4x4, First DWC, Bubbleponics, Charlotte's Web Clones

Mosspb

Well-Known Member
Light: 1000w MH/HPS (First time growing with this, and a bit nervous about the heat, and power bill lol)
Ballast: Adjustable from 600w-1000w MH and HPS
Shade: Cooling tube
Tent: 4x4 pop up
Filter: 6' Carbon Filter
Water Pump: Aquatop NP-80 Aquarium Submersible Pump
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Air Pump: 4 outlet pump (I dont have a link for that one yet)
Air Stone: 2 per tote (4" x 2" cylinder stone)
Temp Control Switch: Inkbird ITC-306T
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Totes: I'm still trying to find a solid black tote with a removable lid.
Strain: Charlotte's Web Clones
Nutes: GreenPlanet Nutrients


Hello 420, :Namaste:

This will be my 3rd full grow, however this time there are a few twists. In the past I have grown in Promix with 600w of LED power. Those two grows were done in a custom box I designed and built, but were very limited by headroom. This time around I'm working out of a 4 x 4 tent, and taking my first plunge into DWC. This will be a learning experience to say the least.

My clones arrive on Jan 8th, so I need to get this up and running pretty quick.

Right now I'd love any input possible before I actually install my system. I have attached a drawing of what I have planned, so PLEASE feel free to criticize it immensely, as I want to avoid any issues.

Moss

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Looks like a solid plan. There are 2 tanks with 2 plants each? Assuming you are mirroring the setups with airstones in each?
 
Make sure your air pump pushes enough air for the stones. I ended up needing to upgrade part way thru. May not be a terrible idea to get 2 air pumps and run one stone in each with each pump just in case there is ever an issue with one you are still getting air into the tanks and keep the plants happy. Also a little thing I never knew was to keep the air pumps higher than the top of the water level in the tanks to prevent any possible water flowback. I didn't realize that for a long time and just had it on the floor of the tent.
 
Make sure your air pump pushes enough air for the stones. I ended up needing to upgrade part way thru. May not be a terrible idea to get 2 air pumps and run one stone in each with each pump just in case there is ever an issue with one you are still getting air into the tanks and keep the plants happy. Also a little thing I never knew was to keep the air pumps higher than the top of the water level in the tanks to prevent any possible water flowback. I didn't realize that for a long time and just had it on the floor of the tent.

Great Advice.

I actually have 3 air pumps (1 sizeable one with 4 outlets, and 2 smaller cheap ones with 2 outlets). Based on your advice I will play around with the set up to see how they work. Maybe running the 4 channel pump into 1 stone in each tank, and using the other two to power the second stone in each.

I would never have thought about keeping them high than the water line, so I appreciate that insight very much.

How are you finding the temp in your tote? Should I be concerned with that at all?
 
That's pretty much what I did with the air pumps. I have one good 4 outlet that's only running 2 large round airstones and then took my smaller 8L dual output and got two smaller disk airstones. I didn't realize that the volume is important for sizing stones, if the pump is undersized for the stone you get bigger bubbles that don't do quite as well. More powerful pump make for a lot more and a lot smaller bubbles which is a good thing.

Well I'm running COB LED's which are fairly cool so my res temps have been really good. I still run Hydroguard all the time as a precaution either way which is a good idea. Not sure how hot your main lights will be but if they look like they are getting cooled by the air pulling out so hopefully it won't be too bad. It's good it's winter temps so it's pretty simple to keep the whole room cool the tent is in without having to really do much. The only time I had temp issues a little in the res was when the airpump had stopped right as the 18 hour light came on.

Make sure when you place them and as you think about the totes and lids that you will be able to easily lift a corner at least to be able to fit in a water pump to add/remove water from the res and check ph and such easily without messing up the placement of the plants too much. I think for my next grow I'm going to get/build in a little door on the top lid or something to facilitate that easier. It's a little bit of a pain with the plants under a net but then having to lift the lid (and thus plants) a little to work on them where sometimes my placement of stems gets moved if I haven't done all the water adds/ph check and change before working the scrog.
 
That's pretty much what I did with the air pumps. I have one good 4 outlet that's only running 2 large round airstones and then took my smaller 8L dual output and got two smaller disk airstones. I didn't realize that the volume is important for sizing stones, if the pump is undersized for the stone you get bigger bubbles that don't do quite as well. More powerful pump make for a lot more and a lot smaller bubbles which is a good thing.

