Another kick at the can.

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airedog

airedog

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Added in 5ml of A/B and B52 last night. This morning tote A is 570ppm and pH is 6.1 @ 69F; tote B is 630 ppm and pH is 6.1 @ 69F.

There is approximately 14L of water in each tote as of last night; in the volume of RO water in either tote, as little as 0.1ml of AN pH Down will drop pH to between 4.8 -5.1. Unless pH rises above 6.3 i won't try to adjust by adding pH to 15L of RO water and then adding a small amount to each tote until i get closer to 5.8 - 6.2.

Pump has always been above waterline, i learned my unintentional siphon lessons years ago; just commenting on how much easier it seems to establish a siphon inadvertently as opposed to deliberately in hoses or tubing.

As an aside, i bought some cheap check valves from Amazon and the results were less than stellar; whistling, loud pump due to backpressure, changed out to Hagen Marina check valves at about 5x the price and things have settled down. I'm currently running a Hiblow 100 LL to drive 2 x 8" diameter air diffusers in each tote. Thinking i should have gone 200. Gotta admit though the Hiblow is considerably quieter than my old EcoAir 200W.

Chiller cleared customs this morning, Orca and light hanger hardware and swaging tool should be here today, and HydroGuard and Nirvana are on the way. Still trying to source my 3" PVC pipe and fittings; i'll go flue gas pipe if i have to but the 3 * 1 FIPT reducing tee is proving hard to find. Rona or Home Depot have the 3" tees in stock.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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Added in 5ml of A/B and B52 last night. This morning tote A is 570ppm and pH is 6.1 @ 69F; tote B is 630 ppm and pH is 6.1 @ 69F.

There is approximately 14L of water in each tote as of last night; in the volume of RO water in either tote, as little as 0.1ml of AN pH Down will drop pH to between 4.8 -5.1. Unless pH rises above 6.3 i won't try to adjust by adding pH to 15L of RO water and then adding a small amount to each tote until i get closer to 5.8 - 6.2.

Pump has always been above waterline, i learned my unintentional siphon lessons years ago; just commenting on how much easier it seems to establish a siphon inadvertently as opposed to deliberately in hoses or tubing.

As an aside, i bought some cheap check valves from Amazon and the results were less than stellar; whistling, loud pump due to backpressure, changed out to Hagen Marina check valves at about 5x the price and things have settled down. I'm currently running a Hiblow 100 LL to drive 2 x 8" diameter air diffusers in each tote. Thinking i should have gone 200. Gotta admit though the Hiblow is considerably quieter than my old EcoAir 200W.

Chiller cleared customs this morning, Orca and light hanger hardware and swaging tool should be here today, and HydroGuard and Nirvana are on the way. Still trying to source my 3" PVC pipe and fittings; i'll go flue gas pipe if i have to but the 3 * 1 FIPT reducing tee is proving hard to find. Rona or Home Depot have the 3" tees in stock.
Personally i dont go over 6.0 for ph. Usually ph to about 5.6 and let it drift up to 6.0
 
airedog

airedog

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Damn, i basically stood on my head to get it to 5.7 last night. Even added in the extra nutes; so with pH rising i know they're eating as opposed to just drinking water. I'll look again this evening and if it's over 6.3 i'll drop in a L or so of water at about 4.8; that's 15L of RO, with 0.1mL of AN pH down added. City water is dosed with chloramine so it's a no-go unless filtered. I'll be glad when they're finally in the UC as it's much easier to pH a larger volume of water.

Haven't had much luck finding white 3" Sch 40 pipe, so i bit the bullet and ordered 20' of grey chemcor w/associated tees today. Irrigation Direct, in BC, shipped the reducing tee yesterday. Hopefully i'll be good to go by end of next week, if not sooner.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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Before I mess up is this AN ph perfect nutrients?

If so do not ph adjust them. They are not the same as other nutrients
 
airedog

airedog

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Yes. pH the water before you mix first time, then leave it alone. Glad you reminded me; 3 years and it's like i forgot my name. It saved my ass big time when pH dropped mid-flower; i've run to 4.0 before a change out (and done 3 in 9 days). Pushing the hell out of solution strength in a UC at that.
 
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airedog

airedog

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Here they are today; i clipped the leaves on the sickly plant in Tote A. Roots look good in both, they badly need to transplant into UC. Never had them looking this good this early, much thanks to all who have kept me on track.

Tote A

D25 Tote A


Tote B

D25 Tote B
 
airedog

airedog

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Got my Sch 40 PVC 3" potable water pressure pipe yesterday, along with a Reed tubing cutter and Reed deburring tool. First time i've done this and i have my 10 pieces cut and chamfered; ready for primer and cement.

Chiller is at UPS local depot and will be delivered on Monday. I'll put the UC system together, do a cleaning run with Powdered Brewery Wash followed by a StarSan sanitizing run and then a final fill with RO water. Plants will move down to grow room and once sexed the best looking ones will go in the buckets (hopefully i'll have at least 4 females).
 
airedog

airedog

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Slow though, between healing knee and trickle of deliveries. Added Orca liquid to the nutes last night, still waiting for Hydroguard to come in.

