Bubblelicious, New York Power Diesel, and Super Skunk in DWC

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
*Disclaimer: This is all purely fictional and for the reader’s enjoyment.
**This is a wordy post.
Well ladies and gents, after a ten year hiatus to pretend to do grownup things, I’m back in the saddle……….got some seeds from some killer weed which will be going into the system first to make sure all systems are go, and I also have Bubblelicious, New York Power Diesel, and Super Skunk going right now (germed about five days ago after receiving from Nirvana about a week after my order).
First lemme give you a rundown of what I know, and then I can talk about my setup a little bit.
So this will be about my sixth or seventh grow – I first started growing in college, and almost always on a shoestring budget and trying to (out of necessity) make things do things that they were not designed or capable to do. First few grows were in soil and the last two or three were bubblers, and I learned a lot, although not as much as I could’ve with the proper capital to really get up and running. So, I know what I’m doing for the most part, but am not as familiar as I’d like to be with CO2 and nutrient schedules (although I’m sure that most things I knew ten years ago about nutes would be obsolete, anyway).
Got laid off a few months ago like many others in my industry, and figured what better time to grow some weed, and be able to do it the right way this time with money not being so much of a constraint.
So, onto the setup…………
Using a Sun Hut Silver LG for vegging with a 400 watt HPS in there right now (yeah, yeah, I know MH’s preferred for vegging, but I’ve been too lazy to buy the bulb and really don’t think it makes much difference anyways – yes, it is a digital ballast so I can switch back and forth).
I’m currently cooling the light with a 6” inline fan which puts out ~450CFM; initially had one of these dedicated to just cooling the light and a second for exhaust, but that was some serious overkill on my part.
Intake is done via a 4” inline fan which pumps ~170CFM – as an aside, both of these fans are controlled by a TMP-DNe, which turns them on if the set temp is exceeded by a certain amount – I chose 5 degrees, which means they pop on at 75 degrees and turn off at about 69, keeping the room always 69-75 degrees.
There’s no oscillating fan in there of any kind because at this point I don’t feel it’s necessary – when those two fans come on the air in that room gets moving pretty effing good. If things change (like the fans don’t come on as much in the wintertime) then I’ll re-evaluate and possibly add one, but for now I’m comfy without it.
Been using and will probably continue to use GH nutrients, simply because they’re, well, simple. Have gotten copious amounts of House and Garden samples from my hydro store, but I’m gonna wait for a bit before doing any comparison tests or things of that nature, simply because I’d like to get up and running before I start doing anything too exotic.
Growing in 18 gallon rubbermaids with 4 14” air stones in each; nothing you haven’t seen a bazillion times anyways, so I won’t waste your time with pics of the inside, etc – it’s some airstones making bubbles, just trust me – keep my pH right around 6, you know the drill.
So I guess that about does it for the veg area – onto to the flower design (if I don’t get too stoned I’ll put it together today, minus the 6” Phresh Filter, which should be into my store either tomorrow or Saturday).
So, I’m gonna have 6 18 gallon rubbermaids in the flowering room, each holding 4 plants (that’s 24 plants for the slower members out there). Gonna have a perpetual harvest with half the room changing each month, so I’ll harvest twelve plants each month and throw twelve more in (for those who need to read up on how a perpetual harvest works, I’d link you to some good threads but don’t know how – just do a search). My current plan is to start flowering at about 12” height, but that’s gonna take some experimentation and going to be strain dependent. That being said, figure flowering at 12” should get me to about 2-3 feet for most strains, which is fine by me.
Gonna have a 6” inline dedicated to cooling my 1000 watt HPS in there, and also a 6” inline for exhaust (through the 6” Phresh filter) and a 4” for intake.
Um, that’s really all I can think of right now – my plan is to get my first flowering room up and running within about a week or two and then have an identical second one up and running sometime in late January/early February which will run on a reverse schedule so as to not overload the breaker (only have 40 amps in my garage); so as one light is on the other will be off and vice versa – this way the only overlap will be their fans and water pumps, which isn’t that big of a deal.
I know 40 amps would be enough to run all three at the same time pretty easily, but I’m trying to plan ahead for the summer, when temps can get 100+ in there, so I’m gonna need a fairly large AC which will draw ~1500 watts (if not more).
So, I know I’ve missed some stuff but I can always cover that later……………so here are the pics:

