1st DWC - 1200 Watt -Quantum Digital Dimmable Ballest

I’m starting my first serious grow using a DWC system!


System:

1 - 55 gallon steel drum resaviour


2 – 256gph water pumps

5 – 5 gallon planters with 6” net pots


1 – 5 gallon control bucket


2 – Air pumps


5 – 5” discs air stones

Lights:

2 – Yield master 2, 6”


2 – 600 watt – hortalux - enhanced spectrum- super HPS
2 – Quantum digital dimmable ballast


• 100% - 600watt
• 75% - 450watt
• 50% - 300watt


Room:

2’ x 9’ x 9’ it will be a challenge

I wires 8 outlets to the room
• 4 @ 110
• 4 @ 220
I wired a green light to a switch so I can be in there in the sleeping times

I have 2 fans in the room
• 9” caged
• 4” caged

I have a home made carbon filter with a 1/12hp blower

Chemicals: General Hydroponics

Micro
Bloom
AquaShield (the only thing keeping me going with these water temperatures)


Plants:

all 5 plants are feminized blueberry (well only one is but shes my mother, and i just pulled 4 clones from her)


The DWC is bad news when it comes to water temperature

in attempt to lower the water temp. i drain the system every 4.5 hours. with light on. the light are on a 18/6 light schedule

i also am testing to see if insulating around the buckets will help any with the temperature - so far it seems to drop the temperature 2 degrees(82) after 4.5 hours

I came to the conclusion that i need to isolate the air pumps because they are in the room and the room is 91 degrees so the air pumps are pumping 91 degree air into my buckets cause the water to warm.

Feel Free to leave comments or suggestions

here is a overhead shot

Reservoir

Temperature: 76.4

Ph: 6.2

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Control Bucket

Temperature: 77.6

Ph: 6.2

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Plant 1

Temperature: 78.8

Ph: 6.1


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Plant 2

Temperature: 79

Ph: 6.1




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Plant 3

Temperature: 79.4

Ph: 6.1



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Plant 4

Temperature: 79.1

Ph: 6.1


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Plant 5 - mother

Temperature: 78.3

Ph: 6.2





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I think i need a water chiller?

I bent a few more shoots to level the plant canopy...

I also changed to water in the system tonight and added full strength GH Nutes.

I drain the water to all the plants around the house, and it makes the tomatoes get so big the skin splits.

I need to change out the carbon from the DIY filter.

I added a 8" inline fan to the exhaust of the duct, and i have the fan in the grow room on a rheostat so it doesn't have to go balls out

I Added CO2 to the room



CO2 re-leaves the stress of the heat because the temperatures are a little high in the room.

Plant 1



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Plant 2



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Plant 3



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Plant 4



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Plant 5

How do you like those quantum ballest, what the temp change from 300 watts to 600 watts and if so hows the bill change? Nice so far

Privatejoker421 said:

How do you like those quantum ballest, what the temp change from 300 watts to 600 watts and if so hows the bill change? Nice so far

Click to expand...

The Quantum Digital work ideally for my situation. i cant be hanging 2 30lb magnetic ballast- that have to be air cooled. i like the fact that they are digital, 100% silent, and run cool.

At 300 watts i can keep the room at 82-85 easy, but when i jump to flower and put them on 600 watts my rooms is about 90. but im still working on my ventilation.

When you run 300 watt it scales everything by 75% including the Power, Lumens...

in Veg i ran at 50% 450 watt. and that put the room at 87 degrees.

I would recommend the Quantum ballast.

i hear their 1000 watt ballast work well

I Came to the conclusion that i am powerless when it comes to temperature. Its is just too much work and a pain in the ass to keep the res at 65 degrees, its flat out impossible unless you had a water chiller!!!

well i just bought a 1/5 hp 1700BTU Chiller

Im expecting good things from this grow...

i had company here and there is no good way to drop 4 frozen jugs in a res and not look conspicuous..

Alll thats over with - THANK GOD

so i finally got in the room to look at the plants, and the blew up!

I switched to flower labor day. expecting a late October harvest...

i have some smell issues im still dealing with. and soon the water will be dealt with- everything is falling in line.

i was looking at the crop and i noticed some water on the leaves can anyone verify what that is? i came to the conclusion that it is just sweat from the plants.

i finally figured out how to post pictures on here.

Sorry i have really posted in a while...

but its time for a update.

-i got some 55 gal drum liners and re-lined my res. because there was rust getting into the water and it was shooting my ph way up.

-i got a 1/5 hp water chiller and a 265 gph water pump running 24/7 keeping the water at 65 degrees

-I started flowering on labor day and have taken pic. everyday.

-My girls are getting huge here are some pictures....


