need a little help with my homemade system

[italian04]

i have a 17 gallon setup with 4 plants right now. the bottom of my pots are touching the water. i have a vermiculite mix for the medium and about to purchase a drip system. im running a 100w and 2 60w cfls right now as well. air stones are in the bottom of the tub. im also about to purchase a ppm tester. how does this setup sound? what problems might i run into?\


for the nxt stage of growth i will ahve a 400w hps light.

[btownbuddah]

get more light

[btownbuddah]

sorry i didn't see that last part about the 400W sounds ok to me

[btownbuddah]

How big are they? If it was me I'd probably be using the hps right now. But I'm no expert.

[herbie the love bud]

Sounds like you are doing a DWC setup right now. That's fine, you don't need to go to drip. Drip is just another method of aeration other than that, the action on the plant is the same.

For DWC, get the fiersest air pump you can afford and a microdiffuser stone. When you get that going, hit us up.

[italian04]

plants are still in germinating stage....so really no light at this point. what is a microdiffuser?? i have a pretty decent pump with 4 airstones and the bubbles go right to the base of the net pots. and i was also wondering...what is the best way to germinate?

[herbie the love bud]

a microdiffuser is a very fine air stone that emits super fine bubbles.

[the image reaper]

I wonder if the vermiculite mix will be supportive enough for the weight of an adult plant ? ... I've not used anything except hydroton, so I'm not asking from experience here, just curious :jointsmile: