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jkell
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Registered: 10/29/10
Posts: 512
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Last seen: 5 years, 7 months
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Quick question for the Veterans
#498230 - 11/15/10 12:26 PM (14 years, 12 days ago) |
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Alright I was wondering how big of a rez to get for my ebb and flow system. The flood table is 20.9 gals/79 liters in volume, it will be filled with hydroton and 6 in rockwool cubes. I know too small of a rez the plants drink the water faster than they use nutes so ppm goes up but too big of a rez and the ppm goes down cause they use nutes faster than water, so I was wondering if maybe someone who has experience with ebb and flow systems could give me a nice ballpark rez range. Thanks!
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Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: Quick question for the Veterans [Re: jkell]
#498251 - 11/15/10 04:16 PM (14 years, 12 days ago) |
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I usually at least quadruple the amount of water in my rez in relation to what I need to fill. You can't really get too big of a reservoir. When I had DWC buckets going I used 6 5 gallon buckets and had a res. of more than 100 gallons. But i also change it out at least once a week.This way you really never have to deal with too big of a swing in the pH or PPM. Just be diligent about checking it every day.
Also the larger the reservoir you have the more stable the temperature of your water. Which is also VERY important.
-------------------- Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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jkell
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Hmm I never thought about the temp thing thanks. I don't really have room in my grow area to quadruple the size of the rez in relation to my flood table., but I with all the hydroton and rockwool in there it actually won't take 20 gals to flood to my 4 in overflow. You think a 30 gal will do the job?
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Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: Quick question for the Veterans [Re: jkell]
#498342 - 11/15/10 09:08 PM (14 years, 12 days ago) |
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In my opinion thats too small of a res. Can you get away with it?? Sure. But be extra diligent about monitoring your parameters man.
How many plants will you have in your table??
-------------------- Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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jkell
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For my first grow I only have 3. If all goes well though and I get out the kinks out my next one should be 6 plants of nice seedbank seeds. This is kinda my trial/figure shit out run.
Hey man maybe you can help me out with another thing too. How do people decide how many times and for how long they run their pump each day, I'm kinda confused about this and I don't really see many people talk about it either. Is there some set rules that everyone knows I don't?
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Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: Quick question for the Veterans [Re: jkell]
#498631 - 11/16/10 03:50 PM (14 years, 11 days ago) |
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You said your ebb and flow table is a little over 20 gallons What are the dimensions of it though??
Regardless of that, your times are going to vary throughout your grow. Most people do 15 minutes on, and then x amount of time off. But there is no real set structure whatsoever. It's all going to depend on the stage at which your plants are at, as well as how many there are, the size of the table, the environmental conditions in your grow space, i.e temp, humidity etc. So run it for 15 min. then see how long it takes to get relatively dry.
I hate to tell ya this but your just going to have to figure it out as you go along. And on your next grow you will have more plants in there so it wont be the same next time either. This is one reason i don't like Ebb and Flow systems compared to DWC. They're so much more time intensive.
-------------------- Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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jkell
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Registered: 10/29/10
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Alright thanks man this whole grow is somewhat of a learning experience anyways so whats a little guess and check gonna hurt. As for the table it 24x36x9 and my overflow will be at 4 inches.
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Goombah
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Registered: 11/07/10
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Re: Quick question for the Veterans [Re: jkell]
#498764 - 11/17/10 02:21 AM (14 years, 10 days ago) |
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Hi Jkell, you have seen my flood and drain system. I know it is not quite the same as a table, but I faced a similar problem. I started out watering twice a day flooding the system (dwell time) for about five minutes. I just kept checking the underside to see how long the roots and hydroton were staying damp, was there new growth, and any signs of plant over/underwatering, root-rot etc. It was kind of scary but once you keep an eye on it for a while you can start to gage when to increase watering frequency and dwell time. I am up to watering every two hours with a dwell time of seven minutes and the plants are drinking about a gallon of water every 1.5-2 days. I don't water in the dark period though (I dunno, just read it somewhere) but I do start my first water 1/2hr before the light turns on in the morning so the plants are well fed. The best sign is that the plants will get a little droopy when thirsty. You just gotta keep a good eye on them with the lamps because they can fry really fast. I always check on them a couple times a day.
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jkell
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Re: Quick question for the Veterans [Re: Goombah]
#498779 - 11/17/10 06:54 AM (14 years, 10 days ago) |
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Yeah I think i get no watering in the dark thing, to prevent root rot, and if its dark the plant cant do photosynthesis anyways so theres no need to waste the electricity and nutes and water. But yeah I guess I'll just start out slow like you and increase as I see fit. Better to underwater/feed than to over do it correct?
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