Some clarification on my hydro set up

First, I really appreciate this forum. The amount of information and friendliness of the users is really awesome. kiss-ass Haha, so here are my questions...

I'm starting to design my first build and am going to get all my parts this weekend. I already have a 10 gallon tank lying around (RIP fishies) and wanted to go with drip system w/ 3 plants.

With a DWC set up, it would be a few air stones in the bottom and the water level up to the net cups. With a drip system I would just add a water pump in the tank going up to the plants, correct?

The reason I ask is that most diagrams I see of a drip system, the reservoir is COMPLETELY separate and the plants are in a dense medium.

See:
Water culture

vs. Drip


In my set up, the plants would be separate but still hovering over the reservoir. The water would then drip from the pots back into the tank. This wouldn't be a problem would it?

Last question (for now), since I have a 10 gallon tank does my air pump need to be 10 gallon or around 20 gallon to make bigger bubbles. I tested a single air stone w/ a 10 gallon pump and it didn't seem to create a lot of bubbles.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Your airstone will be fine. many argue on this site about air. i tried many levels of air intake to the water and noticed no dif. I wouldn't get into the drip because of the expense maintanance, and the fact that a million people on here are asking about timing. check out this homemade setup. don't let people tell you its more complicated than this. check out my thread.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/162364-lowryder-2-under-540watts-t5.html

hmm i like both setups .....but depending on there stage.......there are lots of ways to grow and i have tried them all hahaha just a new grower but i went and made a aero, dwc, drip sytem, got a waterfarm, bought a nice ebbaflow system , made my own ebbaflow system lmao my keeps telling me just to stick with one ...... but i want to see what works best......


Drip system ....i didnt like my drip system at all....the maintenance....the drippers sometimes wouldnt even drip water .......just was a mess ..... it is possible to do just wasnt for me

Aero ........ was having problems keeping my clones alive so i made a aerobucket works great i can use it for fresh cut clones to get roots to get big ready for flowering

DWC...... i built this and was having problems with enough bubbles i believe so now i have three air pumps with a bubble pad and two airstones on the sides a pump going to each one .... if you use the small stones and hook them up to the bottom of the net pots so when the nets are in place the stones are in the water that works great Jigfresh did that believe he only uses one pump for 6 small airstones

Waterfarm.....oh baby i love it just put my first little plant in there when i was clueless what was wrong .... and she grew to the beast thats in my flowering room .....but changing the water is not that fun not that hard but once they get big its not that fun......other then that for a one big plant this works great


Ebbaflow..........as for the ebbaflow this is the way to go ..... like i said i bought a really nice one for my flowering room 2x2 megagarden and its just perfect you can put as many 5x5 pots as you want up to 20 i think....soil,coco,pellets whatever medium you want it works ...... just really like this setup .... i am going to make one for my veg room so i can put the 5x5 pots in veg before flowering

TheSalesman said:

First, I really appreciate this forum. The amount of information and friendliness of the users is really awesome. kiss-ass Haha, so here are my questions...

I'm starting to design my first build and am going to get all my parts this weekend. I already have a 10 gallon tank lying around (RIP fishies) and wanted to go with drip system w/ 3 plants.

With a DWC set up, it would be a few air stones in the bottom and the water level up to the net cups. With a drip system I would just add a water pump in the tank going up to the plants, correct?

The reason I ask is that most diagrams I see of a drip system, the reservoir is COMPLETELY separate and the plants are in a dense medium.

See:
Water culture

vs. Drip

In my set up, the plants would be separate but still hovering over the reservoir. The water would then drip from the pots back into the tank. This wouldn't be a problem would it?

Last question (for now), since I have a 10 gallon tank does my air pump need to be 10 gallon or around 20 gallon to make bigger bubbles. I tested a single air stone w/ a 10 gallon pump and it didn't seem to create a lot of bubbles.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Click to expand...

just do flood and drain way easier.

I agree. Flood & Drain aka Ebb & Flo is the best and easiest way to grow your plants.

If your tray holds 10gal then you need a reservoir of at least 15 gal. The larger amount of water will help you minimize your reservoir maintenance.

The trick to your reservoir if your recirculating the nutes is to watch your PH daily and PPMs. Add water every other day to compensate for the water evaporation. Sometimes just this will bring your reservoir back into acceptable PH and PPM. I think it's easier to work with a res then mix up nutes everyday....

Thanks for the replies guys! I was looking into Ebb&Flow, but I am wanting to make this a closet grow and don't know if I'll have enough room. I'm trying to keep this confined to just the aquarium within the box.

After doing more research on the drip system, I see a lot of complaints about messiness and what not. I might be too new to the entire process to start that.

I'll likely go with a DWC for my first build since I basically have that ready to go with my air pump. Maybe an drip system for future grows once I figure out what I'm doing. Thanks again!

good choice man. its similar to flood and drain.