Deep water culture Build and Grow. Need advice and some brainstorming.

**Antihero17** · 05-26-2012, 01:19 AM

I'm currently setting up my first full scale Deep water Culture Grow and I'm currently in the process of converting an old storage Shed into a top notch grow. And I would love all the suggestions possible (especially those that will help me maintain temps as I live in Phoenix,Az).
Lets Start out with the builing it's self it's 14' Long, 4' Wide and 7' High I stripped it down to the studs to start from scratch in order to get ahold of ambient heat I'm sealing ALL air leaks and have Installed a 10,000 BTU Air conditioner about 3" off the floor in the Mid point of the Shed. I installed insulation and am going to dry wall tomorrow. As well as put a layer of the dimpled heat barrier mylar over the drywall. Oh and I also painted the bare concrete with white high gloss masonry paint. As far as elecricity I have a Double 15AMP Breaker(so 30 Amps) and plugs inside spaced perfectly apart. And that is pretty much the structure in and out as of now.
And these are my lighting systems.
1 21' cool tube with clip on reflectors
running on a 600Watt digital ballast that
runs MH/HPS light at 50% 75% or 100%.
And one more 250 Watt digital Mh/HPS
ballast with a regular hood refector.
These are my Deep water culture
materials.
8 BLACK 3.5 Gallon buckets with 8 of the
fitted net pots.
40 Liters of Hydroton
16 of the sunleaves 2" cylinder airstones
2 of the 6" round airstones from
sunleaves.
30' Blue air tubing & 20' of Black
2 Sunleaves 602GPH air pumps with 2
five way and 2 ten way splitters.
A clip on fan and a humidifier.
A 165 CFM inline exhaust fan
Pro filter 150 CFM Active Carbon Filter
And ALL insulated ducting for venting.
3 Digital timers.
And as far as nutes I'm gonna try three
brands all on G13 Pineapple express seeds
as to make sure the results are fair cuz I'm
looking whats gonna work BEST FOR ME.
That being said I'm gonna try Big Buddha
Cheeses' Dyna-Gro recipie for DWC. I'm
also gonna run X nutrients and the lucas
formula which I'm gonna kick up a notch
by putting some Diamond nectar
Aquashield and protek in just so the X-
Nutes and lucas formula have some of the
advantages that the Dyna gro Will have
(I.E. pro-tek and aquashield) though I may
add some Diamond Nectar to the Dyna
gro to give them all humic and fulvic
acids.
So that's what I'm working with as of now and the main problem I have on my mind is should I draw hot air from outside through the cool tube and exhaust it and
the lights heat right back out the other side. Or should I just put my inline fan
near the exhuast point and just have it exhaust the lights heat as well as drawing
through the carbon filter at the END of the Line. My only concern is just sucking my A/C out by doing this though I think a fan speed reducer might help. And at this point the Carbon filter isn't totally needed as I'm legal under AZ PROP 203 And I'm not in flower yet so smell isn't a huge
concern heat is. So please all help is appreciated. Sorry for the long post but REP for anyone who can help. Pics will be up in the morning as there are lots to take and thanks again roll it up.
Good Luck and Good Grow
P.S. I have more equipment but too much to get into yet and I'll get into some of my ideas once this thread gets going like redundancy sytems and some cool lil tricks I learned that I would love to share.

**Kervork** · 05-26-2012, 01:33 AM

I tried deepwater and grew in an unheated outbuilding. The water temps probably ran around 50 degrees and the plants loved it. That said, I wouldn't do that in phoenix. The key to DW is dissolving lots of oxygen and the key to dissolving lots of oxygen is low water temps. In phoenix you are going to be fighting heat all the way, especially this time of year. If you must do this, try using powerheads to add oxygen to your water. Much better than airstones. You can get them at walmart, petco etc. There is an input on them where you can hook up your air pump, this pumps in even more air and makes them quieter.

Rule number one in the desert is run your lights at night, what little night there may be. With the AC I think you want to suck in to the cool tube and vent out. You will need to keep as much of the cool in as possible or you will be growing $5K pounds. When winter comes you will be styling since in PHX you won't have to worry about your plants freezing without heat. As I mentioned, if you can get your water hella colder than you think plants would like, they actually love it.

**Antihero17** · 05-26-2012, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by Kervork

I tried deepwater and grew in an unheated outbuilding. The water temps probably ran around 50 degrees and the plants loved it. That said, I wouldn't do that in phoenix. The key to DW is dissolving lots of oxygen and the key to dissolving lots of oxygen is low water temps. In phoenix you are going to be fighting heat all the way, especially this time of year. If you must do this, try using powerheads to add oxygen to your water. Much better than airstones. You can get them at walmart, petco etc. There is an input on them where you can hook up your air pump, this pumps in even more air and makes them quieter.

Rule number one in the desert is run your lights at night, what little night there may be. With the AC I think you want to suck in to the cool tube and vent out. You will need to keep as much of the cool in as possible or you will be growing $5K pounds. When winter comes you will be styling since in PHX you won't have to worry about your plants freezing without heat. As I mentioned, if you can get your water hella colder than you think plants would like, they actually love it.

