is ebb and flow competatively effective ?

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If you love to tinker? Hydro is the way to go. You can tinker and adjust, and experiment, and change, and monitor, and mix up methods :eek: it can be a lot of fun, as long as they are yielding decent at least.:)
 
If you love to tinker? Hydro is the way to go. You can tinker and adjust, and experiment, and change, and monitor, and mix up methods :eek: it can be a lot of fun, as long as they are yielding decent at least.:)

I love / hate home automation. My grow has literally taken over my panel :)

Just thought of the coil cooling thing, I should report that IT SUCKS, uses waaaay too much water to cool one degree, I'm using WH tip re frozen bottles and using the coils as back-up.
I wonder how much it costs to freeze water.

my yields were only great the first two under incandescent, I've been playing catch-up ever since with these LEDs. Barking up the wrong tree as it were
but they were so damn hot

so I'm looking for a boost from hydro and probably reading too much, my RDWC buckets were okay and I'm still mopping up spills
 
blah blah blah
I was trying to adjust pH last night, little bits at a time, down,
then... it just stopped changing, would decrease no more, 1 Ml, nuthin, 1 mL nuthin;, ...no matter what I added no change, I'm not good with anger and wanted to dump the dam jug in there but just skulked off
preparing for a rez change :-(
what the heck?
 
The good grows were under hps and not incandescent i assume, if the LEDs are not growing good plants, then the fertilizing or the change of medium and system will not help that much. Light is the primary source of energy for the plants. under LED plants needs much less ferts like 1/2 the dose.
Your PH not going down further sounds as if your meter is not reading lower measurements. try calibrating it
 
The good grows were under hps and not incandescent i assume, if the LEDs are not growing good plants, then the fertilizing or the change of medium and system will not help that much. Light is the primary source of energy for the plants. under LED plants needs much less ferts like 1/2 the dose.
Your PH not going down further sounds as if your meter is not reading lower measurements. try calibrating it

I learn everything the hard way, Zem. Nail. Head. When I saw shitty results with LED, I tried EVERYTHING hoping the LEDs were gud enuff.
They're not.

Meter reads vinegar at 4
maybe I was too stoned, I did a rez change.

Yes, I meant HPS and MH, that's how I started
and I forgot about the LEDs feeding the plant again
if my ppms are too high, is it like a baby not opening their mouth?
I'll halve the label dosage, thanks!
 
I love DWC,,,THG and Andy42 got me hooked back in 2008.

I thought THG gave up on hydro on account of the water spills etc
it can be pretty risky with all the electrical (especially if yer DIY rike me)

You mentioned frozen water bottle rez cooling
I'm changing bottles every 3 hours and this sure ain't Texas
what temp do you keep your rez below?
 
I tried to keep my solution as close to 75 as i could,,,and that wasnt easy in Flofida. Lol
As for THG giving up on hydro,,,thats the 1st ive heard that. The cooler the temps the whiter the roots is what i seen in my DWC grows. Also light leaks into your rez can kick roots ***.
 
Sopappy if you were giving full strength under LED then you were probably burning them.it will require more innovation to convince me to go the LED route, good luck
 
I tried to keep my solution as close to 75 as i could,,,and that wasnt easy in Flofida. Lol
As for THG giving up on hydro,,,thats the 1st ive heard that. The cooler the temps the whiter the roots is what i seen in my DWC grows. Also light leaks into your rez can kick roots ***.

ahah! 75! wow, I've been trying to maintain 68
nice white roots though,
I got pythium first go and went off the deep end,
I think I can dial it back, thanks
 
Sopappy if you were giving full strength under LED then you were probably burning them.it will require more innovation to convince me to go the LED route, good luck

Can you see that in the plants? like nute burn?
I'm thinking they look great and healthy and growing great
(but I'm at full nutes by the label)

yup, I miss my HPS and MH

I liked your foam idea re seeds and bought some foam at HD
It floats hahahahaha
(you shudda seen the look on my face)

I'm still trying it, just weighted down the pots
I'm ebbing and flowing these ones
 
70 is a great temp to maintain,,but almost impossible in florida without a chiller. My frozen water bottles did pretty good,,but a chiller would have been awesome. Now ive hreard that flood and drain solution temps can be higher,,but i dont know myself personally, ,cause i never used anything but DWC or Dirt.
 
70 is a great temp to maintain,,but almost impossible in florida without a chiller. My frozen water bottles did pretty good,,but a chiller would have been awesome. Now ive hreard that flood and drain solution temps can be higher,,but i dont know myself personally, ,cause i never used anything but DWC or Dirt.

