1st time grow - hydroponics

this is my first time so if i'm screwing something up or you notice someting can be improved let me know. thanks

my grow space is about 5'x3.5'x7' and gets morning sun but is shaded in afternoon/evening heat.

lighting:
1000w HPS w/ air-cooled reflector
4x 23w cfl 6500K for veg
will be using uvb for flowering
i'm running my lights 20hrs on 4 off so i can use my dryer in the afternoons

cooling:
440cfm 6" inline fan, 6" ducts
12,000btu window-mount air conditioner
the temp is easy to control when the light is off but with the hps going the temp fluctuates - thigs get hot, the a/c kics on, things cool off. it stays between 72-80 with the light on, 66-68 with the light off

DWC setup:
60gal rated aquarium pump w/ 2 48" bubblers
10gal res feeding float valves in 2 10gal totes
5" net pots of hydroton, 6 in each tote

flood & drain setup:
igloo ice chest w/ lid removed
hydroton medium & 5gal bucket for solution

i also have two 2liter CO2 bubblers of yeast and sugar solution. when one's output drops off i'll have the other ready to go.

i put a humidifier in the room because my humidity stays at 20% when the lights on and the a/c is going, 50% in the dark. i need to find a better solution though because its not doing the job.

i've got 12 grape clones in the dwc setup. the ice chest has four bubblegum clones, one purple erkle and one hindu skunk.

today is day four and i figured i might get more comments and/or advice starting a journal

sorry for the novel, its a habit...

-hatch

https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/723-things-know-about-lighting.html

i figured out my light output according to the info in post #1 of the thread linked above.

minimum lumens/square foot: 3000
ideal lumens/square foot: 7000-10000
HPS: 107 lumens/watt
CFL: 65 lumens/watt

i have a 1000w HPS, 4 23w CFL's and today i added 2 28w CFL's.

1000+(4x23)+(2x2) = 1148 combined watts

(107x1000)+(65x23x4)+(65x28x2) = 116620 lumens total output

my room is 5'x3.5' but the back 1' isn't grow space so the lights only need to light 4'x3.5'=14 square feet.

116620 lumens in 14 square feet = 8330 lumens per square foot

when its time to flower i'll rotate a uvb reptile bulb around in each hanging socket for a while. hope i have the cash by then for 3000 bulbs.

also added another air pump and 2 air stones in each dwc tub for more air.

still need to bring my humidity up.

So this is my first project. I was working on plans for a box to put in the garage, which seemed like an ideal place until I realized that there is no vent. Shit. Well I have a room air conditioner that I don't use, and - forgive me if this is a stupid idea - could I just place it in the garage with the box and connect it to the intake fan on the bottom of the box? The garage is on a ground floor and gets very little sun. It's not all that hot now but I'm worried the summer is gonna change that. The box will be 2.5 by 4.5 by 6 feet and I won't be using anything hotter than a 600 watt hps. Will the A/C even help without drawing air from outside the room? Do I even need it or will having an intake and outtake fan in there be enough? The garage will open and shut a few times a day so some fresh air comes in. My alternative locations are small and more troublesome. I don't wanna just give up on this. I'm stoked and wanna make this work. Please help.

groputillor said:

So this is my first project. I was working on plans for a box to put in the garage, which seemed like an ideal place until I realized that there is no vent. Shit. Well I have a room air conditioner that I don't use, and - forgive me if this is a stupid idea - could I just place it in the garage with the box and connect it to the intake fan on the bottom of the box? The garage is on a ground floor and gets very little sun. It's not all that hot now but I'm worried the summer is gonna change that. The box will be 2.5 by 4.5 by 6 feet and I won't be using anything hotter than a 600 watt hps. Will the A/C even help without drawing air from outside the room? Do I even need it or will having an intake and outtake fan in there be enough? The garage will open and shut a few times a day so some fresh air comes in. My alternative locations are small and more troublesome. I don't wanna just give up on this. I'm stoked and wanna make this work. Please help.

