The Deep Water Culture Home

Mr.Rose said:
I possible could write up a DIY with the APC UPS conversion to deep cycle boat batteries and setting up the software to txt,email,twit whatever you like about power fluxs or outages. It will just be a while as I just got the house bought and the grow room built up.

Next project is to install a rack and build up a OpenSolaris ZFS NAS or a Linux NAS all for music,movies,pictures etc. Been debating even mixing it with mythTV frontends so that I don't have to pay the cable company box rental fee plus the cost of digital cable... all for a digital tv guide...:straightface: Also gotta finish wiring the house up with Cat-6 and run some new coaxial cable. So many projects and so little funds. :roorrip:

Guido,
Nice Plants!:rollit::bravo:
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Please DO! I have power blips, brownouts, and outages FREQUENTLY!!!
 
ol hippy said:
Nice Guido ! How long has that one been flowering ? Looks like your gonna have a great harvest !!
Click to expand...

Thank ol hippy
Today makes day 42 in flowering. The 26th starts the stress and projected harvest is Sept. 9!!!! I just wish that I had a 400 watt hps to go along with my cfls, my buds would have been monsters!!! I have 4 Wonder Woman clones vegging that will flower under one.:rollit:
 
GaladrielDreams said:
Please DO! I have power blips, brownouts, and outages FREQUENTLY!!!
Click to expand...

A cheap UPS will solve most of those issues but the batteries are not made to be drained every other week. Even the Deep Cycle boat batteries will require you to put them on a normal battery charger if you really drain them.

If you can get a SNMP enabled UPS then you can simply attach a standard network cable and query the device from the network to read the power usage data. (Usually they come with a basic Windows application to read this data or you can use a more advanced solution like Cacti: The Complete RRDTool-based Graphing Solution

I mentioned the USB UPS's because they are much more common and reasonably priced. And if you have a computer near by then logging the power data becomes simple and cheap. Once you can access the data then it becomes trivial to have txt's or emails sent to you when a power change outside or normal parameters occurs. (Of course this assumes that the computer is also on battery backup and can send a message out over the internet.)

Word of warning, you really might not like seeing just how awful the power delivered to your house really is.

If you are having extended outages every other week then you should probably be looking at a generator as the cost of replacing deep cycle batteries will catch up to you quickly. If you already have GAS service either by line or tank then I could highly recommend looking into a generator that can run on natural gas.
 
Mr.Rose said:
A cheap UPS will solve most of those issues but the batteries are not made to be drained every other week. Even the Deep Cycle boat batteries will require you to put them on a normal battery charger if you really drain them.

If you can get a SNMP enabled UPS then you can simply attach a standard network cable and query the device from the network to read the power usage data. (Usually they come with a basic Windows application to read this data or you can use a more advanced solution like Cacti: The Complete RRDTool-based Graphing Solution

I mentioned the USB UPS's because they are much more common and reasonably priced. And if you have a computer near by then logging the power data becomes simple and cheap. Once you can access the data then it becomes trivial to have txt's or emails sent to you when a power change outside or normal parameters occurs. (Of course this assumes that the computer is also on battery backup and can send a message out over the internet.)

Word of warning, you really might not like seeing just how awful the power delivered to your house really is.

If you are having extended outages every other week then you should probably be looking at a generator as the cost of replacing deep cycle batteries will catch up to you quickly. If you already have GAS service either by line or tank then I could highly recommend looking into a generator that can run on natural gas.
Click to expand...

I Wish I could + Rep you again because this is an AWESOME Post! Even for those who don't have frequent power outages, it's still good info to have in the event you do have a power failure.

I have a dead UPS, and I showed your post to my hubby and he said that he could do the switchover pretty painlessly. I am just curious as to the whole schematic of it. I get into exploded views of things to see how they work.

We have power 'blips' as I would say. Someone hits a pole, or lightning strikes a transformer, and it will go off and on. Then we have the brownouts where you see the lights dim, and fans slow down etc. We have power outages whenever we have a severe thunderstorm, which as of late, is at least 3 times a week. I live in a rural area, and it's just a fact of life that you lose power. I have kerosene heaters in the event of a power failure in the winter, and carbon monoxide detectors placed in 3 different locations throughout the house.

I wanted to know what I should do with my plants in the event that we go hours or days without power. I have my res's in one of those under bed storage boxes so in the event of no power, I can at least roll the res's into a sunny spot. The UPS can handle the pumps and probably even the lights (I'm using dual spectrum CFL's) if need be. Thank you for the suggestion on how to revive our dead UPS!

Thanks again!
 
GaladrielDreams said:
I have a dead UPS, and I showed your post to my hubby and he said that he could do the switchover pretty painlessly. I am just curious as to the whole schematic of it. I get into exploded views of things to see how they work.
Click to expand...

If you husband wasn't scared off from a little wiring or batteries then he should be perfectly fine. Here are the finer points to remember.

1. Look at your current UPS and remove the batteries. Figure out if they are in series or parallel and what the voltage is. Connecting Batteries in Series or Parallel

2. Match the voltage with your new batteries. In my example of an APC SMART 1500 ups, the setup is TWO 12volt batteries in a series for a voltage of 24volts.

(I also recommend Server UPS's as the internal electronics are made to handle 1000watt power-supplies 24x7 so an exhaust fan, air pump, some CFL's just are not going to stress them.)

