Switching to Hydroponics after many years in soil. A few questions.

Hello everyone,

I'm about to change my setup to hydro. Right now I'm between DWC and the GHE Hydro System.
I've got 3 tents, a 0,45mX0,45m for sprouting and early vegging. Then I ve got a 0.75mX0.75m with a 150W LED and a 250W HPS and another 1mX1m tent with a Spider Farmer SF4000 450W Led.

1. I usually prefer doing SCRoG for max yield and I would leave a plant vegging for at least 2 months in a 55 liter (12 gallon) fabric pot but I was going for 1 plant only. Now I will probably have 2 in each of the bigger tents. My question is, what size of buckets do I need if I'm going to be vegging for 1 - 1.5 month in hydro?
If I'm going with DWC, I understand that I can just transfer the netpots to a bigger bucket, but what is a recommended size for my needs?
2. Can I use a single bucket for 2 plants? They say for the GHE System you can have up to 6 plants in one bucket??
3. My tap water is hard. Is it worth it investing in a RO filter or am I going to get away with it if I just leave the water to evaporate the nasty stuff?
4. Is a 30 Euro EC-Meter going to do the job or do should I go with a Bluelab Truncheon?

Thanks!

I recommend the GHE system over DWC if those are your only two options. Lots of weekly maintenance with dwc which looks to be stressful on both plant & grower. Click on this & have a look at my hydro setup from one of my journals. & have a watch of this guys video on YouTube which shows a few problems I wish I knew about before I learnt them the hard way

Do both.

Cheap TDS/PPM meters work fine, that's all I use. HM Digital TDS3 or 4? I think.. +/- $20 here in the US. They last years and always give good reading, unless the temps are off. Like trying to get a reading in ice cold water or something.

I only use PH drops too, I myself will never trust a PH meter, not even truncheon/blue lab, etc. Many do and have no problem though.


If doing DWC, I say def go with large single containers, over multiple ones for each plant. You don't wanna have to deal with a bunch of smaller buckets that have less capacity, and therefor needing to be monitored more often, and less stable overall.

You also don't really need to put together a full on RDWC system for just a few plants, and better off using one large single plastic storage tote in each tent. No pipes to worry about clogging up or anything that way.

I would put more than 2 plant sites in the lids though, just incase you want to run more with less veg time. Can still grow one or 2 larger plants without using the other holes.

Wait till you get your EC meter and then check your tap water. It might not be that bad to need an RO.

GHE systems looks like they use up 3/4 of the entire container for holding media in the net pot, leaving just a little room for water.

I would rather have a homemade DWC container with 3/4 of it full of nutrient solution myself, with no bigger than 3-4 inch netcups. Bare roots and water, with barely any hydroton pebbles. The higher the capacity, the less fluctuations in PH,EC,water temps.. The more control you have.

If your scrogging, you can grow monsters in small netpots

The beauty of hydro to me is, you can grow in much smaller and lower containers; giving you maximum vertical and interior space. They really don't need big buckets if the roots have room to flourish. Although, if you're just growing 1 or 2, those bigger dwc buckets might be ideal. That's my experience ymmv.