single bucket water farm, light, and low knowledge on growing

I am entirely new to growing, i bought two complete water farm systems with individual pumps and air lines. i have a bountiful amount of questions.

i would like to know the ideal ppm and ec for water in this system.

i've read other forums where they converted the system to a dwc kit with a air disk and extra pump and i was wondering if it works great as a drip emitting system by itself? if anyone has had succesful grows with the standalone drip ring.

reading the gh manual it says to run pump 1 hour on 1 hour off during lighting scheduele, on this forum i've seen alot of 30 min on 1 hr off? will it over water?

the best way to control salt build up

and does it matter if i clean the system and hydroton with tap water, or can i fill the res with tap water, i know it isnt r/o water, but is ther anything i can do to the tap water besides spending 2 hundo on a r/o filter.

remember i am using the single bucket system

i am working on getting clones inside them by the end of the week

and please add any other information on waterfarms i may need, maintanance, mods, tricks and any type of advice

I've been thinking about going with one of these aswell, you will find a few people around here using them. Awesome growth from what I've seen, the thread that started most of the wf hype on here was scottyballs which does have a kick ass thread! Give it a look as it has some good info and ideas like drilling extra holes in the bottom of the bucket!

As far as ppm/ec that would depend on the age of the plant and how the strain handles nutes. If its your first grow I would start really light on nutes and slowly work your way up IF they seem under fed.

You can use tap water if its not like mine lol 400ppm or close, waiting on my new EC meter to confirm it What I planned on doing was running distilled water seeing it wont take to much.. Kind of a pain but works.

All good questions, I know I'll have some when I get to that point but I'm gonna sub just incase you get any really good pointers!

Oh and I've followed a few drip ring only grow and they where amazing!

Thanks for replying, i looked at scotty balls threads and there interesting, a little un orthodox, but effective

my water will only get to about 250 ppm, get the most expensive hanna checker, its an investment, but makes the whole process alot easier

i need to wait for my plants to come in, today im going to try to finish the grow room in my closet, when im done i'll snap pictures and keep you posted

Sounds good, I'm subbed so lmk how everything goes. 250 sounds like a good starting point!

Check link in my sig latest pic is 2 weeks old but let me tell you your going to grow one hell of a plant in it. She will be at 9 weeks next Thursday and she's a beast. Was always a dirt farmer but no more.

I put one of this grows clones in a 5 gallon bucket with a 6 inch net pot . I skipped the GH farm kit and went straight to the DWC . IT saved me the 13 bucks . If you keep water lvl 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch below the bottom of the net pot bubbles bursting will mist the mediem. in my case a 4'' rockwool cube with a layer of hydroton around and overtop of it . I don't have a meter but i tested my water with food in it and it was 6.5 ph i think . I have been feeding about 1/2 strength for now as i don't have a ecm or ppm meter yet . Thats probably why it has been growing about the same rate as the soil pots on either side of it .

i think im going to run one of the systems with tap and one with r/o water and see the difference, unfortunatly clones are hard come by these days and i may have to start from seedling. if thats the case barneys farm lsd is lookin like a good pick. but i wont be postin good pictures of anything for probably another 2 weeks tops, once the seeds get in my hands, the magic will start. i was originally lookin at dwc, but this seemed a little more simple. but that two week old pic is lookin nice ceejr, do you keep your pump running constantly while the lights on

I think most the growers whom have issues or problems are the ones that their first post is "New to growing please help.. I know nothing".

Reality is... that you are too lazy to grow by asking how to grow instead of reading, learning and searching RIU. Most people think that growing is easy and just plant a seed and many moons later you smoke it. Not true... it's work and knowledge. If you just come here and ask for a "magic" method to grow "dank" you're failing before you even begin.

yes it will work fine without the extra air stone.clean the hell out of your hydroton u want to get all the red dust out. run it constant no need to ever let it stop. pop your seed let the tail get to 1/2 an inch to an inch then gently pop her in the wf. feed straight water for 2 weeks then start at about 150ppm and monitor it if she starts eating more bump it up but less is more with nutes. try and keep ph down between 5.5 and 6.5 but it will creep up fast so i usually put mine in at about 5 and let it creep up to about 7 before changing it. it wont make much diffence. and do yourself a favour and go buy the gh nova series nutes. all the info u need is in scotty balls thread if you have hte time to read through the whole thing. Dayzt also is a good guide to follow.

BigBuddahCheese said:

I think most the growers whom have issues or problems are the ones that their first post is "New to growing please help.. I know nothing".

Reality is... that you are too lazy to grow by asking how to grow instead of reading, learning and searching RIU. Most people think that growing is easy and just plant a seed and many moons later you smoke it. Not true... it's work and knowledge. If you just come here and ask for a "magic" method to grow "dank" you're failing before you even begin.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry but this post is pointless... True in a way but the OP has perfectly good questions about the WF and hes obviously did his homework, the difference between him and other new people is he actually read something before posting...

yea i wasnt expecting to be called a lazy premature failure by askin a couple q's on a few things i wasnt sure about. Thanks man im sure you and anyone whos read this has really appreciated your contribution. lets move on. i feel pretty good with all the questions i had, and the plant obtaining siituation is alittle all over the place as im narrowing down options, there may be a roadtrip ahead. So when i have everything in order, i will post up a link for my setup. till then im out

i should check what im posting before i do, the last one was pointless haha, stonedtalking again. anyway i got my babies. white widow and ak 47, both clones both healthy, both planted. and r/o water is the only water anyone should use, its almost perfect. and i nice way to solve to water not getting to the center, is to break a stirofoam cup in 2, take off the bottom, and angle it in a way where it catches the droplets and runs it off to the center, the pics arent coming in to clearly at the moment if i can figure it out tonight i'll post a link with the pics

i like the styrofoam cup idea dude. cant wait to watch your grow. im sure myself and all the other waterfarmers out there will be along for the ride and willing to help out along the way. really though its the most simple way to grow just dont overthink it like i did when i first started mine lol

i dont know i was just about to post pics but doesnt seem a little sketchy. i mean technicaly im legal. but technically im not. the server on this site is always down so who knows the real security. i dont know man. i know i sound like a bitch, but its a lot to risk just to document it.keep following or ditch this thread if you need pictures to understand, if you have any questions on anything i'll compensate with an explanation of what it is you wish there was a picture of. my bad on this one guys, hope you understand. maybe something will sway my opinion later on but for now i have fedphobia. it might be like a like first time noob fear, but bare with me. for now they looked like they had a tough trip and over foliar fed, so the water is at about 30 ppm with some botanicare pro grow whish is supposed to be made of fish meal and more natural ingredients rather than chemicals that a hard to pronounce, theres some purple tint around the stems but nothing dangerous, i'm checking on it in the mouring and seeing if it looks a little healthier, my veg light is a t5 light fixture so im interested to see the response, dont worry i have a mh for flowering. now i wasnt extremely careful with putting it into the hydroton so i hope these girls love their food and get bigger. you'll know if they do, peace

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