Flood and drain, air stones waste of time?

[petedavid]

Hi guys,

I am running flood and drain with 100L (26 gallon) reseviors. I have airstones in all my reseviors. But reading up recently there is a lot of debate about wether this is a good idea (introduces airborne pathogrens and other nasties). Should I stop doing this? Is a move to small recirculating pumps the best alternative? Do I even need to worry? Will the constant flooding and drain be enough to keep the reseviors well mixed and airated?

Thanks for responses.

 

[Renfro]

No need to worry about dissolved oxygen levels in flood and drain.

 

[newbplantgrower420]

No need to worry about dissolved oxygen levels in flood and drain.

do you put any beneficial microbes or do you keep it sterile in your flood and drain setups? or is neither even necessary for flood and drain?

 

[Morbid Angel]

do you put any beneficial microbes or do you keep it sterile in your flood and drain setups? or is neither even necessary for flood and drain?

I always ran sterile in my FnD with no issues. I will be running microbes in the form of “Microbial Mass” in a DWC system I am about to set up.

 

[Renfro]

do you put any beneficial microbes or do you keep it sterile in your flood and drain setups? or is neither even necessary for flood and drain?

Neither is required.

 

[petedavid]

do you put any beneficial microbes or do you keep it sterile in your flood and drain setups? or is neither even necessary for flood and drain?

I am running sterile. Was using some humics for a while, but things got nastey and started using H2O2 and only salts now. I have problems due the opacity on my buckets, I have to wrap them in garbage bags to keep light out. If you don't have light problems bennies might work for you.

 

[Keesje]

A lot of diseases like root rot have nothing to do with temperature by itself.
For sure a certain temperature can help it explode. But if your temperatures stay within a certain bandwith, then temperature itself is never the cause of root rot.
E&F reservoirs need no extra air.
Only DWC needs that.

 

[PhatNuggz]

It depends on how you drain back to the rez. If the drain is higher than the rez, such that the drain back flow splashes into the rez, you are probably resupplying fresh DO, but, if, like me, you would rather err on the side of caution, I have tried several different methods all using a separate pump on a separate timer which you can set for frequency

 

[Keesje]

The main reasons why adding O2 in a F&D makes no sense at all is that once you drain there is plenty of O2 (in gaseous state) available for the roots.
Also water that moves picks up O2, so the splashing is not necessary. Heck, even water that stands still, picks up O2.

 

[petedavid]

The main reasons why adding O2 in a F&D makes no sense at all is that once you drain there is plenty of O2 (in gaseous state) available for the roots.
Also water that moves picks up O2, so the splashing is not necessary. Heck, even water that stands still, picks up O2.

Yeah this seems correct to me haha, I think I got too excited and decided to throw some air stone in there. I like the airstones to help mix the solution when I am making a batch up, so I will probably leave them for now.

 

[Keesje]

For that you could better use a normal pump.
This way you prevent that CO2 is pushed in your water. Which can lead to problems as well.

 

[petedavid]

For that you could better use a normal pump.
This way you prevent that CO2 is pushed in your water. Which can lead to problems as well.

OH Interesting, I might be better off removing them then? I might have save the blowers for a DWC grow down the line.

 

[EvilScotsm@n]

Yeah I grow nft which is very similar to ebb n flow and I don't need airstones iether.
The recirc action provides more than enough o2.

 

[Minirex]

You are airating your water very well as you drain it into the bucket.airstones ate great in still water but what your doing is more natural and makes airstones unneccesary.ezclone cloners used to come with a pump and air stones then they realized that was not needed as the act of spraying the water in the rez was far better for that....

 

[ktmracer51]

You don't need airstones or need to oxygenate in any way. Your roots should not be siting in a waterlogged deoxygenated state with flood and drain. I've grown millions and millions of plants with flood and drain. Super easy and fairly simple process. Don't overthink and complicate it.

 

[Minirex]

Kiss

 

[petedavid]

Kiss

Thnx

Sweet, air stones are on their way out!

 

[PhatNuggz]

I decided to throw in the towel with air pump/stones. I inserted my O2Grow 2020, but only using one emitter, which Ive been waiting to use for a couple years now.

My question is: what level should the water line be at under the net pots to attract root development?