Emperorsplif's Closet DWC

[Emperorsplif]

Well a little intro before I get to my new venture into stealth growing. I am not a first time grower. Many years ago when I was still single I "got a lend of" 2 1000w MH with paro reflectors. I won't go into detail on that grow but had it running for about a year. Started with 12 then went down to 9 plants in soil in what would be a SOG type grow. Short and wide plants. Nice yield for me so didn't mess with it too much.

So onto my new grow. This will be a much smaller operation. The space I have to convert is around 3ft long by 2ft wide by 5ft high. I was planing on running 4-6 plants in a DWC configuration with CFL lights. Heat is going to be a big factor for me as there is no easy access ventilation close by. Will probably be using a homemade carbon filter.

So over the past week or so I have done a ton of research on this and other boards so I would be well armed with knowledge. I plan to build a box that slides into the space I have with space around all sides for air on the outside and so it is easy to remove. I was also planning on designing it so with just a quick slide of an extra board down the middle it can be made into 2 separate growing chambers but that might be a bit ambitious but if I continue on that path then I will be putting in 2 separate light racks. One on each side of the chamber.

The problem I am having is figuring out the right amount of light. As I stated earlier I will be going with CFLs, this is for heat and cost reasons, but in all my research I have been unable to get a definitive answer on amount of light needed. Some say 100w/sqft for flowering while other say 30w for veg and 60w for flower. I know that more light won't do any harm but I'm on a budget here.

So I will be heading out to price some lights and other things today and will post more when I have more info. Pics to come. All help appreciated.

 

[Emperorsplif]

Re: Emperorsplif's Hydro Closet SCROG.

Wow so it took me a little while to get everything together. Had a little financial setback, but up and running now. So went with only 4 plants for my first try at DWC just to keep it simple. Had a bunch of Rubbermaid tubs laying around so grabbed one of them and cut holes for 5" baskets. Might seem weird the way the pipe and manifold are set up but it kind of went together that way and I couldn't get it apart. I wanted the grow camber to be quick to take down in case I get some unexpected visitors. You can see the grow space in these pics.

Here is a couple of pics of the reservoir and light setup. The Panda film is only up temporarily because I can't figure out a good way to install it but still have it easy to take down. I don't want to do too much damage to the closet that I have to explain. Any advise would be welcome. I originally had 6 23w 1600 lumens 6500k CFL bulbs but got bored one afternoon and added 4 more on the side mounts. Plan to add more lights in the future just don't see the point right now. I am running the lights 24hrs right now. Have heard no definitive info on running time during this stage of growth so going on my own logic and watching closely.

So I planted the seeds(2 Northern Lights and 2 White Rhino both feminized) directly into the rockwool, that had been soaked and then the whole reservoir ph balanced over a couple of days, on May 15 and here are 3 of them on the 17th.

So that's where we are for now. They are on straight ph balanced city water. Waiting for leaves to start taking about nutes and such.

 

[Emperorsplif]

Re: Emperorsplif's Hydro Closet SCROG.

Day 4 since planting and the 2 WR already have first set of true leaves coming in. The one northern that was up yesterday still hasn't full opened and the last northern is just breaching the rockwool. Added a cool mist humidifier last night and this morning had to add some water and adjust ph down.

 

[Emperorsplif]

Having real trouble getting temps in good ranges. Reservoir temp is 78 and room temp is 81 with 42% humidity. From my reading the reservoir temp is much too high. The problem seems to be the reservoir pump. When I turn it off the temp goes down. I will have to get a timer for the pump. Any other advice?

 

[Emperorsplif]

Okay so added an AC unit to the room to get res and room temps down. Room is sitting at 76F and the res is at 71. Looks like that is the best I am going to get it without constantly adding ice packs or something to the res. I am also having an issue with ph that I think is just the plants eating whatever is in my city water. It's in the 7+ range every morning. It's now 1 week after the seeds first went into the rockwool and they are starting so show second true leaves so I have started them on a weak 1/4 nute solution that should help with the morning ph issues. Now onto what all you are waiting for here they are at a week.

 

[Emperorsplif]

Day 12 pics.

Well it's day 12 and the plants seem to be coming along well though I am no expert. I think they were getting a bit over watered so I have not been running the pump 24hrs a day. They are on 1/4 strength Miracle-Gro 12-4-8. I know it's not the best but money is tight and it's the only thing I had on hand. I will be picking up some proper nutes when money is better. Room temp is 80 degrees day and 75 degrees at night. Res temp 70-75 degrees respectively. As stated earlier in the thread I have 4 plants 2 White Rhino and 2 Northern Lights started from seeds. They all have roots showing from the bottom of the cups and multiple sets of leaves. If you see anything in these picks that i should be paying attention to please let me know.

First some picks of the cups.

Now the 2 White Rhino

and the Northern Lights.

 

[Emperorsplif]

So while poking around in my reservoir today I noticed some slime on the hoses. Something got in there and started to grow. Luckily I have a spare reservoir. Grabbed my spare and filled it with water, ph balanced it and switched over the plants. Cleaned everything from the first tank and installed it in the second tank. Here is a picture of the slime.

Another weird thing I noticed is that where the water had been hitting the side of the rockwool it had sort of "eaten away". Is it normal for the rockwool to be flushed away by the water flow. I have the pump and manifold set as low as they will go. Will just have to keep an eye on it.

 

[Bassman59]

You really need to get the res temps down. Sub 68f. Adding ice buckets into the root zone is a very bad idea. It will freeze the roots and break them.

