DWC 4 Ladies

This is my first grow journal. I've learned alot here, thank you to everyone.
I built my own DWC, wasn't difficult, or expensive.
I'm using rockwool for my seedlings, soaked 48 hours in 5.8 distilled before use.
Transplanting into Hydroton and the DWC at 5.8
TDS or PPM is at 250 to start
PH is slowly drifting from 5.6 to 6.1
GH Flora Nova, GH CaMg+
GH up and down
TDS and PH meter
2X4 Tent
2 6 inch Industrial server fans with homemade carbon filters
Speed controller
250 watt MH -VEG
400 watt HPS -Flowering
7500 BTU AC
I also have a couple mother plants in soil @ 4 weeks right now, researching to build a simple bucket cloner. Day 5 since tranplanting into hydroton and the plants have 4 leaves, and roots through pots. Raised TDS to 350 today in DWC, and fed my mothers @800 ppm. Thanks again, and all advice is appreciated.

Check your meters every week!!!!!

More bubbles is better.

Cooling is good if you can a ford it. Frozen water bottles in the res will do the same.

Keep Humidity at 60 to 70% in the day.

Did I mention more bubbles is better.

Best of luck.

Lots of bubbles, got that. Hadn't thought of the frozen water bottle idea, thanks. Humidity is another story, what do you use to get it up that high? A humidifier in the intake room?

or u can put a wet towel in a bowl infront of a fan. I use a cooler for my rdwc and a cooler for my res and I put frozen 1 gal jugs of water in there every day. works great

My room stays around 75, and the tent around 78-80. I'll have to go the 1 liter route on the frozen bottles, small rez. Really liking that idea...

Tried the frozen water bottle idea this morning. Temp went from 75 to about 68, awesome idea.

woodsmaneh! said:

Check your meters every week!!!!!

More bubbles is better.

Cooling is good if you can a ford it. Frozen water bottles in the res will do the same.

Keep Humidity at 60 to 70% in the day.

Did I mention more bubbles is better.

Best of luck.

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My buddy claims he brought these seeds back from Afghanistan. Got'em from a toothless pot farmer, 500 or so. He's been cloning them since he got back, says they're kush, so I kinda believe him.

Frankytokes said:

strain?? bagseed? sounds like a nice setup. subbed fosho.

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just watch the roots as the plant gets older. if the frozen bottle hits them roots it will kill them. U said your running DWC. If you throw a res with a pump to the DWC it becomes RDWC. I use 3 coolers. 2 for the plants and 1 for res. Also run a auto in the center while i veg out the other 2.

Just finished adding a rez, seems to work fine, frozen 2 liter cooling things. Temp in the upper 60's. Raised the plants about 3 inches higher to get a gravity flow back to the rez, feeding through the top with drip line. Changed my water also, upped the nutes to around 800, PH is still drifting slowly upwards. 5.6 to 6.1, then PH back down again to 5.6. Usually takes about 24 hours to go from one to the other. Hope it slows some more, seems to when the water is cooler. Anyhow, all is well, plants getting thicker and taller, will have pics on tonight for day 7 from seedling.

Not gonna feed constantly, decided this morning it was still too early, so I plugged in my timer. 30 minutes ON, 2 1/2 hours OFF.

Here are my one week pics...Hopefully, now that the water temp is under control, next week will be better. Thanks...

Hobgoblit said:

My buddy claims he brought these seeds back from Afghanistan. Got'em from a toothless pot farmer, 500 or so. He's been cloning them since he got back, says they're kush, so I kinda believe him.

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that toothless pot farmer, you describe its probably going to be in the future lol

Not gonna feed constantly, decided this morning it was still too early, so I plugged in my timer. 30 minutes ON, 2 1/2 hours OFF.

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Ur fine to run that dripper 24/7. If you look at waterfarms they run constant with no issues. Plus the hydroton will let the water back down to the res

Water temp is at 65 today, frozen 2 liter anyone, how caveman is that? What a dumbass I am, should probably quit smoking...right.. Ph has reverted to crawling again, not sure if the 2 are connected, but I'm liking it none the less. Wish someone would start a thread about "What to expect from your PH in Hydro", or shoot me a link to some info. All is well, Plants doing their thing.

Had a few PH issues this past weekend. Got my new meter today and realized what a piece of s*it my old one was. I was just below 5.5, and it finally caught up with me, lock-out. My new meter is right on though, and the plants are coming out of it pretty quick. Will have pictures soon.

Hobgoblit said:

Lots of bubbles, got that. Hadn't thought of the frozen water bottle idea, thanks. Humidity is another story, what do you use to get it up that high? A humidifier in the intake room?

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I run a sealed room so the plants help keep it up and I do have a large humidifier. The stomata on the plants open wide at 60 to 70% and they eat the Co2 to produce chlorophyll, which drives growth.

As a rule of thumb I don't chase Ph as you can do more harm than good. I run RDWC and run my Ph from 5.4 to 6.0, as your plants feed the Ph goes up and the PPM goes down so if there eating you will get a change. I will post some info for you in a couple days when I get back to my puter.


I run a chiller and keep my temps at 62 degrees, this is optimum for DO (dissolved oxygen ) and also keeps most pathogen at bay.

Check out post #9

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/445993-woodsmaneh-cool-growing-info.html#post5941300

I was under the impression that as the plants eat, the PH drops, or acidifies, that's the reason for the buffer in the nutes, which counteracts the PH drop. This is also why the PH moves up so quick in the first 2 weeks, plants are growing roots and not consuming as much, so no PH drop to balance. Anyway, that's what I took from the reading I've done, someone correct me if I'm wrong please. Thanks

Woody's right. If your ppm is dropping your plants are eating more of your nutrients than they are drinking water so your nutrient solution is becoming more diluted. This will also make your ph swing a bit as your ppm goes down you ph will rise. When your ppm starts to stay constant and your reservoir still goes down they are using water and nutrients at the same rate and ph becomes much more stable.