Help with which hydro way to go!?!?

Just harvested an Earth box grow.
My lighting was pathetic at best (90W CFL and 70w MH flood) till 4 weeks into flower stage, then hit it with 430 HPS to finish it off.
Got 320g wet with hangin stems. Oh yeah, it was 3 plants of unknown clones. I think Sativa.Or stretched like a bastard and vegged too long. I have learned alot since starting that grow.
Any way I want to try some form of hydro.
Bubble, drip, aero etc...
BTW what does DWC stand for?
My grow closet is 2 x 4 x 8H.
Considering a Scrog setup.

DWC = Deep Water Culture, and that is the easiest and simpliest, and cheapest if you can start with sprouts or clones.
One step up is a DRIP FEEDER, (tubes pump and drip water to each root base from above) or Bubbleponics Feeder, (tubes feed root base from underwater pump and a irrigation hub):

Thanks Roseman, are there any advantages to one of these over the other. It looks as if I could easily build any of them.

The DWC will be by far the easiest to build. You're talking a plastic tub, a pump for a fish tank and some air stones. There is slightly more to it, but figure <$50 at walmart.
Oh, and the SEARCH button is your friend! Here is a quick DIY I found that you could easily elaborate on and make a system to hold more than one plant.
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/18301-diy-dwc-cannabis-growing.html
Good luck!

I don't know what you call my hydro setup but it works amazing and can achieve the magical or not 1 gram per watt in 90 days. If you want detailed info on exactly how its built let me know. Here is a pic of the roots on my hempstar and stem. Thick as hell and roots are huge with no rot or binding. I should get 2 dry ounces off each. No drip system needed and can't be overwatered. I went on a cruise for 10 days and they were fine but I was nervous the whole time.

thegtiguy said:

The DWC will be by far the easiest to build. You're talking a plastic tub, a pump for a fish tank and some air stones. There is slightly more to it, but figure <$50 at walmart.
Oh, and the SEARCH button is your friend! Here is a quick DIY I found that you could easily elaborate on and make a system to hold more than one plant.
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/18301-diy-dwc-cannabis-growing.html
Good luck!

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Believe me, I have been searching like a madman. Just not sure which method to use. Building them looks like the easy part.

What you want with hydro is the simplest way to get nutrient solution into the plant. There are many hydro setups with pumps all over the place and that uses power too. Just buy a rubbermaid container the size you want to grow. preferably with a flat lid and gloss white but not clear. Get 2 if you want more room. The deeper they are the more solution they hold. But heavy. Then just cut the holes slightly smaller than the mesh hydro pots u should be using. The pots should slide in untill about one inch is sticking out the top of the container. An inch is so you can grab the pot if you need to. Put your plant into the pot and fill the tub untill the water overlapse the bottom of your pots buy roughly an inch. Just get an aquarium pump with as many outlets as you have rubbermaid containers and stick an airstone in each. as long as you have any sort of airstone in there you will be putting more oxygen than the plants can use and they will not get root rot. Thats it. Mix your solution as per suggested. I use dutch nutrient formula and its great. no drip system or anything. just refill the tub when neccessary. just look at those roots on that one plant

DWC, DIY

this is simple, but it needs more and bigger air stones.

1982grower thanks.
And Roseman, Thats what I thought too. I think those large flat round ones or the long square rod types would be good.
When your plants have sucked up the nute liquid and brought it down some, do you just add premixed nute water to top it off?
When you go to change all the nute water. do you just pump or siphon it out?
What are good nutes to use for the first timer.

Roseman said:

DWC, DIY

this is simple, but it needs more and bigger air stones.

Click to expand...

Yes, I simply used it as a guide to build my own. I used air strips (about 12" in length) for mine. Like I said before, good plan, but needs to be elaborated on.

any way you do it just make sure you don't have to worry about root rot. Roseman may be right about bigger airstones but i never actually checked the leval of oxygen in my water before. I just bought a large pump from petsmart with 3 outlets on it and put one hose to each container. I have to admit that i've never tried anything else. This is all i have. might as well show a pic

what everyone basically does is start off nutes 50% for a week then full. When the tub is as low as you want the solution to go top it up with fresh regular water. your plants use the water but alot evaporates so the nutes are still there. just fill it once and then top it with fresh water for even 2 weeks. i empty mine with one of those aquarium drainers that hook up to the sink. I've gone the whole grow without changing the water and it didn't seem to affect yield. once the roots grow into the water a decent amount the water leval is not as important. Use nutes maybe every second top up. I use dutch nutrient formula and just add it how is says. maybe 50% for the first week of introducing the nutes. Let me know how it goes.

5 gal bucket, 10" net pot , 48" flex air diffuser, 120 gal whisper airpump, hydroton clay rocks, ....................dwc

Do you run the airpump 24/7 with these setups?

dirtyoz said:

Do you run the airpump 24/7 with these setups?

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Have you had the chance to read up on Hydro ?

Yah run the airpump 24/7. just leave it always plugged in. At walmart for twenty bucks you can get a powerbar with 8 plugs. 4 on one side on a timer and 4 regular plugs. it even has built in battery su your timer doesn't reset in a power outage. Just plug the fan, lighting and that stuff into the timer and plug the pump into the non timer side.

Roseman said:

Have you had the chance to read up on Hydro ?

Click to expand...

yes, but I keep finding really great threads all contaminated with incomplete info I get overwhelmed too.
I'll search more, thanks

It is very simple. If the plant gets water and doesn't get overfertilised or root rot(thats what the airstones for so don't worry about that) it will grow hydroponically. Well basically