airstone

[maineharvest]

How long do you all leave your pumps going? Is it 24 hours a day? Another question, do I completly submerge the roots in water or if not how high do I put the water? I want to try and get everything right on my first hydro grow so thanks for the help.

[the widowmaker]

ok bro, lets start a bit closer to the beginning, whats your setup?

[Growdude]

For DWC leave them on 24/7. You want a couple inches between the pot and the water.

[NewSkoolHarvester]

Good advice... although when you first start it is a good idea to have the water level merely 1" below the pots. Even when the plant has fully rooted this is still a good idea as more of the root system will have access to oxygenated feed. As the level of water drops you are effectively suffocating your roots, so you need to keep on top of things if you don't have an automated system.

Especially during flower, slips here cost you bud. A mistake in veg can be grown out.

[maineharvest]

I have this cheap set up where the pot fits right inside a five gallon bucket and I have two plants started in it. I germed them and then put them in rockwool and now they are a few inches tall. I left the plants in the rockwool and burried them in the hydrotons. Then I filled the water so it was about an inch below the pot and turned on the pump. I have an eight pot hydro set up too but i wanted to do my first grow in the single pot because i know im probably gonna mess something up. I guess I just need to know how to keep the water level compared to the bottom of the roosts.

[NewSkoolHarvester]

About an inch to two inches... really it depends on the power of your pump.

[maineharvest]

i got a cheap little three watt pump that is not very powerful. It is pretty loud though. Does anybody make silent pumps?

[NewSkoolHarvester]

Get something soft to sit it on and that should help with the vibrations... although if it's that bad it sounds like the pump could be on the way out. Consider getting a new one.

Also, when you place the clone in the net pot, try and put it towards the very bottom of the pot, this way the roots don't have far to go.

If the pump is struggling it's ok to have the res level just a few mm below the pot just till the roots have found the water. Then allow it to lower naturally as the plants drink, and keep it to 1".

[maineharvest]

so as the roots grow and get longer and longer do I lower the water and keep it about an inch below the tips of the roots? Or do I let the roots go below the water?

[Growdude]

so as the roots grow and get longer and longer do I lower the water and keep it about an inch below the tips of the roots? Or do I let the roots go below the water?

The roots are below the water , keep the water 1" from the bottom of the net pot.

[md.apothecary]

when I used my DWC.. the instructions said to keep the water 1" below the ROOT level of the plant. So this meant to cover the pot up to 1" below the roots. As the roots grow, keep lowering the water level to 1" below, until you are at your final point which is 1" below the pot.

[trillions of atoms]

1 inch below root level until rootmass is big then have some roots submgd. keep airstone pumps on 24/7 and make sure you got enough air. a crappy fish tank 10 dollar pump wont cut it in flowering. the more air= the better.

[md.apothecary]

LET me remind everyone about the "AIRSTONE"....

DO NOT use open hoses to produce bubbles, do NOT use large bubble air stones!!

Use curtain airstones or very very fine bubble producing air stones. The air that will come out of these is much finer and produces less surface area and allows the oxygen to be absorbed into the water much more evenly. They will give you better results instead of large mass bubbles pushing tons of air to the top.

[trillions of atoms]

The air that will come out of these is much finer and produces less surface area






finer bubbles would equal more surface area per cubic inch, meaning more Oxygen squared.

[allgrownup]

i would also add that don't think that a 5 gal bucket is any way inferior to the other. i would wager to say the bucket will yeild better results.

also, use a "whisper" pump and get the 30-60 gal. it is dual output. set ya back 30 bucks. run that with 2 6" airstones. My experience with the stones is the longer the stone the more irregular the air bubbles come out. i personally believe many 6" stones is Far superior to fewer long ones. you get even bubblage and will have nice boils, spalshing, humidity from the resulting burage of bursting O2.

[allgrownup]

make sure your containers are light resistant to prevent algae.

i would recommend you pick up some hydroguard as well as hygrozyme.

peace

[luke]

leave the pump on 24/7 or else you get algea