Looking to break into hydro

[coldcanna]

Well I managed to find a couple water pumps I had kicking around, one is a 150 gph pro pump the other is pirated from an EZ Cloner so its 450 gph I believe. Ebb and flo is sounding much easier for the first time especially since I don't have the resources to buy a chiller for a DWC system. It's 90 degrees here now and by the end of this run it will be in the 40's at night, so I don't want to be messing with water temps all day long. I'm off to the hydro stores this afternoon to see what I can put together, you guys that swear by ebb and flo, are you seeing any big differences between a normal flood table with RW cubes or using individual buckets piped back into the rezy?

 

[coldcanna]

Oh and I meant to ask, I'm looking for a reasonably priced timer that I can set up to flood 3-4 times a day automated. I saw the C.A.P digital timer for around 20 bucks and it says you can program up to 8 cycles per day. Anybody have any experience on this one, or a good rec for something else?

 

[-Capfan-]

Oh and I meant to ask, I'm looking for a reasonably priced timer that I can set up to flood 3-4 times a day automated. I saw the C.A.P digital timer for around 20 bucks and it says you can program up to 8 cycles per day. Anybody have any experience on this one, or a good rec for something else?

Get the Cap timer, you will need 2 of them..( if buckets that is )

i would go with the buckets, but i did use the tray for my first time..

1. Go to lowes/home depot, they have a concrete tray that is around 3x3 or 3x2, perfect height for a flood and drain table and 6" pots..

2. Buckets... Get buckets, mesh pots, 3 1/2 Gallon pots, or the 2g, all depends on your room bro and plants..

Whatever size you go with, get one size up for the control bucket..

So if you have 3 1/2 Gal Buckets, get a 5gal Control bucket..

Buy a float from the store, 1/2 .. These floats suck, not alot of water flow if you ask me, i take apart the float, drill the intake hole abit bigger ( not so big that the float cant stop it! ) and walla!

Im Rambling here.. Stoned ^^

1. 1 timer/pump / 1 tray / 6" Pots / Res underneath said tray, ebb and flow kit.

2. Res > Float valve > Control bucket > 3/4" Main lines reduced to 1/2 to the plant site.

 

[-Capfan-]

seeing any big differences between a normal flood table with RW cubes or using individual buckets piped back into the rezy?

Different strokes for differently folks...


Its your first time, right? ..So the goal here is just to produce a plant and learn, What kinda Watts you pushing?

My vote is for the buckets, but the tray would be abit newb friendly and less material up front...

edit: Read your first post =P

Blow your 150$ and do the buckets...

2 timers , 2 pumps, one timer kicks on to feed, 30 min later it stops, a few min later the 2nd pump kicks on to drain.... make sure your 400gph is on the feed line.

Beats the 300$ control bucket from cap! =P

Or here is a thought. buy a 1000w with your money, and the tray system wouldnt cost more then 50 bucks!

 

[Snype]

So I'm a pretty new grower and currently run in a promix/compost blend with GH nutes. I've dabbled in coco and at the time wasn't ready for the more involved nature of a coco or hydro grow. I'm starting to build a solid base and for the next run I'd like to run 3 or 4 of my girls in a hydro setup and do a little side by side comparison. Soil has been a good place to start but that the frosty nugs and big yields I'm seeing over in this section have made me think that its time to up my game. I'm hoping some of you can point me in the right direction and give me some advice, whats a good system to break into the hydro style with? I see the ebb and flow, UC, drippers, hempy buckets, ect ect. I have solid plumbing/ building skills and looking to spend 150 bucks or so for a DIY style experiment. Thanks for any help - CC

coldcanna, if you are ever interested in getting into RDWC I have a link in my signature that has many details and pictures to make your process a smooth ride. It is not complicated at all. The name of the link in the signature is:

Chemdog Double Diesel in RDWC - Start to finish in 1 day!

Good luck with your new hydro ventures!

