DIY flood tables and grow trays

You can also get algae growing in there, and other things that can die and start to stink. I'm working with aquaponics and I have found a lot of people reporting funny smells because of the light getting into the grow media.

Most importantly, awesome beds! Those are really nice looking IMO. They may be home made but in the pictures they appear to be very well made! Mine would have a lot more wrinkles in the plastic hahahah.

Nice work man, fellow carpenter/do it all guy myself and I am upgrading my operation to a much larger scale than my dwc currently and in the middle of designs planning and room size configuration etc. And this is almost exactly what I came up with except I'm going to make it about 3x deeper cuz I'm doing aeroponics in it this time. But yeah everything u said -I'm like damn did I write this post? Lol. Good work man, what state do u live in?

Nice work! Looks pretty rugged and well built.

jijiandfarmgang said:

Well you don't want light hitting the res. But what I meant was you don't want light hitting the roots. The plant will still grow either way, its just better that the lights don't hit the root zone, so It doesn't hinder the roots growth.

- Jiji

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Thanks for your response. My plan is to use smart pots filled with coco coir. What do you think?

Thanks everyone! Carpenter I'm not! Pipefitter actually. I'm thinking it might be too tall. Its just tall enough for a 55 gal Res to fit under but I wouldn't be able to let the plants get over like 42" tall.

CanaTN said:

Nice work man, fellow carpenter/do it all guy myself and I am upgrading my operation to a much larger scale than my dwc currently and in the middle of designs planning and room size configuration etc. And this is almost exactly what I came up with except I'm going to make it about 3x deeper cuz I'm doing aeroponics in it this time. But yeah everything u said -I'm like damn did I write this post? Lol. Good work man, what state do u live in?

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Ohio

Tigerpaws said:

Thanks for your response. My plan is to use smart pots filled with coco coir. What do you think?

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I'd use something rigid, so not smart pots. I used a bunch of 8 inch net pots designed for 5 gallon bucket lids. They have a large rim giving you a bunch of options.

- Jiji

jijiandfarmgang said:

I'd use something rigid, so not smart pots. I used a bunch of 8 inch net pots designed for 5 gallon bucket lids. They have a large rim giving you a bunch of options.

- Jiji

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Are the net pots rigid? Like plastic? How many gallon? Filled with coco coir? My plan was to just set the pots in the table without anything else in it so I can slide them if need be.

Tigerpaws said:

Are the net pots rigid? Like plastic? How many gallon? Filled with coco coir? My plan was to just set the pots in the table without anything else in it so I can slide them if need be.

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Net pots were rigid plastic. I'm just saying if your flooding the table with smart pots the cocco will be super saturated and move around a lot.

Part of the fun is experimenting, I'm only making suggestions. If I were using cocco in a flood table, I wouldn't flood it, I'd use a top feed adjustable manifold. If I were flooding I'd use something more porous that doesn't float much like expanded clay pellets or whatever they are called now.

- Jiji


- EDIT.....I meant the smartpots themselves will shift around in place.....
If you use ridgid plastic filled with a light material like expanded clay, they may float a little and shift around the tray......

jijiandfarmgang said:

Net pots were rigid plastic. I'm just saying if your flooding the table with smart pots the cocco will be super saturated and move around a lot.

Part of the fun is experimenting, I'm only making suggestions. If I were using cocco in a flood table, I wouldn't flood it, I'd use a top feed adjustable manifold. If I were flooding I'd use something more porous that doesn't float much like expanded clay pellets or whatever they are called now.

- Jiji


- EDIT.....I meant the smartpots themselves will shift around in place.....
If you use ridgid plastic filled with a light material like expanded clay, they may float a little and shift around the tray......

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Gotcha! I thought about top feed also. The main reason I built the table was to have more of a maintenance free setup. We camp and take a 2 week vacation every year so I'm trying to come up with something that I can feel confident to leave for that long.

Tigerpaws said:

Gotcha! I thought about top feed also. The main reason I built the table was to have more of a maintenance free setup. We camp and take a 2 week vacation every year so I'm trying to come up with something that I can feel confident to leave for that long.

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Well you picked the right setup. If your coco becomes over-saturated you can always mix it with perlite, or clay pellets (chow mix.)

- Jiji

jijiandfarmgang said:

Well you picked the right setup. If your coco becomes over-saturated you can always mix it with perlite, or clay pellets (chow mix.)

- Jiji

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Do you more info on this chow mix ? I kinda wanted to mix some stuff but I've no experience with coco after reading a good bit I haven't found a testamony on it to were it fit my set up , as I am changing my set now I'm still not sure where it going ( rdwc or edd and flow ) if have any advice it would be appreciated .
Peace out bare

jijiandfarmgang said:

Well you picked the right setup. If your coco becomes over-saturated you can always mix it with perlite, or clay pellets (chow mix.)

- Jiji

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jijiandfarmgang said:

Well you picked the right setup. If your coco becomes over-saturated you can always mix it with perlite, or clay pellets (chow mix.)

- Jiji

Click to expand...

jijiandfarmgang said:

Well you picked the right setup. If your coco becomes over-saturated you can always mix it with perlite, or clay pellets (chow mix.)

- Jiji

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If I did top feed I could lower my table right? Would you drain to waste or reclaim?

