Hyena's Never-Ending Adventures In Growing

Highya HM,

That's some kind of light power in the nursery/lab! Many growers don't have that much in their flower room! I think it'll work, lol.
Given your previous grow record, 5 lbs should be no problem. You're a conscientious grower. Only a disaster would keep you from that. I hope you don't have one. Cheers
 
Hey hey it's Monday!

Why not a HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!

This time of year is busy busy busy...and it isn't helping things one bit that I've decided to take on an out-of-state construction project...my time is becoming very precious. I was able to go up once this week to the Grow House and I got a little further along on the power supply. I was able to get the control box connected and run the power for the first light, and of course the light didn't light. That's okay, I'm sure there's something I don't understand, a switch somewhere? Since there were no instructions whatsoever in the box I assumed the light was fully ready to plug and play but nothing in life works that way does it? I called the manufacturer this morning and asked if someone can call me and advise...

The clock is ticking, obviously. I still think I will have everything built by the time I have to move the girls but I'm getting that first tingling of apprehension. I have a LOT of road ahead still to have this first grow room operational and I'm at about 30% or so.

Back home in the lab, the girls are all fully in the game now.


Everyone is gaining weight now, just like I expected. All four of each variety look good. Nice, the light I'm pounding in there is working and again that COB is a mini beast. I already raised the lights a couple inches!

Each plant is developing the characteristic girth I demand from my babies...


It's on like Donkey Kong.

To further complicate stuff, we are going on a five-day annual houseboat trip where we go to Norris Lake with thirty-plus other people and tie three huge houseboats together in a cove in the middle of nowhere, and recreate all day on a bunch of boats and jet skis, then have a costumed dance party every night. We leave Thursday. So, I think my next window for some work on the grow house will be Wednesday early through Thursday morning. With a three-hour drive on each end it's got to be power time when I'm there. I hope to have an answer from Grower's Lights and get the other two Quantum Boards up and running this trip.

Got to go! Busy!

Peace, Hyena
 
Go, Man, Go, HM. Which fire to put out first?!? Much fun. You'll get the hang of getting order to an unruly situation. How much more time will it take to get the first grow room ready? And how much more time before you'll need to use it? Always good to know your boundries. Soon, you'll look back at all these preparations and think "I remember all the trouble getting set up", and just smile about it as you release a bong full of smoke! Cheers
 
Go, Man, Go, HM. Which fire to put out first?!? Much fun. You'll get the hang of getting order to an unruly situation. How much more time will it take to get the first grow room ready? And how much more time before you'll need to use it? Always good to know your boundries. Soon, you'll look back at all these preparations and think "I remember all the trouble getting set up", and just smile about it as you release a bong full of smoke! Cheers

Honestly I probably have only a couple weeks before the plants will outgrow their nursery. I have a lot to solve and assemble, oh Brother. Crikey!


Peace, Hyena
 
No multimeter handy for the basics? What make/model LED driver does your light use anyway?

Thanks pal, I didn't want to highlight the obvious fact that I wasn't prepared with a simple freaking circuit tester.

Probably just a simple wiring error by a non-electrician. Me. I'll figure it out tomorrow...with my tester. :laughtwo:

Peace, Hyena
 
Well...excited to be going on the annual houseboat party weekend! What's that you ask? It's...

But first,

Here's a HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!!

I was only at the grow house for 20 hours but made the most of it. Got the wiring finished for the lights, and got the three lights up and mounted in the tent. These were two actually very hard things and I'm not exactly looking forward to doing it again in the other room but for now we're past it. The lights are beasts and look good:


Ran the wires for the power individually to each light to minimize single points of potential failure...I only like the idea of daisy chaining grow lights if you're there all the time for several reasons. Since everything is 240 volts connectors must be industrial grade and connections must be tight. I'm actually a very capable guy when it comes to wiring, just extra cautious whenever I'm doing anything where a mistake could have major consequences. I went slow.

Main box:


Tasteful conduit through hallway:


And mega plugs!


However, still no actual light from these monsters...because there is no power coming from the main power box, a Titan controller made for 240v/8 lights with 2 120v timer cords to control on/off time of up to four lights each. I don't know why but I have a hunch it's because the plug wired to the box isn't wired correctly. I didn't do it...last time here I went to the same electricial company that already came out and installed the 50 amp, 240 volt circuit...the guy put a 4-prong dryer cord on there and I have a feeling he did it wrong. They installed a 4-prong 240 outlet and the controller is made for 3-prong 240 for lack of a more accurate term...which the electrician understood...but I still think he did it incorrectly because the unit powers up but there's no power going to the outlets on the side no matter what I do with the timer triggers.

