Starting over

I usually agree with useless but his logic here is flawed. By and large, the plants only eat when they are immersed in the solution, not when exposed to the air. Shortening the flood time will only mean less time for the plants to eat. I believe you should go the opposite way - assuming the plants are mature enough to benefit from it, flood as much as you can without getting slime and rot.


Aerating ain't for everyone. The floor on which my ressy's rest is 65 degrees. The air is low 80's. If anything, aerating my reservoirs will make them warmer. I do not bubble and have no problems with rot so far. As for salts precipitating out of the nutrient solution....poppycock. Every three hours the the whole system is run through a waterfall for christ sake :LOL:

 

The fill fitting from the pump should be 1/2" and the drain back down to the res should be 3/4" so the pump can run and not overfill the table. Don't use a big powerful pump. I use the smallest pump possible for flooding. You don't need a lot of pressure or GPH to flood a table.


On one of my tables (2x4) I started with a 325 GPH pump. Too much. The pump ran faster than the drain could drain, so I switched out the pump for a smaller one, and no issues.

 

FF is right, it's little line in, big line out to make sure it drains fast enough. I have a short hose on to let my drain freefall into the reservoir to add air and help speed up the drain flow.


The plants utilize the moister and nutes that soaked into the clay pellets until it's flooded again. So it seems as long as the pellets are still moist the plant is fine.


Be Cool, CG

 

Sounds like it, the pump should go to the lowest one, the taller is the overflow.

 

Yeah by running the pump for 15 minutes the solution is going into the table then when it reaches your drain/overflow tube it starts to drain. Yeah it may take 2-3 minutes to fill and 2-3 minutes to drain but with your pump going for the 15 minutes it lets the solution stay in the table for the 15 minutes and makes sure that whatever medium your using, rockwool or pellets, will get saturated and stay wet long enough till the next flood. Just 2-3 minutes at a time won't do that.


edit:


"The key on flooding is to fill and drain as fast as possible. You dont the flood cycle to last for 15 mins. This means you need a digital timer."


^^ This part right here.... It should read "you want the flood to last for 15 minutes." The rest is just how long it should take to fill and after the flood how long it should take to drain.

 

Hey Jugg, heres a picture of my set up. Same table you have I think.


Anyway, the first shot is of the fill port, and the return line. The short one is the fill line, and the tall one is larger and a return line. The return line is taller and larger in diameter to allow the nutes to drain back faster than it fills.


The second shot is the front of the table with the pump line on the left and the return drain line on the right. notice the different ID hoses.


Hope this helps.

 

Everybody says flood for 15 mins. That's what I do.


No one has said flood for 30 minutes.


After Lvsky's correction, which makes complete sense, I agree with useless on everything but the aeration thing. Actually, I agree with him there too. I'm sure it helps some. I just don't do it. You can if you want :thumbsup:

 

I flood for 30, but that's due to not having a digital timer. I flood every 3 hours. I have wondered how deep the nute solution gets in other people's tables when flooded.

 

I personally don't use digital timers or AC units because I don't live where I grow and the slightest power outage clears most timers. The grow shops I've gone to recommended 15 min floods.


Useless knows what he's talking about for sure, but if it's not a misprint ,chances are he's using a bigger pump than the others here and rockwoll which saturates quicker and heavier than clay pellets.


You can try 3 min floods if you want to, but make sure it fills to the drain level. And keep an eye on things because those babies are getting some size to them and will be sucking up some water and nutes. Good Luck!!!!!


Be Cool, CG

 

Jugg what I mean by the correction is the paragraph you quoted from Useless says "you dont to flood 15 minutes" and Lvsty pointed out that that is likely a typo, in that he probably meant to type "you WANT to flood for 15 minutes."


And I stand corrected - MGJ floods 30 minutes! :jj:


I notice that Useless recommends changing flood times throughout the grow. I don't think anyone does that. Once I set the timer for the pumps, I never touch it again.

 

It just keeps the solution in the table longer. I also don't have a digital timer. I have a regular timer with the pull pins that has the pins for every 15 minutes. I have 3 or 4 of them since they only cost about 10 bucks.


It only gets as deep as your drain is high. As soon as the water level reaches the drain it, well, starts to drain. You can adjust how high you want to go by adding or subtracting pieces. I have a couple of extra ones and at one piont had one too many on my drain and it was too deep and the stalks were getting drenched which is a no-no as they will rot. So you want the depth to be adjusted to be below your stalks. I have a deep table. I think it's 4 inches deep or I can fill to 4 inches and the sides are a little higher. I think my solution is set at about 2 inches.I'm too lazy to go where it is to check it all.


Man oh man, I shouldn't type after I'm buzzed. I just keep rabbeling on & on

 

Sweet man, coming along nicely.