How did "YOU" build your hydroponics system??

I'm interested in building a hydroponics system. I currently grow in soil but i like the idea of never having to get big bags of soil. sounds way better. Show me some pics of your hydro setup and how you did it. Help a brother out!

I bought some buckets, totes, hose, clamps, fittings and pumps and went to town.

it looks so complicated to make the water run continuously thru all the buckets. Does the water have to circulate thru them all?

Not complicated at all. I pump water out of the reservoir to the top of the buckets and let gravity do the rest.

just any kind of pump?? like those ones you might rent from a place like cat rentals and such?? not that i would rent just curious.

Just a submersible pump like for a pond. Mine is 600+ GPH but I don't run it at full bore. (maybe it is 300+ not sure)

Something like this:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=submersible+pump&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=ivnsr&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1042&bih=823&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=7746747894634133078&sa=X&ei=dqskTujQBofiiAKxp932CQ&ved=0CJkBEPMCMAQ

Beer 30 for me so don't think I am ignoring you. More than happy to help with builds. That's my gig. Shoot me a PM if I don't check in tomorrow.

I forget were I post most of the time.

lol ya i'm the same. it says on your profile if u ever go there. It must be especially hard after 30 beer lol. Those pumps are pretty cheap eh? i have yet to move into my house yet but when i do i will be starting for sure. i just had to chop down my 4 plant crop because my gf didnt want to drive 15 hours with them in the trunk of her car, thinking we would get pulled over so i had to detroy them. i'm kinda glad tho because these hydors interest me. does hydro grow faster??? than soil i mean.

dwc is the best hydro by far if you ask me so simple and the results speak for them selves (do dwc search loads results) all you ned is a bucket with lid (i use brewers 30ltr buckets) cut a 5in hole in the middle put in 5in net pot full of clay pebbles.....put water in the bucket add air stone and place an air pump above the water line(stop water flowing into the pump) you dont need big air pump really but more air bigger and quicker you plants will grow in gen anyway lol just remember the biger the root zone gets the more oxygen the more the rootzone require`s
another good thing with dwc is you can move the plans as n when needed so in theory more plants in your space if wanted
the down side is changing all the buckets dose get too become anoying checking ph/cf on every bucket insted one rez so could do what bend brewer dose and make it an rdwc but then the pots are more or less set where they are but there good n bad too every method mate
hope that helps mate

Look up the el blastido vertical diy. I did it myself and did the system a little different but I'm more than happy to show you.. Good thing is it's only a 5x5 space and you just keep stacking up. If you need sone links just let me know..

I've created a two cabinets now, one for flowering and one for vegging. Each has it's own external rez with valves sets that let me pump them out with the same pump that I use to power each system. Both systems are low pressure aeroponic systems and seem to be producing quite well. The cloner/veg just explodes roots in 7-10 days and then proceeds to do so throughout the veg cycle. I spent many many an hour researching systems and then implimented pieces from each to come up with the final product. I say final but I've already got my eye on a new tote that will maximize the grow area that I plan on purchasing and having ready to install right after harvest so I can move stuff from the veg cabinet over.
I think a few of the major advatages are how easy it is to monitor the rez, how easy it to empty and clean the rez, everything is designed to tear down to be cleaned (only important places are glued up), When I stack a bunch of totes on the bottom rez it looks exactly like that a stack of totes. I've placed them close enough that with a little black pipe insulation in the kinda dark room and you just don't notice the plumbing. There are quite a few pics in the threads contained in my sig. Here is a general shot....

It is not usually backlit I did it for effect ..this is before I put in the exhaust and veg cabinet.

Don't have pics of my old setup. But it went as follows.

18' X 16' X 8' room (IIRC)
8-1000W HPS lights w/GroStar reflectors + ballasts
4-4X8 flood/drain tables 45 plants per table
2-45 gallon reservoirs
4-submersible pumps 2 in each res for redundancy in case of failure (can't remember brand name or GPM) Both pumps in each res were tied into the plumbing. If one failed, then the other one could pump. If both failed, I was out of luck I guess.....never happened though.

Each res fed two tables. It was not a full automatic setup, I would go down and check them, then turn on pumps as needed

I had two drain holes and return plumbing in each table, and would simply pull plugs (8 in all) when the tables filled. The plugs were in the far end of each table and the rockwool was cut out at that spot to be able to plug/unplug the drainholes.

For the medium, I used 6X12 Rockwool slabs, with side plastic removed, and filled each table completely like a jigsaw puzzle, cutting them to fit if needed, like insulating a wall.

So, each table was basically a giant rockwool slab. I then took white/black poly plastic and laid it across each table, then drew cross lines. At each cross point I would cut an X then place a plant there.

