CAP Ebb n Grow, results.... Very happy.

[mrwags]

Turns out my drain pump in the control bucket would sometimes suck air and become air locked before the float would shut it down. then the Next fill cycle would fill, then drain cycle would start and the pump would run endlessly and the buckets would never drain.

The fitting that goes into the pump in your controller bucket can be taken out (when the bucket is full)and let it run and then insert the fitting (underwater) is how I solved my problem with this. You will find the magnetic shaft has a catch key on the end of it that sometimes misses the propeller part that forces the water out.

If your girls are rooted fear not they will take it in stride and go on.

IMO you will NEVER see growth like you will when these buckets of love are dialed.


Mr.Wags

 

[gmanwho]

The fitting that goes into the pump in your controller bucket can be taken out (when the bucket is full)and let it run and then insert the fitting (underwater) is how I solved my problem with this. You will find the magnetic shaft has a catch key on the end of it that sometimes misses the propeller part that forces the water out.

If your girls are rooted fear not they will take it in stride and go on.

IMO you will NEVER see growth like you will when these buckets of love are dialed.


Mr.Wags

High wags,It wasnt an issue of getting the pump to work again, it's an issue to prevent the air lock from happening again. When the buckets dont drain thats a recipe for root rot. Not the first time it doesnt drain , but if it keeps happening. Atleast i would think.

Since you are talking about growth,for an experiment, i added on 2 2-gal buckets to the end, but when i drilled the holes in the add-on buckets, i drilled the holes 2 inches from the bottom. So theres always 2 inches of water at drain cycle. Put airstones in and a decent air pump. They grew faster actually then the regular ebb&gro buckets.

But as it turns out, they ended up being to far on the outskirts and received less light. So the experiment failed in that since

So, i ended up building a 9 bucket system off under a 3x4 area, did the same thing, some 2inch an some 3 inch. Added a 1k eye and now just waiting to see how things are going. 7 days in 12/12.

think it was Happs on here that did this with good results. So it's a ebb&flo /swc. we'll see how things go...

Waggs, what are you using for nutes?

B-safe

 

[max_well]

Hey Gmanwho
I had a similar problem with airlocking and think I solved it with an "anti-siphon" valve in the controller pump line, similar to what is being talked about here:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=92963&page=4
It's not really a siphoning effect that we're concerned about here, but such an air release hole in the line (at a height above the top float switch, but still in the controller), seems prevent the pump from getting air locked. You could use an barbed elbow with a small hole in the elbow, as is included with the system to prevent siphoning from the reservoir pump, or probably just drill a small diameter hole in the line. Fluid will of course squirt from the hole when the pump is running, but as long as long as your lid is closed this should not be a problem and should solve the air locking issue without affecting the rate of pumping too much.
hope that helps
Max

 

[Lazyman]

I have 2 of these I just hook them up today and have clones ready to go I have 12 buckets each and will be doing two strains blubblebarry from Sag and White Russian for Ser.

How big do you guys let the girls get before flipping I want to hit 4oz dried of each 1 I have 6k of light?

To get 4 oz plants you'll want to flip them around 3' tall, so they finish around 4-5'. Trim the lower branches when you flip (and top/prune again 2 weeks in) to keep an even canopy and grow bigger buds up top instead of popcorn down low.

I used to get 3.5-4.5# out of 3KW over 25 buckets of bushes like that, so you should expect roughly double if your room is dialed-in.

 

[Lazyman]

Do you automatically need a chiller for the rez if you get an Ebb and Grow set-up?

This would be perfect for my space. One thing that bothers me would be having to add a chiller. I hate plugging things in!

I'm currently running Hempy buckets under a 600W.

Not automatically no, but if the water goes over about 72* then you need to do something. I used a regular water heater blanket on my 55g res and that helped stabilize temps a lot, but eventually ended up adding a 1/4 chiller and 800gph pump for it.

Oh, and there is a great thread around here somewhere on Ebb&Grow tips and tricks.

I also heartily recommend that anyone with a bucket setup buy a bottle of Physan20, because if you don't have the algae/slime problem yet, you probably will at some point in the future, and Physan is the only thing that kills it and can save a slimed crop.

What else, oh yeah, if you can (or are building your own system) I always recommend raising the buckets (pallets work great) and putting your drain fittings through the bottom of the buckets so they drain completely. Put a screen over it so roots don't foul it. Upgrade to 3/4 inch lines if you're running more than 20 buckets, and upgrade both the fill and drain pumps to something bigger.

