Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180 - Multiple Strains - NFT Grow 4.0

[SuKaFr33]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

looks good man, looks to me that somebodys gonna have a big ass yeild!!!

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

@NW, welcome back my friend, good to have you onboard.

@Surfin, I won't get the tents up and running until later this summer. The end-goal is to have a lb a week by the end of September, I will be putting the tents into either my garage or spare room once we move to a larger place. I will keep this place either as a rental, or just keep the girls here and have them pay rent (if you get my drift). Once I have the two tents for bloom I will pick up a mother/clone setup as well and then run a continual harvest in an undercurrent DWC setup, 8-12 plants per tent depending on whether it will be SCROG or LST. Each tent would have 2 systems in it so that I can vary nutes. That would be a harvest every two weeks, a total of 4 systems, each with 4-6 plants. Each plant producing 3-6 ounces.

On the height of the lights, it would be optimal to keep them in the 18-24 inch range above canopy, just keep an eye on the tips, the plants will let you know if they are too close. Look for the internodal spacing, if they are spread out too much, move the lights closer. They will stretch, so you'll get some space between them, but you don't want too much.

No worries on the photo period, the bloom box is pretty tight, and I've sealed up every area that could possibly have a light leak.

Steve, that's one hell of a goal, but it sounds like you have it all thought out for the most part. My goal is similar to yours but I would be happy with 8 crops a year would be a good side income. I as well want to have at least 2 rooms running but I think I will still have at least 1-2 week veg period. Having several systems to vary the nutes is a real good idea! When you start running multiple rooms are you going to do journals on each room? I would love to see how it works out.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

@Surfin,
When I get the rooms set up it will be on journal with multiple entries. Maintaining one journal is already a time-suck. I won't be doing a veg at all, just two full-time bloom tents and then one mother/clone tent. I have 5 strains in my mom tent right now, I need a bigger mom tent though. I want to keep 6-8 strains going at any time so that I can keep a good mix going. It's hard to "move" a lot of one strain, the dispensaries like to have a few choices, so I want to have 2-3 strains in each grow cycle so that I can keep it mixed up a bit.

It seems very doable to me, as long as you keep track of everything.

 

[Hydrologist]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Hey buddie just wanted to stop by and say everything's looking lovely as usual! Lovin the system man! Keep up the good work! Took my last final, so I plan on being more active in OTHER peoples journals! Its better to give than receive anyways. Take it ez.
Hydro.

p.s. If you watch hockey at all did you see that game last night? AMAZING!!

 

[420GodsTrichome]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Dude, everything is looking awesome!! I think I may try LEDs when the money is right!! Ohh, and I trim 2-3 times during flower too, never had any negative affects!!! Stay green and God bless!!

 

[OldMedMan]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Hi My Friend !

That's a hell of a good plan. You've planned it well. I think your on to something really good. I'm going to love watching this grow. May it all go just as planned.

 

[Vaporeyes]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Nice clean ship, looks good ! My girls get their first full day dose of the extremes today, so far they look pretty happy.

Peace

 

[Hydrologist]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Yo Yo.

Had kind of a crazy day in the garden yesterday.....I'll post pictures of the changes I made soon. But yeah it probably didn't help that I ate a brownie before working on my garden but yeah, I managed to drop a bucket with 3 gallons of water in it, splashed the shit out of me and my apartment-luckily it was in the kitchen when it happened and not the garden...THEN! I was mounting some hooks to my ceiling in the bloom room and when I stepped down from my chair the stupid thing fell over and in one clean swoop the back rest of the chair perfectly knocked off the ribbed part of one of the bulk heads that holds on the 1/2 inch hose which leads to an on off valve for draining.

Oh it gets better. So Water starts gushing luckly I had a bucket near me so ever so slowly I had to empty the system of water before finding out that I didn't havn't another bulk head laying around that matched the size of the one that got smashed (of coarse it was the older one that broke) So THEN I had to try and bust surgery on it with my drill trying to widen the whole which then cracked the plastic AHHH!

Bad day. Whats the lesson here? Don't eat brownies and work on your grow room! Unless its minor stuff!!
going to the hydro store today to buy a new bucket....

-Hydro

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Hi My Friend !

That's a hell of a good plan. You've planned it well. I think your on to something really good. I'm going to love watching this grow. May it all go just as planned.

OMM,
Thanks for the kind words. Love the way your tent is shaping up. I should have 2 similar tents in the next month or two, my limiting factor right now is time, trying to juggle work, family and hobby. The hobby always loses out on that one.

Nice clean ship, looks good ! My girls get their first full day dose of the extremes today, so far they look pretty happy.

Peace

Vapor,
Thanks for stopping by. I am trying to keep a clean setup with very few uncontrolled variables. I want to see which of these three lights will perform the best. I am also moving to a complete Cutting Edge Solutions feeding schedule, I want to see what they can do if used as recommended as a complete system.

Yo Yo.