DSCN0380.jpg

GH nutrients, Superthrive, pH meter, TDS meter, yada yada………..that’s a digital thermometer hanging down at the top there….
DSCN0381.jpg

The right side is there all the free samples go…………..I felt so shady taking that syringe with Root Excelurator out of the store (in front of the fungicide) – definitely didn’t wanna get pulled over with that and have to explain it….
DSCN0382.jpg

Cleaned WalMart out of 14” airstones the last two times I’ve been there…………there’s a 100’ roll of ½” black tubing in the back there for my pond pump for nute changeouts……
DSCN0383.jpg

This pic really doesn’t do the bottom shelf justice – if this whole project doesn’t work out, I’m pretty sure I could open up my own HVAC supply shop with all the shit I’ve bought and ended up not needing………the shelf above that are the two 6” inline fans which are going in my flower tent.
DSCN0384.jpg

Lol………..so I wanted to get a picture of how light tight the tent was (it’s REALLY light tight, FYI), so my dumb ass turned off the lights in there and took a picture, only to realize that a flash kinda ruined the effect……….for a smart guy I do some dumb shit.
DSCN0385.jpg

[FONT=&quot]Here’s the 4” inline which is intake for my veg tent…………….somewhat of a ghetto rigging with it sitting on a box, but it works for me………..needed to use a reducer for it to fit the 6” flanges of the tent.[/FONT]

DSCN0386.jpg

This was the best lady out of the bag beans I started – unfortunately for her, we don’t allow dirt in our hydro tent, so she’s kinda shit outta luck…………thinking of putting up fliers around the neighborhood saying that she’s free to a good home – just took twelve clones off of her yesterday, which is why she’s looking kinda gaunt.
DSCN0389.jpg

Here’s the 6” inline which is responsible for exhausting the room as well as cooling the light
DSCN0390.jpg

Top left is two “moms” (clones from the dirt mom that rooted a week or two ago) – plan on having one of them and then a mom from each strain of the seedlings, which are in the bottom right……..the top right is some other plant’s clones that I’ve been running nute tests on so see how much they can take……
Apologies for the ghetto “hole” covers, need to get to Wal Mart and get some thick plastic placemats to cut and use as covers.
DSCN0392.jpg

Numbers 1-4 are Bubblelicious, 5-8 are NY Diesel, and 9-12 are Super Skunk.
DSCN0393.jpg
Closer shot – I don’t know how to use a camera very well, obviously.
DSCN0394.jpg
This is the sensor for the TMP-DNe – it’s hung a couple of inches below the light level.


DSCN0397.jpg

This is the controller with the temp settings and the differentials on the left – this thing’s kinda cool because it can be used for either heating or cooling.
DSCN0395.jpg

I’m a thermometer maniac.
DSCN0396.jpg

Trust me.
DSCN0398.jpg

Hydroton, more Rubbermaids, buckets, random shit. You know how it is.
DSCN0399.jpg

Two fifty gallon trash cans and a 633GPH pond pump for nutrient changes and topping off.
DSCN0400.jpg

Clones taken yesterday – I hate Rapid Rooters because the SOBs can barely stand by themselves.
DSCN0403.jpg

The flowering tent I’ll be putting together either tonight or tomorrow or Saturday.
Sooooooooooooooooooo, all that being said, any questions/comments/criticism (doesn’t even have to be constructive) are welcome.
Gonna try to keep this as updated as possible, and with no job it shouldn’t be that difficult of a task.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Well, checked on the ladies and detected a faint odor of algae (man do I hate that fugging smell).

Anyhow, emptied all the tanks out, scrubbed them down, and then refilled with nutes and 300mLs of H2O2 each; also added an additional couple of airstones per tub.

Definitely in the uber early stages, but I wanna nip this shit in the bud immediately - gonna see how they react to the 300mL I added and in a couple of days add some more if that's not enough.

