Hydro Grow

Here we are again.. another grow journal. My roommate and I will be setting up a (ebb & flow) flood & drain system for this grow. We ordered some 'white widow' and 'hindu kush' seeds from Cannabis seeds straight from the breeder/seedbank NIRVANA - High Quality Hemp Seed - Indica Sativa Feminized Marijuana seeds. , they got the money and the seeds are on their way. So today we went shopping and heres a list of items we bought for building our ebb & flow system.

- Rubbermaid roughneck tote, 53L (reservoir)
- 264GPH Submersible pump
- 4ft. Green 5/8" ID. 40PSI water tubing (soak the hose in warm water first, then it will stretch over the fittings for a very tight fit.)
- Inlet/drain, 3/4" OD. 5/8" ID. thru-hull fitting with screen
- Outlet/overflow, 3/4" OD. 5/8" ID. thru-hull
- 2ft. Clear tubing
- 50L Bag of hydroton
- 4" Rockwool cubes
- 1" Rockwool cubes
- 3500cc/min. dual outlet air pump
- Check valves
- 10ft. silicon airline tubing (will replace with black vinyl tubing after)
- Airstones

The lady at my local hydro store ordered my flood table, and it should be here in about week or so.

Ebb and flow, also known as flood and drain, hydroponic systems are low maintenance and easy to use. Individual plants, in pots or grow cubes, are set on a table or growing bed that can hold an inch or more of water. Nutrient solution is periodically pumped into the growing bed. The bed is flooded from the bottom. Oxygen-poor air is forced out by the nutrient solution as is wets the growing medium. Once the nutrient solution reaches a set level, an overflow pipe drains the excess to the reservoir. When the pump is turned off, the growing medium drains. This draws new, oxygen-rich air into cantact with the roots. A maze of channels directs the runoff solution back into the catchment tank or reservoir. This cycle is repeated several times a day.

Looking forward to some pictures once you get it all set up.

WHAT!? even toke got a hydro going! this is gonna be fantastic! I cant wait till this gets underway...btw whats the lighting gonna be for this grow?

Spittn4cash said:

whats the lighting gonna be for this grow?

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For this grow i will use 6500K CFL's for vegging (I might pick up some T5's). For flowering i will be using the 400w hortilux super hps.

Today i got my flood tray and it measures 45" x 23", so this will also be the dimensions of my grow room. I started putting my system together for some test runs but was interrupted when some unexpected guests showed up. So i am going to drink a few beers and smoke some herb then i will see if i can get the system together for the test runs.

I put the system together for the test runs and everything went as planned, no problems. Woohoo! I will start construction on my flowering room tomorrow.

Still waiting on my seeds from nirvana...

I have been working on my flowering room, it should be done soon. I framed in a wall with 2x4's and drywall to divide the closet the room measures 45.5"x28"x78", filled in the screw holes with putty and gave the room a quick first coat of paint. Installed a shelf for the flood tray (made sure its level in every direction). I had a 140 cfm inline fan in my garage so i thought before i go looking for a fan to cool my room, i would cut a hole in the wall to mount this fan first and see what it could do. It works pretty good, not great though, i would like to get a bigger fan and get the temp down a bit more.

Heres what if got so far...

Forgot a pic..

No seeds yet. Tomorrow i will be going to my local hydro store so i can buy ph ec meters, i am going to have a look at the fans and carbon scrubbers too (or maybe i'll make a DIY scrubber). This hydro store is great though, I can't find a better deal on anything anywhere else!

One of the best investments I made was to buy an RO system. It keeps everything cleaner, almost no salt build up. You do need to have access to a drain though. Just a thought with all the other work you are doing. VV

Sounds like a good idea. How much did it cost you?

Hey toke, looks AWESOME, i take it things are going better for your situation and you can actually grow now!, and your closet looks like a helluva job. Glad to see your going hydro! and i wish i had the room to seperate my closet like that.

Thanx Russ! I cant wait to get my seeds from nirvana so i can start experimenting with this flood and drain setup. I have a couple plants growing a in DWC setup right now and they are growing like mad compared to my soil plants! So yeah i'm loving this hydro business.

should be a good one man.. nice work with the cfls on the first grow! nice strain for bagseed too! just wish the pics were still up on it.

im lookin into hydro for my next grow, so I'll be watchin this one.
peace

The one I bought was a little over $200 us. The difference in price for a smaller producing unit was only like $20 so I went with the larger unit. With my cold well water I can stil have 85 gls of RO water any day I need it. VV

VictorVIcious said:

The one I bought was a little over $200 us. The difference in price for a smaller producing unit was only like $20 so I went with the larger unit. With my cold well water I can stil have 85 gls of RO water any day I need it. VV

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It's definatly something to consider, but doesn't really fit into my budget at the moment.

wow looks great,please be as detaile oriented as possible in your log,for I think I might learn much from you, my first hydro grow is at least a year away thogh...damn budget.

I think i am going to make a hole in that fresh wall so i can recess the oscillating fan flush with the wall. I should do this before i put my final coat of paint. The first coat was just pretty much a primer. I was also thinking of plumbing in a fresh air intake there aswel. Do you guys think there would be any downfalls to this? Sorry for the poor quality sketch, the angles are off and it's not to scale. It's just a rough sketch. What do you guys think?

GOOD LUCK MAJOR

MAY YOUR PLANTS GROW BIG AND YOUR SMOKE BE DEADLY