Thanks for the Advice man you have alot of good points. Like the running at night thing is a must during the summer. And as far as keeping the water cold. When I checked my water temps in the experiment DWC they were within range 76F and that was before all these cooling measures so I think I'll be ok on that end. I'll post a pic of the lil insulated mylar wraps I make to put around my buckets to help with water temps. And as far as venting your saying I should just vent cooler air from inside the room instead of drawing from the outside air. And thanks so much for the input man. And I'll look into those powerheads too thanks.
Good Luck and Good Grow.

**dbkick** · 05-26-2012, 01:03 PM

igloo coolers. nuff said.

**Antihero17** · 05-27-2012, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by dbkick

igloo coolers. nuff said.

Yea I was considering coolers but I have a Great hookup at a Phx area grow shop and coolers weren't an option there but I may give one a go to see the difference. Plus I like the snug fitting tops for easy res changes. But yea good thought man thanks.

**Illegal Smile** · 05-27-2012, 05:28 AM

I was also going to suggest coolers although I thinki a 10k AC will cool a 4x14 space well if it is insulated. You might consider even more insulation in the roof. My other comment is why 3.5 gal buckets and not 5? My coolers are 7 gal and I think the extra rootspace helps. BTW, 76 is a top for water temps but for a good grow under 70 is much better. Something very handy is a laser temp meter. You just shoot a beam onto any surface and get an immediate and accurate temp and yes, it works shooting into water. I got mine for $45.

**Bigz2277** · 05-27-2012, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by Illegal Smile

I was also going to suggest coolers although I thinki a 10k AC will cool a 4x14 space well if it is insulated. You might consider even more insulation in the roof. My other comment is why 3.5 gal buckets and not 5? My coolers are 7 gal and I think the extra rootspace helps. BTW, 76 is a top for water temps but for a good grow under 70 is much better. Something very handy is a laser temp meter. You just shoot a beam onto any surface and get an immediate and accurate temp and yes, it works shooting into water. I got mine for $45.

Second on the laser thermometer. the 3.5 gals will work fine, but they will drink that water quick if its a mature tree. The advantage of the bigger coolers is more surface space for the bubbles to create the D/O, and Will have to do res changes less. But if your an OCD person who changes the water every 7 days on queue. 7 gals of water gets heavy.
Gl

**Antihero17** · 05-28-2012, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by Illegal Smile

I was also going to suggest coolers although I thinki a 10k AC will cool a 4x14 space well if it is insulated. You might consider even more insulation in the roof. My other comment is why 3.5 gal buckets and not 5? My coolers are 7 gal and I think the extra rootspace helps. BTW, 76 is a top for water temps but for a good grow under 70 is much better. Something very handy is a laser temp meter. You just shoot a beam onto any surface and get an immediate and accurate temp and yes, it works shooting into water. I got mine for $45.

Thanks man for the good advice and just last night I put up the last of the fiberglass insulation and today I'm putting up Reflective radiant barriers for EXTRA cooling and for reflection. I did a LOT of research and insulation covering ALL WALLS ans ROOF followed up by putting a layer of Refective radiant barrier(NO DRYWALL) is gonna give me GREAT insulting for summer and winter and reflectivity for my girls so I got two for one with this stuff. And as far as using 3.5 gallon buckets Well that another lil tip I took from Big Budha Cheese he uses smaller buckets and allows then to get VERY low before topping the res so it's a little aero too when that happens and he claims great things by it (though I probably won't be doing it like that) really it's just seemd right for me I'm only allowed 12 plants at a time so I'm gonna go SOG and didn't think it nessecary to go for the five gallons and I may upgrade for flower no that you got me thinking(which I thank you for as this is what this thread is all about). So again thanks and +Rep and I got some pics coming up today.

**Antihero17** · 05-28-2012, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by Bigz2277

Second on the laser thermometer. the 3.5 gals will work fine, but they will drink that water quick if its a mature tree. The advantage of the bigger coolers is more surface space for the bubbles to create the D/O, and Will have to do res changes less. But if your an OCD person who changes the water every 7 days on queue. 7 gals of water gets heavy.
Gl

yea I'm definatly thinking that one of those guns would help(my buddy has one at his work that takes PH and water temp with a laser and I'm trying to get him to find where they got it as they are an industrial titanium recyling company and get cool stuff like that) but if I can't obtain one of those bad boys I'm gonna take yours and illegal smiles advice and get the one you speak of as I could get surface temps for anything I may need right like the my plants leaves or any other object in my grow room(like finding some hotspots in my insulation job) so yea man thanks for the ideas and for checking the post out. Rep for the advice and support.
Good Luck and Good Grow.

**Antihero17** · 05-29-2012, 01:29 AM

So here a few pics and vids of the progress I've made on the construction of my New Deep Water Culture Grow Room. Just idea of what I'm doing to help with the heat here in AZ. I managed to get most of the insulation and radiant barrier up and I hope to have all that done tomorrow so I can set up my lights and exhaust by this weekend(as my clones and seeds are getting there). The second vid is just of how I will be setting up my buckets. Each one will have two airstones(each one run off a different pump in case of a failure in one) a basic sunleaves thermometer and 3 1/4 inch holes I drilled so I can put the air hoses in different placements. I also plan on wrapping them in the extra radiant barrier I have left over to help with water temps and more reflection. And the pics are just of some random supplies, nutes, Some Sound proofing pad(I had left over from installing new wood floors) my insulated ducting and my 250Watt Digi Ballast. Just wanting to give everyone an idea of what I'm working with for now. And as always I'm open to suggestions.
Good Luck and Good Grow!