Also ran over to the hydro store and ordered 30 net pot lids a piece of the 3" and 5" sizes.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Thanks dude - maybe I'll put the flowering tent together tonight, but something tells me that this packed bong in front of me is gonna have other ideas about how I use my time.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Subscribed :)

Yay for not having a job :P
Lol, yes, there are pluses and minuses to it, but I'm trying to make the best of it.

Okay, onto where we stand today - checked on the ladies a bit ago and the algae smell is definitely dissipating, and the pH stayed right around 6 as opposed to going up to 6.5+ like it was with that fugging algae screwing things up - gonna wait another day and then hit them with the rest of the H2O2 to totally get rid of that shit.

Also heading to the hydro store today to get my Phresh filter (never used one so I'm curious about that), but before I did that I had a question for anyone who could help:

Anyone ever made a connected bubbler system using the blueprints below?

http://www.weedbay.net/overgrow-thebook/Hydroponics/Art4.htm

This is the system that I wanted to go with originally as I like the sturdiness of buckets much more than Rubbermaids, but being as "not handy" as I am, I was worried about the construction of the system - looking back over it, it seems pretty easy, but was wondering if anyone had tried it and realized that Train1 had missed a step or anything like that.

Another question I had is if that system needs to have a pond pump or something like that constantly circulating water through, which I assumed before but now doesn't seem to be the case.

If not, I'm gonna make two different eight bucket systems for my flower room (perpetual harvest staggered every four weeks) and have one plant per bucket - I like the idea of just filling and draining from one main bucket as opposed to three different Rubbermaids each time, in addition to the less daily work of checking pH, water level, etc.

So, that's where I stand right now - not gonna put the flower tent together until tomorrow because there's still some stuff in the garage that needs to be taken out for trash day tomorrow before it's totally mine to grow out and blow out.

So I'm gonna wait for an hour-ish to see if anyone replies, and if not I'm just gonna head to the dro store and pickup a few of the parts I'll need and start tinkering - it's UNBELIEVABLY convenient having a hydro store two minutes away from me, lemme tell ya.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
All right, no replies so I'm off and running - heading to the hydro store, Home Depot, and then Wal-Mart (for an oscillating fan - realized after constructing my veg tent that in order to duct tape a fan to the poles of a tent, it should be done before the "skin" is draped over the tent poles).

Hydro Store:
6" Phresh Filter
A couple straight 1/2" barbs
A couple 1/2" rubber grommets

Home De Pot:
A bucket or two
Aluminum duct tape
7/8" wood-cutting drill bit

Wal-Mart:
Oscillating fan
Air stones/pumps (I can't go in there without buying a couple of each, it's an addiction)

See you all in a bit.
 

DUDE!

Well-Known Member
Sweet job bob. Im doing hempy now. Started in dirt a few years ago. Workin my way to hydro! I hope i can pick some things up from you. Looks good and im scribed
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Thanks DUDE!, happy to have you aboard.

So I'm obviously back from the stores and have been doing some tinkering; I'd tell you exactly what went down but pics show it better.

DSCN0404.jpg

So here's the grommets and barbs from the hydro store - the dude likes me enough (plus I single-handedly keep the store in business) that he just gave 'em to me.

DSCN0405.jpg

I could've bought the 7/8" drill bit by itself for $5, but for $5 more got all the drill bits that you see here, which ended up being a wise investment on my part.

DSCN0406.jpg

Here's the 6" by 24" (thought it was by 18" before) Phresh filter that I just copped - hope to install by tomorrow-ish.

DSCN0407.jpg

Here's the aluminum tape (extra thick for less applications - it's kinda expensive, that roll was $20) and a gallon of pH down - tap water's 7.5 in my neck of the woods.

DSCN0408.jpg

Trial and error - trying different sizes, methods, etc. - that plastic's pretty brittle so it's kinda hard to get a nice, even hole out of it - now that I think about it, I wonder if a standard bit as opposed to a wood bit would work better.

DSCN0411.jpg

This is the size that finally ended up working best for me, although now I'm really thinking about using a normal drill bit.

DSCN0409.jpg

This is my success story - even though I ended up getting the others to work, I needed to test whether or not it's really water tight - so far, so good, and I've been splashing and agitating it pretty good to check for leaks.

