What is the simplest Hydro System?

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Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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A good friend here runs an Aquaponics farm. The setup is the difficult part. you have to balance the chemistry before adding any critters. I've worked with his system enough to know something about it. 90% of the things you just mentioned are all self-adjusting once the system is properly running. Aquaponics is really the Organic version of Hydro. I've spent at least 4 years looking at his system and discussing how to get the best results.

The reason I bring it up is because I keep hearing it does not work well for weed. That seems totally backwards to me because no matter what he planted, it sprouted and grew to maturity in record time. He never planted weed (that I know of) so that's my issue. There are more nutrients in his system than the plants can take advantage of. What makes weed so different?
Weed is a demanding on nutes is all... you just need a big enough system to support it. That in itself is enough to justify not doing it imo... when things are well established tanks are easy af they look after themselves... that does not happen in a week or a month and most consider an established system probably closer to a year.

Trust me when I say you are likely going to have issues for a month and maybe a few.

So he must do water changes if his plants don't keep up?
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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I mean I'm not trying to discourage you by any means and I'm sure you will get it going. I just kinda feel you thinks it's easier than it will be and definitelydoesn't fit the goal of your post. But that's just my opinion. You may just absolutely nail it.
 
ComfortablyNumb

ComfortablyNumb

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Weed is a demanding on nutes is all... you just need a big enough system to support it. That in itself is enough to justify not doing it imo... when things are well established tanks are easy af they look after themselves... that does not happen in a week or a month and most consider an established system probably closer to a year.

Trust me when I say you are likely going to have issues for a month and maybe a few.

So he must do water changes if his plants don't keep up?
He adds about 1000 gallons a day. This is a 2 acre farm. (Edited number)
 
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ComfortablyNumb

ComfortablyNumb

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I mean I'm not trying to discourage you by any means and I'm sure you will get it going. I just kinda feel you thinks it's easier than it will be and definitelydoesn't fit the goal of your post. But that's just my opinion. You may just absolutely nail it.
I hear you. It's his farm not mine. I want some simpler experience with it first, hence my post. But I'm always looking toward the perfect AP system.
 
ComfortablyNumb

ComfortablyNumb

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Fixed the number in my other post.

@freezeland2 , We were looking at a constant ebb and flow system.
 
GanjaFarmer24

GanjaFarmer24

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Fixed the number in my other post.

@freezeland2 , We were looking at a constant ebb and flow system.
You said this was going into a 4x4 tent? How many plants were you thinking about? Have you done research on 70/30 Coco/perlite. Seems to be all the hype the last year or so. You could use an elevated ebb & flow table and water till runoff and collect it from a single drain.
 
ComfortablyNumb

ComfortablyNumb

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You said this was going into a 4x4 tent? How many plants were you thinking about? Have you done research on 70/30 Coco/perlite. Seems to be all the hype the last year or so. You could use an elevated ebb & flow table and water till runoff and collect it from a single drain.
We had a 6 plant system in mind.
Like this but more spread out. But all of them are on one flood table that drains down into the Res.
 
Hydro1
jguit

jguit

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I was faced with a similar dillema and decided to go with DTW coco. I grew in RDWC over a decade ago and it was awesome but there's no way I could have the noise from the air pumps running constantly at this stage in life. LOL.. Ebb and Flow was the runner up to coco.
 
AnimalHouse

AnimalHouse

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I'm familiar with Aquaponics and that's actually what we want, but we keep hearing that you can't grow good weed in Aquaponics.
Sent you a pm but I happened to find the videos I thought were deleted. Turns out they were on a different account.
These are two I made of my first grow. I would go on to do 3 more grows using this system. It's very possible to pull off. When I first did it I had people tell me all sorts of reasons why it wouldn't work but I had to see for myself. Turns out it does very well. It does counter much of what we learn about growing hydro weed but to me it's like soil organics and how things like ppm and pH are thrown out the window as useless info during a grow.
Red wigglers in the medium do the work in processing fish poop into a balanced and nutrient rich plant food

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AnimalHouse

AnimalHouse

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This was my very first attempt at it. I used a waterfarm airlift pump for irrigation and a basic one gallon container and pretty much plugged it into a garden pond. It flashed enough performance for me to keep working at it before raccoons would eventually destroy this pond going after my fish.
Sorry for that age restriction on the flowering video. If you can't see it let me know and I'll see if I can do something with it

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Cashmeh

Cashmeh

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I have a easy build that cannot leak unless a line blows, which won't happen.


I'm going against aquas advice and running 6 different strains lol.. I'm hoping it will just be a light/canopy issue.

I didn't get alot of root mass on my last grow but got amazing yeilds. I'm just hoping my roots don't get tangled. I will be transplanting from my veg hydro to my flower hydro system.. . But I could flower them just like this in the tent if needed...which is what I'd suggest you do.

Id just use this tote center of a 4x4 and just stress Train them to fit. .. You would need two of these. . Cost ya like 100 bucks lol.. No top feeding.. It's actually pretty nice
 
smokedareefer

smokedareefer

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Good luck with this.

I personally see failure written all over it.
 
growsince79

growsince79

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We are thinking about getting back into Hydro. We had a nightmare with it a couple of years ago when we first started growing inside.
We now have a stable tent giving us some sweet organics so, what's the easiest way to do it hydro style?
I used to run ebb n flow. no bubbles needed. if the pump goes out you can always hand water. Just need an easy way to access/ change res.
 

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