ExpertNovice
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- Feb 22, 2025
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Howdy folks. I’ve grown in soil and NFT trays before but had to throw everything away during a move. Now i’ve bought a house instead of renting so i decided to try something new.
System - 4 pot Alien V-System RDWC
Light - Omega Infinity 3.0 Pro 1000w
Tent - 2m x 2m x 2.2m
Media - Coco Plugs surrounded by pebbles
Air - Phresh Hyper fan 6” for extraction. 1 small clip on fan (the second died), 1 tower fan and 1 pedestal fan for circulation.
Temps - around 20c for the air and water (no chiller(next time))
Humidity - 50-60% depending on weather
Food - Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur + almost all of the additives. Great White in the plug and first 2 weeks.
Water - Tap with Ecothrive Neutralise
PH - Start at 5.5 but the AN takes it to 6.5 after around 2 days
EC - Currently 2.4
Strains - 2 Glookies, 1 Blueberry OG, 1 Tropicana Banana
This first run is an experiment (aren’t they all?) where i’ve tried to make them as bushy and short as possible using only LST.
I’ve had a few problems. The first extractor fan didn’t work. I couldn’t get the drains to stop leaking and after rebuilding the system 5 times i glued it all together. Biobizz ph down sent my ph to 8! I broke the drain so ordered another and a blank, the second drain broke the first time i tried to pull the hose off so now i just use a submersible pump to drain it. A fan died. My houses heating randomly stayed on one day and i came home to it being 29c. I’ve had nute burn and deficiencies. One plant is much slower than normal and one is ridiculously fast. Normal growing pains.
But, it’s actually going pretty well. I decided to start a diary because i couldn’t find much user content about the V-System so this will probably be interesting to others. Advice is welcome too as i’m a DWC noob and haven’t grown for around 5 years.
A few V-System specific notes. The drain pipes were too big causing leaks, the feed pipes were tight and fine. The pump is louder in the room below than in the tent, anti vibration is a must! I have it on some bubble packing and a towel at the moment but will improve this next time. I’m in a 2m x 2m tent and it feels tight, i wouldn’t go any smaller even with the header and pump outside. I’ll likely run the header and pump outside next time and use a chiller. The venturi’s are very good, if you’re using co2 or high temps though you’ll need these outside the tent or they heat/ acidify the water. I drilled 3-4mm holes around the lid to use as tie down points with string, the first ones were drilled too low but still work OK. You want them as high as they can be without getting to the air space inside the pot so they don’t get wet. The amount of air bubbles in this system means water does hit the lid even with a decent gap. The view lids always need to be tipped into the pot before taking them off and you do get nute build up around them. The vortex motion also causes roots to wrap at water surface level, this makes root rot more likely so water temps and beneficial bacteria or sterilisation is important. My temp is ok so i’m hoping Sensizym, Voodoo and Tarantula do enough.
To the actual growing.
They went into the system when a tap root came out of the coco plug. There has been almost no side roots though so i’ll do some top watering in future to help this. As soon as roots hit the water they took off. I’m just saying the small one was a bad seed as the other Glookies from the same pack is doing fine. It’s also a week behind to be fair as one seed didn’t germinate.
I started them around 1ec at 250w, wk2 1.5, wk3 1.9 at 500w, wk4 2.1 at 750w and wk5 2.4 at 1000w. The light has stayed ‘too’ high but i’ve used Photone to check it’s OK. I could run it lower at lower power levels but it’s just easier being in there with the light high. It’ll have to drop in flower.
The biggest (Tropicana Banana) has been happy throughout. The Glookies and Blueberry OG have shown some necrosis of older leaves which seems to be a calcium deficiency, likely a lockout as the biggest is doing well. It’s hard to lower feed levels when i’m far below what AN recommend and one is doing so well. I will try starting flower a little lower and see what happens.
The pictures are from around 4.5 weeks in the system. I plan to flip this weekend which will be 5 weeks. I’m afraid of bud rot due to how dense they are, especially the Tropicana Banana, so i’ll be using a dehumidifier when they start to bud. I’m also afraid of root rot as already mentioned, i’ll just see how it goes.
Glookies #1
Glookies #2
Blueberry OG
Tropicana Banana
Tropicana Banana height
I’ve been removing some leaves and tucking others throughout. They absorb light and act like batteries so i’m leaving more on than usual while i get used to this setup. When i flip i’ll remove more, then plan to remove some for air flow around wk3 of flower and any more that NEED to come off after, i’d like to keep as many as is reasonable though.
As they’re so short and bushy i’m not going to lolipop. I may remove some bud sites around wk2 if they’ll be a waste but the aim of this has been to remove as little as possible throughout.
