6 strains in the same hydro system :)

[Cashmeh]

Hey man looking good. I used a similar tote on my first dwc and had light penetration due to the lid being on the thinner side. I would cover that sooner rather than later. Also if the water level is still touching the baskets I would lower that to about an inch below the pots. Looking good though!

I try not to flood the forums, or this post. But I did that 2 nights ago. Then last night I put the window unit back in.. We took it camping after grows complete Anyways..

My biggest issue is going to be cooling the 30gallon without an external res. Outside my tent it's 70, my last grow held 1/2 the water out of the tent. And tent averaged 76. This time it's 76 but due to no water outside tent, it's not cooling itself back down.

I had no ac at the start of this grow. I have my air pump directly under the ac unit.. And my inlet for tent is right next to ac. I have a fan in there piped blowing 60 degree air inside the tent, directly on the back/long side of the tote. I'm trying to cool it. So I did this last night... Because... My water Temps were 76 without a window unit in this room. Central air wasn't enough...

I'm about to do some wort cooling outside.. Like geothermal hose to couple coils.. Back to my pumps. My coils would actually have the nutrients flowing through ground outside lol..

I can do it for like 75 bucks.. VS the dual chillers..

Anyways my temp was 76 last night, I was getting some microb growth in my filter obviously.. So I have to cool it.. But the plants are doing amazing... So idk lol.. I'm just not trying to grow microbe with all my nutrients.. Just weed.

As for the water level. I'm using a wicking system with rockwool. My waterfalls create a splash on the surface, wish is about 1/3rd of my rockwool. I'm assuming my wicking will pull up highly oxygenated water. Im hoping to not have giant root mass. Fishbones not strings lol.. I can lower it later.. But if I do that I gotta add these vaporizers.

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Sounds like a good idea man, I’d be interested to see how that would work using that geothermal setup. If you go that route please share the process
I tried to do that wicking process initially but failed miserably, lost both seedlings due to over saturation of the rock wool. For me what’s worked is keeping the water about an inch under the pots so when the bubbles break the surface the bottom of the pots are getting spritzed with water.
Are you running any beneficial bacteria?

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Sorry for the double post, why would you need vaporizers? I think they would heat the water more and be unnecessary. The environment in the res has to be close to 100 percent humidity with just bubbles. Just not seeing the benefits of using them.

 

[Cashmeh]

Sorry for the double post, why would you need vaporizers? I think they would heat the water more and be unnecessary. The environment in the res has to be close to 100 percent humidity with just bubbles. Just not seeing the benefits of using them.

I'm thinking something like a cool mist vaporizer under water and or aero jets spraying down on the entire net pot water surface. A large local grow uses aero jets and cool mist vaporizers to deliver specific micron size water dropples to the roots. They only kept about an inch of water in the pot far far below the roots. The roots were never submerged. They called it a 2 stage aero. All I know is I've never seen whiter/short yet dense white Fishbones... It looked perfect. I wanna do that.. But with rdwc Fallponics.. So I'd have netpot water level, aero jets spraying down on it coveting 100% of the surface water, lightly spraying as to not disturb the roots. Plus a cool mist vaporizer air rating the water and the air above the water surface..

I've had issues leaving air gaps. Seems anything that isn't submerged, yet wet, will get root rot. And yes, I use hydroguard and I never do a complete res change. I always leave about a gallon as to save money on hydro guard. I'm about to drill a hole in this sponge and use it for a filter.. But I only clean it while it's running, once a week. If it's time for res change, I won't clean it, and I'll leave it submerged. Kind of like a hiding spot for the microbes. Then top off with fresh solution, and add some more hydroguard.

As for my seedlings, with 1/2 inch tap root I place in the rockwool at 220ppm and they take off lol.. I have yet to have bad luck with rockwool honestly

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Sounds pretty interesting, so you’re kinda looking at doing a hybrid? I’ll be following along
Have you tried using southern ag fungicide? It’s the same bacteria in hydroguard but easier on the wallet. 1ml to 20 gallons. I use a sponge filter made for fish tanks in my res. I’m almost to week 4 with no cleaning. I’ve also read that they help maintain levels of bb by giving them somewhere to colonize.

