Help choosing air pump!

I've had 3 successful soil grows and am making a bubbleponics setup now out of a blue 21 gallon storage container. What kind and what size air pump and air stones do I need to adequately oxygenate the 21 gallon resevoir? I also want to add a water pump to directly feed the inner roots of the four 5" net pots that will be in the lid. Any reason why that's not a good idea?

First off, How many different strains will you be running? If they are all the same you should be fine, but if you are running different strains I'd switch to 3.5 gallon buckets because they will require different nutrient dosages. Second, how much water will you actually be using? The rule of thumb is 1 watt per gallon of water. So if you use 10 gallons of water you need atleast a 10 watt pump. Now, the last part is probably the most important. You need some really good diffusers. You can use ones from petsmart or walmart, but I don't recommend them because they tend to break down over a short period of time (1-2 cycles). I recommend ceramic micro pore diffusers (pretty expensive) or the bendable wand diffusers. Now you can use a water pump to water the inside of the netpots, but it is pretty useless. Although you can use it to help the seedlings get there taproots to the water, but like I said it is pretty much useless. As long as you keep the rockwool moist for the first 1-2 weeks you won't have any problems. Honestly it sounds to me like this setup is very similar to the first one I did, and needless to say I got out of DWC because of the wild PH problems that you will run in to. Now don't go hydro till your ready to spend some money. A good investment will be a ph pen and EC or TDS meter. They help alot.

Hydro doesn't have to be that complicated.

Yeah, might want to try single plant reservoirs. 3.5 is a nice size gallon bucket. If you can't get a hand on any diffusers, pet store volcano airstones are awesome. From what I have seen on this board, they are pretty popular. Just look around. I suggest dipping into multiple grow reports in the dwc and just check out their first page with their setups. More than likely you will want to try to fast forward to the end as well. This place is alot of fun

I really don't know exactly what you should buy, but i like them with multiple outputs. Some dual outputs range at pet stores from 10-25 bucks. And the shiny one for 25 should likely be the one you take home.

This is help for what not to choose.
If you go to your favorite petstore and they have this brand (no offense to anyone using them) http://www.petstore.com/ps_viewitem.aspx?idproduct=HG10799&child=HG10800&utm_source=pscseggl2&utm_medium=pscse&utm_campaign=pscseggl2&utm_content=HG10800
Don't buy it. It's a crap.

bird mcbride said:

Hydro doesn't have to be that complicated.

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It's not that complicated, but in order to get top quality you can't just half ass things.

I don't mind spending money for quality in return. I just don't wnna waste my money buying the wrong stuff. I would like to run 8 plants under 1000 watt MH/HPS and many of them different strains. should I make smaller individual buckets instead of a larger one with multiple plants in it? that sux cause then you have to buy multiples of all ur materials.

Ive run plants in 2 gallon containers before, but if you let them get too big they start falling over. I had that problem with my vanilla kush so I had to tie her up a little. Yeah it sux getting multiples of your materials, but it is worth the initial investment. Like I said if you are doing multiple strains then dont go with a tote, but if you have one strain then a tote is fine. I wouldnt do more than 2 per tote because they start getting crowded after about a month.

what gets crowded? the roots or the plants cause I plan on doing some LSTing.

So if I use multiple 3 gallon buckets for each plant all I need is one air pump and diffuser per bucket? Is that correct?

masscom25 said:

what gets crowded? the roots or the plants cause I plan on doing some LSTing.

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Both. LST will help keep them seperate, but as soon as the roots get long enough they wrap together like vines, and you cant get them apart without cutting.

masscom25 said:

So if I use multiple 3 gallon buckets for each plant all I need is one air pump and diffuser per bucket? Is that correct?

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You can do a multiple outlet air pump like a 4 outlet or something to run all the buckets.

doesn't it not matter if the roots grow together if the plants are the same strain and will be harvested at the same time? I like the idea of one pump running 4 buckets. i've read a lot of threads with people complaining about weak pumps not providing enough oxygenation( not creating enough bubbles). can you suggest a dependable pump capable of running 4 different air stones, all with great bubbling action? Also, do i just keep the rockwool moist with a weak nutrient sollution untill the roots reach the bubbling water?

Also, does anyone have any feedback on dual arc lamps? It's one bulb with both a MH arc and a HPS arc that both light at the same time. wouldn't that be the perfect lamp to run from veg to flower because you constantly get the best of both worlds? Are they proven?

If you are running 4x 3.5 gallon buckets then I recommend the 4 outlet pump from aqua active http://www.ecogrow.com/index.cfm/product/1632/mid/21/nid/77/home.html. You do not need to water your seedlings or cuttings with any nute till they are about a week or 2 old, but I have used a very low dosage of a high phosphorus nute like Tiger Bloom from foxfarm to help them with no problems. As far as the dual arc bulbs I dont really know much about them other than from what I understand they have a relatively short life span. Quite frankly I would use a ceramic metal halide for the full cycle, but I prefer HPS over anything because they are the best price and have a very long life span with very little depletion of lumens over the life of it.