Had kind of a crazy day in the garden yesterday.....I'll post pictures of the changes I made soon. But yeah it probably didn't help that I ate a brownie before working on my garden but yeah, I managed to drop a bucket with 3 gallons of water in it, splashed the shit out of me and my apartment-luckily it was in the kitchen when it happened and not the garden...THEN! I was mounting some hooks to my ceiling in the bloom room and when I stepped down from my chair the stupid thing fell over and in one clean swoop the back rest of the chair perfectly knocked off the ribbed part of one of the bulk heads that holds on the 1/2 inch hose which leads to an on off valve for draining.

Oh it gets better. So Water starts gushing luckly I had a bucket near me so ever so slowly I had to empty the system of water before finding out that I didn't havn't another bulk head laying around that matched the size of the one that got smashed (of coarse it was the older one that broke) So THEN I had to try and bust surgery on it with my drill trying to widen the whole which then cracked the plastic AHHH!

Bad day. Whats the lesson here? Don't eat brownies and work on your grow room! Unless its minor stuff!!
going to the hydro store today to buy a new bucket....

-Hydro

I've done similar things myself. Usually from being too tired, or in too much of a rush. I have a box of extra fittings other items for just such an emergency now (I have a roll of this silicon tape that fixes almost every thing, it stretches real tight and then sticks to itself for a permanent seal). I've snapped off a bulkhead, put a hole in the bottom of a res and a few other things. Luckily it was all in a dry setup, so no spillage in my area.

I'll be posting pics and an update later this morning. Since the lights are on from 9pm-9am I have to do all of my checking on them later in the evening or early morning, then I don't get the urge to play with them when I should be working.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Grow update, 6-13-2011, day 9 in 12/12

I took a look at the girls this morning and they are doing OK, not great. So I decided to do a partial res change and make sure all of the numbers are in the right range. I also noted the P-chunk was looking a bit nute burned as well, so I wanted to drop the PPMs down a bit. After I drained 10 gallons from the res and replaced it with R/O water I went to take a quick reading with my $200 Hannah Waterproof combo tester, and it started acting strange, and then went blank. I removed the battery cover to check them and water came out of it--a waterproof tester! Fortunately for me I purchased it at my local hydro store, so I made the 10 minute drive and had a replacement in my hands. Another reason to buy local for as much as you can (and they price-match other stores or online). If I had purchased this online, I would be out of a tester for the next 10 days or so. I have aback up tester, but its a P.O.S.

Anyway, I adjusted the nutes and I'm still following the transition schedule according to Cutting Edge Solutions. I will move them to the bloom nutes once I see new root growth and the stretch start to kick off a bit more. They are stretching a bit but haven't gone into full stretch-mode yet.

I also hooked up the CO2 system to the box today. I didn't want to push them too hard the first week since they went straight from the cloner to the bloom-box.

I've decided to go strictly with the Cutting Edge Solutions (CES) line for this grow, I will have the other supplements in a few days, once the UPS man drops them off. The only other addition I am using to the res this cycle is Great White. I talked with the folks at CES and asked if their nutes were compatible with bennies. Someone else had mentioned that some synthetics nutes would kill them off. The General Manager at CES assured me that their nutes do not kill off any of the beneficials in the system.

SO this morning I added 10 gal of R/O but only added the nutes for a 5 gal mix, to keep the PPMs down. I followed the feeding chart and added:
40ml Micro, 25 ml Grow and 75 ml Bloom. I adjusted the ph after waiting an hour to 5.8.

Here are the numbers:
pH: 5.98
PPM: 1030
ec: 2058
res temp: 66
box temp: 82
RH: 47

The lights are all performing about the same at this stage. As soon as there is a distinct difference in performance I will post the comparison pics. I suspect it will be a few more days for them to really start taking off. I think the new environment, lights, nutes etc.. still has them reeling a bit.

On another note, 1 out of the 4 Darkstars showed sex, so I have at least one female, and it's the biggest of the 4 which is nice. I already had to top it
to keep it in the same height as the others in the mom tent. I think I may take the 4 big moms I have in there and put them into bloom under my other lights in hempy buckets. If I do, I will start a separate journal. I don't want to distract from the focus of this one, which is to compare the lights from Advanced to see which will perform the best in this setup.

Now for a few pics:

A few have been white balance adjusted in Picasa, the Advanced LEDs are much more reddish/pink than the other lights, so they will still be a bit pinkish.

Here is an inline filter I added to reduce the chance of clogging the spray line in the NFT.

I plan to upgrade to a higher pressure, higher gph external pump in the very near future. I will be replacing the two pump in the res (one for chiller, one for NFT) and using a 1200 gph pump with a manifold to control the flow to the chiller and NFT. I am also considering a DIY chillbox. I have two basic manifold designs, one for two outlets and one for three (if I go with a chillbox).

I took a few pics at the home improvements store for those that are more visual:

Thanks to everyone for stopping in. I plan on posting an update every 3 days (+ or -) and definitely if there are any major changes to report.

Also, make sure you get over to the 420 Lounge section and put in you vote for POTM, NOTM and MOTM. Something that I have been remiss in doing myself. Let's get behind OMM this month (that way he can't win for 6 months and I may have a chance next month )

 

[SuKaFr33]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

looks good man, definitely know what your doin.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

looks good man, definitely know what your doin.

