6 station DWC

[Cajun]

Here we go, I'll try to document as best I can on this grow. The basic setup is 650 watts total (one 250hps and another 400 hps) and the system is 6 buckets in a recirculating DWC system. This gives me more than 100 watts per plant!!! I may add 2 more buckets later.

The system is homemade except for the net pot lids. These things are great! They are a lid that snaps on to any 5 gallon bucket and the netpot is built into the lid. I am probably going to get a spray head for the recirculating water to sort of get an aeroponic affect in there as well. The control bucket will have a float valve and will be connected to the 18 gallon reservoir. I eventually plan to keep the nute level at about 3" from the bottom of the bucket and let the spray head water it mostly. Do you think there will be any benefit from any of this or should I just not worry about any of this and let the water drip into the buckets?

Everything here, the res, control, and all buckets will be airated from a GH airpump. I read somewhere that if you run the airline into a soda bottle and out of the soda bottle it would lessen the noise created in the buckets. I may give this a try and see if theres any truth to that. The pump itself makes a fair bit of noise so I may put it somewhere like in the attic and run lines into the room.

The recirculating pump is a 200 gph fountain pump. I hope this is what I need because I have thrown out the box and receipt! I'll have it pumping into an 8-way splitter manifold and from there into the buckets via quarter inch tubing where we get to what I was saying above about the aeroponic thing.

Ventilation, Presently I have a 265 cfm GH blower blowing into a homemade carbon scrubber. My plans are when I have some money to buy a 400cfm inline fan and a carbon scrubber and vent the room into that through cool tubes. The room is about 250 cubic feet. I hope what I have now is enough to get me through until I can afford the new fan & scrubber. The room is about 250 cubic ft. and I plan to eventually have a 493 cfm fan blowing into a carbon filter (the Can-Filters). I hope this will elimenate all odor problems!

Ideally I would like to have an ozone generator inside or near the room. Are there any detrimental affects from running ozone into a carbon scrubber? Does it de-activate the carbon or anything?

Well one of these days I'll figure out how to attach a picture here and I'll show yall what I'm taking about.

I have a NLxHaze from Nirvana getting ready for cloning. Hopefully in the next two weeks I can get them going. I'm not really that fond of this cross as far as yield goes but the haze is very noticeable in both taste and buzz type. This will be my last run for a while so I'm hoping for a nice harvest. Couple of things I'll need to figure out is about how high or long to let the clones veg for before flowering. The will be spaced about 12 inches on center apart from each other. I was thinkig of having them finish at about 2 feet or a little less since I heard the usefulness of the light is not as good any more than that. So I figure veg them to about 8 inches and then flower them.

I'm sure I left out several details due to my buzz at the minute but I may be overlooking something. My goal in this thread is to make sure I have thought of everything before I get started so I don't run into any unpleasant (and expensive) surprises. Well I hope this thread sparks a discussion that is beneficial to my first multiple plant grow and to the community.

Grow Strong and Stay Smart and Safe out there.

Peace, Cajun

 

[GreatLakes THC]

Great Start

Great Start

Great start Cajun. Looks like you've obviously done some homework before getting started. You should get some nice smoke with your setup and the genetics you've chosen for the grow. Where is the grow room located in your house? You may find that the noise from the pump, although noticeable isn't really an issue for you. Looking forward to seeing what you can do.

Grow on,
GreatLakes THC

 

[Cajun]

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks GreatLakes THC! Yes, I tried to do my homework before getting going. I'm still letting the moms veg... True that smoke is great, I have some from last run in single dwc under the 250. yep, I have never run a pump this big before so I don't know what to expect. It puts off a good bit of noise on a "Dry Run" with no hoses! I can't imagine the fountain pump makes any noise at all. Have you ever heard anything of using the soda bottle as a muffler or is that a myth? Sounds good in theory! What about ozone & carbon scrubbers?

Thanks man, I'll keep the updates coming.

Peace, Cajun

 

[GreatLakes THC]

Soda Bottle Muffler

Soda Bottle Muffler

Sorry that I can't help you on the Soda Bottle Idea. I haven't heard of it before, but then sometimes no news is good news. I don't really have to worry about noise where I'm at, but growers can come up with some pretty ingenious and economical ways to fix issues. You should be able to find something that will work for you either on this site or some of the other forums around the net. Good luck.

I'll be watchin,
GreatLakes THC

 

[GreatLakes THC]

Cajun, how's the grow coming along? Got any updates for us?

GreatLakes THC

 

[sweetgreendream]

Soda bottle pump muffler

Soda bottle pump muffler

I have never tried this but there are several posts on OG by people who claim it is the real deal. Noise is not that big an issue for me except the humming of my ballasts.

hth,,sgd

 

[Forty-Six & 2]

Sweet setup man. You're guaranteed to produce some serious monsters in there. DWC, as you probably already know, creates fast, vigorous growth and stunning yields. You're sure to be happy.

