Ace Malawi And Cycloptics Greenbeams: Caught In The Under Current!

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timmur

timmur

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I’m just finishing putting together my new setup and wanted to document the maiden voyage. I still have quite a bit to do to get the room ready and I have some upcoming travel so I won’t kick off the grow until late Feb. For now, I’ll document putting the room together and then log the grow.

The plan is to grow out from seed 9 feminized Malawi to find a keeper. I’ve spent about 2 years cruising the forums and reading cannabis cultivation books trying to come up with an ideal CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) room. I spent time reading nearly every UC thread here on the farm to figure out to set up and successfully run a UC system. What you see below is a culmination of this research.

Equipment List

The Room
10’ x 9’ x 8 ½’ Eden Grow Room with Orca Grow Film throughout
Lighting
(12) Cycloptics Greenbeams – Phillips 4200k
(1) Far Red Flower-Initiator 10 Watt Grow Light
(2) A/B-C DEEP BLUE Booster 50 Watt LED Grow Light
(4) Mega-Ray 275 Watt Self-Ballasted Flood UVB Lamp
Hydroponics
Under Current E9XL with remote epicenter
EcoPlus Water Chiller - 1/2 HP
O2 Grow’s oxygenation system (electrolysis)
Supreme Clarifier UV Sterlizer - 40 watt
Environment / Process Monitoring
Mitsubishi 18,000 BTU Ductless Mini-Split Heat Pump
Active Air Commercial 100 Pint Dehumidifier
Minifogger Humidifier
Titan Controls CO2 Regulator
Hyper Fan Stealth 8 in 710 CFM
Phresh Filter 8 inch x 24 inch 750 CFM
AgrowTek GC-Pro Control System with Indoor Climate + CO2 and pH/EC/Temp/Dissolved O2 Kit
Nutes
Hydroponic Research’s Veg + Bloom RO/Soft version
Hydroponic Research's +Size
Cultured Solutions Roots

The room is a sealed design with primary lighting using Cycloptics Greenbeam CMH lights to deliver about 1,150 μmoles PPFD at about 20” from the fixtures. The walls and ceiling will be covered in Orca. I’m going veg and flower in this room. Secondary lighting includes a far red light to shorten the flower cycle, blue LEDs to keep internode spacing short when using far red and to induce stomatal opening at the beginning of the light cycle, and mercury vapor lamps to provide UVB for enhanced potency.

I plan on running much of the Ace catalog one variety at a time to select keepers. Besides Ace I plan on some selections from Cannabiogen as well as Mandala. With the exception of Bangi Haze and Nep Jam, I’ll focus on non-hybridized sativas and a few non-hybridized indicas. May run commercial cuts at some point further down the line.

First, a quick note regarding the UC. It’s going to run without the standard air pump and micro pore diffusers. Instead I’m using O2 Grow’s electrolysis device to generate oxygen. The Agrowtek has a dissolved O2 (DO) sensor that will control the O2 grow based on DO set point. O2 Grow claims that you can super saturate the UC system which enhances yields. We’ll see. In any case, I’ll be glad to get rid of the air pumps and diffusers. This should help keep pythium and root rot in general at bay. Also going to UV the RO water.

This should be a wild ride so here goes! First question. How long should I veg? Current Culture recommends 2 weeks, but I’m wondering if that is too long for these sativas especially considering the 8 foot ceilings.

Related to this I’m looking for opinions about growing techniques like main lining, Uncle Ben’s Topping Technique, or scrog, or? In such a tight space I’m thinking that scrog is a pain in the ass. The other two methods seem like they are probably easy after in the initial training/topping.

Here’s a cheesy floor plan and a pic of a mock-up of the room. The actual room is still being built, but mocking it up let me finish my planning. I'll post up more details as the room comes together. For now I'm open to all feedback.

Floor plan 8 x 10


Ace malawi and cycloptics greenbeams caught in the under current 2
 
yukon369

yukon369

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Nice set up. I'm very interested to see how the oxygenating system works. I was just on their website it looks very promising. I run my water temps in my UC Cold from 60° to 65° I know another guy that does really well with his water at 58°. The more oxygen to those roots the better!!! So are you going to have one emitter per bucket? Or just in the epicenter and let the return pump pull the oxygen through the system? Excited to see how this goes!!
 
timmur

timmur

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Hey yukon, glad you showed up. I read your UC threads and you rocked it! You have a super clean setup and it was part of my inspiration for this room. My plan is to keep the emitters in the remote epicenter only. Dennis at O2 Grow told me that turbulence should be minimized in the epicenter so I'm going to modify the return so that it comes back gently.

Good to know your water temps are that low as I was planning on 64° to 65°. Funny thing: I called Agrowtek to suggest that they add a dissolved O2 probe to their hydro module and they said they were releasing it in two weeks! So I'm waiting for probably the first one they produce. This will really help dial in the DO and maintain the life on the emitters. It'll be cool to get rid of the air pumps too! Current Culture recommends lowering their nutes by 50% when super aerating the system, so I'm wondering where I should start with nutes. I'm thinking of 30% of normal.
 
fishwhistle

fishwhistle

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Ive been wanting to check out those greenbeam reflectors for awhile,the lightspread on those is crazy and they are super efficient when tested in an ulbrect sphere,be cool to see them in real grow conditions.
light_pattern.png
 
yukon369

yukon369

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33
Hey yukon, glad you showed up. I read your UC threads and you rocked it! You have a super clean setup and it was part of my inspiration for this room. My plan is to keep the emitters in the remote epicenter only. Dennis at O2 Grow told me that turbulence should be minimized in the epicenter so I'm going to modify the return so that it comes back gently.

