Help. I'm thinking of DIY'ing a Flood&Drain/Ebb&Flow system.

[magick81]

Hi fellow growers :wave:
I just finished my 1st grow, using coco in pots, but I would like to go fully automated. I sometimes forget to water, lols, so I would rather maintain a hydro system.

Anyways, I've been looking at Ebb & Flow systems. I am not prepared to pay hundreds of dollars for a system, or even just over a hundred for a flood and drain tray (I cant believe the cost of these things.Rediculous!)
There are lots of handy guides out there to making them. I'm not handy enough to make something fancy, and see myself making something like this:
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAzxwpgnVhc[/YOUTUBE]

The simpler the better since I'm still a noob :shrug:

Anyways, alot of these guides don't tell you the flood and drain cycles for growing marijuana. If anyone can help me out with these details it would be appreciated :)

Also, if you have any feedback, suggestions or links to more info, they'd be very helpful in helping a noob grower out.

Cheers
DrMagickZ

 

[dankworth]

Topdrip DTW imo is better. Any time you can dtw it is better. Perfect feed every time. Not returning crap to the res. Less disease risk. Optimized performance. Better than recirc. Just get your runoff and use drip clean.
I say this having built both systems from scratch.
Oh and lots of big kids on this site are doing amazing things with chow mix(coco/hydroton). Better results than pure coco or coco/perlite mixes apparently.
Hope this information is useful.

DTW-drain to waste. With coco, the rules are usually to get 20-30% runoff with each irrigation, although some can get away with less by using very frequent irrigations and drip clean(h&g product)
Leadsled has a most excellent tutorial on how to build a cheap irrigation manifold for topdrip dtw that offers many advantages to ebb & flow imo.

 

[TexBud]

I've been using diy ebb/flow for years. All supplies wally world or home supply stores. I use small dime sized lava as medium. The above video is great but you can add a table by just "t" ing the supply hose to another table but drainage will have to be back into the res! My main reason of writing this is to say if you use the ebb/flow; Sanitize after each crop! This will Kill all pathogens/fungi.

Good Luck,

TexBud
If it works don't fix it

 

[ptg701]

A well designed E&F system must allow easy access to the reservoir.
Traditional systems use a stand or table to support the tray and don't rest them on top or inside of the tank.

There are dozens of reasons you need access to the tank including changing and maintaining the nutrient solution.

With the system in the video, the only way to access the solution is to lift the tray out of the tank, and that will soon become a difficult if not impossible task.

 

[Seed Buyer]

IT is also important that the tray drain 100%. If your DIY tray does not drain properly this could lead to standing water and root rot. A quality tray from Botanicare is engineered to drain correctly and will outlast us. If you are in this for the long run I would buy a quality tray. The only time I build trays is when I need an off size tray (5x5 or 3x4). If you are in a med state look on craigs list and you should be able to find a quality used tray. What size tray are you looking to build?

 

[Aerojoe]

IT is also important that the tray drain 100%. If your DIY tray does not drain properly this could lead to standing water and root rot. A quality tray from Botanicare is engineered to drain correctly and will outlast us. If you are in this for the long run I would buy a quality tray. The only time I build trays is when I need an off size tray (5x5 or 3x4). If you are in a med state look on craigs list and you should be able to find a quality used tray. What size tray are you looking to build?

I agree w/ seedb, when I built my own ebb and flow I made it slightly tilted to get it to drain properly but I've since then bought a tray. Only reason not to use the tray is if you are limited in space, I made mine out of pvc fence posts for my first closet grow, but if your trying to fill a 4x4 or 5x5 space I also recommend buying a tray from craigslist because it will be hard to find something that big and sturdy to turn into a tray. Also if possible locate your reservoir somewhere convenient like outside the grow.