Marineman's second run - 600w revised bio buckets - Blueberry OG Kush

[Raziel819]

Damn man they are looking fuckin great, keep up the great work.

Here are a couple of pictures of my baby girl after chop and then today.

 

[marinemansf]

Hey buddy. Things are coming along nice. And damn! I might have to try reveg on my girls after seeing how well yours came back.

 

[Raziel819]

Brutha you just don't know how hard it is to keep from putting her back into flower. I only decided to reveg her because I didn't' take any cuttings from her "that lived" the first go around. The reveg was just to make a mom if I liked the smoke and to use her to hone my cloning skills.

I got 3 babies, (1x NL, 1X Auto Pounder and 1X Cheese Candy) that I'm waiting to get to a size to move into the flower chamber and then I'll put the mom into the veg chamber. Its all a waiting game right now, I've been using the ultrasonic fog on the babies and I'm still waiting on the roots to poke through the pots but so far I'm liking the results. side note... my CC which right now is the biggest of the babies is about 1 1/2 tall and have 3 sets of leaves but no internode length, , have you seen any growth like this?

 

[marinemansf]

Everything looks great bro! I'm really digging your fog idea. My only concern would be, every fogger I've ever seen, create an electric current through the water. I'm not sure if it would effectively electrocute the girls. What do you think? I'm just thinking out loud. Snap a pic of the actual fogger unit, you got my curiosity goin.

As far as your little cc girl, I'm not sure whats going on there. Looks normal from the pic, but could be the angle. Could be genetics too.

Oh, by the way. I was trolling your posts the other day and found that thread "stupid potent butter," or something to that affect. So I decided to try it out, and GOD DAAAAMN! It turned out amazing. I put about 6 plants of trim in two sticks of butter... put a little in my coffee, and proceed to take the fuck off like an ICBM! This next harvest I'm going to try my hand at making some wax, green dragon and ejuice for my vape pens. I've had edibles before, but none of them gave such an outstanding body high as the butter I made., then take a little bong rip and I get what I like to call, "a complete high." And I really like how the butter recipe calls for a bunch of cinnamon, which apparently speeds up metabolism, essentially boosting the potency, makes it taste great too.

Was just thinking of a way to test if your shocking your girls or not. Maybe check EC with the fogger on, then again with it off?

 

[Raziel819]

hey man what's up? I never thought that I may be putting the girls through that trauma, I got this ideal from the different stuff I've been reading, seems like I remember that it's safe for garden pools and whatnot, but I may do a test just to see. Right now though I'm safe cause their roots haven't hit the water yet. I'll get a pic of the units I'm using soon.

I still haven't gotten anywhere close to the ratio you used to make your butter, that may be the reason I'm still not getting the bang I'm looking for. So far the effects have been supple but not earth shattering, creeper I guess you can say. But I'm going to try again when I get some more supplies :smile:.

 

[Raziel819]

Here's the picture I promised.

this is a single disk unit, so far what I'm seeing is that in a 5 gal bucket the water level has to be high in order for it to escape the bucket like you saw in the CC picture. My thoughts on increasing the volume of fog in the buckets when the water level is low would be by either using a fan to provide circulation or by using a multi disk unit

 

[marinemansf]

Yeah, i thought thats what you might be using. I had the exact type of unit i had in a decorative bowl that held water. Two things with those units, if you stick a finger close to the fogging disk, you will get a shock. Thats what i was referring to when i was talking about the shock in the water, so you may want to keep the roots away from the disk. The other is that I know for a fact you need to clean those quite often, even with pure water. So you may end up cleaning it quite often, because if they get dirty, its effects the ability to create fog. But I like where your head is at. Not tryin to knit pick, just trying to bring up possible problems.

And yeah that butter is something crazy, within half an hour, youre floating

 

[Raziel819]

That's not nitpickin that's just sharing knowledge, one of the things I did was changing out the disk they came with the units to teflon coated disk before putting them into the buckets. Its supposed to increase the time between cleaning. The other thing I'm doing to lengthen the time between cleaning is by putting them on a 30 on 30 off for 12 hours a day with one hour on during the other 12 hour off time, almost like the GLR for lights.

So far I haven't seen any roots out of the net cup they're in so I'm not to concerned about having any electrical jumps yet, but will watch for that. Hopefully, when that is a concern they'll be big enough to transplant them to the UCBB system.

