Please check out my Hydro setup and give advice

[jaytea]

Below is a link to a video where you can see the ebb and flow / flood and drain hyrdo system I built today. I have a few questions and I would like you anyone willing to look at the video and see my setup and make any needed recommendations.

My main questions are :

1. What would you advise for my timing to be ? Should I flood and circulate for an hour and then let it sit dry for two more hours or what? What cycle would you use?

2. Does my water level look to high ? If so I can put something under my net pots to raise it a little .


That's pretty much it . If you anyone can advise me on those two question and maybe offer any other advise then please do. Here is the link to the video below :

***UPDATE**** Here is the public viewable video

 

[AlphaPhase]

Video is set to private so no on can see it. Can you fix that so I can check it out, thanks.

 

[jaytea]

Video is set to private so no on can see it. Can you fix that so I can check it out, thanks.

Sorry , i thought the FB link would work , I don't want to make the video public on Facebook because of reasons I don't want to get into... However I will upload it to youtube on a different channel and paste the link here .. Give me about 20 minutes to upload and process. Check back

 

[jaytea]

Video is set to private so no on can see it. Can you fix that so I can check it out, thanks.

Ok here ya go :

 

[Red1966]

Only sound I heard was "All right" at the very beginning. You don't need to flood that long, just fill it up and let it drain out. The hydroton will retain enough to feed your plants untill the next cycle. Once every 6 hours is plenty, more than that is probably too much. As long as your Hydroton doesn't start floating, the level is not too high. You have burnt tips, too much fertilizer. Do you have a PPM meter?

 

[jaytea]

Only sound I heard was "All right" at the very beginning. You don't need to flood that long, just fill it up and let it drain out. The hydroton will retain enough to feed your plants untill the next cycle. Once every 6 hours is plenty, more than that is probably too much. As long as your Hydroton doesn't start floating, the level is not too high. You have burnt tips, too much fertilizer. Do you have a PPM meter?

Thanks for your reply .. I bought these clones yesterday so the way they look aint my fault. I just now planted them today in the net pots you see in the video and built the entire system today. I am using half strength nutes for now until the clones adapt.

But so you say I should only flood it for like say 30 mintues , every six hours?

PS , turn up the volume , I care hear everything.

 

[AlphaPhase]

I heard you fine in the video. I really like that husky stand, did you get that at home Depot? I want a couple of those, so perfect for flood tables. I'd flood for 15 minutes every 4 hours or so. I flood every 2 hours but my set up is a little different. I'd ditch the air stones (your choice though) and I'd get something to cover the water in the table (light can grow algea, I use reflective insulation board, easy to work with and cut), other than that it looks good man. If you want to keep an air stone I'd suggest setting the airstones in the table to the timer when the water floods, but the res is very oxygenated as soon as the water begins to "waterfall" during the draining. That waterfall produces much more oxygen than an airstones. You're off to a good start though, good choices for clones too

 

[Red1966]

I flood 15 minutes, every 6 hours, but I don't think 30 will hurt. Cranked the volume all the way up and heard "All right, everybody", then a "boing" at 0:25. It maybe my browser. Let me try a different one. Yeah, sound is fine in other browser

 

[Atomizer]

+1 on the 15 minute flood, keep an eye on the plants for signs of overwatering if you go for <4 hours between floods.

 

[jaytea]

I heard you fine in the video. I really like that husky stand, did you get that at home Depot? I want a couple of those, so perfect for flood tables. I'd flood for 15 minutes every 4 hours or so. I flood every 2 hours but my set up is a little different. I'd ditch the air stones (your choice though) and I'd get something to cover the water in the table (light can grow algea, I use reflective insulation board, easy to work with and cut), other than that it looks good man. If you want to keep an air stone I'd suggest setting the airstones in the table to the timer when the water floods, but the res is very oxygenated as soon as the water begins to "waterfall" during the draining. That waterfall produces much more oxygen than an airstones. You're off to a good start though, good choices for clones too

Yeah this HUSKY Cart table thing is nice. from (HOME DEPOT) If I need to clean out my grow space and sweep or mop I can just roll my whole setup out of the grow space and roll it back in. Also if you ever had to move to a new location you could roll your whole grow by just rolling it in the back of a UHAUL . LOL

Thanks for the advice. I was planning on covering the flood table with Panda Plastic white side up.