As far as the ozone goes, you might want to reconsider putting an ozone generator in there with your plants. The stuff can be very harmful to people and plants, and plants can even suffer damage from being exposed to too much of it. How much can they take? I really don't know, I just know that too much can hurt them and that the stuff isn't too healthy for us humans either as it's a lung irritant. If you have a carbon air scrubber in there, I don't think you'll have too much use for ozone as that should control the odor nicely. If your current scrubber still doesn't do the trick, then maybe a bigger scrubber and fan might be a better idea. I've used ozone in the past myself, an Air Tiger model, and so I can attest to the fact that it does hurt your lungs. You must be very careful with it. I personally have decided not to use it anymore as I have pets and don't want to hurt them or get emphezyma at an early age. Some people will swear by it, and it DOES work, but it's just kinda iffy and needs to be regulated properly to insure one's safety.

About when to throw your plants into flower. It looks like you've got limitless vertical room in with your setup, and you also have a decent amount of light that is going to be pounding down on your babies. You have the light, the room, and the setup to grow huge plants, so personally I'd let them get bigger than 8 inches before flowering them. I'd grow them to at least a foot in veg before changing the light cycle, but that's just me. Either way, you're going to have some serious nugs on your hands.

Good luck and stay safe.

Forty

 

[Cajun]

GreatLakes THC, I just have the 2 mothers just staying alive under a cfl for right now. I am waiting to get my ventilation / odor control finished before diving in again. Sorry no excitement yet. It will probably be sometime yet before I get underway. I'll post here when something does happen. Besides, right now I'm still enjoying my last harvest!

Forty-Six & 2, Thanks for the input. Thanks for the heads up about the ozone. I have the system in a room off my garage. I'd put the ozone generator in the garage on a timer do you think that would stil be harmful? I really have to have the odor issue solved before I fire up again. I plan on getting a 413 cfm can filter & fan combo and run that exhausting the room with the ozone in garage and passive intake under the door. What do you think, will this work or do you advise different?

Yep, I have the space to grow large plants but the range of "good" intense light is only about a foot or so I've been told. Don't the buds need the most intense light to bulk up? I'll let them go to about a foot in veg if you think th elight won't be a problem.

Peace, Cajun

 

[seeyouaunty]

I'm just confirming that the soda bottle trick works really well for making the airpumps and airstones much quieter. As long as you get it airtight you shouldn't lose any power.

I'm not sure on what your plans are, but the easiest way is to drill two holes in the soda bottle lid one size smaller than your airline tubing.

If you have a carbon scrubber you don't need the ozone unit IMO. The carbon filter will remove the ozone from the air, which will shorten the lifespan a little before you need to replace the carbon. If you have a really stinky strain going and the carbon filter isn't quite doing the job then obviously use the ozone as well.

Good growing to you.

 

[222Simon222]

Net Pot Lids

Net Pot Lids

Hey, where did you get those Net Pot Lids that you talked about?

 

[Cajun]

Yeah, I'll probably give the pop bottle idea a try. I really want to tune down the noise on this run. Any ideas about what to do about the ballasts? The ozone would be mostly supplemental. My homemade carbon scrubber works well but does not get everything. I am going to suck it up and get a can fan & scrubber and hopefully that will do the job.

I found those lids online at: http://www.texashydroponics.com/shop/customer/home.php?cat=64

Would carpeting the floor in the room make things quieter.

How do I go about sealing the door making it light & almost air-tight yet still being able to use it? There is no threshold and concrete floor. I have used weatherstripping around the door jamb but light still gets through and there is about 1.5 inch gap between bottom of door and floor. Will sticking aluminum tape across the airconditioning vent seal it off? I would tape from the ceiling completely over the vent and back to the ceiling then overlap rows of tape. Another problem I had was the smell backing up through the airconditioning vent throughout the house.

I have to revert the room back to normal use after I'm done so I can't make any severe modifications to it.

peace, Cajun

 

[seeyouaunty]

>> really want to tune down the noise on this run. Any ideas about what to do about the ballasts?

I've heard that putting your ballasts on slabs of rockwool works well. Never tried it myself but rockwool is cheap and easy to find usually.

 

[Cajun]

The Mums

The Mums


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Here are the mothers. NLxHaze. A very good high. The plant stinks very bad during flowering and has a very distinct Haze taste. I should be able to get 6 clones off these two mothers. I figure I can get started because by the time I'll need the new ventilation system I will be able to afford it. It'll take a while to get to that point. Anyone have any tips on guaranteeing a successful cloning? I'll be using a homemade aero cloner. need to find some cloning gel. I have powder but I want gel. Do I need to use any Superthrive in the aero cloner or just Ph water?

