New to Ebb & Flow system

This is my first ebb & flow system but not my first hydro grow. I use to run an RDWC system but it was messy and had to many moving parts. My buddy talked me into the ebb & flow system he has been growing for almost 13 years.

I am running 4 plushberry's by TGA Subcool and 2 elephant stompers by Hazeman Seeds. I also have a 190cfm inline filter attached to a carbon filter that runs through my light and out the back of my cab to keep the smell and temps down and man does it work. Right now I have a 250w MH which I can also change to 275w, 400w, and 425w thanks to my conversion ballast. I am doing a SOG grow, let me tell you this is a small grow, living in an apartment in SF doesn't leave you with a lot of room so I have that to deal with. I soaked the rockwool cubes for 2 hours in 5.0 phd water then rinsed them and transplanted the seedlings into the rockwool in the pots. I then filled the 12 gallon res with 5.5 phd water (tap water but for now on I will be using RO water) and a very light mix of nutes and some h2o2 and the ppms are 204. I flooded the res for 15 minutes and will not do another flood for about five days since the rockwool holds so much water like a sponge and I want the roots to flourish hence not flooding for five days. I picked a pot and it was very heavy with water trapped in the rockwool cube and when they start to light again i will do another 15 minute flood.

Here is a pic of my system:

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any and all advice will be taken and will be appreciated!

Nice setup. Did you build the e&f yourself?

Thank you. I built the cab but bought the e & f from botanicare.

From my understanding with hydro its all about what not how, if you satisfy what you give the plant (nutes, oxygen, co2 etc), it won't mind how you go about it whether nft, dwc or ebb and flow.
I think mostly a choice is made for ease or space available in that case I'd say ebb and flow is easier to maintain but takes more to get it setup and safe from water overflow, timers for pump etc. It also uses lot of space.
Nft is just as easy to maintain, but takes slightly less setup time. Nft uses a reasonable amount of space but can be setup to use less.
Dwc seems easyish to maintain and a lot less setup time also very small options are out there.
The smaller options you go with the more nute mixing and replacing will be needed.
Each have their downsides and advantages.
Anyway I'm rambling, good luck with the grow.
Stocky

Rockwool should've been soaked @ 5.0 for three days, in aerated water replaced every day and then adjusted to 5.8, in my opinion. You'll notice the ph still rising on second day. Do at least 1 day soak right ?

There's a sticky in here how to clone in rockwool that goes over how to properly handle the rockwool, and it was a great read (not saying that you aren't handling correctly )

Also if ur planning on pebbles, try washing them and soaking just like rockwool

Nizza said:

Rockwool should've been soaked @ 5.0 for three days, in aerated water replaced every day and then adjusted to 5.8, in my opinion. You'll notice the ph still rising on second day. Do at least 1 day soak right ?

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I have read several theories about how long to soak the rockwool and one guy even soaked his for 3 minutes and had very successful grow. My buddy who has been growing for 13 years soaks his for 2 hours and has amazing grows here is a pic of his current grow TGA's Chernobyl:

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but i do appreciate the advice and will give that a try next grow.

I mainly go by his advice but like i said I am open to all advice.

I have no plans on using hydroton aka pebbles, I have used them in the past and no matter how much you clean them and soak them they still leave a lot of residue.