best hydro setup for 11x11 room

[joe fresh]

im a promix/soil man, but with the size of my rooms im thinking bout switching over to hydro, for the ease of getting rid of the waste product(no dirt to haul in or out of my house)


so basically i have 3 rooms 11x11 each, and was wondering which is the simplest way to set things up for a hydro grow?



i was thinking of using 12" pvc/abs(which ever) pipe and cut them 8 ft long, and cut holes in the top for the plants and have water running at all times, but make sure that the 12" pipes are atleast 1/2 full with water at all times, so it would be a kind of "trough RDWC"....and have like 4 12" pipes connected together to make a 4x8 RDWC pipe system, is this possible?

is there something simpler that is easy to install? easy to use?

i understand the basics of growing in hydro....my problem comes to building/connescting the equipment as i am afraid of floods, and am thinking it would be a mess if i tried to set up some sophisticated hydro setup that runs on timers,

....i need something that runs without timers...that can accomodate 200 plants in my 3 rooms(no veg), so i figure 50-70 plants per room.

 

[HeD333]

I'd probably end up using 4 4x4 flood tables in each room. That'd do well, and you could buy modular units for ease of setup.

 

[poo-hand]

if you are worried about spills get a pond liner and cover the floors with it. make sure it comes up the walls about 4-6". if need be build a frame for the pond liner out of 2x6.

for the hydro unit, have you checked out blaze one ups RDWC system? its very simple and pretty damn reliable. blaze's system will produce some trees. its at the top of the hydro section.

 

[dtfsux]

afraid to use timers?? You need to get over that

The system you are describing sounds more complicated than most other systems used. Plus that is a lot of water. you do not see a lot of commercial growers using DWC or RDWC

E&F is extremely simple. Flood every 3 or 4 hours for 15 minutes, and that is it. DWC relies heavily on air pumps.

Tables or buckets. Tables are SUPER simple to set up. I could have an 11x11 room setup in an hour or two, depending on what I used to support the tables. A nice frame would take around 30 minutes to build. Drill two holes in the table, attach fittings, attach hose and pump, put res under holes. fill, watch plants grow.

Buckets take a little more time to setup as you have to build a controller bucket, drill all the buckets and plumb them. But it would allow you to make better use of the space


If you not want timers, maybe buckets with those blue-mat drippers and an elevated res? Like lazymans grow. coco as amedium, reused a couple times?

The good thing is most of the setup can be done outside the grow room. Then when each room comes down, clean, install and be done. No more than a day install per room for any of this IMO

 

[newhiddengrower]

afraid to use timers?? You need to get over that

The system you are describing sounds more complicated than most other systems used. Plus that is a lot of water. you do not see a lot of commercial growers using DWC or RDWC

E&F is extremely simple. Flood every 3 or 4 hours for 15 minutes, and that is it. DWC relies heavily on air pumps.

Tables or buckets. Tables are SUPER simple to set up. I could have an 11x11 room setup in an hour or two, depending on what I used to support the tables. A nice frame would take around 30 minutes to build. Drill two holes in the table, attach fittings, attach hose and pump, put res under holes. fill, watch plants grow.

Buckets take a little more time to setup as you have to build a controller bucket, drill all the buckets and plumb them. But it would allow you to make better use of the space


If you not want timers, maybe buckets with those blue-mat drippers and an elevated res? Like lazymans grow. coco as amedium, reused a couple times?

The good thing is most of the setup can be done outside the grow room. Then when each room comes down, clean, install and be done. No more than a day install per room for any of this IMO

I am a RDWC expert and i agree with this guy, it takes alot of time to set up and i do use alot of water . After reading this i might switch to E&F but i am scared of the yield. And i hate cloning in rockwools..

 

[joe fresh]

afraid to use timers?? You need to get over that

The system you are describing sounds more complicated than most other systems used. Plus that is a lot of water. you do not see a lot of commercial growers using DWC or RDWC

E&F is extremely simple. Flood every 3 or 4 hours for 15 minutes, and that is it. DWC relies heavily on air pumps.

Tables or buckets. Tables are SUPER simple to set up. I could have an 11x11 room setup in an hour or two, depending on what I used to support the tables. A nice frame would take around 30 minutes to build. Drill two holes in the table, attach fittings, attach hose and pump, put res under holes. fill, watch plants grow.

