1st Time Grow Hydro/Scr0G/ICE/T5

[DarthHerbage]

PIC UPDATE:

I decided to take some pics and clean out the orange gunk I could find at the same time. While doing so I got some good news and some bad news:

Good news: I HAVE ROOTS!!!!!!!! If they were already there since I last looked in the res, I hadn't seen 'em.

There are root systems for both the youngsters. Thing is, the younger of the two's roots look a LOT better than the older one. No idea why that is. They also look a lot clearer than the younger one's.

PIC 1: Root system of the younger plant (almost 2 weeks old) Is it me or are those some kickass healthy roots, especially for a plant so young?

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PIC 2: Root system of the older plant...not lookin so good. Think it may be overwatered? It's the only pot I have 2 water hoses running to.

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PIC 3, 4, and 5: The older plant. You can see both the first LST I was trying and the browning of the leaves on the bottom.

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PIC 6 and 7: The younger plant. You can see the browning/orange on the edges of some of its leaves as well.

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PIC 8: Here is a pic of the orange crap both on and inside some of the hoses of the system. If anyone can tell me what that is I'd greatly appreciate it.

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So I pulled all the older seeds I had tried to get going from the cube I transplanted the first Aurora B into last night. I checked the other one I was trying to germ and it already had a looong taproot. So both germed within 48 hours. Either they're exceptional seeds or the ICE seeds I had were subpar.

Anyhow, so I decided to yank the other cube I had in the system and pull the older seeds I was still trying to get to germ out. I took the cube out, flipped it over, and I found what you see in PIC 9. I don't know exactly what that is, but I'm assuming rotten seed + a lot of water = rotten orange ass roots. Am I right?

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So, I also checked the hose going to that pot and it had a build up of orange gunk inside of it. PICS 10, 11, and 12 are of the disgusting orange puke-looking crap I found both on some of the hoses and inside that particular hose.

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I cleared it out as best I could, wiped off what I could find, rinsed the hydroton out good, soaked a new rockwool cube in PH'd water for about a half hour, and put the newest Aurora B seed in the system.

As I've said, tomorrow I'm going to dump the res, clean the hell out of it, clean the hell out of the hoses, and start fresh with all distilled water tomorrow night. I'm also going to attach the base of the Scr0G screen while I'm at it.

Pics of my next LST step on the older plant are in PICS 13 and 14.






Obviously I've got a few issues. Here are my questions if anyone wants to give 'em a go for me:

1. Is it alright for me to lay off on nutes until the two newbies are at least a few inches tall? As for the older plants, one is almost 3 weeks, and one is almost 2 weeks old (roundabouts).

2. Aside from a little soap and water, what should I use to clean the hell out of those hoses and res?

3. How long can I have those plants away from water before it starts to harm them? I was just planning on moving the lid to an empty container while I cleaned the res, but I also need to attach the base of the screen support to the lid while it's out of the res.

4. Is there a trick to adding PH Down or nutes to a hydro system? All i do is pour some PH down into the water of the system when I'm working on the PH.

5. Can anyone tell me what the hell that orange stuff is? From PH down? From rotten roots? Orange alien algae growth?

6. Can anyone tell me why the leaves are browning/oranging on the bottom of both plants?



Well, I think that's all I got for now. If anyone read this and the other novella posts of mine, I appreciate it.

[DarthHerbage]

Here are the pics that wouldn't fit in the last post:

PIC 11 and PIC 12 are more pics of the orange crap in my system.

11: 11.JPG



12: 12.JPG

PICS 13 and 14 were of my 2nd LST of the oldest plant:

13: 13.JPG

14: 14.JPG

[SmknVTEC]

Dude your plants look fine. Correct pH for hydro is between 5.2-5.8. Try to get it in there. I think your ppm should be higher too by now. Try 300 or so. I am not a hydro guy but, I know 300 surely can't hurt them at this stage. GH pH down should be fine. It is the liquid right? Your temps are too high as well.

[DarthHerbage]

I appreciate the reply.

However, are you saying that the brown leaves are normal?

Do you have any experience concerning that orange gunk?