Any help is much appreciated. Comments, questions and chit chat are also welcome. Thanks for looking.
System - 4 pot Alien V-System RDWC
Light - Omega Infinity 3.0 Pro 1000w
Tent - 2m x 2m x 2.2m
Media - Coco Plugs surrounded by pebbles
Air - Phresh Hyper fan 6” for extraction. 1 small clip on fan (the second died), 1 tower fan and 1 pedestal fan for circulation.
Temps - around 20c for the air and water (no chiller(next time))
Humidity - 50-60% depending on weather
Food - Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur + almost all of the additives. Great White in the plug and first 2 weeks.
Water - Tap with Ecothrive Neutralise
PH - Start at 5.5 but the AN takes it to 6.5 after around 2 days
EC - Currently 2.4
Strains - 2 Glookies, 1 Blueberry OG, 1 Tropicana Banana
This first run is an experiment (aren’t they all?) where i’ve tried to make them as bushy and short as possible using only LST.
I’ve had a few problems. The first extractor fan didn’t work. I couldn’t get the drains to stop leaking and after rebuilding the system 5 times i glued it all together. Biobizz ph down sent my ph to 8! I broke the drain so ordered another and a blank, the second drain broke the first time i tried to pull the hose off so now i just use a submersible pump to drain it. A fan died. My houses heating randomly stayed on one day and i came home to it being 29c. I’ve had nute burn and deficiencies. One plant is much slower than normal and one is ridiculously fast. Normal growing pains.
But, it’s actually going pretty well. I decided to start a diary because i couldn’t find much user content about the V-System so this will probably be interesting to others. Advice is welcome too as i’m a DWC noob and haven’t grown for around 5 years.
A few V-System specific notes. The drain pipes were too big causing leaks, the feed pipes were tight and fine. The pump is louder in the room below than in the tent, anti vibration is a must! I have it on some bubble packing and a towel at the moment but will improve this next time. I’m in a 2m x 2m tent and it feels tight, i wouldn’t go any smaller even with the header and pump outside. I’ll likely run the header and pump outside next time and use a chiller. The venturi’s are very good, if you’re using co2 or high temps though you’ll need these outside the tent or they heat/ acidify the water. I drilled 3-4mm holes around the lid to use as tie down points with string, the first ones were drilled too low but still work OK. You want them as high as they can be without getting to the air space inside the pot so they don’t get wet. The amount of air bubbles in this system means water does hit the lid even with a decent gap. The view lids always need to be tipped into the pot before taking them off and you do get nute build up around them. The vortex motion also causes roots to wrap at water surface level, this makes root rot more likely so water temps and beneficial bacteria or sterilisation is important. My temp is ok so i’m hoping Sensizym, Voodoo and Tarantula do enough.
To the actual growing.
They went into the system when a tap root came out of the coco plug. There has been almost no side roots though so i’ll do some top watering in future to help this. As soon as roots hit the water they took off. I’m just saying the small one was a bad seed as the other Glookies from the same pack is doing fine. It’s also a week behind to be fair as one seed didn’t germinate.
I started them around 1ec at 250w, wk2 1.5, wk3 1.9 at 500w, wk4 2.1 at 750w and wk5 2.4 at 1000w. The light has stayed ‘too’ high but i’ve used Photone to check it’s OK. I could run it lower at lower power levels but it’s just easier being in there with the light high. It’ll have to drop in flower.
The biggest (Tropicana Banana) has been happy throughout. The Glookies and Blueberry OG have shown some necrosis of older leaves which seems to be a calcium deficiency, likely a lockout as the biggest is doing well. It’s hard to lower feed levels when i’m far below what AN recommend and one is doing so well. I will try starting flower a little lower and see what happens.
The pictures are from around 4.5 weeks in the system. I plan to flip this weekend which will be 5 weeks. I’m afraid of bud rot due to how dense they are, especially the Tropicana Banana, so i’ll be using a dehumidifier when they start to bud. I’m also afraid of root rot as already mentioned, i’ll just see how it goes.
Glookies #1
Glookies #2
Blueberry OG
Tropicana Banana
Tropicana Banana height
I’ve been removing some leaves and tucking others throughout. They absorb light and act like batteries so i’m leaving more on than usual while i get used to this setup. When i flip i’ll remove more, then plan to remove some for air flow around wk3 of flower and any more that NEED to come off after, i’d like to keep as many as is reasonable though.
As they’re so short and bushy i’m not going to lolipop. I may remove some bud sites around wk2 if they’ll be a waste but the aim of this has been to remove as little as possible throughout.
Any help is much appreciated. Comments, questions and chit chat are also welcome. Thanks for looking.