My New Nft Build

420circuit · May 15, 2015

Must be 3" netpots. I am happy with the foam inserts and find that keeping the roots suspended like that seems to help with their health, but I use 2" pots in 4" rails. My next NFT will use 3" pots in 5" rails and I think I might steal your idea with hydroton for the first grow. Getting the rails down by the floor will be nice too. Couple times I left rockwool and seed starter cubes in the netpots and had issues with it getting funky. For 2" pots and 1 min on, 4 mins off, these things are growing machines.:D

Smokey503ski · May 17, 2015

Went and bought some stuff to build a platform for the trellis netting.
I'm happy with the growth these have put on in the past few days.
Day one of flower started today.

Bought a 2.1 Wireless Sound bar for the room so I can listen to music while I'm working.
Sounds really good.
My phones Bluetooth pairs really quick. Great buy.

Smokey503ski · May 18, 2015

I went and traded for another air cooled hood.
Now that all 4 hoods are being cooled, my temps are staying right between 78°-80° without any ac.
I did cut out a 6" hole behind my refrigerator, which is next to my garage.
Added a 6" inline fan and will be using the house ac to help with cooling the garage.
I have a temperature controller attached to the intake fan so I can set my desired temps.
For the nutrients I am using the Lucas formula 1 to 2 ratio with General Hydroponic.
For Veg I was running 500ppm base and using Algen Extract. This worked really nice.
Now for flower I am running at 550ppm without any adatives.
I do plan on using some type of Booster starting after the first week of flower.
Any suggestions on a Booster to run with my system?
Here are a few pics I just took.

Smokey503ski · May 20, 2015

Few days into flower.

billy liar · May 20, 2015

Hey smokey,

System looks cool, and some obvious signs that the ladies like their new home...

I've just built something similar although quite different lol... Its an evolution from an NFT which I modified... The original mod was the addition of a control res outside of the room (the main res is in the room).. This holds a float valve for an ro top off. And is where I add nutes once ec drops, it circulates through a chiller to the main res..

The latest mod has been to lose the nft tray/table and replace with 6" tubes that are flooded. Its similar to your set up there, other than the fact my roots are submerged, and my plants are a lot closer together by the looks... Which brings me to my question lol; what's the plant spacings on your system?

Anyway I think we're about at the same stage of flower in our new systems, so would be great to see what's cracking each week..

I suppose I should start a thread here, been a while... My usual forum dont attract too much hydro tech talk...

See you around, and good luck...

Peace
BL

Smokey503ski · May 20, 2015

billy liar said:
Hey smokey,

System looks cool, and some obvious signs that the ladies like their new home...

I've just built something similar although quite different lol... Its an evolution from an NFT which I modified... The original mod was the addition of a control res outside of the room (the main res is in the room).. This holds a float valve for an ro top off. And is where I add nutes once ec drops, it circulates through a chiller to the main res..

The latest mod has been to lose the nft tray/table and replace with 6" tubes that are flooded. Its similar to your set up there, other than the fact my roots are submerged, and my plants are a lot closer together by the looks... Which brings me to my question lol; what's the plant spacings on your system?

Anyway I think we're about at the same stage of flower in our new systems, so would be great to see what's cracking each week..

I suppose I should start a thread here, been a while... My usual forum dont attract too much hydro tech talk...

See you around, and good luck...

Peace
BL

I'm confused. Sounds like your system is a modified RDWC.
Sounds pretty cool. Are you going to have air stones inside the tubes?
I like NFT style for the thin film of nutrients and the roots aren't sitting in water.
One thing so far I don't need a water chiller. My res temps are at 68-71 degrees.
With having the timer set to 1 minute in 4 minutes off. The root temp is around 68 degrees. I used my temp gun on the roots and it drops temps from the water not flowing over them for 4 minutes. Kind of line when you get out of the pool. Pretty cold for a few minutes.
plants are spread 16" apart.

Canappa · May 20, 2015

Smokey503ski said:
Few days into flower.
View attachment 510776 View attachment 510777 View attachment 510778 View attachment 510779 View attachment 510780

Gotta give two thumbs up! looking really good are you topping any of them? Good job on the netting your going to need it them girls are growing fast:). I dont know why more people do not grow NFT I love the fact that it can be so easy to maintain it basically runs its self, and its cheap to build. I will never go back to dirt grows. I did a test this run and never changed the rez just kept adding nutes and water, so far I am having good results. I am sure your going to be happy with the end results...

Smokey503ski · May 20, 2015

Canappa said:
Gotta give two thumbs up! looking really good are you topping any of them? Good job on the netting your going to need it them girls are growing fast:). I dont know why more people do not grow NFT I love the fact that it can be so easy to maintain it basically runs its self, and its cheap to build. I will never go back to dirt grows. I did a test this run and never changed the rez just kept adding nutes and water, so far I am having good results. I am sure your going to be happy with the end results...

Honestly I think it's too "old school" for people to think it works.
Super simple to run so far.
I agree. No more soil coco for me.

billy liar · May 21, 2015

Hi smokey,

Well its a conversion from nft to a recirculating dwc/dft system..