I put the poly in (white side up) to both shield the root zone from light/heat, and to also keep a decent humidity in the root zone. Never once did it dry out. The massive amounts of rockwool allowed for huge roots from all the plants. I would have to cut the rockwool slabs apart after harvest in order to dispose of them.

No CO2 added, only constant venting thru 8"Vortex and carbon filter, and nothing but GH nutes and tap water and pH down.

I yielded HUGE off that setup. It was as perfect as I could ever imagine , despite the fact it wasnt quite fully automatic with the feeding regimen ( and other than the electricity bill).

dopeyG said:

does hydro grow faster??? than soil i mean.

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Once you get it dialed they sure do grow faster. I have plants 4 week into flower that are 3 - 4 feet tall that I cut from the mother on May 15th. Cloned them for 2 weeks, vegged them for 20 days and now they are in tomato cages budding away.

pazuzu420 said:

I've created a two cabinets now, one for flowering and one for vegging. Each has it's own external rez with valves sets that let me pump them out with the same pump that I use to power each system. Both systems are low pressure aeroponic systems and seem to be producing quite well. The cloner/veg just explodes roots in 7-10 days and then proceeds to do so throughout the veg cycle. I spent many many an hour researching systems and then implimented pieces from each to come up with the final product. I say final but I've already got my eye on a new tote that will maximize the grow area that I plan on purchasing and having ready to install right after harvest so I can move stuff from the veg cabinet over.



I think a few of the major advatages are how easy it is to monitor the rez, how easy it to empty and clean the rez, everything is designed to tear down to be cleaned (only important places are glued up), When I stack a bunch of totes on the bottom rez it looks exactly like that a stack of totes. I've placed them close enough that with a little black pipe insulation in the kinda dark room and you just don't notice the plumbing. There are quite a few pics in the threads contained in my sig. Here is a general shot....

View attachment 1696429It is not View attachment 1696435usually backlit I did it for effect ..this is before I put in the exhaust and veg cabinet.
View attachment 1696430View attachment 1696431View attachment 1696434

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I like this idea. i like that it is cheap and compact. you have a perpetual grow??? how much you pull how often off of how many plants??? and i like that it is easy to tak apart quick if needed as well

Well unfortunately my state has small plant limits 4 flowering and 12 in veg state, now with no height restrictions This the first go around with the hydro systems so not sure how often yet but I will have some sort of perpetual grow happening. Before I put these into flower i took cuts which are now vegging. I kept the strongest, hopefully the purplest pheno, cut as a mother plant to which I'm appplying some LST to keep it short and save space in the small cabinet. So these will be ready to go in as soon as the others are ready for harvest.
Shouldn't be too much long I figured about 30-35 more days on a 60 -65 flowering time..

I did soil before and after a ton of research i went to this aeroponic set up, it is by far the BEST and offers the Fastest growth rates possible.. It is really pretty simple to use, just fill the resivour add nutes and monitor ph and ppm.. you can see Inches of growth every day once the roots take over.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=113425

i like the idea of aeroponics but it seems like it would require someone to be around all day so that if anything goes wrong you are their to fixt it. I work 5 days a week. I think hydro would be better because if a pump stops for a few hours so what?? right?? i mean the roots arent getting sprayed they are submerged right??? or am i wrong??? I dont really want to do soil. Is hydro or aeroponics still an option for me if i work fulltime?

dopeyG said:

i like the idea of aeroponics but it seems like it would require someone to be around all day so that if anything goes wrong you are their to fixt it. I work 5 days a week. I think hydro would be better because if a pump stops for a few hours so what?? right?? i mean the roots arent getting sprayed they are submerged right??? or am i wrong??? I dont really want to do soil. Is hydro or aeroponics still an option for me if i work fulltime?

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im not too sure how long the roots can go without being sprayed in aeroponics. no matter which option u choose, u should get extra parts incase they fail. it would suck to have it fail right after u leave for work, then u dont find out until the stores close, so u gotta wait until morning to get the parts. by then the plant may get fucked up. not sure if like 8 hours would kill em though

what about hydroponics?? they would be ok if the pumps were off for a day tho eh??? i mean its not like the roots will dry out. right??

You seem to be worrying a bit too much before you even start. It's not like we hoover over our systems all day long. Check it once a day for any problems and check the ph and ppms. And it's dark half the time so we can't check it. In my rdwc if the pump were to die I would have plenty of time to replace it without harming the plants. My concern at that point would be ph and ppm fluctuation inside the individual buckets but it would be minimal.

What could do a lot of harm quickly is Air Pumps going out or more likely, your air stones getting clogged. This can hurt your roots in a hurry.