1st DWC 400w HPS/MH Paradise Vertigo & Pandora Autos!!!

Hey guys, this is my first post but I've been hanging around for over a year learning and such (and also forgot my original username!).

So here goes: this is my third grow, but my first hydro grow. Here's my equipment:

Sunlight Supply 400w Digi MH/HPS ballast
Hydrofarm reflector w/ glass and Plantmax bulbs (MH and HPS)

Homemade DWC tub (30 gal)
2 aquarium air pumps, and 8 airstones (lotsa bubbles!)


4 Paradise seeds Vertigo Auto
1 Paradise seeds Pandora Auto (all from Attitude)
5.5" net pots with hydroton

Alright, so I germed 'em late on Feb 15, the Vertigos popped on the 17th and the Pandora a day later. Put em in rockwool cubes soaked in plain pH 5.5 water, and when they sprouted they went into the tub (wool in hydroton in net pots). The light is about 2.5 feet above the seedlings.

So we're at day 5 now I guess, and they're looking OK...the first and third Vertigos look really good, the 2nd looks good, the 4th alright, and the Pandora is looking kinda fucked up. The pics go in order: Vertigo 1, 2, 3, 4, then the Pandora last. I saw maybe about 1.5" of a single root dipping into the water on the two vertigo that look the best...

I realized that I used a huge cube of rockwool for each seed, and only about an inch layer of hydroton at the bottom of the net pots...do you think the wet wool could be contributing to poor health? I had the water level at the pot's bottom, but drained it to about an inch below as the wool was wet to the touch on top.

This is my first time growing hydro so any insights are greatly appreciated and +rep! Thanks!

Nice setup mate! Subbed for this one. Im going to run 4 autos in a waterfarm in a couple of weeks when i harvest my critical+

besta luck to ya.........

Thanks badger, let me know when you start that...what strains? And thanks realny.

Day 7

Had to make a drastic decision last night!!

Felt like I made a mistake by using such huge rockwool cubes so close to the bottom of the pots....so pulled out the rockwool and removed the cube so just the starter plugs with the seedlings were left. (None even had roots poking out of the pots yet...all the roots on each plant were bundled up and trapped in between the plug and cube!)

Extracted the roots, propped the plug at the height in the pot that I wanted, added 1.5" hydroton this time and got them back in the tub. Hope that didn't stress them too much.



Emptied the water today, and refilled. Plain tap water for now (tested and it's pretty soft, low nitrate/-trite, etc). This was the first change, it'd been a week, and I just got a new pH meter as well. Checked the pH of the old water and it was around 7.0. Shit!

Added 1tsp/gal FF Grow Big, and 1tsp/gal FF Big Bloom. (Would've gone a little stronger but didn't wanna shock the lil ladies too much after all the roots-pulling-apart!)

Pics later when I'm back. Sorry for the rambling, just tryna keep a good log in here!

i sub'ed up and i'll be following the whole thing.........

Awesome man, welcome on board.

Here's some readings for today:

Room temp: 77*
Water temp: 69.5*
RH: 37%
pH: 5.7
ppm: 430

And pics as promised...sorry some of them suck, I can't get the macro working right lol.



The girls look healthier than pre-rockwool removal, for sure!

They look alright, give them a few days and they will pick up the pace once the taproot get down to the water.
Im going to grow the lowlife auto ak x diesel, I did them before in soil and they turned out quite nice.

DAY 10

They're not looking all that great. I checked the pH and it was at 5.3, not sure why since I didn't add anything. Diluted it with regular water to 5.8. Ppm went down to 350ish.

The cotyledon leaves are bright yellow, new growth is green though.


They're growing really slowly...hardly any roots are making it down into the water, on one or two girls there is no root in the water yet.

I'll grab plant pics in a little, but here's the roots (or lack of). Anything I can do or just wait?

