DIY Shallow Water Culture

OK There are numerous things going on in this grow, it is a test of the Mars Hydro 2000 which I won in a comp. It's a quantum board style light that is 4 foot long so it nicely fills a 4 x 2 foot space. It has meanwell style drivers. Draws 310W at the wall and by my measurements it's putting out about 285W of light. Each side runs it's own 4A dimmable driver. It's light, cool and no nonsense. The light appears to be a little greener than usual but there is good intensity and the spread is great. @kitkat332986 here's the DIY build I spoke about. Mainly though this is a DIY on how to build your own Shallow Water Culture. There is nothing groundbreaking or unusual here, it's just a complete package designed to avoid all the problems that new growers run into. It is my opinion that deep water culture is not the best way to produce the most vigorous roots and consequently the healthiest plant. This system used reversible tubs the type that have no lids, and stack one way they sit on top of each other and stacked the other way they sit inside each other. These are cheap and readily available anywhere. Apart from three of these tubs basically all you need is a small aquarium water pump, 8W is good, and a bit of tubing. *no addition air* is needed. No cal mag, is necessary. I recommend only using a simple 2 or 3 part nutrient like General Hydroponics, no other additives. This set up will grow healthy plants that will be easy to tend to. It's suitable to 1 to 4 plants. The reservoir can be at the bottom or you can sit it on a milk crate and have the reservoir separate, this is good if you have two of these and just want one larger reservoir. Any questions just ask away. Clay pebbles are a necessary part of this. They are the best hydroponic medium for supplying oxygen, and they are 100% reusable, at the end of the grow tip them into a full bath and they all float to the top and the debris sinks to the bottom. The tubs on this grow are 25L. The top tub is filled with clay balls and top fed, and drains out the bottom into the middle tub that holds a shallow 2" pool of nutrient, which overflows back into the reservoir. Note four holes in the corner for 8mm dowel that can be used for a scrog, which I might install later. The first week is necessary very slow, often slower than soil because these plants will put out a long tap root before filling out sideways. However after 10 days, they will take off. For this grow we have two Orange Bud Auto from Dutch Passion. I'm currently growing one which is 7 weeks old so it will be interesting to compare. My other Orange Bud will spend a lot of blooming time under a very red biased viparspectra, this is their new HP series, which they do not advertise but are much more red than their traditional blue biased lights. So lets see what these lights can do.