Rockwool Drip to Waste System

So I was looking for some input on this idea. There's not a ton of information on rockwool drip let alone drip to waste that I've found.

I have a 6x12' table with a 2 degree slope to drain made of wood but lined with pond liner. There are some small areas of puddling which may or may not be an issue. I've tried running aero in this a couple times and always got root rot so I'm looking to just drain to waste.

I'm thinking of running 4x4 rockwool cubes with or without a .25" coco mat underneath them. one block per square foot with a dripper run to each block

~4000 Watts of LED (~55 watts per square foot) on a rail that I can raise or lower. temps would be 80-85 with 1200ppm CO2.

I'm not sure if on a drip system with limited water if any puddling that I saw in aero would be an issue as I'd be dripping to waste. I'm also not sure about the height. The shallowest part of the table is 12" and the deepest is 16" I believe. I had it setup for a scrog net above that but maybe I don't need to scrog with one plant per square foot in rockwool with a short 2 week veg? If I do need to scrog, or if slight puddling is an issue I may need to build a support system to lift everything up higher within the table to the top where the aero was.

Also, I've not much idea of how to setup a drip system of this size. Would a 800gph submersible pump feeding 1/2" pvc that then went to 1/4" flex tubing with .5gph drip emitters be a good setup? What about a watering schedule? Start out at 15 minutes once a day?

Two week veg? Are you talking from a fully rooted clone or from seeds?

from fully rooted clones. I leave them in the propagator for about two weeks and they've got long roots by that point in rapid rooters. Right now I'm thinking 36" rockwool slabs with 4 4" blocks per slab. Put a half gallon drip emitter into each one of the cubes.

I'm sure that will work fine, but I would veg the plants an additional week or two once they are placed in the slab assembly in order to take full advantage of the additional media volume. I'd also look into something called 'Drip Clean' - I believe it is an H&G product.

With the slabs, I don't think you have to worry about a little puddling on the table. Bigger problem with puddling is that it jacks up the humidity a bit.

ShirkGoldbrick said:

from fully rooted clones. I leave them in the propagator for about two weeks and they've got long roots by that point in rapid rooters. Right now I'm thinking 36" rockwool slabs with 4 4" blocks per slab. Put a half gallon drip emitter into each one of the cubes.

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I never did like the slabs. We rocked them quite a few times, and they're a PITA, and spendy imo.
One of my buddies grew in slabs for a good ten years, until finally switching to what the rest of us had moved onto(coco).
Have you thought of the rockwool croutons? How about put the rooted cuts into 3x3 cubes. Then into 1gal mesh bottom pots with the croutons. 1 basket drip stake(fuck drippers they clog)per pot. Usually end up with 3 water/drip cycles per light cycle. I've usually worked my way up to the 3x's by the second week of flower.
You can substitute the croutons with coco(my favorite) or hydroton, or a mix
I've killed it every which way possible with the croutons. The only reason I stopped dabbling with that shit is because of the cost. I've recently turned on @AlphaPhase with the minicubes, he's digging it, amd he's flood and drain wit it. Works well that way, but I think it is even better when dripped over the top.
If you keep it all rockwool or rockwool/hydroton, why not recirculate? Why drip to waste? Height problem?

@bluerock From just cursory research it seems that ATA Clean works better than drip clean in keeping drippers from clogging and I was planning on vegging two weeks once in the slabs/cubes.

@Aeroknow Coco slabs? I can find the .25" mats but even with the expansion the rockwool seems like it would still provide more root space. I can't flood and drain as I only have a 40 gallon res I can fit under the table and it takes 50 gallons to flood one inch of depth. I could do NFT but it'd take a lot more rework of my current table. Pots seem like just an extra expense as I don't plan on reusing even the reuseable media. I've tried aero three times and lost plants no matter what I did. I've ran hempy buckets before and had no problem with everything else being the same so I'd rather not have to battle pathogens from a recirc system.

ShirkGoldbrick said:

@bluerock From just cursory research it seems that ATA Clean works better than drip clean in keeping drippers from clogging and I was planning on vegging two weeks once in the slabs/cubes.

@Aeroknow Coco slabs? I can find the .25" mats but even with the expansion the rockwool seems like it would still provide more root space. I can't flood and drain as I only have a 40 gallon res I can fit under the table and it takes 50 gallons to flood one inch of depth. I could do NFT but it'd take a lot more rework of my current table. Pots seem like just an extra expense as I don't plan on reusing even the reuseable media. I've tried aero three times and lost plants no matter what I did. I've ran hempy buckets before and had no problem with everything else being the same so I'd rather not have to battle pathogens from a recirc system.

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No, I was talking about the wrapped rockwool slabs. Never did like it.
Keep in mind, pots you can move around. Putting rockwool blocks onto slabs you can't

I'm not going to have a lot of room to move them around lol. We're talking about 3" between the slab and edges of the tables and then 6" between the slabs themselves. Will have just over a plant per square foot.

Also, I don't think humidity will be a problem. I run a minisplit and with all my lights on the condensation of the unit kept humidity down to 40. I also have a 70pt dehumidifier. Room is 10x14.

I dont know why coco slabs never caught on here in the States. Low clearance, less.restricted root growth, more uniform crops. Back in the day rockwool slabs were popular but never run to waste. Always recirculating and for most it was a nightmare. Rockwool top feed slabs were never meant for recirc. Anyways for production grows Europe style coco slabs monocropped with small bottomless pots of coir or 4" rw blocks placed on top to start them seems to be where its at. With Gavitas and trellis netting your basically rocking the pros method. Unless your buying bulk commercial greenhouse slabs the canna, atami, plagron, etc. slabs are hard to get here. Everyone is stuck on growing bigger bushes in 1 to 3 gallon smart pots . Iam in this camp also.but not by choice. I ran readygro sleeves awhile ago and they kicked ass. I guess i could make my own with a seal a meal type plastic sealer and some 6 mil panda. I love the root growth and low clearance. And the drip manifold and corrugated "roof" plastic to gutter for waste is a no brainer. Or use the Botanicare Low Tides.