Help me design my new system

[bass ackwards]

I intend to start up a new groom room soon and I would appreciate your help and advice.
Previously I have been growing aeroponically, but because this new grow will be at a location other than my house I will not be able to attend to it as often as I would like and I am concerned that if something were to go wrong (such as a loss of power or a pump failure) I could lose the entire crop. As I'm sure you know aeroponics isn't very forgiving.
Don't misunderstand me, I will be attending to the operation daily but after I leave something could go wrong and I need a system that can sustain itself until I return the following day. For this reason I have decided to grow with Coco.
Now,I have all the equipment needed to run two six light 3600w HPS grow rooms. I just need to convert over to a different method of growing.
I was thinking of a recirculating system with a remote reservoir as I used previously but I am not sure how to deal with small bits of coco leaving the containers and clogging the system. Any help here? I'm sure the 100 micron filters I used with my aero system would clog easily as would the misting nozzles I have been using.
Another question I have concerns container size. How large do they need to be? I want to grow 36 plants under six 600w HPS lights in a 48 to 60sq.ft. area. For efficient light penetration I want the plants to finish flowering at appx. 30" in height measured from the top of the container.
After resolving the issue of size what mix would you recommend I fill the containers with? Should I have the bottom few inches filled with hydrotron? Or should I fill with straight coco?
What would you recommend for a feeding schedule? I was thinking once every four hours during lights on for however long it takes until I start to see solution emptying out of each container( I suppose somewhere around 15 minutes).
In aero I changed nutes every week and I would probably do so with coco, would you agree?
I will be using R/O water and coco specific nutes, not sure about additives, any suggestions?
I will be supplementing with CO2 so I should be able to let room temps rise near 90F but have concerns about temps within the containers. I have chillers that I used in aero to maintain root zone temps at 68F but I'm not sure how well they would work when I will only be feeding every four hours.
Any advice you can offer here?
Well that should be enough for now. Looking forward to your responses.

Respect bass

 

[paranoidalien]

Sounds like you have some solid knowledge my friend, and you will be pleased to know that coco is quite forgiving once you get those details down. Also, I have left an automated system up and running for 7 whole days while I was gone for X-mas (DONT DO THIS IN FLOWERING). In terms of particulate matter, just attatch a good inline filter to your return or main pump (If you cant find this, panty hose will work alright). Recirc might be a little tricky for your first coco attempt. It is essential with coco to monitor PH and EC constantly. If you EC of your return begins creeping over the EC of your nutes, you know you are suffering nutrient buildup and either need to flush, tone down on nute strength, or provide more run off (you should be getting around 10-20% run off). If you want some stellar advice on recirc look to gaius for advice. In terms of feeding schedule, I run nutes through my girls about three times a day. Some do more, some do less usually dependent on automation vs. handwatering. I use straight coco and love it. ALthough it is real nice to mix some finer stuff with some of the chunkier coir. Hydroton is good when you have poorly draining pots such as grow bags or will be keeping the plants in one container for awhile (compaction of coco can occur over extended periods of time). However, for your uses, I would use straight coco and some nice 6" square pots that are around a gallon or so. You'd be amazed what yield you can get off of a solo cup grow. In terms of the R/O water, be a little careful. I've never been rich enough for the stuff, but sometimes when I'm watering delicate seedlings, I cut it 50/50 with tap in order to provide some of the trace elements contained in the water supply. This being said there are also who knows what kinds of chunky funky metals in there. Just make sure if using pure R/O to tailor a full nute formula that will usually need a little Cal/Mag ammendment if not cutting with the tap water. Use a chiller in your res to keep nutrient temperatures down, and you root zone should stay semi-stable. Get some pics up of your babies and I'd love to talk shop with you all day long! I'm procrastinating studying for finals....Peace, Respect, Namaste

 

[bass ackwards]

paranoidalien, Thanks for the quick response,and the referral. I will be sure to find the posts you referred me to. Six inch pots! That's amazing. I used similar size pots in my aero system and grew huge amounts of roots from the pots into the trough, but I had an environment inside that trough which was made for that purpose. Inside a container it would be impossible to grow that large a root mass. I have to adjust my thinking to a different medium. You are correct as far as I have been able to determine so far when you suggest that in coco small containers produce large plants, but I never thought I could grow a thirty inch plant in a container that small. I was thinking of something about three gallons or so.
As for straining out particulate matter, what a great suggestion. I can filter that stuff out as it enters my reservoir just as I catch crap coming out of my washing machine.
Great advice,thank you and I hope you ace those finals.

 

[paranoidalien]

Yeah, honestly depending on space availiable (I'm a mathematical dunce in terms of specs) I would go with 2-3 gallon bags. I use three gallon bags, and they are stellar, but it's important to fill out your smaller containers and then up to the bigger ones. All transplant should be real near finished before starting flowering.

 

[paranoidalien]

One more post till you can PM! Woooo power to the newbies! Peace, love, and good growings!

 

[bass ackwards]

50? you sure? I thought it was 75. Well let's find out, PM me if you get a chance Right now I'm checking out "gaiusmarius" as you said. I'll be around.

 

[bass ackwards]

Well I still haven't made a decision concerning run to waste or recirculating although I am leaning towards recirculating. It's just that recirculating is much harder to break down.
Container size, I'm thinking of three gallon buckets.
Using a woman's knee high stocking as a filter on the return line into the reservoir should resolve my filtering concerns.
Probably will use 100% coco in the containers.
Canna coco seems to be the most widely used with Botanicare a close second. I will probably use one or the other. Neither is available locally,shipping charges will be the determining factor.
Canna nutes are way too expensive,no decision here yet.
I see no reason not to use my chillers.Dissolved oxygen levels will be higher with their use,not sure how important this will be with coco.
No decision on feeding schedule yet.
Weekly draining of reservoir still seems appropriate, no decision on the need to flush yet,leaning towards not flushing.

This is where I'm at so far,any comments will be cheerfully accepted.

Respect bass

 

[opt1c]

i like run to waste... much easier to maintain and you don't have to worry about ph swings if you're gone for an extended period of time; i use coco in bato buckets, the mini-reservoirs on the bottom are nice incase of a power outage and i just put hydroton on the bottom the no coco has gotten past the elbow in my batobuckets and they haven't overflowed; ever... very easy to run

i've yet to see better results with anyone running a coco mix over pure coco so pure coco is a good choice

don't need a chiller with coco... waste of electricity

if you think canna nutes are expensive check out house and garden; a good recipe is rez's formula in the vender subforum if u like the cheap yet effective way

 

[bass ackwards]

opt1c, I would like to go with run to waste also,but I'm concerned about how much waste! As I mentioned I want to run 36 pots. I'm just not sure I can feed three or four times a day running to waste and have enough nutes to do so. My reservoir's are 20gal. The more thought I give it the more it appears that I have to use a recirculating system and top off with plain H2O for a day or two followed with a complete res. change out on the third day.
I'm giving serious consideration to Botanicare nutes. Not as expensive as Canna and a good product line as well.
Thanks for the input.

Respect bass

 

[paranoidalien]

Botanicare is nice, but honestly a little overpriced in my opinion. The results that can be obtained with GH 3part or two part are really quite stellar for the price. Check out Rosycheeks and Gratefulhead

 

[bass ackwards]

pa, Nice to hear from you again,hope all went well with finals. I will have to look into using GH in coco as I still have appx. 1gal of each of the three part left and would be happy to use it up. Lacking that I had intended to use it on the lawn and garden around the house. I will try to find some threads by the growers you mentioned and see what I can learn, thanks again.

Respect bass