Pictures:

1 = 9/10 (3 days)

2 = 9/13 (6 days)
3 = 9/13 Water Chiller

4 = 9/14 (7 days)

5 = 9/15 (8 days)
6 = 9/15 bud shot

7 = 9/16 (9 days)
8 = 9/16 Res liner

9 = 9/17 (10 days)
10 = 9/17 bud shot
11 = 9/17 bud shot 2

12 = 9/19 (12 days)
13 = 9/19 bud shot
14 = 9/19 lollipop

15 = 9/20 (13 days)
16 = 9/20 bud shot
17 = 9/20 overall shot

Picture:

1 = 9/21 (14 days) 2wk
2 = 9/21 overview shot
3 = 9/21 height to light
4 = 9/21 height to ceiling
5 = 9/21 bud shot
6 = 9/21 bud shot 2
7 = 9/21 bud shot 3
8 = 9/21 nute burn
9 = 9/21 leveled the canopy
10 = 9/21 canopy 2
11 = 9/21 canopy 3

That looks nice do you have any rf interference with the digital ballast and what are you growing

there is not radio frequency interference, they say the rf interference will not become unstable if its in a crazy atmosphere.

One mother of Blueberry,

and 3 clones from the mother.

thanks for the comment...

Yesterday i leveled the canopy by pinching the stalk and pushing it over, today you can see the reaction time.

Pictures:

1 = 9/22 (15 days)

Enjoy....

picture:

9/24/2009

17 days into flower

awesome doooood!!!!

This afternoon i drained the res and added some new nutes

GH Nutes
2 cups of bloom
2 cups of aquashiel
1 cup of micro
4 cups of ph down

the water that comes out of the house is about 77.7 degrees and about 7.2ph

here are some picture:


Ill post some pictures of the plants soon.....


stay hazed

21 days into flower
3 weeks into flower
504 hours into flower
30,240 seconds into flower
.........

Picture 1: I wired the chiller to another room behind the res.

Picture 2-4: I bought some rust-oleum and i painted the res. so that if i put bags in there and they broke the barrel would not rust....

but, maybe i could just put water in the barrel and not use bags? would that hurt the plants, because the water could be contaminated with dried rust-oleum?


Enjoy..

those are looking fantastic bro! My first was alot like the room your in now and we had to use a portable ac to cool the room down cuz it was in our garage. but during the flower period it got alot more humid in there and we started to get alot of little flies, so keep an eye out for that. and we didnt get a chance to do it but we should have gotten a dehumidifier, so just incase you have those problems that was some shit i wish someone would have told me ya know. but we had both the ac and the fan for the light blowing outside the house and we got away with keeping it around 85. I like the way you have your plants and everything setup though, do those roots lay in water all the time or do you pump water into each bucket for a few mins everyday? cuz we use rocks now but that looks way easier and cheaper. thanks for the post earlier man and ima def be watching your girls!, i threw a few pics of my first grow cuz like i said it looks pretty similar to yours, except we did a bang up job on a few things haha

bigblock7, thanks for the comment and input , i took your advise and put a dehumidify in the room....

Its all about the deep water culture (DWC)
the plants are sitting in water 24/7 i drain the system 4 times between the 12 hours the lights are on.
i drain the water from the planter to a 55 gal drum with about 25 gal of 62 degree water, if i send water into the room at 65 degrees after 4 hours it will come back around 70-72 degrees... so i mix the warm water in the system with the same about of 62 degree water causing it to average out to be about 66 degrees, but i probably could make the water in the drum colder, the 1/5hp chiller i got can take the temperatures down to 41 degrees(might take a while)

the humidity is getting to be 95%,
i noticed the plants were sweating on the top of the leaves, so i came to the conclusion that the plants are retaining then sweating as much water making it so humid. this is a way to fight the high temperatures, but now they are throwing 65 degrees water in the air.

since that dehumidifier has been in the room i already empty 2 2gal tanks of water. the humidity is about 70% but since it so dry that shot the temperature up to 95-98 degrees. i dont know what ones worst high humidity or high temperatures...

in the last two weeks i planned to run the dehumidify to make the bud get more trichomes to protect from the dry air.

im beginning to see some snow in the buds

im going to have to bend and break some of the buds to level the canopy, because they are getting too tall. i cant get the lights high enough to accommodate their potential height.

from the ground they are about 6 feet tall

Heres a Picture Update

10/1/2009
24 days into flower

those last three picture were taken from my new cell
phone..



Stay Hazed

I know i am

those are looking mad good yo! haha ya im dealing with some humidity problems myself. my therm says diff but i can feel it when i go in there that it could be a little cooler and dryer. i need to get a dehumidifier soon. but your ladies are lookin great bud! good luck and ill be talkin to ya soon!