just a story..pipe size, temps...

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smokestack23

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OK..here's what's been happening for me in the past couple of weeks. This is mostly just a story but you might be able to glean a bit of valuable info from it..if you can handle my long-windedness.

So..I was running some blueberry in RDWC systems. The systems were like a 25gal res in a cool room each hooked to 3-5gal pails. Each pail had two 3/4" drains coming out the bottom that joined into a single 3/4" drain that returned to res. The 3 pails drained into the main 3/4" in series. Their netpots were fed by dual 1/8" topfeed lines fed by a 160gph sub pump 24/7.

These systems worked great but I was worried that the day would come where I'd have root blockage in those 3/4" drains.
Last month I had 2 new strains ready and figured it was a good time to switch things up with my systems. I had to re-do them anyway as I had done a few cycles in those lines and everything. Sterilized and cleaned in between runs but still...

I decided to go with 20gal tubs with uniseals and 1-1/2" drains with a 40 gal res. OH...each of my pails and now tubs have an airstone. Each 3 "pod" system has 3 airstones fed by a 55W pump.

OK so now with this system I have MUCH more volume and...much more volume in the hot flower room compared to my old systems. I don't have power to spare for chillers right now. Not only do I have a lot of volume in the room but a lot of that volume is in the 1-1/2" drainlines.

My old systems had NO problem staying below 69 degrees. With this system the water is noticeably warmer by the end of the 12hour lightcycle. Don't know HOW warm cause...ummm...well..I had one glass thermometer that I used in the reses...when I filled the first "new" system, the fuckin thermometer went cruising down the pipe and I havent seen it since lol. I keep forgetting to get a new one. I have a digital one but it's a big liar.

This'll make sense later but..I got a CO2 bottle and reg, flowmeter, solenoid and timer a few weeks ago.

To deal with the warmer temps I just ran a bit higher concentration of SM-90 and Zone (I alternate between the two at weekly res changes). No problem.
When the lights are on in my room I keep the door open and cycle the exhaust quite often.

Welll...last week we had to go away for like 6 days. That meant that I wouldn't be able to open the door.
Since these are new strains in new systems..they aren't dialed-in yet so all kinds of shit coulda happened.

My last plants loved about 850ppm of nutes in the res.
Since I'm about to start running CO2, which likes higher temps anyway, I figure that I'll be able to get away with keeping the door closed and exhausting less with the CO2.

We get home and everything looks awesome. They're stretching a lot more than I thought and are (too) huge. It's the start of week 4 almost. I check the res. It's low and reading 1000ppm. I check and pH is 4.1!!!!!!
I add about 15 gallons of RO water with Zone and pH it to about 5.8. After some time to circulate the pH settles at like 4.6 so I correct it again.
Next morning it's way down to like 4.3 again. OH OH

That tells me I have root trouble. I think I mentioned I'm kinda lazy and those fuckin trees are HUGE?? I figure that since there's no foul smell to the res and since I run sterile, I must have some brown algae. The pH is diving but the plants are so big they're probably "dealing" with whatever is wrong.

I have Great White and EWC in my "toolbox" for just such an occasion (BA). BUT..since my res is loaded with Zone I'd have to dump it and inoculate a new batch of nutes. That's expensive, bad for the environment and..I think I mentioned..LAZY? I'm kinda kidding. I'm lazy but not so lazy that I'll kill my plants.

I decided yesterday to first try 1ml of Physan20 per 10gal.
This morning the pH is at 6.1. It's rising a bit like it should be (according to my ppms and what they're "eating").
SO...I'll look at the roots tonight but...seems like maybe I had a touch of brown algae and the Physan fixed it.

What I've decided to do is to switch things up again.
I'm staying with the large reses but I'm going to ~9gal tubs with 1-1/4" drains. That'll keep a larger proportion of my nute solution in the cool res room.
I've compromised on the CO2 a bit. I give them a blast just after lights on and don't exhaust until a couple of hours later and then exhaust very frequently after that...I try to also have the door open but I'm adding more filtered inlets so the door can stay closed. I might switch the CO2 and have it come on near the end of the light cycle. Anyone got any thoughts on that? Early vs late?

The morals of this whole rant are..
If you have your res in a separate room, try to keep the majority of your solution in the res. You have to keep enough in the tubs/pails to touch or nearly touch the netpots but try to keep the tub/pail sizes in the "goldilocks" zone. BTW, 5 gallon pails, for me, didn't seem too small. A lot of people say that you need a huge rootmass to grow huge trees. Well...my roots were the size and shape of the pails but the trees were huge. From what I can see...you dont NEED great big 20 gallon tubs and with great big drainlines...water heats up fast..

AND

I'll know for sure after I look at my roots but..it looks like 1ml of Physan20 to 10 gallons of water or nute solution will wipe out Brown Algae in under 24 hours. Again...a bit early to tell...I'm doing a lot of guessing..including that I even HAD ba to begin with but..yeah..I added what APPEARED to be a 2 to another 2 and the result was 4 so....

I hope maybe at least one person found some valuable info in here.

PEACE

P.S. I wouldn't recommend using Physan 20 very far into flowering. It's nasty stuff. I'm still very early in flowering. If I was ANY further I would have used the benes to combat whatever was going on..if anything even was.
 
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smokestack23

438
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Well..just crawled around and looked at some roots and they're fine. nice and white so...unless it was just the very beginning of ba...there wasn't anything seriously wrong. Doesnt explain the plummeting pH though, which, is holding steady at 6.0-6.1. I'll do a res change tomorrow and bring it back down to 5.6ish and see how it goes.
 
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Badmf

226
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Your nutes will rise in temp no news flash to you lol, but the larger the amount in the room can be offset by insulating the tubes and return hoses! I also blocked the tops of the containers from direct light as the surfaces conduct heat to within. You also can get a big block of ice and keep it in a leak-proof bag to add chilling in the rez.
Peace Bad...
 
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smokestack23

438
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Yeah...I have that foam pipe insulation on my lines and the tops of the tubs are nicely shaded lol.

But yeah..when I was putting my first rdwc system together, and actually for quite a while, I didn't even REALLY give it much thought. It wasn't until I kinda overdid everything a bit that I realized...oh..I guess I should think about keeping a large proportion of the fluid in the coolness.

Here's another funny one...

These wwXbigbud and cheeseXhaze stretched and exploded more than I had anticipated. Last night the old lady's in there snooping around and she's like...ooohhhNNO!! NO fuckin WAY..you BETTER chop some of this piddly-assed middle shit out of these fuckin plants!..if you fuckin THINK that I'm gonna sit there trimming that airy shit you're fucked!!

I'm like...ok ok..I'll cut some of the very inside straggley shit out...snip snip...she goes..NO..you GOTTA get rid of more than that...I'm like...yeah but I'll do a little now and a little tomorrow so I don't shock them too much!...Fuck THAT!! Either you're gonna cut more of that shit out or I'm gonna do it right now..I aint trimming that shit I told you...all that shit is gonna end up in boxes!!

She means the cardboard boxes all the sugar trim goes into...I get more in my boxes for bho??

So...I aint cuttin any more out! lol.

This is the first time I've ever cut flowering branches off a plant. That wasn't easy. I know a lot of people do it..usually earlier than this but..yeah...I don't like to. Poor girls.

Oh well...
PEACE!
 

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