Complete flood and drain system setup

I’ve been gone from this forum and the lab for a long time. I started in soil smart pots and eventually made it to an ebb and flow hydroponics system with a very good light system. I owe a lot to people who mostly are no longer active, especially @dbrn32 for lighting advice and a bunch of others that I can’t remember their names. I don’t grow for yields and I am looking for the perfect pain relief strain. I haven’t found it yet.


This is Blueberry CBD auto 5 weeks old

The tall ones are Herijuana (left) and Blue Cheese (right)


The reservoir is a 40 gal Walmart tote with a flood pump, chiller pump, and stirring pump. These are all small and cheap pumps from Amazon. I use a 75watt commercial type air pump and 3 air stones.


A chiller is a must for my setup. I use Z7 and HydroGuard and I still get green blobs in the res (that gets changed weekly) if the temps don’t stay below 69deg.
I use 17-4-17 pure lx from 4" tall till transition to flower. I have 50-60ppm well water, so the pure lx works good and I have years of supply One week before the switch to flower I run Jacks ultraviolet to control stretch


I use 10-30-20 bloom booster at 600-800 ppm with 1g/gal Epsom salt until week 7 when I switch to Finish formula. At week 8 I flush the res and chiller with hydrogen peroxide 12% at 10ml/gal.

I fill the flood table to the top with a light mix of 12% h2o2 and 10ml/gal of florakleen to clean the roots and get rid of a lot of the salts. I let that run for an hour…drain everything…refill with pure water…keep the ph balanced…run the normal cycle of 15min flood every 2 hours lights are on.

The lights are really good and I get excellent coverage on 4x4’. I use the Gas Lantern method and get good results. I only grow for me only so I don’t need large amounts so my wattage doesn’t need to go above 700 watts. I learned a lot from people that don’t post here anymore, so I wanted to pass on my 5 years of knowledge that I got from ILGM. Good luck growers.

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Thanks for checking in @OldSkunk and you should stick around and share your knowledge with the noobs - of which I consider myself one of!
I’d love to figure out a way to run a SoG in a flood table. I’ve run one in 1g bags and it was worth it but a lot of upkeep to keep them bags happy. But in a flood table…LOL!

And I totally hear you on growing for yourself. I have no interest in growing great quantities but more so great QUALITY.

Good looking set up and not all the old timers are gone - some still check in from time to time like yourself.

Enjoy your efforts man!!
And thanks for the peek!

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Great setup. You have a beautiful grow there. Nice to hear from growers that have left the forum but are excellent growers that could help out the growing community. happy growing :bat: :rofl:

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Hey! Good to see you back. Looks like a nice setup.

You’d be surprised at how many long timers are still here.

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Really good to see you back! Hopefully all is well around the home? My wife likes the herijuana for her issues, but she is very mild user. Hopefully will be a decent strain for you.

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@Tylersays It’s real easy to make your own table out of 2x3s cause I wasn’t paying what they wanted for a metal table with uprights for the net. I use a ripped 2x2 for uprights and drill a hole at 14" for the initial tie down and a hole at 20" if needed for bud support. WAY CHEAPER than the metal setup for sure. These 2x3s were the sawhorse support for my living room paneling cuts so I didn’t even have to buy anything except screws and wheels. I’ll be glad to share everything I know. One rule is king. Keep the ph in range! Weed can take almost anything we do to it in water as long as the ph is 5.8-6.2. I’m sorry to give the wrong impression about jumping in then saying thanks and bye. I"ll be around for sure. I’m busy during the day dealing with 6 golden retrievers we breed.

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I appreciate the shout @Myfriendis410. You are definitely one of those that was a great help. When I went to the lab and saw what works best for everyone, I tried them all and flood and drain is it for me. Thanks for the complement about the setup. It would be fully automated if I weren’t such a cheapskate and bought a ph adjuster. If I ever get to go somewhere on vacation, I’ll have to buy one.

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You my friend are DA MAN. Seriously…I would have gone through a bunch of money and couldn’t figure out why such low yields if it hadn’t been for your help. My family is doing ok considering…I hope yours is doing well. These lights are real good. I can move the pucks around wherever I need to. I know they’re yesterdays news but they work great. I use them from 4" tall on to the end. 900 watts wide open gives more yield than I need so I cranked it back to 700 and it produces great results. I spent the last 2 years figuring out how to grow right, now I’m “pain strain chasin”! I didn’t say it right that I grow only for me. I meant family too. Only son and daughter. No one else. The Herijuana and Blue Cheese are for them mainly. I do the high or balanced CBD and mostly low THC strains like BB CBD. My son lost 2 kids in a mobile home fire and has real sleep issues so I’m growing those 2 as sleeping pills or vapes. It’s good to see you’re still around.

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Pay it forward time

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Man, losing kids to anything is horrible. Hearing that it was due to fire brings great deal of sadness. I’m sorry you all had to go through this!

My family is good brother, thanks for asking.

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Sweet set up and welcome back :love_you_gesture:

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Thanks bud. I hope I can stop someone else’s pain from dumb errors. I’ve made many. @OGIncognito .

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Very humbled Brother :pray::pray::love_you_gesture:

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I forgot how to reply to continue the thread without having to reply to anyone in particular so pardon me for that @OGIncognito. I really don’t have time for a grow journal so I’m continuing the thread as a quickie tutorial because it is Show Your Grow. Here goes…



I know it’s hard to read but the ph of the res was 3.68 after 30hours for a trip to pick up new golden females. It was 5.95 when I left. I use a lot of ph up, so I’m buying a $152 auto dosing ph monitor for aquarium instead of $342 blue lab for hydro which looks good but they both do the same job. I certainly won’t post an unapproved link, but both are on Amazon. This will make everything but net tie down, pruning , res change, and harvesting automatic. I can then go away for a week without worries.

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Put up the Amazon link and tag me: I’ll edit the link for our affiliate program.

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That’s one hell of a pH dive. Gotta be askin what made it go so acidic so fast. Like 100 times more H+ acidic from 3 to 5.

I forgot how to save a link from Amazon. or I would have done it @Myfriendis410. I’ve been away too long to remember.

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They eat 2 1/2 gallons a day of nutrients on 10 gallons of flood.


The ppm is dropping around 50ppm per day as I would expect. It was 750ppm when I changed the res 30 hours ago.

This is the current ph at 6:00 my time. I adjusted it to 6.0 around 12:00.
I use 3 air stones in the reservoir and it may help lower the ph some. I want lots of oxygenated water to hit those roots. I also flood 15minutes every 2 hours when lights are on, so that might have something to do with it. If I could keep it balanced from 5.6-6.0 without the fuss…I wouldEither way…I just live with it.

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Nice setup… It is definitely a part of it…the airstones chuggin away for the O2 are also dissolving CO2 in the water making Carbonic Acid - H2CO3, there’s the big add to H. But you got it under control. Years ago I ran a 1 gallon coco pot flood table, I ditched my stones for the same issue and went with circulation pump for rez and an airgap on the drain for O2, anyway…lots of means to an end.

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Right on Brother, the Fifth Seasons is a little garden shop I visit monthly. What do you think is causing the big drop in the Reservoir PH?

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