It will pick up in a few days, once the roots get established more

nice setup man... sub'd for the ride! seems you started around the same time I did... will be interested to see another strains timeline compared to mine and how our methods work differently.

Cheers mate

Alright, here's some pics. Misplaced the first vertigo, but everything else is there. Gonna check the roots again tomorrow...gave them some plain pHd water from the top (just a splash).

pH: 5.8
ppm: 450 (found out the base ppm of the water I'm using is 150)



Cheers Discordant, gonna check yours out in a moment!

you fed them to much at an early age!!!!! at that age 150 to 200ppm is plenty.....keep us posted

Thanks for the comment, greenhydro. Yeah I figured ~450 was too high, but they didn't react badly to it. I'm using tap water though and my starting ppm is around 150.


They all have a long, thin root (just 1) down into the water, except the messed-up looking Pandora. I pulled out the net pot and found hydroton plugging every hole, so I pushed a couple around from underneath, and saw a tangle of roots bunched up and trapped. Hopefully they'll drop through the net pot now, we'll see.

Here's some readings:

pH: 5.7
ppm: 420 (no, seriously )
temp: 79.8*F
res temp: 66*F
rh: 45%

Should I pick up a humidifier? If I add water through the hydroton the rh stays 45-50%, but drops to around 30-35% normally.

i did a dwc grow almost 2yrs ago n put the rockwool directly onto the net pot and only used hydroton on top to block out the light from reaching the reservor "algae starts to grow in yur water if u do" water n was only using a 150.5w cfl and they were a foot tall at week 2.5........a humidifier isnt a must unless yur doin a commercial grow.....if u do get a humidifier keep yur humidity between 50 and 60% the entire life cycle,keep yur reservoir temps between 60f and 75f,never ler the water get over 85f cause the water will hold less oxygen,u can use a submersible aquarium heater in yur reservoir if temps r to low.

I picked up a pretty good humidifier at Walmart (dont know if your in an area with one) but it was a relion cool mist humidifier. If you put a warm mist in your room it will surely cause you temp to rise 5-10degrees which might not be a good thing unless your having low temp problems. think it set me back like 28 bucks.... its over by the pharmacy. Guy asked me.... "what do you need a humidifier for?" (i live in a very humid place this time of year) and i was like "uhhh my bedroom"

im really interested to see how the vertigo turns out. thinking bout doing some outside this summer. best of luck.

how is every thing goin ????

Man, it hasn't been going well at all.

DAY 15

I'm not sure what happened, but the roots on Vertigo #2 never dropped into the water...I woke up one morning and found her shivelled, basically dead. I sat it on the very bottom of the net pot but it's looking mighty dead to me

The rest of the girls developed minor roots, but they all started to rot and the root growth stopped. So I got some Hygrozyme yesterday, emptied the res (estimating 15 gal filled), refilled, added Hygrozyme (9ml/gal), and added Grow Big (5ml/gal...1/3 strength of wk3).

I struggled with pH...it kept fluctuating about ph .5...not sure if it's the meter or what, but the meter is brand new, and calibrated twice (Hanna checker meter).

Ended up with a pH of around 6.0 after throwing a decent about of pH down over the course of the night. I'm gonna leave it sit for a bit for now and check/adjust later. Is this normal? pH tap water has been like 6.6-7.2...so does that mean it's my meter or what?

PPM is ~500 (350 nute ppm adjusting for tap water)
Res temp: 67.6*F
Room temp: 78.5*F
Rel Hum: 30%


Attached pics are from Day 13...first 2 are Vertigo 1 (in dark pic you can see the purple veinyness starting that's now engulfed those leaves), then V2 (dead), V3, V4, Pandora.

Let me know, sorry for the lack of updates my laptop charger died!

So after looking around it seems like my ppm's are way too high for them at this stage of the game. Gonna drain and add tap-water, adjust pH and see where we're at.

Ick sorry to see this. Definitely looks like they got burned pretty badly but I've seen stuff worse than that turn around amazingly.