Tokeman1's 2k Hydro H20 Cooled Tent

[Tokeman1]

Hi folks,
I have been growing on and of for 20 years ranging from 8 -60 plant grows all in soil and most organic. I have been relatively successful but now that I could have gotten much better results, especially in yield consistency.
This is my first attempt growing hydro, and any help from this great community would be appreciated. This is a legal medical grow. I am following the forum guidlines for posting and photo upload, but I will say upfront that I have spent several hours trying to upload as posted by this site and I keep getting an error message. I am going to start this journal and try to resolve this so there are plenty of pics. Any help here would ber appreciated.

YourName/Medium/StrainName/Year is a good start.

Tokeman1 medium = grow stones by Botanicare


What strain is it?
Pez
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
Hybrid, not completely sure - true Pez is a NW local clone only as far as I know it is old school but I will be sending finished (fingers crossed) samples off for testing.

Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Transpanting clones on 12/8/12
If in Veg... For how long?
Gas lite method for 3-4 weeks veg
If in Flower stage... For how long?
till she says cut me
Indoor or outdoor?
Indoor
Soil or Hydro?
Flo n gro 10 sites from Titan
Is it aircooled?
No completely watercooled
Temp of Room/cab?
work in progress 75-80F so far
RH of Room/cab?
38-44
PH of media or res?
5.7-6.1
Any Pests ?
NO!
How often are you watering?
3 times daily
Type and strength of ferts used?
Blue Planet Nutrients per schedule from Corey


OK so 1st let me say that I have been reading journals on this site for months - this is how I came across BPN. I want to start by thanking everyone who took the time to put together journals. It has been very helpful in me putting together what I hope will be my best grow yet!

Here is my background - I started growing in college about 20 years ago, always soil, started ghetto then moved to some nice indoor setups. I am a carpenter - 16 years now - and building my grow rooms is what got me into the trade, haha.

This is a legal medical grow in a 10' x 12' in an apartment. Even though legal, I want this as stealth as possible, thus the H2O cooled set up. I have come to find while building this that this is probably one of the most expensive set ups, but the efficiency is solid, it is quiet beyond belief, and I guess we will see about the yields . I have read a shit ton of pros and cons for water cooled lights, but I have a bro who has been using H2O cooled lights for years now and I can personally attest to solid results.

This journal will document my grow using 2K total for lights, with a 10 site ebb and flow system using BPN nutes. I am using a Secret Jardin 4'x8' grow tent with 2 1K galaxy ballast lights (hortilux bulbs) both daisy chained in Fresca Sol water cooled sleeves. I have a custom built air scrubber with a 6" ice box on the exhaust for AC in the tent. I am about to upgrade to a 1 HP commercial grade Ecoplus chiller, and based on the results I am getting with my current chiller, I am confident that I can keep this grow dialed in with a 55 gallon cooling reservoir. Eventually I will upgrade to a Chillking with more oomph, but I have dumped so much into this set up already that I need for it to start paying for itself before I make more upgrades.

this is what I had to work with -

• 10'x12' room
• 1 15 amp 120 volt circuit to the room
• 1 20 amp 208 volt base board heat supply in this room, but supplying heat for the entire 2 bedroom apt.

The room has a window that opens onto a walk out balcony. This is where the final chiller will be located.
The cooling system has a 50 gallon reservoir in the same room the tent is in.
The chiller will be located outside on the balcony.
The hydro reservoir is 50 gallons located in the room next to the cooling reservoir.

I will be using a gas light routine for veg appx 4 weeks and will veg at 400 watts. Flower will be at a full 2K. I do not currently have the chiller and extra 1k light installed, but will by flowering time. This is definitely a work in progress.

Again, I will try to get this photo upload issue resolved and get some photos up for review. Thanks for checking this out!




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[Tokeman1]

Re: Tokeman1's Blue Panet Nutrient 2k Hydro H20 Cooled Tent

OK I think I figured away around the image upload issues... last post shows the basic set up when you walk through the door of my spare bedroom. I installed a 6 mil liner as a flood back up as I am on the third floor of an apartment complex. I will soon have safety shut offs installed that will kill lights, pumps and power if there is a leak or if the tent temp exceeds 105 F.

This is my air scrubber / AC. This is a 440 CFM inline panasonic whisperlite with a phresh filter and silencer. At the top is a 6" icebox that supplies AC from the water chiller. This assembly is stupid quiet. The loudest sound in the entire room is a hydrofarm air pump for the nutrient res. I will be installing a 1HP ecoplus chiller that will be outside the room on a balcony. Chiller res is 50 gallon barrel in 1st pic.

