Fine tuning my ebb and flow system questions.

Am growing in a pair of grow tents, 1 tall and 1 wide, for tall, wide plants. The tall is a 2 foot x2.5x7 and the wide is 3x3x6. Not big tents. I use both HPS and LED lighting, running about 50 watts per sf.
Using a 55 gallon reservoir and a 3 gallon control bucket, 2 water pumps and growing in 3 gallon hydrocorn laden 10 inch pots in those 3 gallon buckets.
4 3 gallon buckets in 1 room and 3 in the other. Salt based nutes,
I poked a hole in each tent to run the solution hoses through to the grow buckets.

That's my setup. It is up and running, and growing the dank.
But, I can do better. I see those pics of buds the size of my arm, and those snow white things. I'm not getting that. Don't get me wrong...I am growing the BEST POT I EVER smoked now.
Getting my seeds from a seed bank in England.

OK..questions.
Can I add a water cooler to the reservoir? Would the cooled water being pumped onto the warm, room temperature roots, 4 times a day, 5 times a day, hurt the plants? Cool the water say 10 to 15 degrees below room temps?

How does one adjust the timing of the controller? Not the time, but timing? How do I know if I should water for 15 minutes or a half hour before draining the buckets? 4 or 5 or 6 times a day?
How does one know how many times a day to water? Do I want to water more or less? I mean, is my goal to water as little as the plants allow or as much as they will take?

No watering at night, right?

You have to see how long it takes the table to fill to desired water level and that's your time

As soon as the plant buckets are full, drain them?
No dwell time?

just stop the pump. the water will take just as long or longer to drain back to res

jeepster1993 said:

As soon as the plant buckets are full, drain them?
No dwell time?

Click to expand...

As soon as the tray is full, you can drain immediately

Experience. Always a good thing in a complex hobby.

What week of the grow cycle are you in? You say you're running 50watts/ft2. So, for your area that is ~ 250 HPS, is that correct? What temp does your reservoir sit at? What nutes and schedule you running (any signs of the fan leaf ends turning brown and drying out)? Can't speak to your controller as we don't know what Brand/Model it is.

noosphere said:

Experience. Always a good thing in a complex hobby.

What week of the grow cycle are you in? You say you're running 50watts/ft2. So, for your area that is ~ 250 HPS, is that correct? What temp does your reservoir sit at? What nutes and schedule you running (any signs of the fan leaf ends turning brown and drying out)? Can't speak to your controller as we don't know what Brand/Model it is.

Click to expand...

Grow cycles are; 3x3 is almost done, another couple weeks and the plants will be done, the 2x2 is 2 weeks into a 9 week flower.
Gonna let the room sit empty for a while, it is hot and I want both rooms on the same nute schedule, They are not now, and that's inconvenient.
Lighting for the rooms are:
The 3x3 room is lit by a 400 watt HPS with 80 watts of LED to supplement it. 480 watts in 9 sq feet.
The 2x 2.5 room is lit by a home made 250 watt full spec LED. 250 watts for 5 sq feet.
The 55 gallon reservoir temp is between 70 and 75 degrees, the ambient temp of my basement.
Nutes, I use Techna Flora "grow for success" nutes. I mix the nutes about 25 to 33% of full strength. Changing the reservoir about evert week to 10 days completely.
Right now the watering schedule is 5 waterings a day for 15 minutes at a time, the time it takes to fill all the 3 gallon pots, then they are drained, no night waterings. I water as soon as the lights go on in the morning and water right before the lights go off at night then 3 more times during the day.
Here is a poor quality pic of the controller. The controller is the little bucket on the floor, in front of the 55 gallon drum.

Is there some reason for running the nutes at 25-33% recommended strength?

I don't use that brand, but what I see on their website is per gallon = -veg 15ml & 7.5ml and -grow 15ml & 15ml. So are you running 25-33% of those recommendations?

I use Dutch Master Advance nutes because they've been good to me so far. I start running with their suggested "standard" mode dosage. And if the plant leaf tips aren't getting nute burn I'll up the base nutes gradually toward their "aggressive" mode. Just a little bit of tip burn isn't the end of the world, is easily corrected and I want the the plants to have as much food/energy as they can tolerate.

As a phosphorus bloom booster I've started using something called Mammoth P. The two university botany professors that invented it are local to me. All the area grow shops speak highly of it and I've been impressed. It's not cheap but a little goes a long way, much like House & Garden's Roots Excelurator, which I also use in the veg state. I'm going to keep using the Mammoth P during the last six weeks of flower.

Our setups are not much different except I don't use a flood table. It's a flo-n-gro so a pump does the drain cycle out of individual 4gal buckets. My 55gal reservoir used to run to run 72-75. I thought that was a bit high; the reason I switched from DWC to E&F was the water sitting in the grow room 24/7 meant the water stayed at 75-78. That had me fighting rot rot. I had a 1/10hp cooler I bought for a saltwater reef that I never needed, so I repurposed it to my reservoir and keep that 55gal at 64-65. I also spotted a 1/4hp used one on CL and picked it up for $125. So I have a backup if I need it for either the reef tank or grow room. At 70-75 I don't think I'd dish out the bucks for a brand new chiller and the associated electric demand/cost.

Here's my room at ~3.5 weeks into flower. I think the Mammoth P is really helping bud development. I fim'ed whenever I saw a top had formed: