Ebb 'n Flow vs DWC?

hot cheetos

Active Member
One thought comes to mind immediately, and the main reason, $price$. Yes, you'll be getting a new brand system, and it's fairly easy to set up, but you'll definitely be paying for that perk. Both will get you a great plant. With DIY-ers I've seen both bucket ebb&flow and flood tables.
The Titan controls would be about $1000 cheaper than the flood table for my particular set up. Two 4x8 trays, rez, lid, pump, buckets, medium, etc. runs me 1500 with which i would run 16 plants total, 8 in each tray. For a 16 plant site Titan Controls Flo N Gro system, it runs me about 583. 10x10 tent.

The only thing with the table is that I could run far FAR more plants if I wanted to. It could support about 400 SOG plants if i wanted, whereas with the flo n gro you're stuck at 16. Even if you get the expansions you wont pass 100.
 

Bluntsmith

Active Member
I started reading this thread which were posts from legit 2008, and by the time I got to the end, I saw exchanges happening just three minutes ago, in 2016. And it's only two pages long. Mind. Blown.
 

Dumme

Well-Known Member
The Titan controls would be about $1000 cheaper than the flood table for my particular set up. Two 4x8 trays, rez, lid, pump, buckets, medium, etc. runs me 1500 with which i would run 16 plants total, 8 in each tray. For a 16 plant site Titan Controls Flo N Gro system, it runs me about 583. 10x10 tent.

The only thing with the table is that I could run far FAR more plants if I wanted to. It could support about 400 SOG plants if i wanted, whereas with the flo n gro you're stuck at 16. Even if you get the expansions you wont pass 100.
Ill be looking forward to following your grow. Please keep us abreast.
 

420 Boy

Member
How would you control an ebb n flow (flood tables) system on a larger scale (example 10 4'x8' tables)?
1) Would it be smarter to use 1 reservoir for every 2 tables or get let's say bigger reservoirs and have 2 of em flooding 5 tables each?
Having 1 reservoir/ table is starting to become labour intense in my head. Once a week you would have to drain 10 reservoirs,
fill em up and then mix the nutes 10 times. On the other hand, it sure could have its advantages.
2) How do you calculate the size of your res? You must be taking in consideration the volume of pots and medium. Am I wrong?
 

intenseneal

Well-Known Member
Its like comparing apples and oranges here. Both are sweet, both have seeds and both are fruits, they are the same but different. Ebb and flow and DWC have their ups and downs. Ebb and flow has 1 shared res so you only have to check ph and ppm once for all the plants, its better for larger grows with more plants than DWC, it requires more plumbing and thus more issues for leaks and its harder to do multi strain grows si ce you have one res and 1 nute solution. DWC is simpler for smaller grows, with individual buckets you can do more than 1 strain since you can control the nute solution for each plant, growth us a little faster since the roits are always in the nute solution, you can do a RDWC can combined the benifits of ebb and flow to DWC.
 

jronnn

Well-Known Member
How would you control an ebb n flow (flood tables) system on a larger scale (example 10 4'x8' tables)?
1) Would it be smarter to use 1 reservoir for every 2 tables or get let's say bigger reservoirs and have 2 of em flooding 5 tables each?
Having 1 reservoir/ table is starting to become labour intense in my head. Once a week you would have to drain 10 reservoirs,
fill em up and then mix the nutes 10 times. On the other hand, it sure could have its advantages.
2) How do you calculate the size of your res? You must be taking in consideration the volume of pots and medium. Am I wrong?
1) youd use 1 res per table (unless using clones from the same strain/mom thats are the same age, which i doubt) and you'd only need to change the res once every other week (if at all, some people only change the res once or twice in the entire flower cycle) the bigger the res, the less you should have to change it.
2) if using 8x4 tables you want atleast a 50gal and to calculate how much water you'd need in a res (not including medium or pots) is to find how many cubic inches of water need to be flooded so you'd multiply (4x8 in inches) so 48 x 72 then multiply that by how many inches you want that to flood (say 4" flood height) so 48x72x4 so about 13800 cubic inches of water and theres 231 cubic inches in a gallon so divide 13800 by 231 and it comes to about 59 gallons of water need to be in the table to flood it 4 inches and thats not including the extra water needed in the bottom of the res so your water pump stays in the water. so id go with a 75 gallon to be safe or get a 50gallon barrel-shaped res so less water needs to be in the res for the pump. hope that helps
 

