Drip to waste in hydroton

[samba]

Hi
I'm thinking of trying D2W with hydroton in 8 x 10L(2.6Gallons) buckets
How often/much should water them? I was thinking of having a 100L(26Gallons) rez and the girls will be under 2 x 600W in a space of 160cmx100cm(5,2'x3,3')
I'm getting pissed of with Ph problems and tought a D2W system would be good for me... I just dont want to fill the rez every day and I cant fit a bigger rez in my room..!
Thanks all!

 

[asher1er]

i have my mom in nothing but hydroton DTW, i feed every 4 hours till a bit of run off.. but im using a big pot dont remember the size but much more then 2.5gallons.. the growth is nice

 

[samba]

i have my mom in nothing but hydroton DTW, i feed every 4 hours till a bit of run off.. but im using a big pot dont remember the size but much more then 2.5gallons.. the growth is nice

What size is your rez? And how often do you have to refill it?

 

[asher1er]

i fill up one of them rubbermate totes i think its like 35gals i only refill it about once a week, i havent really kept track of it i just check it n refill it when its empty

 

[samba]

I'm just thinking with my setup(100L_rez@8x10L_pots), do I have to check it more than 2 times a week... The problem now is that I have to adjust my ph all the time and I like to be away from home all the time for days on end...

 

[rule35sub1]

You could always fill your res with a ph buffered type of nutrient mix.

 

[asher1er]

I'm just thinking with my setup(100L_rez@8x10L_pots), do I have to check it more than 2 times a week... The problem now is that I have to adjust my ph all the time and I like to be away from home all the time for days on end...

first you'd need to see how often you will have to feed, and you will have to do a test run and run the pump and see how long it takes you to get run off.. once you know how many times you have to feed n for how long you can figure the rest out..i know its pricey but in a recirc i use Canna aqua and the ph is as stable as can be, sometimes to stable as i like a little drift

 

[DEDHEDFRED]

You don`t haveta change systems Bro....Just dial the one yer havin probs with....

You don`t haveta change systems Bro....Just dial the one yer havin probs with....

Hey Samba......Quit gettin pissed and start tryin to understand why what`s happening to your plants .......It`s really your fault........No offense .....But hey......You did`nt know so you came to the right place with some of us experienced heads......lol...........When plants eat nutes.........PH rises..........When they drink water instead due to off balanced higher nutrient concentrations PH falls.........Dialing your plants needs with all those cycles under your belt from experience will help you understand your plants needs more instead of having ta chase PH with up and down solutions that fuk up yer rez if yas don`t watch out......I check my grows once a week but I`ve got R/O water topping off after every feed to insure no PH fluctuations that causes nutrient lockout till I get there to change out and clean rez`s ,then refill w/fresh nutes.........BTW........Drip to waste with no flushing between feed will raise nutrient concentrations quickly in your rootzone no matter which medium you use so as stated above.....There`ll haveta be PH adjusted water flushings to leach out salt buildup as your concentrations rise.......Take care.........DHF......... ......

 

[Jalisco Kid]

First time I have agreed with DHF. The time you would take buying and assembling new system you could figure out what you have actually been doing and adjust. Suerte JK

 

[DEDHEDFRED]

Jalisco Kid agrees with me ?............Anything`s possible beyond this...............Peace............DHF...........Suerte JK..........I think......... ............

 

[samba]

asher1er:

I can only get advanced hydroponics of Holland were I live
I know no one can tell me exacly how long my rez would last,but a estimate would be great. I have only been running DWC so I have NO idea what to expect...

DEDHEDFRED:

I have tryed to dial it in, but I'm still having problems... My EC is going up with my pH!
I really don't have the space for a RO setup,and definitely not a auto-topup system.

Jalisco Kid:

Nice to se you getting along


I'm also interested in DTW on tables to get easy access to my plant, this way I can just pull the drips out and lift plants in to my shower for trimming and so on

 

[samba]

No one? I'm just looking for an estimate!!!

DTW with hydroton in 8 x 10L(2.6Gallons) buckets, a 100L(26Gallons) rez, 2 x 600W in a space of 160cmx100cm(5,2'x3,3')
How often do I have to fill my rez?

 

[G33k Speak]

I'd SWAG about 4 galolons a day for your useage, maybe more.


Fred's right- you are looking at a SYMPTOM- not the problem.

How's your water?? a R/O filter mounts to the wall and takes up little space/

Did you risnse the rocks well??

Did you read Big Toke's water chemistry thread??

 

[samba]

I'd SWAG about 4 galolons a day for your useage, maybe more.


Fred's right- you are looking at a SYMPTOM- not the problem.

How's your water?? a R/O filter mounts to the wall and takes up little space/

Did you risnse the rocks well??

Did you read Big Toke's water chemistry thread??

Thanks for your estimate! That would give my 3 days even with 6 gallons/day! Thats ok for me!

I kind of have the pH thing under control know, I spoke to some people in the chat and they suggested bacteria, so I cleand everything and the situation is much better now, but I still think I'm gonna go DTW...

I'm running DWC at the moment, so no rocks...

I have read it (Big Toke's water chemistry) but it was ages ago...

 

[WaterFarmFan]

I think 4 gallons a day is way too low. Asher stated he uses 5 gallons a day for a single plant. I would suspect that you would need way more than that to cover 1200 watts. Maybe 20-30 gallons per day???

WFF

 

[Dozee]

i bet your ph problem comes from your water temp.. try puting fan on the buckets and or benifical bacteria."like for fish tanks" .

 

[Herborizer]

I will be soon moving to a drain to waste system (currently DWC). I have a good source of support in putting this together, though... finding information on the Internet is slim to none.

Here is my setup and plan:

• 4x4 bontanicare (or similar tray-table).
• 1.5 Gallon Pots. I will put 8 to 12 pots in the table.
• I will have an external reservoir (have not determined the size yet). This will be outside my grow tent.
• I will have a pump in the reservoir connected to 1/2 inch tubing to the table (anti-siphon installed).
• From the tubing on the table, I will use two spegetti tubing to each plant with a dripper on each. One dripper on each side.

Pot Configuration:

• Each pot will have 2 inches of hydroton at the bottom, then 1 inch layer of mini-rockwool cubes (sugar cube size).
• Then I will put my clone in a 4x4 rockwool.
• Then I will put the clone into the pot.
• Now I will fill all around the sides with the mini-rockwool cubes. Then finally, fill the top with Hydroton.

Grow:

• I will take my clones that come in 2x2 rockwool and put them into 4x4 rockwool (covered with plastic on the sides).
• I will place these directly onto my table.
• I will mix up a batch of 50% nutes and hand water for the first 7 days. I should only have to water 1-3 times (total) in the first week.
• I will be vegging during this time.
• After about 7 days the roots should be pushing out of the 4x4 cube.
• Once the roots show on the cube, I will cut the plastic off and transplant (as described above) into the pots.
• The plants will then continue to be vegged, but now in the pots.
• I will now mix up a full reservoir of water-nutes.
• They will now go to a twice a day drip/feed schedule. First time will be about 10 minutes before the light turns on, and the second time will be midway through the light hours. Each feed will be drip until 10% run-off.
• Once every two weeks throughout the grow I will do a manual flush of the plants with water/clearx (manually by hand).

It is my belief that I will lose (or waste) 2-4 gallons per day or 14-28 gallons per week. I believe my 30 gallon reservoir will last me one to two weeks in this setup. This is actually the same (or less) waste then in my current Deep Water Culture system. This is because I have to dump my DWC setup every 7 days.

Any feedback is welcome.