Pump times

[GElite]

When I first started growing hydro I was getting advise from the guy running the "Be Well Hydroponics" store in Charlotte NC and I got all my growing products from there but that cat told me to run my pump 15 on and 15 off. Now 9 years later i am using a similar method of growing and I just don't think I should run the pump that often. I do have a much larger pump now but 15/15 seems like the roots aren't as healthy because there dripping wet 24/7. I'm running a top feed drip system in 5 inch net pots with hydroton as the medium. 2000 watts of hid lightI'm thinking 15 minutes on every 45 minutes perhaps. I'd like to know what other growers are having success with. Talk to me growers.

[GElite]

Oh yeah, 400 gallon per hour fountain/aquarium type pump. I'm using like storage type tubs with 5 pots per tub, 2 tubs, 10 plants total.

[SukonmiSkunk]

if your pump is rated at say 400liters an hour.. then you ad hose to it.. depending on the length of hoses to the pots will depend on how much restriction the pump will be under.. so it will probably drop around 20-30%.. keeping that in mind..

a 400liter pump feeding 8 30l pots with 25% restriction is around 300liters an hour divide that by 8 and youll get roughly the amount per pot per hour, bearing in mind that ALL hose runs are symmetrical (same length)

so each pot is getting around 37liters an hour.. 15 mins on says it gets around 9 liters per watering. so in this case its probably not enough to fully soak the medium, solution, bigger pump.

so that gives you a rough guide on how to choose a pump for your system.

in hydroton i was running 8 30l pots with an 1800liter an hour pump so for me 15 mins was more than enough. i would water 15mins on every 2 hours when small, and as they grew 15mins every 3 hours. But i would go for 30 mins just before the lights came on to give them a good soaking as they would get no water through the dark period, then about an hour before lights off they got another 30 min water.

as rooms, lights, temps, plant size, systems vary i think its really down to trial an error till you get it right for that system.

1gallon is about 4.5liters so i reckon the pump youre using is pretty similar to mine

so is this a DWC system?

[GElite]

No it's a top feed drip system.......... Thanks for the input. So how often are you thinking I should run my pump? I guess this will end up kinda like a dwc system. It's a tub with net pots so I guess the roots will eventually hang down past the water line but I don't thing an air stone is necessary tho. Shouldn't the nutrient/water be plenty oxygenated from dripping down from the top. The hydroton increases the surface are by loads and I think that alone should oxygenate the Rez tank pretty well although I may be wrong. Please correct me if I am.

[GElite]

I didn't think the gph really played that much of a role. I was thinking it was the amount of time exposed. Weather the pump is 50 gph or 1000 gph it's still only going to take seconds to totally drench the roots. I just figured the roots aren't going to dry out in 45 minutes especially when you consider the extremely high humidity inside the tank. I just don't want to dry my roots out by leaving it off too long. I guess I'll just have to play with it. Now I have totally forgotten what temp water should the roots be seeing. Not necessarily Rez temp but at the root temp? Basically what temp at the dripper? It's been a minute since I grew dro so my memory is a little shaky. I wanna say 65 degrees but that seems a little cold.

[SukonmiSkunk]

im not entirely sure with a DWC style. seems too finicky tryign to get water temps and everything just right. i tend to use either use straight clay or perlite. Lately ive gone back to perlite because my bin guy struggles to lift my bin into the truck when its full of clayballs

[GElite]

Yeah hydroton, or clay pellets. That's what I'm using.

[GElite]

I find it completely hard to believe that nobody knows what nut temps need to be or how long to run a pump using the same grow method that thousands of people are using, or at least say they are using. Perhaps a lot of people pretend to be growers cause nobody seems to know anything. I always answer someone's question if I feel I have some useful input. I thought that this community consisted of like minded individuals that were all about love and harmony and helping out fellow man and spreading the knowledge ya know but now it's turning into competition. Nobody wants to do shit for anybody else. Not even answer a question. I remember a few years back you could ask a fellow grower a question or post a question and in minutes you had 3 answers. I'm sorry for raving but damn, wtf happened? I consider myself the type of person that you can call at 3am on a work day and need a ride home or to get bonded out of jail or whatever I'm the guy that won't say no or ignore the call so I ask myself why so hard to get a little help. It's not just hear, it's everywhere. Everyone is so tight liped during a time when we should be screaming. Now is the time people. In the us they are falling like flies. We are up to 19 states and DC with mmj, 2 states with legal recreational use and like 4 others with legislation pending on legalization. If there was ever a time when we could change the opinion of misunderstood people is now when they are paying attention and this is worldwide. If America legalizes other countries will legalize if for no other reason than to supply/export cannabis to service the us market. Big buisness is paying attention. Phillip Morris has already purchased hundreds of hectares of land in the emerald triangle. Big buisness got it banned and big buisness will get it made legal. We now have a proven buisness model with what is happening in Amsterdam and a few states that allow mmj businesses to prosper. All I'm saying is now is not the time to become gready or hourd knowledge or to just not care if the knowledge is passed.

[Dust]

don't worry man you posted your question less than 24h ago give the people a little time to have a look at it many members don't come every hours

For the temperature, from what i remember cause i never used hydro, the water temp should be around 22 23° i believe, and so i guess the temperature around the roots will be at 24 25°

Good luck man

[GElite]

And no I'm not talking about everyone. A lot of people have helped me over the years a d people hear have been nothing but cool. It's just I guess a lot of people can just not care to reply, someone else will answer their question. I mean it's as simple as 65 degrees and 15 on 30 off or whatever I mean that's not hard.

