Waddaya Think of my Plan?

[CaptainKirk]

OK, here's the latest:

(1) Due to a lip on the front of the main cabinet, I'm not able to build an enclosed Mommy Box, so I'm scrapping that plan - will keep the mommies in an indoor closet.
(2) I sprouted a seed from a bag leftover, and have that planted - don't ask me what kind, but it must have been from a good strain. It just hit the dirt this morning under some CFLs - two bright white and one warm 100W equivalents.
(3) Mixed up a few gallons of pH adjusted water, and have been using that on not only the new seed soil, but all house plants will now get that.
(4) Found a local hydro shop over the weekend - met with the shopkeepers, and they seem like nice guys. Bought some pH down, hydroton, rockwool cubes, and net pots. Got some pulleys from Lowe's to raise and lower stuff, and a price quote from the Hydro shop for reflector, ballast (Lumatek 600W Electronic), light cord, lamp (600W Sodium Agrosun Red), and a nice Hanna combo pH/TDS test meter - $700 for all of that - seems reasonable.

So things are coming together - will post again soon. For those who care, still trying to accumulate 50 posts in order to use PM system - I can see I have some PMs waiting - hold that thought!

 

[Quazi]

Sounds like you're going down the right track.

Keep us posted with the seedling!

-Q

 

[bbing]

whats the rockwool going to be fer?

 

[bbing]

Bagseed?
I remember that bag very well
by the way,

Sativa in the tubbler

 

[CaptainKirk]

Ah!!! More good news. I went to that Hydro Shop's website, and found web pricing significantly lower that the quote they gave me. Approx $160 lower, and that included a $50 upgrade to a Hortilux bulb. I may go today and pick up the light and Hanna combo meter.

I also saw a great idea in another thread to use heat/AC registers to make large passive intakes. I bought two 8" x 12" vents, and plan to make one hole and to angle the vents opposite each other to keep light inside. There might be a mild glow escaping, but the vents will be in the back of the cab where no one can see. That should provide plenty of air!

Peace and Long Life!

 

[bbing]

yeah go ahead and fill er up and get her filled and metered no nutes. fuck yeah Capt!


make sure your stones and bubbles are in good positions. One last chance here to breakdown and fill yer pots with lava.

do a wet run and measure temps with everything set-up and on.

Check your air flow, check your airstones check for light leaks, check for excessive vibration and noise, check your box temp, check your utility box temp. Check your res temp dark and lit. ummmmm lets see...

Getting the water level right takes some getting used to but remeber, sprouts aint got no water feets yet so you have to get the level where there is about 1/2" or so between where base of plant is. In lava, i pitch my sprout so the very last bit of tip touches water and vascular action wicks the water toward root tissue (never dry). As the water evaps a bit and plant begins to drink is enough to send taps down to find the water. dont worry, they know when it's close. I like my clones and sprouts to not have over developed root tip when placed. The are too delicate when overdeveloped and will just die anyway. The beggining growth of a start seems to be sturdiest like a "cutting tooth" to me. I go from paper towel to lava and have not lost one in the xfer yet. Hand pour a couple of times to teach em where gravity takes the water. That way I got no rockwool BS going on in the pots. (yeah i know dont go by my box right now, they were all intended for soil grow.)

Ensure you have light situation that wont burn or encourage too much stretch. Some use CFL's but I have never had a problem vegging from sprout under 600w.

keep asking questions and searching here.



check check check check check
CHECK.

oh yeah quit fucking @ and give us pics.

 

[CaptainKirk]

OK, I'm comitted now (or should be!). Went to the Hydro Shop today - bought Sun System II, Lumatek 600W ballast, Sunmaster Super HPS deluxe bulb, and Hanna Digital Combo meter - $600 clams for that little enchilada, but I can taste it now. One interesting side note - I wanted a Hortilux bulb, but the Shop said that Lumatek does not really recommend using Hortalux with their ballast - anyone heard anything on this?

Hooked up the light and tested - works great. Tested my water supply - pH is sitting right at 6.3 - just about perfect I'd say. There's enough length in the ballast cables so that the ballast can be outside the cab. I also realized that I have a spare rubbermaid garbage can, so I plan to locate this nearby where I can mix up fresh nute batches and let them sit overnight before dumping it in.

I also took a look at the Grodan (makers of rockwool) website - they have a great section on recommended TDS levels based on age of plants.

Last on the list will be fan and filter, some flanges, aquarium pump/tubing and stones, which I may order on line, but in the interest of security, that might also have to be a walk in. No rush yet as that seedling will need to go a while before I can clone, and if it turns out to be male, I'll be starting over again, which is what the rockwool's fer.

