Ebb and flow design question

I am putting together my design to switch from a top drip to a flood and drain scenario. My question is, I currently keep the res outside of my 2x4 tent and the water is pumped in to the tanks and drains out of the bottom, out of the tent and back into the res. I was planning on doing the same positioning of the res for ebb and flow so I can keep my res more accessible and keep the res in the cooler air outside of the tent. Most of the designs I see though have the tank directly under the flood tray, is there any reason I would not be fine keeping a remote res?

This is kind of what I have right now, just planning on replacing the HD buckets with a 22"x36" tub that will drain out of the bottom through a hole in the table.



Older pic shots over all system before adding table and replacing with a larger res:



Larger res:

Any suggestions/thoughts?

it`ll work. the reason i think you see so many above the res is due to the pump cost and extra plumbing.

Thanks, for me seems like a small price to keep the res just that much cooler

your going to have to make sure that you get a good drain back. gravity can be a bitch. if you can`t keep your trays high enough to drain back, you`ll have to pump it. a 2 pump setup, in and an out.

Will keep an eye out, but my current grow uses two 5 gallon buckets on the same table (14" tall) I am going to use for the E&F. The water feeds in through the top and drains out of the bottom through 1/2" tubing back that meet at a "T" for the two buckets and then returns to the res. I use a valve on the fill tube to slow my drip rate by about 20%.

With the E&F I will have a 3/4" drain on the riser returning to the same location, and then a 1/2" on the fill tube that will drain when not running. This will run down from the tray on the 14" table down into the res, about about 6' of tubing. The fill line will not be going into the bottom of the res, so will not quite have the same drop, But I could easily raise my table an additional 3.5" if needed and still keep stability.

i seen you had them up, i just wanted to make it clear. how much cooler is your res outside vs inside the tent.

10-15f , but under the table it may be less. Maybe I will put my hygrometer down there for a cycle to see. Would also think being in there may raise my humidity.

hbbum said:

10-15f , but under the table it may be less. Maybe I will put my hygrometer down there for a cycle to see. Would also think being in there may raise my humidity.

Click to expand...

it doesnt efect humidity as much as you may think, when u flood the table that water may cause some humidity but the res wich should have a cover really doesnt efect humidity levels

i ran ebb n flow for 7 years in 4'' rockwool and 20-25 plants per square meter and yields were substantial. i switched and built my own DWC table w/ 4'' pvc and 3'' net pots filled w/ 3'' rockwool or grow rocks..ive found that i get bigger yields with DWC and i think its because you have a larger root on plants also in your tent with DWC you wouldnt need a res outside unless you want to recycle the dwc water. just give it some thought, dwc is easy to build and you really just need alot of air stones.

With the E&F I will have a 3/4" drain on the riser returning to the same location, and then a 1/2" on the fill tube that will drain when not running. That 1/2" I will need to keep an eye on, since I will probably have only a 8" drop over about a 6' run so it may drain a little slow.

TheChemist77 said:

it doesnt efect humidity as much as you may think, when u flood the table that water may cause some humidity but the res wich should have a cover really doesnt efect humidity levels

Click to expand...

I guess that makes sense. I was going to make little squares to fit over the netpots, that when they are all in, all of the hydroton will be covered to help reduce evaporation and humidity. This will give my hydroton nearly 100% coverage except for the little holes that the plants come out of (like the first pic in this thread, but square). I think this will be better, unless I actually want some hydroton exposed for more air to the roots.

PetFlora said:

You're on the right track

Moving from top feed with Hydro Halo Drip rings, used like shower heads, to my DIY Mini-Me F & D produced a much stronger plant and more potent

You are overdoing it.

See my Mini-Me for how to simplify

Got questions, ask them there

Click to expand...

I checked out your thread on ICMag (I cannot see the pics since I am not registered there), makes sense, but I am shooting for more plants in smaller containers to reduce veg time. The ornamental stone sounds interesting, but it seems like they would not adsorb water as well as hydroton, I suppose that is what you flood more often. From what I understand, the reason hydroton works so well, is that is holds a thin layer of water on a much larger surface area, this increased surface water holds more oxygen, the glass(ish) stones seems like they would not hold on to this same surface water. Again, probably not as much of an issue if you are flooding every 45 minutes, and hydroton is a pain in the ass to clean for the same reason it works.