[GElite]

I'm just stressed out I guess Dust, you have definitely looked out for me and I appreciate it more than u know. I'm just trying to get this grow off the ground while I'm harvesting another and I have a long way to go and until I get it up I'm hand watering seedling in net pots with hydroton and hydroton is not forgiving like moss and perlite or even rockwool. One missed feeding and that could be it ya know.

[Dust]

And hopefully we will be able to help help you all along the grow As a little suggestion maybe you could open a journal for those ladies if they are not the same as the journal already opened, and at the same time ask the questions in the journal too discretely under the pictures The members look more often in the journal and will for sure help you too, it's not about not willing to answer it's more that this section is not the most visited one of the forum i have to recognize But people are still looking and i'ml sure if they know they will tell you!

good luck man

[GElite]

That's a great idea. I need to update the one I have going. I harvested all but 2. It's just a pain in the ass to have to use my desktop to upload pictures. I'd kill for the mobile app. Perhaps there is a jailbreak version. I can't dl it in the states. I'm planing on ordering some gh seed today I can't remember which pack I settled on but I wanna say it was super lemon haze, super silver haze, and arjan's haze. I'm gonna definitely get something in the purples and I wanna grow a bubba haze but neither is in a mixed pack but yeah I'm super excited. I'm going to order from attitude hopefully today. I feel like I have a pretty good chance of getting what I order and not some jack leg wannabe breaders bag seed ya know although I would love to get access to Arjan and Franco's bag seed you feel me! Lol

[Dust]

yes normally that distributor will send you real GHS seeds, normally.. i ain't in the stock checking buti hope they do ^^

In those 3 strains you named it's 3 very very nice smoke and all champions Don't hesitate to try the exodus cheese too still one of my favorite in the catalog

[GElite]

Yeah I'm wanting to chech out the cheese too. So can't wait till my seeds arrive!!!

[GElite]

I meant bubba kush too btw......

[SukonmiSkunk]

the reason i didnt answer was i didnt want to give bad advice.. or advice on something i dont really know about... also i been away in the big city for the last few days, and just got home..(hydro shopping) but surely some one else knows the things youre asking about.. like you said, its a fairly common sort of grow these days

temps i would say Dust is right.. around the 20c mark, but a few degrees too hot and you could have issues with root rot.. too cold, they wont take nutes.. its very finicky to get right, most people use an aquarium heater in their resi to keep it at a constant.. but around 18-22c sounds about right. I know a few growers on ozstoners.com (sorry for spamming site adresses but you might find an answer there) do DWC so you might be able to check out a few grow diaries there.

watering.. i would treat these like pots until they reach the water, and being small pots youre probably looking at 15mins every hour i would say. check the clay just before the next watering and see if its still wet, you might be able to go 15mins on and 1hour45 off.. will be a bit of trial an error and will vary as the plants grow i would think. Then when they reach the pots its just about water circulation, so with this system your hydro shop guy might be right with the 15 on 15 off to keep the water at a more constant temp, but i dont really know. When i was doing aero systems it was 15 on 15off, but in that style there is no medium, the roots just hang there and get sprayed.

it also depends a lot on room temps and how much water those plants transpire between waterings, its really trial an error till you feel comfortable.

any other hydro system i can advise on but DWC is relatively new skool, im old skool, so i like my pots and recirc.. the old ..stick with what you know thing

i too am surprised no one else has chimed in with an answer because now i want to know..lol

[GElite]

It's all good Sklunk, I wasn't really referring to anyone in particular. At least you did offer the best info you have. One thing, I'm not doing a dwc system per say, it's a drip system I just figure the roots will eventually reach the water but that will be a long ways off. Most of the roots will be above the water. I really do appreciate the help. I've used drip systems many times in the past its just been a few years so I'm trying to play catch up............on a lighter note, I'm finally smoking my own bud. I got it all dried out so I figured I'd try it. It's in no way cured but I was pleasently surprised when it didn't taste nasty or harsh or have that nasty ass green taste. It still smells green especially when I first open the jars but it in no way taste like that. I'm very pleased with the taste at this point. Now I'm just hoping that I can make it last till my next harvest.

[SukonmiSkunk]

i love fresh weed...

[GElite]

Oh yeah, I do have a 250 watt aquarium heater but I think heat will be my biggest problem. I'm thinking I'm going to make a chiller. My drip system dad a main supply tube that's like 5/8 or maybe 1/2 inch tubing that I capped off. When I was at the hardware store buying everything to build it I saw a fitting that I can put on the end of my supply hose that has a discharge nipple for the smaller feed line tubing so I'm thinking ill take a bunch of the 1/4 inch tubing and make a coil and sit it in a cooler with ice and ill have water circulating thru the tubing/coil that is sitting in ice water then back to the rez. That should bring the temp down. Perhaps I'll do a guide on here for how to make what I've got in my head. I figure ill use my aquarium heater to regulate the Rez temp. I think it has a thermostat so ill keep it set where it needs to be and I won't have to worry about chilling the water too much. Should work great but we will see.

[SukonmiSkunk]

you can get cooler bags.. material you can wrap the tubs in.. will help keep the heat from the room off the pots.

http://www.ecvv.com/product/showimage/Aluminium-Foil-Thermal-Insulation-Materi-2765819.html?purl=http://upload.ecvv.com/upload/Product/20109/China_Aluminium_foil_Thermal_Insulation_Material_bubble_foil_insulation20109168470810.jpg

this type of stuff, they make those cooler bags out of

[GElite]

Nice! That's a great idea. I have been thinking about what to do about that. I just made shields with sulu minim foil. It worked ok but I like your idea.