My first functional Ebb & Flood setup

McGuiver · Mar 9, 2014

I wanted to setup an ebb and flood setup. I am testing it with Lucky Bamboo cuttings. They have no roots, so we will see how this experiment works. Once the test is complete my peppers will have a new place to grow.

Empty flood table.

Here is the flood table full.

Here is the storage reservoir.

The tank has 3 gallons of water in it. It has an 80 gallon per hour pump, and an air stone.

My cycle time is about 1 min to fill up, and off for 2 min. It drains in about 15 secs.

I put 2" net pots to hold cuttings. I also put in hydroton to hold everything in place.

White 1-1/2 inch PVC pipe is the siphon drain pipe.

motocross308 · Mar 9, 2014

i love flood and drain.. so much easier to live with than other hydro methods. i just use pots full of coco fiber in mine now and it works great .. 2 floodings a day and im golden ! Happy growing , im gonna bet you love that set up.

McGuiver · Mar 9, 2014

Came out this morning to find my plants trying to comit suicide.

queequeg152 · Mar 9, 2014

net pot inserts too buoyant eh? lol. lower the flooding im guessing?

McGuiver · Mar 9, 2014

queequeg152 said:
net pot inserts too buoyant eh? lol. lower the flooding im guessing?

Yup. Net pots had nothing in them. Now they have some ballast.

Also filled up the flood bed with more rock. Seems to be holding. Time will tell.

McGuiver · Mar 9, 2014

I just added 3 more plants for a total of 9 in this flood tray. Time will tell. Seems that the extra rock and ballast in the net pots is working.

These Lucky Bamboo will actually grow in just plain water. As long as there is no chlorine and fluoride.

queequeg152 · Mar 9, 2014

who ever told you bamboo wont tolerate chlorine and or flouride was misinformed.

I WISH bamboo was somehow effected by the trace amounts of HOCl... its hard as all hell to exterminate as is... if all i had to do was splash a lil bleach onto the ground? oh man that would be amazing.

McGuiver · Mar 9, 2014

This is not traditional Bamboo. I have regular bamboo growing out back. This is Lucky Bamboo. Not even in the same family. They just call it that. If it gets one whif of Flouride or Chlorine, you will see it in the plant.

Here is it's real name...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracaena_braunii

I use this plant (Lucky Bamboo) as the canary in the coal mine. It is very sensative to bad water and such. It can show signs of bad things within an hour.

I just think it is a cool plant to grow.

McGuiver · Mar 10, 2014

I made a mistake in my comment earlier. I am using Hydrocorn for the rock material.

theliveculture · Mar 10, 2014

How deep is your flood tray? 3 gallon reservoir is imho way to small for a reservoir for a flood drain setup. I was running a 10 gallon reservoir on my very first system and I found myself topping off the res with nutrients and Ph adjusted water every day to keep the pump from running dry.

McGuiver · Mar 10, 2014

theliveculture said:
How deep is your flood tray? 3 gallon reservoir is imho way to small for a reservoir for a flood drain setup. I was running a 10 gallon reservoir on my very first system and I found myself topping off the res with nutrients and Ph adjusted water every day to keep the pump from running dry.

I think completely empty it was about 2 gallons. The Hydrocorn was pre washed, and then placed in the container. I think with the displacement of the rock and such it now holds less than a gallon before the siphon drain kicks in. Because these cuttings have no roots, I will be testing its rooting success. I only added RO water, AquaShield, and KLN. Once I switch over to peppers, I think I will have to switch to a bigger reservoir.

Helvete · Mar 11, 2014

A good formula is 1 gallon per square foot of grow space when you're using flood and drain with bell siphons...with 100 gallons you could have a 10x10 grow space or two 5x2 grow beds, I got rid of mine and turned it into an oversized DWC dutch bucket because I got tired of hearing the sound of a toilet flushing lol. I really have to get something else on my system because fish put off nitrates constantly and I don't have a large enough grow area. Looking good, McGuiver, next up maybe you'll get some fish and run aquaponics

McGuiver · Mar 12, 2014

I added some more plants for a total of 11 plants.

My Lucky Bamboo was growing I guess in a DWC before.

