Indoor hydroponics

[Speebballer1813]

Looking to startup again it's bee a long time and wanting to go a hydroponics system. Trying to find out what I need to get looking to do at lest two per room. What would I need and where would be the cheapest place to get equipment don't knoi it I want to build one or just to buy a setup kit I am look to work with five gallon pails and I need to the whole hydroponics setup and also wat would be the best light to work with thinking of using the cfls that i used yrs ago they are 4ft twin bulb ligts so all tips and advice would be very great thank u all :icon_smile: :icon_smile:

 

[Locked]

What do you want to do? DWC is easy... both building it wise and grow wise.

 

[Speebballer1813]

yes a dwc system is wat i was looking to do but not sure how to work it all i knoi is grow soil but want to start up again in hydro

 

[pcduck]

5 gallon bucket, net pot, lid, air stone, and an air pump is DWC

 

[Locked]

You will need air pump(s), air stones, buckets, net pots and hydroton. Easy to build and pretty easy to run. You will also need a ph meter and a ppm meter.

 

[Speebballer1813]

dose it matter on wat grow media i use in the net pot(s) bc i was thinking of using coco or the coco fibers

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Welcome to MP.

I am a hydro grower that likes to keep it simple. I use expanded clay pellets commonly called hydrotron in my DWC. If you use coco I think you would need to line net pots with something to keep the coco in them. We do have people here who use coco (not sure if it is DWC though).

Tell us what size grow you are thinking of and your setup. We love to hear about how others set their spaces up.

 

[Speebballer1813]

goddess........ the size im think to work with is 5gallon pot and i am working on building the grow box but even get net pot with 1/4-1/2 in holes woul the coco still fall thur

 

[orangesunshine]

lol @ your screen name---love it---i have toyed w/doing a hydro run one day---please share pics of your set up---welcome to marP---oh---and hold on to this home grown for a bit :48:

 

[Speebballer1813]

thanks and thank will do

lol @ your screen name---love it---i have toyed w/doing a hydro run one day---please share pics of your set up---welcome to marP---oh---and hold on to this home grown for a bit :48:

 

[sunakard2000]

i think what THG ment by size of the grow you want to do... how many plants are you looking to grow, how large are your 2 grow spaces, are you planning on having a veg area and a flower area? and to answer your question yes there are a few people i know who use coco coir or coco fiber for the medium in the net pots how ever you need a fine mesh liner so the fine coco fibers dont fall out of the basket, i think they lined the inside of the netpot with a burlap sack from something like potatos, then fill it with coco fibers. depending on the type of CFLs you have you may need to invest in some better lighting, are the lights you have T5s? if not you should get some T5s for veg and an HPS lamp for flower... again need to know the size of the spaces avaliable to grow in for what size lighting fixtures youll need.

 

[Speebballer1813]

sun.......the cfl are t5s, and as grow space im think of going with a 2 x 3 or a 2 x 4 space for the grow rooms for budding and veg..... just doing 2 blooming plant at a time and i am looking in to a hps or a hid lightfor the blooming ........ i dont plane to keep the rooms that size im working on making the romms for them bigger ...... but the room size that are said above i think are a little small but should do alright for no more then 2 plant in each room at a time

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

If you are wanting to do 2 spaces, I would recommend having a vegging space and a flowering space. If you have a 4' T5, I would think that you are going to want to make your space 2 x 4 rather than 2 x 3. Just as a side note so we don't get confused, the swirly fluorescent screw in bulbs are called CFLs which stands for compact fluorescent lighting. The tube fluorescents are just called fluorescent tubes and we generally refer to them by the tube size, i.e. T5, T8, T12.

Your vegging space can be smaller than your flowering space. For example, I have a 2 x 4 vegging space and a 3 x 6.5 flowering space.

Why are you so decided on coco? IMO, there are easier mediums to work with if you are just starting out with hydro.

What is your budget for this project? If you know that you are going to want larger rooms down the road (how large?) I would also recommend getting a HPS that is dimmable and go with a 600W with a cool tube or air coolable hood.

 

[Speebballer1813]

why the coco bc it is a easy drian for the plant and all naturle but if there is a another one that is all naturle that would be good feel free to sugest it if u like but i just like to let it all go naturle bc that is the way it would grow if no one was there to take care of it ,

 

[pcduck]

I would use expanded clay pellets commonly called hydrotron.
If you are doing DWC. Does not get any easier. In DWC the hydrotron is there just to hold the plant up, the roots are submerged in water that is getting air pumped through it(air bubbles).

 

[Locked]

Only thing I have ever used in hydro is hydroton, and it was easy to work with...once you get it rinsed off. That was a bit of a PITA.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I'm not sure what you mean by all natural. Virtually all medium used for hydro could be considered natural. And the capability of a medium to hold just the right amount of water is what makes for a good hydro medium. I use hydrotron.

When growing indoors, we are not trying to duplicate Mother Nature, we are trying to improve on her by manipulating the growing environment indoors. Cannabis left to its own (if no one was there to take care of it) quickly becomes feral. Hydro is also probably not what one would call natural. I think that if I were you I would keep it as simple as possible the first go around with hydro. Do a simple 5 gal DWC system like duck mentioned. After you get your feet wet and have a feel for it, you can do something fancier should you want to.

 

[Speebballer1813]

here is what i will have the list that i made to build my dwc system and if anyone would like to add or suggest better stuff would be helpfull so here is the list:

4 5gallon buckets w/ lids all black to keep light out and away for roots also to help keep roots a little warmer

6in net pots

black or clear airline tubes

4 5in round airstones

4 air pumps

check valves for air lines to aviod any water leak outs

this is the list of wat im going to get so far not including lights yet i am still likeing around for lights thinking of a 400watt hid or hps light for veg and 600watt(or larger (but pretty sure this is more then enough)) hps or hid light for blooming

so this is wat i am going to be getting so far all seguesting are appected and great

thank you all please feel free to past this around :sharetoke:

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I think that you should rethink the HID for vegging (you would use a MH not a HPS). T5 flouorescent tubes really are better for vegging--they put out the same lumens per watt, run substantially cooler, and spread the light better than a MH. I have 1 400W MH, 1 250W MH sitting in storage and another 400W MH that I gave away because I find vegging with T5s to be so much better. The T5 fluoros come in both 2' and 4' tubes. I use a 4' 4 tube fixture in a space a little under 2 x 4 with great results. You can buy fixtures with different numbers of tubes. A 600W HPS is good for about 16-18 sq ft. So if your flowering space is that size or smaller, a 600W will do you for flowering.

The black buckets are to keep the light out and has nothing to do with keeping the roots warm. In fact, keeping the res and roots cool enough will be a larger problem. Along with your list, you will need some kind of medium. I do recommend hydrotron (expanded clay pellets). You will also need a pH meter (strips, liquids, etc are not accurate enough), a PPM meter, calibration fluids, and pH up and down.

I have found that I prefer 1 larger air pump with a manifold to a bunch of smaller ones. You will need an exhaust fan and an oscillating fan for ventilation. Also, nutrients. Have you looked at nutrient lines?

 

[Speebballer1813]

so a 600w hps would be to much for the space i am using for the blooming what would be the best size to use in a 3 x 4 x 10 space would a 150w hps be good to use insteed of the 600w hps..

so ur saying i can put a 4bulb 4' fluoros would be able to fit a to a 2 x 4 space