15,000 watts and a few questions. Suggestions?

[joe fresh]

hey thaniel, the yelloowing happening on your plants, is it happening more directly under the light? mine were doing this, yellowing at the tops of the plants but wasnt heat stress, in one of my rooms its 11x11 with 9kw, and the ones directly under the lights would stay shorter more compact but also get yellowish coloring at the tops on the leaves, this imo was caused by the light, just plain and simple too much light, i had the lights about 14" away from the tops maybe less, but thereis no heat probs cuz the plants didnt burn at all, i csan lower the temps down to 15*C if i wanted to, these a/c's are pretty good. so in short to solve my problem i just raised the lights about 6" and the plants got greener.

my thaughts were either A) light bleaching or B) plants were growing so fast that it would run out of ferts before the other ones, but i think option A is the right one.

ive read that at 75w/sqr ft is max recomended light for your plants, at 75w/sqr ft and above if the lights are too close this creates light bleaching, if i had more room i would of spread out the lights, but i got 10 ballasts and relays so i had no coice but to split it in 2 rooms with 10 lights in each room, but i could only fit 9 in the 11x11 room. if i thaught that the extra lights wouldn yield me more then i would drop them to 6 lights, but i know the extra 3 lights is atleast an extra 5-6lbs so im leaving them and gonna work around it and try and fix my rh prob

 

[Mt Toaker]

Just wondering if you can roast a marshmallow right next to all that. I bet it puts out a lot of heat right in that area.

 

[CrumblinHerb]

wow, that looks identical to my Lowes RDWC, even down to the cinderblocks, thats kinda funny

 

[SumDumGuy]

Sir Thaniel,
I thee dub you "A Knight!" This is just so beautiful I can seriously cry. I'm getting goose bumps right now writing this message. The uniformity in your crop is just breath taking to say the least. I wish you great success on this grow sir!!!

 

[SumDumGuy]

Another question, in that last photo, notice the color difference in a few of those light bulbs that showed up in the photo. Does that mean that they have gone bad and should be replaced?

Thanks!

The darkness in your last photo is more camera related. It looks dim when compared to the others and this is because the camera processes the information and tries to give you the optimal photo without too much light penetration. Try disabling your cameras Auto features and just use pure manual with any customizable settings you may like.

 

[Strainhunter]

OP one thing I noticed and neither myself nor anyone else has mentioned yet is since you are running a sealed room you need to exchange the air when your lights go out.


Daytime, lights on:
In order to carry on photosynthesis green plants need a supply of carbon dioxide and a means of disposing of oxygen.
As you already know the average level of CO2 in our air is around 300ppm (and around 1,500ppm max if CO2 is added to your room)

Green plants do respire: at night time they exchange gases just as we do, Oxygen in and Carbon Dioxide out so you want to get rid of as much of the CO2 during the night - hence the re-freshing of the existing air.

 

[grow nerd]

OP one thing I noticed and neither myself nor anyone else has mentioned yet is since you are running a sealed room you need to exchange the air when your lights go out.


Daytime, lights on:
In order to carry on photosynthesis green plants need a supply of carbon dioxide and a means of disposing of oxygen.
As you already know the average level of CO2 in our air is around 300ppm (and around 1,500ppm max if CO2 is added to your room)

Green plants do respire: at night time they exchange gases just as we do, Oxygen in and Carbon Dioxide out so you want to get rid of as much of the CO2 during the night - hence the re-freshing of the existing air.

Really?

Have you ever run a sealed room?

Or grown indoors at all?

Or did you just read a book, decide to come online, and hate / bash away at anyone with anything or a plan? (I've seen you do this quite a bit lately.)

Maybe the reason no one mentioned it is because it's unnecessary (and likely quite counter-productive)?

 

[Strainhunter]

......

Or did you just read a book, decide to come online, and hate / bash away at anyone with anything or a plan?

......

.....or are you potentially the only one taking it that way?

 

[Strainhunter]

Really?

......

Maybe the reason no one mentioned it is because it's unnecessary (and likely quite counter-productive)?

The thing regarding air exchange at night:

Some like to do one air swap with lights off, but it's less work to skip it entirely.
Doesn't mean it is "counter productive" as you stated - just more work.

 

[joe fresh]

woh woh woh, no need for all the hate guys, so far i feel as if this thread is productive so plz lets not hate or bash each other, and lets not start the "he started it " either.

and just to clear it up, in a REAL CGE there is no exchange of air what so ever, as the plants eat the co2 it is replenished to keep levels at 1500 or up to 2000 if plants are growing quick. and the reason it was said that its counter productive imo is simply because the wasted co2 every time you vent(day) the co2 must be replenished and this would make me go crazy going to refill that much sooner

and who mentioned problems with co2 anyways? the only problems i got with it is the plants grow so damn fast i cant keep up, lol

 

[Lazyman]

Well a CGE only needs to be sealed with the lights on really, with the lights off no CO2 is being produced (or utilized) so an air swap is sometimes done, but usually you have to have a fan dedicated to doing JUST that so it's not common. In my area daytime temps are usually higher than I'd want to draw in, but it certainly can help with the high humidity that occurs after the lights go off.

 

[Strainhunter]

joe fresh

I was replying to quote: "OP" (original poster). Not you.

