First Try At The Uc Style

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HouseOfWojo

HouseOfWojo

86
18
Hello farmers!
It has been far too long since I have posted on the forums. Job/career changes, yada yada yada, I have been busy I guess.

Anyway, currently I am running flood trays filled with hydroton fed by a recirc system. It works pretty well, but the plants stay smaller and I need more of them. Problem is I can only have up to twelve plants and want to go larger on the plants, not the count. I used to run a recirc dwc system and had great success but wanted to see what else was out there for dwc, and of course I ended up at the UC section of the farm. I decided to go diy style and really revamp some of the ideas from the UC but the premise of the system remains the same.

Now, I am acquiring materials to build my four plant system, and within about a months time I will have clones cut and ready for the system. I love watching the journals and builds that are already posted on the farm and figured I would add one more, day one build, all the way to the end of the first grow. Below are the specs of the grow room and future system.

Room:
183" wide, 65" deep, 96" ceiling
Window A/C
Tank fed CO2, controlled by Atlas 2 from Titan
1/4 hp chiller (yet to be purchased)
20 gallon trash cans for the plant buckets
20 gallon controller res
10" net pot bucket lids filled with hydroton
2" pvc feed circulation tubes
3/4" pvc return tubes
600gph inline return pump
Four coke can size air stones in each bucket
Two 70l per minute air pumps, each pumping two buckets
One 25l per minute air pump for controller
50 pt dehumidifier (yet to be purchased)
Four 1000 watt conv ballast
Four air cooled reflectors being vented at all times during daylight
R/O water (unit yet to be purchased)
Undecided what I will use for nutes, leaning between h&g, cs, and dm gold
First strain to hit the system will be gorilla glue #4

That's where I am farmers, will take some pics of the pile of supplies and build plans, can't wait to see it all start.
 
Mr.Chocolate

Mr.Chocolate

82
18
Good luck. Remember, this system is unforgiving, so you can't take shortcuts. Keep that water temp below 69. Make sure you get a water chiller. Using Penguin water chillers and they've been solid. They don't look pretty, but they work damn well.
 
HouseOfWojo

HouseOfWojo

86
18
Heard loud and clear sir. Will for sure be purchasing the chiller, havent looked at penguins so I appreciate the reccomendation. Not even cutting a clone till all is built, tested, and tested again.

Also, got the camera charging, pics coming soon!
 
HouseOfWojo

HouseOfWojo

86
18
Ok farmers, have a few pics of the supplies I have so far.


Here is most of what I have bought so far. Four of the large air stones in each bucket, two of the small in each root bucket. Have the 1/4 top off valve, all the PVC connections, air pumps, uniseals, and a four port drip manifold I will use during the first two weeks to encourage root growth.
Supplies

Three and a half gallon rooting bucket to start the clones in.
RootBucket

Twenty gallon veg/bloom bucket, roots should have plenty of room to spread out!
20GalBucket

And I couldn't help but post a shot or two of the grow I am waiting to finish. Shots were taken halfway through week seven. First two pictures are Armagnac (Grape Crush X The White) and the last is Hemlock (LA Confidential X Durban Poison).
Armagnac

Armagnac2

Hemlock


Thanks for watching everyone, hope to have the dehumidifier this week and possibly chiller in two or three. Waiting is killing me but making sure all is in place and running before I cut that first clone!
 
stickyfing3rs

stickyfing3rs

943
143
Wanted to also recommend penguin chillers, way cheap and reliable. Can get a 1/2hp for less than 1/4 HP in other brands. Then it has to work 1/2 as hard to get the job done and still leave you room for expanding
 
Mr.Chocolate

Mr.Chocolate

82
18
I recently installed a Penguin Chiller for a friend of mine. He tried to save a couple of bucks and skipped out on a water chiller after spending thousands everywhere else..... was a disaster. His roots were Dark brown and spongy.. Plants were slowly dying and decaying. He invested a lot of money and time and was nearly in tears with what was happening.....

