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

[multiVortex]

Barrel has been tested and is sound.

Made marks for 20, 30, 45, and 50 gallons as it filled.

Anything less will be in 5gal buckets as needed.

Draining it now, then will install float valve and hook the RO up to it.

 

[multiVortex]

Well she ain’t pretty, but does the job (so far) damn well.

Didn’t leak, didn’t bulge, didn’t do anything other than was supposed to: hold feckin water.

I did seal the shit out of it around the drain valve, just to be safe.

Didn’t spill a drop though, so that is good.


Now to put a hole in her above the 50gal mark I made so the float valve can go in. That will be the “hardest” part, which isn’t hard at all. The rest is stupid easy.

 

[Stltoed]

Wow. 160ml of pH down and it's still 6.4.

Gave it another 80ml dose, now waiting again for it to mix up.

2oz in the 8oz left.

I see a hydro store trip in my immediate future.

Sorry. I gotta ask. How big is your system? I know I should know this haha

 

[Stltoed]

That last dose knocked it down to 5.6, and there is about 2oz left in the 8oz bottle. As a note, we're working with 45 total gallons.

I couldn't tell you the exact strength off the top of my head without digging it up. It's a bottle of Gen Hydro pH down though. It does say that it can take on average 1-2ml/gal to drop the pH a full point, and more for harder water.

I wouldn't have thought that it would take ~5.25ml/gal to pull it off though, but whatever I guess.


It's down and steady now. Still seems like a lot though, but maybe not.

We have about the same sized system. I agree with you...it does seem like a lot? Are you using Armor Si or some other Silica adidtive?

 

[Stltoed]

That last dose knocked it down to 5.6, and there is about 2oz left in the 8oz bottle. As a note, we're working with 45 total gallons.

I couldn't tell you the exact strength off the top of my head without digging it up. It's a bottle of Gen Hydro pH down though. It does say that it can take on average 1-2ml/gal to drop the pH a full point, and more for harder water.

I wouldn't have thought that it would take ~5.25ml/gal to pull it off though, but whatever I guess.


It's down and steady now. Still seems like a lot though, but maybe not.

When You added the Ph down did it make a plume of cloudy water?

 

[Stltoed]

Could it be? Is it true?


"It's twue! It's twue!" -Lili Von Shtupp



Yep. GDP #1 has opened her cotyledons and headed in the right direction. It was a bit sketchy for a while, but here we go, days later after popping up, and she decided to play ball.

Quite the relief!



The osc fans are now mounted on their pvc sticks. Worked like a charm. Zip tie wasn't quite enough, so have a pipe clamp at the top, and a zip tie around the bottom. Other than that, it worked out well so far. Of course it would be better if these fans had a true 90* of rotation to them, but whatever. I think they cover well enough. If not, I can add a third one or something.

I'll give you a dollar if you start singing "I'm Tired" right now. Ms. Van Shtupp would want it.

 

[multiVortex]

“Let’s face it, I’m exhausted!”




45 total gallons, and the pH has creeped up to 6.5 in 2 days and been holding there most of the day.

Yes, adding pro-tekt silica supplement, but pretty sure that isn’t what is fighting it.

So what is?

My best guess is the source water, hence the quick trigger on an RO setup.

Which, by the way, is currently making water!

Input to the RO is right at 65, and in the sweet spot.

Going to give it another 5 minutes then check the pH and PPM of the result.

When I was at the hydro store Friday, I was discussing the issue with them, and both had experienced similar issues with the local water.

We’ll see how the RO does.

 

[multiVortex]

Yeah, this batch of water is getting the drain put to it tomorrow. It's getting a tick slimey, even though it hasn't been exposed to light. So going to flush it, rinse with tap, and add new solution.

That new solution will be mixed from RO water as its base, which should take care of the problem.

 

[Stltoed]

Yeah, this batch of water is getting the drain put to it tomorrow. It's getting a tick slimey, even though it hasn't been exposed to light. So going to flush it, rinse with tap, and add new solution.

