What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

My diy mini flood and drain

toastfighter2

Active member
To start, I have been looking for the perfect flood and drain set-up to use in my closet to veg in, and the cheapest I could find a table(that would fit) was around 50 bucks, and that's just the table by itself. This little system would cost right around that if I had to purchase everything new, but I just had most the parts laying around the house.

PARTS LIST-
1- flood and drain kit- $7
1- 190gph pump -$25
1- 19 gallon heavy duty tote -$10(on sale)
1- 10 gallon hd tote -$10
1- 2 feet of 1/2 inner diameter rubber tubing-$2
1- Reliable digital timer(really a must have)-$15 and up

REQUIRED TOOLS
1- utility knife, dremel, or best the option, a stepped drill bit.
1- non toxic washable marker

Step one- assemble parts
picture.php


Step two- decide where you want to install the fill and drain parts(in the ten gallon tote), then remove the rubber washer from from one them. Trace the inside of the washer to use as guidelines to cut the holes. Pro tip-make the holes smaller than they they need to be, you can always make them bigger, but it's really hard to make them smaller.
picture.php


Step three-after test fitting the fill and drain parts, remove them and sst them aside. Place one of the lids on the 19 gallon tote and then trace the holes in the 10 gallon tote onto the lid. this is just to mark the general location of the holes, and they holes need to be larger than the plastic nuts that hold on the bottom of the ebb and flow kit. I choose to cut squares, strictly because it is easier that way.
picture.php


Step four- Cut a hole for the pump cord the come out of in the end of the 19 gallon tote just large enough for the plug to fit though.
picture.php


Step five- Fit the tubing onto the pump,through the 19 gallon totes lid, and onto the fill side of the kit.(see pic from step three)

Step six-Program the timer. I personally choose to flood every 6 hours for 4 minutes, and my plant like it, plus it is just short enough that if my drain does get clogged, it stops short of overflowing(YMMV)

Step seven- Do a leak test in the bathtub, and if everything works fine, add your choice of medium, nutrients, and plants. Plug in your brand new mini ebb and flow table and hang a light above it.
picture.php
 
Last edited:

PetFlora

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I have been experimenting with a modified F & D kit for a few years now.

My last few grows I was top feeding into Air Pots filled with polished rock.

Lessons learned being applied into F & D

I will use a ~ 5g tote per plant. TOte walls need to be tall enough to allow filling ~ half way up the net pots

Seedlings will be started in 4" net pots in a tray bubble system.

Once pheno is determined, the 2 largest will be moved into large netpot lids (the kind that fits over a 5g bucket). Buckets are too tall and hard to get a non leaking seal at the drain location

Plant is inserted into net pot lid, then side filled with polished rock, then into individual F & D kit. As the pheno I am looking for from this strain (Med Man Silver Skunk BX1) is pretty big, I will only have one plant per tent, both fed and draining back into one rez

I 'flood' ~ 30 seconds/30 minutes during lights on. This requires a deep cycle timer

Pic is when I was using small air pots during veg. No need, just use ~ 4+" net pots

View attachment 280505
View attachment 280508
View attachment 280506 View attachment 280507



If interested, see my completed grow Multispectrum...
 

PetFlora

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Toastfighter- Nice. I prefer an outboard rez as it is easier to clean and replenish nutes. Will you be starting a thread? More people should see this in action. If you use stone as I do, you can flood every ~ 30-45 minutes until just before flush, then I back down to every 60-120 minutes

FYI: I no longer use the small pump pictured as it lacks a filter. It gets clogged pretty easy. Now using 185 gph pump
with detachable filter
 
Top