Starter DWC Questions

[jwb87]

hey guys and girls,
sorry in advance if I have missed threads that would have answered my questions, but Ive been scowering these forums for the last couple weeks trying to gain all the growing knowledge I can gain, and here I am in DWC.


I'm looking to build a cab (4'x2'x2') and hope to grow 4 auto flowering AK-47/Blueberry plants in a rubber maid DIY tote seen in Trunk5's. But I have some...errr allot of questions buzzing around.

First off, is that grow space adequate for 4x lowryders? I dont want to cause plant abuse if that is too cramped, but they're not supposed to grow over 3' supposedly. Also with 4 plants is odor going to be an issue from experience? I like chevys odor bucket: Chevymans Odor control bucket , which would be an easy fix, but just wondering if i should build it now.


Also nutes. Ive seen thousands of nutes talked about (Dynagrow/bloom, Adv Nute Bloom A&B, Bug Bud, Hygrozyme, GH, Floragrow/bloom/Micro, Grow and Micro Nutes just to name a few) and which might be best for a lowryder DWC grow.


And finally maybe some suggestions for good equipment such as good computer fans to cool down the area (Ive seen allot of people using 120mm's in sets of 2, intake/outtakes, mostly concerned about noise, going for ninja stealth). Another review would be fore a PPM/EC/PH tester (the truncheons or what not seem to be popular).


I know this is allot to ask from a newb and I know Ive probably missed threads and I apologize, not trying to be ignorant, just trying to make the best out of what I can do for these plants. Thanks for any help you can give me!

 

[PrairiePoet]

Hey jw,

Well, you are trying, that is a good start.

Am I reading that right, your space will be two feet tall, or is that two meters? If it is feet, too short. If it is meters, that will be fine. But I'm thinking you meant feet. Maybe a mis-type? The four foot by two foot floor space should be fine for four plants.

Working off of someone's work is a great way to start. And if they are still around even better. Trunk5 is a good guy, friendly and helpful. A good choice to work from. I'm sure as you are going along, he would answer any direct questions on his setup.

On nutes I've never grown lowryders, so I can't help there. But I would suggest something simple to use for the first grow or two.

Actually a good suggestion is to keep everything simple at first. Don't try to over do it.

While my grow started out to be stealth, at the moment it isn't. Mainly because of fans. What ever hardware you use for ventilation, doesn't matter too much. You just need to have enough air being pulled out. You don't need active intakes if you plan on scrubbing the air as it leaves. Keeping a negative pressure in the cab will guarantee that all air goes through odor control. With a positive pressure, air leaks out where ever it can, bypassing your odor control.

Unless you are feeding CO2, you will need to swap the air out to keep the heat down. Small cabs require more attention to heat problems than larger ones. Small hydro cabs also need to keep attention on the reservoir temps.

Keep reading, and remember that direct questions get direct answers. And most answers are somewhere in the forum already.

Keep the faith,
Prairie

 

[jwb87]

Thanks allot Prairie. I'm sorry I wasn't more specific with my dimensions as I meant 4feet(H)x2feet(D)x2feet(W) (the little ' i used were for feet cause I'm to lazy to type the word "feet")

But Ive measure a tub that I have for keeping my scrap copper (good money to save as an electrician haha) and it wont fit well within that space so I've decided to go 4'(H)x2'(D)x30"(W) to accomodate the tub, and give some room for the pump, and a fan If i need to circulate the air inside the box.

As far as air circulation goes through the box I was planning to use one set of PC fans up high to pass air by the lighting harnass I will build (always looking for good ideas on that, thanks to ideas from great guys such as: The CFL "12-Pack" Grow Light How-To: , DIY CFL Reflector - How To (Simple, Cheap & Effective) , DIY veg CFL reflector , there was another good one maybe by stratologic, but i cant find it anyone have any more please lemme know I love this DIY!!). Then I would run another combination of intake/outtake fans across the base of my cab to draw fresh air across my tub/plants.

For odor control Ive been looking into a couple ona buckets such as: DIY Odor Control Bucket and Chevymans Odor control bucket . And with this design I can control how potent it is by the amount of Ona/Water (diluting yes i know ;p). Then I'll just leave this in my cab so any air pushed out should be clean, or ill just build a shelf next to my outtake fans (inbetween the top and bottom ones) so any air passing OUT of the box will hopefully be absorbed (if leaving it inside doesnt work).

Thanks again for the feedback, any and all is welcome!!!

 

[Wing King 903]

i never had a Temp problem with my grow with CFLs they seemed to be best for me cause they were low heat, low energy, quite, and BEAST!!!

 

[jwb87]

i never had a Temp problem with my grow with CFLs they seemed to be best for me cause they were low heat, low energy, quite, and BEAST!!!

Was talking about this whole thing with some guys at work and they're reccomending using Two, Two foot T8 fixtures. So that would give me a total of 4 T8 bulbs. But T8's are only rated at 17W, but they put out over 1k lumens a pop. Only prob is I'm having trouble finding a higher kelvin (6500-7000k) bulb.

Im going to start another thread asking what people would think, 8 CFLs or 4 T8 bulbs.

 

[Thew1sest]

A few things you'll have to monitor if youre going DWC, is your res temps, ph, and inside temp and humidity. I used Advanced Nutrients Sensi Grow A and B, and Advanced Nutrients Sensi Bloom A and B. Throw in Hygrozyme if your res temps go above 70 F. Trust me CFL's give off heat too, my cab gets hot with those lights in there. As long as you have your CFM correct for intake and exhaust you'll be fine. Good luck

 

[kingredeye]

hey guys havnt done dwc yet but am definetly interested and collecting as much info as i can. hey jw you should through out that light 8 cfl or t8. you might as well just get a t5 setup for the appropriate lighting your looking for. a 2ft 4 tube is like 100 bucks. i look forward to seeing how this goes for you.