Ebb & Flow System

4

420hydrodude

New Member
Could I buy a PPM meter?

When mixing recipe for success nutrients, How do you measure half strength nutrients?

And whith an Ebb & Flow system do you have to flush your whole system?

How would you rate an Ebb & Flow watering system?:grinjoint:
 
420hydrodude said:
Could I buy a PPM meter?

When mixing recipe for success nutrients, How do you measure half strength nutrients?

And whith an Ebb & Flow system do you have to flush your whole system?

How would you rate an Ebb & Flow watering system?:grinjoint:
Click to expand...

A TDS/PPM meter is essential for growing especially in Hydro. You will also need a pH meter.

When measuring your nutes you want to end up at some ppm or ec value. Different meters use different ec to ppm conversion factors. Most I have dealt with use a .5 conversion. meaning 1.6 EC is equal to 800ppm

.8 or .800 is 400ppm and so forth.

I would consider half strength to be around 600-800 ppm. really depending on the starting ppm of your water. If 0ppm then 600 ppm with nutes mixed in is about 1/2 strength.

With my ebb and grow and ebb and flow I only flush with straight water or with water/clearex during the final 10 days or so. Maybe twice a year I will run a bleach solution through the whole system. I clean out my ebb table between transplants since nasty stuff starts growing and collecting on it. My e/g sites I leave alone.
 
I have a three week old new veggie and I 4 x 4 flow table with a 50 gallon reservoir my plants are in 6x6 net pots filled with clay pellets and my seedlings where Germinate it and 1 inch rock wool cube.. I’ve been feeding from the top every 3-4 days Which the roots started coming out of the bottom of the net pots..I switched on my ebb/ flow yesterday but only filling it only enough to cover the bottom of the pots maybe a inch or so but not high enough to touch the rock wool cube, My question is am I doing the right thing, and how often should I flood the table with 600ppm - 5.8 ph nutrits?
 
Also I need to add, I’m using LED Spider Farmer 4000, and my Temp stays around 75° and a little cooler at night and my humidity I keep around 50 to 60%..
 
83D0C117-A2A5-402A-8117-E62CF52566CE.jpeg
 
I’m changing out the 50 gal reservoir today, it’s been close to 3 weeks, I made it soon as my seedlings started to grow thinking I was going to put them in the ebb and flow. Shortly found out that I didn’t need it yet so I been trying to save the Solution since it cost so much but the water was getting too cloudy to start these plants and at first I think I was watering my plants too much but then I cut back every 3 to 4 days and this last week I finally decided to turn on the reservoir which I noticed the plants started to turn yellow, so I decided to change it out and put fresh everything in it. Unfortunately I don’t have RO water so I’m using street water which the pH close to 6-7 also I have Dechlorinator water conditionator and I’m using General hydroponics Flora grow/Micro/Bloom, plus Hydrogrow and Cal mag plus as my nutrients and keep the ppm at 500..I’m not really sure if that’s good or bad but I have been following the directions on the bottles..
 
Your nutrient mix sounds perfect. I’m not an expert, but I’ll share my thoughts. Your roots are going to air prune themselves once they grow out of the pots. There isn’t a whole lot of effective root space as your set up. There are a few things you could try, but I’d start with filling your net pots as high as you can. That should almost double your available root volume.

I think flooding once a day should be good for this age. By the time there flowering, you’ll likely be every 3-4 hours. Do you have an extension you can place on your table drain? You’re probably fine for now, but as the roots fill in, you’ll want to wet as much of that hydroton as you can.

I don’t know how much clay pebbles you have, but I’d think about filling a small section of your flood table to see how a larger root area changes things as a comparison for yourself. I’d put rocks (or whatever inert things you can find) to take up some volume in your table. A 50G res is crazy. Personally, I’d go by a big bag of pellets and fill your entire table with them. It will very likely save you a ton of money on nutrients (by only needing to run a 15-20G res) and you can reuse the clay.

Are you running an air stone in your Rez?



If you start a journal, ping me. As soon as I get a keeper BLueberry mom, I’m going to run about 15 clones in a 2x4 table. Good luck!
 
You’re going to need to monitor and adjust PH regularly. It’s an absolute must. An air stone and a beneficial bacteria will help stabilize PH too. Might think about a sterile res (bleach) with tap water. I had hell with DWC and bennies for about the 1st 3 days after a Rez change.
 
Spitz said:
Your nutrient mix sounds perfect. I’m not an expert, but I’ll share my thoughts. Your roots are going to air prune themselves once they grow out of the pots. There isn’t a whole lot of effective root space as your set up. There are a few things you could try, but I’d start with filling your net pots as high as you can. That should almost double your available root volume.

I think flooding once a day should be good for this age. By the time there flowering, you’ll likely be every 3-4 hours. Do you have an extension you can place on your table drain? You’re probably fine for now, but as the roots fill in, you’ll want to wet as much of that hydroton as you can.

I don’t know how much clay pebbles you have, but I’d think about filling a small section of your flood table to see how a larger root area changes things as a comparison for yourself. I’d put rocks (or whatever inert things you can find) to take up some volume in your table. A 50G res is crazy. Personally, I’d go by a big bag of pellets and fill your entire table with them. It will very likely save you a ton of money on nutrients (by only needing to run a 15-20G res) and you can reuse the clay.

