First grow, RDWC hydroponic purple erkle. LED

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by phukyoo, Mar 26, 2014.

  1. Alright guys, here I go on my first try on growing anything. I'm running a RDWC system with 2 purple Erkle clones on a 450 watt LED light. Here' a list of what i'm using;
     
    450 watt LED 3 panel Grow/Bloom Light
    Flora Series Nutrients
    Cal/Mag
    Silica Blast
    MOAB - for flower
    4x2x7 Grow tent
    190 CFM inline fan w/ carbon filter
    2 purple Erkle clones
     
    Homemade Recirculating Deep Water Culture (RDWC) system I got the idea from a youtuber, here's what you need to build it;
    45 gallon Tote
    2 - 10' net pots
    396 gph water pump
    3w air pump 7.8L/min
    2 - 1" Ball Valves (To allow/seal water Flow)
    2 - 4" in round air stones
    There is a secret addition to the water pump making it special. On the adapter that came with the pump I drilled a hole right where it reduces size and inserted some extra air line tubing an sealed it. I just ran the tubing upwards, open ended allowing oxygen to get in. Since the pump is pushing water through the adapter, when it reduces size it builds pressure. This pressure wants to pull from somewhere so it pulls from the air line, mixing oxygen with the water. This allows no dead zones and circulates the water well. It even has a special benefit with adding nutrients. Just grab the open air line tubing and put it into your nutrients and it will pull that through and mix it with the water slowly, steadily which is best for plants.
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  2. I encountered a small problem, that was primarily my fault for being cheap. I filled up the reservoir and sprung a small leak, so I ended up having to drain the entire system and seal my holes (giggity). I used a cheap DAP kitchen and bath adhesive sealant that was supposedly "crack proof and water proof." Anyways I went out and got some silicone and applied 3 layers of it so its nice and thick (whats with all this innuendo?). I'm not too worried about it leaking anymore it seems really solid but I guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow when I fill it up. Like I promised heres a more detailled look at my set up;
    [​IMG]
    This is my 450watt LED 3 panel growth/bloom light. It's not a brand name, which are ridiculously overpriced, but it gets the job done nicely for about $250. I did a little research on LED's and found out which wavelengths plants prefer. Now correct me if I'm wrong, I didn't do extensive research, just looked it up for a couple of hours and found a couple sites stating pretty much the same thing. A 660nm deep red LED is a plant's preference for flowering. These are more expensive and sometimes companies use an extent of 640nm red, which is fine but you prefer a mix with at least some 660nm in it (which this light has). . A 440-460nm blue is used throughout vegetative and flower, with a combination of white 3k-5k LED. In Vegetative you want a higher concentration of blues to reds so it is best to turn off some red LED's (if possible) and it'll save you money in power. This light contains all these things and has a lumen output of 21,900. Its a large light 33"x10.5", surprisingly solid, and runs really cool while making little noise.
     
    TL;DR: Cheap light, good parts.
     
  3. #3 phukyoo, Mar 26, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 28, 2014
    Ok, now onto the reservoir;
     
    [​IMG]
    I am running a 3w 7.8l/min hydrofarm airpump with 2 - 4" round air stones. To the left I have my drain plug, when I need to do res changes and to the right I have my recirculating system.
     
    [​IMG]
    This is the recirculating system, it is a 396 gph pump connected with 1" polyflex tubing into a 1" ball socket drain plug. Pretty self explanatory on how to set that part up, just silicone all the shit out of anywhere water runs through like i did. Too much silicone, probably isn't enough. The pump has a little attachment I added.
     
    [​IMG]
    This is an attachment i added (got the idea of a youtuber DVLZHAZE, don't wanna steal credit) which I drilled a hole in the adaptor of the water pump, where it returns the water, right where the adapter reduces size. I inserted some airline tubing and just taped it upwards, this allows oxygen to mix with the water when it shoots it back in. If you put your finger over the hose you can see the bubbles stop flowing with the pump. Also the best part of this, when you feed your plants you just bend the hose into your nutes and it sucks it up into the reservoir without lifting the lid, and dispensing it evenly.
     
