MVortex's Perpetual Thread For A 4x4 Tent & RDWC

[multiVortex]

Can of gorilla says wait an hour before pressure testing. I’ve waited 2.5 2 hours now, and will pressure test in a little bit. Just waiting a good amount of time for the tubing to cool down and stiffen back up. It’s probably good now, but I’d rather play it safe.

Fingers crossed.


In the meantime I’ll be putting a bead around that bulkhead as a precaution.

 

[multiVortex]

So far, so good at the 45 minute mark.


Oh, the “catch” with using one of the pump outlet fittings that came with it???



Venturi action!

 

[multiVortex]

After 2.5 hours of running wide open, so far so good.

System is making a metric fuck ton of micro bubbles. I've got the standard black lids for those buckets sitting as a cover over the white lids to keep out light from the net pots since they are sitting there empty, and the bottom of that lid is even getting it.


Next up:

- keep fingers crossed and hold breath overnight
- wash up some hydroton and fill net pots
- drop seeds
- install Blue Lab Guardian
- check/test top off res
- place light rack in initial position

 

[multiVortex]

Morning check (twice) and as of the last one 30 minutes ago, so far so good!

So check the first item off the list!


Going to work on a bit more of it after a little coffee.

 

[multiVortex]

Hydroton washed and in the net pots. Cord holes covered w/ white gorilla tape on lids.

Went to install the Blue Lab Guardian, and they want you to put the temp sensor in the calibration solution with the pH probe So it can read the temp of the solution for a more accurate pH calibration.

That’s fine, but they don’t send you enough solution to do that (half an ounce of both 7.0 and 4.0 solutions) which is fine for one, but not two.

I have some 7.0 still, but I’m out of 4.0. Didn’t think I’d need it so soon, so hadn’t picked up another bottle yet. Well, off to the store after I get out of the movie theater. (Which wasn’t something I wanted to do today either. )

 

[multiVortex]

Blue Lab is calibrated and operational. Also pictured: the light controller, and the venturi intake underneath. It's up higher in the room (sits about 5'-5.5' from the floor) to get a little warmer air. May move it inside the tent if the water temps need a little bump. Better than running an aquarium heater, but I will do that if I really need to do so.

No lights or nothing else on, and the water is a balmy 65F, with a PPM of 340 and a pH of 8.3 at the moment. Of course it's just tap water with a little z7 running right now. No nutes or anything else.


So, what's left?

Looks like it's time to drop some seeds and test the top off.



Welp, back to it.

 

[multiVortex]

And the winners are...



- Granddaddy Purple
- Blue Dream
- Strawberry Lemonade
- Durban Poison



Soaking 2 of each as we speak, in 78F water, in the dark.

Will move to their rooters probably Monday morning.

 

[multiVortex]

Houston, we have a problem.

With what now? The light.


When it is turned off, it isn't actually completely off. It's still emitting a faint glow. The best I can describe it is that it's like maybe a half-moon or maybe quarter-moon glow. I hadn't noticed it before. It's faint enough it takes a minute after the entire room goes dark to really see it even. I only noticed it after having the lights off and looking for light leaks after adjusting the the ventilation on my other tent. Having the lights off for a few minutes, and then I look at the other tent and there it was.

This is the light shut off with the controller, or shut off manually. Doesn't matter, it's there. We're talking it's 99,99% off, but not 100%.


Needless to say, I'm concerned. Not that I can't work around it, or maybe it really isn't that big of a deal. I mean if you're growing outdoors then there's moonlight to some degree most of the time, and this is really really faint.

But on the other hand, it isn't 100% dark, which means you may start treading in risky territory. I'm going to go down and check the output with my lux meter and see what it registers, if it registers anything at all.

I've also put in an inquiry with the manufacturer to see if there is a voltage leak, or if it's normal operation.


Worst case is it is faulty, and they have to send me a new one which I will have to replace while plants are active.

Second worse is I take an outlet timer and just cut the power to the light itself about 15 minutes after it turns off and turn it back on 15 minutes before the light turns on.


Or maybe I'm freaking out over nothing. Meh, could be. I can't really imagine that it's a "feature", but shit, maybe it is or something.

 

[multiVortex]

These probably aren't going to help much. I did check it with my lux meter, and it didn't register anything. It was a zero, even an inch under the strips. Unlike the glow off my AC Infinity controller, which registered at a 6.

So it's effectively "dark", but yet it's not. Obviously freaking me out. I haven't encountered a light like this. I googled the crap out of it last night (technically this morning) and couldn't find anything.

