Hey Jack,
I see you said you have 8 6500 cfl's. How many are you going to run while they are seedlings? Also you'll find very fast just as you already have that those cfl's pipe out a lot of heat in a small area! I use them as well but when using them you can sure bet you'll have some added unwanted heat! What I do on my set up which is individual 5 gallon buckets. I place each bucket into its own plastic dish pan. Then each day ill place 4 or 5 bottles of frozen water around the bucket which rest inside the wash pan. I keep it in the wash pan as when the frozen water starts to melt, you'll have water from that everywhere. When I take out the unfrozen water bottles I just dry them off and then dry the inside of the dish pan. Then I just throw the bottles back in the freezer for another go around. Its a pain in the butt having to do all the frozen bottles of water but its by far the cheapest thing you can do! Also, don't place frozen bottles of water inside your container either!! If you do that, more often than not your roots will stick to the bottles and then of course when you're taking them out of the container you'll be taking out a lot of your roots with them. They will stick all over the plastic bottles when they are cold as well when they warm! Also never place ice inside your container either! As you already know the ice will throw off your ph real fast. Plus if you're not making the water and balancing it all out before you freeze it, then of course you'll have issues with that water as well.
I'll also let you know that while your seedlings are small. Get you some more bubbler stones ordered, ASAP! I know it might look like four of those will be enough for your set up. But, there's NO WAY four be enough. The root system with DWC gets huge and what happens is your stones will be right under a huge section of those roots. Once they start getting big you'll find out real fast you've got to have more stones inside your container! Otherwise root rot is right around the corner. Before I finally realized I needed more stones in my buckets it was almost too late, YES ROOT ROT was creeping towards my girls! I now have three 4" stones in each bucket. You might want to also buy some more air pumps when you order more stones as well. I have each bucket on its own air pump along with the 3 stones in each bucket. If you only use the four stones you have. When you open you container up in around 4 or 5 weeks, you wont even be able to tell that you have stones in there working as they will all be getting covered by the roots!
And what you're going to find out real fast is with that heat from your lights its all going to affect the water temps! So the more stones you have inside that container the better you'll be off. The more stones means more oxygen and thats what will help you avoid the dreaded root rot which comes on very fast in DWC. The root rot comes on even faster when you have too much heat inside your box. If you can, place your air pump on the outside of your box. The only reason for that is to have one less item inside your grow box putting out heat. Most of the time when those are running they have an operating temp close to 100 degrees! Mine usually run around 96 or so. But its best to have them outside your box if you can! Also make sure you place your air pump higher than your container you're growing in. Otherwise you'll need to put a loop in your air line to make sure it doesn't back flow water to the inside of your pump. They sell these little devices you can put on your air line but putting a loop in your line does the same thing and thats free to do, LOL.
Jack, be sure to ask questions when you have them. I'm subbing to this as well and I'll be checking it a couple times a day to see if you need help with anything! Good luck with all of this stuff and just ask if you need help, take care.
I see you said you have 8 6500 cfl's. How many are you going to run while they are seedlings? Also you'll find very fast just as you already have that those cfl's pipe out a lot of heat in a small area! I use them as well but when using them you can sure bet you'll have some added unwanted heat! What I do on my set up which is individual 5 gallon buckets. I place each bucket into its own plastic dish pan. Then each day ill place 4 or 5 bottles of frozen water around the bucket which rest inside the wash pan. I keep it in the wash pan as when the frozen water starts to melt, you'll have water from that everywhere. When I take out the unfrozen water bottles I just dry them off and then dry the inside of the dish pan. Then I just throw the bottles back in the freezer for another go around. Its a pain in the butt having to do all the frozen bottles of water but its by far the cheapest thing you can do! Also, don't place frozen bottles of water inside your container either!! If you do that, more often than not your roots will stick to the bottles and then of course when you're taking them out of the container you'll be taking out a lot of your roots with them. They will stick all over the plastic bottles when they are cold as well when they warm! Also never place ice inside your container either! As you already know the ice will throw off your ph real fast. Plus if you're not making the water and balancing it all out before you freeze it, then of course you'll have issues with that water as well.
I'll also let you know that while your seedlings are small. Get you some more bubbler stones ordered, ASAP! I know it might look like four of those will be enough for your set up. But, there's NO WAY four be enough. The root system with DWC gets huge and what happens is your stones will be right under a huge section of those roots. Once they start getting big you'll find out real fast you've got to have more stones inside your container! Otherwise root rot is right around the corner. Before I finally realized I needed more stones in my buckets it was almost too late, YES ROOT ROT was creeping towards my girls! I now have three 4" stones in each bucket. You might want to also buy some more air pumps when you order more stones as well. I have each bucket on its own air pump along with the 3 stones in each bucket. If you only use the four stones you have. When you open you container up in around 4 or 5 weeks, you wont even be able to tell that you have stones in there working as they will all be getting covered by the roots!
And what you're going to find out real fast is with that heat from your lights its all going to affect the water temps! So the more stones you have inside that container the better you'll be off. The more stones means more oxygen and thats what will help you avoid the dreaded root rot which comes on very fast in DWC. The root rot comes on even faster when you have too much heat inside your box. If you can, place your air pump on the outside of your box. The only reason for that is to have one less item inside your grow box putting out heat. Most of the time when those are running they have an operating temp close to 100 degrees! Mine usually run around 96 or so. But its best to have them outside your box if you can! Also make sure you place your air pump higher than your container you're growing in. Otherwise you'll need to put a loop in your air line to make sure it doesn't back flow water to the inside of your pump. They sell these little devices you can put on your air line but putting a loop in your line does the same thing and thats free to do, LOL.
Jack, be sure to ask questions when you have them. I'm subbing to this as well and I'll be checking it a couple times a day to see if you need help with anything! Good luck with all of this stuff and just ask if you need help, take care.