Help Please, First time with UC12XXL13

[Toaster]

thanks for all the help everyone. At least now I have a plan of attack on correcting my issue. I really had no idea RH could affect the plants that much. I am going to start with replacing the reservoir water and running without much nutrients for a day or two and also get a swamp cooler going to help with the RH. It sucks because I am looking at another $1000 or so for a swamp cooler and a chiller but I guess if I need to do it then I need to do it. I am looking at this for my swamp cooler, does anyone have any opinions on this? They are in stock locally:


Also, I am hoping a 1/2 HP chiller will be enough to cool 150 gallons from 70F to 65F.

grow area is about 350 square feet (2200 cubic feet)

 

[ttystikk]

thanks for all the help everyone. At least now I have a plan of attack on correcting my issue. I really had no idea RH could affect the plants that much. I am going to start with replacing the reservoir water and running without much nutrients for a day or two and also get a swamp cooler going to help with the RH. It sucks because I am looking at another $1000 or so for a swamp cooler and a chiller but I guess if I need to do it then I need to do it. I am looking at this for my swamp cooler, does anyone have any opinions on this? They are in stock locally:


Also, I am hoping a 1/2 HP chiller will be enough to cool 150 gallons from 70F to 65F.

grow area is about 350 square feet (2200 cubic feet)

Whoa, hoss! The swamper should be a cheaper, no need to kick down big bux for that.

And, the whole point of a big chiller is to REPLACE AC and the eventual need for dehuey, so from that perspective, are you getting a big enough chiller?

 

[Toaster]

They do have a cheaper swamp cooler like this one:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-450-...00-sq-ft-SF-610/202105062?N=c4kl#.UmcaARDjJE0
It is only $180 for 175 square feet, I just planned on the bigger one because it was for 500 square feet. I guess I really need it for humidity and not cooling, so do you think the smaller one will work? I can always take it back if it doesn't work, I guess.

I will definitely need a bigger chiller come summertime if I do all the ice boxes and everything. I am running 8-1000w lights. Not really sure I want to fork over the big money right now. I can pick up a used 1/2 HP chiller right now hopefully under $300, I think the new ones are going for $500 or so. I may be able to get by with a smaller one as well. If I run my room at 80F my res temps will be around 75F. I haven't tried out the insulation to shield the buckets yet, but I doubt it will help by 10 degrees Fahrenheit, will it?

 

[Toaster]

They do have a cheaper swamp cooler like this one:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/SPT-450-...00-sq-ft-SF-610/202105062?N=c4kl#.UmcaARDjJE0
It is only $180 for 175 square feet, I just planned on the bigger one because it was for 500 square feet. I guess I really need it for humidity and not cooling, so do you think the smaller one will work? I can always take it back if it doesn't work, I guess.

I will definitely need a bigger chiller come summertime if I do all the ice boxes and everything. I am running 8-1000w lights. Not really sure I want to fork over the big money right now. I can pick up a used 1/2 HP chiller right now hopefully under $300, I think the new ones are going for $500 or so. I may be able to get by with a smaller one as well. If I run my room at 80F my res temps will be around 75F. I haven't tried out the insulation to shield the buckets yet, but I doubt it will help by 10 degrees Fahrenheit, will it?

Also keep in mind that I am currently exhausting my room every 2 minutes or so via the can filter/fan, so I figured the extra square footage on the swamp cooler would be needed but I guess I won't know until I try.

 

[Toaster]

I just noticed this when doing the reservoir change? Is this slime? This seems to have appeared a day or two after treating with the gognats, so I am not sure if it is slime or not. Also, a few of the rockwool cubes were touching the water so it may be rockwool as well. Any advice on what this is? Either way I am going to clean this entire system with the nute change out.

 

[stickyfing3rs]

whoa I'm not sure what's goin on in that pic, I've never seen that. a clean out is definitely in order though like you said. you also want your rockwool not touching the water so you don't get stem rot. once you get the hang of this system your going to love it. just a different game then what most are used to

 

[Toaster]

whoa I'm not sure what's goin on in that pic, I've never seen that. a clean out is definitely in order though like you said. you also want your rockwool not touching the water so you don't get stem rot. once you get the hang of this system your going to love it. just a different game then what most are used to

Yah I have never seen that before either, usually slime is at the water level. Could this be the gognats or the beneficial bacteria? In the process of cleaning everything right now.

 

[ttystikk]

That is the gognats stuff that dripped into the water, mixed with water and air bubbles. Get the small chiller for now, and the insulating foam board does a great job of negating any direct heat gain from the bulbs. There will still be some conductive heat gain through the sides of the tubs. Install the chiller somewhere outside your grow room, so the heat it dumps does not have to be moved again.

 

[Toaster]

Here is some more evidence if this helps determine the cause any more. This kind of leans towards a humidity issue in my mind. What do you guys think? These are soil plants in the same room. The big one is an OG Autoflower and the little one is a Black Afghan that is in veg. They look a little droopy to me. Would this be a symptom of low humidity?

 

[Toaster]

Installed the swamp cooler today. I ended up going with the big ass cyclone cooler and it is working pretty good. So far it is holding humidity between 55-60% when it is left on all the time. It is kind of nice as it has a 2200 cfm fan on it as well for moving air in the room. I moved the plants back into my aero vegger to let them heal while I clean out the system. They plants took quite a beating...will update as I progress. Thanks again everyone, really looking forward to getting this system dialed in.

