Behind Closed Doors. GrowerGoneWild (^_^)

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 11, 2009

What goes on behind closed doors (.Y.).

Starting over.. but this time a bit bigger. As you can tell things are still in construction, lots of little bits and pieces to construct, but things are already rolling. I got my youngin's chilling by the pool. Enjoying the MH sunshine. I just got the E&F setup running a week ago and looks like I got the kids outta the shit and into a nicer situation. Ignore the clone in the corner holding on for dear life.. I have hope for her tho.. IF she pulls through I know I have mad skills... Or im just lucky

I'm working on an aeroponic style setup.. its kinda my ripoff version of the Aeroflow's put out by GH. I dont like their price, and I figgured it looked easy enough to construct.

I've kinda cobbled stuff together, for now while I'm finishing construction of the hydroponics. This will be a more challenging setup. I'm dealing with light movers, PLC's. And I'm working on plumbing the place I'd like an automated fillup for the tank.

I've actually come a long way in a week, you should have seen the room 7 days ago. It was bare. I'm still waiting on parts, but for now
while the kids are working on their suntan, I'll be busy making them a different place to stare at the sun.

I'm really looking forward to making this room the way I want it without worrying too much about space limitations.

Anwho' this is my new happy place.. Its gonna take a little bit of time to get things rolling, and I think I have at least another 40 hours of labor to get things looking like a proper grow.

Its a start..

Looks like this place has a bit of a fungus problem.. dammit..

(Dammit!.. whats wif this picture editor?.. freaking attaching picts is a PITA)

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 11, 2009

I think I'm going to pick up some poly today.. I gotta brighten up the place.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 12, 2009

I at least calculated how much poly I need to use..

Started wiring up the HPS ballast. Didn't finish, ran out of wirenuts. And the mounting bracket for the coil is just wrong, I need to pick up some hardware.

Transfered the seedling over to netpots. Then I put the netpots in the 6 inch pots with a little bit of rock around it, I'm more or less trying to force the roots downwards, and when it comes time to put them into the bloom, simply pull the netpots out, and the roots should have already worked their way through the netpots. So the theory goes.. A bit of air pruning.

Testing out the PPM/PH monitor.. Its waaaay outta whack, needs calibration.
6.8 when PH is closer to 5.7.. PPM is showing an error code.

I'm about half finished fabbing up the hydroponics setup.

Right now my mind is kinda working on the fillup valve, and how to mount it in the tank.
I've come up with a variety of methods, the only thing is to find the best method.

Another thing I need to work out is the pump setup, now that I've decided to split off of one hose because I'm not working with the original design of using a single hose. I think it was a good thing to alter the design in the middle of the build. The square vinyl post is superior to the drainpipe I was going to use. Eliminates some of the problems that arose from using the other grade pipe.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 12, 2009

Hmm.. I bought this NSI ballast kit and I'm not impressed.

Advance ballasts are the shit... This ones kinda a cheapskate ballast, more work for me.
the bracket is lame, so I have to spend an hour finding hardware to make it work. Fuck.

I think I got my fillup mount last night, I gotta go to wally world and cut me up a plastic container for my material. I need a 90 degree L to make it work. Cut some slotted holes in it and bolt it to the tank. That way I can adjust height, And the tank valve is adjustable.

I have to do calculations to find gallons per inch in tank.

So this morning im' kinda looking at green air products greenhouse controller to get an idea for my control panel. I'll scribble something out over a cup of coffee.

I'll be working on the setup later today. But I gotta stop at the shop.

-Hardware
-Material for fabrication of brackets for ballast mount.
-Material for fabrication of manifold for the 1/2 lines.
-Possibly a new pump. I'm looking at a 1000 GPH.

Busy Busy Busy.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 15, 2009

Well today wasn't so bad.. but not so great.

-Mounted a fan today, I didn't run any duct work.
-Mounted my float valve in the tank
-Refined the ventilation plan for the room.
-Mounted the HPS ballast.. and wired it.. it didn't work.. dammit. I'll try tomorrow.
-Put the strain finish times on the board. And veg times too.
-Put the new 2000 GPH pump in the tank.
-Removed the crappy 8 foot flo' outta the room.

Stuff I'd like to do tomorrow:

-Mount the light mover.

-Figgure out what the fuck is wrong with the ballast.. First time failure for me I've wired up a few of them but this one didn't go. I'm not sure why I'm getting all uppity, I still wont need it for a few more weeks.

-Fabricate a box for the ozone mixing. I'm trying to do a po' boy approach to treating the air with ozone.

Go back to the store, fabricate a manifold for the pump, I'm splitting the pumped water 2 ways, seeing how I have a 2000 GPH pump, I might add more sprinklers.. In theory that gives me 1000 GPH per side.. Sounds like alot but its not. I ran a 660 GPH, and it wasn't that great. I'd rather have a little more pump than not.

redspaghetti · Dec 15, 2009

Everything sound good so far bro, got any pics of the update?