 

[M.R.GT]

to each his own.

Good luck.

 

[sureshot66]

Well I managed to find a couple water pumps I had kicking around, one is a 150 gph pro pump the other is pirated from an EZ Cloner so its 450 gph I believe. Ebb and flo is sounding much easier for the first time especially since I don't have the resources to buy a chiller for a DWC system. It's 90 degrees here now and by the end of this run it will be in the 40's at night, so I don't want to be messing with water temps all day long. I'm off to the hydro stores this afternoon to see what I can put together, you guys that swear by ebb and flo, are you seeing any big differences between a normal flood table with RW cubes or using individual buckets piped back into the rezy?

any pump with a digital timer will work as you can precisely dial in your feed time...imo, tables are better for smaller plants,buckets for larger, you can really maximize table yields with training and trellising, netpots with hydroton need more feeds than rw, but provide better aeration for roots and less salt buildup, rw is really better top fed imo

 

[coldcanna]

Just got back from the store... They had these cool 8" mesh pots that were molded into the 5 gallon bucket lids, got a 10l bag of hydroton as a medium and also grabbed a cylindrical air stone. I already have 2 450 gph pumps and a 150 gph pump as mentioned above and a couple air pumps. As it stands I have all the equipment to run a simple DWC in the buckets, the guy at the store made this out to be the easiest way for a new hydro grower to break in but I'm still pondering the idea of ebb and gro buckets or rdwc as it wouldn't be to expensive to buy a few fittings and 10ft of pipe. I've got about a week to make up my mind, have the clones in the EZ cloner right now so it's looking like next weekend I'll have the system up and running. If anyone here wants to elaborate on their experiences with simple DWC in buckets that'd be much appreciated. It almost seems too simple to produce the big yields I've been seeing in some of you guys' journals. But who am I to say lol... Thanks for all the help so far the hydro farm has been outstanding and patient with all my newb questions. I should have a few pics up next weekend when I get the babies into the net pots, right now it'd just be a picture of an empty bucket and some clay balls haha

 

[coldcanna]

And a couple people had asked about the other details.... I have 600 and 1000 watt air cooled lights with hoods, I will be using a screen to grow trees, space is not an issue I have more than enough. Also already have all the climate control gear and a couple tents. GH 3 part system for nutes and the strains are crosses of Ak 47, Romulan, and GDP... Not that this matters too much because you will all see it in the soon to be grow log, but just some juicy details to keep your interest up for another week...

 

[sureshot66]

Just got back from the store... They had these cool 8" mesh pots that were molded into the 5 gallon bucket lids, got a 10l bag of hydroton as a medium and also grabbed a cylindrical air stone. I already have 2 450 gph pumps and a 150 gph pump as mentioned above and a couple air pumps. As it stands I have all the equipment to run a simple DWC in the buckets, the guy at the store made this out to be the easiest way for a new hydro grower to break in but I'm still pondering the idea of ebb and gro buckets or rdwc as it wouldn't be to expensive to buy a few fittings and 10ft of pipe. I've got about a week to make up my mind, have the clones in the EZ cloner right now so it's looking like next weekend I'll have the system up and running. If anyone here wants to elaborate on their experiences with simple DWC in buckets that'd be much appreciated. It almost seems too simple to produce the big yields I've been seeing in some of you guys' journals. But who am I to say lol... Thanks for all the help so far the hydro farm has been outstanding and patient with all my newb questions. I should have a few pics up next weekend when I get the babies into the net pots, right now it'd just be a picture of an empty bucket and some clay balls haha

nice, use an airstone per bucket and a separate bucket ie texas controller bucket to add your nutes adjust ph maintain level...all your buckets get connected to the control bucket with simple grommet push fittings

 

[-Capfan-]

Good luck in whatever you choose brotha!


I personally wouldnt have you start DWC, you have hot weather and no chiller..


..