DSCN0410.jpg

The inside, not a lot to see here.




So, that being done, where's it leave us?

Well, my thing is that I have no problem taping the buckets up with tape, because that's pretty easy, but the tops are a real biatch to work with; so my solution is as follows:

Gonna go buy 20ish buckets from Home Depot at $2.50 a piece and also just ordered 20 of the black, standard lids from US Plastic - was gonna do the buckets from them as well, but with shipping it came to like $5 more a bucket overall, and $100 isn't worth the fifteen minutes it'll take me to tape up the orange Depot buckets.

So, I'm fairly pleased right now, gonna be able to fill, drain, and test from one bucket as opposed to 3, and I also like that the buckets will be 100% light-proof.

An added benefit is that I love how much stronger the five gallon buckets are as opposed to the "flimsy-ish" Rubbermaids.
 

tmsculli

Well-Known Member
Well shit Bob. Nothing like coming in with guns blazin eh?

Everything looks immaculate. Jealousy is filling haha.

subbed.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Well shit Bob. Nothing like coming in with guns blazin eh?

Everything looks immaculate. Jealousy is filling haha.

subbed.
Good to have you, friend - doesn't make much sense to do shit half-assed, now does it? :blsmoke:

Still got a ways to go, but I'm pretty stoked on building this bucket reservoir system - for someone who considered himself (with good reason) about as "un-handy" as they come, I'm surprising myself every day.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
I'm good on connecting them, I think (still no leaks in my test bucket), but even though there will be two airstones in each bucket and a designated 60 gallon pump for each bucket, I'm a little hesitant about how the waters's gonna move around between buckets.

Therefore, instead of having one reservoir bucket which is attached to each feeder bucket, I was thinking of interconnecting each bucket and having a smallish pond pump moving the water between them - thoughts?

I know it'd prolly be okay the way Train1 (big thank you to him, wherever he is) designed it, but if air bubbles in each bucket are good, perhaps a pump moving oxygenated water between them is better? Somewhat of a failsafe in case a pump and/or airstones give out?

Would love some feedback.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
All right, no one answered me, so I'm just gonna have to figure this out myself.

Gonna run two (2) eight or nine bucket systems (need to get the tent setup to see how many buckets I can cram up in there), each with a smallish pond pump in it (maybe 150GPH or something along those lines) - I'm going to have a "Y" connector in the bucket with the pump in it, so even if for some reason that pump goes down, then the system just becomes what Train1 designed, with passive water flow between buckets.

Anyways, not much to report until I get cracking today, but below is a pic of the buckets - FYI, you get some funny looks when you walk into Home Depot and only buy 20 buckets.

DSCN0412.jpg
 

DUDE!

Well-Known Member
FYI, you get some funny looks when you walk into Home Depot and only buy 20 buckets.

View attachment 569191
I BET YOU DO LOL. I LIVE IN A SMALL TOWN AND WITH THE HEMPY BUCKETS I GO INTO WALMART AND BUY 8 8LITER BAGS OF PERLITE ALL WHILE SEEING 27 PEOPLE THAT I KNOW ASKIN. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT?? :eyesmoke:.

ON YOUR QUESTION! I WISH I COULD HELP, BUT THERE ISNT A CHANCE OF THAT.... THE TRAIN1 PLAN YOUR TALKIN ABOUT. DO YOU HAVE A LINK TO THAT?? AND BTW I DONT THINK YOUR GOING TO MAKE A BAD CHOICE ON WHAT YOU DO. EVERYONE I TALK TO ABOUT HYDRO SAYS PICK SOMETHING YOU LIKE AND BELIEVE IN AND YOU CANT GO WRONG...
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Well, thankfully I don't live in a small town, so I don't have those worries (luckily enough).

As far as the link goes, here it is:
http://www.weedbay.net/overgrow-theb...onics/Art4.htm

Instead of the one reservoir bucket attached to all the feeder buckets, I'm going to interconnect all the buckets to have a steady stream of water constantly circulating through them via a smaller pond pump, in addition to the air stones and air pumps in each individual bucket.

