Hello everyone! Welcome to my grow! This has been one hell of a ride so far and I haven't even started growing yet. I was expecting to have everything ready to go a month ago, but a combination of unanticipated obstacles as well as procrastination due to fear of ruining something have kept me from starting a journal and growing until now. I would love input from those of you that have the experience and if you see me making a mistake I would greatly appreciate you all let me know. I am hoping to keep this grow as simple as possible so please keep that in mind when offering advice. After much going back and forth I decided to start with 818 headband feminized seeds a.k.a sour og. The setup they will be in: \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">9x5 Gorilla grow tent - This was pricier than I liked to pay, but it did seem to have a few advantages. I really like how I can get the height up to 10 feet or so and any other tent is 7 feet maximum; however, this grow that will not benefit me as I will be scrogging and keeping the plant short. For this reason the extension is not being used and I have a height of 6'7. I do have some buyers remorse, I will soon learn if this tent is worth the additional $350 or so.</span> \t\t \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">2 x 1000w HID lights - That's almost 45w per square foot. I am using the T8 Lights of America fixture for the seedling stage. When I transplant them to their final destination I will turn the MH lights down to 50% and bring them closer to the plants and as the plants grow I will gradually increase to 100% and raise them. </span> \t\t \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">Active Air 720 CFM 8†fan - I also have a generic carbon filter and silencer attached to it. Barely makes any noise and the suction on the tent seems to be very minimal. I almost have a Mercury 4 titan control that I may use (I don't understand how setting the bottom half with the day/night and idle times work).</span> \t\t \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">¼ HP EcoPlus Chiller.</span> \t\t \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">Nutrients - General Hydroponics 3-part. I have calmag for flower; I am using RO water. </span> \t\t \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">Meters - Oakton EcoTestr ph2. HM Digital AP-1 TDS meter. Purchased with calibration solution.</span> \t\t \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">Pumps - EcoPlus 1000 GPH inline pump. EcoPlus 396 GPH Submersible pump (for chiller). 112 watt 110 LPM air pump.</span> \t\t \t<span style="background-color:transparent;">The system - 6-site UC RDWC setup</span> \t<ol><li>\t\t<span style="background-color:transparent;">6 x 10-gallon totes</span> \t\t\t\t \t\t<span style="background-color:transparent;">1†rubber flow lines with ¾†return lines (later told flow should be double return. Next time).</span> \t\t\t\t \t\t<span style="background-color:transparent;">4 x 6†net pots and 2 x 10†net pots (bought 4 and found the 10†were cheaper)</span> \t\t\t\t \t\t<span style="background-color:transparent;">4 x 8†Hydrofarm air stones. 1 x 8†generic air stone. 1 x 12†generic air stone.</span> \t\t\t\t \t\t<span style="background-color:transparent;">1 x 27-gallon tote for control reservoir. There is a pvc pipe connected to the return tube with holes in it to slow down the flow. Also have ¼†float valve connected to main 27-gallon reservoir.</span> \t\t\t </li></ol> I'm going to germinate the seeds in rapid rooters (any day now. maybe today?!), then move them into a cloner I made (maybe. I may just put the 6 rapid rooters in a small tray and move them to their final destination when the roots get big enough). Here are some pics:
I only bought 6 seeds and not all of them germinated so I am deciding on what to do now. Will be back soon to update
Looks like my headband seeds turned into Blue Dream clones; how crazy is that!? I will transplant them today
My system does not seem to be circulating at a proper speed and I was hoping some of the more experienced rdwcers could give their input. The 1000 GPH pump seemed to be way too fast because the return flow was faster than the flow out of the control reservoir. I added a pvc pipe and put holes in it to slow down the stream (pictures above), but water doesn't seem to be circulation well. The pH is different when I check it in the reservoir vs the individual buckets.
Cool setup and nice build. I think you already have the answer to your problem, your flow lines need to be bigger. If you look at the professional systems they use a much bigger diameter 'flow line'.
