Forgot to add a BIG;

THANK YOU!

This site is AWESOME!

I built the reservoir/pump housing, and the tray this afternoon. Still have to build the light stand.

Here are some pics. I'm quite plesed with how it turned out.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/nonoriginal/net-area.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/nonoriginal/top.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1013343}}

Im new at hydroponics, but im sure i'll do quite great.I have a system in an area of 8ft x 4ft x 7ft. I need to know what wattage of flourescent lighting to use and the distance above my plants. I'm growing 3 plants in a drip system and 3 in a N.F.T.(nutrient film technique). I have, I believe, everything I need to do this with. I'm planning on using 3 small light fixtures as well. If this is a good experience for me then I will continue hydroponics and start a bigger garden in the future. Help if u can? bert

Hi Bert,

What do you want to grow? Is it a flowering Veggie or Greens?

Based on my rough calculations (8'*4'=32sqft) you have 32sqft to illuminate. You need: 640w for 20w per sqft / 960w = 30w per sqft / 1280w = 40w per sqft and so on.

A watt is a watt.

Heat:
The differece between HID and Florescent is; Most HID have a sigle *point* source of light and employ a reflector to spread the light out. The concentration of light from that source heats up faster. As there is less surface area to dissipate the heat.

Flor's are and extended source of light. I.e. spread along the tube. The heat a 400w Flor makes compared to a 400w HID is the same in a Vacuum. The difference lies in the way the heat is dissipated. Flor's have a MUCH bigger surface area to dissipate the heat.

PAR or useable light:
HID lamps put out about 14 umol PAR per klux. White fluorescent give 12 and Incandescent give 20. HPS can give up to 120-140 klumens per 1000 Watts while MH give only 80-100, Fluorescent give 70 and Incandescent give only 20.

Just doing the math as I did above (see post one) pretty much summed it up for me. I get 1/3 more PAR for half the wattage. I think you'll get the same using just about any head to head comparison.

The drawback of Flors is several fold;

1. Because of the larger surface area the light intensity drops off quickly. The plants need to be really close to the lamp. For 1K watts or more that is a ton of heat.

2. As you can see above, the useable light per kWatt from a florescent is somewhat less efficient than HID.

3. When your talking numbers from 700w to 1400w. The price to replace 20 bulbs or more will offset the cost of a single HID and lamp replacement... including reflectors.

For example: for 1000w of florescent @ 75w per bulb you need 13 bulbs or more @ 96". About $130 from 1000bulbs.com for F96T12/Artic Brite. This yeilds roughly 62K lumens. 62*12 = 744umol

For $38 you can get a single 1000w HPS bulb w/ 124K lumens. 124*14 = 1736umol

I'm not trying to discourage you from using Florescent. I haven't done all of the math. However, I think its safe to assume that most people would be better off using an HID lamp instead of Florescent. I'am and I'm a poor student.

Good luck!

Have you tried the strawberries yet? If so, how are they doing? By the way, if you want to save money you can start them from seed.

Hi Baci,

The strawberries were bare rooted into my system last week. pH 6.21-6.76 /PPM 430-530 with BC Nutes so far.

They are doing well as far as I can tell... Lots of vigorous new growth and such.

I went with a 150w HPS Hydrofarm light, as the buzzing from the 70w hps security light was too much...

The drip runs 24/7.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1013344}}

rugby10, your strawberries look great. Your picture makes your system explanation so much clearer.
There is little concrete information about hydro strawberry growing online, so it will be interesting to see how well yours do. It would be nice if you could trick the plants into growing winter fruit.

rugby, your system looks great, but they will be most expensive strawberries in the world at the end. Cant you grow them in the ground or it is just for fun?

Hi Baci -

Thanks... They are growing like crazy. Roots are starting to appear from the bottom, and they look very healthy. Lots of new shoots or runners, and they all seem very compact...except for one?