Buckets take a little more time to setup as you have to build a controller bucket, drill all the buckets and plumb them. But it would allow you to make better use of the space


If you not want timers, maybe buckets with those blue-mat drippers and an elevated res? Like lazymans grow. coco as amedium, reused a couple times?

The good thing is most of the setup can be done outside the grow room. Then when each room comes down, clean, install and be done. No more than a day install per room for any of this IMO

this all sounds interesting....but hight it a factor, i want plants no more than a total 3-4 ft tall including the bucket/grow medium....

as for the blumat drippers, i was looking at them as i could use them in my current setup with promix...

the reason i am thinking about going to hydro is the fact of bringing ing 15 bales of promix every run, and then bringing out 30-40 garbage bags come harvest time...

the reason i have not gone hydro is the fact im afraid of floods....

im looking to go hydro with no grow medium(ex: rockwool, coco, ect....), i dont want any medium that i have to get rid of....

as for the water issue, i dont pay for water, we dont have water meters, so its not an issue, i have 2 3ton water cooled a/c's running 24/7 on thermostats...and i am waiting for my 2 water cooled co2 gennys.....all on drain to waste.....so im not scared to use water, its not an issue

 

[MIGHTYMITE]

joe if you arfraid off floods ,,you might wanna rethink hydro,,i dont know anyone who has run a big hydro run and not ended up with a flood or a crapload of water on the floor and not in the buckets..prepare for the worst case scenario and go from there,,

MM

 

[gregor_mendel]

http://cch2o.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=40

This system is RDWC. It accomplished your original idea and comes in a box. If you want to widen the spacing a bit to fit your room more perfectly, they will help you out.

I have run RDWC a few times. It yields well with incredible veg rates.
I have not run this system, but don't see why it would yield as well as any other RDWC.

The plumbing is the simplest I have ever seen, As far as RDWC goes, and the people that run them never seem to complain.

 

[superusa]

this all sounds interesting....but hight it a factor, i want plants no more than a total 3-4 ft tall including the bucket/grow medium....

as for the blumat drippers, i was looking at them as i could use them in my current setup with promix...

the reason i am thinking about going to hydro is the fact of bringing ing 15 bales of promix every run, and then bringing out 30-40 garbage bags come harvest time...

the reason i have not gone hydro is the fact im afraid of floods....

im looking to go hydro with no grow medium(ex: rockwool, coco, ect....), i dont want any medium that i have to get rid of....

as for the water issue, i dont pay for water, we dont have water meters, so its not an issue, i have 2 3ton water cooled a/c's running 24/7 on thermostats...and i am waiting for my 2 water cooled co2 gennys.....all on drain to waste.....so im not scared to use water, its not an issue

You want small plant height and low risk of flood... Why don't you try an aeroflo unit, or build a PVC aero or NFT setup. No rockwool, just neoprene collars, and not a huge res either....

http://www.hydroponics.net/i/211145

 

[joe fresh]

http://cch2o.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=40

This system is RDWC. It accomplished your original idea and comes in a box. If you want to widen the spacing a bit to fit your room more perfectly, they will help you out.

I have run RDWC a few times. It yields well with incredible veg rates.
I have not run this system, but don't see why it would yield as well as any other RDWC.

The plumbing is the simplest I have ever seen, As far as RDWC goes, and the people that run them never seem to complain.

seems pretty simple, but is the distance between the buckets adjustable? can i move them closer together to fit more plants in?

 

[newhiddengrower]

that UC system are mainly for bigger plants. If you wanted your plants closer i would use RDWC Buckets.

 

[dtfsux]

I ran tables, and my only floods were from my own stupidity of filling 200 gallon res'es and not coming back to check them.

I also ran 24 buckets and never had an issue with them.

Never had a plumbing issue with my buckets or my simple tables. I did have some other tables that had pumps, switches,valves etc to pump back to the res since it was higher and there were some accidents with that till it got all dialed in.


3-4 feet huh? tables on the ground, DTW with hydroton. Or buckets E&F or DTW.

E&F requires medium and hydroton is a good medium that can be reused w/o much effort.



