***EDIT - 9/10/08 Seeds are planted!!! Page 2 for pics.... End Edit*** Hello everyone, I'm new to this here forum! Newly registered at least, I've done lots of research and experimented growing a few times. I recently bought my first place and I want to do it right. I had some problems on my last attempted grow and I cannot figured out what the @#%^ is going on. Has anyone ever has severe problems with their PH? It was like 2 months ago on my last attempt so I cannot remember the exact numbers but here is my problem. I'm doing a hydro grow out of a rubbermaid container. I have two of the long airstones at the bottom producing bubbles. And two 6" net pots with HC pebbles in there. I would go to my bathtub and fill up a 2 gallon container with water and check the PH. It was high. So I would add a bit of PH Down to the water (Grow More brand) according to the directions on the back. (1 tbsp of PH down per 10 gallons. I'd stir, and check the PH but it would not move. I would let it sit for a bit, check again and still no movement,sit overnight and check in the morning and still no movement I would add more PH down and NO movement. Empty out the water and try again, I did this SEVERAL times and it was driving me crazy. I was checking my PH withmy little cheapo rapidtest mini PH test and also my Hannah Combo Gro Checker. It didn't matter what I did the PH would never move. Has anyone ever had this sort of problem or have any thoughts of what I could be doing wrong? The bottles of PH Up/Down that i bought were both brand new and I bought them from a hydro site online. Until I get this figured out, I do not want to start my feminized White Widow seeds because the PH level of my water was way to high. I want to say it was stuck at 8.8 but I cannot remember exactly because I did not write it down. I initially bought a way to small cabient from lowes to do my grow in and I had it stuck back in the corner of my closet. I spent so much time making it but frankly it was just too compact. My Light BARELY fit in the closet. In this closet, is how I did my first "grow" but the PH was too high and my plants did not survice. So, I tore all my equipment out of this cabient and threw it in the trash. I then framed off the far side of my closet so I could have a bigger area to grow. I'm not 100% finished building the room but I'm working on it every day and I should be ready to go shortly. I have all the supplies and equipment to build it, just a matter of time. My Grow closet is 31" W x 39" D x 67" H with the option to go another 22" higher but I'm going to box in the top 22" and have my second project going in there (Fungus!) Last night, I crawled up in my attic to the corner of my house (45 pitch roof), to intall my mega beast exhaust fan. It's serisouly a beast, I have a buddy that works at a local Heating and Air place and he got this fan for me. I have this nasty fiberglass insulation stuff and luckily I work at a Safety Supply Store, so I crawled up in the instillation with goggles, a tyvek suit, and particulate respirator. I tried to go back there at first and after stirring up the insulation I could hardly breathe and itchy itchy itchy. Anyways, I got the exhaust fan installed. I was originially planning on having this exhaust fan out of the top with intake holes at the bottom of my closet. And Then, I was going ot have a cool tube intake/exhaust on my light. But, after hooking up the exhaust fan, it is such a beast I think I can get away with running my Cool tube exhaust to it and also exhaust my closet. Not sure yet, I'm testing it right now to see what temps. I get. List of things I have left to do before I start my seeds: -Figure out PH problem -Build Cool Tube for my light -Extend shelve to seperate my closet into two chambers (bottom for my buddah and top for the fun guy! -Paint the outside, white to match my closet interior -design intake w/ light trap at the bottom of my grow closet -Apply my Mylar Sheeting to completly cover the inside of my grow closet -Light Proof all the cracks -Haven't decided on this on yet, since I went form my grow cabient to my grow closet, I now have 4 times the width and depth I once had. I should prob. redo my rubbermaid container and use two rubbermaid containers...having 2 plants per container..but I haven't decided yet.. I'm leaning towards doing that on my next grow -I'm going to do a SCROG set-up, so I need to put up my metal screen to train the plants. Okay, so here are some pics, Please critique my set-up with suggestions becuase I am new to this.
I'll be painting this white and getting a bigger tapestry that will cover this alot better to hang in my closet, It will be 100% stealth/hidden when I'm done with the outside.
This light "shield" will be scrapped in place of a cool tube that I'll build. I hastily threw this together so I could fit it in my old grow cabinet. It obviously blocks alot of the light that could be come out. Here my exhaust fan, It's crazy how much air this thing can pull.... Door to my Fungus room. this will soon have a shelf on the bottom and I'll lower the light down into the bottom chamber.
