RageMonkey's Phototron & homeade bubbler experiment Northern Lights

[Hardope]

Whoa, just read through the whole grow, at first to be honest I really doubted the tron. But shiiit that thing was packed. Truely amazing man. Would love to see some dried bud and hear what the dry weight without all the stalk ended up being. + reps. Wish I could rep you twice.

 

[RageMonkey]

Thats a cool grow Ragemonkey, can a DWC bucket be used in a closet with this setup? Why the bathtub? Just curious, thanks man your grow is inspiring to a phototron user.

Yeah you can do it in a closet. just make sure you vent excess heat. I used the bathtub cause I had a spare bathroom and it's great if your setup overflows. Bathroom also has a ceiling vent to remove heat or smell in a pinch.

A bare DWC is just a bucket, air pump, air stone or wand, nutes, net pot lid, and some clay rocks. If you can cover ventilation in a closet, have at it.

 

[RageMonkey]

Whoa, just read through the whole grow, at first to be honest I really doubted the tron. But shiiit that thing was packed. Truely amazing man. Would love to see some dried bud and hear what the dry weight without all the stalk ended up being. + reps. Wish I could rep you twice.

I think I ended up with like 6 oz dried and cured in the end. Sorry only have the pics from the harvest. Wet the yield was like like 1.5 lbs if i remeber correctly. hehe

 

[RageMonkey]

In all fairness, I think the tron is probably not the main reason this plant did so well.

A phototron uses cfl side-lighting, which is prone to taller stringy plants. It also causes less dense buds. The tron's spectrum is all wrong for flowering.

With this grow, I believe the reason the plant did so well was due to two factors:

1.) genetics: I believe the plant was a NL x Big Bud cross
2.) DWC: deep water culture will always yield better results than ebb & flow, ultrasonic fog, nutrient film, or soil.


DWC is all about the roots being in constant contact with a highly oxygenated nutrient solution. This is ideal for plants with high nutrient uptake. During the flowering period, this single plant was easily sucking up more than 2 gallons of nutrient solution/day. That is no joke. No other hydro system can deliver that kind of nutrition to a plant.

Best summary advice for DWC:

1.) get a real time pH/ppm monitor like a Hanna grocheck
2.) don't let any light get into the root zone (black buckets) Algae robs oxygen and nutes
3.) change your nute solution completely out every two weeks - plants leech waste into your solution and this affects accurate ppm/TDS readings
4.) start at 600 ppm for first couple weeks of veg
5.) move to 1500 -1800 ppm after 2nd week veg
6.) get a big air pump and large air wands etc. You can't put too much air into the solution. More air = more growth! Ideally the solution should look like a rolling boil.
7.) plan early on how you will change out the solution every two weeks - eventually your plant may get so large that you can't open the lid easily. A simple siphon pump may e a good choice.
8.) size your reservoirs properly. If you have 1 plant in a 2.5 gallon pail. It's gonna need to be refilled everyday. If you want to refill it once a week, you are going to need 15 gallons of nute capacity for 1 plant. In my setup, I used a 3.5 gallon bucket cut down to about 2.5 gallons. then I added a right angle float sensor to maintain solution level, a 5 gallon external reservoir, tubing, and a pump. This gave me 7.5 gallons of capacity and had to be refilled twice/week. My motivation for doing this was to allow me to leave for a weekend and not have to babysit this thing constantly.


Anyway, that's my DWC advice. next grow I do will be in the next 4 months. I promise 1 - 6 plants (all DWC) under a 600w MH/HPS setup. May the games begin. I'll document everything for you guys as usual.

 

[Munki]

RageMonkey, do you actively control the nutrient temperature by some means like heater wands and/or water chillers? Also, what temps do you typically measure in your reservoir? Do you ever check the rez temp during the dark periods? Sorry for all the questions but I'm curious!

 

[RageMonkey]

RageMonkey, do you actively control the nutrient temperature by some means like heater wands and/or water chillers? Also, what temps do you typically measure in your reservoir? Do you ever check the rez temp during the dark periods? Sorry for all the questions but I'm curious!

I never needed any chillers etc. I checked the res temp a couple times and it was never over 85 F.

