Ok, so this is my setup.
VEG:
Size: 55x55x140cm (about 21x21x55 inches) although I only use the first 25" out of the 55" vertically available. So in theory I could have 2 levels.
Feed system: Drip (does not actually drip, it's a steady stream slowly flowing from a 1/4" tubing.)
Res: 10lt (2.6gl)
Nutrients: Advanced Nutrients Iguana Juice Grow. 3.5 ml/lt
Lights: 4x 2ft fluorescent tubes (2 warm light, 2 cool) standing upright in the corners of the 21x21 space. Hanging from above I have 2 sets of 2x 100w CFLs with a reflector hood. Basically they form 2 rows, on one I keep the bigger plants and on the other the clones/seedlings.
Medium: RW cubes. 1.5" for new clones and seedlings. Transfer to 4" cubes once the clone has survived.
Light Schedule: ON at 22:00 OFF at 16:00 (18/6)
RH: 45% (increases a little during feeding then drops back)
PPM: N/A
PH: 7.0 - I grow organic so there aren't many products that can help me (market is very limited here). I used to use phosphoric acid as a ph down but I believe it overloaded the plants with phosphorus, I think this is why you see small sparks sometimes (most times, really) when I smoke. So for now it's on trials.
Feeding Schedule: ON/OFF at 23:00/23:15 - 7:00/7:15 - 15:00/15:15 Total feed time: 45 minutes a day
Ventilation: small fan to move air around, no intake or output.
Pump: Sicce Aquarium pump 2600lt/hr (685gl/hr). The flow is too much so I regulate it with a common valve, I don't use a smaller pump because I need the pressure that a smaller one cannot provide
There's also a small aquarium air pump with two outlets, one for each res, each has an air stone for O2. this runs 24/7
Nothing fancy about the workings of this part
On the base of the space described I have a plastic flood table or tray (they don't sell those here so I made one out of a common plastic storage box that had the required measurements.) The tray has a hole in the middle which has a nozzle that connects to a hose that goes into the res (which is located directly below) so the excess water that drips onto the tray when feeding goes right back into the res.
The cubes just sit there on the tray, there's no buckets or pellets or anything fancy. The tray is there only to keep water form spilling on the floor and to channel it into the hole for recirculation. A small fan is there to provide air movement but not powerful enough to bend or damage the young ones.
The pump is connected to a 1/2" hose that connects to a 4-way distributor after passing though the aforementioned valve so I can reduce the flow. The distributor has 4 outlets for 1/4" black tubing which in turn get separated using tees if I need to water more than 4 plants (usually the case). So why not a distributor with more outlets? they don't sell them here. So just making lemonade out of lemons.
So nothing too complicated, it took some testing to get the flow rates right and I switched pumps and hoses a couple of times but now it runs smoothly and virtually unattended.
FLOWER
Size: same as veg
Feed system: Ebb & Flood
Res: 20lt (5,2gl)
Nutrients: A.N. Iguana Juice Bloom. 3.5ml/lt
Lights: 400w HPS + 7 100w CFLs hanging low between the foliage
Medium: Hydroton clay pellets (pea sized, about 6mm) and RW
Light Schedule: ON at 22:00 OFF at 10:00 (12/12)
RH: 45%. Increases to about 65% during feeding then drops back
PPM: N/A
PH: 7.0 (same explanation)
Feeding Schedule: ON/OFF at 23:00/23:15 - 3:00/3:15 - 9:00/9:15
Ventilation: powerful fan on top pulling the hot air out of the cabinet (not a tent, I built a wooden structure). Another fan (same as the top) pushing fresh air into the cabinet from the side and below, this one helps move the air around the base of the plants, and another fan to just move some air around the top and middle sections.
Same as the other side, there's a flood table on the base, although with different dimensions. It is filled 3/4 up with 6mm hydroton pellets (don't remember the exact amount) and this where I bury the 4" cubes (with a plant ready to flower, of course). So far I've only been flowering 3 at a time, because of the very limited space, but I'm in the process of getting more space and I hope to accommodate 6 plants for the next cycle (which will be due the first week of October)
This flood table has 2 holes on the bottom, one of them has an overflow pipe so when the water gets to the level I want (the length of the pipe from the bottom of the table to where the overflow starts pouring into the pipe) it flows back into the res for recirculation via a hose connected to the bottom (from underneath, the res is also beneath the table) and through the other hole the water gets pumped in for 15 minutes, when the pump shuts off gravity takes over and all the water in the table flows back into the res through the pump. This is your basic E&F system.
I only grow for myself so I don't need to have 20+ plants, I couldn't smoke all that even if all I do is smoke all day and all night. That's why I built a small system and grow short plants (I'm harvesting about 40gr of dried goodies, no stems, sticks, leaves, etc. just pure buds, per plant, that may not sound like a lot but if you take into consideration that the plants grow in such a confined space and they don't get taller than 70 cm I think I'm doing pretty good. Overall it comes down to about 60gr per month, which is twice of what I usually use, so I still have some left to 'cover the expenses' of electricity and maintenance). But everything can be extrapolated to accommodate any growing requirements.
I think I covered everything, but if anything is unclear I'll be happy to explain or elaborate.
Even though I think that I've probably reached the highest yield I can get with the current space, I'm very open to any suggestions.
Good luck and Happy Growing!!
