UC water level question..help!

[UCMENOW]

I can really appreciate your clarity of thought...good to see in a sea of stoner madness. ;)

Glad to read you're going to start a new....can I get an amen? How's about a hell ya?....Peace.

 

[UCMENOW]

I've seen those FlexAirs rock it for close to a decade in a tea brewer I have....silica stones on the other hand have proven to suck for me....but to each his/ her own.

alita.com/literature/DFA-Membrane-Diffuser.pdf
alita.com/diffuser/airstone/as-300c.php

These are links to check the former and the current diffusers the UC has / does use....check it.

Avoid mites at all costs.

 

[skwirlgirl]

thanks UCme'..clarity comes from experience and past beatings. The old me (I'm 30 now) would have panicked and stressed big time. I started this whole deal as 17 year old in Hawaii and I learned to chill real early on. My folks were into it and they're as about as chill as cuke in the freezer haha. It took a few failures to get the picture

I'm bummed about the starts and really feel quite stupid. I babied those dogs...they were soooo nice and soooo green. It was the master plan to get them into the UC and let them become sick trees....I had Krusty in my sites hahaha... (see pic at top of page 1)..

.but on the other hand Im excited about the BK and what it can do in this system + Now I have some vacation time yahooo...Wyoming powder here I come wooot!!!!

Yeah Im pretty set on dumping the bubble pads..just so I can make the clean up a snap


Mites? haha these same freinds have had mites for 8 friggen years...got em from Garberville and have been running a half way house for super mites ever since...I can't get them to fix it so all the strains I give them are of no use to me...bummer as they pretty much have 20 different killer strains going way back...sigh....

I haven't seen a mite in like forever...knock on wood

Thanks for your support UC'' means alot....

 

[Lost]

Bummer about your plants. I would start over as UCME suggested. Bubba is a great one because it really like DWC. Start off with your nutes around 600 ish. Also, are you using great white and roots excellarater? Those two will help make the root growth come alive.

You asked earlier about the air gap. I really feel if you have nice boiling buckets, this is unecessary and leads to rope roots. I see lots of DWC posts with the roots growing out the bottom, but they should be growing out the sides too. In dwc this is important because the plant needs a good grip on the pot because when it gets bigger, it'll tend to flop right over if not.

Good luck with your grow! :)

 

[skwirlgirl]

Im all about that Roots Accelrator stuff..I ran out and didnt use it this time..really starting to believe in it..cost mucho but lasts pretty long

I'll take your advice for sure on the parts and I'm totally excited to go BK this time. I love the Chemdog #4 and so does everyone else 'round here. but change is goin to fun and my people will love me for it

I'm out and on the ski hill later...

 

[UCMENOW]

That's a good point Lost, it's key to provoke laterally growing roots to help broaden your root mass. Leads to a beefier root mass later on down the road too.

 

[Papa]

You asked earlier about the air gap. I really feel if you have nice boiling buckets, this is unecessary and leads to rope roots. I see lots of DWC posts with the roots growing out the bottom, but they should be growing out the sides too. In dwc this is important because the plant needs a good grip on the pot because when it gets bigger, it'll tend to flop right over if not.

Lost, how high do you run your water level?


Papa

 

[Lost]

About an inch or 2 up the basket

 

[skwirlgirl]

Bubba Kush deal is set...funeral tonite very sad..

 

[Spacecadet01]

will be nice to see those bubbas perform in the uc...we need pics please;)

 

[20north]

im pretty sure you gotta use like very low light when transplanting .. do you have a 4foot t5 or 2... that looks like transplant shock to me

 

[skwirlgirl]

20north if you read above you'd seen where I say my lights are 8 + feet above the canopy...plenty high thanks to my tall room which is 13 ft. on one end and 11 on the other....plenty high hehe

no worries...I'm all about pics. As much as I was excited to see the Chemdog #4 go off in a UC I'm just as excited and then some to grow some mini bubba trees...

 

[opt1c]

if u pull the chem4s from the system try repotting them in soil or coco or something to that effect; these are weeds after all

i've always had every kind of airstone get gunk after a run; the disc seems to put out more air when it is dirty compared to the big stones over time. i've run a lot for brewing teas; i've always found that a ton of cheap 6" stones replaced every run is way better than a fancy stone that only lasts one run before it starts putting out half as much as it used to. they just never seem to get clean either and once used they seem to get dirtier faster than when they were new. i've even used muriatic acid to try and get em really clean which is more trouble than its worth.

good luck with the new starts; fill the system ahead of time and let your nutes and ph settle out before u put the plants in... makes life a lot easier.. i'd start em around 300-500ppm the first week; then u can go up to 800ppm and eventually 1000 and higher; just watch em; they'll burn in the leafs before they droop like that so u do get some warning if u don't crank it too high too fast

 

[skwirlgirl]

Opt' I did put the best 2 in soil today...for mothers. I have 4 Chemdog #4 mothers now and that's as many as my mother room will hold. I bagged the rest...pretty sad moment. It's never easy to fail. Just bubble bucket rookie mistake by overnuting...sigh...

