SOG question

[Jpizzl3]

Im about to start a SOG setup and I have a question. I have to hand water the babies cause i have no room for anysort of automation. i picked up 6" RW cubes and have four side by side in a tray. i dont want to put just the RW in the tray cause im afraid of algea forming on the bottom of the tray. i was wonderin if i could put about 2" of lava rock on the bottom and place the RW on top of that. would the roots grow together and fight with eachother? There wont be any veg time, once the clones root, they r going straight into flowering light sch. any help would be great! Thanks in advance! :jointsmile:

Jpizzl3 Reviewed by Jpizzl3 on 04-09-2010. SOG question Im about to start a SOG setup and I have a question. I have to hand water the babies cause i have no room for anysort of automation. i picked up 6" RW cubes and have four side by side in a tray. i dont want to put just the RW in the tray cause im afraid of algea forming on the bottom of the tray. i was wonderin if i could put about 2" of lava rock on the bottom and place the RW on top of that. would the roots grow together and fight with eachother? There wont be any veg time, once the clones Rating: 5

[RedwhitEsonavaB]

id go with soil if you dont have a timed pump. i think the RW is going to drain too fast unless you have time to water 2-3 times a day. idk man, if your using clones the whole proccess shouldnt take more than 2-3 months so the roots shouldnt have time to fuck with eachother too bad as long as the cubes are 6" apart. the rocks should stop the algea tho, keep a good eye on it and you should be alright. PEACE!

[demoreal]

The roots will be fine. I water once a day, I could water once every few days if I felt like it. Check out my grow in the link in my signature. These are in tiny rockwool croûtons in 5 1/2 inch pots. I usually grow in 6 inch rockwool cubes. You can place 4 in a cubic foot. So in other words right next to each other. I have done it with a coco mat underneath and without. It did not make a difference. I usually veg 1-2 weeks. Redwhit is right, it will be kind of a pain to hand water. You can build a system really easy. Why aren't you?
You can make a gravity one with a bucket and a tube or a pump one. Check out my grow for some ideas. peace

[khyberkitsune]

I've never had a problem watering once every two or three days with large RW cubes and slabs. Really you shouldn't have any problem setting up a reservoir underneath and running a constant recycling drip system if you really needed to, but otherwise make sure the bottom inch of the cubes is in the lava rock or whatever you use for a base substrate so the roots have a space to hide from the light.

[Jpizzl3]

Thanks for the input! I thought of ways to make it a lil eaiser on me, but have come up with nothing. Im going to have 2 shelves, one above the other and couldnt come up with a way to automate the top shelf a long with the bottom. Any ideas? I just got my beans in today....some early girl, lemon skunk, big bud, cole train, sharks breath and rocklock...i only paid for the BB and EG! Attitude seeds are the shit! they hooked me up with all the other beans...now i have reserves!

[demoreal]

A res on the bottom shelve and a tray on the top shelve?
All you need is a pump. They are 10$

[Jpizzl3]

So to feed both trays, i would need 2 pumps right? i was thinking about doin that but Im worried about drainage of the top shelf.....since im going to have a light mounted under the top shelf to shine on the bottom i cant have the waterlines go straight up and down, do you think this would be a problem? It def would be nice to not have to make sure i watered them daily if it was automated. I have a 2x4x6 tent in the closet and was going to seperate it into two levels. My mothers are in a 2x2x4 cab. As money is always an issue i cant afford to have 2 seperate ebb and flow tables, but if i had 1 rez than that would save me some $$$

[demoreal]

Lets try to think it threw.
One res and one pump:
we have the pump in the res going to the top tray. The drain on the top tray going to the bottom tray. The drain on the bottom tray going to the res. Now when the pump turns off the top res drains back threw the pump to the res. So the top tray is not a problem. The bottom tray will now stay full since it does not have the pump to drain threw. It will stay flooded up to the drain. This is a problem. Unless we can figure a way around this you will need two pumps. You are right. Working around the light is easy though.
To fix the problem you could have a second drain in the bottom tray that is just a smaller hole. With no rise on it. The tray will still fill up as long as the drain from the top is larger than this small hole. Still have a second drain on the bottom tray with rise.
Here is just an idea.

[demoreal]

You can build it with stuff you find at a hardware store. A rubbermaid res. Even buy the trays there. You can always upgrade to a nicer tray and reservoir in the future.

[Jpizzl3]

I like ur idea! Ive looked in home depot, lowes...etc and the only trays I can find are at my local (well, not so local....about a 1.5hr drive) hydro shop. Im def gonna set it up like u drew though, i dunno why i didnt think about that! :thumbsup: