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Blah's First Ppk

Mr Blah

Member
very good read. Did you resolve water/level or get new smaller pump?
thanks,
No new pump but I have tweaked the valves on each bucket. If you are referring to the water level in the control bucket, than yes, it did end up balancing out with the rest of the buckets. Incoming water had a little time coming through the 1/16" hole in the cereal container.
I think when I refill the system after draining it I will bypass it with a larger hose coming from the freed tank.

I am happy with it for now. It is a little hard to get in there....it is a jungle in the veg room with all twelve in different stages of maturity. I am going to say that the growth rate for this system is a little better than the large 3" Under Current system I run down stairs.
I am building the first flower room now and will show some pictures later.
 
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McKush

Éirinn go Brách
ICMag Donor
Veteran
thanks,
No new pump but I have tweaked the valves on each bucket. If you are referring to the water level in the control bucket, than yes, it did end up balancing out with the rest of the buckets. Incoming water had a little time coming through the 1/16" hole in the cereal container.
I think when I refill the system after draining it I will bypass it with a larger hose coming from the freed tank.

I am happy with it for now. It is a little hard to get in there....it is a jungle in the veg room with all twelve in different stages of maturity. I am going to say that the growth rate for this system is a little better than the large 3" Under Current system I run down stairs.
I am building the first flower room now and will show some pictures later.

Hiya B if you ever get the chance to compare your rooms with the same cultivar it would be interesting to see a UC vs PPK grow. Would really like to see DWC vs PPK in order to understand the simularities and differences. It wouldnt be scientific but it would be a data point and useful in a certain context. You couldnt use the same res system without violating the system designs and its not practical with your layout anyway. Lots of work actually for an unscientific study but repeated a few times would be meaningful me thinks.
 

Mr Blah

Member
Hiya B if you ever get the chance to compare your rooms with the same cultivar it would be interesting to see a UC vs PPK grow. Would really like to see DWC vs PPK in order to understand the simularities and differences. It wouldnt be scientific but it would be a data point and useful in a certain context. You couldnt use the same res system without violating the system designs and its not practical with your layout anyway. Lots of work actually for an unscientific study but repeated a few times would be meaningful me thinks.
There are a lot of differences that I think between the systems but would be a good base line to up and coming newcomers.
I don't know if it is fair. Upstairs PPK system has RO water to start and is also a brand new system.
Downstairs is a 5yr old system with calcium buildup like a motha. Even in 3" pipes I also have 2" system and 1". 2" system has plugged up on me already.

To be honest the ones that started in PPk system are under T-5's and they grew faster than downstairs DWC Veg room under HPS 600's. But those are up high for a stretch.
Hopefully that all made sense. :laughing:
 

Mr Blah

Member
Got building the first flower room. Started with 2" pipe all around the outside wall of the 6.5' tent, continuing with 1.5" to the control bucket parked right outside the tent. (the reason I reduced down to 1.5" is because I only had 1.5" uniseals on hand). I made holes in the pipe and inserted the rubber hose and saved a few bucks with no fittings. :laughing:
Love that part.


Than I used 3/4" PVC for the feed line stopping every 3' for a "T" and a fitting. This is located ontop of the 2" line. I just zip tied them together.

More tomorrow.
Awesome growth rate on the first vegging plants.

 

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delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
words are not sufficient to express my gratitude to everyone who has ever tried this system.

what the casual bystander doesn't see is the ferocious growth rate that can be achieved in this device when everything is dialed in.

your thread and others document this growth and add credibility.

i have considered the development of the ppk to be an open source project and everyone brings something new to the table.

thank you for your input!
 

McKush

Éirinn go Brách
ICMag Donor
Veteran
There are a lot of differences that I think between the systems but would be a good base line to up and coming newcomers.
I don't know if it is fair. Upstairs PPK system has RO water to start and is also a brand new system.
Downstairs is a 5yr old system with calcium buildup like a motha. Even in 3" pipes I also have 2" system and 1". 2" system has plugged up on me already.

To be honest the ones that started in PPk system are under T-5's and they grew faster than downstairs DWC Veg room under HPS 600's. But those are up high for a stretch.
Hopefully that all made sense. :laughing:

yeah mon, totally. thats what I meant, the comparisons are just never equally footed enough to be considered scientifically meaningful. its actually quite hard to design and conduct a test and get meaningful data out of it that is rigorous.

i've always been curious though on the simularities and differences in PPK to UC to R/DWC then their is coco DTW to compare too. then there is coco in PPK with perlite, then there is....

we often think we know cause and effect but fail to understand lurking variables and spurious correlation... its just tough conducting a serious experiment. most of what we read is purely anecdotal as a result on the interwebby. however good observation and repetition can get us pretty far as well. another post saying essentially nothing is born in cyberspace
 
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Ravenboy

Member
words are not sufficient to express my gratitude to everyone who has ever tried this system.

what the casual bystander doesn't see is the ferocious growth rate that can be achieved in this device when everything is dialed in.

your thread and others document this growth and add credibility.

i have considered the development of the ppk to be an open source project and everyone brings something new to the table.

thank you for your input!

yes: the casual bystander doesn't get to do what i am doing now... waiting for lights on so i can see what happened overnight.

