This thread is for the Hydro growers, whether you’re using no medium, rockwool, coco, clay pebbles, etc… share your ideas/Diy/tips/tricks.
I’ll start it off.
Here’s what I use to cover my rockwool blocks
I feel dumb asking but what all materials/substrates can you use for hydro? Like aside from clay balls? Kinda on broke side most of the time so ordering some is currently not feasible.
Depends on what Hydro system you plan to run.
Nft and aeroponics can be used with no medium.
Eventually would like to do areo, but for now would be more like a single plant but obviously bigger size in the style of a bubble cloner with a net pot, i know very half assed but its more of experimenting than anything.
You’re talking about a DWC bucket? The biggest problem with that system is root rot.
Check out my drip bucket system, it’s 10x better then dwc.
Just checked it out, very awesome. How do you make one though? I’ve heard of them just haven’t really looked into them as much as I’ve wanted to. Like how does it work and such.
You could use just about anything, but the idea is a reservoir with a lid. A net pot sits on the lid full of medium and the roots hang down into the res which is full of bubbling water. You can use just about anything inert for the medium, marbles work and are cheap and readily available…at least they were lol do kids even know what marbles are anymore?
This is pretty much self explanatory (the black stuff is just there to cover the extra holes).
Slap it on a timer and you’re good to go, It doesn’t need to be exactly the same. I’m sure by now you’ve grasped the concept.
*Add as many holes that you feel give you a good drainage.
I run dwc and have zero problems with root rot. Got to keep the water oxygenated. The only time I’ve had root issue were from clogged air stones and even then with the air gap from the top of the water level to the bottom of the pot it let’s you know well before it’s too bad to recover from. From a simplicity standpoint can’t beat dwc. Have a power outage with a drip system and the plant could die.
Are we just going to ignore the rockwool’s water retention abilities? 
People can also use Coco coir if they wish.
Just brings up bad memories from an old flood and drain setup I had. 4’x8’ table with 4x4 cubes in a bed of hydroton. Timer set to come on for 30 min every 3 hours to flood the table. Power went out right after I left for work and was out for 5 hours. That and my timer getting all fooked up from the outage I lost 32 plants that day. Since then I decided I wouldn’t rely on a pump to feed ever again lol
God damn Florida is always trying to kill something or someone 
. If it doesn’t kill your plants, it screws with the light cycle.
My udwc horror story, was my second grow. I had reconfigured the layout with a move to a larger tent. Everything was smooth for 4 weeks of veg & then the week I was away in Vegas at a convention, the system sprung a leak as one of the uniseals let go. I got a panic call from my wife as the tent started filling with water. She bailed & shut off the power to the tent. Five days later, I got home & 12 inches of the roots were hard & dry but the last 4 inches of both root masses was still alive from the tiny bit of fetid water left in the bins. The next day I converted to coco/perlite in cloth bags that I put into the dry bins. The plants barely missed a beat in growth & I have been using coco for my hydro media ever since.
I just fixed a slime issue with my turbokloner. I moved and had to start over with everything. Got new plants growing, started taking clones and got the dreaded clear slime. Killed all my clones. I spent three months trying to clear it up. Cleaning, fighting slightly high temps. Finally I came across a post that said use 1/4 cup ammonia to 5 gal of water. I tried it and no more slime! They also seem to be rooting a bit faster, and the Temps are more stable!
Thank you ive been wondering about that for a while but anytime I went to look it up I couldn’t think of how to word it and had been going nuts. I actually have some of the marble stones that you would use for like in aquariums around somewhere that I had debated on teying for a while. And yeah my kids know what they are and have played a few times but its been forever. Might be time to see about picking some up.
Ammonia, what concentration, maybe that’s a silly question, could one assume nearly pure ammonia?
Left in the res permanently?
Sounds interesting, never heard of it before.
It is basic household ammonia, non scented. I used 1/4 cup for 5 gallons of just water. No nutes
I’ll try and find the post and make a link later
Looking for some DIY ideas for a cloner, whatcha got, OG? Is a DWC set up adequate for a cloner, or will I need a pump & sprinkler tips for more of an aeroclone set up?
Looking to make it big enough to do at least 12 clones.
Here is an older post about it:
And this is a more recent thread with some more DIY goodness:
