Need help building hydro setup

want to start hydro or aero and need help!
permalink

hey everyone,
I have been growing indoors for about 4 to 5 years. I have been running 4 - 1000W and i do 25- 3 gal pots per thousand and i veg for 2 weeks. I have been talking to my one friend and he does rockwool cubes however he waters them every day... I only have to water once per week usually. But im thinking about adding some hydro to my room. My grow space for all four thousands is 8' X 8'. So im thinking of doing one hydro setup just to get my feet wet in my next rotation and i want to build it. I built an ez-cloner and ive seen people on here that basically make aero cloners that way and they only hold 8 plants with the 4" pots so i was thinking of adding one of those. But what im really considering (i like building things two) is just building (ive heard them called) River flood systems. what im thinking is basically a reservior with a 8 foot PVC pipe going down one way and 8 feet back to the reservior and just putting it on the edge of my room and cutting down the number of soil plants. I have some questions and need help building it.

my questions:
1.) if i did it 8' down and 8' back and wanted to veg for two weeks along with the soil, how many pants could i fit?

2.) what size pots should i use?

3.) what size PVC pipe should i use?

4.) What size reservior would be best? I know the bigger they are the cooler they will stay

5.) I have a 633 GPH pump that i use in the aerocloner i built but after the clones will be done i wont need it could i use this one or should it be bigger?

6.) How often should i feed and for how long? My friend that doese the rockwool doese once per day and twice per day once they are eating up the nuts....

7.) I also have one of the double headed airaters with the circle stones would this be enough?

8.) should i have the opposite end of the reservior a little higher than the side with the resevior to insure water doesent stay inside the PVC pipes?

If anyone has any advice or has made one of these before i would appreciate is very much....

Well...let's see if I can help.... this is a hybrid setup you relize
1) depends on the size of your pots and how far you space them...also on if you're doing single cola or bush.....
2) 2 0r 3" net pots will be fine........your rootmass is going to be in the pipe, not the pot per se.
3) well for ease of flood/drain I'd go with 4 " and you might want to look at a pvc fence post as opposed to round pipe..
4) I go 2-300% of what's needed to flood...but at least enough to flood fully and keep the pump submerged...
5) 633 gph should be fine I use 500gph for all my 2x4 trays...fills to drain in about 3 minutes, overflows for 2 to areate my rez
6) two full floods a day works.....should be around 5 minutes as above......you may also want to throw a few 1 minute cycles in there just to keep moisture in the root zone...although inside the pipe you may not need it like I do with trays
7) I don't use aerators.....the overflow will oxygenate the water and I simply can't stand the buzz on the air pumps.......they are handy to keep your rez from having colder water at the bottom and warmer on top.....but I've been fine without them.
if you make it all level, the water in should be on the bottom of the pipe/post.....with an overflow going 2 or 3" up into the pipe.....setting your flood depth... with the square post you can use a standard fill/drain kit.....harder to do with a round pipe...the small amount of water left in the tubes isn't a problem......since you'll be exchanging it every time you flood it won't have a chance to go anaerobic on you.......
All this being said........any reason you want the tubes instead of a tray???

I ask because the tubes are more often used for aero as opposed to f/d.......you'll have to seal all of it to be able to flood it so you'll need rubber caps for the pipes or end caps for the posts......but you'd like to be able to remove them to clean out the inside on occasion. The fence posts are $25 for an 8' if you look around.........and 4 or 6" pvc pipe is about the same for a 10' maybe a little less.......I've been thinking about trying an aero now that power issues in my area aren't as big an issue, although I'd about bet that unless it produced significantly better...I'll just sell it off due to hassles with sprayers and such....I'm a lazy sob after all....I like my no muss/no fuss ebb/flow......by the time you buy materials, hole saw, net pots, hydroton, and all the rest....Personally, I'd spend the $130 to buy two 2x4 trays and the fill/drain kits.......gives you a lot more flexibility to move your plants around and is pretty well fool proof...........
Now if you're actually talking aero it's a different matter altogether......but you said river flood so I'm taking it you've seen one....so you're talking about an 8' long U with 12 to 18" between pipe centers....maybe 3 sawhorses to hold it up and a rez underneath.......you can put the fill/drain anywhere if it's all level so right above the rez works.....you'll want to set your flood level to just reach the rw, the rw will wick it up from there and hopefully not stay wet enough to cause damping off.......or use a 1" cube and fill the cup with hydroton and fill until the solution is just below the cube.......in this case you'll want to flood more often as clay pellets don't hold the water like rw......this is bringing fresh oxygenated nute to the roots more often so considered a better option... but either will work.......I prefer rw because power issues would give me fits using clay pellets.....the pellets float and their reuse is more of a pain than it's worth..... Just my opinion....

For a trial of hydro without all the expense and hassle..........you could try a 6" cube in any shallow tray that will hold it and just hand water it with 1/4 strength hydro nutes...soak the cube in the solution, set it in the tray....top water it until it starts coming out the bottom and water again when it's sucked up what was in the tray......my buddy does this with 3" cubes for small plants and it works out fine.....the 6" may not wick quite as well, hence the top watering, but it will work for a test drive to see if you want to take the plunge....... It actually irritates me a little how cheap and simple he does it.......no Ph, tds, ec meter.....nothing....1 Tbs of dynagro gro or bloom to a 5 gal bucket of tap water and he does fine........you might want to bump the nutes up for bigger girls...but just do it slowly to find what works best for you.......cost....15 for the nutes, maybe 5 for the 6" cube..........a $20 experiment. If your $20 can beat your soil...then you know a system is worth building.....hell even if it just keeps up, you may find it worthwhile just to not have to haul that much dirt around........
I did soil, then drip then ebb/flow.....stopped right there as it works and is the easiest of them all.......even if not the most productive...all things considered it'll hold it's own......

Good luck whatever you decide to do....glad to see you're willing to try something new. I don't think you'll regret it........but it's really up to you.......some try hydro and hate it.....others get it and love it....being experienced at growing your learning curve is so small, I would bet you won't have a single major issue...you already know enough to make the switch and likely never miss a beat.
Let me know if I can help any more........or get other opinions and choose the one that suits you. My own is the only one I have to offer and you can bet someone will say I'm full of it......

Well,

This may not quite be what you're looking for, but it's VERY simple to build, and I grow huge beautiful plants with it. It's a step by step on how to build a DWC reservoir, the way I do it...I also talk about nutes as well. If you go to my album and look at my plants, I think you'll agree that it does VERY well..

Good luck to you.

Link: https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/272015-how-build-easy-dwc-reservoir-2.html#post3625883

-S

Also, here is another thread I posted on how to build a 5 gallon DWC reservoir for less than $15. I came up with this one for people who want to save money, but need something that is reliable, and will grow big beautiful plants as well...

Go to post number 11 when you open the link below (my first post on the thread only shows 2 pics with the plant in it. #11 shows it step by step). I put up pictures and explained what I am doing with this one as well. It's a pretty good how too.

Link: https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/281365-5-gallon-dwc-built-15-a.html

-S