Medium less would have to be DWC or Aero, maybe NFT. But you do not see alot of commercial growers doing that. The reason is the medium gives a safety factor if something happens like a timer or pump failure.


I have run aero and lost plants due to equipment failure. In E&F i have had pumps off for 2-3 days and still kept my crop. That would never happen in aero or DWC.


With the 12" pipes, I meant that was alot of water to be running through the pipes weight wise and in case of a leak. With that setup, you would have the whole thing on the floor in seconds.

But I guess its not too bad, a foot of 12inch pipe holds 5.875 gallons. you want 32 feet half full. thats around 90 gallons in the pipe

 

[Numboard]

Rdwc fo lyfe! Do a simple quarter inch feed half inch drain with bulkhead fittings. Pretty hard to flood a system like that. I would bet that a ebb and flow system would be way more prone to spills. Big trays full of water vs connected 5 gallon buckets full of water. The answer seems clear imo. Plus with ebb and flow you still need to have shitloads of hydroton, with dwc you only need enough hydroton to fill the net cups.

Also having your tables lower than your res is just a express train to disaster imo. Unless you really know what you are doing and set up the pumps and everything perfect, you will spill water. I would seriously advise against putting your tables on the floor unless you can get the res below the floor.

I think you are going to be hard pressed to find a hydro system that conforms to your 3-4 feet total height without significant design modifications. Most hydro systems need to have plenty of space below the root line for equipment.

 

[joe fresh]

I ran tables, and my only floods were from my own stupidity of filling 200 gallon res'es and not coming back to check them.

I also ran 24 buckets and never had an issue with them.

Never had a plumbing issue with my buckets or my simple tables. I did have some other tables that had pumps, switches,valves etc to pump back to the res since it was higher and there were some accidents with that till it got all dialed in.


3-4 feet huh? tables on the ground, DTW with hydroton. Or buckets E&F or DTW.

E&F requires medium and hydroton is a good medium that can be reused w/o much effort.



Medium less would have to be DWC or Aero, maybe NFT. But you do not see alot of commercial growers doing that. The reason is the medium gives a safety factor if something happens like a timer or pump failure.


I have run aero and lost plants due to equipment failure. In E&F i have had pumps off for 2-3 days and still kept my crop. That would never happen in aero or DWC.


With the 12" pipes, I meant that was alot of water to be running through the pipes weight wise and in case of a leak. With that setup, you would have the whole thing on the floor in seconds.

But I guess its not too bad, a foot of 12inch pipe holds 5.875 gallons. you want 32 feet half full. thats around 90 gallons in the pipe

see thats exactly how ive been making floods, filling my 140 liter rez and forgetting about it(trakes a while with RO system) and going to bed.....or going to do the groceries....

this is why i am afraid of running any hydro system, if i can make foodswhile im running in promix, then imagin hydro, lol...


but yeah, these are just thaughts running through my head, as im kinda paranoid and stressed out over 2 reasons, roughly 100+ bales of promix moving in and out of my house per year....and the fact that when you ovcer fert in promix flushing is a bitch...where as in hydro imo its much easier to keep controle of your ppm/ph as you just have to watch for rises and falls and adjust accordingly....

but after thinking all this through, bringing in equipment(12" pipes...like 40 of them...), having to get a rez chiller, all the tubing....seems like a lot of work considering that im moving with in 1 year....so i figure that this will more likely be a project for my next house....and set it up right from the begining...

but these ideas are great...and id like to keep this discution open, as it is generating great ideas for me...

 

[joe fresh]

heres what i find looks very interesting.


buckets are nice and close...and if you look in one of the pics the buckets have 4 holes in each, allowing for more plants which is what im looking for

 

[cannaboy]

Real nice joe can't wait to se it full. What's going in there,, is it the M39 or you on some better stuff these days,, good luck and break a stem.

