I hear ya bro on the viability, I used to run 20k like this, it was surely a job and a half, however the extra work was worth it to stay on top of the game.
Im a pretty handy guy so building these systems is rather easy and straight forward, especially now that all the bugs have been worked out.
We used to run 6" cubes or flock in 1 gals up till 6yrs ago or so, i became friends with the manufacturer of the perlite and can get the 4cf bags for 6 bucks, couldn't beat that, now after running just perlite i have found that it is the best medium i have ever used, little tough to get rid of but well worth it. no preparation, just use it, lol
I personally would run this system all day everyday in a commercial set up. once set up its stupid easy, the potential quality and weight production is the key, in my 18 plus years i am yet to see better output... sure i may be a bit biased lol.. but this system is proven reliable and performs.
The only thing i may change is the perlite for longevity, i would do hydroton for the simple fact it lasts forever. im not a big fan of coco, tried it, imo the quality was way lacking compared to rockwool or perlite.
you can build this 5x10' table complete with rez and pumps for under 300, the table in that pic a page back has been running strong for 2yrs with no down time, takes about 2hrs to reset the whole table once harvest is down, pretty hard to beat that.
anyways, i have tons of experience with just about any type grow, weather it be soil to F&D, or trees to SOG.. im sure i may have some input on anything you decide you want to do.
Cheers
Im a pretty handy guy so building these systems is rather easy and straight forward, especially now that all the bugs have been worked out.
We used to run 6" cubes or flock in 1 gals up till 6yrs ago or so, i became friends with the manufacturer of the perlite and can get the 4cf bags for 6 bucks, couldn't beat that, now after running just perlite i have found that it is the best medium i have ever used, little tough to get rid of but well worth it. no preparation, just use it, lol
I personally would run this system all day everyday in a commercial set up. once set up its stupid easy, the potential quality and weight production is the key, in my 18 plus years i am yet to see better output... sure i may be a bit biased lol.. but this system is proven reliable and performs.
The only thing i may change is the perlite for longevity, i would do hydroton for the simple fact it lasts forever. im not a big fan of coco, tried it, imo the quality was way lacking compared to rockwool or perlite.
you can build this 5x10' table complete with rez and pumps for under 300, the table in that pic a page back has been running strong for 2yrs with no down time, takes about 2hrs to reset the whole table once harvest is down, pretty hard to beat that.
anyways, i have tons of experience with just about any type grow, weather it be soil to F&D, or trees to SOG.. im sure i may have some input on anything you decide you want to do.
Cheers