 

[Tokeman1]

Re: Tokeman1's Blue Panet Nutrient 2k Hydro H20 Cooled Tent

I have a 120v 15amp and 208 volt 20 amp baseboard heater as my electrical access for this room. The electrical rigging has been a journey to say the least; I have been comfortable with basic to mid level wiring projects, but this one has gotten me into learning how to wire and use relays - total game changer. I'll go into more detail on the electrical later if anyone is interested.

Picling up my Pez clones tomorrow and I will post transplant pics shortly!

 

[Tokeman1]

OK folks I'd like to introduce you all to my lady friends. I know they look young but I assure you this is all legal....

 

[Tokeman1]

Did not realize my clones would be in soil so I am getting them ready by treating for any bugs (I inspected them at the dispensery with a magnifying glass and they looked clean, but better to be preventative than sorry). I washed the soil away by gently swiling the root balls in a five gallon bucket of clean water. Once the roots were mostly clean I dipped in BPN's Root Magic mycorrhizae powder and transpalnted directly to the grow stones.

Lights On!

 

[Tokeman1]

any input is always appreciated!!

 

[Tokeman1]

I am using BPN's 3 part system with 3 15 minute floods at lights on / off and midway through. The girls have just been through second feeding and everything is standing up strong. The initial solution is the 2nd week mild growth and I am sitting at 860 ppm with a 5.8 pH. I have barely had to tweak the pH down. So I am already very impressed with BPN. Thanks Corey!


Happy Girls!!

 

[Alaskan1]

I see some nifty shit! Water cooled. I must say I've never heard of that. Would blow to pop a leak. So how exactly does it work?

I have seen the rocks and have thought about using them. But, I still have a ton of hydroton left so I won't be switching if ever at all until I run thru the hydroton.

Couple of tips and suggestions.......I run 3 flo n gro systems. The weakest link is the controller in my opinion. That thing goes you will have water everywhere.....TRUST ME lol There really isn't a need for the hose clamps. With the barbed ends and as tight as the hose fits I have yet to have any of them leak a drop. The only thing I clamp of are the end caps. On those I use a zip tie.
Also, I don't know what kind of size of yield you are trying to reach but I have found the less pots the bigger the yield. I started out using 18 pots in a 4x8 tent. I am now down to 8 pots per tent.

You can't go wrong with Corey and BPN nutes. I have been using them now for what? 9 months? Also, Corey is a wealth of information and has helped in my mistakes. The guy is awesome. I hope the nutes you have at the moment aren't too strong. I have tried suggested rates at the begining and ended up with nute burn. The first couple of weeks I run them at 50% of suggested.

Hope some of this helps...........Good luck and I'll be watching.

 

[Tokeman1]

Hey A1 thanks for checking out my journal - yours and XLr8's journals are what made me finally decide to go with the flo n grow versus building my own. Like you I need complete stealth even though this is a completely legal med grow. So that is sound and smell for me, so I went with water cooled becuase it is so quiet and allows me to have a completely sealed room.

Basically I have a 55 gallon cooling res that I run through a chiller (I will be upgrading to a 1HP chiller in the next week or so, current chiller is way undersized). From the chiller I feed a daisy chained series first to a 6" ice box that chills the exhaust out of my scrubber (room AC and it works great). Then from there I have two fresca sol water cooled sleeves for the lights. The system works great and I feel I have been pretty meticulous putting this together. Your woes with your leaks freaked me out so I built this with some overkill. I know hose clamps aren't required, but I have them on everything because I am in an apartment with folks below. My back up to leaks are a pond liner I built in the room before everything els that can contain a little more than 350 gallons. I am also installing relays that will shut of all power to lights and pumps if the room ever got to hot or if there is a leak. Thanks to your advice I now know exactly where I will put the detection matt - right by the controller.

I like the rocks so far pros - easy to prep, way way lighter than hydroton, provides silica Cons - it floats so I have to tape my mesh buckets down, not a big deal but it bugs me when I don't have things working the way they should. I had very little residue in my system test runs, but this stuff does seem to cause a constant pH climb - not bad, but seems like initially at least I'll be making small pH adjustments daily.

I thought about starting out diluted, but the clones seemed healthy and I just checked the ladies at mid light (doing gas light) and the look good, but I will definitely have a close eye on that. I am hoping for at least 2 pounds eventually and think that is doable with the system, but for now I just want to master 2-3 strains and then I will push for max yields.

