questions about hydro setup, please help

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by hazey12, Mar 25, 2015.

  1. hello all
     
    i have grown in soil beds a couple of times and i am wanting to try a hydro grow now
     
    i have a 600W MH/HPS system and i will be using a grow tent that is approx
     
    20 inches deep
    3 feet long
    5-6 feet high
     
    i would like to do a SOG grow. my questions are:
     
    -how many gallons do i need for a plant that will be approx 2-3 feet?
     
    -what is the easiest and/or cheapest hydro setup? i am a noob so i want something simple that i can make using possibly only a drill.
     
    -does it matter if the i use a container that is shorter and shallow vs. one that is deeper and taller? like does it matter if the roots are lying flat across vs. kind of hanging down. if something shallow is allowable then i'll have more vertical height in the grow tent to work with.
     
    -if i am hoping to fit about 6 plants in there is it better/easier to use 1 big rubbermaid container that takes up the whole grow area with 6 "basket" thingies on the lid, or 6 individual containers? doesnt each container require a pump + air stone?
     
    thanks for all the help !!
     
     

     
  2. Hey there, welcome to hydro I hope you give it a chance. I hope I can answer some of your qs as well, they're good ones.
     
    1. I assume you mean the size of the res, you can get away with 3.5 gallon buckets but it will be a lot of work later on when the plants are drinking a lot! The bigger the res you can work with, the better (account for higher air pump requirements the bigger your res gets)
    2. The easiest and cheapest, IMO, is a passive hydro or hempy bucket. The next simplest IMO again its DWC then NFT.
    3. I do not know if one method for a res is better than the other, I have seen growers use both types with success.   
    4. I'd say either one is fine BUT since your new to hydro, if you want to work with different strains then get the individual containers because you may get heavy feeders and light feeders and struggle to find a balance for all of them. And yep if you went that route each res needs its own air stone (the same pump can be used with a manifold to distribute the air to all of them). If they're all the same strain then a big ass container with the small net cups built in will work just fine.
     
    Happy growing!
     
  3. ok wow thanks for all your help
     
    i will try to shoot for 4-5 gallon buckets per plant in that case. looks like if i need 1 big reservoir i'll need something thats 25-30 gallons in size.
     
    i havent heard of passive hydro/hempy buckets. i will look them up. i know a little bit about DWC (this is just 1 big reservoir with the pump + air stone right?)
     
    and thank you for pointing out about the different strains. this is something i definitely didnt consider.
     
  4.  
    Im right there with you man. First time growing, ever, chose hydro, and seems to be working good for my first go at it! Just get the lights, nutrients, 5 gallon bucket (per plant), air pump (you can get that from wal-mart), o2 stone, plastic hosing, and 2 by 4's to hold up the lights. At least that's what I'm doing.
     
     
    View attachment 1729058
     
  5. #5 Grefen, Mar 26, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 26, 2015
    Not sure if I understood what you meant by 1 big res. When you have 1 big reservoir feeding the rest of your buckets it's called an rdwc (recirculating). The plants share the same nutrients. Great in terms of added airflow but once you have an imbalance all of your plants are affected. Opposed to a dwc where the plants grow in its individual res makes problem solving a little easier because any imbalances are contained in that specific res.

    Just from my own experience I started out in 5 gal buckets and vegged for about 8 weeks. By the time I got into my second week of flower my biggest plant was drinking close to 4 gallons a day. I had to get a bigger res because keeping my pH and PPM's in check got to be almost impossible.
     
  6. #6 hazey12, Mar 27, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 27, 2015
     
    nice set up
     
    i will follow
     
    what strain are you running?
     
  7.  
    right right, i understand if they are in the same reservoir they will share the same benefits and problems.
     
    4 gallons a day sounds like they are drinking a lot, that's crazy !!
     
    since i am wanting to do a SOG i don't will not be vegging them for so long. only about 2 weeks before i flip to 12/12 so i hope they will not be using as much water.
     
    after reading a little bit about the hempy buckets it seems very similar to a soil grow, minus the little bit of water at the bottom.while this definitely sounds much easier than rdwc/dwc, i think i will opt for dwc because i want to try something a little bit more different.
     