 

[joe fresh]

oh its kool, so stress, its just if the hating starts now then in 4-5 pages this thread will be no longer worth writing in, lol.

but ya i know at night it can be beneficial, but i want to do one or the other, a dehuey or venting at night. and i think that overall the dehuey would be more beneficial because i could run it at night and in the day, so my overall rh would drop in the day and night.

but i do know it would be very beneficial to vent at night. at night c3 plants(weed) do what is called "dark respiration" and neede co2 levels to be below 600 ppm, if the co2 is higher then the stoma closes and then the dark respiration proccess is halted. but i onlky got 5 weeks left on my crop and i was thinking of just doing the quick fix with the dehuey and then when the crop is done i can fix up an exhaust and intake.

 

[Strainhunter]

oh its kool, so stress, its just if the hating starts now then in 4-5 pages this thread will be no longer worth writing in, lol.

....

Nah no hating here, I think grow nerd is just having a bad day or something.

Didn't take it personal as I don't take anything in cyberworld personal.

 

[grow nerd]

I'm sorry to be adding non-content to this thread (and feel free to delete), but I feel that people like StrainHunter isn't going to add anything to the forums, and only here to lecture. I absolutely can't stand folks like that. I'm primarily referring to his actions on another thread, but the general attitude / behavior carries over in others.

I'll tell you exactly why it's counter-productive: you've worked hard at building and producing an environment that is ideal and at your full control, and now you're negating all that by introducing outside air in (with bugs, spores, and whatnot at a likely higher count than internal air)? I guess you could obviously HEPA filtering the intake air, but what exactly are you trying to gain by installing an exchange fan?

Let me tell you what it would take, more or less, to exchange night-time air in a sealed room:

• Exhaust filter (carbon filter, whatever) to throw the smelly air outside
• Intake filter (HEPA, whatever) to filter "dirty" outside air
• Exhaust fan (or maybe a damper system on existing scrubbing fans, but we won't go there)
• Intake fan (or maybe passive on either exhaust or intake?)
• Controller, timer, and/or relay(s) or whatever to time & switch these things on/off at the right time
• Extra CO2

Either way, time, equipment, money, etc, etc...

Now let me tell you what you gain, more or less, by exchanging night-time air in a sealed room:

• Headache
• Empty wallet
  

 

[formulamojo]

• Exhaust filter (carbon filter, whatever) to throw the smelly air outside $15-$20 over head stove filters available at home depot i mean hell they remove the food and grease smell from your house right? why wouldnt they work here?
  
• Intake filter (HEPA, whatever) to filter "dirty" outside air $10-$15 Vacuum cleaner filter available at walmart, these come in cylindrical or square so they will fit many applications.
  
• Exhaust fan (or maybe a damper system on existing scrubbing fans, but we won't go there) old computer fans $10 each at radio shack or cheaper online (they may be small but they move alot of air)
• Intake fan (or maybe passive on either exhaust or intake?) see above about exhaust fan
• Controller, timer, and/or relay(s) or whatever to time & switch these things on/off at the right time while you're at walmart getting the vac filter go to hardware and buy a light timer or 2 these work awesome for turning things off and on whenever you want. $10-$15
• Extra CO2 wow!! this ones gonna be a bitch. i buy mine from the local beverage supply place (i make my own beer and have a tap in my house) or you can get it at dunhams or where ever they refill tanks for paintball

It really wouldn't cost that much for a crude but effective system to vent a room.

 

[grow nerd]

formulamojo, you obviously have no clue. You want me to take apart your weak sauce logic and tell you why it's flawed? Or will you just accept "no, your logic sucks and it's flawed; let's see your Wal-Mart powered grow."?

I know I can exchange some air by having a hamster in a wheel with a straw tube permanently attached to its mouth / nose and having that straw ducted outside (having the straw ducted inside could possibly generate CO2!!!), but I mean, it just isn't gonna cut it most of the time. Plus, installing a motorized (or spring?) damper to keep the hole closed so the hamster doesn't escape at unsupervised times is going to cost more than the hamster!!

But yeah, I know, I know. I'm an asshole. And a bad person.

 

[Lazyman]

Gonna side with Grow Nerd on this last one, how many computer fans do you think it would take to exhaust a 4000 cubic foot room? hehehe

 

[toohighmf]

for this RARE occasion, I'm going to agree w GN. A CLOSED enviro is Sealed. nothing enters, nothing exits. Hence it's name. there is no reason to bring in outside air, and there is definitely no reason to exhaust anything. Plants breathe co2. they produce oxygen. I ran 10K w 160 plants totally sealed, and used a 70ppd kenmore to keep my humidity under 60% in a very hot summer, with the help of a small window AC on recirc. I didn't use a burner. didn't need to. in a sealed 15x16x8' room, my sealed grow took 35 days to kill a 25lb bottle of co2 and never had to add more than the current Aircooled set up and turn the AC on to run constantly. my RH hit 60% at night sometimes, but when you grow healthy plants, their not nearly as prone to PM.

 

[joe fresh]

25 lb bottle thru 35 days?? that sounds impossible unless your plants were all babies, the first 2 weeks i went thru 1 bottle, but after that ive been going thru 2 bottles per room per week, my room is 100% completly sealed , but its natural that the bigger the plants the more co2 they consume, its also tru that the more light that they have the more co2 they consume

and no matter how healthy the plants are pm is more dependant on environment and strain, some strains are more susceptible to pm and mold, as well as a dense bushy plant will have less air flow compared to a loose spaced out plant, so the genetics have alot to do with it. as well as room environment, see i know that my problem is straight up too many plants, not enough fans and need a better dehuey, so plant health has nothing to do with it.

but i will say that plant imune system and plant health play a large role in fighting off any diseases and pathogens, but they do nothing towards wether a plant gets a disease or pm or mold, but they do help the plant fight it off after it gets it