Ok I'll try to make sure I answer everyone...
klepto - During Veg and the first week of flowering, I ran the pumps 24/7
During the rest of flowering I ran them 15 on / 15 off, all day and night
Da Chef - The manifold rests just above the water so that the sprayers do not get flooded. Once the roots grow long enough, they do hit the res water... Once they do, they take off in growth. I kept two huge bubble stones in the water. So its like a combination Hydroponic/aeroponic/dwc/bubbleponic.
I will tell you that once the roots hit the water, its a daily chore to keep on the PH. I was getting up to 1.0 jumps in either direction daily... which does tend to hit your plant with a little PH shock here and there if you're not careful. you may see some light yellow coloring leaves or small spots on the leaves. I'd say the safest way to do it is to check your PH twice a day. My large PH jumps may have been due to possible underfeeding at a certain point, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
This style of growing certainly has a lot of different ways for you to approach it. I have seen people do a seperate res from the spray unit, but I opted to stay away from that... If you stay on you're ph and you have the air stones in the water to keep it oxygenated then you're fine... my roots grew like crazy and swallowed the airstones up haha
1ostbo1z - I veg'd for 2 weeks under 1000w MH. For the 3 part GH nutrients, this is what I'll say... for well rooted clones I ran 200 ppm for week 1 & 250 ppm for week 2 (an even mix of each of the 3 nutrients). Always make sure to add Micro first to the water and never mix the concentrates before adding to the water. You can cause nutrient lockout.
The Taranchula I used during week 1 & 2 of flowering to help the roots... and omfg did it help the roots... they blew the fuck up like spider webs. You can use it at different stages, even during Veg I think, so thats up to each person what they do. The overload I use during weeks 6 & 7 of flowering... and omfg did I see a difference with that stuff too. The buds swelled up almost overnight it seemed like.
I've seen the tubs you're talking about, at Lowes. I think they actually are better, but like the ones with diamonds they have a light colored lid that will allow too much light through. Make sure to cover it in some way to stop algae growth in your water. Also make sure to seal the edges of your lid with something or you can do what i did and lay folded up trash bags around the edge so it acts as a cheap water seal and you are still able to lift the lid if for some reason you need to (like maybe changing the pump if it goes out...)
Check out these roots... its insaine...
And I've got another 5-7 days left to finish curing the bud and I'll let you guys know how it goes
. I have been sampling the UK Cheese, because it seemed to dry out much quicker.