I've played plenty of air stone games..In my Krusty system I went through a bunch of different types..I've had pretty much every 'stone out there through the years. The ones I love are a hard ceramic I believe and they cost about 20 bux....and they NEVER EVER wear out. They clean right up in H2O2 and a bit of scrubbing... and put out consistent bubbles. I'm sure you've seen them...they're online somewhere but I bought mine in Santa Cruz 3 years ago and they're still goin strong.

20 BUX sounds like alot but compared to the constant visits to pet stores for the crummy ones it's a no brainer. Now that I' have a small break in the action I'll be replacing all 12 cheepos + the 2 bubble pads with 'the kine stones.

I'm not so down on the bubble pads. They seem pretty cool. I just want more room in the epicenter for cleaning. The original UC had an airstone...one just like my favorites. The UC folks knew they rocked but they stopped using the good ones to cut back on costs....and that's straight from Daniel the owners mouth..

Also I can use my big ol' sump pump to drain it. Teh self drain system works pretty good..takes maybe 10 minutes per system... but the 1200 gph sump pump will empty a system faster than a race horse...

 

[UCMENOW]

Howdy to all........good to see you getting back on track.

I had to clear up this air stone debate so I contacted "Daniel"....fact is the stones in the grow modules have always been, for 5 years now, the Elite 6" stones. The UC never included the expensive micropore diffussers that are being refered to...Repeat, not changed.

"The FlexAir disc in the Epicenter is more expensive then the sintered air stone you saw @ the shop in SC. That's the stone that was changed and it wasn't to save money, it is a diffinitive system improvement."

Quoted the guy for accuracy. He said for some reason people are suggesting the system included micropore diffusers in the grow mods, but none of the over 400 UC's they've built ever have.

He did say they explored the option but felt like the cost increase never justified the change. Said a 16 site would have increased over $300.00 retail to change to these stones. He also said that of the 60+ micropores they experimented with over the years, 90% of them end up leaking at unions, 10% ended up clogging, you do the math.

That being said...micropore's can be a good investment
for anyone looking to avoid replacing the stones in the modules each cycle......as for the Flex Air disc in the Epicenter, it's the shit IMO.

Being friends with the folks at CCH2O, I've had the pleasure of seeing this system evolve over the years and one thing I can tell you is I've yet to see it change for the worse.:banana1sv6:

Keep rocking that shit girl.

 

[skwirlgirl]

that's very strange UCmenow 'cause my cousin says Daniel admitted to him on the phone they indeed changed the airstones to cut back on costs (makes sense.. 20 bux to 2$ is my guess). I'm pretty sure he didn't make that up...

Sounds like you know these folks pretty good so who knows what the real story is..Maybe the first runs had them and halfway through they realized how much mula they could save with blue stones...hmmm

. The shop near Felton...I think it's called 'Roots' had a micro diffuser in every bucket including the epicenter. Maybe Roots changed them...maybe they didn't. Personally I don't think they did.

That's one of the things that caught my eye about this system...the fact they were the killer stones that I know are expensive...and the best..

The last thing I want is one of the airstones to give out once it's engulfed by the roots....cutting off O2 to a huge root zone...that's bad. It happened a couple of times in my Krusty's and I was forced to cut the line and abandon the stone to put in a new line/stone

I'm sure that bubble pad is not cheep. It's really a great item.....but those blue stones are budget imo.

That big ol' disc thing is def' in the way and takes up a good part of the epicenter. I can't imagine having to remove it every time I go to clean the system...hassle.

My sump pump...I love that thing. It saves me mucho time. My last resi' was 70 gallons and if I didn't have the big pump it was miserable waiting for it to empty.

True or not true it doesn't matter to me since I plan to replace all of them. I'll probably spend 250 bucks doing

 

[skwirlgirl]

90%?? hmmm that's hard to believe..I know plenty of folks using these particular ones and never was there an issue. There are diff brands out there so it could be one I don't have. I will go back to SC and get the same ones..OR call them and get the brand name..then go online. I can't have anymore failures.

I will take that info to heart though..and I'm thinking I'll put a small bead of 100 year silicone on each end...precautionary measures..

 

[UCMENOW]

Like I said I know these cats, never had micropores in the grow mods just one in the Epicenter until about 4 months ago when they changed to the Flex Air...fact of the matter.

If something on this system was done to save money it would've been reflected in a savings on the end price. I'm not trying to be over protective, but these guys are working hard to make the best system they can...not cut corners to come up faster at your expense.

Daniel told me he set that "Rooted Hydroponics and Organics" system up himself and installed the standard Elite 6" as always....no doubt that the folks at the shop made the switch. BTW, just spin the Flex Air counter clockwise to remove for cleaning.

Now on to less trivial topics......how was the snow iin Wyoming? Did you carve that mountain like Micheal Angelo? Looking forward to the next round of pics.

 

[skwirlgirl]

Never made it to wyoming..soon...soon..

 

[UCMENOW]

Does anyone know.....where oh where the Texas Kid has gone....oh where, oh where can he be...:music

Hope he's ok.:thinking