DIY - Over, Under, Sideways, Down...Sky High builds an Under Current knockoff

[sky high]

Not tearing this thing down was a HUGE fuck up on my part. :bong-hits: <<<like smoking the bong from the hot end!! Dill-fuckin-hole.

Like most folks I hate admitting bein' stupid...but since it's glaringly obvious @ this point :confused0059: I figure I will go ahead and post up a pic of what I found lurking in the tubes in the hope that nobody else reading along makes the same fuckstick move down the road and tries to avoid tearing one of these COMPLETELY down to clean it between runs. Never again will I be so stupid (at least not regarding this BS).

looks like very small roots and a buncha goddamn gunk.
(and all new piping going back in!)

I've beat myself up enough over this. Back to the scrub brush and the fatty....

All hail the mighty Physan! Fuckin A. This is good stuff.

 

[Socachi]

So can this physan 20 be ran through the system cleaning everything including pumps or does the sys need to be broken down and everything hand cleaned?

 

[sky high]

I'll be going with option #2 from here on out, SoCachi. I ran Drip Clean and Zone in this the entire 2nd run but obviously, the damage was already done.

FWIW, when I "cleaned" it between runs I filled/drained it a few times to make sure there wasn't anything floating/etc., and the water "appeared" clean when I (mistakenly) put the plants in and thought I was good to go.

In the end the only way to be SURE is to break it down and check/clean each component.

s h

 

[motherlode]

I was told not to use zone in a uc, if you feel you have to run it you should crown feed only and at 1/4 strength, that is scary nasty in there.

Does CC recomend that they be taken apart every run??

 

[Socachi]

Thanks Sky I'm lookin to run a UC 6xl so I guess I'll have to find some long tube brushes in different sizes. Not sure where to get them, everything I've found seems too small, any idea?

 

[sky high]

I probably did a lot of shit they say not to. As a homebuilt I recieved no instructions and have been completely winging it other than the advice offered in this thread/etc... alot of which I;m sure I missed or failed to heed the warning.

Just like makin' babies you do what feels right at the time and adjust later for better results. You hope.

Dunno what CC says to do but from seeing what I saw any >smart< grower will take the time to break it down or they will be makin a thread like this one explaining how stupid they are.... (really stupid if they've seen this thread and still think they can skate by and take the easy route. NOT)

s h

 

[UCMENOW]

Rinse and Repeat.

It's important to keep the inputs in the system as clean as possible. Use the natchy stuff as foliars....and possibly as light crown feedings. Part of the problem is when heavy insoluble organics are put into the system in the first place.

There shouldn't be a need to disassemble the system to clean......just run with physan for a day or so.....be sure to use a green pad where you can reach and a bottle brush where you can't.

Sky High I'm sure you're coco grows gonna kick ass and it's far more compatible with the organics.....looking forward to seeing your next grow.

BTW....sounds like a pimped out DIY UC is gonna be up for sale....heads up Farmers ;)

 

[Jalisco Kid]

You could put a strainer before the pump to help catch crap. Grow more has a disinfectant better then P-20. I would soak my pipes in enzymes a day or two. Bigger is always better. In a better sys you use bigger pumps,air, and return lines.
Rot will start off with an iridescent look to the Roots, easy to see when using my system Suerte JK

 

[RMCG]

Any thoughts on incorporating a pool pump strainer in to the system JK?

Big ass pump though. Any smaller 'inline' filters? Pool/Spa is the only thing I came up with.

 

[sky high]

Yo UC.

was running these nutes this go around. http://www.nutri-plus.ca/company.html

The Thrive is a kelp based B-1. (has that vitaminy smell) The Black is a humic. Both are dark in color which always freaks my ass out....but how "organic" they are, dunno. My guess is that this gunkage came from the last run when i used Roots HPK liquid guano 2X in bloom. Other than the above mentioned product and the HPK, I don't think the rest of the line has anything "organic" in it. (my plants in peat/OF/perlite are LOVING this line...FWIW) Was also running Drip Clean and some Zone...which folks say is a no-no but hey.... I didn't know that.

And FWIW, I had the water level just above the tubes and the 1200 Mag Drive rocking with Physan and Drip clean for a good 24 hours if not longer trying to sanitize the tubes/etc. My garage smelled like a really clean hot tub the entire time...LOL. I also ran it as a full system with a bit of Physan...damn near made a huge bubble bath there for awhile. I ran this mix for another day or so.

Then I filled/drained it 3X (til I saw no more "floaties") and thought I was good to go. With the huge diffusers in there I can't see the pipes...so that was, IMO, the start of my colossal fuck up. Had I taken the time to....well..... you know.... dammit.

Still accessing WHAT to do. I have some clones in an aerorooter almost rooted (?) but nothing ready to go into this system. As slow as it seems to be for me/the BB to get going in an ebb/flow and then into this system, it's a huge setback on time (and energy).

On top of that, my bad back/neck are fuckin lovin life about now.... uuuhhhum. However, I think i've found something that is JUST AS MUCH FUN as cleaning hydroton...and that's cleaning diffusers and UC buckets and pulling on pvc pipe!