  8.  
     
    NothernLights Auto :) [​IMG]
     
  9. Cool beans. I've had really good results with DWC. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Only thing I think I'd do differently next time around is the nutes. I'm currently using GH 3 part flora series and aside from cost It's just been tedious taking measurements and revising recipes every couple of weeks. I think next go around I'll try one of the all in one line ups with grow and bloom nutes.
     
  10. i decided i'm gonna run DWC
     
    i will be getting a 27 gallon tub for like 13.00 from lowes
     
     
    how strong an air pump do i need to run this?
    will this do the job??  http://www.amazon.com/Tetra-77853-Whisper-Pump-40-Gallon/dp/B0009YF4FI/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1428282075&sr=1-1&keywords=Whisper+Air+Pump+40
     
     
    can i get any air stone? will they all handle the air pump flow? or does it also have to be a certain "size" or whatever? 
     
    i will be running a SOG and vegging for about 2 weeks only, so i am thinking 30 gallons is enough to handle 6-8 plants, is this OK?
     
  11. This and 4 of these large ones, is what I'd opt for.
     
    You can likely find em cheaper on eBay.
     
    I would do two plants veg for 6 weeks, or depending on the growth of the strain, make a judgment call, and scrog them.
     
  12.  
    scrogging takes time
     
    i want to SOG to speed things up
     
    but thanks for the help !
     
  13. If you do hydro right, one plant could account for multiple times the amount you'd get off a soil grown; as well as higher quality buds, and trichome production, density, and flavor.  
     
    a 2 - 5 gallong bubble bucket should be more than enough for a large plant.  Look up the Deep Water Culture (DWC) method.  I think thats the easiest for the amount of plants I have.  you'll need a light tight bucket and net pot lid, air stones, air tubing and and air pump, as well as a pH meter and reverse osmosis water.  shallow and wide vs deep and thing wont matter in plant growth.  A plant needs O[SUB]2 [/SUB]and water.....give it that itll grow.  
     
    the basket thingies are called net pots.....and I wouldn't recommend putting multiple plants in a single reservoir as roots compete for air, space, and nutrients.  Get a single bucket for each plant you want. and yes each individual container will require aeration (air pump, stone, and tubing)
     
    Hope this was informative for you.  Let me know if you have anymore questions.
     
  14. #14 GoldGrower, Apr 20, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2015
     
     
    It sounds like a RUB like this one would be what you want 
     
    [​IMG]
     
    Cutting 6 holes for the net pots is very straightforward. Those other two holes are for the air lines 
     
    [​IMG]
     
    I believe low profile reservoirs are better because they hold a lot of nutrient solution for the amount of height they take up and a larger surface area to volume ratio will help aerate the nutrient solution
     
    Keeping the temps down in such a small tent with a 600w light is not going to be easy.
     
    Using just 1 reservoir instead of 6 is almost a 6th of the amount of work. Different strains don't vary enough to warrent much concern about nutrient ratios and strengths. Plants of different ages and sizes vary a lot so that may be worth a consideration. For me though, no way would I want to look after 6 separate reservoirs. That would be a lot of work 
     
    You want to be pushing around 1 litre of air per minute for every 2 litres of nutrient solution, but when the plants are young it's less critical
     
    I would aim at about 30 or 40 litres of nutrient solution in a tent of that size. So about 10 US gallons if you are american
     
  15. #15 Grow2dab., Apr 20, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2015
     
    That's a fairly small space for a 600 mate, i'm betting you will need ac to keep the temp down and they ain't cheap. Unless you can turn your ballast down? 
     
    Since you've grown with soil maybe try coco first, it's pretty much the stepping stone from soil to straight hydro rather then just jumping in the deep end. And allot more forgiving with heat.
     
  16.  
    Do you have any mother plants to take cuttings from, or were you planning to do this with seedlings? SOG is a technique for clones.
     
    Flipping 1-2 week old seedlings to 12/12 will not produce anything remotely close to a SOG with mature clones.
     

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