Working On My First Time Hydro Setup

[burn1down2k]

Greetings,

First timer looking to do it right.
Looking to rock a 4 x 8 ebb and flow table. with two 1000 watt air cooled HPS,
with proper air exchange(carbon filter) to the room. Looking for advise as to how many plants,
growing medium and pots. Im thinking 32 plants, 3 gallon smart pots and cant decide between coco/perlite or hydroton. Thinking of flooding 3 inches. Rocking a 70 gal rez. Dual Pump System to drain and fill. Unsure as the timing of floods due to the fact i haven't selected the medium. Any insights or comments would be appreciated. I am missing anything?

 

[Jakyherer]

Greetings,

First timer looking to do it right.
Looking to rock a 4 x 8 ebb and flow table. with two 1000 watt air cooled HPS,
with proper air exchange(carbon filter) to the room. Looking for advise as to how many plants,
growing medium and pots. Im thinking 32 plants, 3 gallon smart pots and cant decide between coco/perlite or hydroton. Thinking of flooding 3 inches. Rocking a 70 gal rez. Dual Pump System to drain and fill. Unsure as the timing of floods due to the fact i haven't selected the medium. Any insights or comments would be appreciated. I am missing anything?

Hi dude, air pump and air diffuser is highly recommended! good luck!

 

[burn1down2k]

merci, i will rock that in the rez for shure.

 

[embaks]

Nft..

 

[burn1down2k]

nft over ebb and flow? better yields? why do you prefer this method? as this is my first dive into hydro i was going to keep in simple but i will read up on nft. merci

 

[tommy2snips]

If I only had a single table to deal with...32-45 6" rockwool blocks is clean and easy.
Recirculate...either top drip/feeder lines or E&F. (only need one pump to work the E&F btw...use the biggest hose you can and connect it to the drain hole that is flush in the bottom of the table...fill and drain thru that. A separate overflow is just used to set fill depth)
Keep it simple with the nutes. Lucas formula can take a grower a loooong ways. Manually or with a pump/wand...rinse the whole block top down every 7-10days with 1/2 to 3/4 strength fresh nutes(generally, don't recirculate that runoff btw)

Just my Tip-O-the-Day for ya....TONS of info out there for the adventurous reader :)

PS: If temps are controllable...ditch the glass in the reflectors

 

[Seed Buyer]

I would go 100 gal on the res. A 70 gal at week 5-6 of bloom when they are drinking is going to require a lot more topping off. A 70 gal will not really flood a 4x8 properly unless you are using smaller rockwool blocks. At a plant per square foot 3 gal smart pots are over kill. I would do 1 gal or 2 gal smart pots with a trellis for vertical support. But I would still second rockwool.

 

[burn1down2k]

thanks for all the knowledge... 100 gal rez makes sense but now im thinking should do something more adventurous like nft. if i rock the 1 gal pots, net the ladies up and go full sog at 128 plants would be the dream, but rocking that many clones is dauntin for a n00b like myself. I figured the dual pump system would allow the table to drain quicker. rockwool sounds like the way to go. i do eventually want to rock c02 but figured its silly to attempt it on my first grown until i get everything else dialled in. if im going to use aircooled refelectors then i need the glass correct? why not use the glass because it cuts down on the light hitting the ladies?