 

[anonymiss12345]

Anonymiss: It's in the garage - stealthy enough to not be heard if the door is open and I'm talking to a neighbor in the driveway.

Use a small/cheap radio in the garage. Leave it on 24/7 and have the volume adjusted so it is only JUST above the noise you are covering...with the garage door open...and just at the door opening.
Also, place the radio where a casual visitor can't get to it easily and inadvertently cause 'dead quiet' while being in there.

 

[CaptainKirk]

Thanks anonymiss - I like the white noise idea.

Here's the latest:

(1) Picked up a Whisper 60 gal. aquarium pump, with airstones and tubing - they were out of tees so that will come later. Also bought 4 more net pots, a set of light hangers to make moving the light easy, and have ordered a 4" Vortek fan w/ speed controller, ducting, and adapters for the light.
(2) My seed has sprouted - been going a week - sprouted another and planted today, though the pots I had set up grew mold - I dumped, washed out the pots, and started over.
(3) Last night I marked up and cut holes in rubbermaid tubs to accomodate net pots - jigsaw made this easy.

Here's another question: is it better to use the fan to push air throught the light and filter, or pull it? Heat is the enemy of motors, so I'm inclied to push it, even if it is somewhat less efficient.....any thoughts?

It's coming together!!!

 

[bbing]

passive vs forced. oh shit here we go again

lets talk about your mold for a sec....

 

[bbing]

i use a passive port intake (2) 6"s and forced exhaust.
The intake for the exhaust is the reflector hood.
pulls air in from top past bulb then exhausts out
of the room via 8"

You should use a similar reflector hood or use a cool tube.
Think thats what most stealth'rs are doing these days.
Too much heat to do it any other way w/ a 600w IMHO.

show us some pics.

peace

 

[CaptainKirk]

Hi All,

Well, it's been a while, but I've got access to a digital camera, along with good news and bad, so I'll jump right in - this will be a long one so please bear with me.

The good news - my cabinet modifications and construction are good enough for now, so here's some pics:

The CFL light rack I built for seeds/clones - kudos to Quazi for the idea!!:


The Cab from outside - yeah - it's giving off a hellava glow, but I got some ideas to reduce that:


Some of the supplies I'm using - there's a Whisper aquarium pump in there, and a Hanna Combo pH/TDS meter that works great...


The inside of the cab - Sun Sytem 2 w/ 600W, Vortek 4" 175 CFM. There's a Lumatek ballast that actually is hidden nearby outside the cab:


The first kids - note speed controller - on low you can bearly hear it standing at the front of the garage. Also note 8" x 12" passive intake grill in the back.


OK - now the bad news:

(1) My earlier test for water hardness (using the spa test strips) was completely in error - I did a little project w/ the Hanna meter - here's the results:

pH TDS
Tap Water 8.2 526
Brita Filter 4.5 493
Filtered from Fridge 7.7 521

So my water hardness is extremely high. I've been knocking down all the water the plants receive w/ pH Down to about 6.0

(2) Even with the new Vortek, cab temps are extremely high - it's still pretty warm during the days here, and of course, every time I pull a hot car into the garage, the temps spike. Daytime temps are reaching 86 deg. so I have shifted the light schedule to run from 11:00 PM - 5:00 PM (18 hrs.) As you may be able to see, the older plant is suffering from heat stress - the good news is I haven't killed them yet! (My hopes are that these may become mothers for cloning.)

New sprout:

About two weeks old:


(3) I learned that since roots hate light in DWC grows (actually they hate algea, and algea loves light) I painted my clear rubbermaids black (on the outside of course.) It actually took two cans of plastic paint to coat them enough to block out light - there's still a few small light spots here and there, but I think it should be good.

Today I also gave the kids their first feeding. General Hydroponics feed schedule for Veg stage (measures per gallon of water - mixed it together and pH adjusted down to about 5.9 cuz it's been drifting back up) -

3 Teaspoons Gro
2 Teaspoons Micro
1 Teaspoons Bloom

Well, that's the latest. Clearly I'm going to be limited to seasonal Winter only grows, but I'm thinking of ordering some seeds, and sprouting them in rockwool to go directly into the DWC. The good news is that there is room in the cab for 4 rubbermaids - probably a total of 8 plants, so that may come up soon. Frankly I'm just happy as a pig in mud to have a project under way! I know that I'll have to manage the water hardness and temp issues, but the seasons are changing so the temp issue will take care of itself. I should also mention that the relative humidity where I live is probably about ZERO on a humid day, so another issue to try and manage there - guess some water pots are going in the cab next. Needless to say, if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears!

