Waterfarm hydro system?????

[Kronz]

Do u guys think this is a good beginner hydro setup? is it easy to use? please any info would be appreciated. thank you.

kronz

Kronz Reviewed by Kronz on 11-15-2006. Waterfarm hydro system????? Do u guys think this is a good beginner hydro setup? is it easy to use? please any info would be appreciated. thank you. kronz Rating: 5

[BlueBear]

Easy and a all around good bucket that can give high yields and less head aches than many other systems. An excelent starter system and good for experienst growers as well.
1 tip if you get one, drill extra holes in the bottom of the top bucket so the roots don't get bunched up too much.
Adieu

[xcrispi]

i'm happy w/ mine ,
like blue bear said make all holes in bottom of top pot like 1/4 in. and i had to add an airstone to the res. to keep it from getting stinky fast but all in all they rock .
peace

[Weedhound]

Dang Bear, you sound like an advertisement. I like mine too--all in all a plus but here are the problems I have had. 1. All buckets really need to be checked seperately for ph etc daily. Thats 8 buckets to lift out every day.
2. very easy care at the beginning when the plants are small but as they get larger into flowering unless you have lots of extra ground tubing things are not easy to move around and change. I ended up putting little stop valve things on all my buckets to shut off water flow and change them (that's actually two stop valves for each bucket--have to stop water flow from both directions.) Very time consuming to empty and change, everything flows by gravity, the res is heavy etc. so draining the sytem takes quite a while but I speeded this up with a little aquarium pump that sucks the water from the main tube (not the res) very quickly. Please keep in mind that this is the only system I have used so I cannot say whether it is better or worse than others. All in all I do like it and it has grown me some kick ass weed. Others on this site with more brains and experience (like the two above) may have answers to the problems I have which I would love to hear myself. I would buy it again. The end.

[JackdaWack]

i was going to buy this, but i had some concerns, the exact ones weedhound just perfectly described. Personaly i think they should have incorperated a flood and drain into this so that there is a main res of all the water so u can test for tds and ph, also i was concerned with nute build up, if your nute levels are too high and your experiencing some burn, how can u flush them? like stated above u would need shut off valves and such, but it seems that u would have to dump out each one individually because u would over flow your main res.... seems like a pain in the ass yet advertised for easy use. I wouldnt think so.

[Racerx]

I think Deep Water Culture is the best beginner hydro setup. Having done flood and drain, ebb/flow, and dwc I definitely found dwc to be the easiest. Aside from changing res water every couple weeks, as long as there is a lot of air and controlled temps you can pull a lot in no time. I dont know what type of scale you want or if youve grown in soil before, but if your just trying to do a few plants there are selfcontained dwc systems that cost about $100 to build well. Changing the res is a bitch, but it only needs to be done every 2 weeks usually and you can easily setup a draincock on the bottom.

But if your trying to do a lot of plants, then DWC is a bad beginner setup because to do it efficiently is expensive (read recirculating dwc) and a lot can go wrong. Simplicity is key.

[Pay It Forward]

I'm on my second grow w/8 bucket farm and I love it. I don't use extra turn off valves, don't check ph in each bucket. I check ph twice a day from the res's.

After my first grow I changed to 2 new strains (White Russian &
C99/Apollo 11. I also changed the configeration of the system. GH provides 2 res's,a 5 gallon res. controller and a 10 gal. res. I use both, but separated them so one res controls 4 WH and one res. controls 4 C99/A11. I'm at 4th week in flower. Different strains like different nutes. WH likes nutes from 1500 - 1800 ppm, C99/A11 likes nutes 1200 - 1500 ppm.

Results: WOW!!! My best yield yet, and these are from seed (clones are in a different system.) I'll have a huge WH harvest, good C99/A11 harvest.

I change nutes every 6-7 days. I mix 8 gallons for each set up (ppm different). I add nutes to res, let it drain into buckets, after I've completed both set ups, I RAISE THE RES.'S 7 INCHES ONTO A SMALL BENCH I HAMMERED TOGETHER. This causes the remaining nutes to drain into the buckets (res is empty, 2 gallons of nutes per bucket).

To check ph, I place the res on the floor and let nutes run back into res. until nutes are divided into 5 (4 buckets + 1 res.). Now I check PH.

I also measure the original depth of new nutes(@7 inches) with res. on floor, then daily I measure the depth again w/res. on floor. This tells me if I need to add more.

I think this is the best way to use the waterfarm, and you don't waste nutes (unless you don't change nutes often), and it's easy to manage.

End of harvest I take everything apart & clean and sterilize, that's alot of work but well worth it.

I don't know why GH has two res's, but you can use them to your advantage.

Hope this helps.

Peace, PIF

[BlueBear]

I still stand behind what i said and I will explain a little. I was thinking that he wanted to buy a pre built system and for $50 and under the water farm is a still IMO and can produce some mid size trees. For DIY, bubble buckets are probably the easiest. With the 8 pack water farm I have noticed many people do modifications, but they would rather make the modifications than change to a new system. I do not really know of a premade system that is as cheep, durable and can really produce as much with as few complications as the water farm single bucket unit, not to say that there are no problems or nothing that compares, just not in my exp.
IMO with a 8 plant set up to grow 2 to 3 FT plants without too many complications would be a 3x3 or 4x4 ebb and flow table with a strain that has little side branching. In a 3x3 you can put about 9 fairly easy and harvest up to 3oz per plant with a good strain and a dialed in system and the table will only take up a 3x3 foot print where the water farm will take up an entire small room.
Well I like everyone's input and feel that everyone made good points.
Adieu

[Weedhound]

I will say I have not been able to control ph from the res--I have had problems with ph in INDIVIDUAL buckets only while the res ph remains at 5.9. during all my grows. The ph remains extremely stable for me during the veg stage so don't have to check as often but during flowering I check and adjust ph daily. That is 100% the biggest hassle of this system for me. I would LOVE to have a way to circulate water through the buckets continually instead of each filling and water just staying there. One other problem I have to deal with daily (during flowering only) is that the little drip rings get clogged very often and have to be rinsed out constantly. And yep, it grows some good sized plants.

[JackdaWack]

BlueBear ur dead on man. Ive been searching for an "improvement" or a new one, i posted picks on a diy i came up with in paint. I was thinking either doing that, getting the 8bucketfarm or a 3x3 ebb/flow table, i was thinkin i would get best grow and yeilds with the 3x3 table because of the fact it saturates roots and then when done pulls fresh oxygen everytime it feeds, and you only have one bucket of water to test ph/tds by easiest means. The 8bucketfarm and the ebb/flow table are both around 300, and the diy would just be time consuming paying no more then 50 bucks in rubbermaid containers and plumbing. Current setup, 2 12gal rubbermaids(around that size). and a drain to res., top feed, i get 4ft babes 6plant system. spent about 50 bucks, on a pump and containers netpots growrocks and tubing. Cant go wrong, These complex systems are $ and they seem to complicate things.