AK-47 1000W Closet Cooler Grow

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Shafto

Active Member
Well, I'm definitely ditching my air pump for the next round.

Earlier in the grow my air pump disconnected itself from the vibrations, and i noticed when I checked on things that there had been about twice as much water taken up by the plants than I had expected. This got me thinking that maybe the bubbles adversely affect the roots, contrary to my original belief. I think this is confirmed now that it happened again and I noticed last night... Way more water consumed than normally, about twice as much!

Right now my water flow is low, and I have a shitload of air pumping through my tanks. Next time around, ditching the air completely, and going hi flow water. Heath Robinson is all high flow water, no air, and he's had amazing results (better than anyone else I've ever seen online, and you can tell he's legit, not like that doubleD guy with his indoor bogus 10 pounder claims). I think that may be part of the key.. get the bubbles off the roots! Just keep enough water flow that everything exchanges often enough to stay oxygenated.

Another thing I'm going to do is stop using small netpots. Going to put a big bin in the lid full of hydroton and pump the water right on top of it instead of right into the cooler water. Plan is to grow a bunch of those roots that look all fuzzy like they're gripping onto the hydroton. I've heard them called "air roots".
 
rayishungry

rayishungry

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear that. But when something fails then you have a reason to upgrade. So it'll be better next time.
 
S

Shafto

Active Member
So far I've been controlling nutes with a good ol' measuring cup and adding back fresh water as I slowly let the level drop over the week to maintain what I "think" are stable nutrient amounts. Today, my grow bro picked up a blue lab truncheon PPM/EC meter! I was quite stoked indeed. I immediately tried to test it on my tap water that I use and it wasn't working. I was disturbed and re-read the instructions a few times, and then came up with a eureka moment. Is my tap water so good that this thing can't even measure any PPM? I know that water must have some dissolved solids to even conduct any electricity, so could it be so, water so good this thing can't even come up with EC 0.2/100PPM? And indeed that is the case! Glad to find out my tap water is so good. I confirmed this by shaking some salt into the glass of water I go no reading from and mixed it up.. bam, EC 1.2, ironically exactly what I'm shooting for in my grow.

So what do most people here use when they talk about PPM? the 500 scale or the 700 scale? Both are on the truncheon, but it seems to make more sense to use EC so there is no confusion, as it's the international standard.

Sorry to hear what Ray? Air pump still works, the hole just blew off. I'm quite glad that I've discovered this! I'll be happy not to have to run an air pump any more. It'll keep the res temps easier to manage, quieter, and grow better from what I've been seeing. Just need to up the water flow! I already have a pump, it's 131watt, a little too large for sure, but oh well.. can't go wrong with overkill.
 
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onthedl0008

Well-Known Member
Hey shafto do u have a tutorial on your system anywhere? I notice u have some kinda RDWC. And I'm looking to put my buckets on RWDC I'M JUST NOT ENTIRELY sure about the pumps. All I want to do with my buckets is treat them like an ebb n grow in a sence but keep them on a constant flow. I don't have headroom to raise the buets for them drain back and I wanna keep my res in a dif room anyway. Idk man I'm thinking I can just get an output and an intake pump and run the simultaneously. But what about drain back if the power goes out. Lol man I really have to go rdwc I'm topping my reservoirs twice a day now. I'm gonna go with the cooler like u have for the res I'm just looking for a simple system to chain my buckets together and keep them recirculateing. Thanks ahead of time for ur input
 
rosecitypapa

rosecitypapa

Active Member
Looking good on the grow, good job Shafto!

That's interesting about your experience with water uptake. But before you ditch the air all together, you might want to consider airstones that produce fine bubbles. I run a rig similar to Health, it's designed to run plants with no veg. It took a bit to dial in for happy plants. The flooded tube has venturi jets, airstubes and a 1000 gph flow.

Some ideas:
Google image search: diy ventui

Why DO is so important:
http://www.thcfarmer.com/forums/f9/using-oxygen-generator-increase-do-21102/
 
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Shafto

Active Member
Thanks rosecitypapa.

I'm planning to run a system mimicking Heath as well, his RDWC tree grow setup using high flow water and no air pumps.

