First Time Hydro!

[Runamok]

Ok... here we go. Starting my first ever Hydro grow. I bought a Waterfarm
and have set it up as per directions. I combined the included ferts as directed for a "seedling" as I really wanted to start slow and work up. I cleaned the clone I had which is from a Snow White with distilled water and put it in the Waterfarm. It is currently under 4 65k 27w CFL. The PH is at 6.0 (I bought a ph kit) and the temps are at 70 degrees or so. I suppose I'll know in a day or so if it'll live and if not...I have 3 Snow White seeds left. We'll see. Wish me luck and send any help my way. Thanx for your support...

The clone in the Waterfarm - to the left are 2 seedling and The newly chopped Bonita to try for a reveg for clones.

As always, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Peace

 

[Damagoman]

Good Luck Buba !!!

Always thought if I went hydro,
the module type systems would be the one I went with.
Someday, maybe

 

[StonerGrower]

Good luck with the hydro grow man. I doubt I will ever try to grow hydroponically.

 

[Boss]

Remember to check the water temp and you do have a PPM gauge right? This is more for a hydro dude, maybe RF will stop in. Good luck man !

 

[Runamok]

Well.. It's been a week now and I've finally gotten a grip on PH and hydro, lol.
Man...this is gonna be a real learner for me, But I think this will be my best attempt yet.I've decided the 400w HPS is just putting out more heat than i can vent / cool so I've decided to get a smaller one,as I am only gonna be flowering 1 or 2 max plants at a time and it IS a small area. I have plenty of time since i have just started vegging the clone. I've managed to keep it alive a week now and am trying a weak 5-10-5 fert solution. Gotta get a ppm meter or something soon. The Clone was a flowering clone and had a rough time surviving the transition from dirt to hydro but is getting new growth now. It looks a bit mutant, heh. I'll take pics in a day or so.

I've also decide to make 2 small DWC jobbers to try to start a few seeds and to have one ready for a clone. Man... is this gonna be a science project.

I'm gathering net pots and parts and will keep ya updated.

Peace

 

[Smokin Moose]

I will be following this journal.

 

[VAGUEtrain]

awesome! and good luck, to be honest im in the middle of my first hydro grow too. ive vegged plants till flower season outdoor organic before, but never got the chance to see what fbloom brings me. anyway me an my father are doing a 400w hps right now and we found some good methods for cooling, considering our high for the day are around 110... the inside of the house gets hot. anyway what kind of room do you have?

we used our ac... we pluged a connector to the vent, with the vent hosing going to a 6inch inline fan. it helped alot but were also about to put an inline fan releasing the air, possibly with a carbon for smell. were not to that point yet though. anyway our hydro store had inlines for fourty i know u can find em cheaper. (p.s. i must have had bad karma today) in the middle of this message i went to raise the lights.... and broke a clone!!! it was like it came apart. ;[

anyway good luck, oh and growfaq forums have a lot to offer for cheap methods on the coolin. cheers!

 

[Runamok]

Thanx for stopping in...means a lot that you'll be checking my grow.

VAGUEtrain...This is my 3rd grow and first hydro. The Flowering area is 2' x 2' x 4' tall. I have side vents cut and I have a homemade carbon filter attached to a Daystar Cooling Reflector and it is all vented out of the top of the flowering area. It just still too hot with the 400w, so in a week or 2 I am going to get a 250w HPS and basically then I'll rebuild the area to swap the lights and put fresh carbon in the filter. I've been fine in the vegging area because it's all CFL, but as soon as I moved both my last grows to the flowering area, I began to have problems. Now I know I've had other issues... but I really think the heat was a biggie. I never could keep it under 90 degrees. We'll see. On a plus note, the clone is doing REAL well in the Waterfarm. I'm excited ! I have a busy work schedule until sunday, so I'll post a few pics then. I JUST now checked the PH and i'm keeping it around 5.5 - 6. The plant seems to be digging it. There are some sad looking leaves at the base of the plant, but all the new growth looks really happy and healthy , much better than I've done before. I attribute the sickly leaves to my learning PH and getting the initial nutes correct. anyway... I gotta head to work. I'll post pics and more later.

Peace

 

[MayorGreenBud]

all is sounding well, i would keep the 400w, and work on temps more. the harvest imo is better w/a 400.

 

[Be Irie]

Hey Run, you can get a vented hood for that 400 and a 4 or 6" fan for it... The heat decrease is dramatic.. It will cost a little bit now but will pay for itself in the long run....

 

[Runamok]

I *HAVE* a vented hood and 2 4" fans attached to it....

I have side vents cut and I have a homemade carbon filter attached to a Daystar Cooling Reflector and it is all vented out of the top of the flowering area.

as per my last post, and I agree , I'd LOVE to use the 400w I have, but the area just gets too hot even vented thru the hood as it is.
I'll put my pencil to the paper and see if I can make it better, but it really seems to much lamp for the small area. I dunno.... keep the suggestions coming.. perhaps I can figure it out so I can use the 400w. I REALLY would like too
With you guys' help I'm sure we can come to a solution. I'll post detailed pics of the setup again on Sunday and perhaps you guys can peruse the situation and help me troubleshoot the heat problem. I just got home from a hot and tiring gig so I'm gonna smoke a bowl and hit the hay.

