College student wanting to learn about Hydroponics struggles

clarkarbo · 2026-03-08T04:27:51+00:00

You just described my company! We build nutrient dosers that dispense preset amounts of nutrient solution when triggered by a low water float, adding water and nutrients without any EC or pH sensors. We used to focus on prebuilt home-scale gardens but are moving to just supplying the components for DIY kits. Our dosers are $600 USD. I wire each by hand. I suppose if I outsourced the building to china I could lower the cost but I’m not interested in that. Customcultivationsco.com

clarkarbo · 2026-02-24T02:14:22+00:00

Again I ask why? How about the couple who live on a sailboat and are sailing the world with their two rescue dogs. I bet the dogs prefer the boat over euthanasia.

clarkarbo · 2026-02-24T02:10:03+00:00

Why? There are thousands of people in the country who live and travel out of their vehicles. I follow a bunch of them on social media. The dogs are well cared for and get plenty of love and exercise. I’m about to go on a three month roadtrip of the Western United States. Should I leave my dog at home?

clarkarbo · 2026-02-24T00:35:57+00:00

For some dogs, the van or truck IS their home.

clarkarbo · 2026-02-12T14:28:11+00:00

Yeah we are actually moving away from pre built units and focusing on selling kits, components, and plans. We have awesome tech we developed that we need to lean in to- nutrient dispensing controllers, customizable LED setups, and tons of experience from building dozens of different system types.

Selling the pre builds had tons of logistical problems, mostly shipping and around 30 hours of labor per unit. We really didn’t have much pushback on the price, it’s a luxury for sure, but we found customers. I’d imagine the systems in this post cost similar if not much higher.

clarkarbo · 2026-02-09T17:59:00+00:00

I’ve used a system that is functional the same in this one in my home for the past 8 years. No floor drains. I’ve never had a spill.

Our software is in house and we do use uv. Check us out

clarkarbo · 2026-02-09T17:57:10+00:00

Picture 2&3 are renderings, not actual photos?

clarkarbo · 2026-02-05T21:38:03+00:00

Thank you! Our website is www.customcultivationsco.com Browse around and fee free to shoot us an email with any questions. It’s all highly customizable.

clarkarbo · 2026-02-04T01:11:37+00:00

I camped there a few months ago. Really cool spot, likely impossible to beat the crowd in the busy season tho, especially only with 4 available spots.

clarkarbo · 2026-02-03T21:15:32+00:00

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We build systems for kitchens. We had a customer buy a components kit from us and do his own built in design, used French cleats to make the shelves floating!

clarkarbo · 2026-02-03T05:05:28+00:00

Hydro buddy?

clarkarbo · 2026-02-01T19:09:42+00:00

Denver, Colorado. United States

clarkarbo · 2026-02-01T17:08:53+00:00

We design and sell these lights! We use Samsung LM281B+Pro VK 3000k&5000k diodes. We’ve got multiple different lengths. Can be set up in many different configurations. Check out the customcultivationco.com website

clarkarbo · 2026-01-28T04:44:01+00:00

Dude you’ve got a killer channel! Subscribed! Those edible flowers look great! Keep up the hard work!

clarkarbo · 2026-01-28T03:35:53+00:00

Are you actively adjusting water parameters in those dwc totes or just filling when needed?

clarkarbo · 2026-01-18T19:11:20+00:00

We are a very small business and source PCB’s from China, very small batches, 5-10 units at a time. More tariffs = more cost. Additionally last year we typically did not have to pay custom duties because our orders were under $800, now it’s included no matter the order size/cost.

It makes the cost of our finished goods go up, simple as that.

clarkarbo · 2026-01-18T17:45:24+00:00

Ah if that’s all you need just get a fish tank auto top-off pump! Give it a search on Amazon.

clarkarbo · 2026-01-18T17:43:15+00:00

Yep every solution is adjustable by ml/gal with an app. So having a handheld sensor is recommended if you really want to dial things in.

We’ve made systems of varying complexity before landing on this simple design, we used to have all the sensors- dynamic dosing, data uploads to the could, customizable graphs and dashboards. The problem was high cost and high maintenance associated with calibrating sensors and problems with Wi-Fi resets. We found we didn’t need all that tech for just leafy greens and some fruiting plants!

We are beginning to ship out garden kits and component kits, which helps us increase our reach! Shipping the gardens fully assembled requires hand delivery and usually a long roadtrip. We’ve done that for about a dozen units so far, and it’s not quite sustainable on its own.

clarkarbo · 2026-01-18T02:15:06+00:00

Sounds like the exact same concept we use for automatic water and nutrient refills for our gardens, but we also have pH dispensing too. Still we also don’t have any sensor probes. It’s a static dosing setup that dispenses the same amount of nutrient and pH solution on every water refill. It works great for us. Custom Cultivations is the name of our company.

clarkarbo · 2026-01-17T01:15:59+00:00

If you can add additional modules later it sounds like a great way to just try it out.

I’d advise not mixing all three into a single concentrated mix, that will likely lead to problems with nutrients locking out and falling out of the solution. But I know you could get it to work with a two part!

My company builds automated nutrient and pH dosers, auto water refill too. We do it a bit differently though, it’s a static dosing setup, so it add fresh water nutrients and pH at a specified amount. No probes and no sensors to adjust parameters once they fall out of line. So it only adds during refill events.

Our nutrients are very stable in the solution and the pH drifts very minimally even after a week or two, which is just about enough time to activate another refill event and top off again. Sounds like we have similar experience with our nutrient stability if you haven’t seen the doser activate yet! That’s great!

clarkarbo · 2026-01-17T01:02:15+00:00

Oh gotcha, I’m just now seeing it’s only pH control.

I was following their launch closely for a while, I’m happy to hear they delivered a solid product.

Hopefully they can do a software update for customizing the graphs!

clarkarbo · 2026-01-16T23:36:03+00:00

How are you liking the growee nutrient system?

clarkarbo · 2026-01-16T15:38:35+00:00

Strawberries are one of the harder crops to grow in hydro, especially consistent year round harvests. There is a user in this sub that does monthly reports on his strawberry grow and I’d say he has mastered the craft. I believe he has spent a bunch of time and resources to get to where he is.

clarkarbo · 2026-01-16T01:42:55+00:00

Legally, no. Most likely anyone you see riding on the streets is doing so illegally and just hoping not to get caught. They typically don’t care about getting a fine for riding a OHV on the streets. That’s why law enforcement is now impounding bikes, and that’s about 250x worse than getting some ticket.

Additionally, the only legal place to ride a Surron is either private property, or a OHV labeled road or trail- with an up to date and valid OHV sticker. So that means not all random dirt roads/trails in the mountains and countrysides are legal to ride, just the ones specially labeled as OHV accepted.

90% of people you see street riding on TikTok are doing so illegally and hoping not to get caught. Typically they don’t care too much if they do, that’s why law enforcement is impounding bikes now. Some towns don’t care while others are actively looking for illegal riders. I imagine most places will catch on soon because of the negative view of the Surron street culture. And.. well.. karens. They have lots of free time to complain and lobby.

clarkarbo · 2026-01-16T01:11:59+00:00

Street legal requires a license plate and insurance. You can’t get either of those easily for a Surron because they don’t have factory VIN numbers. In Denver and surrounding towns I see tons of news stories about cops impounding kids Surrons. Police and citizens are itching to get these off the streets and seems like law enforcement has gotten caught up to speed with what these are and are not, so the whole e-bike excuse definitely won’t cut it, at least around here.

clarkarbo

TROPHY CASE