For All Cap Ebb and Grow Users

jakeman311

jakeman311

Active Member
ha ha Ive got a 1/10hp water chiller on my res keeping it a steady 68 degrees, I use brand new hydroton every time. I change all the fitting and hose and wash every bucket and insert by hand inside and out in between every run. Nutrient change outs every 7 days on the dot and I run hygrozyme (which is a huge rip off), zone, H2O2 constantly. All the buckets are raised up because of the poor design of this thing that lets the roots fester in about 2 inches of water at the bottom of the bucket in between floods. But still every time these piece of crap get root rot about halfway though flower and pretty much stops the vigor of the plant dead in it tracks and I only end up averaging about 1- 1 1/4 per light depending on the strain. The only preventative measure I dodnt take this time was putting air stones on the bottom of every bucket which is a huge pain in the ass as well because the roots get so dense that when they fill up with water there no where for the air bubbles to go so all the water dribbles out of the bucket onto the floor in between the inner and outer bucket.
 
hellraizer30

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
I converted all my floor lines to pvc thats white 100% better due to it not absorbing heat from the lights also use pluming
Foam that in tubes to run my lines through! This help so much with inline water temps, i did a test and installed a temp
Gauge in the end line feeding the last bucket and the temp was 10f higher than my res temp that was controled by my
Chiller. By covering the lines took care of this issue. The root rot issue is the same with cap is it is with titans, or green
Leaves systems!
 
jakeman311

jakeman311

Active Member
Yeah that sounds about right and good thinking on tubes. But that what Im saying you have to go through all this other BS to fix a overpriced system that should have been engineered correctly in the first place. The Titan Flo and Gro is supposed to be a re-engineered upgrade to the cap and green leaves system (THEY SAID THEY SPENT 4 YEARS DEVELOPING IT) but it has it flaws as well and still leaves water in the bottom. As for the Green Leaves that one is the biggest piece of crap I just sold my used systems with 78 pots 2 controller buckets and 2 55 gal res for a hundred bucks i was so sick of those P.O.S.'s lol. ALso I want to point out for any one and I MEAN ANYONE EVERY THINKING FOR USING "SURE TO GROW" INSERTS IN YOUR SYSTEM I WILL SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE. JUST GIVE ME A CALL AND HAND ME A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS YOU WOULD HAVE PAID FOR THEM AND ILL TAKE AWAY ALL YOUR PLANTS AND PUNCH YOU IN THE STOMACH AND SAVE YOU THE TIME OF ACTUALLY GOING THOUGH SETTING UP YOUR GARDEN ONLY YO HAVE THE SAME RESULTS LOL!!! SERIOUS EVEN THE REPS TO THE WHOLESALERS THAT SELL THAT BRAND CALL THEM "SURE TO KILL". THEY ARE SHAT.
 
R

Refusedpanda

Active Member
LOL at "Sure To Kill" Interesting to hear your POV on the green trees system. It does seem to be a bit better with the bigger lines and control bucket.

Oh for people looking for liners in the CAP system, the Square Root 1 gallon pots fit really well in the buckets. I tried the smart pot brand but they were to short, these ones are tall and have a little sticking out above the pots. I am getting sick of the roots growing into the lines and what not.
 
jakeman311

jakeman311

Active Member
The green trees just hold the most amount of water in the bottom and thats the killer.. once the roots are big enough and grow down in to the standing water they end up using all the dissolved oxygen in a short amount of time and the temps of the water rise too the water becomes stagnate and the roots begin to rot in between their floods little by little everyday.
A fully draining bucket system would just be so much better. I believe Sentinel came out with one that is supposed to do that and its the only one I havent ran yet.
 
hellraizer30

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
jakeman311 said:
The green trees just hold the most amount of water in the bottom and thats the killer.. once the roots are big enough and grow down in to the standing water they end up using all the dissolved oxygen in a short amount of time and the temps of the water rise too the water becomes stagnate and the roots begin to rot in between their floods little by little everyday.
A fully draining bucket system would just be so much better. I believe Sentinel came out with one that is supposed to do that and its the only one I havent ran yet.
Click to expand...
the sentinal is the same shit theres no difference! no system is perfect! but with a bit of diy you can kill it with the cap just check out my
thread links in my sig
 
jakeman311

jakeman311

Active Member
Have you seen the setinal version.. I believe its called the MEF-1. Same concept they are all plumbed together buckets off a common reservoir with a controller bucket and all but they are designed a little different and fill and draw water from the bottom middle of the bucket and are raised above the lower water line in the fill bucket. I actually already went though a pretty good portion of your Grows it does seem like you have pretty good success with these systems.. what are averaging as far as grams per watt?
 
hellraizer30

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
By raizing each bucket 2 in. It does the same as the sentinal with raised buckets! Draining from the bottom or the side
If the buckets are raised it dont matter!


I pm you jake
 
hellraizer30

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
By raizing each bucket 2 in. It does the same as the sentinal with raised buckets! Draining from the bottom or the side
If the buckets are raised it dont matter!


I pm you jake
 
Osburn

Osburn

Active Member
jakeman311 said:
Agreed and its def a must with these systems!
Click to expand...
It's definitely not a must for these systems. I've been running a stock monster system with great success and have been getting healthier roots than I ever got with DWC. I actually like how my monster system turns into a quasi-DWC system after the roots go down into that "stagnant" water. That's when the plants really blow up. At that point, they get a half-hour of flood for every two hours the lights are on. And they get fifteen minutes of flood halfway into the dark period just to move the water around a little bit. No root rot whatsoever.
 
Wolfhound

Wolfhound

Active Member
If your buckets are raised 2 inches , you would lose that much water each fill. It will still only fill to the stop level float in the controller, which will then be 2 inches lower than the top of your buckets, how are you guys addressing this issue ? I run the Titan . . .
 
hellraizer30

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
This issue really aint a issue plants dont miss a beat!

The flood line in a non raised bucket is to high to begin.
Look at a ebb/flow flood table if you use buckets theres
Alot thats above the flood line. So by raising is simply
The same, and if you use growdan it will wick anyways,
But still works great with tron aswell
 
M

mrlinder151

Active Member
the inside of my controller module got wet when the top float failed.....now the fill pump outlet doesnt work at all and the drain pump stays on constantly....is there anybody who knows how to repair or replace the circuit board in there??
 
hornedfrog2000

hornedfrog2000

Well-Known Member
hellraizer30 said:
I really like growdan grow chunks flood less and no cleaning :)
Click to expand...
Yeah man. I'm about done with hydroton. I'm going to run it one more time, but I'm just tired of the mess. I'm looking for more efficient, and easier maintenance. If I can just throw it away at the end I'm gonna be a lot happier.
 
hornedfrog2000

hornedfrog2000

Well-Known Member
I'm about to put this system to the test. I've been running my moms in it for a while but now its time for an actual grow. What sort of yields are possible with a medium yielding plant under a 600 with this? I know that's a vague question, just looking for what some people are pulling. I want 3+, but not sure I'm gonna get that.
 
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