VEG:
Size: 55x55x140cm (about 21x21x55 inches) although I only use the first 25" out of the 55" vertically available. So in theory I could have 2 levels.
Feed system: Drip (does not actually drip, it's a steady stream slowly flowing from a 1/4" tubing.)
Res: 10lt (2.6gl)
Nutrients: Advanced Nutrients Iguana Juice Grow. 3.5 ml/lt
Lights: 4x 2ft fluorescent tubes (2 warm light, 2 cool) standing upright in the corners of the 21x21 space. Hanging from above I have 2 sets of 2x 100w CFLs with a reflector hood. Basically they form 2 rows, on one I keep the bigger plants and on the other the clones/seedlings.
Medium: RW cubes. 1.5" for new clones and seedlings. Transfer to 4" cubes once the clone has survived.
Light Schedule: ON at 22:00 OFF at 16:00 (18/6)
RH: 45% (increases a little during feeding then drops back)
PPM: N/A
PH: 7.0 - I grow organic so there aren't many products that can help me (market is very limited here). I used to use phosphoric acid as a ph down but I believe it overloaded the plants with phosphorus, I think this is why you see small sparks sometimes (most times, really) when I smoke. So for now it's on trials.
Feeding Schedule: ON/OFF at 23:00/23:15 - 7:00/7:15 - 15:00/15:15 Total feed time: 45 minutes a day
Ventilation: small fan to move air around, no intake or output.
Pump: Sicce Aquarium pump 2600lt/hr (685gl/hr). The flow is too much so I regulate it with a common valve, I don't use a smaller pump because I need the pressure that a smaller one cannot provide
There's also a small aquarium air pump with two outlets, one for each res, each has an air stone for O2. this runs 24/7
Nothing fancy about the workings of this part
On the base of the space described I have a plastic flood table or tray (they don't sell those here so I made one out of a common plastic storage box that had the required measurements.) The tray has a hole in the middle which has a nozzle that connects to a hose that goes into the res (which is located directly below) so the excess water that drips onto the tray when feeding goes right back into the res.
The cubes just sit there on the tray, there's no buckets or pellets or anything fancy. The tray is there only to keep water form spilling on the floor and to channel it into the hole for recirculation. A small fan is there to provide air movement but not powerful enough to bend or damage the young ones.
The pump is connected to a 1/2" hose that connects to a 4-way distributor after passing though the aforementioned valve so I can reduce the flow. The distributor has 4 outlets for 1/4" black tubing which in turn get separated using tees if I need to water more than 4 plants (usually the case). So why not a distributor with more outlets? they don't sell them here. So just making lemonade out of lemons.
So nothing too complicated, it took some testing to get the flow rates right and I switched pumps and hoses a couple of times but now it runs smoothly and virtually unattended.
FLOWER
Size: same as veg
Feed system: Ebb & Flood
Res: 20lt (5,2gl)
Nutrients: A.N. Iguana Juice Bloom. 3.5ml/lt
Lights: 400w HPS + 7 100w CFLs hanging low between the foliage
Medium: Hydroton clay pellets (pea sized, about 6mm) and RW
Light Schedule: ON at 22:00 OFF at 10:00 (12/12)
RH: 45%. Increases to about 65% during feeding then drops back
PPM: N/A
PH: 7.0 (same explanation)
Feeding Schedule: ON/OFF at 23:00/23:15 - 3:00/3:15 - 9:00/9:15
Ventilation: powerful fan on top pulling the hot air out of the cabinet (not a tent, I built a wooden structure). Another fan (same as the top) pushing fresh air into the cabinet from the side and below, this one helps move the air around the base of the plants, and another fan to just move some air around the top and middle sections.
Same as the other side, there's a flood table on the base, although with different dimensions. It is filled 3/4 up with 6mm hydroton pellets (don't remember the exact amount) and this where I bury the 4" cubes (with a plant ready to flower, of course). So far I've only been flowering 3 at a time, because of the very limited space, but I'm in the process of getting more space and I hope to accommodate 6 plants for the next cycle (which will be due the first week of October)
This flood table has 2 holes on the bottom, one of them has an overflow pipe so when the water gets to the level I want (the length of the pipe from the bottom of the table to where the overflow starts pouring into the pipe) it flows back into the res for recirculation via a hose connected to the bottom (from underneath, the res is also beneath the table) and through the other hole the water gets pumped in for 15 minutes, when the pump shuts off gravity takes over and all the water in the table flows back into the res through the pump. This is your basic E&F system.
I only grow for myself so I don't need to have 20+ plants, I couldn't smoke all that even if all I do is smoke all day and all night. That's why I built a small system and grow short plants (I'm harvesting about 40gr of dried goodies, no stems, sticks, leaves, etc. just pure buds, per plant, that may not sound like a lot but if you take into consideration that the plants grow in such a confined space and they don't get taller than 70 cm I think I'm doing pretty good. Overall it comes down to about 60gr per month, which is twice of what I usually use, so I still have some left to 'cover the expenses' of electricity and maintenance). But everything can be extrapolated to accommodate any growing requirements.
I think I covered everything, but if anything is unclear I'll be happy to explain or elaborate.
Even though I think that I've probably reached the highest yield I can get with the current space, I'm very open to any suggestions.
Good luck and Happy Growing!!