Bareback said:

Do you more info on this chow mix ? I kinda wanted to mix some stuff but I've no experience with coco after reading a good bit I haven't found a testamony on it to were it fit my set up , as I am changing my set now I'm still not sure where it going ( rdwc or edd and flow ) if have any advice it would be appreciated .
Peace out bare

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Trust me man I've had every hiccup in the book in this aspect, the rdwc especially if u have a 5gal bucket system is more trouble than its worth. Can't clean out water I'm buckets easily, lines keep popping off if not secured right and flooding room I had that a lot, plus u are running a pump and bubbles for no reason. Just go with aero, cheapest option anyway and most effective. The ebb and flow u have to fill up table with some kind of media. Aero just whatever u want to grow in like a tote or whatever is cheap a little pvc pipe a pump and a 5 dollar bag of nozzles and u r in business

Thanks got any links so I can read up before I stupid questions ,( like do you have any links to site I'm already on lol )
Peace out Bare

Just search "aeroponic"
It's real simple all u need is some 1 inch pvc pipe and make u like 1 foot squares out of it to fill up ur grow container, which u will need to draw it up and figure how many corners and 3 way splitters u need, not hard and cheap. A submersible pump and a piece of old garden hose and hose clamps. And a pack of 330 degree mister heads on ebay. U drill holes in the top of pipes and screw misters in. Connect this setup to the hose to the pump. Plan to have legs on bottom to raise it up but u don't want water flowing through legs. So hell cut some pieces of pipe and duct tape it or zip ties or something lol. The rest is easy to figure out u just need the rest of ur usual stuff, nutrients pH test kit and here's number one trick : get a bottle of battery acid from parts store, mix this 1oz to 31 Oz s of water and use this bottle of solution for pH down. Careful it still only takes a couple splashes for 20gal. Mix well and let it sit b4 checking ph. As far as the setup u can have for example 2 sterilite totes one full of water and one with sprayers and plants on it with a drain hole gravity down to rez. Feel free to ask questions on that, u can get my phone number or pm me on here for further questions so we don't hijack this thread any further, but I did want this post on here cuz of the helpful pointers for new readers.
pCe

Bareback said:

Thanks got any links so I can read up before I stupid questions ,( like do you have any links to site I'm already on lol )
Peace out Bare

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Bareback said:

Do you more info on this chow mix ? I kinda wanted to mix some stuff but I've no experience with coco after reading a good bit I haven't found a testamony on it to were it fit my set up , as I am changing my set now I'm still not sure where it going ( rdwc or edd and flow ) if have any advice it would be appreciated .
Peace out bare

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Not really....some people swear by it for rdwc on another forum. I pretty much just used either one or the other. Coco is going to retain more water than hydroton.....

Tigerpaws said:

If I did top feed I could lower my table right? Would you drain to waste or reclaim?

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Well, you can lower the table to what ever height you need as long as its higher than the res.

I would reclaim in a setup like that and use a fibrous coco.

You don't have to necessarily fill the whole tray up with hydroton or media, you just have to fill the net pots.......but what I was saying is that if light hits the bottom of the table, roots wont grow outside the netpots, and this will stunt growth. You can fix that multiple ways, such as putting a layer of poly over the top of the table, and cutting holes for the net pots to sit in. Or sometimes theres a SOG and hardly any light penetrates to the bottom of the tray.

.....but this is all my opinion on stuff. Theres more than one way to skin a cat. If you plan on doing a crop of clones in a table all one strain, its pretty hard to beat the simplicity and reliability of ebb and flow.

- Jiji

Would a plant in a 5 gal smart pot get rootbound? I like the idea and simplicity of the ebb and flow and that was my original intention when I built the table but at the height that I have it, so my 55 gal Res can slide underneath it, it puts the bottom of the table that the pots would sit on at 36" off of the floor. My ceiling is at 8'4" so that puts the lens of my LEDs at approx. 7'4". Take 12" off of that, canopy height= 6'4". 6'4"-3'= 3'4". So this means that I can only grow a plant including pot 3'-4" tall. I don't think I like that restriction. Maybe I don't need a whole 55 gal Res and could cut it down another foot and only have 45 gal? Or lower it even more and do a top feed and waste the runoff in a separate container? This is a hobby for me so quality trumps quantity. What do you think? I only plan on 4-6 plants at a time.

Tigerpaws said:

Would a plant in a 5 gal smart pot get rootbound? I like the idea and simplicity of the ebb and flow and that was my original intention when I built the table but at the height that I have it, so my 55 gal Res can slide underneath it, it puts the bottom of the table that the pots would sit on at 36" off of the floor. My ceiling is at 8'4" so that puts the lens of my LEDs at approx. 7'4". Take 12" off of that, canopy height= 6'4". 6'4"-3'= 3'4". So this means that I can only grow a plant including pot 3'-4" tall. I don't think I like that restriction. Maybe I don't need a whole 55 gal Res and could cut it down another foot and only have 45 gal? Or lower it even more and do a top feed and waste the runoff in a separate container? This is a hobby for me so quality trumps quantity. What do you think? I only plan on 4-6 plants at a time.

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You could also use a large heavy duty tote from the hardware store. They carry 27- 37 gal "tuff totes" that can hold up to 700lbs for about $8 and they are low profile and fit very nice under a 28" high table. Throw the res on a movers dolly so you can maneuver it where you need to. Once you fill it up it becomes real hard to even budge without wheels. It works very well for me in my small 4x4 flood & drain setup.

HydroRed said:

You could also use a large heavy duty tote from the hardware store. They carry 27- 37 gal "tuff totes" that can hold up to 700lbs for about $8 and they are low profile and fit very nice under a 28" high table. Throw the res on a movers dolly so you can maneuver it where you need to. Once you fill it up it becomes real hard to even budge. It works very well for me in my small 4x4 flood & drain setup.
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Nice setup! I like that idea. Nice light also! Mind sharing some details and a parts list for the light? I'm using 3 Advanced Platinum 300 watt LEDs at the moment in my 4'x 8' room. I'd like to add a 4th light to cover another 2'x3' section of the room.