You can however, place the tub into a larger 2nd tub that acts as a bath and place ice buckets in that several times per day. This will chill the res well but requires checking often and changing the ice bottles out.

In the end, nothing beats a chiller for DWC. But you can do ok without in a small grow like this.

 

[Emperorsplif]

Yeah I have been trying to get the temps down. I took a small Coleman cooler jug. The one with the flip up drinking spout. Ran a small hose in through the spout and then back out through the spout with a big coil inside. Added water and some ice packs and I pump my res water through the line. Problem is that the pump is still in the res creating heat. Looking for a small 12volt inline pump that I can have on the outside of the tank to circulate the water. Will post pics tomorrow.

 

[Bassman59]

Once your girls roots are in the water you can put the pump on the outside and recirc it that way. It will make a difference.

 

[Emperorsplif]

So been a busy past couple of weeks but finally seem to have all problems worked out. I have been giving them some H2O2 to keep the slime away and also found a small external pump I could use pictured here:

That I can use to circulate water through my homemade chiller pictured here :

They are now 6 weeks old from the day the seeds went in the rockwool and seem to be doing pretty good. have the lights up to stretch them a bit in anticipation of switching to flower cycle this week end.

Seem to have some nice female preflowers on 2 of the plants also.

Not much else to say. Will post more after i have switched to flower stage.

 

[donpaul.p]

subd mate, im very interested in these dwc grows, i also started with cfls and they got me well into flower, are you using the 6400kelvin for veg and the 2700k for flower or a mixture of the 2, i switched to 400 watt dual spectrum hps as i was using around 400watts with the cfls so it made sense, anyways i have only done a small dwc but i got amazing results, i built a 2ltr dwc hempie and went 12-12 from seed with ak47 cross uk cherry cheese, now as the goal was to have one main cola that was my plan, so i cut off any long branches but then when it flowered i let it grow, so i ended up with a huge main bud just slightly smaller than a 2ltr pop bottle when wet and 4 short side branches of nice buds, i have not dried it yet so wont have it weighed up yet, but i know its going to be slightly under an oz i think, which isnt bad on a plant that went 12-12 from seed, this time round ill be doing 2 dwc hempies along side my plants in normal pots, im planning on 4 x 3gallon pots and 2 x 2ltr dwc hempie

 

[Emperorsplif]

I have made some changes to my grow that you might have noticed from the photos. First thing is that they are in a different closet in the rich CO2 environment of my bedroom. I also increased the res size. Allows me to keep better control over my temps. I am currently running 12 23watt 6500K CFL's. I added 2 Y splitters to 2 of the outlet over the small plants to increase the light in that area. I am also giving them a daily "push" to the outside corners to increase light penetration to the middle. I will be adding so more lights in the 2700K range for flowering. Will also hopefully be adding some side lighting. Maybe some T5 grow lights.

 

[Emperorsplif]

Since I have got my final initial setup running I figured I would give a run down of all the relevant info on said setup.



Strain is 2 White Rhino feminised and 2 Northern Lights feminised.
Both Indica I'm pretty sure.
Currently at 6 weeks of veg due to contamination. Switching to flower tomorrow.
Indoor.
Hydro.
Size of light: Currently 12 23watt 6500K CFL's putting out 1600 lumens each.
Closet has a 10inch desk fan for exhaust at top with passive cooling through the bottom and an oscillating fan at opposite end.
Temps stay between 75 and 80 degrees F.
RH is usually between 40-50% hard to keep up with window AC running.
I try and keep the res PH between 5.5 and 6.5 with my test solution. No PH meter yet.
No Pests as of yet. Grow area was sprayed with Home Defense Max prior to start of grow. Couple of dead critters showing up.
I am currently adding a gallon of water a day to replenish what was lost.
I am using General Hydroponics FloraDuo 2 part nute. On res flush day I add it at a strength of 15ml(3tsp) per gallon of part A and 5ml(1tsp) of part B per gallon as I understand the instructions on the bottle. My res is set to hold 8 gallons of fluid. I do not have a PPM meter yet either so when I top up the res every day I use a weaker strength to avoid nute burn or lockout. On a couple of days a week they don't get any nutes. Just water with H2O2 to help with slime.
My water has been coming straight from my tap. I leave it for a couple of minutes for the super nasty to evaporate away then adjust it to the PH I need.
I have 2 Air stones going 24/7. One round and the other a cheap straight one that I will replace soon. I find I get a lot more bubbles from the round airstones.
As I stated in my last post I have a homemade chiller going now. Had bad times with temps in the beginning. Chiller is small cooler with 2 holes drilled in the side at the top to allow for 2 rubber lines, a coil of copper tubing and a small external pump. I have 6 710ml coke bottles that have their tops cut off to fit in the cooler. Frozen in the freezer then one placed inside the coil and the other on top of the coil and the extra space taken up by cooler packs. Fill with water until it covers the coil and keep it at the level when you replace coke bottles which you will do about 3 times a day. Here are some pics.

 

[Emperorsplif]

Here are some pics of my lighting set up with the Y splitters. I like the adjustability of it. The lights can be configured dozens of ways. The only problem is the low quality of the adjusting screws.

And here are my 3 babies today. Clockwise from back left. White rhino, Norther Lights, White Rhino, Northern Lights. Might switch the positioning for next grow.

 

[Scop]

I like your whole setup and the strains you chose, especially!
My only suggestion would be a reflector for above the lights. Maybe some tinfoil or something? I know with those cfl's you lose a lot of light from both distance and because they emit more from the sides (meaning almost half your light is being lost going up).

Just a thought... Good luck!

 

[Happy Kitty]

How did your grow turn out?

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