I converted mine with airstones in each bucket and that worked pretty well, a friend uses these with Canna Terra Plus Soil (basically pre-amended coco) and gets 1gpw, watering every other day. Phenomenal growth rates and yields.

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

just remember water temps in your rez... most people that go hydro get shit results cause they rot there roots with hot rez temps....

 

[NorCalFor20]

Love the Ebb N Gro System

Love the Ebb N Gro System

I cannot recommend this system enough. I found it easy, and it kept the plants healthy.

I used gh 3 part plus additives, some GH some not.

Just pulled the first run with hydro.

Could have had a bigger yield, but I was trying NOT to overfeed.

Could have added one more week of "Aggressive feed," instead of basic "Bloom" feed.

I was a soil guy before with good results, but diseases were getting me down. No longer.... It was beautiful in there. Start to finish.

The health of the plants, and the smells generated by the harvest were AMAZING.

Added a couple 'extension kits.'

I look forward to honing my skills, getting the feeding regimen more right, and pulling more next time, but wholeheartedly recommend this system to experienced and newbies alike.

Good luck.........!

Yeah I gotta say I love this system so far, Im running 24 buckets under 2000w in a walk in closet. Expecting anywhere from 2-4# Probably the biggest bad ass closet grow ever hahaha

how many gallons do you fill up your res to?

I run 24 and fill mine up all the way, it gives me a few days to relax before I have to top or or change res. This grow I didn't top off I just filled the res all the way to 55 gallons, then added my nutes, monitored ph and ec levels, until the water level reached 20 gallons then dump the old nutes and re fill a fresh batch. Next grow I will try to keep it filled at all times and see if there is any benifit to topping off, I personally believe the nutes go stale after about a week and should be dumped, but who knows....

I have 2 of these I just hook them up today and have clones ready to go I have 12 buckets each and will be doing two strains blubblebarry from Sag and White Russian for Ser.

How big do you guys let the girls get before flipping I want to hit 4oz dried of each 1 I have 6k of light?

I would step your lighting up to 8k and run 96 buckets.... thats next on the plate for me anyway....

just got mine up and and running, only running the 12 buckets for now and i will see how it goes. I also am running dutch master gold nutes in my system.

I am planning to Run Canna Aqua Nutes next run, I just got done using the GH line but I plan on trying a higher end nute next time I am leaning towards using canna with higromite instead of hydroton

What kind of nutes did you try as a beginner? I have most parts to try one as well. What type of medium did you use? Can they run 48 sites on a 55 gal res. as advertised. I would like to have 48 ready every month. 96 in all plus babies. 9 600W lights w 3 rows of 3 w 8" Vortex down each group of 3.Should I use a flood table to start them? Has anyone tried the sure to grow 2 gal inserts? I've heard good and bad about Hydroton. Been playin outside for a while but am rethinking it. Ready to learn some new tricks..
Thanks

Like said above I use GH Flora Series (Lucas Formula) 8/16 micro/bloom (ml per gal) and I believe you can run 48 on a 55 gal as advertised , BUT you will find yourself doing a lot of topping off or res changes as I would imagine 48 plants drink 55 gallons rather fast. Maybe thats a good thing now that I think about it. Fresh nutes every week might be an advantage when growing.... I personally like said above prefer fresh nutes.

there was a thread on here about STG inserts, but the guy had a miserable time, all was well until he got into flower and he had every problem in the book, mind you he has exp with the ebb and grow, i hate hydroton cus of the red mudd and take for ever to clean, but in hydro IMO nothing is better, clay stays moist thru the night to support life and pourous enough to allow max oxygen into the rootzone, this is key when flooding is involved

Shame that the STG product is no good, or could it have been the grower?

Anyway regardless that product seemed promising could have saved me a lot of time....

My buddy is running an Ebb and Grow with Higromite as the medium. Big chunky rocks that give off silicon for huge stems. I would recommend it over STG and hydroton.

Im gonna give the higromite a try, any grow references (examples with results) to ppl using higromite in ebb n gro, i already use a silica supplement with my lucas formula, but I wouldn't mind trying higromite, only thing is im trying canna next round like i said before and theirs already silica in it, but i do agree silica really makes those stems thick, supports those buds.

I run 18 buckets 2 1/2 gallon and once they get hungry they drink 5-7 gallons a day.

A Great system with great results over and over and over again.

Mr.Wags

Nice setup Mr. Wags looking great!

I also heartily recommend that anyone with a bucket setup buy a bottle of Physan20, because if you don't have the algae/slime problem yet, you probably will at some point in the future, and Physan is the only thing that kills it and can save a slimed crop.