It's gonna be kind of a circulating DWC system - I'm gonna call it "Bob-o-ponics".
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Pretty slow day today because of the nagging headache I've been having all day, but I'm now ready to get rocking and rolling with some productivity.

Went to the hydro store and Home Depot, and below is what happened:

DSCN0414.jpg

Got this fan to tape to a pole in the flowering tent - was shocked it was only $35 at the hydro store.

DSCN0415.jpg

This is the reflector that's going in the 4x4 tent - not sure of the measurements, but it's pretty damned big and I assume it's gonna give me some good coverage in there.

DSCN0416.jpg

This is the little baby pump that I'm gonna use for my little experimental system to get a gentle water flow.

DSCN0417.jpg

Grommets and barbs.

DSCN0418.jpg

They didn't have any "Y" connectors at the hydro store, but I think that I can make this work just as well (you'll see how later).

DSCN0419.jpg

These are two round bits I got from Home Depot (5/8" and 3/4", respectively) - gonna see if they work on the buckets better than the wood drill bits that Train1 recommended (hope to only have to use 1, these bits were $20 a piece).
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
I must've not been around when they taught classes in how to use duct tape, because I have more trouble than most, methinks.

Anyways, the pics tell the story.

DSCN0420.jpg

Can't keep that damned ducting taped to the 6" inline - the inline doesn't have much surface area to tape to, so it's a real biatch.

DSCN0421.jpg

Led to temps getting up to 81 - unacceptable.

DSCN0422.jpg

Problem solved, hopefully - straightened the ducting out so hopefully the air will move a little better as well.

DSCN0423.jpg

All the beans are looking good - most have multiple roots coming out of the netpot as opposed to just the taproot - I'm putting it at about three days before they really start taking off.

DSCN0424.jpg

Mamas are looking good, roots are coming out of the 5" netpots now.

DSCN0426.jpg

Clones are on schedule, although I'm gonna build a bubble cloner sometime this week or next - fugging hate those RR and how they can't stand up by themselves. I miss Jiffy Pellets.
 

Attachments

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
So, put together a little test system - turns out those drill bits were so damn big that they didn't fit into my drill, unfortunately enough.

Luckily for me, I figured out how to make nice holes with the wood bit - basically you just need to be very quick and steady and pull out immediately once you've made the hole.

Another issue is that this little pump (which I bought today thinking it might even be a little strong for what I needed) is nowhere near as strong as I'd like - need to figure out if it makes sense to go with two (or more) pond pumps per system or just put one 600GPH+ pump into each - gonna hook up my 633 and see what kind of water flow that gives me - I want some real circulation, not what this 185's giving me.

DSCN0427.jpg

Here it is, no leaks yet - loving that I'm gonna be going with buckets as opposed to Rubbermaids.

DSCN0428.jpg

Here's the bucket with the pump attached - hooked up the "T" connector instead of a "Y", which is a failsafe in case the pump should go offline for any reason - if the pump stops working, than the system just reverts back to the passive one that was designed by Train1 (can't give him enough credit).

Gonna try to work up the energy to put the tent together tonight, but I'm kinda doubting that's gonna happen - since it's football and then golf tomorrow, might not make anymore progress until Monday.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Has anyone ever had one of these pumps going 24/7 in their DWC and/or reservoir (even for an E&F)?

I'm asking because I'm wondering what kind of heat they might put out, and if anyone's got any input on if putting a pump in every fourth bucket (two 185GPH pumps per eight bucket system) would make a meaningful difference in the water temperature throughout the system.

Thanks in advance for anyone's input on this.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Well, tested out my 633 in the system, and it's clearly too strong - the bucket that was first in line to get pumped into was on the verge of overflowing after about thirty seconds of the pump being on (however, that was with the 633 pumping out directly, not through the "T" connector as the 185 was).

Happy that the system seems to be water tight, but it's clearly gonna need some more experimentation on my part - still need to figure out if having a pond pump(s) in the system would have a material impact on the water temperature and if I'm going to use them, what size and number I'd use - right now, my best guess would be a 350 GPH-ish pump and have two per system.
 
Top