3. I can now purchase TWO 12volt Deep Cycle marine batteries at an auto-parts store for $75-120 a piece with a warranty. Make sure the batteries have screw terminals that accept a nut/wingnut instead of posts. This will make your life easy when wiring it up to the UPS. I have returned batteries that I ran totally dead in an IT environment as it was more cost effective and the turn around was a 5 minute trip in town.

4. Wire the new batteries up in a series. Use some heavy guage wire as a fully charged Deep Cycle battery will weld a monkey wrench to the terminals if they are crossed with said monkey wrench :reading420magazine:

5. Usually the battery packs in the UPS has a quick connect so that customers can easily buy over-priced replacement batteries. I usually re-use this piece and crimp/solder the terminals to new heavy gauge wire unless the factory wiring looks good and is long enough.

6. Connect everything together and try running something off the of the batteries. Just don't let it go to long as you will need to use a standard battery charger to re-charge the Deep Cycles as the UPS unit is not engineered nor up to the task of charging some boat batteries. If you let the UPS try and charge it you will end up with a paper weight after a few attempts.

7. Hook it all up to your grow room / air pumps and breath a sigh of relief. If using on a concrete floor just remember to set the batteries on a board so that they are not directly sitting on the concrete floor.

:bongrip:
 
Hey gang, I'm back!
My health keeps beating me up, but I'm still kickin'!

SkinWins said:
thanks man, i'm sorry your having issues, could be something in the room, something your doing or bad genetics. no idea, years ago i had a issue like that and just cut my loses, removed everything and cleaned, went over set up piece by piece and started fresh with a different strain. i was 8 weeks in and the plants were about 6 inchs tall and thin as can be. they looked so sick, still have no idea which piece of the puzzle was wrong but then next grow was perfect and health. good luck with them
Click to expand...

I'm looking at this grow as my learning experience.
I just want to get something out of it for all the work I've put in, but I'm not expecting too much.
Four out of my 5 plants that are left are still alive - funky looking, but alive!
The 5th one hasn't grown at all in a week and is actually pretty small.

MostlyCrazy said:
Burple,

Don't judge your plants on height as much as you do maturity level. If they are alternating leaves then it is up to you when to send them to flower. You might want to raise the lights some to get them to stretch for the light and open up so your light can penetrate further down the stalk. That is called a deliberate stretch.
Click to expand...

I gotta see if I can take some pics of my plants MC, they are weird looking!
I have branches growing out of other branches, with nodes everywhere!
I just hope they turn out to be females!
One plant looks all stretched out and "threadbare" while the other 3 although short, are pretty bushy considering their size.
Since tomorrow is 6 weeks, I'm just gonna wait see what lives and what dies over the next 2 weeks, and then send them to flower and see what I get.
I do have to get some of that hygrozyme or sensizym that was talked about because my roots are looking a little juicy again, and I can't cut anymore off!

SkinWins said:
burple also know those 2 plants i just posted pics of were my 2 runts from indoors that i pulled and was going to trash them. they were both very weak and small and i decided to give them a chance and not give up on them. with a little love and patience they turned into my best 2 plants from the batch i started indoors.
Click to expand...

Oh sure SW, make me feel even worse! :laugh:
My two runts (one is already gone) are not going to survive.
I think next year I may try growing a plant or 2 outdoors to see what happens.
Just think of all the questions I'll have then! :rofl:

Guido said:
Man it is SNOWING in Guidoville. I will try to post some pics later. I have a shitty camera so don't expect much. But even the main stems are oozing trichs, and I have allmost 3 weeks left until harvest. I'm so freaking excited!!!!!!!
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Okay Guido, I'm about an hour away, let me know whan you want me to come, and if you want me to pick anything up on the way! :cheesygrinsmiley:
Seriously though, plants look great. You should get a good harvest out of them. :thumb:
 
bendog420 said:
i cant belive we are almost at 1000 pages
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Well you flipped the page and we are now officially at 1000 pages! Congrats Deep Water Culture!
 
Burple said:
Hey gang, I'm back!
My health keeps beating me up, but I'm still kickin'!



Okay Guido, I'm about an hour away, let me know whan you want me to come, and if you want me to pick anything up on the way! :cheesygrinsmiley:
Seriously though, plants look great. You should get a good harvest out of them. :thumb:
Click to expand...


Burple, you are welcome anytime. Just bring yourself, allmost anything else you could want you can find here. :bong:
 
bendog420 said:
one of the side branches has a thick nug on top and i went in this morning and the branch bent completly in half near the top,would it be okay to support it back up(will it heal) or being this late into bloom(i will start stress next week) should i just cut it for a sample either way works for me i would just like opinions
Click to expand...


Sounds to me like you just started stress. It should heal. I did the same thing about 2 or 3 weeks ago on a main branch. The plant shut down for about a week, so now I will have 2 harvest days. (about a week apart), The plant is looking very healthy and has mega amounts of buds growing, just later than the other is all. But I wasn't quite as close to harvest as you are. :bongrip:
 
Guido said:
Sounds to me like you just started stress. It should heal. I did the same thing about 2 or 3 weeks ago on a main branch. The plant shut down for about a week, so now I will have 2 harvest days. (about a week apart), The plant is looking very healthy and has mega amounts of buds growing, just later than the other is all. But I wasn't quite as close to harvest as you are. :bongrip:
Click to expand...

im just going byhow many weeks it said,they could go longer for all i know lol but ok ill prop it up and see how it goes,thanks bro
 

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