Easy Ryder Build/Grow (9 Pot closet Drip under 600w HPS)

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Grow Journals' started by CorpAmerica, Jan 19, 2010.

  1. Welcome to my Easy Ryder Box Build and Grow Journal.

    This is a collaborative project between myself and one other individual. I have grown before, although on a very amature level, this time around I really wanted to do it right. We set out on this project to accomplish a couple of things. We wanted to:

    - Build a self contained, controlled, covert environment in which to grow
    - Take the necessary time and do the necessary research to get the project right from the start.
    - Control all of the variables
    - Maintain a data log of our progress and changes so that we could analyze this grow and future results towards the goal of optimizing the process.

    We decided to stick with a single strain for our first crop to eliminate any additional variables, Easy Ryder was our strain of choice for its auto-flowering characteristics and its potency/yield.

    The plans for our enclosure are below. As of today we are in the final stages of the build and these plans have changed in several ways. Ill do my best to upload a final diagram of the build for your reference.
     

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  2. Days 1/2

    Let the box building begin!

    We secured all of the building supplies from our local building supply store. 7/16" plywood was selecte for the frame, which was to be constructed using a series of L brackets. A pallet would rest under the box to allow for circulation and to get the box up off the carpet.

    Self drilling screws and a set of power tools made this step fairly painless. We did have to make some adjustments due to us not factoring the width of the build material into our dimensions, but all in all everything went together neatly.
     

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  3. Day 3

    Box Finishing - Beginning Hardware Installation


    My grandfather use to always tell me that it was all in the prep work, and this is no different.

    We caulked the entire box as we plan on using a supplementary Co2 enrichment system and then masked the entire area prior to painting (When using plywood or any bare wood for that matter it is very important to seal it against the humidity). We went with Behr Platinum with is both a primer and top coat and it also includes mildew retardant properties, which is a must for a potentially very humid environment.

    Let me stop for a moment and share some insight with you. Do not paint with a brush unless your filing in details... ever. I literally spent 1.5 hours working on 2.5 walls before picking up a roller. I then proceeded to finish the rest of the job in about 20 minutes. Needless to say I wont make that mistake again.

    One the paint had dried we started working on the hardware. The 9 pots will sit in a 3x3' basin to collect the drip system runoff. Fittings were attached and sealed with aquarium sealant, and the drip hose was plumbed for all of the attachments. The light went up painlessly (TAKE THE GLASS OUT before you do anything with a hood). The only real problem of the day was what to do with the very large fan that we had not planned for. Luckily we found room for it in the sub level which houses the res and ballast. Hopefully this will keep down the noise as well.
     

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  4. gotta love those self drilling screws :p Looking good bro keep us posted
     
  5. Day 4

    Mylar and Ducting - My Bitter Enemies


    Alright folks... were nearing completion. Mylar is a bitch, we went for the 1mil stuff so we wouldn't have to spend 100 bucks to mylar the room. Duct tape was the securing method of choice, and without two people it would have been nearly impossible. Between the mylar being so incredibly thin, and having to work in an enclosed space, getting it up without completely distorting the surface was quite a task... anyways enough ranting.

    After the mylar we moved on to the ducting, which I will not rant about except to say that my partner on this project should kill himself for the butcher job he did on one of the tube pieces. Once the ducting and fan were in we could finally start working on the assembly. Everything from here on out was a breeze, and we in quickly.

    So we get everything in besides the hydroton and the ladies and switch the fan and light on for about an hour with the Temp/Hygro meter to check the ventilation....

    ...oh shit


    in the time frame of about an hour the internal box temperature went from about 70 to 91. I checked the fan exhaust and found that the air it was putting out was warm at best, it seems as though the intense light is heating up all of the growing surfaces, causing the temperature to spike.... this simply will not do...

    I think we have a basic design flaw... our ventilation system is closed, it pulls air in from the outside, runs it over the light and then exhausts it out another side, all without being exposed to the air within the box. The air within the box really isn't being circulated at all. I think what we will try to do is have the intake take in air from the interior top corner where it is currently pulling air in from outside the box, run it over the light and then out. Hopefully this and some air intake holes in the lower portion of the grow area will help....

    ...cross your fingers for me.
     

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  6. looks like one badass setup.

    i'll be following along.
     
  7. At least in my experience, Mylar doesn't give much of an increase of side lighting, while increasing the heat of the room by quite a bit. If you already have flat white paint up, and having heat problems, try taking down the mylar.
     
  8. Day 10

    The ladies arrived today from Attitude Seed Bank!

    10 Feminized Easy Ryders
    Freebies - UFO LA Woman, UFO Rocklock, and UFO Lemon Haze (all feminized)

    Quick update on the heat issue: After drilling numerous holes in the box to aid in ventilation and adding several fans, I determined that the box was heating the larger closet too much and there was not sufficient air exchange to keep cool fresh air in the system.

    Im picking up a 14,000 BTU AC unit tomorrow to fix my excessive heat issues. Its a pretty beasty unit but I think its the best option at this point.

