140 gallon RDWC

[Bennyweed1]

OKay so as far as my stock of veggin plants goes....I am finally legit and caught up, except for my last hiccup. Everything looks like it should go well this time around if I iron out some kinks and hold my shit together and quit dicking around...lol.

So to kick things off, I am liking the results im getting with this ultrasonic fogger I replaced the areo cloner for.

For starters, the fogger seems to use or evaporate very little water and it runs 24/7. Secondly, the roots are now fuzzy, where as before with the aero setup, they fuzz never happened. Now whether or not that shit matters is debatable but I just like the way the roots look.

Here are 3 Pure Power Plant clones getting ready for the ebb n flow tray:

All stuffed into their new home for the next 4 wks

So check this out and call me crazy but Im gonna try this out. Basically I plan to veg for a total of 16wks doing hellalot of pruning during preveg.

Basically this is my plan which is all in place now. In this photo below you see the plants in 6" black sq pots under the LED? Those plants are a combination of being 1-2wks old and were just transplanted from the red solo cups(seen to the right) into those sq pots.

Basically they will veg for another 4 wks in those pots and when it comes time to rotate, the plants in the red solo cups will go into the sq pots and the plants currently in the sq pots now, will start their offical 8wk veg in the RDWC area.

And here is the official veg area which will last another 8 solid weeks under this gnarly area of lighting.

These plants believe it or not, are all about 4wk old already. The thing about them is they spent their preveg area in the red solo cups and didnt get the same 8wk of preveg like what is setup now....so they didnt grow that large but had a nasty thick root system.

Which makes me wonder?...Should I be top watering these girls the first few days until those thick roots make their way down into the water?

It seems like they are all thirsty seeing all the plants had a solid root sys. being fed on the reg in the flood and drain table. Makes me want to hook up a small dripper to the top of each bucket for the first week or so. I have all the crap to do but do you think it is worth the time? What would you do?

 

[Bennyweed1]

And here is the last problem I need to iron out.

You see these four healthy beauties?

well here they are now:

They are supposed to be in their bloom cycle now, which is partly accurate. They are in the bloom area but still on a 18/6 schedule and will be probably for the next week.

You see, I was dicking around at the hydro store a week ago or so when I went to pick up some hydroton. I made the rockie, newb ass mistake or walking down the pretty nutrient aisle. And, previously being a barebones, nothing store bought, organic grower for the last 4 years, I know better!

But what can I say, the devil lured me down and I fell free his jackass trickier...that prick....ehh

I ended up buying some horse shit that give me root rot/black shit all over my roots overnight. I am recovering and the plants do seem to be turning around and recovering which is why these sloppy hoes' currently remain on a veg schedule.

 

[Bennyweed1]

And I also took the advice of someone on here that told me to add the aquarium heaters to my reservs. All three resevs got a heater and all three are now between 65.5-67.5 F.

This is a big 300w heater for the bloom area...although I should plug it into my kilawatt because I highly doubt it actually pulls 300w.

 

[Bennyweed1]

And as a precautionary measure as I tailor my shit and stop dicking around.....I have this lil 400w HPS tent blooming plants so I have kinda a cushion as I dial my shit in with the RDWC and larger bloom area.

All these plants are in different wks...with a combination of plants in soil and plants and rockwool.

I really feel good now and aside from this root rot thing which I directly caused...I think everything is on track to rock'n'roll. I got the pH swing under wrap, I know the nutrient profile these hussies like, I got the water temps in the ideal spots, and I got the veg area right where I want it.....-to hopefully pump out some monsters. Send me some good luck, I wanna experience that nug dropping feeling RDWC is capable of...like I see around here!

 

[sahdgrower]

I think the drippers are totally worth it. This is not based on experience from using them though. I just think my plants would have been much happier had I used drippers early on. Maybe even throughout. I am not clear on the logic of having the entire net pot never get any water. It seems the roots in the net pot really like to get wet, just not stay drenched. Actually from my newbie perspective it seems the only part of the whole system that doesn't enjoy regular watering is rockwool. My first go around I placed my rockwool cubes on the bottom of the netpot and filled in hydroton around it. I didn't like this for 2 reasons. First the roots didn't fill the hyrdoton very much, only the root mass that is submerged developed greatly (I have seen others use the 10" net pot and it supported a huge healthy upper root strutcture in addition to the submerged mass), and 2nd I was always paranoid about keeping water away from the rockwool so before the roots were really down in the water they kept air pruning. I corrected this with more dilligent watering but this time around I placed my rockwool cubes higher up in the net pot and I feel it gives me a buffer and maintains more moisture around the developing roots. I stress though this is just my newbie experience and judging by what I see and do, nothing more.