Happy holiday, :xmastree:

Cheers,

Red.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 16, 2009

Today was productive.. kinda sorta..

-Got my 1KW HPS ballast wired and tested

.. I swear if my old man saw my wiring mistake, he would have dope slapped me.

-Light mover is mounted and tested. I also moved the mover a bit towards the center of the room, in retrospect, it seemed silly not able to walk around the backside of the grow.
A 1KW on a mover with a 48 inch stroke..

-Plumbing for the tank has a bit of a setback and a leap forward. I'm going to keep the diameter of the hose one size, I see no need to swap back and forth between hose I.D's
Its just a loss in volume and pressure if you dont keep a consistent I.D. I'm keeping the parts common.. I'm not to happy with the idea of going to the hydro shop to get some tubing, when garden hose is vinyl and is essentially the same shit. Also I found a splitter for the two sections, so I can independently shut off each side if need be. I just need some elbows to make it all work. Sharp bends are a no-no. Never know if those things will kink

I did reveal a design flaw.. I'm a dumbass..

My stand is literally too tall... Problem... (I did not calculate canopy to light distance and the celing drop for the light)

!!!!!Shit!!!!

Ok so now I got to chop the stand 4 inches, and modify my tank for the new holes. And quite possibly move my float bracket down 4.

Tomorrow.

Fab up new sprayer hose, with new material. Add more sprayers?
Return parts, all that 4 inch crap I'm not gonna use needs to GTFO.
Pick up some 5/8 barbed elbows.
Pick up some ply for the ozone box.
Put a hole in the wall for tomorrow, I need to run water to the grow.

Busy, busy..

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 16, 2009

redspaghetti said:
Everything sound good so far bro, got any pics of the update?

Happy holiday,

Cheers,

Red.

Hi hi.. thanks for stopping by.

Looks pretty much the same, but I'll take a picture soon..

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 16, 2009

Doing some calculations to make sure it all works out.

Total wattage consumed by bloom room.

1510W Amps 12.58 @ 120V.

Load on 15 amp breaker 84% Max Load.

Air Exchange Calculations.

12 x 8 x 7 672 CF

225 CFM Blower for light
100 CFM Exhaust Fan

Exhaust Fan + Exhaust fan CFM 325.

Time to exchange air in room 2.06 min.
or air exchanges per hour @ max CFM's - 10% loss.
26 air exchanges per hour.

Room exhaust fan only.

100 CFM

Time to exchange air in room 6.72 min
Air exchanges per hour - 10% for ineff. 8.02 ex/per hr.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 17, 2009

Slow but productive day today.

Finished fabricating the ozone exchange box.

Got some plumbing done,.. really a good portion of my day was spent at the stores trying to find the appropriate fitting for the aeroponics setup. That and making the ozone mixing box. Forward slow beats going backwards.

Hung the ozone box, the only problem is that we hung it on a wall, where it would be easier to access for adjusting the level. Now I might have to move it if I decide to hang poly.

Ran into a problem with the mover, the little link got disconnected, what happened is last night when I was hanging the rail and decided to relocate it one of the screws got stripped out and we had to grind it outta there. So alot of gunk got onto the rail and jammed up the mechanisim. Had to spend a little bit of time reconnecting the light. And wiping down the rail.

Lesson learned:

Clean up all mechanical parts after grinding next to them.

On the up and up, I am getting a dozen clones from a buddy.

. I hope its cheeze..

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 18, 2009

What I did today.

-Fixed the veg tray, one little rock clogged up things.
-Wrapped the room in poly... beats the hell out of the wood panel that was there.
-Finished plumbing the tank valve today, a _tiny_ leak will have to be fixed tomorrow,
but it fucking works!!!

-Ran the air duct through the wall today,
-Exhaust fan run to ozone box.
-Ozone box is complete, some modifications.
-PH sensors on are sitting in clean water and they need to be calibrated.
-Have to find out whats with the water supply downstairs, for some reason the water is comming out _hot_ instead of cold.. just plain odd.
-Considering putting poly on the celling. I think the leftover piece is big enough.
-Cut new hose for mainfold. Plugging in new sprinkers with additional sprinklers.
-Cut hole in wall for hose to pass through.

Tomorrow.

-Rewire, light socket.. Green safe light will go there, and outlet for fan is needed.
-White concrete paint... Thats right this place is gonna be clean like a hospital.
-Finish sprayer hose
-Hang Blower for light.
-Get Mogul socket ready for 1KW HPS.

Later
- Work on control board for electrical. PLC programming.
- Need some charts for PH and nutrient defs. and plant sickness.
- Make a curtian for the door,
- Need some kind of screen for pump to sit on in tank. So it sits level.
- Return material that I dont need.