 

[Toaster]

So my plants still look like crap 't after being back in the aero vegger for a week or so. Since they were doing fine before moving them into the RDWC system, I am thinking I either have nutrient lockout or root rot. I cleaned out the system and filled with fresh water last night and they don't look like they have improved much today. I am going to give it a couple more days, but I think at this point I am just going to clone what is left of the plants and start over. Also, I posted a couple pictures last week of the roots, do those look like root rot to anyone? I've never had this problem before. Thanks

The room is pretty dialed in now with humidity around 55%, and day/night temps at 78F/65F and soil plants are doing fine.

 

[UCMENOW]

I just noticed this when doing the reservoir change? Is this slime? This seems to have appeared a day or two after treating with the gognats, so I am not sure if it is slime or not. Also, a few of the rockwool cubes were touching the water so it may be rockwool as well. Any advice on what this is? Either way I am going to clean this entire system with the nute change out.

Your issue is whatever you put into the system that's causing that gunk?

Physically remove this from the roots and all plastics (system, net pots, etc). Keep the system clean to succeed. Only put in nutes.

 

[babyhughie586]

yea dude those roots are not normal...i have no clue why no one told you this before.. That gunk is whats screwing you up those roots deffinatly have the beggining stages of rot...

Here is how to remedy your ladies...

step 1. take plants out one by one cut off the bottom slimey gunky roots off with scissors, these roots are dead, trying to treat this gunk rot will not work and you risk recontaminating the system even after you change your water out..

step 2. one by one dip the rest of the remaining roots into 3% h2o2 (buy at local drug store) for about 3-5 seconds, you will notice bubbling when u dip into the h2o2 this is what happens when the h2o2 kills off everything bad on your roots....

step 3. 10 seconds after dipping in the h2o2 dip the roots in regular tap water..

step 4. repeat step 3 and step 4 until their is no more bubbling on your roots.. usually 3-5 times, h2o2/water/h2o2/water/h2o2/water ect.... after doing this DO NOT place back in the UC.. Set them up into a bath tub or anything you can put a little water in...

step 5. Drain/clean/scrub UC i like to use physan20 inbetween runs...

step 6. Refill with fresh water and Capulators Bennie Tea (ogbiowar) root pack and foliar pack OR Cultured Solutions Roots... One or the other DO NOT USE BOTH TOGETHER...

step 7. Before re entering the system do step 3-4 one more time to be sure no bad shit will get into your system..

step 8. Keep it simple quit putting all the bullshit in your water... Cultured solutions A+B one bloom booster and your choice of root zone conditioner THAT IS ALL...

Dont over think things, keep your PH between 5.8-6.4 your ppms between 180-450 (in veg) your water temp between 64-68... Dont look at your roots every 10hrs... let them chill and do their thing... Follow these directions and it should get you back on track within 1.5-2weeks


One last thing, if you are using rockwool or any other type of media that retains water make sure your UC water level is BELOW the UC net pot... Dont worry about roots not getting water, the humidity inside the bucket is 100% RH, humid enough to make roots grow down into the water..

I hope this helps u bro

 

[Toaster]

Hey thanks for the info. I think you are spot on with what is going on. Unfortunately my plants look really crappy about right now so I am not even sure if they would recover. I just decided to start over and took a bunch of clones. I'll try again in 2 or 3 weeks with a new batch.

 

[Toaster]

Hey does anyone know what size chiller I would need? I am going to buy one of these for the next round. I have 150 gallons between the 12 buckets. Air temps will be around 78F, res temps were like 70 or so and I went to bring it down to 65. I am thinking a 1/2 HP will be enough?

 

[babyhughie586]

you could get by with a 1/4hp if u wanted as long as your room temps arent above 80 degrees 1/4 will be fine

 

[namedul]

I just noticed this when doing the reservoir change? Is this slime? This seems to have appeared a day or two after treating with the gognats, so I am not sure if it is slime or not. Also, a few of the rockwool cubes were touching the water so it may be rockwool as well. Any advice on what this is? Either way I am going to clean this entire system with the nute change out.

Water looks kind of high I keep mine from 6 to 10inches from the top maybe shohld be lower then that. Less water to chill.

 

[Toaster]

Just an update for anyone else that is reading this. I think I finally figured out what was going on after loosing 3 harvests. I believe I had brown slime algae and not pythium. H2o2 treatments didn't seem to do much and res temps didn't make much difference. I finally ended up using beneficial bacteria brewed in a tea (heisenburg tea). At this point, it seems to be working and I am on my road to recovery. There are new white roots growing and plants are starting to look healthier. I hope this saves someone else some of the pain and time that I went through trying to figure this out.

 

[Toaster]

Well I spoke to soon. The roots seem to come back but after a reservoir change they are getting re-infected with the brown slime algae...even if I re-inoculate the reservoir with tea. At this point I think it is in the water supply. I have read a couple other people having this same issue and they just can't get rid of it. My symptoms are pretty much identical to this thread, which never really looks like it was resolved:
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community...r-the-inexperienced.51864/page-3#post-1193723

I did check my water quality report and I have chloramine in my water, so I am currently trying to de-chloramine the water with the aquarium drops. I have an RO and UV filter on the way. I think my next step will be to go RO + UV pre-filter on the initial reservoir fill, then bleach every 3 days to try and keep it sterile. I may end up trying an inline UV filter as well. At this point I am at a loss. I have about another month or two of this and I am going to have to quit. This slime is wreaking havoc on both my aero units, dwc buckets and rdwc unit. Any help or comments would be appreciated.

 

[gone rayson]

A friend of mine uses Flying Skull Z7 in DWC with no problems.