Hydro Newb. Plz help

[abuldur]

oh, by the way for your medium.
You should mix.
Lavarocks (are great they can house beneficial bacteria) this is an asset using RDWC.Mix them 50/50 with hydroton or they can be used alone.Only problem is their weight once wet they are 2 or 3 times heavier than same volume of hydroton.

Coco is fine to put in the mix too.I usually clone in coco and just stick them in my hydroton lavarocks mix.Plus if you create a layer of coco in the upper part of your hydrotonlavarock mix, lets say,10 to 15 cm from top it will help yoyr roots to have a better grasp covering in your medium.No problem with the coco beeing rinced in the sollution, medium acts as a filter.

PEACE

 

[dachieftan]

So can anyone confirm that with this system...

The tube that goes from the controller pump should lead to the bucket system and not back to the resevoir....

 

[abuldur]

yes it would not make sense otherwise.

 

[abuldur]

But these pumps !!!
They send shivers down my back.
Almost burned down my house with one of those.
Once there is no water, most of them keep running and end up burning in your tank (which is made of plastic) and there goes your house.

The system i pointed out only uses gravity and air pumps.
Much safer.

peace

 

[dachieftan]

Well I'm trying to do a 12 5 gal bucket system with 1200w (600w Sun pulse MH and HPS) in a 20x20' carpeted room. My goal is to be as efficient as possible so I doubt there is a single air pump out there that can pump out the kind of juice I need (250-300gph). If there is... give me a link and I will stand corrected. Check out http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=26343
on info how to build your own RDWC system... it uses 2 8 port air pumps and 1 264gph air pump for 12 5gallon buckets. Simply genius

 

[abuldur]

The system i run is larger than what you plan to do an is only powered by air pumps.
One in each aquafarm(small ones 60 l/h) plus one in charge of the constant recirculation of the sollution (big one 200 l/h).
Blaze uses a water pump (submercible one which heats up the sollution) to move it arround.
The air pumps in the aquafarms move water from bottom to top and the big air pump moves it arround .
Sorry if this does not help english is not my native language.

 

[Rednick]

In an ebb and flow, bucket size will depend on how big your trees are going to get? Also affects how many buckets per light.

I grow five footers and I use 3 1/2 gal.
Rmccinc179 uses 2 gal, and grows bigger trees, but he raises the liner bucket a few inches half way through for more root space.

(R)DWC has impressive results, but depending on your experience it may not be the best route.
Judging by your questions I would be careful. Even Ebb and flow is a learning experience versus soil, coco, r/w and other non/quasi hydroponic methods.