 

[Cashmeh]

5.6 ph 250ppm.

Sprouted July 29th. Minus bottom right, it sprouted a few days ago. When I say sprouted, that's when they were placed in the hydro system, usually 4 days from the time I start germination.

Quick update:

I added the mylar to the top and the ac unit next to the infeed. I lowered the fan so it's blowing directly on the tote. By doing this I eliminated all light leaks andddd my solution temp is 72.. Which is where I want to be.

My nutrient temp got up to 77 lol... Now it's down to 72.. So I'm ecstatic.

Did I mention I have never top fed lol? I have not had to add ph up or down in 24hrs either. It was at 5.6 last night.

I highly recommend using wayy to much water lol.. The more water you got, the less fluctuation. I will not check ppms or ph for 30hrs now.. I want to see if I really can set it.. And forget it.

I'm at 10k lux if anyone was curious.

I'm also using the transition mix with general hydroponics. I will switch them to the grow blend when the ph starts dropping. I only plan on doing one res change too lol.. 1.5 month veg.

 

[Mytwhyt]

You need an oscillating fan to give a little movement to the plants.. It'll make them stronger as they grow.. A little silica will help with that..

 

[Cashmeh]

You need an oscillating fan to give a little movement to the plants.. It'll make them stronger as they grow.. A little silica will help with that..

They tend to beef up after I top them. My problem right now is outlets :/. . Building a 4x8 and yea.. No fan outlets for it either lol.. No pump outlets.. I'm almost ready to buy some parts and give this room a good upgrade.

I also don't add silica.. Is it not in my general hydro blend? I've seen some talk on here about it but I dunno what it really is or does. Are there side effects lol...

 

[Mytwhyt]

This will help explain what silica does for pot plants.. https://bigbudsmag.com/why-and-how-you-should-add-silica-to-your-grow-op/

 

[Cashmeh]

So almost 48 hrs without checking res. Temp was still 72.5 ppm was still 260, ph did increase from 5.6 to 5.7.

I left it at 5.7..

Going to see how long I can go without adding anything. So far.. Almost 2 days.

 

[Cashmeh]

This is the end game. The 2x4 is done. Currently working on the 4x8.

Still need to install

4x8 - Inlet 8 inch, raise lights and add 2x2 brace to the top for light hooks, find temp/humidity gauge lol and test the room(should be manually controllable between 65f and 76f 50RH), Install hydro system, transplant from 2x4 to 4x8, start 6 more in 2x4, transplant to 4x8 upon harvest, Rinse and repeat

I need to buy a light controller and run it to a new breaker, yet currently the extension cords through the house are working. Im only running like 8 amps through a 15amp cord, so its safe, but inconvenient.

I have all parts to finish, im just so fucking high right now off my last grow its like why work so hard lol? Might just go take a nap instead

 

[Cashmeh]

No ph up or down needed in 3 days now. I have not added water to res or extra nutrients. Ppm slowly grew from 200 to 250 over the first week yet has stabilized there for about 4 days now.

I seen to much dark green at 5k lux so I bumped it up to 10k a week ago. Leafs are all light green, but they are all growing fast... Of course some faster than others.

Anyways I might just add this 100 gallon res I got to my flower room instead of the 30. Big res = big win for me.. So much more time on my hands now.

 

[Cashmeh]

Flower room environment Temps stable enough for now.

This is with the lights on low 600w setting. At max 1000w setting the temp gets up to 81. Yet my ac isn't really vented in the room. I can divert more ac into the 4*8 if needed. I just dont think I'll ever have to turn the lights up that high. If I do ill pipe it in then. I also have another ac unit lol..

Being I have no filters, I will obv need one soon due to the smell of perfection. I am sure I will have to divert the ac sooner than later.