What I'm trying to do is to take a plant from seed to mid or late veg with the same no muss no fuss that the UCBB provides, I want to make this as simple and foolproof as possible. From the few grows I have what I've noticed is the the hardest time for these babies to thrive is the time it takes to get them ready for the main system.

 

[marinemansf]

Just a quick pic update, this are flying now. Roots are exploding and pure white. Couldnt be more happy. Did a little trimming as well.

Before:


After:


And the roots:

 

[N.M.Greenthumb]

Looks good. I read you are looking to scrog possibly. That was my plan at first. Then I found mainlining. I don't know if you have done any reading on the subject but holy cow, talk about cola manufacturing process. Very impressed with results so far. Will give more details if you would like. Plants are looking really nice. Are you still adding aquashield once a week?

 

[marinemansf]

Hey green, i did a little reading into scrog, but decided that just tying down branches would work better so that if i do need to get into a bucket, i can without all the netting in the way. I havent heard of mainlining, ill have to do some digging. What is the idea behind it? I have been adding aquashield/hydroguard once a week at about 50 ml. Seems to be really helping the roots. Just cant figure out why im getting all that growth in the rez and water... I just hate getting diff results with the same exact system.

 

[N.M.Greenthumb]

Does cravin use RO water. I don't use RO water. That seems to be the only difference. You even have a lot more light protection on your system then I do. There is some stuff in bigtokes how to on why he uses city water and not RO water. I will try and find it. I read the whole thread. So much good information in there took a long time though. How big are your net pots? Mainlining is mainly done from seed but can be done from clone. It works best with single cola dominant strains. You then create a manifold off of a single node. Always topping at a symmetrical node. 1st topping for two. 2nd topping for 4. 3rd topping for 8 and so on. So far it seems that 8 works best indoors. I am guessing 4 to 8 zips off of each of my mainlined plants. 80% of which will be golf ball size buds with 20% being larfy airy small stuff. At least that is what my strain is looking like. Every strain is different of course. But any strain can be run this way. The main goal of mainlining is to create a nutrient delivery manifold off of the 3rd symmetrical node. Each cola is trained to be the exact same distance from that hub. So each cola grows almost identically. My grow has a lot of firsts for me. First bio run. First mainlining try. First try at all organic hydro. I love to learn though so it works out good.

 

[marinemansf]

Green, i think you nailed it bro. I thought by using an RO system, it would keep out the bad bacteria. But after thinking about it over night, and trying to apply a little common sense, I think by using city water (and float valve), it must add just enough chlorinated water to the system to keep the bad out, but not enough to over take the good. I did clean out my rez yesterday, and I think im going to pick up an 1/8 inch garden hose adapter today and start running city water again. I may sell my ro system if everything pans out, or i may hang on to it, for the purpose of gettin large amounts of water for when i first fill my system. Then hook the float to the city water.

Thank you for pointing all that out green, cant believe (hindsight being 20/20) I overlooked that. I did find the part you were talking about (bigtokes post) RO vs city water, but it didnt really explain WHY to use city over ro. Ill have to keep digging.

To answer your question about the net pots, im using 8in pots.

Gonna start doing some digging into mainlining today as well.

 

[N.M.Greenthumb]

I posted some pics in my thread of my res and build up if you wanted to check it out. I don't really think people understand what they are doing when they RO their water. Not that its bad because it makes some super good water. Just not what the bio system wants. It totally changes things like general hardness and its buffering ability. I am not saying I understand it. But I am trying. The city water should really help with ph stability because of its buffering ability. I hope that helps.

 

[Raziel819]

What's up MM, welcome aboard NMGreen. I've just been sittin back and watchin what you guys have been doing and I see nuthin but good things for ya'll in the future.

I'm still here waiting for my NL, Auto Pounder and Cheese Candy to get large enough to put into my undercurrent bio system. In the mean time I got tired of waiting and went ahead and put my revegged Critical back into flower. I hate the period of time between seed and veg, I just haven't found that sweet spot of giving them babies what they need.

So far they haven't dropped their roots into the rez, added Rapid Start for the roots, calmag to compensate for the LED's and a little N for growth but so far its been slow, frustrating slow. I got some pic's up if ya'll care to take a look and give me your take on the matter. But for now its a waiting game.