I came over and installed an extra 1/2 hp Penguin Water chiller I had for emergencies. I ordered the chiller WITHOUT the built in controller so I could mount them outside. I hooked up the unit to a Ranco 111000 Electronic Temperature Controller. Within 24 hours the water went from 75+ to a COOL 65 degrees.

The room temperature also DROPPED by another 8 degrees. This is because the specific heat of water is greater than air so it works VERY efficiently to remove HEAT from the room. Here is a pic of the Rancor thermometer. It was too dark outside to get a good pic of the unit I mounted outside. I'll have that for you asap.

Anyways, it has been nearly 7 days and he called me up and wouldn't stop thanking me. The plants are exploding with growth. Room is cooler. Roots are blowing up and looking beautiful and white.

Picture: The tube to the left draws water outside to the water chiller where it dumps a LOT of heat outside. (AC works a lot less now.) The black tube to the right returns the water to the master control bucket.

The grey wire from the control unit is the temperature probe that goes into a near by bucket.

I cut out off the male plug from the chiller and spliced it into the temp controller. You can find a "How To" video on YouTube.
 
Water Chiller
HouseOfWojo

HouseOfWojo

86
18
Hey farmers,
Its been a long while gathering supplies and saving for equipment, but the wait is at last over! Clones have finally been transplanted into the veg buckets and are hopefully well on the way to developing a huge root mass to drop into the DIY UC system. Had a few leaks during testing but all are cleared up and the system runs at 67 degree water with all lights on no problem. (thanks for the advice on the penguins!) Not much else to report but will keep a close eye this first week to make sure these girls grow up to be monsters! Thanks for keeping up, sorry for the long delay but as stated above I wanted to make sure everything was ready and no corners cut. Enjoy the show to come.

Also, have some more pics...

The inside of the 20 gallon bucket now complete and ready for water. Top of the Veg bucket with new clone from the EZ Cloner.
20 Gallon Inside
Veg Bucket Top

EZ Cloner leftovers
Clones

And their roots!
Roots

Front side of system showing controller res, return pump, chiller, and my top feed booster bucket. Black line above air pump is where a shelf is now built for a second commercial 8 port air pump.
Front Equipment

Inside of the controller, going for a mixing effect with the pvc.
Inside Controller

Booster bucket and return pump.
Return Piping and Booster

The brand that came highly recommended.
Chiller

And its connections
Chiller Tubes

CO2 standing ready and the first air pump already installed.
CO2 and Air Pump

Overview of the inside of the room.
Room Overview

And lights above.
Lights

Top feed manifold.
Feed Manifold

Various piping connections, 2" are gravity fed feed tubes, 3/4" is the return line.
Controller Piping
Middle Piping
Back Piping

And lastly the nutes I will try out this round. Cutting Edge Solutions full line, plus GH Rapid Start to help get those roots going.
Nutes
 
420circuit

420circuit

514
93
Great engineering! How much vertical clearance will the plants have?

Couple years ago I made a dual 6" netpots DWC that is still in use, got design from StinkBud post. I like to add Hygrozyme and Pondzyme to keep the water clear and roots white. My only issue is a slight mold/mildew that forms on a small area at the edge of a netpots. I use bleach on a paper towel to dab it away, but wished it would not happen week 7 every grow. Pretty minor complaint. Looking forward to your project.:D
 
HouseOfWojo

HouseOfWojo

86
18
Great engineering! How much vertical clearance will the plants have?

Couple years ago I made a dual 6" netpots DWC that is still in use, got design from StinkBud post. I like to add Hygrozyme and Pondzyme to keep the water clear and roots white. My only issue is a slight mold/mildew that forms on a small area at the edge of a netpots. I use bleach on a paper towel to dab it away, but wished it would not happen week 7 every grow. Pretty minor complaint. Looking forward to your project.:D

Plants will have about four feet to grow up before they are too close to the light. I plan on multiple early tops, much like main lining, to keep these girls full bushes.
As I am starting in summer, I am running a pretty sterile environment but am excited to run live this fall with a run or two under my belt.
 
