new to hydro and could use a hand

i have been using soil for years but am always having problems with my ph screwed up. iv been using a aeroponic cloner for a while now so built a cheap bubbleponics system and am about to start using it.
want to do a sea of green with little to know veg.

3gal tub that i put a little under 3 gallons of water in it.
i have general hydroponics fertilizer. i have some jacks classics and cal mag on hand too.
res temp stays at 72 all day
1 air stone with pump.
air temp in room is 72 to 75 degrees
30% humidity

1. i have my air pump siting at same height as tub but i put the air hose over the light. if power goes out will it fill up with water?
2. my clones roots are about this long. is this long enough to put in bubbleponics or should i wait a little longer?
3. my aeroponics system i just use tap water and rooting gel. i have had around 99% success with clones. my tap water ph is low 7 to high 7. i have gh ph up and down. what ph do you recommend for bubbleponics? im using a gh color drops and some pool test strips to test ph so its not the most accurate.
4. dont have a ppm meter but the test strips have a total ppm from 250 to 1000. whats my best rout to keeping this under control?

any advice or ideas i would appreciate.

oh yeah that plant next to the bubbleponics system looks like hell. i have had so many problems with it. started off with bugs and once the bugs were gone my ph was all screwed up. ph is at a 8 from what i know but dont have the best way to test soil ph correctly. used some orchid fertilizer yesterday to lower ph. looked a little better today. time will tell. any ideas how to get that back to normal would be appreciated.

1. The pump should be above the water unless you have a check valve. You can get one real cheap at pet store.

2. Yes, if the roots are not touching water, just pour some water over a few times a day to keep it moist.

3. About 5.8-6.3 you can go past this but 5 is too low and 7the os too high

4. I start with ppm at about 100-200 more than your tap. You can get ppm pens and ph pens about ten dollars each. I have the cheap ones and they work better than having nothing. I had trouble with the colored ph drops bit they should be yellow when the water is right.

If you have 30 gallon tubs start with enough GH for only about 5 gallons, if you give it enough for all 30, you will probably waste frets and kill the plants.

Sorry about the multiple posts. My phone is messed up and I typed up a whole story but could hit the post button. I wasn't too sure about hydro but once I figured it out I really liked it. I haven't had any bugs with it and they grow so much faster. Just keep the ph and tempsthe in a reasonable range and you should be good.

hey thanks a lot. its amazing how a paragraph of your time makes things so much better for me. i just spent $50 on a ph and ppm pen. was really on the edge paying $200 for a 3 in one that always has a reading but didnt want to cause it would be it would be the most expensive part of my grow other then the light.

my tub is 3 gallons not 30 and im not sure how thats going to work. it has eight 3in net pots. i hear that 1 full plant can drink up to two gallons a day. am i going to have to build some sort of reservoir. do you know how how big of a reservoir i should get if so? i dont have much room so id like to keep it as small as possible and still be able to not top it off for a few days. thanks a lot bud. rep+

Get as big of a res as you can while still keeping it affordable for yourself. The more water you use, the bigger the buffer you have for mistakes but it also means you spend more money on nutes.

Personally with a tote that size, I wouldn't run more than 2 full grown plants in it. 8 are going to crowd something fierce pretty quickly. Also, using a tote, be sure you use femmed seeds or clones. Once the roots tangle, there is no way to untangle them. Same goes for a sick plant. If one of your 8 kicks it, you'll be forced to leave behind dead roots.

You will not have enough room. These 2 plants are only small/medium yielding autos about 35 days old and that is a 5 gallon tub I have them in. The larger one is starting to overshadow the smaller plant and limit light already.


(I am aware of the canoe leaf going on the right plant, it was hot in there the past few days)

Cont... couldn't edit my last post.

Be very careful with your nutrient strength at first.

I've found that going lighter than what's recommend on the bottle for hydro works best. Example, mine says 2-3 teaspoons per gallon, if I use 2 teaspoons per gallon I get nute burn, 1.5 teaspoons per gallon is good for my plants.

If there is no hydro specific amounts on the package then I would start at half strength then work from there.

You can start your plants in that tank but you're going to need either a larger one of more of those. Even my two small plants are starting to drink about a quarter gallon a day, your six plants will empty that tank in one day once they are a month or two old.

thanks. iv got a progrow 180, so i wanted to do a sea of green and skip veg. iv only got around 2 ft of room from light to res. my genetics are thc bomb and they are clones from a feminized plant. if i want to skip veg what would be the max plants recommend? what is the smallest res you recommend as well?

I've never ran clones or sea of green so not sure.

If you don't mind filling the water often and can train them down then I suppose you can run 3 plants per 3-5 gallon tote.
I've seen some off brand totes that have a good width to them. Many are just deep and tall but there are some shorter, wider ones out there that hold 18 or more gallons. For a SOG I would look for one of those.

Edit: Just looked at your pic again. I'm sure you can fit a good sized tote in there then just train them down. Look for an 18 or 30 gallon one.

A. You don't need a PPM meter, unless you are a scientist and experimenting on what is the best PPM.

B. Why do you have your air pump over the lights? You want cool air going into the water to keep the water cool, not the other way around. Move your pump off the ground, just hang it with some string(hint hint it will reduce noise too).

C. You can go straight to bubbleponics anytime, you can go directly at seeling. Some people just feel more comfortable starting out in a small system as it is easier to manege the seedling.

Oh, I thought those were 6" pots. That explains why the clay looks so big. That looks like a good set up for rooting clones but I wouldn't put more than 2 full plants in there.

I would get another air stone in there and keep em on opposite ends. I would deff get a good PPM and PH meter. Like others have said, in small systems
things can go bad FAST in hydro. Just unwise to get into hydro and not have reliable equipment. I would say those meters are your best tool to keeping
the system under control, so far this has been my exp.