Ok im about to take the plunge again last grow was some years ago !!
i currently have >
2x 400w high pressure sodium sont plus lights
A contactor relay & timer,
Nutrients: grow & bloom,
Nutrient meter & calibration fluid, digital pH meter, pH up & pH down,
digital thermo / hygro min / max meter
water heater, air pump and stone
power head pump ...
100mm inline fan and carbon filter
and a NFT tank and tray
Tank size: 1525mm × 485mm × 190mm high. Tank volume: 68 litres. -

I will be growing from clones that are in root riot cubes just now and will be ready to go in a week or so ..

my last grow was nft and did fairly well
this time i wtd to go with the clay pebbles

My question is with what i have above what additional items will i need can i use my nft system for Flood and drain
or should i just stick to nft and rockwool ?
OR do you have any other ideas of a system i could use say pebbles and dippers
thanks

Personally I perfer to use pellets rather than rockwool, simply because of possible salt build up in cubes, algae possibly forming on cubes, if using rockwool I also place clay pellets on top to cover light from hitting the roots.

Only grow in rockwool when using seeds, never for clones.

your gonna need better yenting than that with those lights

peppi

So should i get some buckets fill them with Clay Pebbles and my new clones ?
How should get water/nutes to them i wtd to put the buckets on the nft tray and maybe flood and drain them
can i flood the tray or do i have to flood the buckets ?
could i not use droppers im lost for ideas on how to do this properly ....

My main problem is i cant work out how to feed the plants as i have never used pellets !!
do you have to flood them how absorbent are they ?

Not used an NFT, but would get some pots with holes in and the clay pellets will hold the clones up, no food until they root or start changing colour, if they look hungry apply 1/4 strength nutes.

Im assuming the NFT floods the pots then drains every so often, you basically sit the pots on the tray and the water gets to a certain point them drains back to the tank via a overflow tube of a sort.

Got some NFT growers on here so they might be able to help more.

If it's a nutriculture gro-tank (which most UK ones are) then you wont have the depth for flood and drain as the top tray is so shallow. Also, these systems are designed to create a thin film of nutrient, so the nutes will run away to quickly down the channels to get any decent depth for flooding. If you are set on using pots of pebbles, you could easily convert your NFT tray to a drip system - you just need a few bits of pipework and some drippers along with a timer to regulate your drip times (you can probably use the same pump from your NFT). Then you would just sit your pots on your top tray to catch the run-off and return to your res. You are basically making your nft system into a sort of wilma.

Go on then potsmoker.. I am intrigued To know why..

thanks choobasmoke i have gone with rockwool cubes again i will be putting the root riot cubes straight into the 4" bocks
i have also purchased a 200mm fan that i may be running if required the room is on a dry run @ the mo with just 3 mother plants in soil and its holding around 75-80 F with one light 24h and 50% humidity with a little misting to keep it up ...

next grow i will be getting some clay pebbles some pots an i have seen a cheap watering system on that auction site
looks like this
costing around £5 -6 and making some dripper rings for the pots i will then sit them on the tray so i can recirculate the nutes
as you say i guess the tray would be to shallow thx for the reply,s so far ..

Or if you want to you can easily convert to a 'run to waste' method. You would need a cycle timer, and your plants would only have the best at all times;)
No res issues, ever! Not much of res. changes either. Very little waste as long as you dial it in.
Good luck!

have you tryed coco mate. clay pebbles are ok but if you have a power cut or something your babys will die. coco will hold some water till you get what ever fix.
any how good luck with the grow

try using 11ltr pots with canna cocoa and hand water fantastic results

well you can always clone in a bubbler or areo and skip media based cloning all togeather. Once they start to root you can move them to other media. Just throw the plants inside the baskets filled with clay pebbles, then water by hand until the roots reach out and hit the film. The downside is rockwool is great for stabalizing the plant when combined with clay stones, so the plant wont topple over as easly at frist. once the roots bust out it'll give it some lower support. but feel free to put a bamboo stick in with the clay and if you have too. (the size your wanting to go well depend on that.)

Just remember rockwool takes longer then clay to dry out so if you go only clay you'll need to hand water more often then rockwool, but just remember let the media dry then re-water it to help root growth quickly. Once the roots reach your film you should be good to let your ntf do the rest.

And as it was said above, you may want to upgrade your inline to 150mm or even bigger for the 2 hid's. I'm about to run a 150 just for 1 but it's hot as sin here so i wanna make sure i'm able to pump every bit of heat out....

Lastly i didn't see an EC meter. From what i've read when mixing nuts you dont really wanna go by PPM because each brand/style mesures it diffrently and well give you diffrent mesurements on the same water supply. EC meters well let you skip that. Check out Owderb's posts about EC lvls and where he keeps them. He has some great info on that. Good luck on your hydro grow mate

*edit* sometimes i even confuse myself =P