Need a Hydro Expert or Two

Heres my list of what i'm wanting to get i'm not sure if this the best or cheapest route so i'm open to
advice. I wanted to try hydro to learn and expand from messy soil system.

I was going to get two of these
http://www.businessvision.net/Edge/Main.asp?D={D2EB1683-7171-4FE5-B118-D76A341043D7}&PageType=Product&SKU=GRD015&CategoryID=8
Use as my pots, with lines already connected with drippers and medium.

-15 ft 1/2 tubing
-x3 T connectors 1/2" (Merge units to one in and one out)
-x1 straight connector 1/2" (for passive res intake)
-x3 rubber grommet (for res)
-100-270 GHP submersible water pump 1/2" (going to toss a nylon over to help prevent it sucking up debris.)
-Air pump with airstone (for res).

I was going to merge two of these units to a T sections, then connect them to a tupperware res outside the grow area.
considering building my own pot units, but did not want to risk leaks first time around, keeping it as simple as I can.
35 for each unit is still a good price, best i could find on net pot and bucket was around 20 bucks without tubing, medium etc.
Nutes are covered.

But would it be possible to use General Organics GO box for organic hydro? I was going to stick to organic if possible and have DNF organic grow/bloom and wanted to expand.
Any advice or tips, am i missing anything vital?


Cheers,

That sounds almost just like my setup. I run 5 gallon buckets with 6" net pot bucket lids, with hydroton and drip stakes. Though I'm using a 400 gph pump (6 plants). Though my buckets are elevated up on milk crates so the nutrient water returns to the Rez via gravity. Which allows optimum air and nutrients to your plants. The only thing I'd suggest is a cycle timmer.(unfortunately their expensive) but the growth these systems produce is unbelievably fast !!

I have never used GO, I use GH. So I can't help you there. GH works great though and I've never experienced any chemical taste at all in my meds.

ph pen and a ppm tester are pretty much a must for hydro.

fuck drip dude and those buckets are a rip off. its a bucket and some hose and a dripper? Just use a DIY ebb and grow set up.

Reservoir, control bucket, tubing, grommets, net pots and hydroton... done.

Rez= 40 gallon tough tote $20
control bucket= $110
20 feet of 3/4 tubing $10
4 or 5 gallon buckets $5

umm, wait..how many plants and what lights?

I got a PPM pen and a mechanical 15 minute, 15 cycle per day timer to use aswell.
The reason i wanted buckets was due to the space they save over a flood table, alot easier to move around and expand to bigger scale, hell I can even route in a flood table to this system
in the future.

Do you see a huge benefit with flood table over drip & airstone res method or even deep water culture?

I'm trying to use this in a 4'x4' tent so a flood table takes a huge bite out of space for other plants.
I might have to raise my buckers 4-6" too for gravity drain but will see if the pressure is enough to do it on flat ground with the negative pressure from the pump.

I'm using a 600 watt HPS/MH digital for this system and want 4 hydro pots to start and will expand it to 6-8 in the future. Basically these 4 hydro pots will be placed in the center of
the tent and have herbs and other plants along the outside edge. I'm doing this for personal, so its fairly small scale 4-6 plants at a time.


Yeah they are a little pricey, but they come with the bucket, adapter, tubing with drip, basket and medium. Its fairly decent for what i'd pay for a similar bucket and setup for a DIY locally.
Baskets cost me 15 shipped, black buckets are 10-12 per shipped. Ends up being 5-10 dollar difference tops which i'm willing to bite if it saves me setup time. I'm in canada so if you know of cheap DIY places I can order let me know.

Legals right man diy most of that

four buckets tops for that tent. That is small dude. You could do a gravity system, but your buckets would be more like 12" off the ground.. unless you get a real broad and flat rez. hell, I made my first rez out of plwood and some plastic sheeting. Worked just fine. So yeah, DIY rez, a pump and a timer is all you need. your going to want to buy one of those digital timers however as you want to precisely control the time the pump is on during the flood. Least you FLOOD your room, not just your buckets.

And before you go asking.. you flood 3 times during 12 hours. never at night. I would flood even less in the last two weeks.

Is this kind of what your talking about? Going from a flood table, with your bucket lids into a bucket system?





I'm no expert by any means, but ya it works !

For gravity return your buckets wouldn't need to be elevated if your rez is lowwer then the buckets. (like in a nice cool basement)

You can get a case of (25) 6" net pot bucket lids for under $50 plus shipping. http://hydrobuilder.com/6-wide-lip-bucket-basket-lid-case-of-25.html

20 black buckets for $85 plus shipping. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=43952&catid=752

CAP ART-DNe - Adjustable Cycle Timer $60 plus shipping. http://www.amazon.com/C-A-P-ART-DNe-Adjustable-Cycle-Timer/dp/B00286QNDM

I don't use air stones in my buckets because so little water is left behind and it's replaced frequently. So you'd only need an air pump and stones for the rez.

I'm not sure how much shipping is to Canada. But as you can see the parts don't cost a hole lot in comparison to ready made products..

You don't HAVE to use buckets. I found it more efficient and cheaper to use those plastic storage tanks you buy for keeping random stuff in. You can get 75 litre boxes relatively cheap and you can fit 4/5 plants in each box. You could have two boxes in a 4 foot by 4 foot tent making for a total of 10 plants if you wished.

It's best to run a bubbleponics set up with them.

Personally I think you need to look at getting a much bigger growing area though... I don't think anything less than 20 plants is even worth the potential trouble.