    [​IMG]
    And lastly, but definitely not least as I just found out, the drain plug. This saved my floor when I noticed a small leak, I was able to attach the hose to the drain plug and drain out my system before it got too bad. Ironically the drain plug was the main culprit of the leak, with a busted seal. Anyways I used half a tube of silicone on this, so we shouldn't have anymore problems. You need a drain system on a system this big because there is just no reasonable way to move it when it's full, without making a bigger mess.
     
    So this is the overview on my custom RDWC system, feel free to make suggestions or give some feedback, love is always appreciated.
     
  4. Oh ya forgot a couple things some lonely stoner might be interested in.
     
    [​IMG]
    This is the tent set up as for now, I'm trying to replace that huge fan with 2 - 6" fans. The light hangs 28" over the top of the plants.
     
    [​IMG]
    Here's a list of all the nutrients I'm using, everything except MOAB which I'll get closer to flower.
     
    I'll leave you with a pic of the girls.
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    [​IMG]
     
  5. K, I filled up the reservoir with about 30-35gallons of tap water (I live in northern California all agriculture around me). The Tap water had a PH 7.5 and about 160ppm fresh. Here's the readings and measurements of my first "soup".
     
    PH:6.75
    PPM:638
     
    200 ML Floragro
    100 ML Florabloom
    100 ML Floramicro
    100 ML silica blast
    100 ML Cal/Mag
    shot of ph down.
     
    Overall I think this is a pretty good ppm for veg and a good combination, but any suggestions are welcome. Im going to try to stay in the 600ppm range for veg, 700ppm range for transition, and 800 ppm for flower.
     
  6. Quick update. I checked the ppm's today after the water had set overnight with the nutes and the ppm dropped down to 613. This was probably the ppm of the tap water dropping down 23ppm, since I tested it straight out of the house. This tells me the tap water should be fine to use for the rest of the grow with a ppm <150, so now i don't need to purchase an ro filter or store water. Sorry for excessive updates but i'm using this as my journal as well as to show you guys.
     
  7. Stay avid with the updates

    Sent from my SGH-T599N using Grasscity Forum mobile app
     
  8. So I reached another problem, my PH keeps jumping up around 8.5. I checked it yesterday and it was high so i PH'd it down to 6.0 and now it's back up to 8.5. Im using the liquid PH tester that comes with the PH up/down. Why is my PH keep jumping up so high? I don't know if it matters but a little light bleeds through the sides of the net pots into the reservoir. 
     
  9. Sry brother I'm really new at this never cultivated until now frombwhat im reading burnijg phosphorus changes ph value and youre medium might do the same hopefully someone will come along and shed some light on this question

    Sent from my SGH-T599N using Grasscity Forum mobile app
     
  10. been there bro, had the same issue running GH nutes...I started mixing up a batch of nutes a week+ in advance, I kept it with an airstone and kept adjusting ph until it was stable for a couple days...it helped, but didnt stop the problem. I started using Lucas Formula vs the directed mix and that helped a little more but the ph still was climbing up..I know alot of people have good results with GH, but  I couldnt get consistent results so I switched nutes..On the light getting in, not good, it breaks down the nutes but Im not sure if its making the ph problem worse. Try using a piece of black plastic with a slit cut in it placed over the hydroton to block whatever light is creaping in the res...gl
     
  11. #11 phukyoo, Mar 29, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 29, 2014
    Ok guys the PH is now stable at about PH 6.0. I've ordered a PH meter to have a more accurate reading of the PH, But now I'm worried about my plants rooting. I got the clones exactly 7 days ago, and they already had roots poking out of the bottom of the rockwool they were in. I put them in my system but for 4 days I had to keep working on system leaks, so the plants were moved a lot, and spray bottle fed with plain distilled water. I pretty much figured for the first 4 days the plant was too stressed to develop roots. Now its been steady in the system going on for 4 days and I still haven't seen any roots. Should I be worried, or do they just need more time to bounce back, because it was a little rough on them. They don't look too bad i just noticed today one plant has just the slightest amount of yellowing if you can see in the pic but they dont look like they're dying. There is about 1" of hydroton in between the rockwool and the net pot. You can see the bottom of the net pot is saturated by the airstones so the plants look fed.
     