Bluntsmith

Active Member
this thread has made me strongly reconsider my flower tent setup... rdwc is the higher yielder it seems, but just ease of use/moving parts/shit that can go wrong... that seems to be ebb and flow's strong suit.
 

ThaMagnificent

Well-Known Member
With the ebb and flow setup, how does the plant stages work? Obviously you would be using the ebb and flow for flowering, but what is the setup like for veg? The same thing and you just move them over to the flowering tent/space?
 

Bluntsmith

Active Member
With the ebb and flow setup, how does the plant stages work? Obviously you would be using the ebb and flow for flowering, but what is the setup like for veg? The same thing and you just move them over to the flowering tent/space?
dude this was the journey I just worked to solve. there are a couple different ways. I opted for an ebb and flow tray for veg with Hugo (rockwool) blocks that, when time for flower, I drop into net pots specifically designed for 6" Hugo blocks, into the flo n gro tsunami system. no extra medium needed that way and way less worries about root shock when transferring.

there are other ways to skin the cat but they're more complicated. if you want more info lemme know. I literally just worked through this puzzle.
 

jronnn

Well-Known Member
dude this was the journey I just worked to solve. there are a couple different ways. I opted for an ebb and flow tray for veg with Hugo (rockwool) blocks that I drop into net pots specifically designed for 6" Hugo blocks. no extra medium needed that way and way less worries about root shock when transferring.

there are other ways to skin the cat but they're more complicated. if you want more info lemme know. I literally just worked through this puzzle.
i don't think thats what he's asking, i think he's literally asking if you can veg AND flower on a flood tray
 

ThaMagnificent

Well-Known Member
dude this was the journey I just worked to solve. there are a couple different ways. I opted for an ebb and flow tray for veg with Hugo (rockwool) blocks that, when time for flower, I drop into net pots specifically designed for 6" Hugo blocks, into the flo n gro tsunami system. no extra medium needed that way and way less worries about root shock when transferring.

there are other ways to skin the cat but they're more complicated. if you want more info lemme know. I literally just worked through this puzzle.
gotcha. So you clone in a cloner or seed start in rockwool. Then transfer to ebb and flow for veg ~5 weeks. Then in tsunami for flower. With the tsunami, it sounds like you are limited to the # of sites as opposed to another ebb and flow tray where you could do continuous sog?
 

Bluntsmith

Active Member
gotcha. So you clone in a cloner or seed start in rockwool. Then transfer to ebb and flow for veg ~5 weeks. Then in tsunami for flower. With the tsunami, it sounds like you are limited to the # of sites as opposed to another ebb and flow tray where you could do continuous sog?
well, not sure it matters too much but my plan is to buy clones since I am not super stoked on the clones I have now and don't want to clone them. so yeah take your 1" rockwool embedded seedling or clone, and when it's popping roots out the bottom, drop it in a Hugo. then veg them on the e&f tray, and when it's time, give them their own buckets to go nuts in.

I'm going for max yield per plant per state regulations limiting mature plant count. so yeah, the tsunami has six sites (with cheap six site expansions). I want to grow six monsters, in one 4x8 tent, so that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. but you definitely can leave them in one tray, or if you have a perpetual garden, you can take them from one tray to another. just don't use coco mat or anything else that the roots will get locked into. if you plan to just use one tray then obviously coco mats make more sense. hope that helps. good luck!
 

ThaMagnificent

Well-Known Member
Yes i was thinking perpetual so it sounds like 2 separate ebb and flo rooms are the way to go. Is it a pain in the ass to do it this way? Ideally, id like to veg under t5 and flower under led with a little, separate area for clones with a small light
 
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