What's wrong with my understanding of hydro?

[abovethelaw]

First of all, this is not for marijuana so much as just a general 'hypothetical application' of a hydroponic setup, using beans as an example plant. The idea is to have it in a confined space, with each layer [light rack, water tray, tank] on separate mountings so I can slide them out for easy access and maintenance.

 

I understand I'm not being too detailed about any of this [tank sizes, light types, growing medium, etc] but I want to make sure my concept isn't flawed in some way.

 

That said, here's the basic diagram for how my potential future [non-marijuana, I don't live in my own house] hydroponic setup might occur. The nutrient tank is the only tank and would be filled up with fresh water + nutrients whenever necessary.

 

http://random-m.com/images/184567486_hydro2.jpg

 

Okay, so that's the basic diagram. What have I got wrong?

 

Edit: Forgot to photoshop in an air pump. Assume there's one in there with the water pump.

Edited July 2, 2006 by abovethelaw

[Frazz]

Yea well i cant see anything wrong with it ...........beans, ay ?

 

sure....we believe ya ......hehe

 

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Seems okay, although you'll have very small beans... I'm assuming these will be dwarf beans?

 

Is this supposed to be an NFT style system? Or are you thinking more media based trays?

[pipeman]

its a bit dicky cause you got water flowing above the lights of the lower section. If there's any leaks or spills it could be trouble...

 

but why do you want to do a dual level system like that? Seems like extra work for nothing, and headpace is always an issue indoors and you're making things harder for yourself trying to set up like this IMO.

 

[WantDaChronic]

i agree with pipeman, you could have lots of troubles with having water above the lower lights + head space is one of the biggest issues with indoor growing which you would only be makng harder for yourself

 

but if you had everything all perfectly setup so there was no chance of leaks, you find your perfect bean plant that mysteriously resembles marijuana, etc. well then the only thing i could suggest would be to water the plants from above the medium and then let gravity force it back into the res...also, i think the top plants would do better than the bottom ones as they would get fresh nutes while the bottom ones would get second hand nutes from the top plants but i spose that it might not make that much of a difference, but it might so i would wait for someone with more experience to reply

[abovethelaw]

Seems okay, although you'll have very small beans... I'm assuming these will be dwarf beans?

 

Is this supposed to be an NFT style system? Or are you thinking more media based trays?

 

The picture is not to scale. When I figure out exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to try the setup out on baby carrots. Remember I don't live at my own place, as fun as it would be to grow some weed, I'm not going to put the responsibility of the grow on anybody but me.

 

Yes, it is supposed to be NFT. I couldn't be bothered photoshopping the individual media blobs into the tray so I just put in a big brown block to signify "this is where the plants go".

 

its a bit dicky cause you got water flowing above the lights of the lower section. If there's any leaks or spills it could be trouble...

 

but why do you want to do a dual level system like that? Seems like extra work for nothing, and headpace is always an issue indoors and you're making things harder for yourself trying to set up like this IMO.

 

 

That's true about the water issues. Since it's confined I would put a perspex window between the light rack and the water-filled tray above it, and run the tubes either outside or through a water-tight gap in the window. Or even just a cover over the top part of the lights so any water that falls on them gets pushed away [like an umbrella].

 

As for the dual level system, it's because I'm designing this for bean-like plants, not weed. I had originally planned to build the hydro system inside a wheelie bin, and while I'm not going to be building prototypes like that, I will certainly keep the size and shape restrictions in mind as an ultimate goal. If I was growing weed, I'd put it in a specially made box and have only one level. At the moment though, I'm working on the idea of maximising space and effort efficiency for small plants - I'm not going to jump into growing hydroponic weed without a thorough understanding and experience of how it works.

 

but if you had everything all perfectly setup so there was no chance of leaks, you find your perfect bean plant that mysteriously resembles marijuana, etc. well then the only thing i could suggest would be to water the plants from above the medium and then let gravity force it back into the res...also, i think the top plants would do better than the bottom ones as they would get fresh nutes while the bottom ones would get second hand nutes from the top plants but i spose that it might not make that much of a difference, but it might so i would wait for someone with more experience to reply

 

The gravity feed is a good idea, I was already planning to tilt the trays slightly and have the feeder tube at a higher level than the drainage tube. I had also considered the fact that trays further on in the system might get less nutrients than previous trays, but I'm not sure how much it would matter. If someone says it is a significant concern, I'll probably just hook up the water pump tubes to split into different feeders for however many trays there are, and have all of the drainage tubes go directly back into the tank at the bottom.

Edited July 3, 2006 by abovethelaw

[Luke Skywalker]

One point though, if you're growing plants other than MJ, is why have it indoors at all? If you've got even a small space outdoors with at least a few hours direct light there's no reason you can't do it outdoors and a lot simpler...

[abovethelaw]

It's really just an experiment. I don't want to try it with weed and fuck it up, I just want to learn how it works and get some experience before I move onto weed. Yeah there are other ways I could do it to conserve electricity, effort, etc, but I want to set up some hydroponics to see if I can do it a certain way.

[jaguarrh]

well, it sounds like you have the most important thing, the goal, well fixed in your mind abovethelaw.

 

my advice is to go for it and start building. you could hypothesise and theorise until you are blue in the face.

 

the only way to really overcome engineering challenges is to build a first effort to the best of your ability and see what problems you encounter. then you start to overcome the problems.

 

this is done with a suitable amount of research obviously, but nothing makes up for practical experimentation.

 

just my two cents, don't want to sound preachy.

 

good luck with the 'beans'...

[Stoney]

yeah just get in there and set up mate and have a go you will have heaps of time to fix any problems down the line mate so get ya beans in there and get growing

 

hope all goes well

 

cheerz