Help me decide...

Ok so I am switching from soil to hydro. I have had experience with a general hydro bucket system so I am not new to hydro but haven't used it for a long time. I am looking to see what you all suggest for me. I am not going back to bucket systems so none of those please.

I am adding pics so you can see my space. I received all of my plants from a friend who moved out of state. I haven't had the time to get my room ready for them so the room will be upgraded with paint, hard surface flooring, and a good cleaning prior to switching.

I really want to know what hydro system you suggest. I will be building it myself, I don't have the money for a pre-made. My requirements are Little to no growing medium. I hated the whole growing medium thing when I used bucket system so any system that uses no medium will be given considerable weight. Also low cost is a huge factor. I cannot do sog or scrog cause its too many plants at once. Other than that I am open to suggestions.

I have a 100W MH for my clones and early veg. Then I move them to full veg which now has shop fluorescence (soon to be changed to a 400W MH). The final lamp is a 600W hps. Room dimentions are 8' x 2.5' for clone, veg area. Flower area is 11.5' x 6.5'.

Please feel free to ask questions if you need more info. I am starting to grow again after a long time off so I'm not familiar with all of the systems available. As I stated I don't like bucket drip systems. Whatever you all suggest I will take the consensus and do my research before switching. I have read all of the threads/posts relating to hydro systems here at RIU (awsome community btw). I just want to know what you all suggest for me within my parameters.

Thanks for help

Have you looked at Stink Buddies perpetual grow? It's aeroponic, there is no medium, it's homemade and he has a large group of followers. You will have to buy a few pumps and a cycle timer, you don't give a budget so I'm not sure if it will work for you. Good luck with whatever you decide on!

WOW,
what a read! Thanks for the point in the right direction. Stink gives so much great information in such an easy to understand method. I thought aero was out of the question tbh.

Before I took a break from growing, aero systems were mostly used by Dutch growers with their warehouses and such. I see now that it has become completely main stream. I am curently running a parts and price list. Well see if I can fit it into my budget?

+rep for you!

btw I painted the room and will be installing flooring soon. Maybe I should start a room journal so others can track my progress? Thanks again!

how bout a flood table its cheap jus need a pump resivor 2 hoes coco mat run u bout 2 bills plus nutes idk

Decided to stay with soil for a while longer. I think overall I like stink buddies system best and will eventually build one of my own.

I did upgrade my rooms though. Did some painting and got rid of the 100MH, cause way to much heat for this time of year. I replaced it with a nice diy cfl fixture. 8 26w 2700k bulbs (walmart is 6 for 3 bucks). I know that you will all say 5000-6500k for veg but I have had no difference with hps or mh as a veg bulb so I'm sure this doesn't make that big a difference either. My plants have grown like 1/2" overnight as a result. they were suffering from heat issues. Not to mention the fixture pumps out 14000 lumens, almost double before with no heat. Also made a 6 bulb fixture but need to get 2 more bulbs and make a hood. I can make the 200w/14000lumen option for like 25 bucks. If I bought the sockets separately and wired them myself I could save more.

Also added c02 to the mix. I'm waiting on my dispersing system in the mail. I moved the flowering room to a side wall. That allows me to check my veg without disturbing my flower.I ordered some fem. ICE seeds from nirvana well see how they go. Ill start a journal for them from seed to finish.

i got the plants from a friend and he said one was strawberry and the other was white rhino i don't know the breeds. How does the bud look so far?

Thanks for the help and keep on keepin on. Life's a garden DIG IT.

do yourself a favor and go back to hydro, I dunno what stinks system looks like but here's what I put together for like 60 bucks a unit. These things really work. Whats stinks link anyway? I'm not good at finding shit here yet.

Well, I made some more updates to my grow space. I dropped the cfl fixtures down to the floor to help with Co2 dist. The growth fromt he new cfl fixtures has been epic! I also added 2 more 40w 4ft light fixtures. Everything is on a 3 week schedule. Ill be taking clones and harvesting every 3 weeks.

Added a Co2 tank with regulator. i love these regulator set ups and it was very easy to get set up.

I think ill add more cfl fixtures above the lower ones for a first stage grow. Then change them to the 4ft shops for final veg stage height.

The little ones are Ice from Nirvana. They are 4 days into germination and coming along nicely. 1 has started to get above the soil now

Check out my grow journal for there updates.