the entire system's water when the controller is set to. That way, you can mess with the nutes, pH and all that with ease, instead of giving it time to mix around as it circulates through the system - I would have to come back like 30 minutes later to check the pH again, instead of doing everything in one turn.

That basically turns the rdwc into an ebb and flow, if you have a timer set to do so, but you can simply stick a pump in the rdwc or drain it to a separate reservoir and then pump it back in.

 

I used budslingers plans and found out that the 1/2" return lines were to small. My bucket would slowly fill up and try to drown my clones. I have a very small pump I don't know the output but its for a small fountain. I think a 3/4 return line would be cool.

 

I used budslinger's base plan and improvised a bit with mine, ending in an absolutely awesome result. I went through budslingers design, decided i didn't want level indicators because it was too much drilling. I lined everything together and connected to a res bucket.

I drilled up the 5gal bucks. fit them with 1/2" tubing, and lined them in a concurrent ring as opposed to chains lined up to a res you would see in ebb/flow
0-0-0-0-0|
|0-0-0-0-Res

the problem with this is that after the initial fillings you rarely get circulation. so to fix this, I drilled a second hole in the res bucket about an inch from the top of the bucket so that I have the lower drain valve in the res which is the level equalizing duct, with a second hole in the top to force circulation. This will ensure when you pH balance and nutriate the water that everything is disbursed equally.

there are a couple ways of connecting the circulation duct to the start of your bucket chain. the easiest way is to disconnect the initial bucket from lower valve on the res and attach it to the upper valve.
otherwise add in a 1/2" t connector on the first bucket or between the first two buckets.

then just hook up a water pump in the res and connect it to the inside of the upper valve and set on a timer. that way it will push the res water into the first buckets and therefore pull that water all the way through the chain equalizing back into the res buck.

all my pots are level, as long as you get a reasonable pump you won't overflow on 1/2" fittings. you just don't want a superjet pump. my res buck looks roughly like this:

-------
| 0 | this is the valve that water is pumped out of res and dumped into first bucket
| |
| 0 | water comes from last pot and equalizes levels back into resevoir.

 

I need pics, im tarded

 

Yeah the controller's water level is going to be the same as the buckets if the containers are the same size, so you can just use another 5g.

 

My controller is the 5 gal. with top and bottom fittings. I run a hose from a 55g drum res that is connected to my e/f system to fill up when i change water.and drain the controller with a pump and hose (unfortunately) to a bucket that i dump outside

 

Hey so you wanted to see pics. here you go. the layout has slowly changed as i iron out my room. but here are a few.

 

nice... thanks for the pictures... any chance you could open the blinds while you snap them???

hahahahaha... JK... try the cardboard trick to get better shots... clearly you have a super nice camera with a mega high refresh rate... seeing those lines is a good thing and a curse

 

woah woah! whats the cardboard trick? i've tried alot to get rid of those lines. I'd love to be able to snap clear pics without having to turn off my lights

 

put some cardboard over the light for a second, snap a pic, remove the cardboard... problem solved

 

LOL open the Blinds. I wish i new the cardboard trick earlier.....

Waiting for some pics

 

hahahaha, yeah... might wanna re-consider that avatar as well... you look like a peeping tom, hahahahahah