so, how often do YOU water your hydro garden?

Chumlie said:

I really don't Know, but I watch a pro do it, and since he has being growing for 30 years or more... well you get the idea.

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im kind of thinking its a way to conserve water/nutes??? you know like kind of adding a brick or whatever in your toilet resevoir so the water will fill higher? do you think that is what it could be? so, for example, instead of having to use 30 gallons, you would only need 20 or whatever...

Well that probably is partially it, the water displacement from the clay pebbles takes away a lot of would be almost wasted water if the cubes weren't there.

They also provide your roots room to grow in outside of the Rockwool where it is still Dark.

Not to hijack the thread or anything but 3 times a day, with LIGHTS ON, right? You don't feed your plants at all when the lights are off?

I use 3" rockwool cubes in a nursery pot of hydroton....I flood my table 3x daily for 15 mins during veg (lights on from 7am to 1am...flood at 8, 4 and and 2x daily for 15 mins during flower (lights on 6 am to 6pm....flood at 6:30 and 5:30). Works for me, although many say I should flood less since rockwool holds moisture...I dunno....I am happy with my results and my roots are sick (in a good way).
I use 2 Wal-Mart dual outlet air pumps and 4 air stones to aerate my res (40 gallon size run with 25 gallons water...always kept full). Cost me 15 bucks for 2 pumps, air line and air stones.
My water comes up about 1/2 way on my nursery pots. I fill all the open space in my table with quart mason jars full of RO water. This fills in empty space so it take less water to fill the table and gives me a ready source of refill water when the level drops below the line.
Hope this helps you with any ideas. Peace!!

i have a 18 gal res, and 1 20 gal pump and one waterstone... do u think thats ok...

whats RO?

and do you think i should try to raise the water level and have it hit 1/2 way up the rockwool?

i dropped my veg feedings to 2x a day for 15 miuntes. im going to see how this works. i might change to 3x a day for 10 min

im at 3x15 and im so far so good knock on wood

how should i mod the drain so that the water will come up halfway up the plants?

chrome9k said:

how should i mod the drain so that the water will come up halfway up the plants?

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I bought a little plumbing fitting for 79 cents at Lowes. It is a cylindrical cap that fir the diameter of my drain. It goes up about three inches over the top of my drain. I then cut slits in the end of it for the water to drain through....this allows my table to fill more.
I hope this makes sense.
PM me and I will try to better explain.
I am terrible at word pictures.

do you have any pics of your drain that you can post in the thread?

no I do not....I am at work, and honestly I prefer not to post pics here. Although, I found this picture that kind of shows what I mean.......
http://www.allseasonsnashville.com/graphics/ebb%20and%20flow%20fittings.jpg

The fourth and fifth ones are kind of what I mean. Stick it in the drain and it will plug it, and then you put the hole up on the plug where you want it, where you want your drain level to be. Simple as that. Always have a back up drain in case main drain gets plugged. I just have two drains and one stays capped unless needed (never have....hopefully never will).

about your watering question. i water 3 times a day for 15 min. i'm a strain from Nirvana called ice and its doing great. i would start out with twice a day and see how your plants react and go from there.






https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/98704-growin-desert-2-a.html#post1201920

3 times a day with 8 hrs between waterings with ph'd nuted water is working out nicely for now....

one of myplants is developing a strange bumpy stem thingyness...

does anyone have a film on their tubing that sits in the water?

im assuming its from the nutes and they collect on the rubber... its making my tubing a tiny bit slimy....

my ph rose to a little over 7 this past few days so i finally lowered it to a 6 this morning

that slime is algae

how do i get rid of the algae....


i have a bubbler stone thing.... should i get more bubbler stones.... or put a chemical...

How did you get algae? Is your tank clear?

Here's what it looks like....

you can kinda see it ... its the light brown film on the hose

the plants like it tho! haha

Is there light hiting the water. If no't t isn't that your nute's building up on the whose? really don't know

hey so i was just skimmin thru this (red the first page then said fuk it) an im wonderin how many times a day shud i be waterin if im usin a dwc with expanded clay under an air cooled 400 watter(so not much evap i assume)?

BCnative said:

hey so i was just skimmin thru this (red the first page then said fuk it) an im wonderin how many times a day shud i be waterin if im usin a dwc with expanded clay under an air cooled 400 watter(so not much evap i assume)?

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If you read the whole thread your answer will be found.