First Time DWC Grow Here! - Tips & Critiques Welcome!

I

Imtrimmin

New Member
HI folks, I'm doing my first dwc grow and am looking forward to sharing the journey with yous. Any information or advice you can add throughout will be greatly appreciated and never ignored. I have done a few indoor soil grows in a box that I had built from scratch. It was n awesome experience but I'm looking forward to something a little more meticulous. I'm stuck in limbo at the moment as my lights, seeds, tent and inline fan with filter are in the mail atm. I am gong tmrw to pick up the rest of stuff that will be needed and lots that won't be I'm sure lol you know how it goes. So far here's the list along with a couple questions... Is my tent big enough for 2 plants that I will be lst'ing?
Quictent 32"x32"x62" grow tent
1x 600 Watt digital dimmable ballast with an hps and a mh build.
10x trainwreck feminized seeds;-)
1x 4" inline exhaust fan with a carbon filter
3x muffin fans for fresh air
2 12l (do these seem to big?) buckets with 5" mesh pots filling with expanding clay pellets
Air pump.. Not sure wether to go with 110l and run 2 lines? Or run 2 smaller pumps. I don't quite understand that matter and the quieter the better.
Same with the best nutrients to use, I'm not 100% what's best since I haven't ever had any experience with hydroponics. So any advice on that would be cool. P.s. I grabbed a digital Ph/water temp tester. Along with some Ph up and Ph down.
I'll be starting from seed so would using some rockwool cubes or rapid rooter pucks be the best way to go? Anyways thanks again folks! Pictures to come! All kinds lol I should be receiving everything throughout this coming week! I look forward to sharing
 
hello, DWC is the way to go, but it can be tricky, temps are real important, keep your water temps around 66 if possible(frozen water bottles) replace them daily to the least. I have used only Ionic and now I use GH floranova. keep ppm around 600-700, going more gives me root gunk. It also maybe due to other things as I haven't mastered it yet. H2O2 helps alot and fairly cheap about $11 a liter at my local grow store, if you use it it will kill off some additives. I know beni-bacteria won't work with it. I have found the H2O2 works better than what I have used,(voodoo juice and orca).
 
go with a big pump, once you go into flower you will put 3-4 big airstones in your buckets, totes, or whatever you use, I got to from 5 gallon buckets in veg. (3 gallons of water) to 18-20 totes (10 gallons of water). you will eventually want to build your own recirculating system, which will be much cheaper then buying one. It makes it easier to change water which you will be doing once a week, instead of mixing your nutes 1 bucket at a time, or get a big tote and mix all you water and nutes and then transfur them to your buckets. Get an R/O system, I paid $125 for mine on ebay
 
Wow thanks a lot! That's some great information, along with the videos I'll be off to a good start. I'm definitely going to go with the bigger pump. The local shop was closed today, open again tmrw so I'll be there bright and early. I can't wait to get everything set up and rolling, how about my light size? Think it'll be okay for my 32"x32"x62" tent? I plan to keep the ladies as short and wide as possible. The r/o with a big reservoir is definitely on the agenda. Will definitely make things easier if I do a bigger grow next time.
 
I haven't used rockwool, I used rapid rooters and clonex gel. that cloning method cost me about $80 for heatmat temp gauge and rapid rooters, I just built a clone about 2 months ago that cost me about $70 for a 35 site system(already had a drill)first run on it went a perfect 20 for 20 with oliva's cloning solution and now on my second. A hole saw kit was $10 at harbor freight. Net pot lids(ones that a a net pot built into the cover on a 5 gallon bucket) are about $5 each I believe. Go with those instead of tring to cut out a hole in a lid. I have used 5-6, 8, and ten. really its just a preference on what you like and if you are going to scrog or not. I would recommend on doing 4 under your light and train them for a 4x4 scrog net. 2x2 each plant. for me that is at least a 2 month veg, you might be able to do better, but I like my plants big, I usually veg for 3 months, as I said I haven't mastered it yet, but I am getting better :)
 
I just seen that your in a 32x32 so your veg shouldn't be as long and you might be able to stay in 5 gallon bucket for flower as well, or just grow 1 good size plant under a scrog, totally up to you...
 
your light is fine, I just did my biggest plant so far and got 11 oz under a 600 in a 30x32 scrog. Its in a blockbuster hood. max might be a 3x3, but im going to try a 4x4 next...
 
Did you pick your nutrients yet? I'm running AN pH perfect line. The pH perfect line of nutes buffers the pH to the desired range so you aren't constantly messing with pH+/pH- monitoring and adjusting the pH is non existent with these nutes. Look into insulating your buckets. DWC grows quickly take a turn for the worst if you don't have way to keep res temps under 72F. Pythiam or root rot easily and rapidly takes hold of your root system at higher temperatures. Products like aquashield, DM Zone, and hygrozyme allow you to run at higher temps. 1000w in a small tent will have your temps soaring with only 4 in exhaust. Welcome to the community. You will have have a ton of incredible support throughout your grow.
 
Ah glad to see you stop by dabblers! I was literally just drooling over your journal yesterday lol, Very nice!! Thank you for the info, I'm going to make sure that I keep my temps in a good range. I have heard a lot of bad stories and most allll are products of root rot :-( and as for nutes I haven't decided yet.. Definitely want a pH perfect as I'm sure it'll be a little easier for me being a beginner. I'm going to definitely not go higher than the 600watt for this tent. Again thanks for the advice!
 
High Imtrimmin

With that size tent I'd recommend you go with a Rubbermaid tub instead of a pail. The shorter tubs I use hold 35L of nutes with the 5" net pots and the taller ones that use the same size lid hold 50L. A dual outlet air pump can run 2 tubs tho I use one dual outlet on one tub with 2 - 12" airstones in each tub. If I have 2 tubs going I use 2 pumps with one line from each pump going to each tub. That way if one pump for some reason quits altogether each tub has one stone working and disaster is averted.

Keeping the nutes cool is the hard part to prevent root rot. I always used AN 3-part nutes with peroxide added twice a week and grew many years like that without rot problems. The only time I ever got rot was when I used real dirt instead of ProMix to root my cuttings and figure it was bacteria in the soil that infected my roots. Might not have been but it happened twice so I stick with the ProMix for all cuttings now.

You could easily put 2 pots in one tub and only have the one to deal with. ScroG them and get a good half pound easy with that light. Or run two tubs and experiment with different nute levels or even different nutes to see what works best. Also, if you screw one up you'll still have one on the grow and can veg it longer to up your yield. Even one plant with a screen that covers the whole area above the plant could get you that half pound.


I'm now using AN's pH Perfect Sensi Grow for veg and Connoisseur for flowering. Going to get the Connie veg one next time I buy nutes. Really like them and not having to worry about pH is nice.

L8r

 

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