Will this design work?

[docjay]

Hi All,

I came up with the following recirculating DWC design. Providing the buckets are all level and the main reservoir sits lower than the buckets, will the physics of this design work?

In case the image isn't clear, a pump in the main reservoir will feed bucket 1, a vertical overflow pipe will then feed bucket 2, this will repeat until the final bucket which will drain back into the main reservoir.

Concerns:
Will nutrients be equally distributed using this serial rather than parallel feed configuration? I imagine it wouldn't be a problem given it takes a long time for one plant to take up nutrients, thus the plants further down the line shouldn't be disadvantaged?

Is it possible to simply aerate the main reservoir and not worry about aerating individual buckets? Will the water remained oxygenated throughout the entire system?

Cheers.

[GpsFrontier]

Hello docjay,
Ya it will work with the water flow that way, however you may see a decrease in growth from the plants down the line since the water/nutrients may not mix evenly in each bucket due to water eddies/dead flow spots etc..

Yes you could just aerate the main reservoir and not the buckets, but if you want faster growth you should aerate each bucket. It's not just the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, it's also about the air bubbles coming in contact with the roots themselves. If you just aerate the main reservoir, the air bubbles will never come in contact with the roots. But if you aerate each bucket the roots will have constant contact with the air bubbles.

Aerating each bucket will also help keep the water circulating through the bucket and reducing water circulating/dead spots within each bucket. Basically helping mix the new and old water/nutrients in each bucket.

[docjay]

Thanks GpsFrontier appreciate the feedback

[ZachDy]

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

Hello docjay,
Ya these pre workouts for men are top notch and will work with the water flow that way, however you may see a decrease in growth from the plants down the line since the water/nutrients may not mix evenly in each bucket due to water eddies/dead flow spots etc..

I'm liking this setup a lot, especially if you do what GpsFrontier suggests too. If it works out for you, I might 'borrow' it as well. I hope you don't mind. haha