For instance the Current Culture systems have a 2" connection between the individual (8gal) buckets: http://cch2o.com/products/hydroponic-systems/uc6/
The system is flowing at a good speed now. This is what I have: PPM: 420 PH: 5.5 Day Temp: 85 degrees Humidity: 35% The next day (Today) I checked and the water is at 415 PPM and 5.9 PH. My chiller is keep the water at about 68 degrees. The roots seem to be slowly creeping out of the bottom, and some more than others. I will take pictures of the roots in a couple days.
Everything is staying relatively constant, which I think is a good sign. Temperature dropped a few degrees, but that's about it. Oh, and roots! They are started to form nicely. The plant also seems to be growing and I expect to top them relatively soon.
All the numbers are still staying withing range. Temp, PH, and PPM are all staying constant, except I left the lights running at 50%...oops. They have all bushed out and developed nice roots except for one; one main root coming down, not sure why that one is struggling. The roots also don't seem to be as white as before. If you can see in the picture with the roots the shorter roots look whiter than the longer ones, I assume because the shorter ones get more oxygen; is that correct? I also think I am ready to top some, but wanted your opinion. The picture with my fingers looks like it's ready to be topped. All other advice is welcome.
I would like some advice: The temperature in my room seems to be to high (high 80's low 90's) after turning my lights to 100%. I have another 6" fan, possibly 400 cfm or so, that I hooked up on the other side as you can see in some of the pictures, but this does not seem to be helping. I was thinking that I would connect some ducting to the exhaust and have it blow into the other room (it's currently blowing into the same room, making it quite hot). I don't know if this will solve the issue as it gets hotter in the summer though. I have a few other options and would like input on what is best. 1) I could buy air cooled hoods (or cool tube, don't know the difference) 2) I can buy an small AC unit 3) ? What do you guys think?
I'd recommend getting cool tubes and running an inline fan and some ducting to vent the heat to an outside location. You may need to also get an ac unit if it remains too hot. But that should make a huge difference
I've been busy tweaking a few things in my setup and haven't had time to update. I took the pictures, but that's as far as I got. I was having some pretty serious heat issues; they would get up into the low 90s. I corrected that by attaching ducting to my exhaust and directing it out the window. On the other side I installed a window fan to bring cool air into the room (not the grow room) and opened the mesh screen on that side. I also have my lights turn off between 2-8pm. I will probably still need an A/C come flower time during the hotter part of the summer, but for now temps seem to be within range. Another problem I had, which was rather frustrating, is my handyman knocked over my ballast and broke it, so I had to order a new one. For a few 4-5 days my plants were running off of one 1000w light, which I'm [SIZE=14.6666669845581px]gudoenessing is why some plants are further along then others. I actually bought a whole new lighting setup [/SIZE]because[SIZE=14.6666669845581px] it was $40 more and I may need to replace something else down the line. [/SIZE] [SIZE=14.6666669845581px]My PPM stayed around 420 so I didn't change it, until one day I found it at and decided it was time to do a res change and increase the nutrients, I was less prepared for this as well. I got it 850 PPM and a pH f 5.9. I actually added too much pH down and it was reading at 5.2, so I added some tap water to bring it back up since I read mixing pH up and down was a bad idea. I was aiming for a ppm around 700, but I ran out of time because my lights went out and my green light is still on the way. I'll check on it tomorrow to see how the plants are responding. [/SIZE] [SIZE=14.6666669845581px]As you can see, some of them are starting to grow through the screens already, and they were topped at multiple sites not too many days ago. If there is anything you guys think I should be doing differently please let me know. [/SIZE]
What's your plan regarding nutes ? Is there a reason for keeping them relatively low? Oh ya, and what are your temps running at now?
Only reason I'm running them low is because this is my first grow and I don't know what to run at. I'm in my 3rd week of veg, how high should I have it? Since my nutrient level was not changing I assumed it was enough. for the plant During the day my temps are between 78 and 82 during the hottest hours, and they are right around 70 degrees at night with slight variation.
Your temps are great. I know very well just how difficult that can be in the summer months. In regards to ppm's, i haven't run that specific strain and each variety has a preference but last week I was in veg week one and was between 10-11 hundred. I like to give em as much as they can possibly utilize without giving too much. If i were you, I'd slowly keep raising and closely watch how they respond. The plants should talk to you in a way. I was close to 2k on my last run with 3 in growth in 24 hr and never a burnt leaf.