Second grow, 4000Watt ebb&flow setup. help please?

well its been awhile since i've lurked and posted on this website. I last grew in 2009 and had a good run with the help of many people on this forum. The last system was a 2200 watt basket drip hydro setup and although successful it had a lot of issues with clogging up the waterflow.

I'm BACK, and i'm ready to do this again, but I need your help. Not with the mechanics of setting it up but with growing medium options for the ebb&flow system.

I will be setting up 4 1000watt lights over 2 4x8 trays and will have 15 plants under each light. I'll have babies in 1 inch rockwool cubes and then will transplant to 6 inch rockwool cubes. I've been reading several threads and it seems to me that you can veg and flower all the way through in 6 inch cubes, do you agree?

In addition to the 6 inch rockwool I'm thinking of putting a cocoa mat on the tray with hydroton pebbles spread evenly on top. Would this suffice if more roots need to keep growing? Would I hide the 6 inch cube with hydroton or just seat on top of the pebbles?

thanks guys.

stoked to be back

Sup Bro - I'm kinda new to this site, but I've got a little experience - sounds like you run a similar system to mine - I use flood tables and 4" cubes, I flower outta the gate, and I jam 32 plants in a 2x4 space or 70 to 80 in a 4x4 tray - I just use rockwool cubes - if you go 6" you can probably veg them as long as you have room for... my plants never run outta root space with the 4" cubes - I think Hydroton, coco mats and stuff, in your situation would just be another pain in the ass to deal with - just my opinion though - I can't lift those bags o' rocks! Good Luck.

Growstones are a lot lighter and they hold a lot of air just like hydroton, but wick more water. I'd put the hydroton or growstones on the bottom and flood up to about a half inch underneath the surface of it all and let the RW wick water up. RW cannot be flooded too often, most people prefer mediums that can be flooded more than once or twice a day.