DD's bucket system - Start to Finish

[Boots Sugarleaf]

I've had time to think out the plan a bit more and I came up with the closed ducting assuming I use the cool tubes as I plan to, the air on the "in" side will always be 30 to 50 degrees for the next few months, the out will be recycled to help heat another area:

 

[easypleasie]

lol you're about as obsessed with this project as I am! I'm in good company :)

 

[saldiado]

yeah dds is changing things in a major way around here, and it seems stupid not to get on the boat. I feel like pretty soon everyone around here is gonna be growing 5 Lbo trees

 

[easypleasie]

No doubt things are changing. After a few of the farmers here get there grows done, i think we're gonna see a huge shift in the way people grow. Of course, it could impact things negatively if we all totally screw shit up lol. But I don't see that happening.

 

[BOSSMAN88188]

I've had time to think out the plan a bit more and I came up with the closed ducting assuming I use the cool tubes as I plan to, the air on the "in" side will always be 30 to 50 degrees for the next few months, the out will be recycled to help heat another area:

Seem's like that last bulb will get pretty hot.
IMO there should be 2 exhausting light's instead of one.:hi.

 

[sherriberry]

i agree about the last light... but theres really no better way to do it... unless you put ANOTHER fan on top of the last light, and let it pull air from the room, and have the pipe from the bottom of the light V into the exhaust line from the other lights, and that exhaust line would simply come down BEHIND the light, between it and the back wall, and at the bottom of the light, the pipe V's into that exhaust pipe.

THe V is key... if you T into it, it might backfeed through the light into the room.

If you V into it, the air flow will actually create a vacume... so the light technically wouldnt need a small fan on top... but i would do it just to be safe.

 

[sherriberry]

not sure if all of you plan on keeping your room 100% sealed, but if you dont... then keeping the co2 levels high beocmes a challenge.

reading into your cage idea... is this to support the plant in a vertical way, or to support horrizontal branches?

either way, my idea is this...

if you hang a vertical pipe from the ceiling, then you can use that as somethign to tie the plant to...

in addition... if this vertical pipe was pvc, and had holes drilled all over it, and capped at the bottom...

this pipe could be pumbed to the co2 tank you will be using... thus releasing the co2 directly into the plant, as well as supporting the plant, im sure you could use something to tie the main stem of the plant to the pvc pipe that would SLIP up the pipe easily as the plant grows, like a ripped shop rag, etc.

the only thing i havent fully figured out is how you would suspend the pipe from the ceiling...

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

This is an overview of where and how I am vegging the 4 ladies for this project....using the 6 inch net pot the tub holds close to 20 gallons at the same spot they will be filled to in the MPB set up. I am using the same tub, I just cut up a different lid to sit on the tub for veg. I may still decide to use larger net pots but I'm waiting for DD do chime in with whether I should use less water....

The tub can hold this 20 gallons with only slight bulging on the sides, and will be less bulgy once the lid that actually fits it is on it.

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

i agree about the last light... but theres really no better way to do it... unless you put ANOTHER fan on top of the last light, and let it pull air from the room

problem with this though is it is a sealed room....and my fresh air in and exhaust air out are fixed locations. I will just run another frsh air in to the bottom of that tube and then a tee on top of it...that will solve the problem...then the vortex will pull cool air thru all the lights and not exhaust thru any at all....

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

reading into your cage idea... is this to support the plant in a vertical way, or to support horrizontal branches?

the cage serves to support more horizontal, which in turn will helb balance verticle, same way we mountain pharmers cage our ladies outdoors

if you hang a vertical pipe from the ceiling, then you can use that as somethign to tie the plant to...

in addition... if this vertical pipe was pvc, and had holes drilled all over it, and capped at the bottom...

this pipe could be pumbed to the co2 tank you will be using... thus releasing the co2 directly into the plant, as well as supporting the plant, im sure you could use something to tie the main stem of the plant to the pvc pipe that would SLIP up the pipe easily as the plant grows, like a ripped shop rag, etc.

I plan to have halo tubing with holes in it spread around the canopies of each lady

 

[easypleasie]

Hey boots, just a little suggestion with the cool tubes. Not trying to tell ya what to do or anything here. Have you considered just making one single path to flow through all your tubes? When the temps are that cold outside, it doesn't take much to cool the lights. I've actually had to slow my fan speed down so it would warm up the room a little. And that also helped with the condensation on the first tube.

All I have is an 8" 650 cfm fan that's currently running through 4 tubes - two 1k and two 600w. I'm replacing the fan with either a 10" or 12" for when it gets warmer out. Even when it was 80 degrees outside, I could put my face on the last tube! Rigid ducting is best but it will make moving the tubes a bit harder.

