Deep Water Culture DIY: 3 Extremely Easy to Build Systems

Deep Water Culture DIY Intro

This Deep Water Culture DIY system can be built with 3 options.

Option 1- Use styrofoam like a raft or lid or you can use the lid that came with the storage container. There is a slight difference in the system design. If you use the styrofoam the plants will float in net cups in the styrofoam slab on the surface of the nutrient water like a raft and the roots will always be in the nutrient water. Why styrofoam if the buckets come with lids? First of all, some storage containers don’t come with a lid, so this is a cheap alternative. Second, How many of you have ever made a mistake during layout or cutting…anything! Exactly. Styrofoam is a very cheap alternative to make a lid. if you mess up it’s a cheap fix to try again. You can also use it as a template to cut your storage container lid for option 2 after you’ve already tested and tried it out.

Option 2- Use and cut the storage container lid. if you use this option the plant roots will be exposed to an air gap between the bottom of the net cup and the top of the nutrient water level. Many find this to be the better option, especially if you are not adding any aeration to the water. There are pros and cons to each solution, but the ultimate choice will depend on your plant selection. Some plants don’t like to have their roots constantly submerged in the water solution.

Option 3- Use a 5-gallon bucket with its lid or get an aftermarket lid with a net cup built-in. This option is best for larger and vining plants that have root systems that need more medium for stability.

Need more info or are not sure how to proceed? Take a step back and learn more about Deep Water Culture or check out some other DWC designs before you jump in to start your build.

Option 1: Deep Water Culture DIY Raft System

Totes Deep Water Culture diy — *Totes Deep Water Culture DIY, GrowWithoutSoil.com*

Materials

27 Gallon Reservoir, or similar size (choose 1 of the following options)
- Non-transparent or translucent Totes or storage container (Size will depend on what is locally available, how much room you have, and your garden plan)
  - You will always want to select a none transparent or translucent reservoir in order to limit light getting to your nutrient solution as this will cause algae growth.
  - Can I use a fish tank if I already have one? (Sure, why not? This selection could make your Deep Water Culture System an Aquaponics System! Just don’t select large plants or you won’t be able to lift the styrofoam lid to service and feed the fish!
Submersible Water Pump
1/2″ Black Water tubing
Net cups
- 2″ – 3″ or 4″ (Net cup size will depend on the size of your reservoir, and plants selection)
  - 2″ lettuce, Greens, Herbs
  - 3″ Kale, Chard, larger greens
  - 4″ Larger and Vining vegetables
Air pump (aquarium or other) This one comes with 2 air hoses, check valves, and air stones
Air hose (Usually comes with the air pump)
Check valve (Comes with better quality air pumps)
Airstone (Comes with some air pumps. Get the biggest one your reservoir and air pump can handle)
1″ thick styrofoam sheet to be used as the lid (large enough to cover the top of your reservoir, or cut shipping costs by using multiple smaller slabs)
Distilled or Filtered Water (preferably reverse osmosis filtered)
Plants
- Fresh Plant cutting (if you are cloning a plant)
- Seedling
- Seeds in a net pot and Rapid Rooter starter plugs (These work amazing! But, If you find them a little too expensive you can use the stone wool starter cubes)

Tools

Power drill
Hole saw Match your net cup size selection. This may be more difficult than it seems as the exact hole saw size you need may not come in your hole saw kit. See more details in the instructions below.
1/4″ Drill bit for wood or plastic. The size of this hole will depend upon the diameter of the air tubing you have purchased.
Razer or Exacto knife I would normally never recommend the “snap-off blade” type of box cutter knife, but the ability to extend this blade out a few sections to cut a clean slice on the 1″ styrofoam makes this particular knife design the right choice for this job.

Instructions

Reservoir

Clean the selected reservoir. Be careful with your cleaning solution here. Don’t use anything you would not use to clean your own drinking glass. We like to use clean water with a little Hydrogen peroxide. It’s best to follow the manufactures instructions as each bottle is sold with different strength percentages.
Discard the original reservoir lid, or use it under your reservoir as a drip pan.

Cut

Measure and cut the styrofoam so that it fits just inside the rim of your reservoir. A little smaller is ok as it will rise and fall with the level of the nutrient water down into the reservoir.

Cut Styrofoam raft for hydroponic reservoir — *Cut styrofoam raft within 1″ from the top of your reservoir*

Layout and Mark Hole locations (Here are 2 layout options.) These layouts are set up for the Homz Tough Durabilt Tote Box, 27 Gallon, Stackable, 2 Pack, Black/Yellow. You may have to rescale and /or print multiple pages to get it to fit right for your selected reservoir) No need to engineer this or be super critical here. If you have space between each plant and the edges of your reservoir your plants will be fine.

Drill Holes in the raft with a hole saw. The size will depend on your net cup size selection. Remember, the drilled hole size needs to be the diameter of the net cup just before the lip (or flange) at the top. Don’t make it too big or the net cups will fall through the holes. (running the drill backward at a slow speed will make it easier and won’t destroy your delicate styrofoam. You can use a razor knife here as well, but be extremely careful!)

Measure the proper net cup hole size by location — *Measure the proper net cup hole cutting size by location*

Mark and Drill a 1/4″ Hole for the air hose in one of the corners.

Place

Place the reservoir in its permanent location
Place your net cups into each drilled hole
Push the air hose through the 1/4″ hole

Fill

Fill the reservoir with filtered water (Make sure the water level touches the bottom of the net cups when the styrofoam is placed on top of the reservoir)
Add nutrients as per manufacture instructions
- Pre mixed Nutrients are easier to use
- Later you can learn how to use dry nutrient ingredients and mix yourself. They are cheaper to purchase and easier to store.
Check pH
- pH will rise or drop after adding the nutrients (usually drop)
- Adjust the water pH with pH up or pH down to read about 5.8 to 6

Connect

Cut a small 6″ or so length of hose and connect to the air pump
Connect the end of the air hose inside the container to the air stone
Connect the outside end of the air hose to the check valve. Look closely on the check valve to see an indicator on the side indicating the proper direction of the flow of air and position the direction of the check valve accordingly. Note that the air flows from the air pump to the air stone inside the container. If you are uncertain, you can blow through the valve one side at a time. One side will be more restrictive. That is the side that will connect to the hose or tubing that goes to the airstone.

Connect the check valve to the small 6″ piece of hose already connected to the air pump.

*How to connect your hydroponics aeration system*

Plant

Option 1 – Seedlings

Put your plants into each net cup

Fill each cup with the medium of your choice (we like using expanded clay pebbles)

Option 2 – Starter plugs and seeds

Seeds in a starter plug
Put Starter plug in a net pot and fill with the rest of the space with medium