Questions about Flood Table method

I am trying my first attempt at a hydroponic grow. Have had 3 soil grows but have some questions about my hydro set up. I am in a 4x8 flood table with 6inch hugo blocks made of rockwool. 75 gallon resevoir but i am only filling it to 65 and flooding the table only needs like 50 gallons i believe.

Questions:

#1 How often should I be having the table flood?

-i have been flooding them once ever 6 hours for 15 minutes at a time, but i think this is probably to much. The hugo blocks are really heavy and drenched.

#2 How do i stabilize the ph?

-i keep putting the ph at 5.8 and then i come back the next day and its at like 6.4. Is this because of salt build up? How do i avoid these fluctuations which cant be good for the plants? I am using RO water and Ionic nutrients, plus hygrozyme and fossil fuel which is a leonardite source, and also CalMag by botanicare.

#3 What is an ideal ppm for the reservoir water?

I am in week 3 of veg and i have it at between 800 and 900 ppm right now. I plan on increasing that number in flower a little bit, is this an ideal range?

#4 How often should i change the reservoir water completely?

-It takes 55-65 gallons to fill the res. adequately so emptying it and refilling it is kind of a pain in the ass, how often is it really nec?

#5 Should you give seedlings/baby clones nutrients right away?

-I flooded the table with just plain RO water, pH adjusted, for the first 10 days. The clones were tiny and they still really haven't gotten very big. How soon after transplanting seedlings or baby clones should you begin giving them nutrients? Should you be giving them a super small dose right away? What PPM
range if so?


Thanks in advance for any help anyone is willing to offer. I really want to get the hang of this hydro transition very quickly.

#1 with rock wool you can to start off flooding once a day and no floods in the dark time
#2 with rock wool you should soak before use to stablize ph, soak in water check ph and ph down wait and check later
then ph it again till it settles. then use
#3 are they clones or seedlings? at three weeks im at with clones 1000ppm so your good
#4 every 2 weeks do a res change when you get low on water add back with water the correct ph.
#5 as for seedling/clones I like 200 to 300ppm to start off
the ph rising could be due to other issue like water temp? and are you using bennys? or H202?
are your roots white or close to it? you should post some pics would help more!!!

Doing a res change every two weeks would be pretty rough for me. It take 55-60 gallons of water for me to fill that thing and my RO is pretty cheap and goes really slow. Is every two weeks really nec? Is there any way I could get away with changing it less often than that?

I dont know what Bennys or H202 are. Is H202 a chlorine product? I read a thread on here recently that convinced me to use Chlorox bleach in my res. I added it one time like 5 days ago and I think I am going to add that again. Maybe like twice a week or so for the bleach?

I wish I could show you a picture of my roots, but they are all hidden inside the 6x6 rock wool cubes. I cant even see them myself to know what color they are.

Would it be a big deal for me to use some water thats not RO water in my res? The tap water at my house is pretty crappy. What factors should i be considering in my tap water when considering whether or not to use it. I think the PPM on my faucet water is like 300-400, not certain, should check that again.

lolz

bennys is a short term for beneficial. And when they use the term bennys they mean beneficial microbes.

h202 is hydrogen peroxide.

I have to change my water every week, because I am not that advanced in hydro to be able to keep salts and pH regular doing it every 2 weeks. BUT I also use tap water so we have different scenarios.

I agree with hellraiser with all he said.

Good luck bro, and message me if you need help, I run a smaller flood and drain table.

http://www.noble.org/ag/Announcements/Microbes/index.html

Daniel Stanzione said:

Doing a res change every two weeks would be pretty rough for me. It take 55-60 gallons of water for me to fill that thing and my RO is pretty cheap and goes really slow. Is every two weeks really nec? Is there any way I could get away with changing it less often than that?

I dont know what Bennys or H202 are. Is H202 a chlorine product? I read a thread on here recently that convinced me to use Chlorox bleach in my res. I added it one time like 5 days ago and I think I am going to add that again. Maybe like twice a week or so for the bleach?

I wish I could show you a picture of my roots, but they are all hidden inside the 6x6 rock wool cubes. I cant even see them myself to know what color they are.

Would it be a big deal for me to use some water thats not RO water in my res? The tap water at my house is pretty crappy. What factors should i be considering in my tap water when considering whether or not to use it. I think the PPM on my faucet water is like 300-400, not certain, should check that again.

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you added bleach to your rez.i would think they ment to clean with it ,not use ite in the mix if im reading it right .or am i mistaken?can you add bleach for some reason i wouldnt understand as im not an expert and am still experimenting myself

av3rag3 said:

you added bleach to your rez.i would think they ment to clean with it ,not use ite in the mix if im reading it right .or am i mistaken?can you add bleach for some reason i wouldnt understand as im not an expert and am still experimenting myself

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adding bleach is used to kill pyithium, at a stronger dose you can use for cleaning.

If you have a rockwool cube saturated with solution at a PH of 6.4 or higher and you run the pump with rez water PH 5.8, then the rockwool cubes will offset the PH.

Try setting the PH to 5.4, flood the table, then check the PH when the table finishes draining.
.
You can add things to the flood table to take up space which would reduce the amount of water needed to flood the table. For instance clean milk jugs full of water....some people fill the whole thing with Hydroton...some do both. The less water needed, the less expensive nutes needed = Money Saved....and time.

Beagle said:

If you have a rockwool cube saturated with solution at a PH of 6.4 or higher and you run the pump with rez water PH 5.8, then the rockwool cubes will offset the PH.

Try setting the PH to 5.4, flood the table, then check the PH when the table finishes draining.
.
You can add things to the flood table to take up space which would reduce the amount of water needed to flood the table. For instance clean milk jugs full of water....some people fill the whole thing with Hydroton...some do both. The less water needed, the less expensive nutes needed = Money Saved....and time.

Click to expand...

this is all good info! it would seem to me if theres extra room in the flood table then add more buckets=more plants