DWC Perpetual setup, 1000w HPS

Hey all, just got an Indoor DWC setup crackin. I spent about $500 on all the supplies I feel are required. I have a 125 gallon fish tank that I am using for the veg box. I have a 4ft t5 fluorescent fixture hanging above the top with mylar taped to the inside walls.
My flower room is using a 1000w Xtrasun from Amazon with bulb for $280 after taxes. I bought six, 5-gal buckets from home depot as well as 6 Styrofoam sheets 2'x4'. The Styrofoam I cut into lids for the buckets and drilled holes with plastic screws in them for support. The remaining sheets of Styrofoam I covered with mylar and they are now movable reflective walls for the flowering area.
I purchased some double output air pumps and nice heavy round air-stones that sink and stay put. There are 4inch and 3 inch net pots that I cut holes for in the Styrofoam. I will be using the 5gal buckets for both veg and flowering.
Pictures will be posted very soon......

Cant wait too see it, wehat strain are u runnin?

I have an Excel spreadsheet for my growing schedule. Sativa's get my mind working and I do some weird industrious shit. This lists all the Strains and veg, flower, harvest times. Pics are in also of the setup. Because I am medical, and also grow for one other legally, I will be following CA protocol strictly so no more than 12 flowering plants at any given time. The location is close to my home but safer and has a more ideal grow space.

Heres the Strains....

1 Blue Dream, vegged for 3 weeks, been flowering for 9 days
3 Afghan Kush x Skunk 1, some vegging still, some just went to flower
2 Blue Cheese 1 veg, 1 flowering

Heres Pics of the setup... (Left to right) AKxS and BCheese vegging together under t5s in fishtank shown also is part of CO2 bucket. Second pic is my other CO2 yeast/sugar bucket in the flowering room. The 3rd pic is the Blue Dream in the flowering room, its 19". 4th pic is my air pump with the "t" connector combining the two outputs. I have 2 small fans attached to either side of my veg tank, one 12" pointed towards the fan and plant tops in the flower room.

The plan is to bring in 3 new plants every 1-4 weeks. I don't want to have to wait for clones that I grow myself, plus it makes my overall plant number go up and I don't want too many. My local dispensary has great tall healthy clones that I can pickup for $11. They jump right into the water in like 1-3 days in the DWC buckets. I have some MagiCal and a 25% miraclegro 20/20/20 in the veg buckets. FloraNova in the flowering.

Any questions or advice is greatly appreciated

it's great u can go just down the road and pick up a close for such a cheap price maybe one day the rest of the world will click on and make theses tools so available. wt ya rekon. but nice looking are they under fluro?

There are 3 under fluorescents that are vegging, the flowering ones are under 1000w HPS. The Afghan Kush x Skunk1 and Blue Cheese clones are all 10" as of today. The Blue Dream is now 21", growing over an inch a night it seems. I have to suggest DWC for anyone new to indoor growing, the costs are low and the results are solid.

Edited by Bowl Paxton, 18 July 2010 - 06:45 AM.

More Pics....

In 1 week, I will be flowering the remaining Blue Cheese and 2 Afghan Kush plants each with their own 5 gal bucket. Home depot sells em for 2 bux right now. I am gonna be using foliage spray and some nutes that grow giant pumpkins on this batch of 3 coming in. The styrofoam lids I am gonna just rest on top of the water so they float, rather than use plastic screws, maybe thats a bad call cause the plants might sink. Ok nvrmnd, I will use the plastic screws again to secure the lids. I hope to build a tire swing on the Blue Dream by the time its done growing.

I have to suggest DWC for anyone new to indoor growing, the costs are low and the results are solid.

Im about 3/4 of the way through my first hydro grow... Using Ebb and Flo table... I already want DWC buckets. they just seem to be more efficient with space.

Your setup looks solid. Good luck to you:wave:

In 1 week, I will be flowering the remaining Blue Cheese and 2 Afghan Kush plants each with their own 5 gal bucket. Home depot sells em for 2 bux right now. I am gonna be using foliage spray and some nutes that grow giant pumpkins on this batch of 3 coming in. The styrofoam lids I am gonna just rest on top of the water so they float, rather than use plastic screws, maybe thats a bad call cause the plants might sink. Ok nvrmnd, I will use the plastic screws again to secure the lids. I hope to build a tire swing on the Blue Dream by the time its done growing.

Have you seen these... available at any hydro shop (stole image from texashydroponics.com) Good site just to see whats available even if you dont buy online. these are like 4 bucks each
https://www.texashydroponics.com/shop/image.php?type=P&id=1526

Edited by anthony177, 18 July 2010 - 09:42 AM.
price

Thanks bro, yes my local store has em at a decent price, I just use a razor-knife to cut the lid from the styrofoam sheets. These things are very versatile I'm telling you! They can make all kinds of lids and other uses for hydro setups. The think I like em for most besides the price is their ability to act as movable walls that reflect like nothing else, I have mylar taped to them and they are able to get really close while tilting to point where I want them to. You can kind of see them in the pics but I swear by styrofoam now. Home depot has the hookup right now on the buckets and styrofoam.

ahhh... I didnt realize you had multiple plants in some of those. Very crafty man.

Thanks, I have a question also, If my veg tank has a small bit of light going to the ceiling and bouncing across to the top of the flower area, should I be worried about light leak? The plants seem to have zero light on them, but I would say the room itself has like a very very faint moon light. I can see the light on the reflective walls near the plants that is from the ceiling.

Yea defintly gotta get rid of that leak, indoors cannabis is very sensitive to interupted dark periods and could cause hermies.

I added another heavy tarp, the Blue Dream has begun to flower a bit, it is day 11. Is this on schedule?

I added another heavy tarp, the Blue Dream has begun to flower a bit, it is day 11. Is this on schedule?

sounds about right to me... different strains different times. 1-2 weeks for buds to start is what ive read about.

Nice grow you got going here. Your girl seems to be right on track with 11 days. Thats pretty average I guess. GL.

Nice looking set-up man, that Blue dream is gonna be killer once you finish it! +Rep

Heres a few more pix, the dream has added 4.5" in 5 days. I have room for 10' ground to ceiling so fuck it, lets see whats gonna happen. I have the fan pointed at the light it seems so have a strong effect on the temp and also keeps the ladies swaying slightly. I will be getting some new buckets so I can transplant the 3 remaining clones into their own buckets. They are very bushy as I have been using veg foliage spray with good results. These same 3 plants (2 Afghan Kush x Skunk1; 1 Blue Cheese) have been given some organic growing supplement that creates giant pumpkins. I will continue to use this growing supplement along with some Nova Flora in the flowering buckets. In 4 days, I will be going to the local co-op for 6 more tall clones, all blue cheese. These will veg for 1-4 weeks, my light penetration is solid and my reflectors are really getting light to the lower branches. The co2 buckets are getting refreshed along with the DWC buckets tonight. I will send some hardcore root porn.

Edited by Bowl Paxton, 22 July 2010 - 09:03 AM.

Q: Does anyone recommend that I top the 3 veg sativas? They are 10" and bushy as Ive ever seen at this point w/o topping.