Sooooooo...no choice but to have them come back out and (most likely) rewire my control box directly into the panel. Another $400 probably and the additional fact of two guys who probably aren't stupid who will know I'm doing something with HID lights in the other room. It's actually perfectly 100% legal but still, I hope they don't tell the wrong person and now I get ripped off at some future time. They won't be seeing anything but the controller so they won't know the scale and I doubt they will be a risk. Actually I knew that would probably be impossible to avoid so I will be employing multiple monitoring and security options. But my other options are have no power or burn down my house. Git 'er done.

Meanwhile, in the attic nursery, one week has made quite a difference. A week ago:


Today:


The COB light I put up worked great for a little over a week then fried apparently...the on/off switch flickers but otherwise no sign of life. I don't know what I paid for that Niell light but it was too much. I will include a photo of what not to buy:

Pure cheap crap. Oh well, the four original MARS 300s are still reliably blazing away and enough for the girls until I get them out I'm sure.

They are beautiful...


I was concerned that the buckets I'm using drain completely...my only concern, really but I still wondered if there was a way to keep just a half-inch of water continuously at the very bottom so much like Dutch buckets, so there's always a little reservoir of water at the very bottom. I finally thought of Styrofoam plates...the perfect answer. They just keep a bit of water on the bottom at all times.


Yes, they are coming right along. Maybe too fast!! Now I'm starting to feel the pressure of getting the grow house operational and I'm only just finishing step two, lighting. There's still ventilation and the ebb-and-flow build and whatever else! I need to get this stuff done...now...and wouldn't you know it, it's time for our annual houseboat adventure so I have to take a six-day break...!

The houseboat extravaganza is going to be a bunch of drinking and partying with about 35 adults acting like children...can't wait. Got two of the baddest Sea Doos on earth...try to imagine 215 HP each for a personal watercraft...the new Chrysler luxury car is boasting about having 160 HP. Combine that with my usual degree of substance abuse and this will be me...

Or something like that. See you next week!

Peace, Hyena
 
Highya HM,

Nice job on the wiring. Looks almost professional. Can you make the changes into the main panel yourself? Save a few bucks? Or they'll have it done by the time you get back? I had something like that happen to me. One guy wired into a 220 panel with 4 wire UC and I wired up the outlet end with 4-110V outlets for the camper to live in on site. So, I fried the camper main breaker when I plugged it in. So, no power until tomorrow (in SC). Oh well.

You're young ladies made a big stride from last week. Looking great. So, you're not looking forward to the other tent? Just think about the 2 ft. long donkey colas at harvest time, or a fatty when relaxing for the night.
Cheers
 
Highya HM,

Nice job on the wiring. Looks almost professional. Can you make the changes into the main panel yourself? Save a few bucks? Or they'll have it done by the time you get back? I had something like that happen to me. One guy wired into a 220 panel with 4 wire UC and I wired up the outlet end with 4-110V outlets for the camper to live in on site. So, I fried the camper main breaker when I plugged it in. So, no power until tomorrow (in SC). Oh well.

You're young ladies made a big stride from last week. Looking great. So, you're not looking forward to the other tent? Just think about the 2 ft. long donkey colas at harvest time, or a fatty when relaxing for the night.
Cheers

Well, I will be meeting the electricians at the house tomorrow to wire in the main once and for all. They put in the 240 circuit breaker and outlet a a few weeks ago and sadly there's no avoiding the visit, but at least they already pretty much knew what I was wiring. Since it's legal I imagine they see others as well. Hopefully they will make it quick and I can get to work!

Peace, Hyena
 
Okay here's another

HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!

Well, the houseboat trip was amazing...put over 12 hours on our skis...

Crazy costume party every night until 3 or 4 a.m...I'd love to do it for 5 more days but it would kill me!

Meanwhile, back in the lab...


Yes, they seem like they did just fine after 6 days with no human contact. Seem quite healthy with perfect tips, too. I'm liking my little nursery setup but then I'm also looking at the time frame...I probably have about 10 days max to get these babies into their final home. Even with 1-gallon fine netting bags, the roots are ALREADY appearing in the trays for God's sake!


So I'm going up today and will spend until tomorrow or even Friday if needed...got to get the power finished, then ventilation, then the ebb-and-flow build...shit! Mega pressure, that short list of only three things will take days...

Wish me luck.

Peace, Hyena
 
Okay here's another

HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!