Its getting there...

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 19, 2009

What I did today.

-Picked up some concrete paint and some concrete etching acid. I was going to paint but I'm lazy like that.
-Wired up the green safe light, did a little chasing of wires, found the switch to turn on the outlet for the light and fan. I also ran the pull string, near the door so I can turn it on and off when I enter the door.
-Sprayer hose is finished!!!!!
-Float fill valve is finished!!!!! No leaks!!! Found another place to plug in water. I tested it and that thing fills the tank way fast, I might need to secure the fill up hose.
-Blower is hung.. kinda sorta having a few problems with mounting.
-Hang my poster/marker board back up.
-Put up manual for PH meters. etc. PH absorption charts for N-P-K.
-Got ozone unit working in mixing box, ran some wires.

Tomorrow..

-Work on control board
-Work on cleaning up concrete with acid.
-Find the mogul socket.
-Calibrate meters. Find a brush to clean off electrodes.
-Label maker.
-Fix the light mover rail.. has a few burrs on it from the other day.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 19, 2009

Up late.. 2: 54 am here, I'm just kinda working on this PLC. I downloaded the latest Allen Bradley software for my Pico controller, and I think I might use this in the aeroponics project. I was going to cheeze out and buy a Sentinel DRT-1.

Anywho I'm kinda getting used to the new A/B software.. kinda cool tho, it has simulations on it.. so I can see how things are supposed to work.

But I hate to waste a perfectly good PLC even IF it takes me literally hours to program it.

Its going to be a glorified pump timer..

****yawn***** mebby I will take a little nappy-poo.

edit: kewl!.. 300 posts!.. I rawk.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 19, 2009

Dammit.

I was looking at an enviro controller.

Sentinel CPPM-1 I really like it.. I generally like the sentinel controllers. I haven't worked with one yet but.. Mostly it _looks_ like a controller.

Well.. mebby its something I'll get next grow.

Hey, I'm not an EE.. so sitting here doing ladder logic makes my little brain hurt.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 20, 2009

Just cleaned up gear today.

-Put a little drawer for all my gear in the grow room. Put parts away.

-Adjusted the E&F schedule seems like the kids are thirsty. Flood every 3 hours seems more reasonable than 6.

-Figgured out that putting an upside down netpot over the drain keeps rocks away from it better.

-Returned parts.

-Made a to do list.

-Washed out the hydrotank, I will have to wash everything before I start, a little scrubbing bubbles. I know that most plastics have a mold release on them, I dont want that messing up the grow.

-I was going to calibrate, but I had to wash up the sensors first. I soaked them in cleaning solution and now they are sitting in water again. I really need a toothbrush to clean out the ends.. I can literally see bits of flora nova sludge on the end of the probe.

-Picked up some clone gel and a little bit of superthrive (hey it was cheap) for the upcomming cloning.

I think I'll leave things alone for a few days..

whatissixbynine · Dec 20, 2009

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 20, 2009

whatissixbynine said:
none of the pix work!

just uplaod to your gallery, and click

and just paste the link - it does something like:

== [ IMG ]http://www.icmag.com/images/editor/insertimage.gif[ /IMG ]

without the spaces after the [ and before the ]

Well the other day it was acting up.. I'm not sure what was going on. I'm familar with the tags and how to use them.. I just got lazy and decided to complain about it instead.

Anywho.. picts are fixed.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 22, 2009

What things look like 10 days later.

I didn't do too much today, just kinda picked up some clones and watered them and I had other things to do but I promised some pictures.

Seedlings vegging/ Clones veggin

Placement of my aeroponics setup sitting against the wall

Sneaking a peek in the door

Safelight and exhaust fan. The box is a mixing box for ozone... filtered air goes in there and is mixed with ozone.

Holidays are around the corner, things are gonna be a bit slow.
around new years is when things will be popping.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 23, 2009

Today:

-Fabricate temporary light stand. Move veggies to temp light stand.

-Assemble vertizontal reflector and hang.

-Move all items out of bloom room.

-Wash concrete with etching acid, and paint floor with white epoxy.

GrowerGoneWild · Dec 24, 2009

Attack of the clones!!... Made a few cuttings.
AK, Papaya, Crystal, WW, Mazar, NL.

Wired up the light. Tested it. WOW.. that thing is bright in there with the white walls. I need some plants in there to absorb some light.

Mounted the blower in new place.

Calibrated the handheld meter, tried to calibrate the constant PPM/PH meter. PH probe is acting all shitty on me.. fuck..

Started fabricating the powerboard.

Got me some new seeds in:

FreeBee PPP
and
Fem'ed Alaskan Ice

(cant wait to pop these)

Behind Closed Doors. GrowerGoneWild (^_^)

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