A look at the LED's themselves.

Compared to the screen off my vape.



I'm probably freaking over nothing.



It's not as dark as the black in the photos make it seem. I can faintly see my hand, with my arm fully extended. Although I couldn't completely distinguish quickly moving my fingers. So it probably isn't a thing, but yet, it's a thing.

 

[Northern Hydro]

These probably aren't going to help much. I did check it with my lux meter, and it didn't register anything. It was a zero, even an inch under the strips. Unlike the glow off my AC Infinity controller, which registered at a 6.

So it's effectively "dark", but yet it's not. Obviously freaking me out. I haven't encountered a light like this. I googled the crap out of it last night (technically this morning) and couldn't find anything.

A look at the LED's themselves.

Compared to the screen off my vape.



I'm probably freaking over nothing.



It's not as dark as the black in the photos make it seem. I can faintly see my hand, with my arm fully extended. Although I couldn't completely distinguish quickly moving my fingers. So it probably isn't a thing, but yet, it's a thing.

Wow that's weird ! I've never checked mine . I do have same blue light meter inside the tent constantly emitting light and my power bar has a red on power light.
I can't really say if it's affected my plants that much, I've also never stood zipped up in the tent to see if the LED still glows after lights out either ! Interesting

 

[Northern Hydro]

I also wonder if it's still drawing power ? Expensive running watts 24/7 ekkk

 

[multiVortex]

I also wonder if it's still drawing power ? Expensive running watts 24/7 ekkk

If it's drawing power, it's barely doing so. Like a couple watts, if that.

It is definitely a very strange thing, and I haven't found anything on google that mentions it.


My guess is most people with this light won't see the problem. They'll plug the light into a normal outlet timer and that's it. Without the controller, you would need to turn the control knob to the off position, but still have power to the light.

With the controller, when it's "off" it happens, and that is how I noticed the issue.

The amount of light isn't significant. The dot on a power strip puts out more. It's more like the light from a quarter, maybe half moon when you're out in the country away from town.

It won't even register on my light meter, even an inch below the light.


But it's still there, and I'm still concerned. Maybe a little less than I was, but we'll see how it goes. If that's just how the light works, then fine. Maybe it's not a problem and it's paranoia about light pollution sinking in. If so and I need to I'll just run the main power plug into an outlet timer and have the on/off set about 30 minutes outside of the controllers timer and that fixes the issue.

Regardless, it's an interesting situation. It's not like it's a knock-off cheapo light from some weird name company. It's from a solid, well known grow lighting company (actually in partnership between two well-known ones) that knows what they are doing. So maybe it's by design, and not an issue. Or maybe it's broke. I dunno.

 

[multiVortex]

And there we go. All set up, minus the minor operational details. Still need to set up the circulation fans, exhaust, heaters, etc. But all the main system pieces are there and work. Top of holds 10 gal on the nose, and I dosed it with z7 for the time being. When plants are running, will run nutes at 25% strength of the main system dosage level.



Now it's clean up time, which has been going on for an hour or so already.

 

[multiVortex]

Been workin my biscuits off. Not only the part of the basement I'm using on the reg, but the rest of the storage side too.

Why? Because all that stuff that was in what is now my grow space had to go somewhere.

Initially it was stacked to the side out of the way, and it was (past) time to move most of it into storage/deep storage. Done and done, for the most part. I still have 2 tubs out that need to get put up, but stacked on top of each other they make a nice temp bench spot.

Anyway, got it to about the 90% mark, which is a huge improvement.


Here shortly I'll probably take a peek and see if we have any seeds that have cracked open yet. It's been 22 hours in the warm drink, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that some could have.

Guess I'd better get my butt in gear. We should have some babies in the big girl system shortly! Been one hell of a ride to get to this point though.

 

[Northern Hydro]

Been workin my biscuits off. Not only the part of the basement I'm using on the reg, but the rest of the storage side too.

Why? Because all that stuff that was in what is now my grow space had to go somewhere.

Initially it was stacked to the side out of the way, and it was (past) time to move most of it into storage/deep storage. Done and done, for the most part. I still have 2 tubs out that need to get put up, but stacked on top of each other they make a nice temp bench spot.

Anyway, got it to about the 90% mark, which is a huge improvement.


Here shortly I'll probably take a peek and see if we have any seeds that have cracked open yet. It's been 22 hours in the warm drink, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that some could have.