 

[Numboard]

That would be a undercurrent dwc. Check the link in my siggy "chicken shackin it up"
I diy'ed a undercurrent setup and I absolutely LOVE it so far. Something you might consider about filling your res's. Maybe have a big barrel for water storage with a float valve connected to your ro system. So the barrel fills with ro water then you manually transfer it to your hydro buckets. This forces you to pay attention while filling and thus no spills! Something on those undercurrent buckets though. If you decide to buy their pre made setup be very carefull when installing the "uniseals" If you don't get them really snug and perfect they will leak. Lots of people are having problems with them. If i were you i would go the diy route and follow "overbudgets" Diy undercurrent bulkheads. This drastically reduces the chances of leaks due to the bulkhead design.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=155064

You can obviously use whichever style bucket you want whether that be the 13 gallon buckets in the pictures above, or the 5 gallon buckets that overbudget uses. The 13 gal's would allow you to do multiple plants per bucket. These are super scaleable systems and you can design them pretty much any way you want! Make sure that your connecting pipes are far bigger than your feed pipes. To prevent an unbalance of water. The key to these systems is getting the water flow even. Hope this helps!

Ps: if I were to re do my setup i would definitely follow overbudgets methods. Also heres a video showing that undercurrent system in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaBsNaRjzxc

 

[joe fresh]

That would be a undercurrent dwc. Check the link in my siggy "chicken shackin it up"
I diy'ed a undercurrent setup and I absolutely LOVE it so far. Something you might consider about filling your res's. Maybe have a big barrel for water storage with a float valve connected to your ro system. So the barrel fills with ro water then you manually transfer it to your hydro buckets. This forces you to pay attention while filling and thus no spills! Something on those undercurrent buckets though. If you decide to buy their pre made setup be very carefull when installing the "uniseals" If you don't get them really snug and perfect they will leak. Lots of people are having problems with them. If i were you i would go the diy route and follow "overbudgets" Diy undercurrent bulkheads. This drastically reduces the chances of leaks due to the bulkhead design.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=155064

You can obviously use whichever style bucket you want whether that be the 13 gallon buckets in the pictures above, or the 5 gallon buckets that overbudget uses. The 13 gal's would allow you to do multiple plants per bucket. These are super scaleable systems and you can design them pretty much any way you want! Make sure that your connecting pipes are far bigger than your feed pipes. To prevent an unbalance of water. The key to these systems is getting the water flow even. Hope this helps!

Ps: if I were to re do my setup i would definitely follow overbudgets methods. Also heres a video showing that undercurrent system in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaBsNaRjzxc

thx for the links...ill check em both right now....;my brother is a plumber, so im thinking if i were to get a setup like this i would have him help me set it up, just to be safe..lol

 

[Numboard]

thx for the links...ill check em both right now....;my brother is a plumber, so im thinking if i were to get a setup like this i would have him help me set it up, just to be safe..lol

Its not that hard really, once you get the basic idea solid in your head all you gotta do is figure out how to get there! Some common sense, a little trial and error and lots of learning later I have no doubts you will be rockin the undercurrent. Cant wait to see your end product! Pm me the thread once you got it rockin!

 

[dtfsux]

Rdwc fo lyfe! Do a simple quarter inch feed half inch drain with bulkhead fittings. Pretty hard to flood a system like that. I would bet that a ebb and flow system would be way more prone to spills. Big trays full of water vs connected 5 gallon buckets full of water. The answer seems clear imo. Plus with ebb and flow you still need to have shitloads of hydroton, with dwc you only need enough hydroton to fill the net cups.

Also having your tables lower than your res is just a express train to disaster imo. Unless you really know what you are doing and set up the pumps and everything perfect, you will spill water. I would seriously advise against putting your tables on the floor unless you can get the res below the floor.

I think you are going to be hard pressed to find a hydro system that conforms to your 3-4 feet total height without significant design modifications. Most hydro systems need to have plenty of space below the root line for equipment.

Umm wrong. What do you think, someone is going to move the table while being filled? A table with a res under it, is fool proof. Even if a hose came off, the res is under the table. I have grown quite a bit of weed with tables, I can vouch for them.

A bunch of buckets, each with a connection is more prone to a disaster. But as long as everything is connected properly, all should be good.

A res higher than a table is NOT going to spill water. It is not rocket science. A simple gravity fed line with a electric valve would work fine.

Buckets would work good for you as far as bringing them in and out of the house. No biggie like huge 12" pipes or tables. Plus very portable and easy to move around, well at least E&F buckets are. Not sure if the UC buckets can be moved around.

With E&F you do not need chillers unless you have some sort of huge heat issue.