SpicySativa's Organic Garden

Off to La Casa De Pot (Home Depot), then it's wall framing time! Final dimensions will be 4.5'x8' with a 6' height (limited by my cramped basement). The canopy area will be something like 4x7, lit by two 600s. I'll probably end up running 6 plants at a time in 10-15 gallon pots, possibly set up as individual "modular scrogs".

I can't wait to see this thing take shape!

Hey Spicy, hope your project is going well! Posting to thank you for your write up on the vortex brewer, I'm just back from Home Depot myself with all the parts to make one like it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery they say. So THANK YOU!!!

Next on the list is to get the worm bin established.

One question, do you you use bubble stones on the end of your air tubing on your vortex?

What's up Bugeye? Glad to help.

I don't use any air stones at the ends... They get biofouled with slime after a run or two, and I don't know of any good way to clean them without harsh chemicals. I've thought about putting caps on the end of the tube and punching lots of little holes in the end... I dunno, though... I've monitored DO concentrations over the course of a brew cycle and they stay plenty high. If it ain't broke....

Made some good progress today. The skeleton is done. Just need to raise the walls, slap on their skin, plop on a ceiling, and fill it up with goodies!

Theres my man always stay green and organic man and dont use any of that nasty synthetic shit. Enjoy the herb the way it was meant to be grown and good luck i saw that seed post you made about the bubba you were trying to name your strain. I subbed and added as friend if there anyway you can help newbie out with some seeds ran into bit of deficit.

Hmm... I didn't post anything about seeds. I think you've got the wrong guy.

Either way, welcome.

possibly set up as individual "modular scrogs".

Click to expand...

Let us know if you go this route.
Someone had a post earlier that had a 'modular scrog' w/a screen for each 5 gal pot. I thought this looked like an interesting idea.
I run 2-3 plants in a cab under one screen, and it can be a bitch to pull a plant/pot...

We'll see. I think I'm going to stick with seeds for a couple rounds. That means mainlining. So maybe I'll put the mod scrog plans on hold.

I think I'm going to revise my plans a little... Instead of doing mid/late veg with two 600 MH's, I will be using two 400 MH's to save a little $ on the electrical bill. My plants don't sprawl much beyond the diameter of their 10-gal pots during veg. Giving each of the six plants a 1.5x1.5 square, that gives me an area of 3x4.5 (13.5 square feet). Two 400 MH's will give me about 60 watts/square foot, or about 4,700 lumens per square foot. I think this will be plenty. Both ballasts will be adjustable 400/600, so I can always jump to 600 MH later if I choose...

Any of you out there vegging with 400 MH's?

SpicySativa said:

What's up Bugeye? Glad to help.

I don't use any air stones at the ends... They get biofouled with slime after a run or two, and I don't know of any good way to clean them without harsh chemicals. I've thought about putting caps on the end of the tube and punching lots of little holes in the end... I dunno, though... I've monitored DO concentrations over the course of a brew cycle and they stay plenty high. If it ain't broke....

Click to expand...

for cleaning air stones . Soak in peroxide for an hour. You can leave it for days if you are feeling lazy lol. Then rinse with hot water. Let dry.

Hyroot- Thanks for the tip. If I go back to using airstones, I'll give it a shot.

At one of my previous jobs, I worked with 35% hydrogen peroxide. That stuff would eat right through your leather boots if you weren't careful. I'm sure it would make quick work of some slime on an airstone.

Are you just using the 3% over the counter stuff?

SpicySativa said:

Hyroot- Thanks for the tip. If I go back to using airstones, I'll give it a shot.

At one of my previous jobs, I worked with 35% hydrogen peroxide. That stuff would eat right through your leather boots if you weren't careful. I'm sure it would make quick work of some slime on an airstone.

Are you just using the 3% over the counter stuff?

Click to expand...

yeah 3% , what ever I picked up at Costco in the brown bottle.

Well, I hit an unexpected speed bump in my upgrade... Apparently I am one of the lucky ones who's credit card info was stolen from Target. I got a friendly call from my bank this morning saying they cancelled my credit card and a new one will arrive within a week. Go figure today would be the day I leave my debit card at the house. I guess I won't be going shopping after work today after all...

Yeah, got my credit card notice about Target a few days ago as well...

Regarding the bubble stone in the vortex brewer discussion, I have a couple thoughts. First, I have experimented with my new brewer using both 1/2" ID tubing and 1/2" OD tubing. The 1/2" OD tubing (smaller tubing) produces a smoother run with slightly better vortex for me (less chugging noise and more consistent flow from both sides). This makes me wonder if adding bubble stones would improve performance even more? I will pick up a set of small stones and try it.

Second, I have a few spots producing small drips. I'm wondering if fusing the whole thing together with the purple and blue stuff would be okay to do if I rinsed out good with hose after use and then did a run adding 35% H2O2 to kill leftovers? Right now I have it built so it can come apart in a few spots for cleaning.

Unfortunately, I do not have a way to measure Oxygen content of my water. Really not sure if adding bubble stones will improve O2 saturation or not.

Any thoughts appreciated!

I wouldn't glue it all up if I were you. Maybe try a couple wraps of Teflon pipe tape before you jam it together?

Or the low(est) tech solution: stick the whole thing in a tub.

Having never cleaned one of these before, I'm going to take your advice and not glue all sections. Maybe the teflon wrap will work! Great idea.

Well for the record, I found that bubble stones do not improve performance of the vortex brewer. I did not measure oxygen saturation, just judging from the size of the vortex itself. I'm sticking with 1/2" OD tubing.

Played hooky from work yesterday and made some more progress on the new grow space. I dismantled my 4x4 cab, salvaged what I could, then went shopping. Picked up a second 600 watt Lumatek ballast, a second Super Sun 2 hood, a 6" Hurricane inline fan, 25 feet of Thermoflex ducting, and a handful of duct elbows, clamps, etc. Also bought the plywood "skin" to go over my wood frame skeleton, and some weather stripping for light sealing the door.

I'll snap some progress pics when I get home from work.

In other news, I transplanted the 10 Vortex into 2-gal square pots the other day. I did it a little differently than usual. Since I wasn't sure if they were QUITE mature enough to handle my soil mix at full strength, I filled the pots up half way with full strength soil, then topped the new pots off with my soil mix mellowed to 50% with added peat/perlite/compost. Kinda similar(ish) to Subcool's layering technique. They seem happy with it, so I'm happy with it.

Status update on my new and improved "Medicine Cabinet". Can I even call it a "cabinet" anymore when it's rockin' 1,200 watts?

I see big things happening here real soon. The Vortex are gonna love basking under 800 watts of MH for the rest of their veg period.

nice work there on the room.. I'm in the process of converting my other bathroom into a veg room.. All I have done is take down the shower doors. Get some wood.. I have alot to do and don't feel like doing it on top of maintaining everything else.. lol I still want to make the vortex brewers to your specs too.. so much work...