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    184.jpg
     
  12. I would hit the girls with a shot of hormones....Superthrive comes to mind or advanced nutrients B52....always good to use, and helps get thru some rough spots...
     
  13. #13 phukyoo, Mar 30, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 30, 2014
    YA WE DID IT!
     
    After some waiting we now have roots busting out the bottom of the net pot into the res. I was about to pick up some superthrive because I was worrying, but glad I waited. I definitely don't want to give my plants anything that they don't absolutely need, minimal nutrients and ppm is my goal throughout this grow. I was wondering when a good time to add nutrients to my res, keeping in mind my goal? I figured when the PPM's dropped to about 250 I would readjust it to about 600 this part of veg and my next res change I'll go to 700ppm and up the micro/silica blast.
     
    I'll leave you with a picture of the beautiful roots, they're huge after nothing being there just 12 hours ago.
    015.jpg
     
    PH:6.0 - still waiting on digital tester but it is now stable
    PPM:537 - Enjoy those nutrients roots you've earned it. Now the roots have hit the water the PPM's dropped almost 60ppm!
     
  14. It's lookin really good bro, nice job on finding them roots!!!

    I'm about 6 weeks in to my first, and i remember when i was freaking out about my roots. I got too happy :) One thing i have done that seems to help a lot is have the roots work for the water. Like, make sure the roots only are sitting in the water a few inches until they fully develop a root ball. It made my roots expand much quicker and dropped right to the bottom of my res on top of the air stone.

    I'm very interested in the LED. I'm running CFLs and a Floro tube right now, but i have a used 1000 watt ballast with no bulb. It's either i go out and buy a bulb and spend shit tons of money on electricity, or i could invest in LED, and i'm torn. I'll be tuned in too see results!!!

    Check out my journal on my profile if you're interested (sorry, no link. Stupid phone) Purple Kush, DWC First Grow.

    Indy
     
  15. Ya I'm excited to see how these LED's work in flower. I'm really hoping they do well because I do like how cool they run and easy. When I dedicate a room to veg for my next grow I'm just gonna go with cool/warm flourescent lighting since it works well and LED's would cost too much for just vegging. I might try to rush this veg and get it into flower after a 1 month veg, just because I'm trying to move and then jump to a 5 plant grow.

     
  16. A man with a plan, you go get 'em. I'm vegging under mixed spec. Floro's right now, and mine are doing quite well.

    Have you done any research or reading on how whether you can use a combo of LED and floros in flower? I'm curious to see whether it would boost the effect of the LED's because of the increase in the warm spectrum, or if it would take away from the whole effect of the LED because it washes out some of the direct colored light...?

    Indy
     
  17. Ya its recommended, I just can't accomodate it because there's no more room for lights in my tent and I don't wanna mess with the temp. As far as beneficial goes I would say its the same as adding more LED but for half the price.

    Sent from my SGH-T999L using Grasscity Forum mobile app
     
  18. Coolio. I think i may invest in an LED instead of a new HID setup. I've heard so many people bash CFL's and floros because of low bud quality, but i think paired with an LED, we can get nice tight solid buds with all those concentrated spectrums and the added lumens.
     
  19. Ya LED's cost more initially but last longer and save you money in the long run just gotta find what's gonna work better for your personal grow. The initial cost won't be too badvif you stay away from brand names. Just pay attention to the diodes they use you want 3watt+

    Sent from my SGH-T999L using Grasscity Forum mobile app
     
  20. Solid updates man. First off loving the avatar. The cheese burglar! Second where did you pick up your light? I've been looking for a reasonably priced one that covers both spectrums and have struggled. Closest I've been able to find us the solarstorm but that's $1000+

    Sent from my SM-N900V using Grasscity Forum mobile app
     

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