I am not even that dialed in. Humidity is all over the place, my minister head failed. But there is one waiting for me at the international postoffice, i go and get it monday. Humidity has been as low as 29, and only as high as 50 since the PPKs started running. Room temp is 80. this is NOT dialed in. after I have a reliable 70% or so in there, then i think we'll see some REAL growth. Its already danged good, having the humidity right will really help.
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
yeah mon, totally. thats what I meant, the comparisons are just never equally footed enough to be considered scientifically meaningful. its actually quite hard to design and conduct a test and get meaningful data out of it that is rigorous.

i've always been curious though on the simularities and differences in PPK to UC to R/DWC then their is coco DTW to compare too. then there is coco in PPK with perlite, then there is....

we often think we know cause and effect but fail to understand lurking variables and spurious correlation... its just tough conducting a serious experiment. most of what we read is purely anecdotal as a result on the interwebby. however good observation and repetition can get us pretty far as well. another post saying essentially nothing is born in cyberspace

i had a bad case of that "spurious correlation" once but i got rid of it using ersatz and equivocal psuedo science.
 

Mr Blah

Member
Today I worked on the water distribution center. RO water goes into two joined 44 gal Brutes via float valve. From one of those 44's I can pump out and redistribute to another Brute 44 for a different system, up to 4 other Brutes via ball valves. The first picture shows first bucket and second are the RO water res. The one to the right is the veg res. The next picture just shows the water distribution manifold. yet to get the 3 Brutes.

The next picture is a plant in my downstairs DWC vegging system under 600w HPS.
The next picture is a plant that went in the upstairs PPK vegging system, the same day. Kind of crude test but we can see which one does better in my situation.
 

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Mr Blah

Member
Holy Shit! I just realized that the first 4 plants in the vegging PPK system have been there for 4 months!...Can some one say over vegged....No need to worry I will just hack them if I need to.

Don't have pictures today, will tomorrow.
But I did make the screens and glued up the lower center bulb holder. Working on more electrical tomorrow.
My goal was to get it lit by Friday. Don't know...
 

Mr Blah

Member
Ok. I got to move! These vegging plants are huge and taking up the whole tent practically. I forgot to add a picture of the wands that are hooked on the each bucket. It is in the bottom pictures.


Got the first bucket on the flower side in and now you can see how I distribute water from the RO side via 1/2" hard pipe above the bucket line on both sides of the room.


Started wiring my receptacle boxes for each room. Each tent will have 4 receptacle plugs one for the 12" exhaust fan one for up wind fan (for the lights) and one for the intake fan bringing in the fresh air. In one of the pictures you can see I used a 3" coupler and some 3" PVC pipe to run the wires through the floor.
one extra.

finally got my 3ton mini split put in.
 

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Mr Blah

Member
Thanks C.O.B. I just took what others have all ready done and applied it to mine. All honor goes to the starter of PPK.
 

Snook

Still Learning
Ok. I got to move! These vegging plants are huge and taking up the whole tent practically. I forgot to add a picture of the wands that are hooked on the each bucket. It is in the bottom pictures.


Got the first bucket on the flower side in and now you can see how I distribute water from the RO side via 1/2" hard pipe above the bucket line on both sides of the room. <a href="https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=378288" target="_blank">View Image
<a href="https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=380022" target="_blank">View Image

Started wiring my receptacle boxes for each room. Each tent will have 4 receptacle plugs one for the 12" exhaust fan one for up wind fan (for the lights) and one for the intake fan bringing in the fresh air. In one of the pictures you can see I used a 3" coupler and some 3" PVC pipe to run the wires through the floor.
one extra. <a href="https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=380020" target="_blank">View Image <a href="https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=380021" target="_blank">View Image

finally got my 3ton mini split put in.
<a href="https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=380018" target="_blank">View Image
Love it when a plan comes together.. looks well thought out and moving right along... all the right stuff.. you're going to kill it...:woohoo:
 

Mr Blah

Member
I built my screen frames and bottom light socket holders. The reason I went with a holder is because I need to move it out of the way when I get in the middle to train to the screens.

A lot of what I have made is what I have seen over at this thread;
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=242646
 

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Mr Blah

Member
Wondering if I should gradually bump up the PPM's while in flower or just hit them with 800-1000 right off the bat. First week they are in and it is the same as vegging 600.
 

Mr Blah

Member
Another PPK question for any seasoned PPK people; With a pulse feed every 1.5hrs for 30 seconds, is the end result of the 30second feed suppose to be flooded on top? If so should I back off with the bucket site ball valve for that bucket to deliver less in that bucket?
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
Wondering if I should gradually bump up the PPM's while in flower or just hit them with 800-1000 right off the bat. First week they are in and it is the same as vegging 600.

generally, with a unit grow, where all plants are at the same stage of growth, you want to feed heaviest during late veg and early flower through about the first 2.5 weeks of stretch.

this is because the solution strength is being pulled down in strength.

at about the 2.5 week of flower the solution will start accumulating so you would adjust the strength of the feed downward to the point where you can maintain about 1000-1200 ppm at the .5 conversion or ec 2-2.4. typically in a ppk system this feed strength is around 600 ppm.

feed strength is mostly adjusted for light intensity. with very intense lighting in veg you might use as much as 1000-1200 for an input.

in my systems anything over about 1250 in the operating part of the system, no matter the input strength, produces tip burn.

i'm about to run an entire facility, veg and flower, on a perpetual schedule with 2 plants in and 2 out every week. so i must compromise and after observing the solution behavior with 18 in flower with approximately 6 of those in stretch, and 12 in veg, make a decision on what my feed strength needs to be to keep the one central reservoir below 1200 ppm. i have a feeling that it will come out around 600 ppm.
 
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