By the temps being too high are you referring to the water or the ambient temp in the room?

And the 200ppm is just from the hard water. No nutes yet. I'm not worried about the nutes hurting the two plants. I'm worried about the nutes hurting the two seedlings I just planted in the 3rd and 4th net pots.

The GH PH down is the orange liquid, and since that gunk in my system is orange, I'm worried that that might be what's causing it.

Again, thanks for the reply mane.

[THesCientist]

Originally Posted by DarthHerbage

Thanks for the reply, man. You've got some crazy stuff going on in your grow lol.

Anytime. I like trying new stuff. You'll find that this hobby turns into much more than just "growing pot".

[zababadoo]

i actually have the stealh hydro 4 plant DWC kit and i had i problem with the orange build-up as well you have to really flush out there hydroton pebbles they give i had to run it through a strainer back and forth 10 times to get it all off. also my plants are at day 4 and ive got my ppm at 450-550 and my plants just speed up growth a bit no burn or anything also let the roots "air out" about 2 times a week really speeds up the progress of root growth. thats awesome to see that these work because i was leary to buy mine. GL buddy


all that you do to air them out stop the water pump and make sure they are out of any water (the roots i mean) for about 5 min add turn your pump back on and add the water back if needed butt its up to you to do that or not.

[DarthHerbage]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Scientist, I know I'm learning about a lot more things than just "pot" with this new hobby. It's pretty sweet.

zababadoo, I'd heard that about the hydroton, but I thought I rinsed it out well enough. I'm not sure what I can do about it now, as there's no way I'm trying to pull the plants/roots/cubes out of the hydroton. I'm just going to have to clean the hell out of the res, break some pipe cleaners out on the hoses, and switch to distilled water. Someone stated that my water temp and ambient temps are too high, so I'm going to work on fixes for those too.

I'll be airing out the roots a bit when I clean the res. (I've heard to do that too) How long can I have them out of water? I need to clean it out and I was wanting to attach the support for the scr0g screen while I had 'em separated but I don't want to leave them out too long...

Thanks again for the replies people.

Btw, the two Aurora Bs are already sprouting up. Woo hoo!

[SmknVTEC]

There you go zababadoo hit it for ya. Your ambient temps of 85-93 degrees are too high but they will still grow.

[zababadoo]

at the most only air them out for 15 min i wouldnt do it too much longer than that. i let mine air out for about 5-10 min about every 2-3 days. mostly what i do is just drain a gallon of the water and turn off the pump and then add it back through the net pots just so the upper side of the roots get a lil water now and then.
ill start a grow journal with mine so we can keep touch and compare so we can see how to improve with these kits keep us updated

also i have noticed more growth when the ambient room temp/humid are 73-75/40-60
water temp 65-68 ( i think my thermometer broke today )

BTW: dude i was really baked when i wrote this and i forgot about it and it was on my comp screen for like 1:30 h:m man holy shit peace out

[DarthHerbage]

There you go zababadoo hit it for ya. Your ambient temps of 85-93 degrees are too high but they will still grow

I'm going to work on my grow room later. I'm going to duct tape up the vents that are built into the tent so that the only holes are the 1 for intake and 1 for exhaust.
I don't see any use for there being little vent windows at the bottom of the tent, other than to disrupt the airflow from my intake and exhaust.

Then I'm going to set up a little stand outside the intake fan and try sitting a full tray of ice cubes right in front of it to see if that helps any...(I'm out of ideas as to how to get the ambient temp down).

I'm thinking of sticking a fullcooler full of ice/water in the room with the plants to see if that helps both lower the temp and raises the humidity.

Originally Posted by zababadoo

at the most only air them out for 15 min i wouldnt do it too much longer than that. i let mine air out for about 5-10 min about every 2-3 days. mostly what i do is just drain a gallon of the water and turn off the pump and then add it back through the net pots just so the upper side of the roots get a lil water now and then.

