For All Cap Ebb and Grow Users

Gravity fills all of the buckets. They are all connected at the bottom by hose. When you pump water into the controller it leaks out to all of the buckets and they all rise evenly because they are all connected. Same thing when it drains, if you remove water from the controller, it drains them all to the lowest point.

thxs smokin well ill have to try it just bought me a cheap controller for 15 bucks ill have pics up of the whole thing if i can find a plug to this darn camera to the com

actually i have another question if u dont mind: so if the pump in the res takes 15mins to fill the controller and all 12 buckets that timer cuts off and then the timer in the controller bucket turns on to drain them back to the res. is that correct?

It stays in "drain" mode 90% of the time. Once every 3 or 4 hours it switched from "drain" to "fill" and it floods the controller. There are float switches inside the controller that tell the pumps when to shut off. Since it takes a moment for all of the buckets to equal out, the fill pump is on/off for a few minutes then the whole thing sits full for about 10 minutes. Then it switches back to "drain" mode and as long as there is water in the controller the brain will try to pump it back to the res. It really only takes about 5 minutes to fill the buckets. Less if they are all full of plants! Be sure to install a syphon break on the "fill" line or the pump will never shut off and it will send all 55 gallons out to the controller!

I'm waiting on delivery of my CAP system. Meanwhile, I'm glad to see there's a unified thread where you can find all the people using it. I'll be looking over every journal I can get linked to here.

I'm switching over from Hempy which I've been doing for the last two years. Time to get automated (plus I'm tired of dealing with perlite). I'm concentrating on getting twelve really good clones to put in the system for their first run.

thxs again smokin' but i just came home today from getting that setup up: i was just running a try with (2) 5 gal buckets. the controller that i bought for 15 bucks was not what i thought it was. its one of those hydrofarm controllers one wonder it looked so simple at the hydro store. cause before i bought it i was wondering how the shit worked so i blew in the inline where there float valve was and lifted the float valve up and to my surprise it stopped the air i was blowing. amazed i bought it and now finished up building it like the cap ebb n gro system the darn thing worked but couldn't fill half of the bucket. so now i really have to buy the aquahub control kit.

Does the standing water at the bottom of the buckets bothers anybody? Thats why I suggested air stones in each bucket. Again, given proper light, how tall can plants get in those 2 gallon buckets and what is a ball park figure for maximum yield per plant?

Like i said, it refreshes that water every flood so its not a big deal. Plenty of o2 in that water. You can raise the inner pot up 1/2" or so by tossing a piece of pvc in the bottom if you really want to. Maximum yield per plant is about lighting and veg time, not system. This setup is designed to grow 5-6' tall plants with no problems. That's kinda the point. If you wanted to grow smaller plants a flood table is a lot cheaper.

I just switched over from soil to the ebb and grow 12pot setup !! I'm used to using all the fox farm nutes so I'll stay with them only I'll use the grow big hydro . I have 12 Jack berets in the clone dome hope they all root well!!! I'm so glad to find this thread because of all the ? About ebb and grow + I've never grown hydro. I picked my ebb and grow 12pot complete setup on horticultural source.com for $399.00. And it came with a complete bc nute pack for free.. Cool find right!!! I can't Waite till it gets here!!!

What do you mean instal somthing at the fill line or the whole 55gallons will come out? Is that not how it works and I thought it was called a complete for a reason that used to mean it's all there.

There is a break fitting that goes on the fill line. Just follow the instructions and u should be OK.

Cool I just want to make sure to have everything. $ is not an issue so if you can think of anything i'm all ears

I bought small stands to put under the pots. This allows more water to drain but reduces the fill height. My stands are upside-down plastic pot holders. Youi know the thing you put under soil plants to catch water. That raises the pots about 1½" inches, and everything is working perfectly.

When you get your system, unpack it and roll out the hose. The hose is tightly coiled and fitting it to the pots in that condition is difficult. Let it uncurl and stretch out for a day or two.

Figure out how much water you'll be needing and install a shut-off valve for your RO system. This will prevent floods.

If you fill the barrel, the included nuted are mostly used on the very first fill up. If you follow the recipe, a couple bottles will be completely empty and a couple are untouched depending on plant stage. Plan on buying new nutrients soon. I'm using GH's 3-part line. I like! But they are expensive compared to some other brands. Do your homework.

Update: I'm now @ Day 94 flowering(Thai/Sativa) and I have NOT changed out my 32 gal rez. I'm following Lucas Formula with excellent results. The plant is healthy with beautiful full branches of bud.
I top off daily with straight H20 and every 8 days or so I'll add back, keeping the EC around 1.6(800ppm).
I'm using Botanicare Pro Bloom w/CalMag. I have two airstones in the main rez.

Are you still talking about the ebb and grow system complete? Shouldn't that come complete with everything it needs? What are u talking about with this shut off valve?

The Techna "Recipe for success" kit that comes with this system is just sneaky way to try to make you buy more pretty bottles. I;m currently using GH flora and Lucas formula but wull soon be switching to dynagro.

doogleef said:

The Techna "Recipe for success" kit that comes with this system is just sneaky way to try to make you buy more pretty bottles. I;m currently using GH flora and Lucas formula but wull soon be switching to dynagro.

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Wow, that's exactly my plan too.

Lucas not working out?? Or just trying something different?

I'm going to try something with a little more Nitrogen and Micro nutes. The Lucas blend of 8ml/gallon of FloraNovaBloom has treated me very well for a long time now but on occasion, depending on strain, I get some early yellowing of lowers and fan drop. Some more N in the mix should fix that. I debated on just adding an some bloodmeal pellets to the bottom of the tank for the extra N but that does not give me a lot of control.

Dynagro is cheaper, more Nitrogen, and more complete. I'm going to try it.

justsmoking said:

Are you still talking about the ebb and grow system complete? Shouldn't that come complete with everything it needs? What are u talking about with this shut off valve?

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"Complete" is a relative term imo. The shut off valve is for a seperate Reverse Osmosis system you should probably use to fill the reservior with. Tap water has clorine and other minerals in it that you have no control over. When filling a 55 gallon barell the shut-off valve is a handy thing incase you forget the water is running.

Do you have a nutrient monitor and a reservior heater also?

I'm lucky, my tap is about 50ppm so no RO for me. Is your fill water ice cold? What's the heater for? Room temp should be fine giver proper aeration. If anything, I'd think a water chiiler (cold water holds more o2) would be more relevant, especially in the summer months.


I'm debating on using #2 smart pots and coco in my system. Switching from my current perpetual, all on 1 feed system to a feed for the phase - grow tress kit. hmmmm