@Chrisr36 the trash can backup shouldn’t be an issue, just clean it every now and then. I use a simular filter on my hose outside ill drag in to fill a 25 gallon trashcan with water. I have a little pond pump in it with tubing that i plug in to refill my 5 gal bucket with water. I also have my dehumidifier rigged to drain into the same trashcan and recycle the water. My filter is a KDF carbon RV camper filter i screw onto my hose, $20 on amazon. I switch it each grow.
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Nice! Thx @Jarlax
Another quick question, as of right now while my plants are still just seedlings, should I keep the recirculate pump on always? I’ve been running about half a day, then shutting off for a while.
I wouldn’t imagine any harm, but just wanna make sure
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And man that’s smart, I wish I had gotten the automatic drain dehumy… But when j bought mine I didn’t even know that type existed 
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@Chrisr36 i always run the recirc chiller and filter on mine to maintain the solution and keep it moving. I do add a lot of bacteria also and im growing bacteria and myco as much as im growing the plants. Your dehumidifier if you open it should have an output drain on the evaporator that drips into the pan, rig a hose to it and bypass the pan if you get bored and want a project. Mine isnt auto drain, i did that, but it did already have a built in door to run a hose without drilling.
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Alrighty! So did my first feed yesterday.
So my system holds 29 Gal within 2” of the net pots.
Did a light feed, 30mL of Armor si, micro,grow,bloom & hydroguard.
Ppm’s read 232
Still trying to get the pH down. Keeps bouncing back on me.
Think I’m getting the hang of it! I’m sure I’ll have more questions coming up 
@Jarlax @HappyHydroGrower
Here’s the girls looking happy so far, 3 weeks!
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Do you have roots out of the netpot yet?
I believe I would shoot for around 500 and see if they won’t hold pH a little better. PH going up can be a sign of nutes too low. 
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Ayyye Hap! Yep yep, both have a nice healthy amount of roots in the water! And they’ve started doing ‘whatever it’s called when the roots look like there branching out’
Finally got the PH to stabilize at 6.1.
Took me a full day to finally get a stable reading.
That’s what I was originally going for, but I cut down each nute a little bit.
I still need to get something I can write on and actually see inside the rez to make markings for how much water is in it
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Hey @HappyHydroGrower , I just noticed you didn’t list if you run cal-mag or magic or whatever. Just wondering why you don’t if so?
I’m not entirely sure I need it myself, I’d like to cut back on any unnecessary buildups as I can
But I’ve got pretty ‘soft’ water I believe, from the tap the PPM’s are around 88-92 (with the kdf filter) and around 120 without. That’s the main purpose for something like cal-mag right, is if you have bad or RO water or something of the sorts going on?
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Jacks has calmag in it. No need. We have pretty good water here. Ppm’s 65 out of the faucet with a pH of 7.4.
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Hey all! Quick question regarding these 2 young boogers I’ve got growin here.
On 10-17 I gave them there first light feeding, and since then nothing has changed really. The girls look really good, just i’m not entirely sure what to make of this?
I dont recall encountering this on my last grow, So im not sure if its something to call a problem or not.
Any thoughts?
10-18 PH 6.5 PPM 265
10-19 PH 6.5 PPM 268 (Added some PH Down)
10-20 PH 6.4 PPM 270
10-21 PH 6.4 PPM 270
10-22 PH 6.2 PPM 280
10-23 PH 6.2 PPM 280
10-24 PH 6.2 PPM 280
10-25 PH 6.2 PPM 280
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I think they are eating about 280 ppm, which is what you reservoir contains. Has the reservoir level dropped a bit? They are drinking so it should.
If they were eating MORE, then they would be sucking the nutrients out of the water faster than they are drinking water and your ppm’s would drop.
If they were eating LESS, then they would be drinking more water than food and your ppm’s would rise.
I haven’t done hydro yet, but I think my next grow will be. Was thinking of doing a Dutch Bucket system, by @HappyHydroGrower almost has me convinced to do RDWC, but I need to tap his brain a bit more.
HHG, do you need separate lines pumping nutes into each tote from the main reservoir and separate drain lines too? Or could you pump from reservoir into tote A, flow into tote B, then drain back to reservoir? Loop it in series, rather than in parallel?
Also, do you put airstones in each tote or just in the main reservoir? Before the roots dangle out of the netpot into the water, do you hand water or drip line, or if using hydroton clay pellets, there is enough moisture in those to keep the plant going until the roots DO hit the water?
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Right right, I just peeped the roots, and half of them are stained with food and other half are pearl white still. Lol, so suppose I put some more food in
Ah hell @Spudgunner heres something I can maybe lend a hand in. I just finished my full RDWC system couple weeks back. Compliments to @HappyHydroGrower
So I don’t see why you couldn’t build the system for you to aim to specific totes from your reservoir. You would only need valve unions in a few more spots to block which totes you did or didn’t want to go.
in the totes for sure. So stones directly in the totes will help keep a constant bubbling and splashing onto the hydroton which works so simply and perfectly for getting those starter roots to dive down.
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Thanks @Chrisr36 I’ve been reading this post and others that HHG has helped with.