I was just posting on your journal at the exact time you were posting on mine--spooky.

 

[Vaporeyes]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Funny you should mention that about the combo meter. I recently went to a new local store and picked up a replacement for my combo and one dip in the pool and it croaked. Went back and replaced it and same thing two more times, i was kind of annoyed and the owner is looking at me like wtf are you doing to these meters. must have been a bad batch ?


Anywho so I have the 360s in the 4x8 and I must say im really questioning the coverage. Im pretty sure a 3rd will be needed in there to get the results im looking for. Only been a handful of days but the girls ( all sister clones ) that are under the light directly seem to be growing along like they were under the 1000s ( switched the lights about 3.5 weeks into flower ) and the outer footprint seems to be lagging a tad in comparison . Im about 18 inches above so I should be good there.

Its way early so i might be jumping the gun but my gut says not.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

@Vapor,
I think the coverage area is accurate, just that the light is way more intense in the center (core coverage) and starts to diminish as you get towards the edges. I would try to keep everything in the core area as much as possible. My plan is to buy two 4x8 tents later this summer and put 2 of these lights in each and utilize a 3x6 foot print.

How are your light oriented? -- -- or | | ? I also like the idea of using a mover on these, just to move it a few inches to spread out the coverage of the light spectrum. I used one on my first grow and it made a difference, although that was with the single 180 in a 2x4 space moving 10 inches. I found a good mover on ebay for about $100, a little cheaper than buying a 3rd light and it may actually improve the yield by spreading the love a little more evenly. Just have it travel 8-12 inches and that should be more than enough to do the trick.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Quick update:
I took a look at the girls this morning and they are looking about the same as yesterday. A few of the leaves on one of the Twilights was looking droopy. I pulled the netpot out to take a look at the roots and saw some small brown chunks floating around (the beneficials starting to flocculate together). Also the nutes didn't appear to be moving very fast. I pulled the filter element out and it was almost completely clogged with beneficials, they must love all of that surface area.

I removed the filter element and flow was increased 10=fold. I pointed the spray lines towards the top of the nutes to create a splash zone to add aeration to the solution.

I am going to add some bioballs in a net bag to the res so that the bennies have a place to set up home. That and the hydroton in the netpots should give them someplace to call home.
So the lesson of the day is:
If you use beneficials in a recirculating hydro system, do not put a filter in line.

Or:
If you are doing a recirculating hydro system, keep a sterile res using H2O2 or a Zone product and then use the filter.

I think the benefits of using the beneficial organisms outweigh the negatives of clogging the filter system. I'll keep an eye on it and keep you posted.

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Decided to change my avatar, I kept seeing Willoby and thinking it was me. Began to wonder if I was having multiple personality disorder.

It's a picture of the morning paddle, heading out in search of yellow tail in Southern California. One of my other hobbies competing for my time.

 

[SuKaFr33]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

you and me both, i love fishin!!!! right now i dont have the money to do it, but when i have a couple dollars i definitely go..but yea cool avatar!!! and i know how you feel about seein the same one, thats exactly why i changed mines up, and haven't seen nobody with it yet, but i like to much anyway so its prolly gonna be this one from here on out..

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Forgot to mention that the remaining 3 Darkstars showed sex this morning. I have 4 females out of 4. These were listed as regular (not femmed) seeds. SO now the dilema is that I have 4 more girls to deal with. Definitely need to set up a second grow tent for these as well as the 4 big moms to flower.

Very surprised to have all of the seeds turn out female, nice bonus (they were freebies from my last order).

 

[SuKaFr33]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

congrats bro, hopefully i get the same thing, but yea definitely gotta make some space now..

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Stevehman's Advanced LED 360 vs. 180, multiple strains, NFT Grow 4.0

Funny you should mention that about the combo meter. I recently went to a new local store and picked up a replacement for my combo and one dip in the pool and it croaked. Went back and replaced it and same thing two more times, i was kind of annoyed and the owner is looking at me like wtf are you doing to these meters. must have been a bad batch ?


Anywho so I have the 360s in the 4x8 and I must say im really questioning the coverage. Im pretty sure a 3rd will be needed in there to get the results im looking for. Only been a handful of days but the girls ( all sister clones ) that are under the light directly seem to be growing along like they were under the 1000s ( switched the lights about 3.5 weeks into flower ) and the outer footprint seems to be lagging a tad in comparison . Im about 18 inches above so I should be good there.

Its way early so i might be jumping the gun but my gut says not.

Hey Vaporeyes,
So you got the new lights in that's great. I going to have to agree with you on 2 of these 360's covering a 4x8 area very well. My core footprint right now with these 2 lights is 2.5x6 and if it was not for the light mover I don't think it would cover it as well. Kyle did say that the coverage with 2 of these lights will cover a 4 x8 footprint no matter what orientation you have them in ( | | ) or ( -- -- ) as long as they are 4 feet center to center. I have my lights about 3 feet center to center and with the mover the coverage seems great. For my next grow my footprint will be 3 x 6 with 18 plants!!!!!