thanks butch.
@ Charles. . . i think the strain is fine, I think my technique (esp. with RW) is lacking, I also think my expectations were off. . . I did not realize that, yes it is a ton of plants in a tiny area, and has the potential for great efficiency, but it is still a ton of plants, meaning lots of moms, lots of clones and lots of space to do this in. little colas on little plants I can do, Big colas on Big plants i can do, Big colas on little plants. . . not something I can do, at least not yet. Not saying it can't be done though.
Yes sir.
The wheel reservoir floods and drains with the rest of he buckets, so 6 times a day. It's just like a big ass bucket.
with 10 pots and the wheel res, It took about 10 min to fill. (i beefed up the pump a bit to a 760gph). the fill cycles were 15 min each, except the one just after 9pm (lights on time) which was 30 min.
I had a separate timer that i set for 45 min (wheel feeding time) once a day. This first time i synced them, i just waited for 15 minutes to pass on the 30 min fill cycle on the ebb controller and spun it to on.
at this time the wheel reservoir is full (held about 6-7 gal when full) the pump kicks on and fills the wheel. In the wheel flood try, there is a return hose that sets the level to fill to, like an ebb system. when the flood tray is full, it too holds about 6-7 gals (where i had it set) so there is enough water already in the res + the leveling effect as soon as the pump kicks on, the controller starts replacing the lost water.
so after the wheel kicks on, 15 minutes later the ebb controller switches back to drain, and empties everything.
The wheel res does retain (like all the other buckets) a couple inches of water, I made this water level high enough, that the wheel pump could keep the flood tray full and cycling even at the drain cycle.
45 minutes after coming on, 30 after the drain cycle started the wheel pump shuts off and drops all 6-7 gals back into the res, which of course levels, and makes its way back into the drum.
the downside to this was that some wheel res problems, got to the whole group. one reason i think is that leaves fall into the flood tray and then get sucked down the return hose and into the res, where it's broken down by the sensizyme. then i get pulp in the water. . . and I definitely had a res issue towards the end. right now, i just blame everything on the wheel. lol.
thanks man, your so right. . . this system is way more flexible to plant conditions, and therefore way more forgiving to mistakes. . . and I make my fair share every grow, lol so that's important to me.
Infact, i did by some humbolt's bushmaster. . . seems like a waste of money now that I have decided to put the wheel to sleep for a while. I didn't use it, although I did try something my hydro store guy said which was a nice big dose of B52 to try to stop vert growth, but like i said before it didn't work.
I'll just tell you right now, 12 of the older clones, who were the biggest and healthiest of course ended up dying due to a drought i gave them for a few days on accident. the smaller plants weren't as thirsty and still had some moisture in the RW by the time i saved them. . .
3 days, no flood on the EnG plants too. . . what do you think that would do? yeah, no good. . . It definitely stalled them out in the end and hurt my yield. . . they did not fill out like they should have. But they still rocked as compared to the wheel's reaction.
It's all good though because what I lose in quantity I make up for in quality. Let me tell you something, I am so totally sold on AN's bud factor x. . . these buds are noticeably frostier from it. Try it! @ 1-2 ml/gal it make the price not quite so horrible.
