Hey there ladies and gentlemen- I have a few questions for those more experienced growers out there. I have decided to go with a DWC setup, but I need some info on air pumps. my rez is a 50 gallon rubbermaid for 10 plants. I need some major oxygen in that tub but the larger air pumps I have seen give only a gph output. for this rez, how large of an air pump do I need? in terms of gph? also- I have been thinking about going with those 48" flex air stones so I can get under all the plants- anyone have any experience or thoughts on those? Some of the pumps I have seen have had as large as a 2200 gph of air output- but that thing is a freakin monster- maybe if I wanted to oxygenate a small swimming pool... thanks!

__________________
whatever i just wrote- I made it up - total fabrication. and you thought I was serious...lol

How much area do you have your your plants on top of the 50 Gallon RubberMaid? If it's the size I know, you won't be able to keep 10 plants on there for long. I would do 2 plants on one of those.....or else you'll run out of room in flowering.

__________________
I use this forum for entertainment only. Nothing posted by me should be considered to be true whatsoever.

it is about 3 x 4.5, it is long and wide, not as deep as they usually are- there should be plenty of room- I sort of based my design on AL B. Fuct's grow setup. on a 4x4 tray using ebb and flow he raises quite a few little ones. with a little careful pruning I am hoping to somewhat replicate his sucess. there will be almost no veg growth and the larger leaves on the bottom 3rd of the plant will be stripped off as the goal is to harvest the top cola as your main source.the moms will be the only plants that actually get vegged

__________________
whatever i just wrote- I made it up - total fabrication. and you thought I was serious...lol

DWC rule of thumb 3 gallons of water per plant. Trust me youre gonna run out of space my 20 gallon rubbermaids have 2 plants each, and I wish I only did 1 each.

High Tech Garden Supply

__________________
These pictures are from the internet and represent a hypethetical situation

well, in that case maybe I will buy another tub- thank you for the link to the air pump- it is cheaper and has a higher output than any of the others i have seen. Thanks. have you by chance used one of those flexible air stones? they make them as large as 48 inches and claim they do not need to be cleaned very often. with some careful pruning, would i be able to fit 5 each? also- Everyone here has been awesome in helping me along with my first grow. You people are fantastic and I am so glad that I joined this site!

__________________
whatever i just wrote- I made it up - total fabrication. and you thought I was serious...lol

you want the airstones to make fizzy bubbles, not just air bubles. Hagen makes good air stones you can get em at PETCO. Remember the air stones are not to make the water turbulent just to supply the water with sufficient oxygen. My bins are about 16'' wide and 24-30'' long and its not big enough. Maybe if you prune frequently and dont let them grow too big, the roots are deff gonna get tangled I have a massive root ball the size of the bin from the 2 plants and there is no way your getting them apart. In retro spect if your going for a large scale grow DWC is not the way to go. If you only have 2-4 plants its good, the reason I say this is if you have multiple buckets its a large PITA to drain,fill,check levels, and just the overall maintenance. The system works great its just time consuming I have 5 buckets and it takes forever to do all of this stuff. So large scale go with a system that uses 1 central resevoir, that way when you have to drain,fill,and change nutes you only have 1 bucket to worry about. Hope this helps

__________________
These pictures are from the internet and represent a hypethetical situation

thank you for your help- I will give this all a try, will post results- thanks!

__________________
whatever i just wrote- I made it up - total fabrication. and you thought I was serious...lol