 

[N.M.Greenthumb]

I would say they all look nice and healthy Raziel. Looked over your bud pics. Lookin good. Can't wait to switch to LED. Got some plans of building my own as my whole system is DIY. Build the lights to fit the system.

MM I only have one 8in net pot the other five are 6in. I do have the bio filter media in my center buckets to compensate for the 6in pots. I looked over you system again and don't see anything different other than the RO water. I wish I had your reservoir setup. My res temps can get a little to high. But part of the bio system is being able to handle higher temps which it is doing. The plants are just happier when its 68. Just got to make it four more weeks without overheating the bennies. Outside temps are stating to rise. Was hoping for colder weather right now. Our winter has been very strange so far. Lots of modifications when this run is done. Res chiller with a closed top cover for the buckets and support rings. Hopefully some LEDs and solar panels. All good things take time. Patience is the hard part.

 

[N.M.Greenthumb]

Tap water explained

Tap water explained

Post #62 from BigTokes How To on BioBuckets.

Hillbilly – how’s it going dude, let’s brake the ice and get right down to it and get the hands dirty:

Quote:
doesn't the chlorine in the tap water kill some of the bacteria that you are trying to keep, I know it does in my fish tank, what about using some fish tank water to start the bacteria

the answer to your question is yes & no

let me explain: after filling your Bio-System up with fresh tap-water the chlorine is a bit to high for the Beneficial Bacterium to forum, that is the reason that I encourage people to let the Bio-System set and run 24/7 for two weeks before putting there plants in the system, (depending upon the size of your Bio-System and the amount of fresh air you have circulating in the grow/room,) after the Beneficial Bacterium has colonized throughout the Bio-System what little tap-water with chlorine gets into the system will not effect the Beneficial Bacterium, because that it has already established a foot hold throughout the Bio-System and is deeply colonized in the pores of the lava rock: I have personally overseen Bio-Grows in other grow-ops than mine, I have witnessed as they have done parcel Bio-System flushes plus a complete full flush of the Bio-System (Noobe’s!!! they panic to easy!!) the systems would have failed if it were not for the safe guards that I implemented (8” net-pots) within just 24 hours of refilling the Bio-System back up with fresh tap-water the Beneficial Bacterium were able to overcome the chlorine refill because of the deep colonization within the 8” net-pots and wile that I have NEVER lost a crop or failed to produce great yields, I do believe that it is due to the fact that these singled-cell microorganisms; having a well designed Bio-Bucket System to fall back on helps play a roll in there speedy recover, if the system is designed right, it well provide plenty of oxygen in such a raped pace that the Beneficial Bacterium will be able to overcome most any root-rot dieses. Btw if you are wondering how to tell when your Bio-System has sufficient enough Beneficial Bacterium established or colonized, simply put your fingers into the water to test: by dipping your fingers in the water and rubbing them together, if they fill slick or slimy, you are ready, and if not you are not ready, don’t expect a great deal of slickness just a little will do.
photo:


Now let’s discuss the good and the bad of using plane old tap-water, after that the system has now been established and the Beneficial Bacterium has a foot-hold in the system, let’s look at what happens when a little amount of chlorine-tap-water is added on a daily basis, first the chlorine is going to assist the BB in fitting off the bad fungi (algae) and here’s how it does that, first we need to understand that chlorine manly attacks the multi-cell bacteria such as algae, the Beneficial Bacterium that we are harboring and colonizing is a single-cell bacteria that not only lives in the pores of the lava rock but because of there microscopic size can even penetrate the fibrous roots themselves, thereby the chlorine that is introduced into the Bio-System will attack the multi-celled bacteria first and thereby using up what little chlorine is introduced to the system. Now on the other hand if you use something like H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) in the Bio-System you will be successful in killing all bacteria in the system, hydrogen peroxide will penetrate the lava rocks and the fibrous roots and kill even the roots also!!

I use nothing to jump start my Bio-Buckets, simply fill them up and turn on the fan’s to circulate fresh air in the grow/room, let set for one to two weeks and your ready to go; no need to get complicated with this thing but if you wont I suppose there are products out there that would do the trick for you but most importantly hillbilly remember were not raising fish were growing huge mj plants!! This changes every thing.
Photo:


Chloramines or Chlorine? Different water companies uses different stuff, let’s discuss:


Chloramines?