I have had several successes at cloning but I always get edgy about it

Until today the mothers have been under a 18 watt cfl on 24 hours a day. Today I hit them with blood meal and took them outside to harden them off before cloning.

On a safety note, how much is too much to load on a single wall outlet? The breaker has a 20 amp reset.

Peace from the bayou, Cajun

 

[Cajun]

Well Yesterday I got rid of the rest of my stash because I was smoking too much. Also yesterday 4/20 I cut some clones and began my next and largest run to date. I will be running 8 plants in DWC. The 6 station system is being supplemented by my 2 station hydrofarm home garden giving me a total of 8 plants under the 650 combined watts.

I made another aero cloner out of a 2 gallon bucket. I have the cuttings in the cloner with plain RO water. Do you guys think I need to put some nutes in there to give the cuttings a start? I didn't use any rooting powder because I figured it would wash off from the water. I have never cloned using this method before and hope all the cuttings take root. Any tips or suggestions will be appreciated.

Peace from the bayou! Cajun

 

[Cajun]

No Roots Yet!

No Roots Yet!

I'm trying to be patient here but it's been 11 days since cutting and still no roots. I think I might give them a little dose of GH nutes today to see if that will speed things up a bit. I hope that'll do the trick since I dont think the Mums have enough new growth to start over again. Anyone care to take a stab at helping me out here? I'll toss some pics up later to give an illustration of my setup. Seems all my pics have to be re-sized before posting and then my dial-up service takes forever to post them... that's why I don't have very many pics in my gallery... also I don't have a true to nature grow going yet so no need to post a bunch of pics that will bore you guys to sleep. An OG buddy told me to just use the plain RO water to clone.

Here's his advice on this subject:

"hey cajun, the trick with the pure water aero cloner is to have as pure water as possible while keeping a stable pH.

also a 2 gallon bucket needs to have the water switched out every couple days for best effect.

the idea being to go look for nutes and to absorb the water, the cut end grows root hairs into the oxygenated water. if there were nutes present, it wouldnt go looking very hard, so nothing more than a drop of superthrive or its equivilent."

Anyone agree / disagree with this? I know there are a bunch of experts over here just wanting to help out a fellow growah!

Peace from Down the Bayou!, Cajun

Edit: Here are some pictures to show the progress or lack there of...

Here are the 8 cuttings in front of the mothers. The mothers are very vigerous and the cuttings are all new growth tips

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This picture shows the yellowing of the leaves as the cuttings use up the stored nutrients in the leaves.

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Here is the under side of the bubbler top. You can see there are no roots growing yet. Hopefully the Superthrive I just hit them with will change this.

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As you can see, there are plenty of bubbles in there.

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Peace, Cajun

 

[syko2]

SGD & SEEA...

What-z up glad to see ya around!!

Cajun, I like your set up but their is a few thing's I wonted to point out...

1st Please dont add ant nutrience to your cutting's till you see roots other wise you will kill them.

Your set up will work nicely but I would choose 1 or the other Aero, dwc or drip feeding. No need to add the misters if it's drip feed. For a aeroponic effect run a dwc system till the roots grow into the water then lowwer the water leavel to creat a misting effect by adding a few air stones to your buckets.

Don't bother with trying the soda bottle to cut the noise try a submersable pump that will help.

Also I noticed the lamp and hood was ealy close you should not have a HPS lamp that close it will burn your plants and couse your res to heat up.

Looking good just takes some time tweeking your system..I love ghettoponic gardening!

Have fun learning and growing.

 

[Cajun]

Jumping ship on hydro for now!

Jumping ship on hydro for now!

syko2, Thanks for giving your input my friend! MUCHO APPRECIATO! Don't worry about the lamps being too close, I do klnow better than that! They are just stacked on top of the system for now waiting until I have enough clones to get running. I have decided to go soil this run so I won't have heat issues in the rez since summer is starting in my area. I'll be planting 3 cuttings in soil today ( that's all I could get to root) and beging vegging them under a CFL for a month or so. I didn't add any nutes to the water yet, just a drop of superthrive. Thatks for the advice there. The pop bottle idea was to muffle the sound of the air pump which I'll not be using in a soil grow. The system is a true DWC with the water pump for a recirculating effect. Several members at OG use & reccomend this method.

I'll get around to starting a new thread in the Indoor Soil Grows forums soon as I get under way.

Thanks to all of you that offered help here, Sorry to jump ship on this forum, but I do realize that with the summertime temps in my area and the wattage in that room, reservoir temps would be an uphill battle that would become very expensive. I've already sunk a good bit of cash into this system. As soon as them fall temps drop below 70f I try another go at it hydro style.

Stay safe out there!

Cajun

 

[syko2]

I am sorry you have to wait but better safe then sorry!

If you wont to use the dwc as a rooting chanber work's like a charm, place cutting's stem 1" into the water and 7 to 10 day's you will have root's.

See ya around!