I never had any problem with algae or bacteria, other than a pink slime that would build up very very slowly. This was most likely some type of nitrogen-fixing anaerobic bacteria. There generally was no musty smell and by cleaning the solution out every 2 weeks, it really kept that at a minimum.

Basically towards the end of the grow the solution would have a slight pinkish apearance when I changed it out. I figured some of this color may have been to the hydroton. I would not have considered a chiller since they aren't cost effective. It's almost better to sterilize your buckets/res/net pots/etc, filter you water via reverse osmosis, and boil your hydroton before you grow. Seems like people seem to have more bacterial/algae problems with res temps over 90 F especially when they don't clean their equipment upfront and use tap water. Remember tap water comes from rivers/lakes, is usually filtered through sediment only, and is typiclaly chlorinated and doped with NaOH in urban areas to prevent pipe corrosion. straight tap water can bring algae for sure.

 

[Munki]

I never needed any chillers etc. I checked the res temp a couple times and it was never over 85 F.

I never had any problem with algae or bacteria, other than a pink slime that would build up very very slowly. This was most likely some type of nitrogen-fixing anaerobic bacteria. There generally was no musty smell and by cleaning the solution out every 2 weeks, it really kept that at a minimum.

Basically towards the end of the grow the solution would have a slight pinkish apearance when I changed it out. I figured some of this color may have been to the hydroton. I would not have considered a chiller since they aren't cost effective. It's almost better to sterilize your buckets/res/net pots/etc, filter you water via reverse osmosis, and boil your hydroton before you grow. Seems like people seem to have more bacterial/algae problems with res temps over 90 F especially when they don't clean their equipment upfront and use tap water. Remember tap water comes from rivers/lakes, is usually filtered through sediment only, and is typiclaly chlorinated and doped with NaOH in urban areas to prevent pipe corrosion. straight tap water can bring algae for sure.

Interesting. Thank you. I thought many DWC failures were the result of high temps but you have shown that the failures were more likely caused by competitive flora in the reservoir encouraged by higher temps, light leaks, and ineffective sanitary methods for their reservoirs.

So a water chiller's main effect is that makes the environment in the reservoir inhospitable to the algae and such beyond enhancing the solution's dissolved oxygen level?

 

[RageMonkey]

Interesting. Thank you. I thought many DWC failures were the result of high temps but you have shown that the failures were more likely caused by competitive flora in the reservoir encouraged by higher temps, light leaks, and ineffective sanitary methods for their reservoirs.

So a water chiller's main effect is that makes the environment in the reservoir inhospitable to the algae and such beyond enhancing the solution's dissolved oxygen level?

That would be fairly accurate. Algae will rob a solution fo nutrients and more importantly oxygen.

A good root zone is 70 - 80 F and dark (no outside light). Algae is not going to grow in darkness. So if you got algae, then light is getting in there.

If it smells, it's likely bacteria. This will usually present as a clear or gray slime/lump, etc. Pink slime happens sometimes too, but that's not necessarily bad bacteria. If there is no smell and it clusters, you may have nitriogen ficing bacteria which can be helpful. Generally, if you get bacteria and don't want to use chemicals to kill them, thus affectign your bud, I'd suggest throwing 10 waterproof UV tea lights into your bucket. That will help with fungus too.

However, it can't be said enough that you can avoid most of these problems with proper cleaning upfront and filtering your water.

 

[Munki]

I use RO water, a large cooler with the lid as the rez, and I clean it out every rez change which for me is every 2 weeks. This is possible for me as I do ebb n flow. That may be more difficult for DWC though I have seen others use multiple tubs and rotate them for use while the others are being cleaned.

 

[RageMonkey]

I use RO water, a large cooler with the lid as the rez, and I clean it out every rez change which for me is every 2 weeks. This is possible for me as I do ebb n flow. That may be more difficult for DWC though I have seen others use multiple tubs and rotate them for use while the others are being cleaned.

Yo I just picked up a 1/4 hp chiller. I'll give it a go on the next DWC setup and see if it works.

 

[Odin]

Great job on this phototron grow. I am bookmarking this for future reference.