I'm new to this too so I'm really of no use when it comes to answering any of your questions. But I must say, that it is an awesome looking set-up ya got there. I really like it. Good luck, man!
jcmartin86, I was checking out your set-up just before I posted and it's looking pretty good. Great Job on keeping the cost down, I've been striving to keep mine as low as possible. Once I get the seeds started, I'll post my spreadsheet of money spent to get going.
i left everything running overnight andit stayed at 75 degrees..so my temps are good ....i dont even have the cool tube hooked up...just the exhaust fan and a passive intake... off to work ...more later
Left her running all day with my room temp at 71 and It's staying a steady 75-76 degrees. I got everything sealed up today (light leaks) and build by two intakes, one for air circulation and the other for my cool tube. I'm still debating on if I need a cool tube but I figure it can't hurt. Can too much air Circulation hurt my plants? as long as I can keep the humidity up? More pictures tomorrow :O
Too much air circulation? As long as you arent blowing them over there is no such thing as too much! A little wind force is nice to help build strong stems and stalks as well!!
Hey thanks, man! being a poor, starving college kid keeping costs down is a must. I;ve tried to spend as little as possible and I think I've done alright for it without it being a total piece of shit. so if only I was a wasn't such a douche about the growing aspect of it now that I got the home for them.
IMgreen, thanks for the reply. I just measured a 2 gallon container of my bathub water @ 82.7 degrees PH = 6.89 PPM = 61 & µS = 124 What other options do I have than bathtub water or what can I do to treat my water? Any ideas?
I ended up going out of town for labor day, kind an impromptu trip Went to see Kellar Williams play at a nearby town. Anyways, I've been working since I get home from work at 5 until about midnight last night and tonight to try and finish up my stealth room so I can start my seeds. I'll post a few pics first: Notice two holes at the bottom, one is intake for the cool tube and the other is to let fresh air into the closet. Got my Cool Tube built and I'm not really satisfied with it, but I'm going to use it for this grow. I did not want to order a bake-around online and I had some spare plexiglass at the house so, I built my cooltube by bending the plexiglasss into 2 6" ductings. Once side there is an inline fan blowing directly onto the light and pushing hot air into the cooltube exhaust. I'll purchase a glass bake-a-round next go around, I'm kinda pinching pennies to finish up this build as I went a little over budget More Cool Tube..
Here are my two exhaust lines. They are going through my "upper" compartment that I've been intending on growing some fungus there but, I've been reading alot lately about cloning/two chamber grows and I'm considering doing something like that here. BUT that won't be this grow. The exhaust on the bottom left is venting my grow chamber, it goes directly into my attic via a super powered fan that I installed above my closet in the attic. The right top exhaust is the cooltube, it simply exhausts into my closet. I'll be making a cardboard box that I can fit up on the shelf to cover up this exhaust tube. I'll get it made in the next couple of days. My Ghetto light trap for fresh air intake. I will redo soon with 4" pvc piping so the air circulates better. I have two computer fans installed in here with the corners inside angled at 45 degrees to maximize air flow on a budget. One fan, the other is at the opposite end of the box. I layed down a huge 55 gal trash bag to cover the carpet. This should help with splashes and spilt water (which I know will happen). It'll atleast keep it from soaking into the carpet and the celing downstairs More Mylar sheeting laid down to cover the trash bag and the bottom of the grow chamber. For the most part, I am done. Except a few minor issues...
I decided to ditch the Rubbermaid bubble bucket I made: Several reasons why, It has metal fittings :O No easy way to drain and refill the container. I'm hitting up lowes tommorow to buy the parts needed to make two http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/121335-lets-build-bubble-bucket-step-step.html This should easily fit in my grow chamber, and I will be doing the SCROG method for my grow.
Left her running over night to test the temps again with the cooltube installed. 76.8!! Humidity is only at 45% though so I'll have to raise that a tad.
45 is fine for a empty area, once the plants are in there it will come up. i would be concerend with the plexiglass though hopefully you have enough airflow so it wont get hot, it will discolor real fast. looks good though man... nice start
Yea, after I posted, I started thinking the humidity is prob. alright so I won't worry about that. I am however concerned about my cool tube, especially that it will discolor. I guess I'll go ahead and order one in the next week so it'll prob be 2-3 weeks before I receive it. Just to get my plants started, the plexi tube should be alright.
should make it a couple weeks and there are many types of plexi so im just a little leary..give it a shot, nice job putting you space together
Thanks man! Just spent the past 2 hours at lowes..and damn I glad I do not do plumbing or work with PVC everyday..that shit confuses the hell out of me. The old man working there kept asking me if I needed help but I kept saying no..didn't want him to ask me what I was building :O Anyways, I got all the parts and I'm about to build my two bubble buckets and then I'll be starting my seeds tonight!! Pictures soon!!