Time to clear out the room, clean it.. And build the hydro system :( well, after I build a shop room at my new building, while I patch a 60sq roof.. Lol fml.. Gotta work 24hrs in the next 36 at work too.. I better be able to retire early ffs.

And to say there's no hope for America still.. They can't shut me down lol

 

[Cashmeh]

Check out those fucking roots bro... Omg lol

So what you might like to know.

I did not top feed.

These were all seeds 3 weeks ago

My ppm is still 250, ph is starting to drop now after 2 weeks with no res change.. No water added...

I started with 1ml calmag, 1ml flora micro, 1ml flora grow, 1ml flora bloom, 2ml hydroguard. Equal ratios except for the microbs. I don't know how much I actually put in though. Started with RO, added a bunch seen 100ppm, added a bunch more seen 150..and u get it..

I am going to put a sponge in the bottom and let it sit till the morning. I will then drain all but 2 gallons leaving the sponge submerged the entire time.

I will then whip up some grow transition being I will veg these for another month...

I won't top or train until they overtake the area.

Set it, and forget it..

Oh I've only had to add a total of 1ml ph up since firing system up. Now that I had to add ph down, I will switch blends and do a 90% res change.

 

[Cashmeh]

I actually didnt do anything yet. PPM dropped from 250 down to 230, while ph dropped from 5.7 down to 5.5 over the course of 2 days. I added PH up when it hit 5.5 yesterday morning, raised it to 5.6. 12hrs later its back down to 5.5. So this time lol, I added a shit ton of PH up, bringing the ph up to 6.2, around 2ml. I then added ph down to drop it back down to 5.7. Im hoping to add a buffer to keep my swings more stable.

In 2 days it will be exactly 3 weeks since I made this batch of nutrient mix. Ive added a total of 2.5 ml ph up, and 2ml of ph down over the course of this grow. I have added 0 water, and 0 nutrients.

Plant growth is so uneven lol. Some are big, some are small, yet overall, its doing exactly what I wanted it to do.

Roots are snow white and fishboning.

I am still on the transition blend. I dont want to dump any nutrients, and I dont want to raise the PPM due to one of them being a week behind, i dont want to burn it. That said, I guess I will wait for signs of deficiency in the big one before I change to the veg blend. Ill wait this way I can see how long my batches last, why change early anyways? I wouldnt mind stunting the growth on the big one for a bit so the little one can catch up.

No pictures atm, going to work on my building now. Almost done with the demo of my shop ceiling.

 

[Cashmeh]

Ph stable at 5.6 for last 30hrs. Ppm is still at 250. It dropped down to 230 the last time I commented. Yet I mentioned adding lots of ph up. I forgot to tell ya the ph up increased my ppm back up to 250.

The plant closest to my inlet fan is a bit droopy. I'm blasting the tote right below it with 65 degree air, So it's safe to say she's cold... Yet she's growing.. So yolo..

Set it.. And forget it lol.. I'm so good at that.

No additives today or in last 30hrs... First res change is unknown.

All I know is these 6 have to fill a 4x8 lol.. Still plenty of time before the Super crop hydro transplant :/

 

[Cashmeh]

Topped the two big ones. They look happy.. No idea what the ph or ppm is. I'll only checking that every 2 or 3 days.

 

[Cashmeh]

If I were soil my 4x8 room would be considered done.

But noo.. I have to build a stupid hydro system now.

Plants are growing to big for the 2x4. Already had to defoliate one of the bigger plants leafs due to it hanging over the small plant.

So yea, after I organize all these parts, I'll start slapping it together. Honestly this is the dumbest part.

 

[smokedareefer]

Separate the roots regularly.

What's going on up top is multiplied below

 

[Cashmeh]

Separate the roots regularly.

What's going on up top is multiplied below

Yea it seems like it would take to much work to control. I'll prolly just do it at transplant with a razor. I imagine it won't even phase them.

But I agree, I should do that.. But I'm trying to be as hands off as possible.

Had I added a heavy alkaline buffer at the start I don't think I would have had to open the lid for 3 weeks.