 

[Red1966]

Yeah this HUSKY Cart table thing is nice. from (HOME DEPOT) If I need to clean out my grow space and sweep or mop I can just roll my whole setup out of the grow space and roll it back in. Also if you ever had to move to a new location you could roll your whole grow by just rolling it in the back of a UHAUL . LOL

Thanks for the advice. I was planning on covering the flood table with Panda Plastic white side up.

I'm not sure you need any areation with flood and drain systems, as the roots are exposed to air most the time anyway. That said, I still have 2 airstones in my reservoir.

 

[jaytea]

I'm not sure you need any areation with flood and drain systems, as the roots are exposed to air most the time anyway. That said, I still have 2 airstones in my reservoir.

Yeah I bought em so might as well use them. They can't hurt can they? I always thought the more bubbles the better.

 

[jaytea]

+1 on the 15 minute flood, keep an eye on the plants for signs of overwatering if you go for <4 hours between floods.

15 minutes every 4 hours. ??? I think that sounds good.

 

[Red1966]

Yeah I bought em so might as well use them. They can't hurt can they? I always thought the more bubbles the better.

My thoughts exactly

 

[AlphaPhase]

Hell yeah man I'm going to see if I can find some of those carts soon. Airstones, some people use airstones in the res, some don't. It's just that it can help breed aerobic bacteria (also offers another place for bacteria to hide) but if you don't allow bacteria to take hold they definitely won't hurt at all. Do you have anything to keep you're reservoir sterile? if not iI'd highly recommend Dutch master zone. It's cheap and it works great.

 

[DirtyMcCurdy]

Yeah I bought em so might as well use them. They can't hurt can they? I always thought the more bubbles the better.

Air stones or aeration in general may cause upwards pH drift. Depending on your pump(s) it can also slowly raise your reservoir temps. Air pumps get warm, which means they're pumping warm air into your res. Doesn't sound like much of an issue, but it can be.

Flood and drain is awesome and your setup will work perfectly, as long as you don't let them get too big. One of the best things I like about flood and drain is its simplicity, I would ditch the air stones. Oxygen is not lacking with flood and drain. Just my opinion.

 

[jaytea]

Hell yeah man I'm going to see if I can find some of those carts soon. Airstones, some people use airstones in the res, some don't. It's just that it can help breed aerobic bacteria (also offers another place for bacteria to hide) but if you don't allow bacteria to take hold they definitely won't hurt at all. Do you have anything to keep you're reservoir sterile? if not iI'd highly recommend Dutch master zone. It's cheap and it works great.

Hell yeah man I'm going to see if I can find some of those carts soon. Airstones, some people use airstones in the res, some don't. It's just that it can help breed aerobic bacteria (also offers another place for bacteria to hide) but if you don't allow bacteria to take hold they definitely won't hurt at all. Do you have anything to keep you're reservoir sterile? if not iI'd highly recommend Dutch master zone. It's cheap and it works great.

the Dutch master zone will not kill the beneficial bacteria in my root zone will it?

 

[Atomizer]

it`ll kill everything, both good and bad

 

[jaytea]

it`ll kill everything, both good and bad

Is that a good thing? Do I need the beneficial bacs in the root zone ? I never done hydro before.

 

[Atomizer]

If your running organic nutes then yes, with synthetic nutes you can run it sterile or with a bio herd.
Btw, i`d try to keep the flood level about an inch below the top of the hydroton. It`ll still wick enough moisture to the surface but help to cut down evaporation, reduce algae and prevent potential stem rot.