I can get 45 liter totes (about 12 US Gallons) for the plants cheap enuff - $16 each, and either a 132 liter or 170 litre one for the reservoir for $30 or $40 respectively. Fittings I can get pretty cheaply too. I think I’ve been convinced to grow just 2 plants in a 4x4 tent.
I was also thinking of raising my tent onto a 18" platform so that the tote lids are level with the tent floor and I would gain an additional 18" of plant height. Ya, would have to cut the bottom of the tent out, at least make flaps for the totes to poke thru. I guess that’s why they give you a separate floor with the tent! Maybe 2nd run…see if I DOO need that extra height or not.
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In my experience with Jack’s and my system, Your ppms and pH should remain the same as the water level drops. That’s in a well balanced system.
What spud mentioned is spot on. Keep in mind and from what it appears, as pH changes, so will the ppms… just a little… and vise versa. Water temps will also cause pH and ppms to fluctuate some. And as one changes, so does the other… just a little bit.
Lights, room temp, canopy temp, and air stones also play a roll in changes. Again, as one changes, so do the others… some. May not be enough to matter but, they will change.
As you gain more roots, that may also make things change, again may not be enough to matter.
Your numbers are wonderful… It’s called the calm before the storm…lol 
This is the basics of my system. I have:
One water pump
Chiller
Res
Two totes to grow in.
The water pump pulls out of the totes and pushes water through the chiller and into the res, from there, gravity handles the rest. Totes and res always stay the same water level.
I have one and a half inch pvc feed lines and three quarter inch retune lines to the water pump.
Here’s a general diagram of how mine works. Not quite laid out like this but, works exactly the same.
Sounds more like a top feed system instead of undercurrent system. You’ll need some big lines for gravity to keep everything level, depending on how big of water pump you use.
No air stones in the res as the water spraying out of the chiller and into the res creates enough oxygen in the res. I have a 950 gph air pump with 6 way splitter, three 2" x 2" round stones in each tote.
OK, I’m not gonna lie, I SUCK at germinating seeds…lmao 
With only growing maybe 2 times a year, 3 at best, and with two seeds at a time… I stink at it…lol
If they survive my half azz attempt to create a marijuana plant, and they make it more than 24 hrs. above ground, then I count it a win win…haha!
So, I usually keep them under the dome for about the first 10 days. Then into the totes with water level 2" below the netpot. Water from the bubbles will splash onto the netpots.
Soak, wash/stir, rinse, and repeat… several times!! Can’t state it enough.
Got pictures?
Your pretty darn skilled at growing, you should be able to train them and keep them low enough without having to do all that. You just flip a little sooner than what you would normally do in dirt or coco. The growth during the stretch can be insane. Just holler if you have any questions.
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Nicely said Happy
Oh ok well hell yah, that’s good to know. Like I was saying, I didn’t think there was an issue, just not used to having things start off so smooth for me
Yeah! Well I will I mean haha I snap a couple soon as I’m off work, thx for the knowledge
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Hey guys! Been a bit, hope all is good.
So I’ve got a question and a big ole concern.
So yesterday I was doing my ph/ ppm checks and decided to open the tote lids to check out the roots… and what I found absolutely horrified me!
Immediately I saw all of these little white specs everywhere. All over the net pots, side walls of the totes, etc. I took my finger and swiped some off to get a closer look, then I saw a little microscopic almost looking worm. So I did an emergency evac of the plants and rinsed and H202 what I could.
I’m at a loss of what this white stuff is, what the worm thing is, how it even got inside… 
Any thoughts? @HappyHydroGrower @Graysin
@Spudgunner
Here’s a snap I took before emptying everything out! Oh and the plants themselves look healthy for the most part
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@Chrisr36 I don’t have a clue what that stuff would be. Maybe salts building up from bubble splash and evaporating? I haven’t started hydro yet, I was going to start end of the month after our Rome trip if my clones died, but 9 of 10 took root and started re-veg! So today I used up the last of my ProMix for the 4 Death Bubba clones and 1 Dutch Treat and my son can look after them for 2 weeks when we are gone (only need water every 4 or 5 days, he can manage!). I was gonna run all 9 clones, but think my 4x4 will be too crowded, I’ll stick to 5 and gift the other 4 clones.
I’ll do my hydro setup next October after he gets married and the tent WILL be empty for a bit.
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This sounds pretty spot on to me. It’s very likely just calcium buildup. The worm is concerning though.
The real question is if the white stuff was granular, powdery, slimy, …? Need more details.
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Ok ok I suppose I could see that being the culprit! Just seems strange cause I did such a light feeding last time. As I’m new to the RDWC system, I had filled a separate can with water, then mixed in all my nutes and let it swirl and mix for little over and hour, then transferred into the rdwc rez. My thought process was that should have definitely done the deed as far as mixing it. Hmm.
So definitely not slimy, I’d say mildly granular.
On my last grow I had seen some salt buildup on the hydroton on a few net pots, but nothing even remotely close to that!!!
Big time… it blew my mind as soon as I saw it. Everything is so sealed up.
A wild shot in the dark guess, but where I live there are these little crazy looking house millipedes that I catch roaming around. I know there very drawn to water. So maybe, possibly somehow one got inside and laid an egg?? I suppose it’s possible but sounds so far fetched
Well actually ok I think I can rule out the millipedes, just did a google search and they only lay eggs in soil! Not bubbly ass water 