    Im going to continue to test the system over the next day or two in order to determine the ideal closet temperature to keep the box properly cooled. Once thats established Ill be adding the hydroton plumbing the last pieces of the hydro system and germing the seeds.

    Its almost show time!
     

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  9. Goodluck man. If you using a window ac id set it to 70degrees. I grow in a 3x4 tent in a very small studio apartment so kinda sorta in a similar situation.
     
  10. nice setup, ive experienced that tape loses its holding power after a while id suggest using a couple of tacks as well just in case.
     
  11. Jimmy - Thanks for the info, thats actually right what I was thinking as well. 70 in the closet should put me around 80 in the box and wont be too cold when the system shuts off for 4 hours. The unit im using isnt an in window unit, but rather a non-sealed floor unit that needs to have its exhaust plumbed out a window or somewhere other than the room your trying to keep cool.

    Hawksauce - Funny you mention the tape, I checked on the box yesterday to find that the tape holding the mylar to the ceiling is coming off. I was able to restick it up there but ill probably be using some supplementary tacks or staples like you suggest.
     
  12. Yea my tent has 2 80cfm exhaust fans going through home made carbon filters. temps get at high as 82 for me.
     
  13. Day 13

    Major Box Changes and Germination


    I made a few changes... well, a few is probably an understatement.

    In the last few days Ive given the entire box an overhaul, relocated the main 6" centrifugal fan and set up ventilation into another room (by cutting a hole in the wall) for both the AC unit and the 600w hps. This has all but solved my heat issue. Im cruising at a steady 77 degrees with the lights on, no sure with the lights off but ill get a reading tomorrow.

    We had a slight issue with the hydro system, actually sprung a leak while testing. Fortunately none of the power strips or other wet-sensitive things were caught up in the mishap. I think ill check into water sensors and see if I can find something that will shut off all power if water is detected. The last thing I need is to come home and find that my 10 gallons of nutes is soaking the carpet.

    Seeds went in the Tupperware tonight for germination. Hopefully they will make it into the rockwool tomorrow or the following day, but well see how long the process takes.

    "Marijuana Horticulture" shows up tomorrow, followed by my HM PH and EC meters on Tuesday. Should be perfect timing with mixing my first batch of nutes. Thank god the majority of the work is done with for now, the girlfriend starting to feel rather neglected... I dont think shes happy that she has 9 new girls to compete with.

    -Corp
     

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  14. Looking good man. your about 10 days behind me.
     
  15. Hey man, I like your setup, and you've done a nice job so far. One thing I would like to input on, is you may want to have that ac on a timer too, or just shut it off whenever the lights go out. Because, with all your fans going in the box, plus the ac at 70, it's very likely it could get chilly inside the box.


    I noticed that my box gets to about 7-8 degrees below the temps in the room when I leave my fans running with lights off. I don't know if you will experience the same thing, just letting ya know, so you can watch for it.

    Plus rep for your build, and will be looking forward to your grow bro!:wave:
     
  16. Green_Hit420 - Thanks for the +rep and compliment, The low temp is actually on my check list for when I get off of work. I was concerned about the temperature decrease as well but I dont think ill get a 7-8 degree drop below the ambient room temperature. Im guessing you have alot of air circulation or air blowing into the box, mine is a single 10" tower (read not powerful) fan and then just passive intake through a series of ventilation holes. Im predicting a high of 79 and a low of right about 70.

    Im still toying with the A/C setup, it comes on more than I would like to have it running but Im not really sure if there is a solution. My thinking is that there cant be too much heat transmission through the insulated walls or the sliding wood doors, and I cant very well limit the air intake into the closet with a 425 CFM fan blowing exhaust. I guess I might be able to turn the exhaust fan down to medium, then there would be less intake and hopefully less need to continuously cool the air as it would not be completely cycling the closet air as frequently.

    Now that I think about it that closet is probably 12x3x8 meaning its 288 cubic feet... if that exhaust really is blowing 425 CFM that means im completely cycling the air in the room about every 40 seconds :eek: ... I think thats what they call an Epiphany ladies and gentlemen. I guess the real trick now is to figure out the balance between CFM exhaust and closet temperature to maintain the ideal box temperatures.... jesus I might have to call up one of my physics major buddies.

    Day 14


    On a slightly less stressful note my PH and EC meters showed up today and 6 of 10 seeds have cracked and been transfered into rockwool. Hopefully more will have cracked by the end of business today.

    If anyone reading this dosnt own Marijuana Horticulture by Jorge Cervantez, you need to pick it up immediately. The wealth of information in that book is amazing, I cant even begin to tell you everything ive learned and im only 20 pages in.

    Thats all for now. More to come.

    -Corp
     

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  17. Im going to go ahead and reset the day count on this:

    Day 4 (Since Sprouting)

    I got the ladies moved into their permanent home yesterday evening. The drip system is hooked up and running but im having alot of trouble with the PH. Ive started a few threads on it but to date I have not been able to solve the issue. The PH continues to steadily climb regardless of how many times I rinse the hydroton. Ive basically given up trying to fix the problem and now im just adjusting the ph a few times a day to keep it in range.