Apollo13

Apollo13

430
63
I run Heisenberg tea and 200-400 ppm. Uc is super efficient. And I run same size plants in 5 gallons. They do fill buckets with roots, but it's over by that time..plus the huge amount of water to have to cool, aerate and nutrients to add. I run 1.5 liters of air per minute per liter of water for super growth. Looks really nice and I changed mine a few times before I got it dialed in. Good job trying new things and if u get it working right, it's a real force to reckoned with..I think the best, most productive style of hydroponics. Heisenberg tea made it taste like soil and I never had root rot since. Search Google for cure to root rot. Cool thread.
 
HouseOfWojo

HouseOfWojo

86
18
FooDoo, I completely understand this system is overkill in some areas. But I have already done the five gallons, I have done tens. Why not continue to try new methods? Honestly in the last ten years I have grown more ways than I can count on one hand, and for that have probably learned far more than just sticking to one ore two. Every grow is an experiment, pull up a chair and this one will be grand. And I hope it was understood the four feet is from top of bucket to ideal end height under the 1000s. Doesn't include buckets or light area.

Apollo, I have been reading more and more about the tea and cannot wait to give it a try. I think I will really prefer it over completely sterile. Thanks for continued advice, love to learn.
 
HouseOfWojo

HouseOfWojo

86
18
Hey Farmers,
Well, it has been a bit of a learning curve and one dumb mistake, but the news is the plants are doing pretty great right now!
I tried a hiesenberg/richy rich tea recipe, don't really know what I did wrong but the roots looked awful the day after the tea was given to each small veg bucket. Maybe didn't start it soon enough or should have run really sterile then added the tea, don't know. Anyway, as the roots were already stressed, I moved the net pots from a warm nice veg bucket to a cold, churning, huge main system bucket. The plants totally stalled for about a week. It was really disappointing that I did not think to warm the main system up to room temp first, then drop roots in, then cool it down over the slow period. Nope, just shocked em. Anyway, after that rough week, the plants had developed new white roots everywhere and are really coming back. Even the one runt in the #1 position is coming back, think I may have broken roots transplanting her.

Ok, quick facts, then pictures;
PPMs (500scale) @ 1000 for the rooted clone stage.
Water temp in veg buckets was too high at 72-75 deg.
Foliar feeding at least twice a week with either veg mix or cal mag.
Clones all recovered quickly from initial topping, other than the #1 runt.
Tea was brewed 36 hours and then given in recommended amount after bucket water change.
PPMs @ 1400 for veg now. pH starts at 4.3 due to nutrient specifics but rises and stays at 6.1.
Time in Veg buckets directly out of the EZ cloner was 26 days.
Time in Main System so far is 17 days. (if not for the stall week for first seven days, plants would be close to ready for flip)


#1 Close Up, this one is the one that stunted right away (poor transplanting i assume) 6-29
1 CloseUp

#2 Close Up 6-29
2 CloseUp

#3 Close Up 6/29
3 CloseUp

#4 Close Up 6-29
4 CloseUp

The Fail Tea 6-29
Fail Tea

#3 Side 7-4
3 Side

#3 Top 7-3
3 Top

#4 Side 7-3
4 Side

#4 Top 7-3
4 Top

#1 Runt Top 7-22 (not sure why it flipped sideways)
1 Runt Top

#2 Top 7-22
2 Top

#3 Top 7-22
3 Top

#4 Side 7-22
4 Side

#4 Top 7-22
4 Top



Thanks for watching, this system is pretty crazy so far! If not for that bonehead call to shock the hell out of the roots I think the plants would be ready to flower, as is, I am hoping to start in less than two weeks.
 
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