Well, the houseboat trip was amazing...put over 12 hours on our skis...


Crazy costume party every night until 3 or 4 a.m...I'd love to do it for 5 more days but it would kill me!

Meanwhile, back in the lab...


Yes, they seem like they did just fine after 6 days with no human contact. Seem quite healthy with perfect tips, too. I'm liking my little nursery setup but then I'm also looking at the time frame...I probably have about 10 days max to get these babies into their final home. Even with 1-gallon fine netting bags, the roots are ALREADY appearing in the trays for God's sake!


So I'm going up today and will spend until tomorrow or even Friday if needed...got to get the power finished, then ventilation, then the ebb-and-flow build...shit! Mega pressure, that short list of only three things will take days...

Wish me luck.

Peace, Hyena
Good Luck Friend.
 
Good Luck to ya, HM.
 
Well...it's been awhile...so...

Here's a

HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!

The work and time I am having to invest in this dream project is staggering...I've spent almost 4 days up there this week and I'm beat...but much has been accomplished. Let me share.

Finishing the wiring required another visit by another electrician to re-do the shabby work of the first one...yes, the simple assignment of installing a 50-amp breaker and installing a 240v outlet was totally fucked up by these first two guys. I couldn't figure out what the problem was for some time because when you have a professional come in and do a simple job you assume it's done right, but they tied the outlet into only one side of the bus so it wasn't working. Now it is and that's all I need.

So then I hung the remaining lights and finally turned them on!

As I walked down the hallway I saw an amazing amount of LIGHT...


Then I entered the tent and WOW!! It was as bright as the freaking sun!


Now obviously a phone camera can't reproduce the incredible brightness of these three lights but trust me, I've NEVER seen anything even close! Then I realized I had them all set on 50%...they have a built-in dimmer switch! I slowly turned one up to full...oh my God...I had to leave the room to get sunglasses it was that intense!

They do put off some heat but compared to a 1000 watt MH not that much...I believe these will do the trick quite nicely! The spread is good, and even though I had a center pole to deal with and thus had to sort of arrange the three lights in a horseshoe, I feel we are getting plenty of light everywhere. I imagined three months from now, when this entire tent will be filled with 2-foot donkey dicks...glorious!

But turning back to the job at hand, next I installed a mega Vortex fan and ducted the tent into a void in an enclosed space in the attic. The exhaust will simply flow into there and up and out the roof vents. Nice. Even if it creates a humid attic space any mold or such won't affect the interior space of the house at all so we're good.


Now for the carbon filter...I decided to go big. This is a 75-pound unit!


Yes, I believe the smell issue will be okay with this baby on the job.

So now, the building of the ebb-and-flow system. This wasn't rocket science but it WAS a very long and tedious job building this thing correctly. Push fittings aren't my favorite thing so I used a metal hose clamp on every fitting. Other than that I didn't have to do any mods, the system is heavy-duty, easy to assemble and I was able to customize the arrangement of the pots to my liking. Three hours later I was filling the 55-gallon reservoir drum and preparing to test everything...


The Achilles heel of all this is there is no direct connection between the "fill" and "drain" pumps...both rely on timers, period. You have to kind of figure out how long it takes to fill and then drain, then set the timers to those increments. So when it's operational one timer comes on and fills until the float valve in the control bucket stops the inflow...but that doesn't stop the pump so it will be important to actually time the cycles after everything is in place to accurately set the timers. Then the drain pump works the same way, and because it's only about 1/3 the size of the fill pump it has to run the drain cycle for more than twice as long. I'm fine with all of it but it will require me to be there for probably a day just to make sure I'm setting these timers right. Getting them wrong would be a disaster and ruin everything so no pressure, right?

And so this morning I am heading back up AGAIN...only this time I am bringing some friends!


Yes, the girls are BUSTING out with roots everywhere, I'm almost in a panic to get them to their new home before they die. So today I'll be buying some sort of big tray that will hold 12 plants in 1-gallon containers and run them up to their new digs. As this gets going I'll be a little better at the timing of all this but for now I am just in get 'er done now mode.

But I wanted to pen an update in the minutes I had before leaving. It's getting exciting!

I dream of a forest of weed...


If only that evil monkey would quit stealing my stash! Got to talk to him.

Peace, Hyena
 
Very nice progress. It really pays to do things right from the beginning. The better quality of workmanship will keep problems far away, hopefully. Glad to hear you're doing so good. It's gotta be fun taking your first load up and get the whole project underway! I'm tuned to your next update! Cheers
 
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