Recirculating system with coco VS drain to waste

Freakshow

Freakshow

Well-known member
ok folks I am considering setting up a recirculating system for my coco grow. i have run a recirculating system in the past.
my issue is I do not have floor drains in my basement. So an automated drain to waste system would be very difficult to manage.

4x4 white botanical tray, 40 gallon rez underneath - bought before Botanicare sold out like pieces of crap to Hawthorne Group.
plants will be in .8 gallon Air Pots
I'll make drip rings using 1/8" black tubing.

here's some things to consider:
I do have an aquarium chiller to keep the rez cool.
Rez will be changed out weekly
Using pH perfect AN nutes might help the pH to be stable but i'm not counting on it.

other than pathogenic issues, what else should i consider??? As long is i let the plants veg long enough to fill the air pot with roots, there shouldn't be a problem with root rot.

talk me out of it......... or not.....
 
Freakshow said:
ok folks I am considering setting up a recirculating system for my coco grow. i have run a recirculating system in the past.
my issue is I do not have floor drains in my basement. So an automated drain to waste system would be very difficult to manage.

4x4 white botanical tray, 40 gallon rez underneath - bought before Botanicare sold out like pieces of crap to Hawthorne Group.
plants will be in .8 gallon Air Pots
I'll make drip rings using 1/8" black tubing.

here's some things to consider:
I do have an aquarium chiller to keep the rez cool.
Rez will be changed out weekly
Using pH perfect AN nutes might help the pH to be stable but i'm not counting on it.

other than pathogenic issues, what else should i consider??? As long is i let the plants veg long enough to fill the air pot with roots, there shouldn't be a problem with root rot.

talk me out of it......... or not.....
Click to expand...
I run multiple recirculating hydro systems without a chiller. I do have the rez outside the grow tents. Most are 5' x 9' and 20 plants per. IME I have not had root rot issues provided I keep the system full of good microbes. I have been running this style for about 20 months. Previously I always ran sterile. I have experienced a plant or two having root rot issues a couple grows ago. I believe this was caused by the good microbes I was using being old. Meaning I believe they have a shelf life and the product I was using GH Defguard was starting to die off. The wonderful folks at Hawthorne discontinued this product. There was an overlap with Botanicare hydroguard. In their wisdom they removed a product with 98.85 percent active microbes and replaced with a single digit percent product. If you want to go with Beenys in the rez I would recommend double nickel bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain D747.
 
Anthem27.5 said:
I run multiple recirculating hydro systems without a chiller. I do have the rez outside the grow tents. Most are 5' x 9' and 20 plants per. IME I have not had root rot issues provided I keep the system full of good microbes. I have been running this style for about 20 months. Previously I always ran sterile. I have experienced a plant or two having root rot issues a couple grows ago. I believe this was caused by the good microbes I was using being old. Meaning I believe they have a shelf life and the product I was using GH Defguard was starting to die off. The wonderful folks at Hawthorne discontinued this product. There was an overlap with Botanicare hydroguard. In their wisdom they removed a product with 98.85 percent active microbes and replaced with a single digit percent product. If you want to go with Beenys in the rez I would recommend double nickel bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain D747.
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great info, thank you. What do you think about Voodoo Juice from AN?
 
Freakshow said:
great info, thank you. What do you think about Voodoo Juice from AN?
Click to expand...
I believe Using Voodoo Juice compared to the product mentioned above is like bringing a knife to a machine gun fight. Voodoo Juice has 4 strains that are called out to support growth but the concentration is so low. numbers of active are as folllows.
Voodoo Juice is 0.2 percent active product
Double nickel 747 is 98.8 percent active product but only 1 strain
If you want a product that comes in smaller quantities look at Southern Ag Fungicide
 
i'm acutallty t
Anthem27.5 said:
I believe Using Voodoo Juice compared to the product mentioned above is like bringing a knife to a machine gun fight. Voodoo Juice has 4 strains that are called out to support growth but the concentration is so low. numbers of active are as folllows.
Voodoo Juice is 0.2 percent active product
Double nickel 747 is 98.8 percent active product but only 1 strain
If you want a product that comes in smaller quantities look at Southern Ag Fungicide
Click to expand...
Thinking abut the new Voodoo Juice plus. it's a tablet good for 100 gallons and supposedly has a lot more bio-active bacteria and fungi in it. I will say this: I've been using Voodoo Juice for years and it really works well at helping to build a huge healthy root mass.

www.advancednutrients.com

Voodoo Juice® Plus Microbial Tablets by Advanced Nutrients

Raise your bud weight with Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice® Plus Tablets, the most cost-effective microbial tablets on the market.
www.advancednutrients.com www.advancednutrients.com


note: I will not use anything by GH or Botanicare. Period. Both companies had great products but sold out to Hawthorne Group which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Scotts and, as you may know, Scotts was in bed with Monsanto before the name change.. I won't give them a dime of my money.
 