What else, oh yeah, if you can (or are building your own system) I always recommend raising the buckets (pallets work great) and putting your drain fittings through the bottom of the buckets so they drain completely. Put a screen over it so roots don't foul it. Upgrade to 3/4 inch lines if you're running more than 20 buckets, and upgrade both the fill and drain pumps to something bigger.

I converted mine with airstones in each bucket and that worked pretty well, a friend uses these with Canna Terra Plus Soil (basically pre-amended coco) and gets 1gpw, watering every other day. Phenomenal growth rates and yields.

Very interesting, a few questions:

Do you use Physan 20 during your grow or just for cleaning your buckets afterward, I ask because I saw a bottle of this in the grow store nearly bought it for a sanitizer for during growth applications read the ingredients and put it back, I decided I didn't want to smoke any of those ingredients listed on there. I wouldn't use it in a system with plants in it unless you can elaborate some more on that...

When your draining from the bottom , that must mean your filling from the bottom as well? I ask because given the gravity based nature of the system I would worry about it not filling properly since it would have to fight gravity to fill, im probably wrong just a concern i had... I will start raising my buckets 2 inches after this run for sure I would like to be able to drain all the water in between floods.


Anyway, I just wanted to chime in on this thread, I love the Ebb N Gro Buckets.... Here are some pixs of my latest 2000w 24 bucket closet jungle....

I also have a youtube page with updated videos, check it out- www.youtube.com/norcalbudz420

 

[gmanwho]

Hey Gmanwho
I had a similar problem with airlocking and think I solved it with an "anti-siphon" valve in the controller pump line, similar to what is being talked about here:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=92963&page=4
It's not really a siphoning effect that we're concerned about here, but such an air release hole in the line (at a height above the top float switch, but still in the controller), seems prevent the pump from getting air locked. You could use an barbed elbow with a small hole in the elbow, as is included with the system to prevent siphoning from the reservoir pump, or probably just drill a small diameter hole in the line. Fluid will of course squirt from the hole when the pump is running, but as long as long as your lid is closed this should not be a problem and should solve the air locking issue without affecting the rate of pumping too much.
hope that helps
Max

That would definitely work, it would allow the air to travel up the hose and out. They barely effect the pump gph.

I use the elbows elsewhere, cant believe i didnt think of that. thanks for the help.

It hasn't done it since, but im gonna put one in anyways.

B-safe

 

[gmanwho]

how many gallons do you fill up your res to?

only running 12 buckets, put mine to 30 or 35 gal. and top off when it drops to like 20 or 25.

But this is my first time with the ebb & gro. so i wouldnt say go by what i do. It seems to work just fine thou.


NORCAL, how many days in are those last picks?

B-safe

 

[619Sativa]

Hey does anyone recommend a water chiller for this system running 45-48 gallons?

 

[Vespatian]

I just installed chillers on two of my flower rez's and have seen no improvement vs my non-chilled flower rez's. The caveat is that we also had no previous room temp or rez temp issues. We still have 3 weeks to go, so perhaps the last two weeks when we really cool them down will result in some benefit, but as of now I am not seeing any difference.

 

[Lazyman]

Hey Norcal, yeah Physan is good for in between cleanings for sure, there is a great thread on root rot/brown algae that goes into lots of detail on it, but it's a virucide, fungicide, bateriacide, etc, 1ml per gallon is the typical dose for most applications. RIchy rich I believe was talking about how his bleach-cleaned system started spitting out tons of black stuff the Physan dug out. Others tried it during a run to kill the algae/slime on their buckets and had success at least saving the run, best used for one flush then dumped.

I also spray it on my growroom (concrete floor) and walls and it cut down on the slime in my tanks for sure. Pretty cheap too, I paid $22 for 2 bottles that will last me a couple years.

Vespation, if you have a thread I can check out PM me and I'll see if I can help.

 

[Lazyman]

Hey does anyone recommend a water chiller for this system running 45-48 gallons?

Gallons are only relevant if using outsized reservoirs (way too small or too big.) Ambient temps and actual reservoir temps are the main factors.

When running an Ebb and Grow I was using hydroton and 6" net pots in the lids, later added 2 small airstones per bucket and a couple big pumps. This added air (sucked from my 80* room) would mean warm bucket water, as I couldn't flush cold water into buckets often or fast enough to offset the warm air that was pumping in constantly. Kinda gave up after that, had decent runs with soil in it but never got to try coco.

If your res is getting over 70, check the temps of your bucket water before a flood. It's probably warmer than you think. A water heater blanket from Home Depot is $12 and even comes with tape, fits a 55 gallon drum or reservoir pretty well and stabilizes temps, slowing fluctuations.

