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My 6kW Blue Dream Scrog

So here's some pictures of my 6kw soil grow using Blue Dream. This is a Legal California Medical Marijuana grow. This clone only variety seems to be a heavy hitter. I actually have some from another grower, along with some Blue Dream hash you'll see in my bowl below. :joint:



So I've got 6 1,000 watt HPS, using the Yield Master II 6" Air cooled hoods, and Lumatek Digital Ballasts.



I have a HydroGEN, water cooled co2 generator, which is connected to a bucket on the other side of the wall to help vent out heat from the unit. It's been working pretty well so far. One thing to remember with these is you need a fairly strong pump to be able to activate them (they are activated by turning on your pump)...


I started with an expensive green air systems main "brain" and a PPM-3 co2 controller. Well, the PPM-3 unit I had sucked, big time. In the less than 2 weeks that it ran, it malfunctioned about 5 times. It would keep counting up the ppm till it would hit 9999 and freeze. Of course it hadn't fired the co2 generator at all. I noticed other people on the forum were having problems with the too, so I returned it and got a Sentinel CHHC-1, which does all the environmental controls with a co2 monitor built IN!! At only $600 it cost nearly the same for the PPM-3, as well as the unit from green air sell for over $600, so the choice should be clear when it comes to choosing the right "brain". It also includes a 16ft. remote sensor for photo sensing/tempurature sensing and co2. Great deal!





For cooling I've got a 12k BTU LG, which is just barely enough to keep the place cold, when its really hot out. I had a bit of a problem with heat here, as you can read below, so i redid all my 6" ducting for the lights with R-6 Insulated ducting. I also bought some insulating covers for my lights from i believe hydro innovations.


Both of those measures brought down the heat in my room quite a bit. I've got special covers on order from the hydro shop to cover my Vortex Fan, which is reading a temps of nearly 130F.


Now I know that huge kink in the 6" air line looks awful.. and it is .. I plan on fixing it after this grow if heat continues to be a problem. I am using a 8" vortex with a 6" reducer which is hard to see in the picture.

I'm not sure why some of these images are coming up sideways since they look fine on my computer, but after uploading them they're sideways, and I can't see any way to turn them using the photo album.

Next is my Hydro Logic RO filter, which is connected to a 100 Gallon Res, which has a float valve that shuts down the RO once the tank is full. This RO can only put out about 60 gallons a day even thought it's supposed to do 100. It's ok, i'm only using about 20-25 gallons a day for watering. The waste water for the RO is sent through the wall to the 55 gallon barrel, which is used to cool the hydrogen. That water gets pretty hot, and the RO waste water really cools it down a lot. There is of course an overflow at the top of the barrel to carry away excess water. I'll post a picture of the barrel soon...



My Nute tank looks the same as my RO tank, but is under the other table. I have 2 4x8 tables, and 2 3x3 tables.


Heres my dehumidifier & thermometer. It does both inside and outside temp, and has a USB port that can graph temps on a computer... NEato!



Using the full House and Garden line of nutrients. A few bottles are missing from the picture!



Now a problem that I think I've licked, but I would like others to confirm that they have the same diagnoses as me. I believe that all the damage in the following images are related to light burn. When it happened it seemed to only happen to the areas that had the highest concentration of light, so i assumed it was light burn. I posted on here with pictures but no one have my a definitive answer. My TDS is between 650-700 PPM, and I adjust my PH to 6.2. PLEASE confirm this is light damage so i can sleep better at night...



So, that's all I can think of for now... I've been training these for less than a week now, and they've all nearly filled in the screen. They've been vegged for a total of between 30-45 days or so.


Love to hear your questions and comments, and answer to my problems. I've also noticed the tips are turning, making me think heat stress may be a problem... More pictures soon, 12/12 starts in a few days :woohoo:

Thanks :joint:
 

rooted

Member
nice pics and grow :joint:

what soil mix are you using? do you flush them at all?

happy growing, and good luck :rasta:
 
Hi Rooted,

Thanks for the comments.. I'm using Foxfarms Ocean mix soil, and I only flushed them once after I got my suspected light burn, thinking it may have been nute burn.. I've never had my PPM over 700, so i don't think it's nute burn...