Three of them are fruiting right now. It seems that they are all on different time tables... aaarrrgggg! I modified my nute settings so that it would accommodate the fruiting plants with the others in Veg. Its turing into a compromise... for this cycle.

Oh well, this is my first grow. I plan on keeping the plants in there as long as possible. I start a Fire Academy in January, so I won't have time to experiment with new plants.

Anyway, I'm using strait tap water: pH 8.2 / PPM 290. I use 1.5mL/gal of PH DOWN(Nitric acid) to bring the pH to 6.3. It has actually Buffered there quite nicely, as I haven't had to mess with pH at all. I Just keep topping off with pH balanced h20 when my PPM's go up. I'm trying to keep the PPM's at 750 right now... Just experimenting I guess.

Patusho25 -

thanks for the complement. I could grow them in the ground, you're right. In fact, anyone "could" grow them in the ground. I think hydroponics is a lot easier than spending countless hours in the yard chasing critters, pests, weeds, neighbors, and battling the environment.

The initial financial outlay is more than that of a "traditional" garden. However, once you have the tools necessary to grow indoor hydroponics, the cost is considerably less than a "traditional" garden year after year. Potting soil isn't reusable... Clay Pellets are. Pests and insects can destroy your crop... they don't exist in such numbers indoors. Birds/squirrels/cats/dogs/children Love to eat/destroy garden fruit... No worries when your indoors.

I don't have to change clothes, or set aside an entire morning to tend my garden.... which leaves me more time for my Bonsai. I don't have to pull weeds. I don't have to water. Everything is on a timer.

I check my plants and nute tank every morning in my underpants with a hanna combo meter...lol. It takes me all of a minute to read and adjust if necessary. My air is being filtered by these plants.

I can grow veggies when its impossible to grow veggies outside.

So yeah, its mostly for fun...right now. When I can afford to buy a house with a big back yard. I will probably set-up a big operation and make money using the knowledge I've gained in this setting. Organically grown food commands premium prices at the farmers market here. You never know what you can do till you try.

I grew some in NFT this year, & noticed the same thing some were fruiting while some were not. The problem I had was my pump tube came out intermittently, & if it happened during high heat, some of my plants fried very quickly. I switched to growing them in peat, which seems to work better for me. The plants will survive in the heat & the media lowers the pH.
If you were growing many of them, maybe the trick would be to put the blooming ones in a separate system & change to a bloom formula.
Good to see you made it back home OK, patusho25. You must be able to grow things the rest of us can only dream of.

I just made something very similar. I took 2 18 gallon totes, got a small water pump, ran up half inch tubing, split 6 ways and I'm ready to go. Gonna do it outside while its still nice here in Phoenix, if it gets too hot, I'll bury the resivior.

I'm not ready to buy a lighting system yet. I plan to put some of my tomato seedlings which have been in peat discs for the last 3 weeks in the system.

Unbelievably cheap to build, and easy as heck.

It's another uncontested myth that hydro is more expensive that dirt gardening...I do both and I keep records.

The difference in cost in my case is the cost of elec in the g'hse to run the lights and heat....this cost would be the same for dirt growing and, with dirt growing, there would be costs for pathogen treatments and pesticide treatments that I don't have in hydro.

Actual compared costs show, after about 3 years, hydro is less expensive than dirt gardening.

New here - but thought I'd comment on the above.
Living in MD my outdoor garden is being transformed into raised beds (bad soil, lots of moisture), frame with chicken wire enclosing the entire structure (squirrels, rats, kids, rabbits), considering plexi-glass roof to divert rain water into a drop system which can be shut off in case we have another year like last year (way too much water), and trying to control pests through natural means. Total cost (without the plexi roof and PVC for the drip) so far is running me approximately $350. And I only get to grow for about 8 months out of the year.
My small hydro setup indoors does far better by my standards. I also factor in the cost of tomatoes and peppers (if you can find them) in January.

If I'd have had the money (and lived in a better neighborhood where I could trust kids around the greenhouse) it would've been far cheaper/better to go with an outdoor hydro/aqua setup.