Recent content by forestboy

BTW the tubes don't sit in nutrient. They are sat on a board that has holes in it so they drip about 10" down into reservoir. Here's a pic of a bare tube before being loaded and sealed. The bottom peice of timber gives it stability when it sits on top of the board that is on top of the res. I...

Cheers man. It's a recirculating system. For every x 2 tubes I have x1 90 litre res. Usually with about 40 liters filled. So when the second rig is loaded I'll have 16 tubes x 8 reservoirs with every pair of 2 tubes 10 days ahead of it's neighbour. When 2 come out, 2 go in. I soak the mapito...

I don't think so. I have been recently manually flicking on the pumps for about 4 or 5 mins which equals about 2/3 litres per tube every 12 hrs and they feel dry and airy at the top if you stick your finger in. I'm starting to think it's salt build up. I'm not really flushing ever cos my levels...

6" tubes from the rear

Cheers guys. I'm still battling it and it seems to be getting worse. I'll post some more pics to see if it helps diagnosis.

Yeah you said already and I agree but as I already said, there are a variety of reason that is not an option for me. 1- being I built my own system and I can't be bothered to adapt it for aero and 2, I have 9 reservoirs in total with 18 x 1 meter high vertical tubes atop of them. Can you...

Interesting. How much more expensive is it. It only has to be bought once. I'd pay for the best possible medium!

Bump - I'm not that sure!?

My thoughts are as such. If you haven't found people using it there is probably good reason. Possible reasoning is granite is an igneous rock so presumably dense with minimal to zero absorption qualities. Even clay pebbles have some absorbent quality to them. If they didn't have then water...

Yep, I'm sure of it now. It's over watering. My theory is the rockwall cubes are getting saturated too regularly. The reason the bottom one is doing best is because root systems are dropping down and taking away the water faster. That's why it goes from good to bad from bottom too top. The...

If you don't live in the same place as your op having a medium does give you a bit of leverage regarding pump failure etc. Also, my DIY system for example would take a bit of tweaking to accommodate aero and on top of that aero would add a lot to the noise of the thing. Otherwise I'd be aero...

I don't know where you're getting your hydroton from but I pay £15 for 50 litres for mine. Perlite, mapito, coco is all I can suggest. Perhaps diahydro but that's quite expensive and difficult to get.

Maybe it's something to do with saturation. I'm using mapito and running a fast flowing drip system for 15 mins x1 hourly. I've recently switched to 15mins every 3 hrs cos this mapito holds water well. I've actually got passable results hand watering these tubes every other day with mapito...

You reckon? I don't think so! That's a 600 watt metal halide and it's bang in the middle although it doesn't look like it. If what you think is right then the bottom plants would droop as well. Also it's the tops that droop the most and some drooping on the middle ones too with the bottoms...

Have a look at this image. Each bulb has 8 tubes with 3 plants per tube. 2 tubes per reservoir cos I'm doing perpetual harvest. Been a bit of a struggle keep up with demand from my veg chamber but I'm slowly getting them bigger and bigger. Should achieve optimal in a month or 2. Anyhow for...