How do you clean your res? Are you just that fast, or what do you do with the plants? I'm going to clean my res out in a bit, and I'm going to use pipe cleaners on the hoses, then attach the support for the scrog screen I'm going to use. I'm not exactly sure what to do with the plants while I'm doing all this because I know it's going to take longer than 15 minutes. I can intermittently pour distilled water on the cubes and down the roots while I'm working on it...lol

ill start a grow journal with mine so we can keep touch and compare so we can see how to improve with these kits keep us updated

Dude that'd be sweet.

have noticed more growth when the ambient room temp/humid are 73-75/40-60
water temp 65-68 ( i think my thermometer broke today )

I'm going to work on getting my temps down tonight (85-90 ambient, 80F water) and my humidity up. I'm going to try what I said earlier about duct taping the vents, the ice cube tray, and the cooler. I'm also going to try putting duct tape all over the res itself, to help block out light, and perhaps insulate it to keep it cooler.

Bummer about your thermometer, mane.

dude i was really baked when i wrote this and i forgot about it and it was on my comp screen for like 1:30 h:m man holy shit peace out

Haha it happens to the best of us.

I'll post up some pics later of my modifications and shiznot.

[zababadoo]

right on man
i have also thought about duct taping the res to keep light out because ou can pretty much see right through but also if your changing your water regulary i wouldnt fret about algae growth
ice cubes do work temporarily but only for 2-3 hours(i had to do that for a while too)

also heres something that i do to speed up clean time
step by step
1- figure out exactly how many gallons you put in and mark a line there
2- fill a couple jugs of water up with the nutes already added( distilled(i use)-spring-RO)
3-always make about 1 gallon extra w/o nutes but ph balanced
4-i made a rack to hold the lid up in the air so the roots dont touch anything
5-i found a old 10 gal tub and i empty it into that(but any tub that has a bigger res than the bubbleponics one will do)
6-quickly take all air stones/disk out(im using 3 4'' disk and a hydraiter(petsmart they're awesome) and then sand the tops if there is build-up and make sure to rinse out before you put it back in
7-have cleaning solution ready( i just use distilled water and some elbow grease becuase i dont want to risk bleach harming my babies)
8-take your ph balanced water and pour around the net pots through the hydroton to keep dust out of your system
9- while that water is dripping off your lid/net pots take and fill your res back up with your alreasy ph balanced/nuted/baby makin water
10- pop that lid back on there

it takes a couple of times to get the routine down but i think the total time for me is about 10-15 min at a half-assed pace
also: i got an awesome humidifier off ebay for like $40 all together when it cost $90 at all the stores around me its even got a humidistat so i set it to the humidity i want and it automatically turns on and off when the RH drops

[up4anything]

Zababadoo is probably right. Unless the orange stuff is slimy, it's probably the clay dust from the hydroton. Newer hydroton will do that. No biggie, it won't hurt much - just keep it out of your pump.

I agree with Smok'nV, you're too hot. For the temps, the ice will get to be a pain in the ass in a hurry. You really need more airflow. T5's get a little hot, but they're not hard to keep cool. I would buy a small inline duct fan and mount it in the top. Leave those other flaps alone and it will pull cooler air from the floor and exhaust hotter air to the top. Good circulation will prevent a lot of other issues too. Those fans you have aren't going to do the job for an enclosed grow like that - especially when the plants get bigger and humidty becomes an issue.

[up4anything]

One more thing that I forgot... there are several additives you can put in your res to deal with hard water and calcium.

General Hydroponics makes an entire line of nutrients specifically for hard water. If you use it, you won't have to dick with filtering or using bottled water or whatever. It's specifically designed for 200ppm or more hard water.

[zababadoo]

heres a couple of pics of my setup right now i only have 4 of the 20 cfls in there on and there is also a picture of my other hydro plant that i had at about 2 and 1/2 weeks

[AugustWest]

Originally Posted by DarthHerbage

I'm going to duct tape up the vents that are built into the tent so that the only holes are the 1 for intake and 1 for exhaust.
I don't see any use for there being little vent windows at the bottom of the tent, other than to disrupt the airflow from my intake and exhaust.

those vent windows at the bottom of the tent serve as a passive intake (as well as helping keep the co2 from settling at the floor). I think leaving them alone would only help your temperature problem.. that's just my 2 cents man your grow looks real good as it is.

good luck
AW