Are you running an air stone in your Rez?



If you start a journal, ping me. As soon as I get a keeper BLueberry mom, I’m going to run about 15 clones in a 2x4 table. Good luck!
Click to expand...

The reason why I got a 50 gallon reservoir was I was thinking it would help on the nuts and not have the change it so much, may every 3-4 weeks I’d have to change it, but not sure if it will last that long, But I have read that some people don’t ever change out there reservoir the whole life cycle and just use hydrogen peroxide to kill the bacteria, which I’m not sure if that’s a good idea for me because I use Hydroguard..I have 4 air stones which it getting plenty of air in there, plus I was going to put coco mats underneath the heavy pots to help the roots to grow out from underneath, I also got Hydro 7 Mil UV Treated Light Proof Film I going to put over the tray tomorrow to keep the roots/ nutz in the complete dark.. My nutz are measuring 1.35 mS- 600ish ppm with ph of 5.8-6.. which I’ve read is good..​

 
Spitz said:
Your nutrient mix sounds perfect. I’m not an expert, but I’ll share my thoughts. Your roots are going to air prune themselves once they grow out of the pots. There isn’t a whole lot of effective root space as your set up. There are a few things you could try, but I’d start with filling your net pots as high as you can. That should almost double your available root volume.

I think flooding once a day should be good for this age. By the time there flowering, you’ll likely be every 3-4 hours. Do you have an extension you can place on your table drain? You’re probably fine for now, but as the roots fill in, you’ll want to wet as much of that hydroton as you can.

I don’t know how much clay pebbles you have, but I’d think about filling a small section of your flood table to see how a larger root area changes things as a comparison for yourself. I’d put rocks (or whatever inert things you can find) to take up some volume in your table. A 50G res is crazy. Personally, I’d go by a big bag of pellets and fill your entire table with them. It will very likely save you a ton of money on nutrients (by only needing to run a 15-20G res) and you can reuse the clay.

Are you running an air stone in your Rez?



If you start a journal, ping me. As soon as I get a keeper BLueberry mom, I’m going to run about 15 clones in a 2x4 table. Good luck!
Click to expand...
I got a 50 gallon reservoir at first thinking it would save me having to do change outs every week, Before I read this I went ahead and bought some cocoa matts that I plan to put underneath the pots to help the root grow out from underneath the heavy pots and also got a
Spitz said:
You’re going to need to monitor and adjust PH regularly. It’s an absolute must. An air stone and a beneficial bacteria will help stabilize PH too. Might think about a sterile res (bleach) with tap water. I had hell with DWC and bennies for about the 1st 3 days after a Rez change.
Click to expand...
I have EC and PH meters that use to keep track, I’m right now at 1.34mS- 600ishPPM, with 5.8-6 PH which I keep it there,I used Diluted 12% peroxide when I cleaned it 3 days ago, I cleaned the table and the reservoir really good For adding all fresh nudes back in it..
 
But are you saying when I flood my table I should completely flood it, I was just gonna have like maybe an inch just enough to cover the bottom of the pot and let the rock wool dry out, is this a good idea or should get the rock wool wet which will stay wet if I do that which would cause root rot..
 
If I did that I would have to flood every three days to let the Rockwall dry out so to put them on a one or twice a day’s watering cycle I would have to just water the bottom of the pots
 
Wow! I think your setup is about as good as you can do. The white covering and coco mats address everything I was originally worried about.
The concern for wetting the rock wool is valid. People do grow ebb/Flow with rock wool only. I would flood as you originally mentioned (about an inch) until wet rock wool is no longer a concern of damping off your seedlings. At that time, think about adding another 1inch extension to your drain fitting. With the coco mats, it should make it easier to run for now. Flooding once a day (or every other day) should work with the coco holding nutrient solution. You can dial it in as you go and you’ll end up flooding around 3 times with lights on and one cycle lights off.

Setup sounds great!
 
Spitz said:
Wow! I think your setup is about as good as you can do. The white covering and coco mats address everything I was originally worried about.
The concern for wetting the rock wool is valid. People do grow ebb/Flow with rock wool only. I would flood as you originally mentioned (about an inch) until wet rock wool is no longer a concern of damping off your seedlings. At that time, think about adding another 1inch extension to your drain fitting. With the coco mats, it should make it easier to run for now. Flooding once a day (or every other day) should work with the coco holding nutrient solution. You can dial it in as you go and you’ll end up flooding around 3 times with lights on and one cycle lights off.

Setup sounds great!
Click to expand...
Ok cool thanks for the info bro, I really do appreciate it! Good luck on ur grow as well!
 

Similar threads

N
Anyone running an Ebb & Flow/Aeroponic system
Replies
1
Views
2K
greencrackbaby
G
mojuan
What are issues that growers have had with Ebb & Flow systems
2
Replies
26
Views
8K
The Happy One
The Happy One
T
Ebb & Flow watering - how often?
Replies
6
Views
5K
OldPhart
O
G
Ebb and flow hydroponics using air to rise and lower the nutrient levels.
Replies
0
Views
2K
gaiatech
G
rock49911
Any you know this ebb & flow system and can tell me how good or bad it is?
Replies
1
Views
1K
TorturedSoul
TorturedSoul
Back
Top Bottom