As I mentioned, at first I went low flow water and high flow air, that's what I've got right now. Just an 8watt water pump and 45watt air pump, but definitely switching it up after what I've seen on my own with water uptake and with Heath's results. Reading the thread posted at the farmer it corroborates what I've learned before I went high flow air, that bubbles actually have nothing to do with helping the roots or oxygenating the water, it's just the agitation the bubbles cause moving the water around to make sure it all comes into contact with the air where it can get recharged with oxygen from the atmospheric pressure. Moving the water around fast enough with a big pump has the same effect, and when you let it drain through the hydroton like Heath, the water spreads out with a lot of surface area so it can all saturate with oxygen.

I'm sure now that the increased water uptake is from having the air pump not running, I tried it again. I'm absolutely sure right now I'm losing growth/yield from the air pump creating too much turbulence for my roots.
 
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TrichomeTrent

Active Member
Looking really nice man :) I've been wanting to try dwc for a while now but just cant tear myself from my soil/coco... the root mass on your first post though makes it very hard not to :)
 
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Shafto

Active Member
Here's the week 6 photo update. Buds getting nice and fat! New round of bubblegum growing nicely. I let my mother plants die, replacing the bubblegum mom with one of the clones and ditchingthe AK47 mom.

3 more weeks to harvest!







P1010563.jpgP1010558.jpgP1010559.jpg
 
Beansly

Beansly

RIU Bulldog
Shafto said:
Thanks rosecitypapa.

I'm planning to run a system mimicking Heath as well, his RDWC tree grow setup using high flow water and no air pumps.

As I mentioned, at first I went low flow water and high flow air, that's what I've got right now. Just an 8watt water pump and 45watt air pump, but definitely switching it up after what I've seen on my own with water uptake and with Heath's results. Reading the thread posted at the farmer it corroborates what I've learned before I went high flow air, that bubbles actually have nothing to do with helping the roots or oxygenating the water, it's just the agitation the bubbles cause moving the water around to make sure it all comes into contact with the air where it can get recharged with oxygen from the atmospheric pressure. Moving the water around fast enough with a big pump has the same effect, and when you let it drain through the hydroton like Heath, the water spreads out with a lot of surface area so it can all saturate with oxygen.

I'm sure now that the increased water uptake is from having the air pump not running, I tried it again. I'm absolutely sure right now I'm losing growth/yield from the air pump creating too much turbulence for my roots.
Click to expand...
Damn dude right on. Those are some pretty nteresting conclusions you've come to about air bubble growing and DWC. Thank you for making it chew-able for my brain hole.
 
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Shafto

Active Member
Chopped them down yesterday. Sorry for the lack of pics near the end here, just been busy with other things.

I'll snap some of the dried buds when they're done.

I'll be savouring and smoking on this for a while, cause it's the end for me. Was a sad day tearing down the closet yesterday, but I'm out for now. I'm sure I'll still hang around here to see what's going on, but growing for me is over for now.

Was planning to go the medical marijuana route here in Canada, and was gearing up for that... Unfortunately we somehow managed to elect a majority conservative government who is now building over 40 new jails and doing additions to 17 jails across the country. All this while they bring in legislation to stop the medical marijuana program and turn it over to the hands of privatized big pharma, and then more legislation to hand out minimum jail sentences to anybody growing more than 5 pot plants.

What the hell is happening to my country that I used to love? We're turning into Ronald Reagan era America while our neighbours to the south have finally starting coming around to lightening up on the ridiculous "war on drugs" that did nothing but ruin lives and waste money... And yet our conservative government chooses to ignore science and history so they can look good getting "tough on crime" Maybe it's time to start thinking about moving to California. I own my own online business, so I'd just be bringing taxes in and making my own job, not taking one, I'm sure I'd be good to go for immigration.

Sickens me actually. Hopefully in 4 years they'll be long gone... Maybe if things soften back up I'll start my own personal op again, but with 6 plants meaning mandatory jail time, I'm going to move on for now.

For anybody in Canada who didn't know about this, check out bill S-10, already passed through the senate, it was introduced twice when the conservatives had their minority and was shot down. Harper's campaign promise if he got a majority was to pass it within 100 days, which he has failed to do so far, but I'm sure it's on the way.