 

[VolcanicDirt88]

nice job benny some what i have in mind of doing great job! i have read all the thread and i see you havent really spoken much of your nutrient line up except for pink roots because of the maxibloom and having problems with ph

i plan on using 7 grams of maxibloom per gallon i plan on going with a 35 gallon resevoir and 7 5' gallon buckets , one bucket will be the control bucket about 64 gallon DWC system

i want to get 8' inch net pots for this system

benny are you using just maxibloom?

 

[Bennyweed1]

nice job benny some what i have in mind of doing great job! i have read all the thread and i see you havent really spoken much of your nutrient line up except for pink roots because of the maxibloom and having problems with ph

i plan on using 7 grams of maxibloom per gallon i plan on going with a 35 gallon resevoir and 7 5' gallon buckets , one bucket will be the control bucket about 64 gallon DWC system

i want to get 8' inch net pots for this system

benny are you using just maxibloom?

I use a combo of maxibloom and maxigrow. I followed the 7 grams per gallon thing and fried my plants. I now stay under .8ec/400ppm and the plants dig it. I recently bought Advanced nutrients 3 part and want to try it out in veg but I said I was done dicking around.

Your going to like the bigger reserv. Way more stable and consistent.

 

[VolcanicDirt88]

i believe you fried your plants since you got to ease that formula from veg to flower

you started using 7 grams for every gallon from the beggining of your cycle with babys thats way to hot 25% percent for seedlings and so forth other than that

thanks for posting benny and for answering my question

i would like to say that your organic soil pics look freaking awesome but im sure once you dial DWC,,,, soil will be thing of the past

i plan on building a vertical DWC set up running 1600 watts total 1 1000W and 1 600W running phantom ballast no more lumatek for me.. i am going to get a 1/2 hp chiller cooling 64 gallons i will also have 12000 btu panasonic ac converter and continious grow check meter ph temp pmm
445 CFM Vortex 6, in fan but i plan on having a sealed room not sure wich ill need a dehumi or a humidifier it is hot all year here and it also rains alot

i am going to run maxibloom 7 grams per gallon once plants are 18 inches talls before that i will go half strength not to burn them

extras are going to be

MAd farmes MOAB

Rock resinator

Snow storm Ultra

Silica Blast

floracious plus

AN CArbo Load

An BIG BUD

AN BUD CANDY
i also got some CAl MAG
i do not own a RO filter but im thinking about it

i have also got some ph down and ph up 1500 ppm calibration liquid also 4 and 7 PH

i will use areotek design for a vertical weed donut

any concerns or ideas would be great i am just starting to buy all the equip as far as DWC

 

[Bennyweed1]

i believe you fried your plants since you got to ease that formula from veg to flower

you started using 7 grams for every gallon from the beggining of your cycle with babys thats way to hot 25% percent for seedlings and so forth other than that

thanks for posting benny and for answering my question

i would like to say that your organic soil pics look freaking awesome but im sure once you dial DWC,,,, soil will be thing of the past

i plan on building a vertical DWC set up running 1600 watts total 1 1000W and 1 600W running phantom ballast no more lumatek for me.. i am going to get a 1/2 hp chiller cooling 64 gallons i will also have 12000 btu panasonic ac converter and continious grow check meter ph temp pmm
445 CFM Vortex 6, in fan but i plan on having a sealed room not sure wich ill need a dehumi or a humidifier it is hot all year here and it also rains alot

i am going to run maxibloom 7 grams per gallon once plants are 18 inches talls before that i will go half strength not to burn them

extras are going to be

MAd farmes MOAB

Rock resinator

Snow storm Ultra

Silica Blast

floracious plus

AN CArbo Load

An BIG BUD

AN BUD CANDY
i also got some CAl MAG
i do not own a RO filter but im thinking about it

i have also got some ph down and ph up 1500 ppm calibration liquid also 4 and 7 PH

i will use areotek design for a vertical weed donut

any concerns or ideas would be great i am just starting to buy all the equip as far as DWC

You have a solid plan. Running a sealed environment is awesome but a lot of work. I know on paper it sounds easy and almost more self sustaining but it is a lot to keep up with. I ran a sealed setup with tents and with liquid cooled co2 and it was a roller coaster!