I'm trying to devise pulley system so I can raise all my lights at once instead of having to adjust each one. I'll work on that when my room opens up :)

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

Have you considered just making one single path to flow through all your tubes? When the temps are that cold outside, it doesn't take much to cool the lights. I've actually had to slow my fan speed down so it would warm up the room a little. And that also helped with the condensation on the first tube.

hey ez, I don't get offended too easily and really appreciate the input!
not sure I get what you meant tho?? one cold in thru the bottoms of all of em and one hot out right?

I'm trying to devise pulley system so I can raise all my lights at once instead of having to adjust each one. I'll work on that when my room opens up

I already have a plan that my daughters daycare uses to raise and lower netting over the sand play areas...I'll adapt it for our needs and make a list and sketch in a bit for ya

I may end up just saying eff the cool tubes this run unless I decide to double up thousands....I am still planning a bit

 

[easypleasie]

Awesome with the netting plans! I have a pretty simple idea in mind but not giving it much thought till I get other things done. Looking forward to your fancy sketch work! lol Love the photo diagrams!

Cold intake air goes through one tube, then into the next, then into the next and so on till you exit the room through the last one. One single path for the air to go through. I push air through the tubes instead of pulling. The last couple of lights will definitely be warmer but nowhere near as hot as bare bulb :) Go with as big as a fan as you can. You can always slow the speed down with a fan controller.

This isn't a fool proof method but it's working for me so far. When I add the extra 1k lights, we'll get the real test :) And it may be best to have two fans if your duct runs are really long.

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

IC, with only a few tubes I would do that run but with 5 I'm not thinking it's such a good idea, too long of a run with too many 90 degree bends and all hot air except the 1st and 2nd light...if I pull cold thru the bottoms of all of them and exit hot out the top it should work...but again, I may use no tubes or only a few...

I pull with my big vortex's cause it is more efficient and better on the fan to pull from 6" to a bigger diameter than it is too push from a larger diameter thru a smaller one..make sense? when they are the same size it doesn't matter much, but I still like to pull with the biggest fan and sometimes I will add a smaller one to push if it is needed.

 

[easypleasie]

It's one of those things you have to test for your own setup. Not everything is gonna work for everyone. Whatever setup works best for you is ideal :)

I've tried pulling and pushing. Pushing works best for my setup. The efficiency is debatable lol. Seems like a certain amount of back pressure is good, like a car exhaust. That's just my thoughts, though. With it pulling air out, if you have the slightest leak, it can pull skunky, unfiltered room air out. Pushing doesn't pull room air into the tubes from what i've seen. Just keep them completely sealed and you should be ok :)
Also, if you're pulling really hot air through the fan, how does that affect the reliability of the fan over time? I've always wondered about that.

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

good points...I am in a safe medical place and part of a legal collective so we have no odor issues to worry about where we grow....But i could see that being an issue

as far as pulling hot air thru the fan, I am not sure, but I keep the fans in an area that is always cool and have had fans last years now pulling 3 or 4000 watts thru them...I am sure there has been a test done by vortex or elicent---for $300 plus a fan they better last for years though! I have never had one fail on me

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

Awesome with the netting plans! I have a pretty simple idea in mind but not giving it much thought till I get other things done. Looking forward to your fancy sketch work! lol Love the photo diagrams!

well, after drawing out some way complicated plans, I think it makes the most sense to have an eye bolt above each spot where a bulb will go, run the cord thru a pully attached to the eye bolt, then somewhere in an easily accessible area have one larger eye bolt that all the lamp cords will easily and loosly go thru, have those all come down the wall to a spot where you can securely attach in some way there as a grouped bundle. when needed you grab the whole lot of lamp cords and pull down to raise, or let the weight of the lamps bull the curds thru and lower, all evenly.

 

[easypleasie]

You never know when things are gonna malfunction on you. Last week my exhaust fan crapped out on me! If I didn't have the tubes in the room, they would have gotten fried to the max. Humidity shot up to 90%, temp was 90F, and everything was wet. I got lucky on that one. One mistake I made was I turned my intake fan off cause it was really cold out. I just plugged it back in and it was able to push hot air out the room. I caught it just in time at lights out and who knows how long it was running like that. I need to get a high temp shutoff just in case something like that happens again.

Ideally, we'd have redundant backup systems :)

 

[Boots Sugarleaf]

damn, glad you caught it in time.....murphy's law, whatever can will

I had some timers fuck up on me recently and I am not sure how long but for at least a few days some plants were getting 24 hours of light when they were 30 days into flower! a few of the lights were going on and off like normal but 2 of them were just staying on....Some of the ladies revegged hard and has set that harvest back by who knows how long, and there were already 3 inch round colas on these girls

so I do know, shit can fuck up

 

[easypleasie]

Doh! With each new day that i'm growing, I seem to discover a lot of things that can go wrong! lol

What kind of timers are you using? That really sucks about the light cycle. Hope it doesn't stress your girls out too bad. I'm really sketched out about those plug in the wall type digital timers. I had one of those mess up on me before. I have since replaced them with a CAP lighting controller on a dedicated 220v line. No more warm outlets!