My gardens are nothing but UC, but you cant beat the buckets for a rookie!

 

[M.R.GT]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=47552&pictureid=1110571

control

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=47552&pictureid=1110572

drain and bucket connections air pumps

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=47552&pictureid=1110575

net pot and water farm ring. ring handles the top feed.


below is entire systen

those are the pots I was talking about. If these pics don't help i'll take them down.

the single 5 gal pot in pic below is a flush pot.

 

[coldcanna]

M.R. GT your pics aren't displaying.... unless its something messed up on my lap top

 

[M.R.GT]

sorry.

I pulled them fro my album. I guess im the only one who can see them.

hope that fixed it brother. still trying to get a handle on this picture thing.

I don't use chiller either. I believe that's more environmental. the water farm oxygenates the water and cools it as well thru the cascading action.

you will have to get a pH meter and a TDS meter or its going to be tough to manage no mater what system you run.

We all will help you as much we can.

I can walk you through the water farm rings for less than 3$ if you go that route . Just let me know. lot better than $15 from the store.

let me know if the pics worked.
good luck
GT

 

[Snype]

Good luck in whatever you choose brotha!


I personally wouldnt have you start DWC, you have hot weather and no chiller..


..

My gardens are nothing but UC, but you cant beat the buckets for a rookie!

I don't use a chiller at all and I don't lose crops. The UC's don't supply enough Dissolved Oxygen and that's their problem and why they need chillers. I tested my systems up to 90 Degrees F with 100% success. I do my tests with a Dissolved Oxygen meter and a Chlorine meter.

 

[G.Goo]

+1 for the DiY Ebb and Grow...


2 pumps 2 timers, Good to go.

wrong 1 pump 1 timer gravity will let the water flow back into the res when it kicks the timer off

 

[Johnny Redthumb]

stay way from UC or DWC imo, lots of heartbreak there. coco, rockwool, and hempys are all a safe bet. not that involved once you figure out all the ins and outs!

 

[PetFlora]

I agree that UC has issues, and have offered my ideas on how to overcome them, Basically to stagger the in/out tubes + adding/positioning river rock in each bucket that causes th incoming water to break up, similar to a flowing river. These should significantly add to the DO in each bucket

Having tried most hydro methods, I felt their shortcomings could be eliminated and a super system developed based on drip, but with a fast draining medium which allows for hourly feed cycles - the more often you can feed them, the faster they should grow. Right?

I am on version 2.0

Come by and see whether it fits you

 

[Stonefree69]

Yeah RDWC is pretty easy to DIY, especially as you say you're good with plumbing skills. You can add top drip Heath Robinson style (1/2" tubing and not really drip) especially for younger plants that are getting roots established. Even the later ppk versions seem to take this into account.

I use 6-5 gallon buckets right now myself and a 20 gallon res with 1" uniseals and 1" pvc. Similar to The Under Current design:

The pump (like Ecoplus 396 & 633 gph pumps) pulls the water from buckets to a waterfall T in res for circulation and DO (dissolved oxygen). Also 6 or 8.5" net bottom pots with clay pellets (like hydroton), the roots seem to love those. Clay pellets easy to reuse over and over and it's an excellent media. Here in desert in summer especially use an Ecoplus 1/10 hp chiller for veg setup & 1/4 hp for flower. Water at 68-72 degrees. For added DO I use the top feed and a small venturi pump in res (Penguin powerhead). No air stones for me, that was the noisiset component and can cause root issues especially @ higher water temps.

When I moved to hydro back in the day growing skunk it wasn't tough at all and the pace of growth was better than any outdoor soil grows I did. And for nutes you don't really need those miracle potions, just a good KISS feeding regimen. Many times less can be better than more. When plants are young overwater and nutes seem to be main problems. Enviro and light can make a diff though. Good luck!

 

[wantaknow]

check you water source first if its good then move on if its a bad source then ro and a chiller would be the first thing to get