First grow help please! Hydro

First time on this site and alot of good info, just cant seem to find what i need.
Im a first time hydro/ nutrient grower so a lil confused but you dont know until you try!

ok heres the set up

2-1000watt hps lights
1 big fan to remove heat from lights
18 4 gallon buckets with 3 gallon
55 gallon resv
fluid the plants for 15 mins 4 times a day.

my question is how to you use the nutrients and what is a good kind?
gunna have some blue cheese, sour diesel, and some train wreck.

like when i get my clones do i put the in the rocks let then grow on veg for 4-6 weeks only watching the ph levels?

Pushin said:

First time on this site and alot of good info, just cant seem to find what i need.
Im a first time hydro/ nutrient grower so a lil confused but you dont know until you try!

ok heres the set up

2-1000watt hps lights
1 big fan to remove heat from lights
18 4 gallon buckets with 3 gallon
55 gallon resv
fluid the plants for 15 mins 4 times a day.

my question is how to you use the nutrients and what is a good kind?
gunna have some blue cheese, sour diesel, and some train wreck.

like when i get my clones do i put the in the rocks let then grow on veg for 4-6 weeks only watching the ph levels?

Click to expand...

Uhhhhh... ok? So my first question is what type of system are you running? DWC, ebb and flow, aeroponics? I'm guessing ebb and flow by what you are describing. Pritty damn big setup for your first grow, but good luck to you. So nutrients.... as far as brands I use a concoction my local hydroponic store makes so I have no Idea what to recommend as far as brands. I'd say anything organic is good, but listen to other people on that one. You are going to need a grow solution and a bloom solution. Grow for veg, bloom for flower. Basically you add a certain amount per gallon of water in the system depending on the instructions on the bottle say 1 tsp per gal. Then you just multiply. 1tsp(55 gal) = 55 tsp or 9.16 oz. That is a shitload of solution, glad I'm not flipping that bill... Anyway, after you have depleted your system to half capacity, or 27.5 gal, you need to add 27.5 gal worth of nutrients back (ie 4.58 oz). Just to note you can keep putting in fresh water as you use it. You just need to be sure after you have put in 27.5 gal you need to put in the appropriate amount of nutrients back into your reservoir. ALSO AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! You need ph up and ph down! You need to monitor your ph as your water levels change and add ph up or down accordingly! Magic number is 5.8. Good luck any other questions fire away.

Trent1080 said:

Uhhhhh... ok? So my first question is what type of system are you running? DWC, ebb and flow, aeroponics? I'm guessing ebb and flow by what you are describing. Pritty damn big setup for your first grow, but good luck to you. So nutrients.... as far as brands I use a concoction my local hydroponic store makes so I have no Idea what to recommend as far as brands. I'd say anything organic is good, but listen to other people on that one. You are going to need a grow solution and a bloom solution. Grow for veg, bloom for flower. Basically you add a certain amount per gallon of water in the system depending on the instructions on the bottle say 1 tsp per gal. Then you just multiply. 1tsp(55 gal) = 55 tsp or 9.16 oz. That is a shitload of solution, glad I'm not flipping that bill... Anyway, after you have depleted your system to half capacity, or 27.5 gal, you need to add 27.5 gal worth of nutrients back (ie 4.58 oz). Just to note you can keep putting in fresh water as you use it. You just need to be sure after you have put in 27.5 gal you need to put in the appropriate amount of nutrients back into your reservoir. ALSO AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! You need ph up and ph down! You need to monitor your ph as your water levels change and add ph up or down accordingly! Magic number is 5.8. Good luck any other questions fire away.

Click to expand...

General Hydroponics is a good idea to get your feet wet with. Use the 2 part Lucas Formula, do a Google search and you will find it and when starting out this is the easiest & most cost effective set of nutrients you can invest in! Invest in a syringe from your local hydro shop (not your local crack dealer) so you can accurately measure your liquid nutrients. Also, USE A REVERSE OSMOSIS SYSTEM for your water & if you do, drop some Cal-Mag Plus in the RO'ed water before adding nutrients to ensure you start off at 100 PPM's before adding the plant foot. Your tap water contains chlorine & humans, animals, nor plants like to drink chlorinated water (ever try drinking water in the swimming pool when you were a kid?) so be kind to your plants & they will be kind to you. You also need a PH & PPM meter that you can buy in a combo (recommended) or separately. This is by far your most important investment when it comes to upkeep on your system everyday.

Get into a rhythm of monitoring your PH that will greatly be helped by using Cal-Mag because of it's buffering ability & running a once-over with a broom to sweep up dust and other junk that gets into your grow room. If you don't make it a habit to clean then bugs are going to get into your space faster than you will probably kill your plants. A good habit is the cleaning once per day as you are checking your plants & monitoring your nutes as well as a once-over with a 1 to 10 part bleach solution just wiping the space down. This WILL NOT be harmful enough to kill your plants but keep an eye on the relative humidity and allow the space to dry out after wiping it down.

hey guys thanks alot for the info i just got my computer back it crashed in the next few days ill throw up some pictures of the setup. forgot to mention i got the ebb and flow system!

my question is how do nutrients work?

do i just use the ph up and down till im ready to start vegin?
and whats some good nutrients?

Bump any pictures of nutrients so I can get a idea of what to look for?

Anyone have a good regimen to follow?


Thanks guys!