I want to do it again though! When I was running CO2 in a sealed environment I needed only a demhumi. A co2 burner puts a lot of moisture into the air.

Thanks for dropping in man. I hope all your plans work out. It has potential to yield heavy results.

Oh and personally I would stay away from bud candy in hydro. I have never used it for hydro but its mainly a water down from of molasses which can cause some nasty stuff in a reserv. Dont know if you used it before but just saying.

 

[VolcanicDirt88]

i am all talk right now snowstorms have delayed my plans couldnt make it to the hydroshop yet but i am pretty much decided on certain things benny what type of controllers are you using for your DWC setup

 

[VolcanicDirt88]

benny i would be so pumped just to have your lil 400 w tent setup right now you have a nice lil donut going on though!!! i still have a long ways to go before i get everything setup and i begin my long awaited mission to grow my DWC DONUT

benny i want to learn more about your setup

did you build it yourself ?

 

[Bennyweed1]

Yea I built it and it is a work in progress. What would you like to know? I took most of my ideas from people on here like snype. I just personalized my on thing which makes this hobby unique in itself.

When you say controllers, what do you mean? I don't have anything outside of the norm like timers and pumps. Rdwc systems really are simple systems.

Connect containers in a series, add a pump for current and air injection for the roots and that's it in a nut shell.

Feel free to ask anything you like man. I'm no pro in this department but I'll help anyway I can.

 

[Bennyweed1]

Health is looking golden this go round. I know I said it before but this time I am for sure.

Check these roots out. Just two days ago this plant was in a ebb-n-flow tray. All the roots were up inside this net pot. Now there are exploding down below and growth up top is starting to indicate the same also.

Also, you see they container? I found these at Home Depot. They are a standard rubbermaid garbage can. They are 10 gallons, completely black and light proof and have flat surfaces (not round) so uniseals seal great. Also...they are only $4.98 each. For the lids I used insulation bored, it comes in big 4'x8' sheets with a awesome reflective side and cost like $8 bucks. I just traced and cut the lids. Easy peezy.


Its only been two days since going into the super dooper 2000 veg chamber and growth up top is already evident. These plants are going to get huge.

Photo taken on the 16th:

And photo taken today on the 18th:

The plants on the top right and bottom left really put on some growth. Those plants were also the only two that had time to veg in the larger 6" sq pots, they had a far larger root system established.

 

[VolcanicDirt88]

how many gallons are your tubs

i was going to comment on those 10 gallons small garbage cans how did you rig the netpot on to it

 

[VolcanicDirt88]

how many gallons are your tubs in your dwv vert room?

i went and looked over snypes dwc tutorial Benny did you build your setup of his design?

i like how he explains how to get your airpump and wáter pump much Reading to still do

i am not sure if i will be able to get certain parts required by his design which bums me out

 

[sahdgrower]

VD88, all parts are pretty easy to come by, or alternatives are easy to find. If you can't find any specific part let us know and we can let you know a good replacement.

 

[Bennyweed1]

Ya what sahdgrower said. I used snypes write up as a complete reference tool. I based my air pimps and circulation pump off his recommendations. I however stuck with uniseals because for me personally they are simple. My containers in bloom are 27 gallons each filled with 10-11 gallons.

I'd consider using those Rubbermaid cans I found for veg if I were to build another bloom area. They are larger then 5 gallon buckets and cost less while still being light proof. The lids can be cut to hold any net size pot you want.

 

[Bennyweed1]

My lids are cut out of this stuff bought from Home Depot:

http://m.lowes.com/product?langId=-...22447&store=595&view=detail&nValue=4294858106

Nothing fancy other then gravity holding it down.

 

[Bennyweed1]

These girls are almost over with their first week of veg on the 24th, 7 more weeks to go. Things are on the up n up. I trimmed all the inside growth and topped each plant today and chopped a ton of fans.

350ppm/5.9pH

And the pre veg table is gonna get crazy, plants on the left have over 3 wks to go

One healthy jack flash from the preveg area

 

[Bennyweed1]

The plants in bloom have all turned around since the root slime thing I caused. New growth is evident now which makes me happy as shit. Depending how things go, I might hang the 400w MH back in the middle.

And the extra lil doughnut as insurance.