Well I'm running COB LED's which are fairly cool so my res temps have been really good. I still run Hydroguard all the time as a precaution either way which is a good idea. Not sure how hot your main lights will be but if they look like they are getting cooled by the air pulling out so hopefully it won't be too bad. It's good it's winter temps so it's pretty simple to keep the whole room cool the tent is in without having to really do much. The only time I had temp issues a little in the res was when the airpump had stopped right as the 18 hour light came on.

Make sure when you place them and as you think about the totes and lids that you will be able to easily lift a corner at least to be able to fit in a water pump to add/remove water from the res and check ph and such easily without messing up the placement of the plants too much. I think for my next grow I'm going to get/build in a little door on the top lid or something to facilitate that easier. It's a little bit of a pain with the plants under a net but then having to lift the lid (and thus plants) a little to work on them where sometimes my placement of stems gets moved if I haven't done all the water adds/ph check and change before working the scrog.

I really appreciate all your feedback. It has saved me from a few mistakes already.

My hope is to have my totes ready in the next few days. Once I have that I will set up a wet run to gauge a few things.
 
That might be a lot bigger than you need depending on how big you are trying to make these grow. These ones were plenty for mine: Gro Pro Mesh Net Heavy Duty Pot 3.75"
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Everything I read said to keep light off and out from the res water as best you can, too big of a netpot is just going to allow more light into the water (bad) and/or heat transfer down in. Something to think about anyhow. Your tent is basically double the size of mine, an with the 2 plants in those i've filled up the whole space in veg and not needed a bigger netpot. I'm new too but it seems to be working really well. I also put a cut up paper plate over most everything but the stem on the netpot to prevent light leakage down.
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Netpot size is alse important on depth too. You want your water level to be like 1" below the bottom of the netpot. If they are really big and sit down low in the res then it will limit the amount of water you can run which could in turn limit how much room the roots are able to take up and be happy. So I'd account for that when picking the res tub. Also think about total height of the tent and height of the res vs the light and make sure you don't start with a res that's too tall since you want enough room for the plants to grow fully and maintain the distances you will want for the lights for everything.
 
That might be a lot bigger than you need depending on how big you are trying to make these grow. These ones were plenty for mine: Gro Pro Mesh Net Heavy Duty Pot 3.75"
41c-Nc7ucqL._AC_.jpg


Everything I read said to keep light off and out from the res water as best you can, too big of a netpot is just going to allow more light into the water (bad) and/or heat transfer down in. Something to think about anyhow. Your tent is basically double the size of mine, an with the 2 plants in those i've filled up the whole space in veg and not needed a bigger netpot. I'm new too but it seems to be working really well. I also put a cut up paper plate over most everything but the stem on the netpot to prevent light leakage down.
20190102_205551.jpg



Netpot size is alse important on depth too. You want your water level to be like 1" below the bottom of the netpot. If they are really big and sit down low in the res then it will limit the amount of water you can run which could in turn limit how much room the roots are able to take up and be happy. So I'd account for that when picking the res tub. Also think about total height of the tent and height of the res vs the light and make sure you don't start with a res that's too tall since you want enough room for the plants to grow fully and maintain the distances you will want for the lights for everything.

I decided to go with a smaller res. I will buy some smaller net pots and run two per. This will give me a bit of extra room in the tent, as you said might be more manageable.
 
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Hey 420!,

Almost fully up and running now!

I have 4 Charlotte's Web clones on the way, but in the meantime I decided to pop 2 Xtreme Haze seeds by CropKings.

Xtreme Haze is a Sativa, and I looking forward to seeing those mature. Right now I have the under a 60w LED in rockwool. I can see that both seeds have popped, so I'm super stoked about that.

I have read some nightmare stories about Crop Kings but I haven't had any issues at all getting these seeds to pop. I have found that the strains can be a bit sluggish to grow, which is why I have made the jump to hydro.

Tonight I will post with images of my full setup.

Moss.
 
That should be an interesting combined grow with two strains and one light. That charlotte's web is nearly no THC and high cbd right? Wonder how it'll grow in relation to the xtreme haze to keep heights similar. Did you redesign with 6 grow sites?
 
No Kept with 4 ports in my totes, 2 in each.

I was expecting 3 clones, but my guy is giving me 4. My plan now is to toss one into soil, which I will use as a mother plant, and the strongest two into hydro, which leaves me culling the extra. (Unless I can find someone who wants it.)

I will post some pics tonight. I was super stoked with the way my wet run went, and how the totes turned out.

Moss.
 
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