Some good roots. When the roots are orangish red they are very healthy.

Here is a bunch of roots in DWC.

These plants in the DWC pot setup have no more room to grow. They were about 6 months old. Time to spread their wings.

ikeepfish said:
A good formula is 1 gallon per square foot of grow space when you're using flood and drain with bell siphons...with 100 gallons you could have a 10x10 grow space or two 5x2 grow beds, I got rid of mine and turned it into an oversized DWC dutch bucket because I got tired of hearing the sound of a toilet flushing lol. I really have to get something else on my system because fish put off nitrates constantly and I don't have a large enough grow area. Looking good, McGuiver, next up maybe you'll get some fish and run aquaponics

I tested my system when everything was in there. I dumped in a gallon of water. It starts to siphon with one gallon.

I am wanting to do fish. I'm looking at doing an outdoor 500 gallon fish pond. Then pump water indoors for plants, and then drain back outside to the pond.

McGuiver · Mar 22, 2014

I just had the PH run away today. I had it down at 5.5 to 6.0

The PH today went up to 9. I buffered it back down to 5.5

What causes the PH to run away like that? Water is still clean and has no smell.

I'm figuring the plants might be growing roots now.

queequeg152 · Mar 22, 2014

probably low alkalinity.
add a drop of acid to a glass of distilled water then add a drop of acid to a glass of sea water, you will see what i mean.

whats ferts are you running in the water?

algea could also basify the water very quickly under bloom conditions, as they suck up all the co2 in solution very quickly.

co2 in solution dissociates partially to form carbonic acid, an exceptionally weak acid, but an acid none the less.

the same algea can consume all the oxygen out of the solution as well given the right conditions and absence of light, but this has much less effect on ph, as diatomic oxygen in solution forms peroxide.... i cant remember why tho.

McGuiver · Mar 22, 2014

queequeg152 said:
probably low alkalinity.
add a drop of acid to a glass of distilled water then add a drop of acid to a glass of sea water, you will see what i mean.

whats ferts are you running in the water?

algea could also basify the water very quickly under bloom conditions, as they suck up all the co2 in solution very quickly.

co2 in solution dissociates partially to form carbonic acid, an exceptionally weak acid, but an acid none the less.

the same algea can consume all the oxygen out of the solution as well given the right conditions and absence of light, but this has much less effect on ph, as diatomic oxygen in solution forms peroxide.... i cant remember why tho.

I'm only using KLN and AquaShield right now.

Helvete · Mar 22, 2014

Any particular reason you're running your system with bamboo? I figured maybe it was just for test purposes but I don't want to assume.

McGuiver · Mar 23, 2014

ikeepfish said:
Any particular reason you're running your system with bamboo? I figured maybe it was just for test purposes but I don't want to assume.

Yes, it is only a test. Once I have mastered this one cycle, I will move to peppers. I can sacrifice my Lucky Bamboo without guilt, but killing innocent peppers plants, well... I can't eat my Lucky Bamboo...

queequeg152 · Mar 23, 2014

McGuiver said:
I'm only using KLN and AquaShield right now.

im not real sure what those are. whats your EC at? is there any carbonate in those fertilizers?
are you keeping this deal sterile? like with bleach or perodixes?

imo you probably have a very low alkalinity nutrient solution, is this RO or distilled or what?
is your tap water full of carbonate? if so maby add some back to the solution, it will greatly buffer the solution. you can test this yourself with litmus some bicarbonate and some experimentation.

McGuiver · Mar 24, 2014

Well my PH shot up again today. I had a white layer on my hydrocorn. Looked like a salt deposit or white mold. Just in case I sprayed down the rocks with 500ml of RO water, and 2ml of h2o2 (50%) for a final solution of 0.1992%. Looks like the rocks are clean, but they will have to dry.

This is an RO water setup. I just added 4ml of h2o2 (50%) per gallon on RO water for a total mix of 0.0528%.

I buffered down the water to 5.5 again for the PH before I added the h2o2.

Any other thoughts?

What are the concentrations you use for H2o2 final solution?
What do you guys use? EC meter or PPM meter? I only have a TDS meter.