No there's no need for airstones as the water is oxygenated in the res before circulation.

The roots are just fine sat in oxygen rich water, and gives me some risilience if there's a power/pump failure.

I use a chiller for resilience also, should something fail like a fan or the ac, then my roots shouldn't suffer..

Anyways, I'm building/converting another system the same so will start a thread to cover all.

Being at the same kind of stage in flower should be a nice comparison of our systems I thought. I didn't get my gg#4's ready for this run, so maybe next time, or the time after lol..

Take care
Peace
BL

Smokey503ski · May 21, 2015

billy liar said:
Hi smokey,

Well its a conversion from nft to a recirculating dwc/dft system..

No there's no need for airstones as the water is oxygenated in the res before circulation.

The roots are just fine sat in oxygen rich water, and gives me some risilience if there's a power/pump failure.

I use a chiller for resilience also, should something fail like a fan or the ac, then my roots shouldn't suffer..

Anyways, I'm building/converting another system the same so will start a thread to cover all.

Being at the same kind of stage in flower should be a nice comparison of our systems I thought. I didn't get my gg#4's ready for this run, so maybe next time, or the time after lol..

Take care
Peace
BL

One thing i noticed 20 years ago when u started growing in gutters is the faster the water flow over the roots, the better they grow.
I'd make sure you have a lot of water moving over the roots.
Honestly I don't think your DO levels are going to be where they should by just Oxygenating the res.
Are you going to put a grow log up? I would like to compare progress.

billy liar · May 21, 2015

I'll start a thread yes, whether it ends up being a log I don't quite know, dont seem to follow them through too well.. But building a new system gets me enthusiastic :D..

I think I've got plenty of flow in there, each tube has its own 1000lph pump, so prob 500-600lph by the time pipework losses and lift factored in ;) we'll see lol..

Starting to feel like I'm hijacking now, leave you to it, lol...

Peace
BL

Smokey503ski · May 21, 2015

Your not jacking my thread.
I don't mind. It's not off topic.
What strain are you running?

billy liar · May 21, 2015

A mix to try and rid myself of some of the 20+ mothers I've ended up with...

This happens to be a sour d, og grape, a local pheno of gsc, and choc cheese (chocolope x uk cheese) all I've got ready.. Other than the SD, these are new to me so the worst will go. No one would get rid of the SD I have. I think its ecsd, but can't confirm.. Bloody nice though..

Peace
BL

atwofour · May 22, 2015

Lookin' good there Smokey : )

Any of you guys ever use the nft mat material? In all my yrs of casual E-viewing, I don't recall it being used...

When I try this nft/low pressure aero....I think I'll build my own wood troughs or even tables...line it with plastic sheet. Should be simple enough...and no root restriction like seems to come up with the the 4 to even 6" tubes

Speaking of rez changes or lack thereof...I seem to recall reading way back when about an addback method that allowed for easy calculations on adding back water and/or nutes for entire cycles, no full change out. "33% nutrient addback" or something...You guys ever hear of that? (it may have been a "Lucas formula" thing tho...I'd have to check the specifics again...)

atwofour · May 22, 2015

How about some root shots btw? How're they lookin' in there?
Cheers :)

Smokey503ski · May 22, 2015

atwofour said:
Lookin' good there Smokey : )

Any of you guys ever use the nft mat material? In all my yrs of casual E-viewing, I don't recall it being used...

When I try this nft/low pressure aero....I think I'll build my own wood troughs or even tables...line it with plastic sheet. Should be simple enough...and no root restriction like seems to come up with the the 4 to even 6" tubes

Speaking of rez changes or lack thereof...I seem to recall reading way back when about an addback method that allowed for easy calculations on adding back water and/or nutes for entire cycles, no full change out. "33% nutrient addback" or something...You guys ever hear of that? (it may have been a "Lucas formula" thing tho...I'd have to check the specifics again...)

http://www.lucasformulacalculator.com/ this is what you're looking for I believe.
I can't take pics of the roots.
I have the pvc pipe in each of the tubes.
The roots have themselves all around it. Can't pull them out without damaging.
There are roots already in the res.
I never have used the mats. I like the fast water flow over the roots.
I would re think your idea of using wood and plastic sheeting. It will get mildew on it no matter what. Did this year's ago and made a huge mess 2 months in.

420circuit · May 22, 2015

Adding Hygrozyme and Pondzyme has improved root health in my nft system, white roots since running with them, highly recommend. Nice growth so far, gonna be nice.

Smokey503ski · May 22, 2015

420circuit said:
Adding Hygrozyme and Pondzyme has improved root health in my nft system, white roots since running with them, highly recommend. Nice growth so far, gonna be nice.

I have been using drip clean and Dutch master zone.
All white roots.

Smokey503ski · May 22, 2015

Starting to stretch.

mauiinfinity · May 22, 2015

are you going to trim the bottom third off?
looking good so far though bro love the innovation and work!

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