Best Hydroponic System – Complete Reviews and Comparisons

What’s the most difficult thing to deal with when growing plants indoors? – Mess, watering, adding enough nutrients, and of course achieving equal growth.

This can easily be solved if you were to use a hydroponic system. These systems are designed to work without soil but also to deliver optimum amounts of nutrient solution to the plant roots via various delivery methods.

If you’re looking for the best hydroponic system for your home, we may have more than one solution. It all comes down to what exactly you want to grow, and how much you’re looking to get come harvest time. We cover a choice of the best hydroponic system - complete reviews and comparisons are examined.

This is a small but efficient indoor aquaponic system. It uses fish waste to fertilize your plants while they in turn help clean the water for the fish tank. It’s a win-win situation for plants and aquatic creatures.

The growth medium in this aquaponic system is made of growstones. It provides a solid anchoring point for the plants and allows plenty of access for the roots to get as much nutrient as they need from the bottom fish tank.

The tank is not too big. It has a 3-gallon capacity. It can hold one or two fish, three may be stretching it.

Aesthetically speaking, this aquaponics system can look very cool in any home or office. It’s pretty solid so it can support both bushy and tall plants.

What is interesting is that this system comes with some plant seeds already. If you’re new to aquaponics or hydroponics in general, this is an excellent starter kit.

Although a beautiful idea, this is not a good solution for growing weed. The tank is too small to house enough fish. Therefore, the plants won’t get enough nutrients to produce a decent harvest.

Drip System

The drip system works off a very simple principle. This method of hydroponically growing plants involves dripping nutrient solution at a slow pace into the hydroponic medium. This could be coconut coir, peat moss, or rockwool – as they are known to be slow draining mediums.

The drip system is easy to control but it is hard to keep clean. It has a tendency to clog because particles of nutrients will eventually build up in the emitters or drippers. This happens a lot more often when using organic nutrients.

Ebb & Flow

This is also referred to as a flood and drain system. The principle behind this design calls for flooding the growth area with nutrient solution at set intervals. The plants take what they need during this process and the remaining nutrient solution slowly drains back into its reservoir.

This system uses a pump with a timer to push the nutrient at the desired interval. This can be a highly efficient hydroponic system when trying to grow plants that need plenty of dry time too. Or better put, they work great in combination with plants that like to expand their roots.

When the roots expand looking for moisture, they can absorb even more nutrients. Thus, the plants tend to flourish.

Wicking

Wicking is a very interesting concept. This type of system essentially uses a wick material, most often cotton, and surrounds it with growing medium. At one end, the wick material is enriched with nutrient solution.

Then, over time, the solution is wicked to the roots of the plants. This will also work without a wick material. It could just use a grow medium capable of wicking the nutrient solution on its own – the most common mediums are vermiculite and perlite.

This system doesn’t use the same growth medium as drip systems because they take in too much nutrient and could end up suffocating the plants.

Nutrient Film Technique (NFT)

NFT features a continuous flow of nutrient solution running through the plant roots. This design involves a tilted tray or container so that the solution’s flow is determined by gravity. What’s also interesting and very efficient about this setup is that the roots get to absorb more oxygen.

This happens because only the tips of the roots are exposed to the nutrient solution. Therefore, the rest of the roots are able to take in more oxygen. More oxygen equals faster crop growth rates.

Aeroponics

Aeroponics is a hydroponic system or method that doesn’t involve using a growth medium, nor a liquid nutrient solution. Instead, the system relies on aerosolized nutrients to feed the plants. Because the roots are suspended in the air, they’re always in contact with oxygen. They also have a faster absorption rate when the nutrient solution is turned into a mist and sprayed directly on them.

An aeroponics system may be automatic or manual, depending on the containers and the size of the crop. It is very versatile but perhaps not the cheapest setup.

Deep Water Culture (DWC)

DWC uses a reservoir. In this type of hydroponic system, the roots of the plants are always suspended in the nutrient solution. A pump is used inside the reservoir to pump oxygen so that the roots of the plants don’t drown.

This is a very efficient system when properly built and maintained. It doesn’t succumb to clogs like drip or spray systems. This makes it really good to pair with organic nutrients. However, there is one risk.

If you let light penetrate the reservoir then you’re inviting algae to grow and flourish. This will damage your crops or maybe even kill them entirely.

Aquaponics

Aquaponic systems are also known as hybrid systems. They combine an aquatic animal-raising system with a hydroponic system. The water from the aquatic animal tanks is rich in nitrifying bacteria which can reach toxic levels if left unchecked.

Therefore, an Aquaponics system breaks down the bacteria into nitrites and then into nitrates which can be used to feed the plants. The clean water is then pumped back into the animal tank to start the process all over again.

These are a bit more difficult to set up and maintain because they require very close monitoring of temperature, pest management, etc. But they can be very efficient since they allow you to grow both aquatic animals and crops using a single automated system.

The size and weight of hydroponic systems vary greatly from one type to another. Of course, they also depend on how big of a crop you want to grow. The weight of the system shouldn’t really matter unless you want to suspend it.