    My ppm's are also somewhat strange. After cycling RO water in the system and then taking the ppm in the res I got a reading of 161. I then added 10tsp of big bloom to about 13 gallons of water and took the ppm again. It had only risen to about 190, which seems very strange. Im hoping that the big bloom is just fairly dilute because I havnt had a chance to run a test on it.

    Came home today at lunch to find that the pump which powers the drippers wasnt connected to the timer... so the plants have been under constant light for about 16 hours with no water. I think the rockwool helped to prevent any serious damage, but one of the smaller sprouts was starting to show signs of underwatering (yay for reading enough to be able to diagnose that).

    Everything should be good to go now. Im planning on doing a res change in 2-3 days and trying to get the PPM straightened out. Other than that im hoping the roots take hold in the hydroton and I see growth pick up. Over the past few days there hasnt been as much growth as I would like to see so hopefully not too much damage has been done.
     

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  18. good luck corp . lookin good so far.
     
  19. Tuning in.

    Grandpa was right.

    600watts in that space is a nightmare for heat issues. I've 300watts in a 2' x 2' cabinet and know first hand how difficult it is to dial it all in. Would be easier on the pocket book if you can find a way to cut the heat down without the a/c, so might be worth juggling things around a bit more before the plants get to large.
    Heat issues suck or blow or both even. Been having a few myself but I think I finally got it whipped today. I found that by simply placing my exhaust fan intake as near to the light(s) as possible and adding a small intake fan outside the cabinet has worked best.
    If possible I would get intake from below the floor and make the exhaust as high and straight as possible. Couldn't go below the floor here due to concrete but the exhaust goes straight up to the attic.
    Got to ask since I didn't see one or see it mentioned. Do you have a small fan inside the cabinet blowing over the plants?
     
  20. Bud - Thanks for the ideas, going into the floor or ceiling arnt really an option, were on the second floor and there is no attic above the ceiling, i believe its just room for insulation. How it is currently setup dumps the hot air from the fan and AC unit into the hallway outside the room, and the door between the two stays closed. The box itself has 8 4" intake holes, one has an 8" fan blowing inward from outside the box, and the other has a 10" oscillating fan which blows are over the tops of the plants.

    Keeping the closet door closed forces the AC unit to cool a much smaller area than it is capable of (1400 btu, 525 sqft), and the fan cycles 435cfm at maximum setting meaning that the air in the closet is constantly cycling (240 sq feet in closet). The AC has a regular pattern of on for 1 minute, off for 3. Im not sure if that draws more or less power than the stated but im basing my calculations on its stated wattage. It costs me about 50 bucks a month in electricity but its worth it for my temps to always sit at 74-77.

    back to the journal: (I could use some help, something isnt right..


    Im actually a bit concerned at what im seeing today after the seedlings have been in the hyrdoton for about 24 hours. Im not seeing any bounce back or enchanced growth... or really any growth at all. The seedlings dont even seem to have responded to the increased light (by perking up).

    Im seeing minor signs of nute burn on one seedling so I diluted the res by exchanging 5 gallons for fresh RO water. The PPM went from 191 to 161. Funny thing is that before the nutes (10tsp bigbloom in 13 gallons water, approx 50% of recommended seedling dosing, and not using recommended grow big) by ppm was 161.

    The Ph is still rising... and i really cant explain it. Something is going on and I cant solve it... Ive flushed the hydroton with probably 60 gallons of RO water because I thought that the tap water I originally rinsed with somehow collected something in the hydroton that was affecting Ph. In the last two days ive probably put about 60 drops of PH down into the water to keep the ph in the range it needs to be. I put in 6ppm 5.7ph water, I meter every 5 gallons that I get, and after a few circulations it comes out 6.3 and 161ppm. Im using all hydroponic grade equipment and two aquarium pumps (one 800gph to power the emitters, one 250gph to circulate the nutes in the tank). regular gardening pots, a hydroponics tray and hydroponics res. The tray to res return has aquarium silicone sealant on it, but im fairly sure that silicone is inert, or at least it should be safe if its to be used in an aquarium.

    I water for 15 minutes every 2 hours. The rockwool that the seedlings are in never completely dries out but the surrounding hydroton does get fairly dry. While seedlings they were left in a tupperware a bit longer than they probably should have and roots collected at the bottom of about 5 cubes. They were then placed into pre-dug holes in the hydroton, and the hydroton was filled in all the way to cover the rockwool.

    The 600w HPS Hortilux is 30 inches above the plants and the ambient box temperature is 75 degrees (AC unit controlled) measured from approximately 15" above the seedlings.

    Im really at a loss as to what is going on. It appears as though growth has all but stopped. As far as I can tell its either a unknown containment or the plants are in shock. Can anyone spot something Im doing wrong. Im really concerned about losing this batch.

    I think ill post this on the sick plants section as well and see what I can find.
     

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