Quote Originally Posted by sourness
which ebb and flow system wold you go with for u to 12 plants? and what light set up would you use? sorry for all the questions just trying to do it right the first time
To be really frank, I would just go to your local nursery supplier or garden center and pick up 2 say 2ft by 4ft trays, they should be approximately 6" high. One becomes your nutrient tank, the other is where the plants go. Take a couple of small 2x4s, lay them across the nute reservoir, and put your top tray on top so they sit on top of each other. Get the smallest pond pump they have and go to your Home Depot, pick up a few pvc fittings. What you need are two holes drilled in the top tray.... one hole brings the nutes up from the bottom using the pond pump, and the other hole needs to hold a drain to keep the water (nutes) at the level you want. This can be a piece of 8" 1/2" pvc pipe going thru the hole held by a rubber grommet. So if the 8" pipe sticks up 4", then the water level will stay there because it will immediately drain back into the reservoir as soon as it comes to that level. Then get a timer on the pond pump, say turn on 4 times a day for 15 minutes, and you are set to go! The whole thing will set you back very little in comparison what you buy, plus you will know how it works because you've designed it.
Ebb n grow is very much the same, except you don't need the nute tank under each tray, using pumps pumping into the 'pots', and rather than using gravity to drain the pots, it uses another pump at to drain the system. The control unit for one of those is quite costly, and I don't think that would be good for you. A 400 W HPS would be great for that!

SpaceNeedle