NFT systems should be weighted before installation because they’re not only heavy but very long, and they need to stay elevated as well as flat. That’s so that the gravity-feeding container can work at maximum efficiency.

The ease of use is closely tied to the maintenance process. However, we’ll discuss that in another section. For now, let’s focus on the ease of use as in actual monitoring and the amount of manual work you need to put in.

Automatic systems are better for growing weed. They can maintain a constant supply of nutrients to each plant in your farm. Pretty much any system will work wonders and require very little of you except for wicking systems and aquaponic systems.

At the end of the day, the easiest system you can use is probably a DWC system. As far as installation and maintenance are concerned, a DWC system requires very little of you. You just have to anchor the plants, fill the container, and make sure no light reaches the water.

All types of hydroponic systems need regular maintenance whether they’re automated or manual. You need to carefully regulate the water temperature (below 72 degrees) and constantly check for root damage. This doesn’t mean that some systems don’t require less maintenance.

Aeroponic systems don’t have issues with clogging whereas drip systems clog very often. DWC systems tend to be the safest, but you can’t see inside them easily so it’s hard to spot any algae growth.

It’s also important to maintain the pH levels between 5.5 and 6.5 if you want your weed to live long and prosper. Gravity flow systems make it a lot easier to check and adjust pH levels.

You may also want to consider investing in a hygrometer. This will allow you to monitor the moisture levels of your weed plants. This is important because you have to water them differently when they’re young and when they’re flourishing. They need watering a few times a day in the beginning but no more than once a day when they’re flowering.

Whichever way you look at it, you can’t expect to set up a hydroponic weed farm and not perform regular maintenance. It just depends on how much maintenance you can fit in your schedule before deciding on a specific system.

The flexibility of a hydroponic system can be best described as adjustability or customization. It’s not always about how many plants you can fit in a single container. Rather than making this the main focus, manufacturers and growers refer to hydroponic systems as flexible when they are modular or semi-modular.

As a general rule, DWC systems tend to be the most flexible because they can be constructed of multiple individual containers that are only connected via air tubing. The flexibility can determine how you can stack or separate the containers to save maximum space or to optimize the airflow.

Although there are six different types of hydroponic systems and a variety of hybrid systems, they all work off the same basic principle – Using a soilless medium to grow plants. In order to do this, plants are first anchored through an inert matter in individual containers or long trays.

They are then fed nutrients through a solution that is being pumped directly onto the roots of the plants. In some cases, the plant roots may simply dangle in the water or in the air.

There are also subcategories. There’s a passive system which feeds the nutrient solution through gravity. And there’s the active system which relies on electricity and a pump to feed the nutrient and send it into a holding tank.

You can grow marijuana using several hydroponic systems with one clear exception – wicking systems. Out of all the types of systems available, the Ebb & Flow system is the easiest to get started. It is easy to use, fairly low maintenance, and has the potential to grow rich crops.

Now, regardless of which system you decide to use, there are a few key things to consider. For one, the reservoir holds the water and nutrients that the plants need. Get a reservoir big enough to supply the plants with what they need for about two weeks.

The reservoir also needs a lid to prevent water evaporation. At the same time, make sure the lid is not transparent. You don’t want to spark the growth of algae if you’re using a DWC system.

Insulate the reservoir to control the temperature (around 72 degrees, no more). If you use an Ebb & Flow system, then your job is simple. Place the plants in a soilless medium to anchor the roots. Then place the tray over the reservoir with the nutrient solution. The automatic release pump takes care of the periodic flushes.

Because there are many different types of hydroponic systems and even more combination systems, setting up a hydroponic system differs from one case to another. It’s not even necessary that two models of the same system have the same setup.

There are, however, a few things you need to worry about regardless of design or type:

• Proximity to a water source
• The ability to control room temperature
• The ability to control the amount of light
• Humidity control
• Proper ventilation
• Always having spare nutrients to make your nutrient solution

Once you have those things covered, the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific hydroponic system should be enough to guide you.

As a general rule of thumb, the nutrient water in your reservoir should be changed at intervals of two weeks at the most. However, you should also keep adding pH nutrient water (0.25% strength) from time to time to keep the reservoir full.

That’s because the nutrient water is absorbed by the roots and evaporates in small quantities on a daily basis. Topping it off keeps the water at optimum levels and ensures that the roots have plenty of access to it.

This interval is good enough for most cannabis strains when they’re in their vegetative stage. However, once they begin developing flowers, you’ll want to change the water once a week to make sure the plants get what they need.

What’s the best hydroponic system? – It depends on what you’re looking to get out of it. Some swear by DWC systems as being the most carefree and efficient. Others enjoy using aquaponics as they can kill two birds with one stone.

Whichever the case may be, the hydroponic systems that we reviewed have a lot of potential both as an educational system and a serious cultivation system for the semi-professional grower. As long as you make sure your plant has enough room to breathe and gets enough light, any one of them should help you grow something green all year round.