xthursdayx
Member
Hi folks, I'm hoping to get some general advice for my first grow in a long time, and my first hydroponic grow in general. Many years ago I grew in soil, but things have changed so much since then I feel like a noob all over again.
I have a small grow space with a 32"x32"x63" tent. Because I'm a nerd and I like to make things more complicated than they have to be, I built a DIY low pressure aeroponic system for the space using a heavy duty 45-liter/12-gallon tote. The tote has four 5" net pots in the lid, however, I'd like to use this system for my plants' full life cycle, so I may only use two of the pots to ensure that they have enough space. Under the lid is a 2" PVC spray manifold with ten EZ Clone sprayers (eight 180° and two 360°) connected to an EcoPlus 396-gph pump inside a miro-filter bag. I have a cycle timer that will run the pump 1 minute on/5 minutes off. There will probably be about 4.5 gallons of water in the system when in use.
The spray manifold sits at the top of the tote, just under the lid, which will hopefully give the lid some extra support when the plants get bigger. Because of this, the sprayers are actually on the bottom side of the manifold, but I don't think this will be an issue since they're still near the top of the tote and will be spraying the net pots and the tops of the roots, allowing water and nutrient to run down from the top. In terms of nutrients, I have GH MaxiGrow and MaxiBloom, and the space is being lit by a 240w 288v2 quantum board LED light (from Shenzen Meijiu). I'm using de-chlorinated tap water pH adjusted to 6 and planning on changing out the water entirely every 1-2 weeks. Right now the tent is sitting at around 70-75F (with a heating pad running at 78F under a 10-20 seed tray) and ~20% humidity. I added an open bucket of water to bring the humidity up to ~40-45%.
I have two feminized White Widow seedlings about ready to go into the system, so I wanted to get some final advice before jumping in. After lurking on RIU for quite a while, I've learned a lot, but there is still much I don't know. I've seen that some folks here have experience with LPA systems, in addition to hydroponics in general, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.
In general, any advice on running a system like this would be amazing. I'm not even totally sure about fairly simple things, such as whether I will need to check my reservoir pH every day or if can get away with checking every 2-3 days (or less).
My most specific concerns at this point are about:
I have a small grow space with a 32"x32"x63" tent. Because I'm a nerd and I like to make things more complicated than they have to be, I built a DIY low pressure aeroponic system for the space using a heavy duty 45-liter/12-gallon tote. The tote has four 5" net pots in the lid, however, I'd like to use this system for my plants' full life cycle, so I may only use two of the pots to ensure that they have enough space. Under the lid is a 2" PVC spray manifold with ten EZ Clone sprayers (eight 180° and two 360°) connected to an EcoPlus 396-gph pump inside a miro-filter bag. I have a cycle timer that will run the pump 1 minute on/5 minutes off. There will probably be about 4.5 gallons of water in the system when in use.
The spray manifold sits at the top of the tote, just under the lid, which will hopefully give the lid some extra support when the plants get bigger. Because of this, the sprayers are actually on the bottom side of the manifold, but I don't think this will be an issue since they're still near the top of the tote and will be spraying the net pots and the tops of the roots, allowing water and nutrient to run down from the top. In terms of nutrients, I have GH MaxiGrow and MaxiBloom, and the space is being lit by a 240w 288v2 quantum board LED light (from Shenzen Meijiu). I'm using de-chlorinated tap water pH adjusted to 6 and planning on changing out the water entirely every 1-2 weeks. Right now the tent is sitting at around 70-75F (with a heating pad running at 78F under a 10-20 seed tray) and ~20% humidity. I added an open bucket of water to bring the humidity up to ~40-45%.
I have two feminized White Widow seedlings about ready to go into the system, so I wanted to get some final advice before jumping in. After lurking on RIU for quite a while, I've learned a lot, but there is still much I don't know. I've seen that some folks here have experience with LPA systems, in addition to hydroponics in general, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.
In general, any advice on running a system like this would be amazing. I'm not even totally sure about fairly simple things, such as whether I will need to check my reservoir pH every day or if can get away with checking every 2-3 days (or less).
My most specific concerns at this point are about:
- Nutrients - is the Maxi-series a good choice, in general, and specifically for this system? Will I need to additional supplementary nutrients? I know that CalMag might be necessary. What concentration should the plants be getting? I know that it depends on the plants' phase of life, but I've heard of people suggesting PPM ranging from 200-600.
- Reservoir temperature - I live in Canada, but my apartment doesn't have central AC, so I am a bit worried about the water heating up too much during the summer and causing pathenogens to grow. I will try the frozen water bottle trick if necessary, so we'll see how it goes.
- Root rot and water health - I am not sure if I should add hydrogen peroxide or a microbe product like Hydroguard (though not Hydroguard because it's crazy expensive here in CA) immideatly in order to avoid root rot and keep my resevoir healthly. What is the best (inexpensive) solution for this scale?
- Reservoir size - Will this 12-gallon tote be big enough to support two 3-4'-tall plants? I already built this system, but I recently found a 102-liter/27-gallon tote that will fit in my tent with only about 1" of height loss. Is it worth the extra money to build this bigger system with 4-6 five or six inch net pot sites and a few more sprayers, or should I just go with this smaller one for now?
- $ and availability - I just want to take the best care of my plants possible without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, many commonly suggested products are either not availabel in Cananda or super expensive.
