What type of Medium do you use in your ebb & flow system?? I just bought one

What type of medium do you use in your ebb flow system. I was thinking of the coco because I am not to sure about rockwool. And not sure about hydrotron too. I just bought a 3'x 3' ebb flow system and was going to have like 25-30 plants in like 4"x4" pots to put the medium in.

i personally use hydroton.. its great stuff the only problem is it is a bitch to clean.. gotta wash em before you use em and after every use which can get tedious.

rockwool is cool too i used to use it with rocks but it can mess with your ph quite a bit if you do not condition it well, and it is not reuseable and somewhat expensive depending on application.

coco is the new deal, a lot of people swear by it. a few of my friends who used to use rocks have switched over to coco but i personally have no experience with it. pearlite and coco is supposed to be a great mix.

ok..thank you very much for that information!

I am just really confused on the flooding schedule. Whenever I ask a person, they say it just depends. I know you are only supposed to flood when the lights are on. How Often do most people with coco flood there systems? every 3 or 4 or 6 hours? And how do you know how often, just by guessing?

well yes the reason they say it depends is because it "depends" on what medium you are using and how large the plants are. for instance 4x4 rockwool cubes only need to be flooded at 2x a day when they are smaller to keep the ph balanced in the cubes as they absorb nutes, where as later in flowering you will probably need to flood 4-5x a day because they will suck the juice out of those bad boys pretty quickly.

same thing with hydroton, you will only need to flood 2x a day at first and then up to 10x a day to keep the plants happy depending on your veg time (size of plant) and what not.

as far as coco im not sure because i have never worked with it and dont wanna give out advice on shit that i have no idea about LOL but i would assume its imbetween a rockwool and hydroton.

FLo

My main question is how do you know how often to water it. I have grown in soil and I know you water it whenever the soil is pretty much dry. and I know hydro is way different. Do you wait until the medium is dry or almost dry before it is watered in hydro again or how do you tell when it is time?

well its hard to tell when its time, unless you are waiting till they start to droop but i wouldnt recommend that because if you let it go to far it will be too late. if you have rockwool cubes that are stand alone you can pick them up and feel how light or heavy they are, but it is hard to tell just by looking just like soil it can be dry up top but wet on the bottom.

i would say just watch the plant, if it droops its either overwatering or underwatering, so start with a basic schedule and see how your plant reacts

Well what do you do?

i grow in hydroton, with clones start by feeding once a day and work up to 3x a day by flowering time and 8x a day by the time they are finished.. i flower at 1ft tall