Ravi Singh
Member
Long time coming, lots of trials and tribulations building out my sealed room; then, had some EZ Clone issues and had some downtime so figured "hey, might as well run HP aero and really go balls out with this design" (was an LP aero/NFT hybrid before that).
90 site HP aero octagon (technically a "pentadecagon"), lit by 4 600s (two dual arcs and two super HPS) in a custom vertical cooltube; sealed (like airtight) room, Sentinel CHHC-1 controlling my AC (14K portable, but gonna upgrade to an 18K mini-split sooner rather than later), dehuey (25 pint Frigidaire which is serving me fine now, but will probably upgrade soon for shits and giggles), heater, and watercooled CO2 generator.
So, what you see is culmination of over half a year of room and octagon construction, and some trials and tribulations in getting this show off the ground.
Here's some thoughts I had a couple of days ago (it's from a journal at another site, so some of it might need some context to understand - any questions, please feel free to ask):
First and foremost while it's on my mind, the weatherstripping to hold up the 3.75" netpots is starting to smell mildew-y..............hopefully that won't be an issue, but I'm open to ideas for something else to use to hold them in 4" openings that won't get funky when wet - hopefully when I decrease the misting time and frequencies that the smell will dissipate somewhat.
Digi ballasts also exploded a 600HPS (I think that was my fault though, as there was a "spark" when I plugged it in), and I've noticed that one of the dual arcs doesn't always light the first time - thinking of getting some Digilux, but might just try to make it work with the extra bulbs I have. Haven't replaced any bulbs, but will do that today or tomorrow - been really busy with this fucking terror of a puppy I bought for Ms. Smith for Valentine's Day.
Even though plants dig on PAR and the visible light we see is not that important to them, the difference in brightness between an HPS and a DA is pretty astounding - if I had enough, I'd replace to all HPS when I change out the bulbs, but I only have two extra (one exploded), so there will be one DA left in the stack for flowering.
Evidently I sealed the room up SO well that there's nowhere for the humidity in the garage to go, so there's a bit of an issue with humidity in the outer garage, which is making it moist close to the garage door (can actually see some water stains on the plywood on the ceiling, but nothing too crazy - hoping that warmer temperatures will help mitigate this problem, and less snow - we've gotten a shitload this year).
Had some issues and kinks to work out with the system at first - really, really would've been totally avoided if I would've used aero clones (roots reach into the column) and not clones rooted in pucks - fucking EZ Clone - had a few dry out and die on me (have been replaced), but it also means that the plants in the 4" wyes (closest to the misters) are much larger than the others because they've been growing since day 1, as opposed to some which just started growing a few days ago.
Current misting times are ~6 seconds every 75 seconds to make sure that all plants are getting sufficient moisture, and that means that the larger plants are getting overwatered (in HP terms) and their roots look more like LP aero roots - as soon as all plants have a sufficient root system, gonna cut that back to 2 or 3 seconds every 2 or 3 minutes.
Um, that's about all that comes to mind - looking at the pics, all the new growth is healthy, so any brown leaves are from their "clone" days before they started rooting in the system.
All in all not too displeased - obviously there are gonna be issues when trying something like this, but I feel like I've got everything under control (for the most part).
First three pics are from when they first went in about two weeks ago (maybe a couple days more, not really sure - I'm not the journal type
).
Current conditions are 80F, 750PPMs CO2, and 60% RH.
Gonna top the plants that have been growing since day one tomorrow or Saturday and put a screen in there; from there, hoping to train the plants and be able to flip the switch in about two week's time.
Again, any questions/comments/criticisms, please don't be shy.
90 site HP aero octagon (technically a "pentadecagon"), lit by 4 600s (two dual arcs and two super HPS) in a custom vertical cooltube; sealed (like airtight) room, Sentinel CHHC-1 controlling my AC (14K portable, but gonna upgrade to an 18K mini-split sooner rather than later), dehuey (25 pint Frigidaire which is serving me fine now, but will probably upgrade soon for shits and giggles), heater, and watercooled CO2 generator.
So, what you see is culmination of over half a year of room and octagon construction, and some trials and tribulations in getting this show off the ground.
Here's some thoughts I had a couple of days ago (it's from a journal at another site, so some of it might need some context to understand - any questions, please feel free to ask):
First and foremost while it's on my mind, the weatherstripping to hold up the 3.75" netpots is starting to smell mildew-y..............hopefully that won't be an issue, but I'm open to ideas for something else to use to hold them in 4" openings that won't get funky when wet - hopefully when I decrease the misting time and frequencies that the smell will dissipate somewhat.
Digi ballasts also exploded a 600HPS (I think that was my fault though, as there was a "spark" when I plugged it in), and I've noticed that one of the dual arcs doesn't always light the first time - thinking of getting some Digilux, but might just try to make it work with the extra bulbs I have. Haven't replaced any bulbs, but will do that today or tomorrow - been really busy with this fucking terror of a puppy I bought for Ms. Smith for Valentine's Day.
Even though plants dig on PAR and the visible light we see is not that important to them, the difference in brightness between an HPS and a DA is pretty astounding - if I had enough, I'd replace to all HPS when I change out the bulbs, but I only have two extra (one exploded), so there will be one DA left in the stack for flowering.
Evidently I sealed the room up SO well that there's nowhere for the humidity in the garage to go, so there's a bit of an issue with humidity in the outer garage, which is making it moist close to the garage door (can actually see some water stains on the plywood on the ceiling, but nothing too crazy - hoping that warmer temperatures will help mitigate this problem, and less snow - we've gotten a shitload this year).
Had some issues and kinks to work out with the system at first - really, really would've been totally avoided if I would've used aero clones (roots reach into the column) and not clones rooted in pucks - fucking EZ Clone - had a few dry out and die on me (have been replaced), but it also means that the plants in the 4" wyes (closest to the misters) are much larger than the others because they've been growing since day 1, as opposed to some which just started growing a few days ago.
Current misting times are ~6 seconds every 75 seconds to make sure that all plants are getting sufficient moisture, and that means that the larger plants are getting overwatered (in HP terms) and their roots look more like LP aero roots - as soon as all plants have a sufficient root system, gonna cut that back to 2 or 3 seconds every 2 or 3 minutes.
Um, that's about all that comes to mind - looking at the pics, all the new growth is healthy, so any brown leaves are from their "clone" days before they started rooting in the system.
All in all not too displeased - obviously there are gonna be issues when trying something like this, but I feel like I've got everything under control (for the most part).
First three pics are from when they first went in about two weeks ago (maybe a couple days more, not really sure - I'm not the journal type
Current conditions are 80F, 750PPMs CO2, and 60% RH.
Gonna top the plants that have been growing since day one tomorrow or Saturday and put a screen in there; from there, hoping to train the plants and be able to flip the switch in about two week's time.
Again, any questions/comments/criticisms, please don't be shy.
.....
).
