dwc

Lol I guess that would be ok.

 

Don't overfeed. Start with half the recommended dose, and if leaves look healthy, stay with that.
You'll need something to support the plants in their netpots. Hydroton is probably the most popular, but GrowStones and Rockwool also work.

Personally, I wouldn't want to couple this with a fish tank.
Top feed is good for aeration and bucket mixing, but airstones are what most people use.
I use both.

Seeds can be planted directly into the DWC system.
Here's how I do it.
1. Plant seed in a Rapid Rooter starter cube. Rockwool is also popular.
2. Place the RapidRooter (or rockwool) into a netpot, and surround it with hydroton, GrowStone, or gravel.
3. Fill the reservoir with full strength veg nutes (which is half of mfg recommendation for end of veg) until it's slightly above the bottom of the netpot.
4. Put planted RapidRooter into hydro system under full lights.
5. Hand water the starter cubes with very small amounts of plain water to keep them moist.
6. When sprouts appear, hand water with increasing strength nutes, starting at about 100 ppm, until roots reach the reservoir that they have learned to handle.
7. If using top feed, turn it on when the roots hit the res.

This is an unorthodox procedure, but it's very similar to planting seeds outside under full sun.
Young plant roots will sniff around at the full strength nutes, and learn how to deal with them.
Unsprouted seeds will also learn how to deal with full lights.

Most people germinate seeds away from the system, then move sprouts into hydro when roots show, under far-away or reduced lights.

Although there is much discussion about water levels, it doesn't really matter. Having the level slightly above the bottom of the netpots will cause some full strength nutes to wick higher up into the hydroton, but hand watering with plain water keeps ppm low where the sprouts are.

Full nutes and/or full lights can kill a seedling not accustomed to them, so if using traditional methods, don't change anything too fast.

 

I keep my water levels, in my plants with fully developed root systems, all the way up to the bottom of the netpot. If you have sufficient aeration, you will have no issues letting your water sit higher up. In fact, this will provide a greater portion of your root's surface area with direct contact to nute solution.

 

I think I would run out and buy Hydroton. In my opinion, the size of the aquarium pebbles are too small to allow the *mist from the air pump bubbles to penetrate to the plants. I could be wrong.

How are you keeping the pebbles in the net pot?

 

Yeah hydroton is great...and it actually holds a little bit of water, so that even if a root isn't exposed to the popping bubbles, it can still leach the water right out of the hydroton pebbles.

 

I didnt recognize you! Haha too funny. Any other thoughts on topic?

 

Anything but Ph in hydro! Haha