You and I are apparently in the same neck of the woods - congratulations! I used to live in the south when I started growing - fuck that uber paranoid life style bullshit. Now I feel I only have to be slight nervous haha. Again, thanks for the drop in and thanks for the advice - I hope to get a lot more. Thanks and peace!

 

[Alaskan1]

No problem, I love helping peeps! Only drawback right now to living in this state is high RH and spider mites (lil fuckers)
Pond liner was a smart move on your part. Wish I could have afforded that but seems there is always something thats more important to get. Right now its a dehumidifier.
Do you have the plans for that relay setup? How does it know when it's actually flooding? I need something like that BAD,

 

[Tokeman1]

Yeah I have done my damndest to keep this room clean; I don't keep any other house plants and remove my shoes before going in; I just feel like mites are a thing where if you don't have them, it is just a matter of time. We will see...

The leak detector you want is called a Solatel - FD 100. I basically is a relay loop with a leak sensor bad as the coil activator. It has two 15 amp plugs - one on when dry the other off, and they flip when the detector gets wet for more than two seconds. So my system will have the plug on when dry side connected to all pumps hydro and cooling. The on side when wet I will tie to a shut off relay that will kill power to the chiller so it doesn't freeze up when the coolant pump shuts down. This thing cost $80.00 online - so worth it-.

The biggest downside to this system is it is freaking expensive, and I am in the final stretch of getting my remaining gear - another 1K light and the chiller. I will have the flow for these last items later this month, but I might hold off another month on the chiller and see what I can do with bringing in winter air to keep the cooling res cold enough. I think I can handle both lights at 600 watts, but I know I will need the chiller to handle a full 2k watts, especially as we move out of winter. The new compressor will be out on a shaded balcony, so I think I will be good to go through summer at that point. Oh yeah, some where in all this I have to figure out CO2. I have never used a sealed tent, so I am wondering if bottles will last long enough to not be a total epxensive pain in the ass. Ideally I want to install a water cooled CO2 generator, but there is no way I can pull off the cash flow and modifications I would need to make. So many hidden cost in growing....hehe. My chiller is going to cost $1k, but requires a pump upgrade, installing it so it is quiet, etc. so the cost just keeping piling up. And to top it off I am a tool junkie - I want all the cool toys to play with and that doesn't help - but damn it sure is fun to have my dream set up nearly dialed in.

 

[Tokeman1]

Still having trouble with pic uploads; admin has been very responsive but we haven't found a solution. Seems the pics I add only last a few post then disappear. Guess we will see.

The middle ones need a little more height before I can cover.

 

[Alaskan1]

Looks like you have the same tents as I do! Not bad for the price! Will look into those relays. I need a couple of those for sure. I will need 3 of those things. Two for tents and one for the new grow room.

I know all about costs man. I bet I have 25 grand invested and the price of that keeps going up. Good thing I am handy at building or fixing some of this shit. (mechanic by trade)

 

[Alaskan1]

80 bucks? Cheapest I could find it was 147.95

 

[Tokeman1]

Look it up on Ehydroponics.com. Don't know about shipping... BTW are you feeding during your 1 hour on in veg with gas light? Thanks!

 

[Alaskan1]

Look it up on Ehydroponics.com. Don't know about shipping... BTW are you feeding during your 1 hour on in veg with gas light? Thanks!

Nope, I do not feed them then either and has seen no ill effects from not doing it.
Thanks! I'll go chech that site

 

[Alaskan1]

Just checked and I think that price is just for the sensor and cable correct? I need to get the box for that has the outlets so I can plug my controller box into it.

 

[Tokeman1]

I think this is the whole kit. I have ordered stuff from these folks and the a re super helpful, so I will try and call tomorrow to confirm. The way I read it though it should be everything you need.

Yeah I am only feeding 3 times a day and not during the short cycle. I know you do four but supposedly grow stones hold water a bit longer than hydroton so I want to make sure I am not overdoing it. Seems like I am on the right track because the girls seem to be taking off. I am kicking myself for sticking to soil for so long. It feels much faster and easier, and I feel like I have rediculous control instead of guessing where nutes and pH are really at. Ofcourse I feel lucky coming across Blue Planet Nutes because it seems like a very stable plug and play system. We will see... I'll post more pics in a day or two.

 

[Tokeman1]

Here are pics of the girls starting day four. Again, I am really impressed with what Corey has done with Blue Planet Nutes....so easy and the girls look so happy!!

 

[Tokeman1]

I was not exp0ecting these clones to come in dirt so I had to rinse the roots before transplanting as well as treating for pest and was prepared for a slow transition from shock. That is definitely not the case.....