But I'm not selling this just yet, UC. If nothin else it'll make a killer drain-to-waste coco set up with the 2" "drains"...LOL...and the fish in the pond out back would love the pondmaster goin' full bore and a couple diffusers tossed in the mix...

blub....blub...blub.....

 

[sky high]

I'm just an old irrigation guy, JK. I looked at wye strainers/had a similar idea but nothing I could locate would handle more than a "drip" type flow...far too little for this ap.

Diggin it RMCG. 1/1/2" intake/discharge.... 2 x 2 x 1 1/2 T..... heheheheeeeee. Maybe hook up an Insinkerator too? Vrooom! Either way...the 3/4 't' has gotta go here.

onward, through the fog....

s h

 

[pikes peak 69]

Use a sherwood inline strainer.



I'm going to use 3 of the 1" ones.

pp69

 

[Jalisco Kid]

Any thoughts on incorporating a pool pump strainer in to the system JK?

Big ass pump though. Any smaller 'inline' filters? Pool/Spa is the only thing I came up with.

I use what pp69 suggested for my strainers. Overkill maybe but I do not like to rework my work. As my paw always told me, If you are going to do it, you might as well do it the right the first time.

SH if you use the enzymes it will clean your pipes. then run some naccosan thru it for disinfecting. Suerte JK

 

[Integra21]

The buildup may have had to do with the nutrients as others said above. I tried running organic in my dwc and it was a gook and slime nightmare. But with chemical nutrients, my res is almost clean after an entire run. I use the Technaflora Series and when I mix my nutrients they are clear when finished. Looks like regular tap water. I only get buildup on my sight glass and thats just alge.

 

[RMCG]

Forgot to check the 'marine' sites.

Awesome. Thanks guys!

 

[FileError404]

Thanks Sky I'm lookin to run a UC 6xl so I guess I'll have to find some long tube brushes in different sizes. Not sure where to get them, everything I've found seems too small, any idea?

Got mine at a restaurant supply store, they have 1/2, 3/4, 1" brushes with long wire handles, work real well on PVC. For loooong pieces you can attach a string to the handle and pull em through

gl.

 

[RMCG]

Got mine at a restaurant supply store, they have 1/2, 3/4, 1" brushes with long wire handles, work real well on PVC. For loooong pieces you can attach a string to the handle and pull em through

gl.

homebrew supply shops.

bottle brush/carboy brush.

 

[sky high]

I decided last night as I was laying there awake (pass the Seconals, please) that this motherfucker isn't gonna kick my ass.

My 2nd thought was, "just figure it out and do a best of both worlds grow, you fuckin' idiot! Slap in some coco, slap in some hydro. It'zzzz all good!"

So here we are, a few hours (and a gram+ of BB bubblehash) later....

with the "Sky High Staggered Six-Pack". The tubes are 24" apart, the buckets are 34" center to center. The entire footpirint is now roughly 4 ft x 10.5 ft.

Because my net pots are slightly off-center I can choose to put them so they are closer to the center of the system or I can place them all at the outsides of the buckets. Center spacing would give me a 24" center to center, >triangulated<. (make sense?) Placing them on the outside would give me almost 36" spacing.....again...triangulated because of the staggerring of the buckets.

The other change is that this will be a TOP LIT garden, not vert, with a focus on going taller rather than wider if possible. If not, the bitches get flipped! Hopin to do 3K above but am thinking I'm one hood short. I have 3 cool tubes but I'm not sure how they'd perform/if they'd spread the light wide enough over a garden such as this.

I kept the 3/4 "t" apparatus and am hoping that by running a totally chem system and by narrowing the width the velocity through that area will kepp things moving vs. a 4 ft + wide tube. I THOUGHT about terminating the tube and bringing a 3/4" feed off the end of both and then "Y" them back into one main line going back to the pump but decided i'd had enough "fun" over the last 2 days+ that..um.... maybe next time I'll look into mods. UUUhhhummm...

Right now I just need a good, clean run so I can build my confidence back up a bit and hopefully rock this bee-atch.

EVERY part has been Physan'd and then I sprayed each peice again and wiped it down. I found a toilet brush at the store that is ROUND and about 3"...so it jams in there well and I ended up soaking everything in a Physan tub and brushing the pipes clean. I re-used the runs between the buckets and cut off some of the other peices to adj for the new measurements. Amazingly I had enough shit on hand to pull this off without going to Casa De Pot. I think that's a first!:clapping

Gonna have to wait a bit to get some plants big enough to get going.... but in the meantime I'm gona work on a 10 plant drain-to-waste chow mix bucket system to sit beside the UC.

Ideas? This will be another new adventure here (DTW).

Usually I'm just wasted, not drain-to-wasted...so help me out if you can my friends! :cool0010:

Not quite finished..but here's where i'm at and I'm comin down the home stretch....

 

[kuz]

You think the bat guano did it? Are you using any bennies?

 

[sky high]

I really have no idea what the catalyst was, kuz. I only know it sucked to change horses midstream and have to break this thing down. ;-)

If anyone else sees root rot, be aware that other than all the interiors of the pvc being covered in small root hairs and brownish scale I also found a lot of gunk stuck around the uniseal between it and the plastic tub itself that would have remained had I not broken it down and removed the seals.

just trying to remove all chances of a return visit. I think I'm getting there.

s h