That new solution will be mixed from RO water as its base, which should take care of the problem.

NO! NOT SLIME!!!

 

[multiVortex]

Yep. And it hasn't had any light to it, either.

See, can't have a good day without something fucking up. Barrel works good, RO went together without issue and is makin good water (17ppm and 7.1 pH when I checked after it had been running for about 15 minutes.)

Something had to blow up. Ugh....

 

[multiVortex]

Here’s the babies in waiting. Patiently hanging out in the lab tent in the seedling setup.

Left to right:

- Grandaddy Purple (#1 is up, #2 is probably a dud)
- Blue Dream (Both are up)
- Strawberry Lemonade (Both are up)
- Durban Poison (#2 is up, #1 is probably a dud)


Now to decide on which BD and SL to pick from the two.

The seedling setup should be here mid-week or so, I may keep the other two and veg 'em in that for a bit. Would be a shame to waste a good plant.

Put em in some coco and a fabric pot, and stick em in the lab tent?

Who knows.

 

[multiVortex]

Dose of z7 3 hours ago, then a second one an hour and a half ago. Was already much improved when I went to add the second one. Going to let that work overnight and do its thing.

Tomorrow I will be draining and flushing. For flushing I'm just going to fill 1/3 of the way and drain, then do it two more times. Then fill full with fresh water, and add a dose of z7. Let that run until late afternoon, then drain, flush, flush.

By that point in time I will have a full load of RO ready, mixed up with fresh nutes, pH'd to 5.6, and ready to pump into the system. From there I dunno if I'll drop the plants in, or let it sit overnight to see what happens.

 

[multiVortex]

This is effectively my res setup. It's a 13gal ez stor bucket. Pretty common stuff, nothing new here.

The level indicator, pump supply line, and return line are all at the bottom of the res, with the bottom of each bulkhead about 1" above the bottom.

The ATO is at the top on that side, above the waterline.

The air diffuser is about 3" above the bottom of the bucket.



So this is the setup right now. In the corner by the pump supply, I have my temp/ec probe, and my pH probe.

Something that has weighed on my mind a tick lately has been circulation in the res. The air on the side over there helps, sure, but I'm not sure that it's really moving much around. I think it may be drifting from the return to the supply without much interference.

See the red "X"? In this location I am considering adding a very, very small submersible pump. We're talking like 50gal/hr, and 3watts. What I aim to do is have it's intake pointed towards the upper left corner in the diagram, and it's output directed towards the right side wall. This would push across the return entering the res, and disrupt it's flow pattern. It would also improve the res circulation.

One bonus feature is the pump also has a venturi on its output, so even more oxygen to the water.


Now whether this is necessary or not, I don't know. However, it can't hurt. The wattage is so small it shouldn't do much, if anything, to the res temp. Especially with no head pressure on it.


Thoughts?

 

[multiVortex]

Well I'll be damned. We now have 50 gallons of RO water ready to roll, and the float valve cut it off at just the right level.

Awww fuck. This means something good happened. So what's going to blow up this time?

A tick tough to see the water level, but it's right on the 50 mark. That's good though, because I'm not sure the float valve can be set any higher.


Mmmmm... love those landing lights from the 90's, too.



Going to check the pH and such in a bit, then add in some nutes and let them get to mixing.

Also going to slip off a quick run to the hydro store in a few. Going to go ahead and pick up a jug of hydroguard, just in case. If I change my mind, I can take it back. I'd rather have it on hand later tonight if I want it as opposed to setting myself back yet another damn day.

Also going to stop on the way back at the $1 store for a gallon of bleach. Will be rinsing the hydroton in that, and giving as much of a wipe down as I can with it when I drain it out later this afternoon.

 

[multiVortex]

Bleach run is now draining.
Went heavy as hell at 10ml/gallon.

Yep, 450ml of the crap. Thankfully it’s decent out so fresh air.

Yuck!