Oh yeah, Tylenol 3s are now also part of the schedule 3 tier or something, and trafficking a single T3 is 12 month mandatory minimum in jail. A liberal party member brought up a scenario where an 18 year old in high school who had a leftover T3 from having his wisdom teeth removed gave it to a 16 year old with a bad tooth ache and who couldn't make it to the dentist for another day. That's trafficking with an aggravating factor of trafficking to a minor, automatic mandatory minimum of 18 months in jail for that 18 year old kid. Sounds like the kinda country you wanna live in... Eh?
 
poindexterous

poindexterous

Active Member
Wow, that's rough, I'm surprised to hear that, I had thought Canada was way more relaxed about the whole weed issue than the U.S. from all the B.C. stuff, seed banks, and breeders up there?! Sad to see things go that way.

What if you kept one mother and grew just two big plants, what's the punishment for three plants up there?
 
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onthedl0008

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear Shafto. U gotta do wat u gotta do what's rite for u either way we all have or will at one point or another that's fosho.
Hope u do stick around tho ur posts and input are greatly apprechiated. Thanks man. Peace
 
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realcarlos

Active Member
looks great. Out of curouisity how well does the ice pack keep the temps down?
how often do you replace the icepack?
would the icepacks work just as great in a non cooling tote?
 
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Shafto

Active Member
Icepack worked well, I changed it every day. If I were to do it again I'd probably buy a used water cooler. The kind you put the bottle on top of. You can pick them up used for $20-$30. Little bit of fiddling around and you've got yourself a $20-$30 chiller.
 
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TrichomeTrent

Active Member
Shafto said:
Chopped them down yesterday. Sorry for the lack of pics near the end here, just been busy with other things.

I'll snap some of the dried buds when they're done.

I'll be savouring and smoking on this for a while, cause it's the end for me. Was a sad day tearing down the closet yesterday, but I'm out for now. I'm sure I'll still hang around here to see what's going on, but growing for me is over for now.

Was planning to go the medical marijuana route here in Canada, and was gearing up for that... Unfortunately we somehow managed to elect a majority conservative government who is now building over 40 new jails and doing additions to 17 jails across the country. All this while they bring in legislation to stop the medical marijuana program and turn it over to the hands of privatized big pharma, and then more legislation to hand out minimum jail sentences to anybody growing more than 5 pot plants.

What the hell is happening to my country that I used to love? We're turning into Ronald Reagan era America while our neighbours to the south have finally starting coming around to lightening up on the ridiculous "war on drugs" that did nothing but ruin lives and waste money... And yet our conservative government chooses to ignore science and history so they can look good getting "tough on crime" Maybe it's time to start thinking about moving to California. I own my own online business, so I'd just be bringing taxes in and making my own job, not taking one, I'm sure I'd be good to go for immigration.

Sickens me actually. Hopefully in 4 years they'll be long gone... Maybe if things soften back up I'll start my own personal op again, but with 6 plants meaning mandatory jail time, I'm going to move on for now.

For anybody in Canada who didn't know about this, check out bill S-10, already passed through the senate, it was introduced twice when the conservatives had their minority and was shot down. Harper's campaign promise if he got a majority was to pass it within 100 days, which he has failed to do so far, but I'm sure it's on the way.

Oh yeah, Tylenol 3s are now also part of the schedule 3 tier or something, and trafficking a single T3 is 12 month mandatory minimum in jail. A liberal party member brought up a scenario where an 18 year old in high school who had a leftover T3 from having his wisdom teeth removed gave it to a 16 year old with a bad tooth ache and who couldn't make it to the dentist for another day. That's trafficking with an aggravating factor of trafficking to a minor, automatic mandatory minimum of 18 months in jail for that 18 year old kid. Sounds like the kinda country you wanna live in... Eh?
Click to expand...
wow... thats pretty intense.. :cry:
 
McGreens'

McGreens'

Member
I run same pump and its a little noisy. I have no neighbor issues, but my friend had the same problem in his apt. We built him basically a speaker box with dyna-mat?( the silver stuff they put in cars w/systems so nothing rattles) and foam insulation. Acoustic foam like they have in studios would be awesome if you have a source!
 
McGreens'

McGreens'

Member
Hey man move to Colorado, we have MMJ, supposedly two seperate amendments to legalize recreational coming up next year, and you can still buy a home here for a reasonable amount. Keep fighting however you can, the end of this ridiculous prohibition is near!!
 
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