OVERVIEW
When chlorine is added to a water supply containing certain organics, the formation of halogenated organics occurs. Called "trihalogenated methanes" (THM's) these reaction products are suspected carcinogens and maximum allowable limits in municipal supplies are imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To reduce the potential for the formation of THM's, many U.S. municipal supplies are converting their chlorine (Cl2) disinfection method to chloramine addition. Chloramines have a low potential to form THM's.

WHAT ARE THEY?
Chloramines are biocides. Like Cl2 they are oxidants and kill bacteria by penetrating their cell walls and disrupting their metabolism. Chloramines are, however, much slower to "react". They remain as residual ("unused") in water being consumed as they come in contact with bacteria or break down over time as a matter of course. As with chlorine, municipalities aim for I to 2 mg/l (ppm) chloramine residual in the potable water supply.

THEIR CHEMISTRY
Chloramines are typically generated on-site by the addition of ammonia (NH3) to water containing free C12 (HOCl or OCl depending upon the pH of the water). The optimum reaction pH is on the alkaline side, pH 8.4 (i.e., NH3 (aq) + HOCI NH2Cl + H2O) Three forms of chloramine can result as well as undesirable but unavoidable interference reactions.
Organic chloramines cannot be distinguished from the other forms of chloramines with standard methods of chloramine analysis.
Chloramines are not highly disassociated (in other words only minimally ionic). That fact and their low molecular weight make them difficult to remove via RO. The monochloramine form is the best biocide, and as is noted, is the dominant specie at pH 7 and greater. Since slightly alkaline waters are less corrosive, municipalities in many cases maintain the monochloramine form and reduce corrosion potential at the same time. Note that at these alkaline pH's, chlorine exists as the hypochlorite ion (OCl) which has a higher oxidative potential than hypochlorous acid (HOCl), but is 80 to 100 times less effective as a disinfectant.
In Conclusion: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), loves this stuff and they say it’s more safer for the environment, which mines it’s not as strong as chlorine, which is better for you, so to answer you question: Yes I thank you will be ok with your treated water.

Btw my water plant treats there water with chlorine, and that’s what my float valve it connected to, just plan old tap-water, and they do just fine.

Ps…….if you must have further proof of people using plain old tap-water look no further than my grow……..I have not begin to touch the surface of the benefits of using tap-water in the Bio-Buckets and on the other hand to use tap-water in any other system I may not recommend.

 

[marinemansf]

Oh wow, thanks for that info green! Just confirms my suspicions. Had dental surgery the other day so u been laying low. I did flip the swith to 12/12 on Sunday so the count down begins. Been steady at 800 ppm and everything is going great.

Gonna go out tomorrow to pick up that quick fit hose adapter to get the city water hooked up to the rez. I'll post some new pics when the pistols start showing!

Raz how are those roots coming bro?

 

[Raziel819]

Man .... Just smh...smh. I'm thinking that using fog for germination, seedlings and transition into veg stage is not going to work. The little ladies are growing S...L...O...W...L...Y. The last seed (NL) I planted has longer roots than the other two, the only difference is that the CC has more nodes and better structure than the rest. I'm trying not to give up on the fog yet and give the girls some more time, but if I don't see some improvement in 2 weeks I'm gonna go back to the way I used to germ seeds and through the awkward stages of seedlings to pre-veg.

Other than that everything is going as well as expected, I've just finished draining my UCBB system and refilling it with fresh tap water. The spec's on the water here is terrible, taste good, but for plants terrible... ph over 8 and ppm sitting at 250. So I'm gonna run my nukes at quarter strength (oh btw I'm trying the nukes that CM uses, just the bloom) and see how it works for this run.

 

[marinemansf]

Well, either way it was a great idea. You're trying the Dynagro line? I really like them alot. I used the grow for veg and just switched to their bloom. Been adding calmag, but don't think I'll need as much when I switch back to tap water. I think the reason both cravin and I like dynagro so much, because it's the easiest and most complete 1 part solution. Everything else you gotta buy multiple bottles. Plus, they don't smell good per say, but don't smell like a dead donkey's ass, and they're nice a clear.