 

[multiVortex]

Scrubbed everything I could get my hands on. Now going to partially fill, just enough to turn the main pump on and clean any residual from the lines.

Will then suck that water out, fill with straight tap, then run either bleach (more like 2ml/gal this time, lol), z7, or both for an hour or two.

That should, in theory, get a good starting point to add a fresh batch of RO water, supported with hydroguard.

From reading more into this crap, apparently it isn’t really an algae, it’s more bacterial and typically comes in from....


tap water.

 

[multiVortex]

OK, I'm not 100% convinced it was that kind of goopies, but it is quite possible. It wasn't overly stinky, but didn't smell right, even after the z7 additions last night. More on that in a minute.

So did the bleach bomb at 10ml/gal, drained, scrubbed, and rinsed. Then scrubbed a bit more, ran hot AF bleach water through the main pump and supply plumbing for a but, rinsed stuff again and fully drained it all yet again.

I then filled up the whole thing, going about an inch over where it was running, and added twice the normal amount of Z7, and also added a dose of hydroguard on top of that.

It's been running for a couple hours now, and I'm going to let it roll overnight.

In the morning I'm going to check it again and see how it is, then go from there. IF everything seems alright, I'm going to start mixing up a new full batch of nutes in the RO barrel.

I'll let that mix in for a couple hours, add some Z7 and hyrdroguard, then let that mix in for half an hour or so.

From there I'll pH the water, and let it continue to mix for another half hour. If all is well, I will continue to let it mix while I drain out the system, and then pump in the premixed nute solution.

Now if stuff ain't right in the morning, I may be at a loss.


I'm wondering if letting the system mix up the nutes Thursday was a problem. Since the system already had water, I just added the nutes and let them mix in. If I didn't get it right, or time it right, then maybe, just maybe the result wasn't fully mixed nutes that sludged up a little bit. Then from there, with nutes in the water, that's the difference in the smell. Being MegaCrop, it does have its own... unique scent an all. So maybe that was the scent. I can't really say I've put my nose to the water I've mixed up for the other tent, so maybe that's the outside possibility of what it was. Being in a mostly closed system, popping the top off the res, and poof... the scent of MC.

If that was it, then whatever. If not, we should hopefully have it back on track.


Still not sure where there could have been a light leak, if one existed. Yeah, the lids had net pots that were filled up, but I've had the standard black lids for the EZ Stor buckets on top of the Current Culture lids. So I don't think it was through there.

That leaves the res outside the tent.

I'm wondering if all my battling with the pH Friday may have done it. The lid was open off and on, although not for more than a minute each time. Maybe it was enough to screw things up, even with res temps at 66F, and combined with the lack of Z7 in the water.

I wouldn't think that would do it, but I guess it's a possibility since I was in the res probably a dozen or so times.



Anyway, that's the thoughts for the night. Time for a quick puff, puff, pass... out.

 

[multiVortex]

Guess the Z7/hydroguard combo is cleaning the residual gunk out from the hiding spots. Water is a tick cloudy this morning. Going to drain and fill to rinse, let it run a few minutes, then do it again.

 

[multiVortex]

Okay then.

On top of the previous drain/fill/rinse cycle, I drained and filled it again. Then got it up just above OP level, with the pump on, and turned the drain pump on while adding fresh water. Let that balance and run for another 45 minutes. Turned off the drain pump, let it level out at the inch above OP level, and dosed it with z7.

I will let that sit and run for the next few hours. In about an hour and a half I'm going to start mixing the nutes in the RO barrel, and let them mix around (via 400gph submersible pump) for an hour or two. Get em all nice and mixed up, add some 7 and hydroguard, wait a tick, then pH it.

At that point in time we'll know if it was the tap water fighting the pH down. (I'm pretty sure it was.)


Then we'll drain the system and shopvac the corners, and in with the new RO based goodies.


It will either work, or be set on fire.

 

[multiVortex]

In about an hour and a half I'm going to start mixing the nutes in the RO barrel

Right after this chick-fil-a biscuit.