Freakshow said:
i'm acutallty t

Thinking abut the new Voodoo Juice plus. it's a tablet good for 100 gallons and supposedly has a lot more bio-active bacteria and fungi in it. I will say this: I've been using Voodoo Juice for years and it really works well at helping to build a huge healthy root mass.

www.advancednutrients.com

Voodoo Juice® Plus Microbial Tablets by Advanced Nutrients

Raise your bud weight with Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice® Plus Tablets, the most cost-effective microbial tablets on the market.
www.advancednutrients.com www.advancednutrients.com


note: I will not use anything by GH or Botanicare. Period. Both companies had great products but sold out to Hawthorne Group which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Scotts and, as you may know, Scotts was in bed with Monsanto before the name change.. I won't give them a dime of my money.
Click to expand...
Gotcha!
 
Anthem27.5 said:
I believe Using Voodoo Juice compared to the product mentioned above is like bringing a knife to a machine gun fight. Voodoo Juice has 4 strains that are called out to support growth but the concentration is so low. numbers of active are as folllows.
Voodoo Juice is 0.2 percent active product
Double nickel 747 is 98.8 percent active product but only 1 strain
If you want a product that comes in smaller quantities look at Southern Ag Fungicide
Click to expand...
Glad u mentioned Southern AG. Recently started using it the last 2.5 weeks and am doing a side by side in another system using H2O2. So far it's working better than the H2O2 setup. Got rid of the white root snot and the roots are the whitest I've ever had.
 
i'm gathering equipment at the moment. I have 2 4x4 trays, 1 3x6 tray, 2 40 gallon rez's and 1 20 gallon rez. i'm trying to find my air pumps and water pumps.
 
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My air pots arrived arrived today. Ordered some Voodoo juice Plus tablets. I figure 1/2 a tab per 40 gallon rez should do the trick.

Should I continue this grow in this thread or do it in my grow thread?

Anyway, I figure, theoretically, using AN’s pH perfect coco nutes should be enough to stabilize the pH in the rez. Fingers crossed
 
update: the plants in the tray are doing very well. I'm truly impressed with the Voodoo Juice Plus. There was nothing slimy at all in my rez when i changed it out a coupe days ago. i got a package of 10 tablets. Each tablet is made for a 100 gallon rez. i have a 20 gallon rez for the 2 plants in the tray. I haven't checked the pH once, since i'm testing out how the pH perfect thing holds up. Anyway, i broke a tablet in half and tossed it in the rex and let it go 2 weeks. no slime, nothin funky growing in there at all. This could be a game changer for me for running hydro.......

plants are getting 10 ml's Sensi Coco Boom A&B, 5 ml's B52, Big Big, Bud Factor X per 2.5 gallon jug i use to fill the rez......
i'll check the ppm soon
 
Anthem27.5 said:
IMG_4481.jpegIMG_4566.jpegIMG_5085.jpegIMG_5086.jpegIMG_5143.jpegIMG_6442.jpegIMG_6440.jpegGotcha!
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Anthem is crazy yet does very well and taught me a lot!
You will not use 10% more nutrients running DTW and once you figure out how to set up the DTW watering schedule properly all you should need is to have your trays elevated high enough to have them drain into a bucket or small tote you should only need to dump once a weekish??? You could sump pump the waste wherever you want it to go as well.

My DTW grow drains are strictly gravity for the waste mainly because it’s one less pump to worry about going bad or creating a flooded room that isn’t my favorite mess to deal with!

Anthems way and recirculating works great but man he is going to be sad when I grow the strains he has given me better than him!

I apologize in advance to Anthem and I’m hoping I didn’t hurt his feelings!

The minute he sees this I will get a phone call there is no doubt about that!

Peace
 
Also if you did run DTW your nutrients would cost 90% less running salts.

Bonide makes a product that is the exact same as Hydroguard and only costs $20ish bucks for a quart/liter and is has 50 times more of the active ingredient in it. One $20 bottle will make enough for 50 gallons of the Hydroguard Botanicare garbage!

Enough rambling from my ass tonight. Nothing but best wishes and good vibes for all growers! Even Anthem! Haha

IMG_6457.png
 
I personally run drain to waste, but I have ran ebb and flow tables in the past. When I did it I used Lucas Formula. It was the best hydro formula I have ever used and the cheapest as well. That is what Im using right now in my soil drain to waste set-up. I use GH and the NPK is different than AN so the ratio would be different. Im pretty sure you could use AN but the formula ratio would be different. If you are interested let me know and I can go in depth.
 
I’m definitely do not know 1/2 as much as the ole wizard heads! In my opinion DTW is baby shit easy and takes a ton of possible pitfalls out of growing. I also will recommends salts all day long any day of the week if you are running synthetic nutrients. GH 3 part has always been legit though as well as the Lucas Formula it just costs at least 2x as much as running salts and in my opinion salts are easier to dial in.
 
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LJFarming said:
In my opinion DTW is baby shit easy and takes a ton of possible pitfalls out of growing
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I agree!
The facts are that no matter what line of nutrients you are using, or if you mix your own, the formulas are meant for a run-off situation. If you aren't running-off you will almost always be chasing an imbalance in the medium.
 
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