Setting up a hydroponic coco coir grow

Ok so this will be my second cannabis grow with the first one coming to an end soon. Since i already have some experience in commercial greenhouses i decided to take it up a notch and set up an automatic water recirculation system in my 2x4 closet. I will be using 2 gph drip emiters and drip stakes with a small vivosun 400 gph submersible pump. I will be growing on top of a storage bin with holes in the lid to drain my pots.
I will be growing Northern lights Fast (photo) and OG Kush using a 150w Led for veg and a 400w hps for flower.

storage Bin: https://www.lowes.ca/product/plastic-storage-totes/gsc-technologies-strong-box-952309
Pump: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07L54RMJY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Manifold: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B004RUH9UI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Drip emitters: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0049C5G18/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
1/4 inch tubing: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0007WJIJU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Dripper stakes:https://www.duboisag.com/ca_en/angle-barbed-stake.html

I am planning on using Optical for my Calmag source and 20-20-20 soluble fertilizer for veg. Then i will switch to 1-4-7 bloom. 2-4 feeds per day @ Ec 0.8 ms

Any picture of your setup

not installed yet, will post pictures as i install it

Couple questions/comments here- if i understand you correctly your going to use the storage bin as your reservoir with a pump running to a dripper up on the plant, draining back into the storage bin? If so you might wanna rethink this, several problems with recirculating systems- A) Ph fluctions happen more frequently when reusing solution. B) using the same solution continuously can be problematic feed wise as the solution passes through your plant it will obviously use up some of those nutrients, this means that your not giving the same concentration of nutrients everytime as its constantly depleting. C) weekly changing of the solution becomes more of a pain than manual watering, the point of automating anything is to make it be less work on you right? does constantly moving your plants off the buckets, fighting with whatever other equipment has to be moved to get the plants moved, fighting with equipment to remove the storage bin, vigorously cleaning, replacing water, dialing back in nutrients, putting back other equipment, putting back plants.. it may not sound like much in theory but trust me, when your back starts breaking from constantly doing these things you'll be rethinking it anyway.

So with all that said here's my recommendation- get an appropriate sizes barrel to use as a reservoir outside your tent/grow area, i use a 16gal barrel for my 4 flowering plants, having it outside the grow area is recommended because you can drain, fill, adjust, etc without having to worry about interrupting the light cycle.

The next step can go one of two ways- if you can afford it get you some ebb and flow pots, i use 2gal ones, that have drains out the bottom with barbs for drain out hose, ill attach a photo below that shows how mine are setup, this allows you to plumb all the drains to a "catch&drain" bucket, i have mine setup with a float valve activated pump so that as the run off collects in the bucket it eventually triggers the float valve and gets pumped straight out a nearby exterior wall. This is the preferred way to go imo.

Alternatively if you cant afford the EnF pots, or otherwise cannot setup a drain out system then opt for some fabric grow pots like SmartPots, the fabric pots do extremely well with coco, some of my best rootballs (and buds) ever have been with coco in smartpots, use a standard single-pot plastic tray underneath to catch the runoff or opt for a large tray to fit your whole tent/space to set them all in, i always prefer a tray fit to my tent size however single-pot trays are nice because you can just pick up one plant at a time to remove the tray to empty/clean it.

Then all you need to do is ditch the drippers, drippers suck, they get clogged, they distribute unevenly, they only apply solution in 1 spot, just forget them. Look up FloraFlex, i use their 6inch v2 caps in my pots with 2 1/4 fill lines going to each. i use a 300gph pump for my supply, and i only have to feed for exactly 1 minute to get a good 15-20% runoff, they never get clogged, they distribute exactly the same to each pot and apply the solution over the 6inch square area as apposed to 1 spot.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, hope this helped you get a better idea for your setup, happy growing!

i used to work in a tomato greenhouse which had a recirculation system, just a matter of correcting ph daily or before each watering cycle, i tought about using a separate container to pump water and separate new water from drain but i dont have alot of space. I don't know why drippers would clog when using the appropriate mesh size filters. I may even go into rockwool pads later on. still open to suggestions since nothing is built yet

Confused how coco is playing into this

pretty sure this pump wont work to power PC dripers .. would surprise me
why not go rtw ? the lost runoff is pretty negligible ..
and with recirc you will probably have to refresh/ change your res a couple time during the grow so its the same nutrient/ water loss as DTW

the pump 5.3 feet of lift.. around 1meter 50 .. which makes around 0.15 bar
its poor ... these pump usually pull a lot of volume but with small pressure if any at all

Hust17 said:

Confused how coco is playing into this

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It's my growing media, either coco pads or loose coco. Has a low CEC and it's a grteat growing media. I guess i'll need to get back to the drawing board. What do you guys suggest. i can't be there and water 4 times per day. I need a system that can run on it's own

i agree with the others. build an autofeed system ( submersible pump, manifold, aquarium tubing )with a standalone res and run coco drain to waste with about 20% runoff.

are drip emitters really necessary or i could just run the manifold?

steve870 said:

are drip emitters really necessary or i could just run the manifold?

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i run mine with a brass tee at the end of the tubing. mostly to give it weight so it doesn't move.

i just tested my 4 way drip manifold ad it seems to be putting out equal amounts of water

Just got this flood and drain system about the set up this week and see how it runs doing 24 plants

steve870 said:

i just tested my 4 way drip manifold ad it seems to be putting out equal amounts of water

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make sure the tubing is all cut to the same length. done.

just saw you plan to do only 400 w .. then dont bother with the drip emitters ..

perfect i will test this out and try to make space for a bucket of nutrient solution. Thank you guys

steve870 said:

It's my growing media, either coco pads or loose coco. Has a low CEC and it's a grteat growing media. I guess i'll need to get back to the drawing board. What do you guys suggest. i can't be there and water 4 times per day. I need a system that can run on it's own

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coco will not need to be watered 4 times a day... during end of flower when theyre drinking a ton you might consider running it twice a day but once a day is honestly plenty- this also depends on which pots you go with though, if youre using plastic pots like myself then the medium will retain moisture longer, if you go with a fabric pot you could do twice a day as the medium will dry out a bit quicker, but under no circumstances will coco need 4 times a day feeding.

i am thinking going with 1.5-2 gallon pots max. My grow after that will probably be in rockwool pads

steve870 said:

i am thinking going with 1.5-2 gallon pots max. My grow after that will probably be in rockwool pads

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2gal pots are a good and easy to find size. thats what mine are, i have never used rockwool except a few starter plugs of it for seedlings. What i love most about coco as a medium is its reusable and has the ease of soil but with the results of hydroponics.