I would focus alot on your nutrient lineup and how you would combat root rot. We can all tell you how to tune your system, but it will be based upon how we run ours. I would stick with the most common design plans, but I would put a focus on gallons per plant. The higher your system holding capacity, the less you have to maintain it. If your doing frequent res changes on a sterile system or live system, the holding capacity isnt as big of a deal. I never run below 10 gallons per plant. So if you have 5 plants, system capacity minimum should be 50 gallons. Most hydro growers run h2o2 with a chiller in a sterile system. Sterile systems are by far the most popular umong hydro growers. To sum it up, its ran like a pool. You use additives to break down the cell walls of the microbes. In a live system its ran more like a lake. We add natural bacteria that will combat the pythium that plagues hydro systems. You can run it at warmer water temps with no chiller. I run live, and only a few others on here run live. So if I tell you what I think you should do, it might conflict with what someone else running a sterile system will tell you. You cannot add h2o2 to a live system and you cannot add bacteria to a sterile system. Since your asking for advice, make sure your specific on your goals. I personally have set some unique goals and have achieved them. I would not recommend taking my path without full dedication lol. Now you can run it like other people run their live system too. Most people do res changes, I do not. I go 2 months and my ppms are at about 500 at the end of the grow, and my res has been sucked dry by the plant leaving only about 20% of the solution, aka 5 gallons per plant grown, to be pumped down the drain. I dont use corrosives on my root system, I dont like running the water at temps lower than 72f due to a personal belief it slows growth. I dont add enzymes because I dont use corrosives and I dont need nutrients rebonded, I dont need enzymes that are not bonded left in the res. I personally grow like no one else, so take it with a grain of salt, I got haters, I got lovers lol. . Personally if your dedicated and dont wanna pump shit outside, and you dont wanna damage the roots with corrosives, and you dont wanna run a chiller. . id say go live. I have a thread where I helped "ispy" do his first live grow. He was happy I think lol . .Basically, let me also state this. The chances of messing up is extremely high, in both systems. So no matter what you do, learn from it and go forward. My profile is viewable and urge you to click some of these links so you know im not full of shit.
We also debate and argue, not just me. . but if theres something above I said wrong, im sure I will have to defend it very very soon. No one holds back bro, so just read and study what those have done just as much as what they say. No one wants to actually watch you fail, we all just have conflicting methods on how you should do it. Its your job to sift through it all and pick your path.