Thanks again.
 
Yeah mate I agree with you. Those pic's you put up for a second opinion definitely look light light burn.

Everything else looks great man I'm envious. Very impressive. I've subscribed so I hope you update us every now and then, I know others will be interested.

Also, if you've got one of those temperature graphs I'd love to see what it looks like over a couple days.

One more thing: What kind of ventilation system do you have?
 
Thanks for the confirmation BesideHimself... I'll be posting often and keeping this thread updated. I haven't got the usb temp thing working with my PC yet, but i'll be sure to post it when it get it up and running, the software is supposed to have this graphing capability. Also the CHHC-1 has an RS232 interface so it can be connected to a computer. I've done a small amount of looking and have found very little information for hooking it up to a computer, However I'm a Grey hat from way back and I'm kinda looking forward to hacking this thing, and writing some custom software to interface with it if need be.

I have a 10" Vortex for ventilation (sucking air out of the room). I also have a 10" Hepa filter on the cold air intake. I am fitting BOTH with backdraft dampers to help keep the co2 in when the room isn't exhausting. Exhausting will only take place when the AC can't keep up with the heat, and the room needs to be cooled. I also have a 10" Carbon Filter on the end of my exhaust, which I'll post pictures of too..

Here's a picture of the barrel that the RO waste water, and HydroGEN hook up to, note the overflow at the top...



Here's the Ballasts:



And here's my biometric lock, that I gotta show off :)

 
emeraldtri said:
However I'm a Grey hat from way back and I'm kinda looking forward to hacking this thing, and writing some custom software to interface with it if need be.
emeraldtri said:
And here's my biometric lock, that I gotta show off :)

I love you, man.

How long have you been running the Lumatek ballasts? No issues?
I'd like to get a digital.
 
How long have you been running the Lumatek ballasts? No issues?

I got everything brand new, so this will be the first time their in operation. No complaints yet, however it should be noted by anyone buying these 1000w lumatek's that they are voltage specific. If you want 240, you must buy a 240 ballast. I thought one of the advantages to having digital ballasts was you could use any standard voltage...
 

TickleMyBalls

just don't molest my colas..
Veteran
Man, nice grow. way to really take advantage of all of the new advances in grow equipment in the last year and a half or so. looks like you're right on top of the game.
 
An Update

An Update

So today is day 2 of flowering... I just added the Sentinel MDT-1; I got it for it's hot start protection. In the event of a power failure, it won't allow the lights to come back on for a specific period of time (I set mine to 20 minutes as is recommended in my ballast literature). It also has a cycle timer, and a remote heat sensor, which will kill the lights if the temp gets above a temp you specify.... It also features a "night device" plug, which I have no use for....




I also just added what i'm calling a "light lock" to keep light from getting in, when i need to enter during their dark cycle... I'll post a few pictures here, but i'm going to make another post to go in to some detail on it...


As I said before i'll be using the full line of house and garden nutes... Here's everything but the actual A&B


Here's my temp gun, light meter, and Lupe(s)

My TDS and Ph Meter & Calibration Solution...


Check out the knuckles on this super cropped and bent branch... This one recovered, and had pretty big in like 5 days or less!


I found a seed when smoking some herb and stuck it in the dirt. Here she is, 3 days later.... we'll see if she'll give us a little bud.... I think it's afghan purple.



I also added a couple little grand daddy purples, just to have a little different smoke, these guys are in coco/perlite with coco pots...



A few more shots of the girls





Now I found this what I believe to be new light burn on only 1 plant. I'm afraid it's not light burn, since it's only showing on the 1 plant... Please let me know what you think it might be...


Thanks for all the kind words everyone :joint:
 
I know this is a very, very old thread but I just came across it while googling. I'm running my second (and third) Blue Dream cross now and I was having the exact same issue. Mister_D suggested to me that it was an issue with the vapor pressure deficit, or VPD, in my grow environment. He turned out to be 100% correct. Now that I've installed a humidifier and cranked it all the way up, my SSHxBD and Blue Bubba are looking very, very strong, where before they looked just like your plants.

Maybe this will save someone some headaches one day.
 
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