Live Long and Prosper!

 

[bbing]

Thats a BIG BOX.

Looks like you have some lightproofing to do so I wont be long..
Good call on photoperiod shift; you will need to ensure no light leaks.

You need to throw your sprouts under the CFL's until they stabilize abit if you can achieve lower temps. At this size you should be able to locate them in the house somewhere and put them under flouro's. Just too hot where they are. I would say. Aslo good idea to co-locate a bowl or tub of water to bring up the rel humidity. Need higher humidity for sprouting and early veging.

I would say chase down some RO somewhere and at least mix at 50% to tap.
Adding PH down will only slam your PH down for it to drift back up. These changes can be worse than stable extreme ph. Additionally there are sulfides (salts) being added to the mix risking high EC/TDS. They will build up in your soil after a little while fucking things up worse. In a pinch I have used Discus buffer (NOT ACID BUFFER PRODUCT) that acts on the carbonate hardness vs. general hardness.

You could speed things up a tad and plop sprouts into DWC. Give it a couple weeks veg and then take cuts..then flower. Keep the best suited cut for a mother. She will be able to deliver the next round of strikes with light veg by harvest for sure. There is no need to over veg in a stealthbox. RO strain preference, you should be able to flower the clones after a few days veg. Its better to stunt a weildy strian than to diminish yeild completely by not being able to control cola hieght.

Progress is legit! Your officially in it.

Peace

 

[bbing]

Oh yeah, you may want to go back for a more appropriate air pump. "would power a 60gal tank" WTF??? Quieter more powerful versions would be better. Luft pump is reliable cheap and packs some air for its size. I run the old whisper II that has dual diaphragms but that is lacking some HP to run a 20gal res IMHO.

Dont worry, you had to go back anyway to get the bigger airstones
(get the 5 or 6 inch blue ones that are rectangular with a taper towards top)

Dont know why you have a radical angle on your blower or if it can even be helped, but lessening the angles will improve throughput and quiet it down a lot.

WHOOOOOAAA...just saw this

Today I also gave the kids their first feeding. General Hydroponics feed schedule for Veg stage (measures per gallon of water - mixed it together and pH adjusted down to about 5.9 cuz it's been drifting back up) -

let me know when there services will be held. Would it be bad form to send flowers?

those suckers are gone!
Dont feed seedlings until you see enough vegetable matter to burn off the nutes with. If those are the size of the plants, they are goners, you could flush with ph'd water.

 

[bbing]

search: Lucas Formula

 

[tobaaaac]

what bbing said! I question how well adding a full GH dose to 500ppm tap water is going to work out for you on those seedlings under flouros. Also, when reading about the lucas formula, know that it was developed on grow rocks under hps. It should work well for DWC. For soil, lucas recommends feeding every third watering or using 1/3 to 1/2 strength. To veg on flouros, you may need to scale the concentration of the lucas formula solution back a little on those plants.

There is a lucas formula sticky in the hydro forum here, and there is an ask lucas thread that is a great read on cannabis world. You should be able to find most anything about feeding and watering that you need to know somewhere in one of these.

Ask Lucas
Calculating Nutrient Profiles...

 

[AndreNicky]

I would upgrade the blower to a 6", 400+ cfm and try to reduce some of the ducting. I barley keep temps in check with my 171cfm fan and i only run 400watts, also i would add in a small circulation fan. Your water seems way to high in ppms so either get a small RO filter or maybe try Hardwater micro. Also i would give hempy buckets a try if i were u, DWC can be a major pain especially if u have high temps. Hempys buckets are pretty much failsafe and a very easy way to learn hydro growing, just my 2 cents

 

[bbing]

Yeah these guys are on track, The GH nova (i think that was it) is a two part series based on Lucas and has hard water buffers to boot. I haven't ever tried it but I would be willing if it meant omitting the whole water modulus rocket science

Hang in there. Getting these parts right is gonna make you feel a whole lot better about yourself in the end, and your plants are gonna feel better bout themselves too.

 

[tobaaaac]

>bbing

I hate to hijack the thread here, but I have to ask after the way you phrased that. Is it just that nova almost has the 100-100-200-60 profile by coincidence, or did they, in fact, create it specifically to approximate the "Lucas Formula" profile. Doyou know something about this?

 

[AndreNicky]

^8ml of Nova bloom=8/16 lucas formula