If you have air pumps, do try to let them suck air-conditioned or cold outside air. I even stuck one in a pump with a small ozone generator, kind of a homemade ozonator like hot tubs use. Definitely cut down on my algae problems but back then I didn't have Physan to deal with it properly.

A chiller may not solve your problems unless your water is going over 80*, but I think a well-oxygenated tank can work IF you don't have other problems. Algae, slime, pythium and bugs all like similar conditions but a sterile environment can keep these out even in warmer water.

This is all just my opinion of course, but I know lots of guys that have bought chillers and found out it just wasn't their problem. Clean and warm is better than cold and contaminated IMHO. Avoiding organic nutes, bacteria and anything living in the tank will help attain a sterile state, as does small amounts of (tap) chlorine or (DM Zone) chloramine.

I personally liked 35% hydrogen peroxide, but with any well-aerated tank it doesn't last long so it needs to be applied to the res shortly before the flood once a day.

To be fair, the best grower I know is using Canna coco bio terra plus soil (amended with a little bokashi compost) in his E&G with Agricultural Organics (yellow bottle) and Inoculaid, and watering every other day. Always over 1gpw, usually closer to 1.3gpw. No salt ferts whatsoever and there must be a zillion life forms in his buckets. He does have a sealed room with CO2 and a big chiller for the 2 reservoirs, but we both use the big pumps and lines so they fill lots of buckets quickly. Next we're gonna try taking the pump out of the reservoir and running Tropf Blumat autowaterers in the soil. No more timers, and it can drip to waste or recirculate in coco, ha!

Sorry for rambling and threadjacking, stoned....

 

[rmccinc719]

I'm excited to see so many happy results from these systems. i'm in the process of biulding a 24,000 watt system with 3 rooms. i just got my first of 3 30 site setups I'll be filling with some royal hawiian ak47 and bubbalicious. great tips and experiance from so many growers thanks guys. i'll definatly be hanging around soaking up some valuble info.

 

[NorCalFor20]

I'm excited to see so many happy results from these systems. i'm in the process of biulding a 24,000 watt system with 3 rooms. i just got my first of 3 30 site setups I'll be filling with some royal hawiian ak47 and bubbalicious. great tips and experiance from so many growers thanks guys. i'll definatly be hanging around soaking up some valuble info.

if your trying to run 24,000 watts your gonna need 3 96 bucket setups to use all that light efficently

 

[mrwags]

i wouldnt recommend running 48 pots on this system, i frickin love it, but when they get bige they will drink around 1/2gallon of water a day

It could be done but with my 18 buckets they will drink 3-5 gallons a day around week 3 or so. These are the shit for easy growing imo.


Mr.Wags

 

[rmccinc719]

i plan on growing rather large trees. i only plan on putting 4 plants or so per 1000 watts. 8000 watts per room and my rooms are 16x20. i planned on having 3ft of space per bucket hoping to have plenty of light penatration to the lower buds. i also have 16 ft cielings and can let these baby's grow. as soon as i can learn to post pics i'll give a full tutorial of my prodject. also I'm a caregiver for 20 plus patience and must stick to my #'s as to keep the popo happy when they do there walk threws.

 

[Vespatian]

i plan on growing rather large trees. i only plan on putting 4 plants or so per 1000 watts. 8000 watts per room and my rooms are 16x20. i planned on having 3ft of space per bucket hoping to have plenty of light penatration to the lower buds. i also have 16 ft cielings and can let these baby's grow. as soon as i can learn to post pics i'll give a full tutorial of my prodject. also I'm a caregiver for 20 plus patience and must stick to my #'s as to keep the popo happy when they do there walk threws.

Four plants per light lends itself perfectly to the Under Current RDWC system. Filling a 1kw 4x4 or 5x5 canopy with a mere 4 plants using ebb & gro will take some doing.

 

[superultramega]

Four plants per light lends itself perfectly to the Under Current RDWC system. Filling a 1kw 4x4 or 5x5 canopy with a mere 4 plants using ebb & gro will take some doing.

I have no problem whatsoever filling 4x4 with four plants.

 

[rmccinc719]

this is the first time growing in this set up so i'll have to really see how fast they veg. I'll be going for 30 day's veg. I'm up grading from individual hydro farm bubbler buckets. and i was having now problem filling the canopy and at about 4ft i was averaging 5 zips a plant. i was also using a 600w hps per 2 plants. I'm hoping that by going a bit bigger I can and using alot more power i can up my average to 6 or 7 zips per plant.