Final Decision : Volksgarden 600w vs. CAP E&G 1kw : Start to Finish in ~1 week

[WheeloFortune]

Ok so lets do some updating. It's friday night, and I got shit to do, so lets look at some budporn.

I think I left you guys off on day 17. . . this was a busy week for me, and I wasn't able to get shots for a week, so we'll start here on DAY 24 Flower.

I did a res change today to the full strength AN nute schedule (moderately light schedule) for week 4. mistake. after everything was add @ appropriate measure, the EC was 2.6. . . too high.
I am not using RO water this time around just because the res is sooo big. here is what it looks like out of the tap:

So 2.6 -.34 = 2.36 EC of nutes. it's only supposed to be 2.0 . . . so eventually I thinned it out to about 2.3 ish, but I still think this is even too high. i should have stuck with the light schedule.

 

[WheeloFortune]

Here are some wheel shots. . . fortunately for you kiwi, I don't try to hid my problems, instead I try to expose them so that keen eyes may say something that may improve my results down the road. it's tough sometimes, but will make you better in the long run. so I have some closeups of the burn.

as always enlightened comments on my problems are always welcome

here you can see some slight yellowing of some fans

some are very healthy

some are showing burn

a pattern will occur where most of the burn is right in the middle, which i think means closest to the bulb. so that combined with visual ques, I surmise light burn. . . what might make i a bit confusing is i think i may have some small nute imbalances as well. umm. . . RW is a bitch.

The man of the house:

 

[StinkFinger]

And the E-n-G.....

 

[WheeloFortune]

DAY 24 BUD PORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[WheeloFortune]

you see some slight yellowing in the EnG too. . . and got a bit of nute burn from the EC, so over a couple days I backed it down back under 2 EC

 

[WheeloFortune]

ok, so before we move on, let me tell you whats up.

on day 26, my boy took his hood back (i was only borrowing it) and i was left with only a 400 hps over the EnG. . .

that brings us up to today, DAY 28 Flower. I finally got everything i ordered, and switched over to the 1k HPS and the Fresca Sol water cooled jacket hood, and small 150w chiller.

everything is a real thumbs up on the fresca!!! it works beyond my expectations, and dont be fooled by air cooled, it's good, but this really kicks ass. . . @ 4" I can feel some decent radiant heat on my hand, but if you just straight up grab the tube, it's cool to the touch. same temp as the water in the res.

just as a note, I bought a second EnG for after the wheel is gone, and I am using the drum as the fresca drum, so I have about 50 gal in there. . . it's hard for me to find good info on the product such as proper flow rates, and how hot the water should be allowed to get, etc, etc. right now, with a 150w chiller running continuously, the high is about 90 and the low 68. i use a 720 gph pump. and a 360 gph for the chiller.

overall I am very impressed with the fresca. . . wish i could try it on the wheel. someday. . . should have bought one earlier for how cheap they are.

 

[WheeloFortune]

Here are a ton of wheel shots:

ugh.

The Fe->Male

 

[Setting Sun]

Those young colas look like they're going to swell into monsters.

Your STS plant looks like a great success!

 

[WheeloFortune]

wheel res is showing issues. bubbly film on the res and dirty mirky. . . i think fan leaves are getting sucked into the res and broken down by enzymes? it's definitely not good whatever it is. the pump is on here.

definitely needs a good flush. . . instead, to save nutes, during a drain cycle i just shop vac'd everything out of the wheel res and wiped it down with paper towels. i should have flushed, bu i was broke and couldn't afford to lose the nutes.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Looks like signs of bacteria living in the solution.

 

[WheeloFortune]

these girls are thirsty these days, and the res went back up again:

I should have just changed it out, but instead I diluted it.

 

[WheeloFortune]

Those young colas look like they're going to swell into monsters.
Your STS plant looks like a great success!

thanks bro, yeah i have found the STS o be fairly easy to apply, and the smaller doses/more applications, worked the best of all of my attempts.
too bad I have these res problems and unfortunately today is the day I make my big mistake.

*I Unhooked the fill pump to the controller because i thought i was gonna have to swap it out for the weaker pump i was gonna use on the fresca. . . but after I sucked the water through the return line like a siphon, and it had equal pressure on both sides, that pump worked fine. I forgot to rehook the fill pump. . . these girls are about to experience a deadly drought. I noticed the error on day 31, 3 days later.

Looks like signs of bacteria living in the solution.

Thanks tor, i think your totally right. everthing seems more clear in hindsight. . . I figured it could be that too, slimy crap on the tubing, etc. . . what could I have done about it? flush right? I didn't start to have fast pH drift till week 6 or so, i thought bacteria would drive my pH up.

 

[WheeloFortune]

Here are some EnG pics, DAY 28 still:

 

[WheeloFortune]

what about these girls? slight yellowing and edge burn on the fans. . . nute burn? Lock out?

 

[WheeloFortune]

so i fixed the pump on day 31, and these pics are from DAY 32 FLOWER

lets take a damage toll:

EnG? doesn't show much up top, but this will stall them out a bit that and the res problem.
But you can easily see how much more robust this system is than the wheel, taking all of the things i throw at it and still producing.

 

[WheeloFortune]

what do you think it will do to the biggest, thirstiest wheelo's? their fans already under heat damage well hydrated!

 

[WheeloFortune]

infact at this point, i just decided to cull them. they are shading plants that can actually still use light, so bam - the tightness of the wheel shows up. 12 plants culled, with 4 more to follow. so 16/80 lost.

 

[WheeloFortune]

some new equipment, the mover I ordered. el cheapo version from hydrofarm. . . 6' for under $100. yup. stationary motor, and chain drive. probably not as nice, but it works fine in the test. . . for the rest of this grow, I will keep the light stationary over the 4x4 area. I'm using the EnG plastic spirals to make sure the tubing to the fresca doesn't kink. . that could be bad. . . on a mover that joint would be worked. . . you can see the bend from before i used the spirals, and fed some more slack. . . i want to get a stronger pump for safety of the flow.

you can see the carbon filter in the background. with and 8" inline duct assist

here is the chiller, dumping a bit of water, and adding cold tap will help dring it down if you want to give it a boost. . . I need to work something out with ice. lol. el chepo till i can afford a big chiller.

i ziptied loops into the fresca's tubing to prevent kinks.

 

[KiwiKing]

I'm glad the 150w chiller is working for you. 90f should def. be fine...I think they are actually running test on it with out water so... Also if you gor to bestcoastgrowers and email them a guy named levi will answer all your questions. I think they recommend a 400+ GPH pump. I found that using stiff poly hose with the fresca works best, especially on the water out line (its also the cheapest). I actually needed to make the hose longer so slipped the flexible vinyl line over the poly tubing and secured it with a clamp...works great.

 

[WheeloFortune]

I'm glad the 150w chiller is working for you. 90f should def. be fine...I think they are actually running test on it with out water so... Also if you gor to bestcoastgrowers and email them a guy named levi will answer all your questions. I think they recommend a 400+ GPH pump. I found that using stiff poly hose with the fresca works best, especially on the water out line (its also the cheapest). I actually needed to make the hose longer so slipped the flexible vinyl line over the poly tubing and secured it with a clamp...works great.

thanks for the advice bro. . . I thought about some stiffer tubing, but the only thing is I'm going to be using a light mover on my next grow, so it has to be somewhat flexible. . . I have been thinking of different configurations with elbows and other stuff to make it move easier, but it's working the way I have it now, so for the moment, and for money's sake, I just gotta leave it for now.

the chiller is working fine now, but its still kinda cold out. . . i'll have to upgrade by summertime because it's not gonna get the job done when its hot out.