Stacked Ebb & Flow tables

Aight...I'm pretty much done with construction. I must say that this has been one of the most fascinating projects that I have ever spent an entire year working on. I act as if I will never build another, give me time. At any rate, I'm done for now and from start to finish here is how I do it:

Step one is pic 1 and that's my cloner/bubbler system thangy. It's just a shoebox container from container store. The pots hang down to just below, sometimes never really touching the water line. I have 2 x 14" air stones connected to that air pump from walmart. Why buy hightech when this works just as well? It only works to a degree though. I keep them in here just long enough to develop roots that dangle outside their pots. Takes a couple weeks and I keep the nutrient levels to around 250 week 1 and 550 week 2. They really dont need nutes at all until they develop roots. I also use hydrogyzem in the bubbler which promotes root growth big time.

Step two they get moved into the bottom table which is the lighted one at the moment. They get tossed in the smaller pots as seen in pic 3, however also seen in pic three are some badly pruned mothers in larger pots. This is a good time to point out that in this lighted space is where my mothers live as well. Since mothers need a slightly higher level of nutes then what cuttings can handle, you can now see why the need for the bubbler. I keep this nute level at about 600 or so. Pic 3 shows the clone/mother table well. The lights are 3' T5ho's connected to a Fulham Workhorse 8 ballast for a total output of about 200 watts.

Step 3 is my flower table and it can be seen in pic 4. There are no pots in there now, but after a couple weeks under the T5's I move them up top. That's a 600watt HPS light to feed this table. The light is adjustable with over 3' of clearance. I wont be able to grow monster tall plants but the T5's pack on seriously dense nodes which will give me plenty of plant material to work with up top.

Some notes about the space: the reservoir is the bottom layer on pic 2. It sits on 6 caster wheels which allow me to roll the box out for cleaning or fill ups. I divided the box in half so that the left side of the box is the res for the top table and the right side is for the bottom table. There is a separate pump and plumping for the top table and left side res combo. The lines run behind the vinyl pond liner (left side of pic 3) as well as the panda film used for the white sheeting. I used those pre built e&b valves and placed them as far left on the top table as I could so that I could run the lines along the left wall and through the floor of the bottom table. On the bottom table I cut holes through the floor as close to the wall as possible. The pond liner had no problems molding to the pipes. That's just pond liner by the way. It's one big giant sheet and folded at the corners to create clean lines and a uniform box.

The final pic shows my duct work. The biggest line coming in is a 6" insulated a/c line. I live in a hot climate so temps get ugly and as this is my garage, you can image. The a/c is "Y" attached to another line in the attic. At the other end of the line, for now at least, I have simply rested it on top of the table. It was much higher and thus less effective so I moved it much lower. There is a 6" inline fan inside that 6" ac line and sitting on top of the table as well which further aids to suck in cold air. Part of that ac duct sits right above the 120mm intake fans for the lower table. It works well, for now at least. There are 2 x 6" flex ducts which are the intake and exhaust for the HID light. The intake goes to a grate in the attic designed to allow airflow through the attic. The other end connects to a 8" vortex fan suspended with bungy cord to the rafters. That sucks the air through the light and then pushes it towards an already existing 24" attic fan. The original vortex fan for this project was a 4" fan seen in pic 5, but these days it's working well as a scrubber and hot air exhaust which also dumps into the attic.

I use coco noir for the medium. That's not dirt. I water every 12 hours but could probably go every 2 days with this stuff. I just feel more comfortable refreshing the water every 12, I guess. For nutes I use General Hydroponics Maxi series powder's. Very cheap quality stuff. It has a ph buffer already in it and coupled with the ph neutral coco noir, I rarely if ever need to adjust my ph after res changes which I do every couple weeks.

Aight...that's it. class dismissed.