Guess I'd better get my butt in gear. We should have some babies in the big girl system shortly! Been one hell of a ride to get to this point though.

Good work! Funny , I did the same this weekend . It will be rewarding thou eh! Namaste

 

[multiVortex]

Good work! Funny , I did the same this weekend . It will be rewarding thou eh! Namaste

Yeah, it will good to get things sorted around. Now it's basically in 3 sections. Grow, storage, and deep storage.

Once a year or less, deep. Twice or more a year, storage. And well, we all know what's happening in the other part.


Speaking of the other part... good thing I checked on the seeds this evening instead of in the morning. Why? All 8 have tails. Not huge, but they all had something poking out. Yay!

I popped them all into rapid rooters, and they are now sitting back in the seedling dome, wrapped up tight on a heat mat still set to 78F.


Now to figure out what to do with them, exactly. This is where I wish I had a quick DWC setup. Assuming all 8 actually sprout, it would be nice to give them a week or so to see which of the two is stronger. Obviously the downside to popping in pairs, but had I popped singles you know with my luck one of them wouldn't have busted.

Need to get them to where they can have some light, but also grow at least a few days before popping into their net pot. Guess I shouldn't have lent out my 4x2. lol Maybe I need to get a little 2x2 setup or something. Will have to think about that down the road.

I may end up just taking whats there once at least one of each is up and going. Guess I'll play it by ear and see.

 

[Jack420]

Here starts the fun

 

[multiVortex]

Here starts the fun

Yepper.

Now to figure out heater location. Not sure I want it blowing directly on a pipe, or a bucket. So that pretty much leaves... nowhere.

 

[multiVortex]

Had a nice chat with the TSL/Growers Choice folks. Very nice people over that way! Here's the gist of the conversation, big picture:

On some early production runs it has come to light (no pun intended) that there was a small issue where when the fixture is off (either by controller or the control knob on the fixture) that there can be a very faint glow from the LED's.

Each strip has its own constant current driver. That's really cool actually, because if a driver goes out it won't take out the whole light, just that one strip.

Where the issue lies is with the driver. With a constant current driver, there is always just a volt or two available so the driver can ramp up efficiently instead of creating a big spike and then leveling out. In some, but apparently not all, of the early runs (I purchased mine early summer, shortly after they came out) the drivers were leaking that minimal voltage to the LED's.

Needless to say, they offered to replace the light, no questions asked. They also said it doesn't affect performance otherwise, so I can keep on keeping on if so desired. Since the amount of light isn't even detectable by a light meter, I don't see that part as a real problem unless it compounds with other light leaks.

The only real issue I see is that it could impact the lifespan of the LED's.


That being the case, I think I'll go ahead and just put the main power on a separate timer, and cut it on/off about 30 minutes before/after the controller kicks the light on.

 

[multiVortex]

I think I have the ventilation figured out for this run, as well as the heating.

I've been thinking it over and parts of it have been bugging me. I know from my other tent going that I'm going to have to run heat of some configuration. However, anywhere I place it in the tent it's going to be heating buckets and water as well. No bueno, IMO.

Then I switched gears and thought about the ventilation instead, as I was getting nowhere with the heat.

What I was running into there was the fan/filter will be outside the tent and to the right on a shelf. Typically I would come out of the right side duct on the side at the top center, down into the fan sitting on the shelf. I'm doing this on the other tent, no sweat.

That puts the intake on the bottom left...

Ruh roh... there's plumbing there on this one! What to do now? (Hurry up and get on...)

Back to thinking, and several ideas ran through my head as I vetted each one. I didn't really want duct tubing hanging down the side, or snaking across the floor.


Tent, for reference:

I have available ducts at the top on the left, right and back; on the ceiling in the back right corner; and on the right side at the bottom.

Then it hit me.

Exhaust is typically out the top because hot air rises. Well, I need a little warmth, and LED's aren't giving much to begin with. Why not reverse it all?

The end result is I will be pulling the exhaust from the bottom right duct, and almost right into the fan.

I will then add two passive intakes at the top of the tent on the left side and back.


This gives me the desired cross ventilation, as well as using what little bit of heat the light puts out. Winner winner, chicken dinner.

The heater I will then set outside the tent, and let it blow into the left side duct. I will probably put a board on the top-off res, and sit it there. The back side duct will draw air from up by the joists in hopes of getting some warmer air then from the floor.

The temp probe for the heaters controller will be in the tent, and its height adjusted as needed.

Night time temps are 65F-67F, so not worried about that one bit.