Good to know your water temps are that low as I was planning on 64° to 65°. Funny thing: I called Agrowtek to suggest that they add a dissolved O2 probe to their hydro module and they said they were releasing it in two weeks! So I'm waiting for probably the first one they produce. This will really help dial in the DO and maintain the life on the emitters. It'll be cool to get rid of the air pumps too! Current Culture recommends lowering their nutes by 50% when super aerating the system, so I'm wondering where I should start with nutes. I'm thinking of 30% of normal.
Well thank you!!Glad I was some inspiration for you! Im very happy with the UC xl 16 so far. We are actually in the process of turning that system into two 8 module systems for veg and getting one more to match the three UC Pro 8 systems we are setting up! :)

I would definitely start at 30% nutes, if those emitters work like I think they will you're going to see you some amazing results. I'm definitely going to look into them for sure. I will be following along with your progress. Cheers!
 
timmur

timmur

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Hey fishwhistle thanks for stopping by! I've been sold on these lights for awhile. I know a guy on another forum who pulled 3 lbs from 3 Greenbeams in a 5 x 10! Pretty amazing.
 
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timmur

timmur

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So I was wondering if anyone has compared Shiva A/B vs Veg + Bloom in the UC and could comment. Short of that I'd love feedback on either of them. I'm also curious how those stack up to Current Culture's line. I'm leaning towards Veg + Bloom, but am open to feedback.
 
timmur

timmur

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Can I leave the carbon filter and fan sitting as they are shown in the pic to recirculate and remove odor or should they be hung? Most set ups have them hung, but they are usually part of the cooling solution.

On another note, which pipe insulation should I go with? I bought the parkas from Current Culture for the buckets and it is Reflectix I believe.

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DapperDon

DapperDon

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Can I leave the carbon filter and fan sitting as they are shown in the pic to recirculate and remove odor or should they be hung? Most set ups have them hung, but they are usually part of the cooling solution. On another note, which pipe insulation should I go with? I bought the parkas from Current Culture for the buckets and it is Reflectix I believe.


Yes, you can leave them on the floor. In fact a lot of the tree growers do (see these setups @Wavegem , @gettogro , @Capulator ) As far as pipe or bucket insulation, you can get all you need at your local Home Depot for cheap. You WILL be throwing it away and replacing it a few times a year to keep the nasties out of your party. As for those CC parkas, you can out perform them diy style for half using reflectix, some high reflective metal tape, and rigid R-Tech insulation to make mine life jackets around them as well as underneath them. I also see you have your setup in the floor? Not good on the carpet. Leaks can and will happen, which can lead to mold and mildew. Get yourself a containment system with some pvc pipe and shower liner (Think of the bottom of a Gorilla Grow Tent). One clog in any of these buckets and you will have yourself a grade A mess on your hands.
 
timmur

timmur

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Hey dapper thanks for the heads up on the insulation. The room you see pictured there is just where I mocked it up. The real floor will not be carpet, but I like the idea of the containment. I've been trying to come up with a good solution to that issue!
 
DapperDon

DapperDon

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Take some 1" pvc and make a frame that is 1' wider and 1' longer than your modules in place at about 10" tall. Line it wish some rubber shower mat from the Depot and use the adhesive for it to seal any seams and then throw a float switch to a pump with a hose that goes to a drain or outside. Sleep at nite knowing you will not wake up to a flood.
 
hiiipower

hiiipower

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I'm a huge Ace seeds fan and a huge UC fan. I'll be watching this for sure. Great job on setting up the room.

I run CC nutes veg, bloom, and mid booster, and have great results with it. Haven't tried anything else yet in uc, so I can't compare...

Good luck to ya!
 
timmur

timmur

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hiiipower thanks for the feedback and really glad to find another Ace fan! Have you logged any grows here on the farm?
 
Genesis

Genesis

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Still looking for feedback on the nutes question. :cool:

I'd start with 30% and move up to 50% depending on PPM. The key is to read the plants and look for that lime green new growth. You know the drill, keep at it and post shit and everyone here will help ya out :)

I have no doubt you can pull 1 #/greenbeam. I almost got some Boulder Lamp CDL CMH. They were saying the same thing, 1 unit per light, so that is efficient. Instead I got 4 more Gavita 750 flex units to add to my 4 Apache Tech AT600's. I'm looking for max efficiency like you bro and we have many options these days :). God speed.
 
timmur

timmur

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Thanks for the help Genesis! I'm really excited about these Greenbeams. They are so uniform and I'm using a lot of light so they should really produce. You gotta post up your run with those Gavitas and Apache Techs when you do it; I wanna see the results!
 
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