As always, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Peace

 

[zolar]

double the area of your venting both in and out put pushing fans on in vents pull fans on out get a max min thermometer this is fairly cheap
can you increase your height? cabinet niot plants a foot of extra headroom willl help a lot paint the outside of the hydro unit white

 

[zolar]

make sure your nutes are for hydro i trashed my first hydro with wrong nutes went back to soil

re nutes and ph get a 20 or 30 gallon trash can plastic make up
a full batch and adjust ph last if you don't have a PPM follow directions and then add extra water to weaken your mix lighter feeding won't kill off a plant over feeding will

city water fill big storage rez and let sit 2-3 days before mixing in nute and doing PH [de chlorinate water ] mixing a big batch and covering it to block light stops algae [sp?] also if using hydro nutes should remain stable

cropking.com has hydro stuff and bulk dry hydro nutes but they are not mj friendly but good refs for home hydro folks small scale and smalll commercial applications their hobby store is good and they selll standard references on hydro ie the stuff hydro farmers read look up howard resh author

 

[Runamok]

Well...here we are 12 days since I put the clone in the waterfarm and boy , am I amazed. I need to change the water in the next few days, but I wanted to build my 1st DWC Unit to try before I did that, so I'm gonna build it tomorrow...I will post pics. I have a plant that I have germinated from an unknown seed that is doing well and have decided to put it in the new DWC that I will build tomorrow so I can figure out how well it will do. If it works I will use the first DWC I build for cloning and I will build a 2 plant DWC for vegging the clones. I am very excited by the new growth of the clone in the waterfarm. Seems I may be a hydro guy after all. So far , all this has me thinking I may just do hydro from now on, It's cool, it's VERY easy once ya figure out the PH thing and I'm still being very careful with nutes. Anyway...on to the pics.

The Snow White Clone after 12 days in the Waterfarm...

The plant I plan to put into the DWC I build tomorrow

As always, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Peace

 

[Runamok]

Just for grins I decided to post a shot of some bud that was harvested from the plant that this clone came from for those of you that didn't see my last grow. I know they were premature, But I'm happy with 'em and I'm sure the fully matured buds from this hydro grow will be MUCH better.

Peace

 

[Runamok]

I just finished building my first DWC bubbler. It's a 2 gallon bucket. I put a hose on the outside to keep an eye on the water level and dyed it blue like the Waterfarm. I'm assuming this is so the algae won't grow. I measured and marked the bucket beside the viewing hose to have the water level "just" above the bottom of the net pot. I used a 6" net pot. The water volume will be about 1.5 gallons I'm thinking , so i bought an air pump that is supposed to support 10 gallons of water. I bought a 6" airstone as it was the largest one they had.
All in all, the total construction costs were $21.50. I will put the plant into it tomorrow, as I forgot that I needed time to allow the silicon to dry. I also bought distilled water to start her off ! I will post pics of the Bubbler with the plant in it tomorrow.

As always, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Peace

 

[Runamok]

OK ! The DWC Bubbler is built and loaded ! I started the ph out at 5.5, the nutes are The General Hydroponics Flora Series and mixed for mild growth to start out slow and grow into a frenzy ! Let's see if I can keep a plant alive in this thing. The plan is to use this bubbler for vegging clones and to make another (if it works) for clones with a dome.

The Bubbles !

The Drain / Inspection Tube

The Test Victim

As always, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Peace

 

[Ms.Fox]

That's pretty cool. I wish ya luck!

 

[Runamok]

The test victim has been in the bubbler for 24 hours now and seems to be doing well. The Clone has grown so much
I decided to start LST today. I'm gonna let her adjust to this and grow some more then I am going to try to get a couple
of clones off her. I have a few questions....I am going to revamp the flowering area a bit in the next few days.
I will be redesigning my carbon filter and adding intake / output fans directly to the reflector to make sure I have a cool system.
I have ordered a 250w hps ballast and 2 bulbs. I personally feel that will be plenty of light for the small area I have.
My main concern is height. I am gonna LST as much as I can, but should I top the plant AND LST ? or should I just
continue to LST the hell out of her ? As soon as I get a couple of clones that I am sure will survive, I'm popping the
plant into the flowering chamber. I have enough room for "The Test Victim" in that area also, so I may pop it in there
also to check sex and the reveg a bit for clones off that plant if it's a girl. Sound like a plan ?
Anyway... a few pics of today's activities.

The Test Victim after 24 hours in the Bubbler

The Snow White Clone after her first LST session

Both together in the Veg area

As always, any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Peace

 

[Runamok]

In the immortal words of Rosanne Rosanna Dana, "Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it's always something." LOL

I woke this morning and checked the plants and the bubbler had a large puddle of water under it.
Seems the silicon isn't quite as water proof as I needed
So, I trudged to the hardware store, bought a few fixtures and washers and fixed it.
That brought my costs for the bubbler up to $25.00
The plants are doing well and "The Victim" seems to be thriving.
The LST on the Snow White Clone is doing well. Will post again Later.

Peace