I did read that if the rez temps are lowish, the plant can tolerate higher ambient temperatures... I wish I'd known that when i had my HPS/MH

Comforting to hear no pythium at 75, do you H2O2 ?
 
I have only used h202 when i had a light leak in my rez.
75 did not give me the whitest roots possible, ,but they were okay,and my girls did pretty good. Would have done even better if i could have kept my solution temps closer to 68,,thats for sure. But thats just not always possible without the proper equipment, such as a chiller.
 
I am fighting with that right now with mine. It has been so hot and humid here in NC its ridiculous. I have a portable AC unit that runs 24/7 but it gets so hot that I cant keep the veg room from topping out at 86. It does come back down at night to 75f and that is when the flowering girls are on. But my rez water goes from 81f in the afternoon back down to 71f at night (after I put 4 frozen 2ltr bottles of water in it). I have it circulating on a 15min/1hr cycle and that allows it to cool the rez before the evening watering. I haven't had any issues so far but I am keeping a close watch on it. I use hygrozyme in my flowering and that seems to protect the plants from water issues.
 
I have an idea that i would like to try and that is using a regular old fridge, drill a hole in its outer body insert a hose in it place it like a coil inside then it goes back to the res, use a pump to circulate the solution, if it gets too cold, it could be put on timer. a fridge in a growroom is very useful for bud storage as well. My main concern would be to not overload the fridge capacity, as the best way to break a fridge is to leave it open, I would offset that by filling the whole space with water bottles and never opening it, and good insulation for the res and hoses. Automation is key for me to succeed, if I had to change frozen bottles every day, I can guarantee that I will fail to do that. That is why I used to change systems from DWC to flood and drain depending on season. I guess that if I could efficiently cool the res in hot weather, I would not have to switch. Is it a crazy idea?
 
I have an idea that i would like to try and that is using a regular old fridge, drill a hole in its outer body insert a hose in it place it like a coil inside then it goes back to the res, use a pump to circulate the solution, if it gets too cold, it could be put on timer. a fridge in a growroom is very useful for bud storage as well. My main concern would be to not overload the fridge capacity, as the best way to break a fridge is to leave it open, I would offset that by filling the whole space with water bottles and never opening it, and good insulation for the res and hoses. Automation is key for me to succeed, if I had to change frozen bottles every day, I can guarantee that I will fail to do that. That is why I used to change systems from DWC to flood and drain depending on season. I guess that if I could efficiently cool the res in hot weather, I would not have to switch. Is it a crazy idea?

yup :)
save up for a chiller,
check my grows to see what pissing around re-inventing the wheel leads to
 
I have an idea that i would like to try and that is using a regular old fridge, drill a hole in its outer body insert a hose in it place it like a coil inside then it goes back to the res, use a pump to circulate the solution, if it gets too cold, it could be put on timer. a fridge in a growroom is very useful for bud storage as well. My main concern would be to not overload the fridge capacity, as the best way to break a fridge is to leave it open, I would offset that by filling the whole space with water bottles and never opening it, and good insulation for the res and hoses. Automation is key for me to succeed, if I had to change frozen bottles every day, I can guarantee that I will fail to do that. That is why I used to change systems from DWC to flood and drain depending on season. I guess that if I could efficiently cool the res in hot weather, I would not have to switch. Is it a crazy idea?

I'm using coils in my rez and am unimpressed but I'm just running cold ground water through them. Different animal.
I've seen some decent DIY stuff on youtube done with mini fridges and a dehumidifier too I think
I have two 100L tanks and find frozen bottles efficient.
Freezer packed is great, fridge packed not so much, works harder
or is it the other way around?
 
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I thought it was supposed to be filled up both fridge and freezer just leaving enough space to breathe. I already have a spare fridge at hand that could be used, that is why i am considering this
 
well i will add my .02 I run an ebb and flow bucket within a bucket, I have nothing but success with the system the way i run it. I think more often then not the competitiveness is not a fair comparison as each grower has their own level of knowledge. I personally have zero luck with any type of DWC system or soil/soilless as it requires you to pay closer attention to everything. I needed a system that was a setit and watch it go, as i work 12-14 hours a day i am not able to tend to them constantly and need things done automagically. I average around 100g/plant which isnt great for quantity but i only care about quality and from others growers opinions the quality is off the charts. My system is ideal for the lazy grower

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