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i haven't been around but better late than never, hopefully.

i used a window-mount a/c rated for a 10'x12' room, 12,000 btu iirc. these a/c units draw air on BOTH SIDES. it will suck air in on the front, cool it, and blow it out the front as it's normal operation.

it will also draw air in from the back and blow it out hot as fuck. this is how it works, it relocates the heat to behind the unit.

my a/c hangs out the wall of my growroom into my garage and on anything above warm days my garage stays hot. i have a window open, a box fan on the rear of the a/c unit, and the rollup door up about 1-2' all the time. i only close it before bed and then i open it in the am.

about here is where i should say i don't really worry as much about keeping shit on the d/l as most around here. i'm in cali, prop 215 compliant, within the laws of my county and (as i've learned since embarking on this journey myself) 3 out of 5 of my neighbors grow outdoor - you can see weed growing in three places from my back doorstep. but window a/c's are loud and obvious. make sure its right for YOUR SITUATION.

these types of a/c units are effective for cooling your growroom but they will pump heat out the back.

time to update.

i started out with 14 grape, 4 bubblegum, 1 hindu skunk, 1 purple erkle, all clones.

i totally fucked up on ph and water quality, killed some grapes off, gave the almost-dead ones to my neighbor and now here's what's in the grow room:

4 grapes

4 bubblegum

3 f13 (sativa dom hybrid iirc)

1 purple erkle

1 purple kush

1 hindu skunk

i like it better this way - more variety, better strains.

only 3 of the grapes look really dead so far and its because we didn't try to re-root them. the others that went outside have come back and are doing well but they're not my charge anymore.

i ditched the ice chest and made 4 bubble buckets so there all dwc now. each bubble bucket has a 6" pot, long ass bubble curtain curled up in the bottom, and one side of a dual port 60 gal rated air pump. the dwc tubs are each 14 gal rubbermaids w/ 8 gal of solution in each. to aerate the tubs i got a 45L/min active aqua pump going into two 14" stones in each tub. kinda too much air, the solution is foaming...

i buy ro water from watermill dispensers now, my tap water was killing my girls.

using floranova grow, floralicious plus, sensi cal/mg grow, superthrive and foliar feeding with floralicious plus.

my ph seems to have stabilized after using florakleen and totally re-doing everything from scratch.

pics are:

purple erkle first, then bubblegum, then hindu skunk then a dwc tub of bubblegum & grape, closeup of a bubblegum, bubblegum's roots in bucket and another bubblegum's roots from the dwc tub.

-hatch

i see a lot of guys foil their lids and a lot of other guys giving them shit for it.

i used a few different things to see if any work.

aluminum foil works great to block the light from entering your tubs/buckets but it doesn't block heat as well and reflects poorly. some even claim that al foil's can concentrate reflected light and cause burns.

flex-fix class 1 duct tape is just that, duct tape. it's the stuff on the purple erkle. don't waste your time with this stuff. great for ducts but doesn't block light or heat at all and reflects poorly at best. it was lying there so i tried it...

metallic tape works best. i remembered i had some from a recent mopar build. its the stuff i use for firewall insulation:http://summitracing.com/parts/SUM-350104/

Hey Hatch. thanks for the feedback on my journal. I'm thinking about using aquarium chillers so that I can cut this frozed bottle crap. Have you considered that option?

ducexxx said:

Hey Hatch. thanks for the feedback on my journal. I'm thinking about using aquarium chillers so that I can cut this frozed bottle crap. Have you considered that option?

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i've run a second fridge for years (got a family here) so i keep 24 water bottles at a time in the fridge and 8 in my buckets/tubs and i rotate about 4x's a day to keep the solution between 65 - 70F. i also turned my a/c down so that the room stays between 65 - 75F and that helps a lot, humidity never gets over 20% though.

the grow is on day 28 now, the girls are coming along nicely.

i had some root rot going, probably from too high of water temps. i got some goodies from advanced nutrients and started using them a few days ago.

the root rot seems to have stopped but my solution was a nasty ass mess so they're sitting in ph'ed water right now.

next batch of nutrients are mixed up, for each 5gal of ro water:

4tsp FloraNova Grow
2.5tsp Sensi Cal/Mg Mix Grow
4tsp FloraBlend
5tsp Voodoo Juice
1/2tsp Tarantula
1/2tsp Piranha
3tsp Liquid Carbo Load

comes out to 4.5ph and 760-790ppm. it'll sit for some hours tonight, get ph'ed in the morning then double-checked a couple hours after that then fed to my hungry girls sometime tomorrow.

root mass has already increased noticeably, too. there's tons of fresh thick white strands all over each root mass.

in the first pic the front left plant is a grape, behind that and in the center are bubblegum's and the two on the right are f-13's.

Now THIS is the thread I’ve been looking for. Details are everything – thanks for sharing.

What happened during July and August?

Decriminalize today!