is the aquarium technique as good as flood n drain??

[Easy Roller]

Is the system of having the roots constantly submerged in the nutrient solution ,while an air stone bubbles oxygen up to the roots any good???? Or is it all about the flood n drain method? i need to know coz my seeds are in the mail and will arrive soon. :D

[turtle420]

Hmmm....

Those are two different hydro setups...

There's DWC (Deep Water Culture) or, Bubblers...
And then there's the Flood&Drain (or Ebb&Flow) method.

What system is best for you? Depends on many factors...
I understand you need to know ASAP, but if your seeds are in the mail, don't worry, you've got time to figure out what you'll start with. I say start with, because I initially started with some plans, and they've changed so much that it's astonishing.

How many plants do you plan do grow? Are you going to grow from seed or take clones and grow those? How much space do you have? Is money an object? Do you already have some materials/supplies/equipment?

-turtle420 :cool:

[Easy Roller]

nice to hear from the turtle... i have an old o2 pump from a fish tank i once had...and ive got 20 sedds heading my way

[Easy Roller]

10 skunk#1 and 10 fuma con diablos... money is always the limiting factor!!! i plan to use the bubler somehow any usefull suggestions my reptile

[Easy Roller]

I can probably accomadate for about 1 metre square... and i fancied growing out the most healthy of the plants and then taking many cutting from the best looking few..then will i grow the cuttings in the main grow area...perhaps discarding the other plants ...maybe keeping a male in another room so i can get some free seeds for a summer goriller grow project.. i need high yeilds of sweet green...so i can justify the money spent!!

[turtle420]

Um...

You might try the DWC system... just, invest on the costly air stones... trust me, they're worth it. Get the ones of the size you need, and then buy the most expensive ones. The other ones produce bubbles, but the costly ones produce 'smaller' and more bubbles.

As to growing them, and then taking clones... good idea. :)
That way, you can 'clone for sex', then discard the males... if any. Then, all your clones are female...

How many plants fit in 1 meter square? [1 square meter = 10.7639104 square foot]
So, in 10 square feet, ... I don't know... what's the length and the width?

I think that you could go with 5 gallon paint buckets [5 gallon [US, liquid] = 4.1633709 gallon [UK]] and put one air stone inside each.

Be aware that hydro can give you bigger yields from your girls... but the entrace admission is bigger. I mean, if you want to have 'total' control over your system, you're going to need:
pH tester
ppm meter
EC/TDS meter

hydro nutrients...
pH up and pH down
....

I know there are people over @ Overgrow.com that grow hydro without any of these tools... but, oh well...

What do you think?

I'll relog-in in about 2 -3 hours.

Best to you Easy,

-turtle420 :cool:

[Easy Roller]

u 2 buddy

[Stormcooker]

I'm an ebb n' flow guy. I like the ability to pull out the plants easily, move them around, turn them, etc. Ebb and flow is not usually used to grow big tall plants though. Your root space is contingent upon the size pots you use, and your root space effects the final yield and size of your plants. I am currently using 6x6x7 pots so the ideal plant size and flowering time is about 2-3 feet and 8 weeks for that size. I don't have that much space to grow, and I like smaller. high yielding plants. E n' F seems to work well for my setup. With DWC (bubbler) your plants remain pretty stationary. You can damage the roots and make a mess pretty easily if you move individual plants around. Sometimes you need to move plants around to get even light exposure. I am not knocking any style setup, I am just telling you about my experience with E n' F.
What's nice about DWC is you don't use too much medium (grow rocks, hydroton or similar). That's one less expense and care you won't have to endure. There's no flood schedule to worry about, no timed pump systems, no worry of clooged drains and stuff.
A nice thing about Ebb/Flow is the separate reservoir of nutrients in which you can make adjustments to it while your roots are not in contact with it. It makes for easy dumps and cleaning, easy topping off of water, supplements, and nutes.

It's your decision dude, I have never tried anything other than E/F so my experience is a little biased. If I had the room, I would try all types of systems to contrast and compare.

I guess I would recomend DWC (bubbler). It seems like it could be a little less challenging as a beginner, and there are many pics and threads in this board to get answers and ideas from.

Good luck!!!!!!!!
These are taken out of my ebb and flow for a routine cleaning. Three plants here almost done!!!!!

[LOC NAR1958]

I use a little drip system that holds 6. Under 60 bucks delivered. Put an air stone in to help. runs4/7. Listen to turtle bubblers are good too. Sounds like about a 400 watt light for that space.

[fhydro]

I think that the best growing system ( except aero ) is the centralized bubbler with water circulation from the main tank to the growing buckets. That's the way i enhanced my bubbler system ( very easy to build it home made ). This way, the water level is the same in each bucket, and control in only the main tank as for PH and EC. To adjust nutes and PH, i need to wait a water circulation cycle though. Results : next crop ...
Fhydro

[Easy Roller]

thanx to all so far ...i think i will go dwc..this time round...hopefully i will have some killer bud to show for it...when i get my seeds i will post the shots of my system for all to see and for the benefit of research. its good to see everyone is helping each other grow better bush.