I'm thinking of replacing cord in rope ratchets with longer lengths and adding in single block pulleys at the ceiling so that LEDs can be raised with a straight pull down, while leaving the ratchet assembly attached to the light for easy adjustment.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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Slow though, between healing knee and trickle of deliveries. Added Orca liquid to the nutes last night, still waiting for Hydroguard to come in.

I'm thinking of replacing cord in rope ratchets with longer lengths and adding in single block pulleys at the ceiling so that LEDs can be raised with a straight pull down, while leaving the ratchet assembly attached to the light for easy adjustment.
All good things come in time bro. May have to balance the lights of hanging from a single point but that easy enough. If im understanding right
 
airedog

airedog

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No, there are 2 pick-up points per light. Just playing with length of bridle leg, the more acute the angle the less the load on the line.

Here's an online calculator that will do the trick. Use the first one 2 Leg Bridle Sling Calculator, just for shitz n' gigglez try a 20 lb load with a 2' bridle leg and 0.5' height; and then with 1' height. Don't forget to add the weight on each bridle leg in order to get total weight on the pick-up point.

Sling Tension Calculator link
 
airedog

airedog

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Went down to actually check out the 4 RKs today and got a surprise. The first 2 had been unboxed and hung in the furnace room to check them out when they were originally delivered. A total knee replacement was scheduled with 3 weeks warning in between ordering and delivery of the 2nd two, so they've stayed boxed until last weekend. Finally got them hung and cabled on Sunday.

Never did get around to actually turning them on Sunday though and while i was taking UC manifold parts downstairs today i finally got around to doing so. Wasn't happy when 2 did not come on; you really don't want to know how my internal dialogue was running at that point. Thought a bit and checked out the THEIA app on my phone; turned out that the last time i ran the 2 hanging i'd zeroed out the master dimmer. That meant that they were functioning as set and although powered, were still waiting for a THEIA command. The last two had never connected with THEIA so came on when cct was energised.

Still trying to find 2 more Sch 40 3" PVC tees as my Sch 80s are too thick for the EZ Clean caps. Despite living in a city with a metro population of over a million i still needed to special order the last 2 tees. In the meantime my propagation tent is overflowing as the seedlings hit Day 29. Hydroguard left California yesterday, is currently in Memphis, TN and FedEx says delivery here in Canada by end-of-day tomorrow.
 
airedog

airedog

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Day 29, really got to get the UC up and running; started cementing manifolds this evening. Running 50 lpm of air into each tote seems to be helping.

CN Day 29


Even the runt in soil is starting to take off.

Soil CN
 
airedog

airedog

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Here are the LEDs hung with bridles and single block pulleys added at pick-up point allows unit to be raised with a straight pull down (also gives a bit of mechanical advantage). I still need to put in dead-hang points to get me those last few inches of headroom.

Ratchet with pulley block


Here are the lights running at half power in full spectrum;

Half power full spectrum


cool,

Half power cool


warm

Half power warm


and red.

Half power red
 
airedog

airedog

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Day 35 and i'm in a whole lotta trouble as i'm still waiting for a couple of 3" SCH 40 PVC tees; hopefully in today.

Totes 35


If worse comes to worst i'll do a DIY bucket grow; at least i can forego root trimming and use 10" net pots. These will take some work to get into UC 8" pots.

Roots 35
 
airedog

airedog

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52" center manifolds are done,

Manifold


and the RO res is plumbed; missed a bushing on one of the float valve connections though and it pissed all over my wall, dumping about 10 gallons on the floor in the process. Vacuumed most of it up, if any left this morning i'll run fans and bump up heat.

RO res


I'll probably FIM the seedlings today and i hope to get them downstairs, even if just in the totes. Need to dead hang lights first and clean up cabling.
 
smokedareefer

smokedareefer

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Day 35 and i'm in a whole lotta trouble as i'm still waiting for a couple of 3" SCH 40 PVC tees; hopefully in today.

View attachment 1080558

If worse comes to worst i'll do a DIY bucket grow; at least i can forego root trimming and use 10" net pots. These will take some work to get into UC 8" pots.

View attachment 1080559
Make temporary plywood lids for the current culture totes for your 10" net pots.

I'm using the 5" net pots with my 4xxl 13 @ 60" centers with 12' ceilings.

The bulkhead fittings i used when i built mine using their " boneless" parts are abs plastic where the tubing is made with regular sch 40 pvc.
 
airedog

airedog

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Waiting on delivery of the last set of hangers for the LEDs. Fan is up. Shelf brackets for air pumps will be in today, 1.25" vinyl tubing on Monday. Once the last LED is dead hung, clean up, hang the second fan and put together RDWC buckets for growth until they show sex.

Fan and
 

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