Need Help Planning ebb & flow table

Hi Guys,
New to this forum thing, so bear with me. I want to start a 4' x 8' table with 4" rockwool cubes. I planned on buying a 70 gallon resivoir for nutes. how powerful of a pump will I need? How many cubes will properly fit on this size of table? my estimate is 32 ( 4 rows 8 per row). Also, how are roots protected, as I can't imagine root mass will all fit in 4" cube as grow goes on. I am a total noob with active hydo (used a GH hydro bucket for one cycle). I have roughly 5 yr. experience using grow bags and pro mix, so I'm not a noob @ growing. Any help with this planning would be greatly appreciated.

I'll throw you a bone new guy...j/k

welcome aboard, believe me this is a good board. You chose well

If you use a smaller 4x4in cube you could grow more smaller plants, but your right, it is not really enough for the entire life of most plants. You could throw a coco mat down but they tend to mold if they get too much light on them and remain wet (like you would probably want). or you could just let the roots air prune, i.e. die from drying out and being outside the cube. IDK

I would go SOG if you are stuck on the 4 inch cubes in a flood tray, Good luck and keep us posted........JR

If you check out my signature , I will show you how to build the Ebb and Flow system and grow with the 6" blocks. it's a lot easier than people think.

thanks for the warm welcome JR!

I did plan on going SOG, so maybe I should lay out my plan a little more specifically. Here goes.

I planned on oredering from Attitude & getting Cataract Kush (8-9wks) and Rocklock (8 wks). Using DWC & 1 600 HPS to grow mothers (figuring 2 mothers for each strain). Take cuttings & put in 1" rockwool cubes under 6 tube T5. once clones are rooted enough , I planned on putting them straight into 4" cubes with no veg & start flowering under 2 600w hps. Figuring plant will finish @ a height of 2-3 ft with hopefully an average of about 14g's per site. I want to yield about 2lbs per cycle. So I think my original # of 32 cubes isn't gonna work, so mathamatically I'll need a total of 64 4" cubes. Does this plan sound about right? Will 64 4" cubes leave enuf room for plants to grow without overcrowding? Also, what size pump should I get?

Thanx for the reply, dadio.

Although your link was good, it really isn't the info I was looking for. I know (or at least I think so) on how to construct the table etc. I am more trying to get info of the capacity of a 4 x 8 table.

here is a link to a guy who runs 4x8 trays with 70 gal res's and 2 600's over each tray in flower its a little larger scale but basically same thing you are wanting to do its a very long thread like 30+ pages but allot of useful info for what you want to know. he uses 6x6x7 pots like i do same exact pots and they work great freshly rooted clone in rapid rooter buried in hydroton in the pot straight to flower is what i do think he uses ezcloner for clones so of course he has no rapid rooter or nothing just freshly rooted clone to hydroton check it out here are some pics of my pots.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=77825&page1

thanx for the info. Inever considered using hydroton, and maybe I should re-evaluate this. The cleanliness and overall viberance of you ladies speak volumes! This is more what I have invisioned for this set up.I am really starting to dig the whole reusability of the hydroton. I 've used it once before.

yup it sure does come in handy man and all i do is harvest then all the hydroton goes in a 40 gal wal mart tote and fill with water and a healthy dose of h202 for a hour or so strain rinse and good to go. 4x8 tray is a great grow setup with 2 600's on the link i gave you that dude stoney is doing pretty much the same thing and pretty sure he says he is pulling about 40 to 48 oz's off one of his 4x8's with 2 600's shit thats allot of sweet sensimillia lol.

that certainly is alot of dankness, my friend. I only wish I had the room and funds to run 8 tables. I researched cost going with hydroton, and I'd be a fool NOT to! The cost of rockwool to load a 4 x 8 table is pretty much the cost to run the pots w/hydroton. And I can re use. I'd be spending $130+ on rockwool every 8 wks! I think I was used to having to re buy something cause I've been Pro-mix & grow bagging for the last 5 yrs. Trying to get away from that practice. Also, its nice to be conserving water like I'd be doing going ebb & flow! You know "go green", lol.