First Hydro DWC Grow / 400w MH

Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
Hey everyone, first time growing in a DWC setup. Just cleaned the bucket from all the nasty hydroton dust, washed the hydroton thoroughly, and measured out exactly 8 gallons of water so that it is about a half inch from the net pots.

The 35 gallon bucket I bought at Wal-mart was just too big, so I got a razor and cut it down about halfway as you can see it's modified height in the picture.

I bought the 400w MH light on eBay for about 50 bucks with 3 large wires poking out, so I grabbed a spare computer power cable, stripped it, wired it, then taped it up and it seems to be holding up fine.

Supplies:

400w Metal Halide
pH Test Kit
Hydroton
2" Rockwool cubes
Six 4" net pots
Tetra Whisper 30-60 Double Valve Gal Air Pump, with long airstone strip, and some regular capsule shaped stones
3qts Flora Nutrients (Micro,Grow,Bloom)

Right now I'm not using any nutrients....just because they haven't came in yet, should be any day now. Since I'm new with hydro I'm just going to try and follow the General Hydroponics feeding calculator on the website.

Also, with a DWC, I don't get how you determine when you need to put in more nutrients. Is it each week? Do I leave the same water in there?

Any other tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!






 
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AnonGrower420

Well-Known Member
no replies?! reserved! im doing a dwc next grow right now im in an aerogarden with a 250w mh conversion/hps depending on what i need. ill follow your grow, best of luck!
 
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AnonGrower420

Well-Known Member
oh forgot to meantion, ive grown 2x now in hydro well technically, ive found its best o wait for nturients, they cant handle anything really under the first 2 weeks. if u have the willpower i would leave your babies until the bottom fan leaves start to yellow just a tad and then u can go ahead with the love juice lol. for me this occured at about 3 days from 3 weeks. hope this helped!
 
racer3456

racer3456

Well-Known Member
do you plan on growing those plants to maturity in that? I don't think you have a big enough resevoir for 6 plants. By the time they start flowering, you will be filling that thing up at least once a day and constantly correcting pH. I would only grow 2 plants in there IMO. I personally use about 8 gallons for 2 plants. The reason I know this is because I made the same mistake once too. Trust me on this, only grow 2 in there.
 
bobbyboy34

bobbyboy34

Well-Known Member
thinking about upgrading my res to a 50gal rough neck for 6 plants filling it with 35-40 gallons, eash plant will have 6-7 gals of water at their disposal, im not sure if this is a good idea, thats a lot of water.

to drain it im going to use a water pump hooked up to a loooooong tube that goes to the bathroom, so i don't have to move stuff around much
 
Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
racer3456 said:
do you plan on growing those plants to maturity in that? I don't think you have a big enough resevoir for 6 plants. By the time they start flowering, you will be filling that thing up at least once a day and constantly correcting pH. I would only grow 2 plants in there IMO. I personally use about 8 gallons for 2 plants. The reason I know this is because I made the same mistake once too. Trust me on this, only grow 2 in there.
Click to expand...
hey, yea I see what you mean, I figure there will be some males and if not I don't think I'll grow all 6, 7 if you count the one just chillin in a rockwool cube. I just did this to ensure if some fail, I have a backup. If your constantly filling up the tank to feed the plants, how do you maintain a correct proportion of nutrients? That's another part of this hydro I would like some further clarification.
 
bobbyboy34

bobbyboy34

Well-Known Member
what you are talking about is called topping off, when you notice your water level down the first time top off with ph'd water, the next day you see it down top of with 1/2 strength nutes of whatever week you are on and corrected ph, you switch like this until water change
 
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blueybong

Well-Known Member
bobbyboy34 said:
thinking about upgrading my res to a 50gal rough neck for 6 plants filling it with 35-40 gallons, eash plant will have 6-7 gals of water at their disposal, im not sure if this is a good idea, thats a lot of water.

to drain it im going to use a water pump hooked up to a loooooong tube that goes to the bathroom, so i don't have to move stuff around much
Click to expand...
I don't know if you're aware of this: if you're on a septic system, you shouldn't dump your waste water down your toilet/bathtub. :peace:
 
bobbyboy34

bobbyboy34

Well-Known Member
wheres a good place to dumP? face bowl?

waste water shouldn't go in the toilet??? after you shit in the toilet isn't that waste water?
 
Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
I wish I could post a reference like "Day 3" but I'm not 100% positive when I actually started these things, I'll find out, just needa do a lil detective work. But either way they are doing fine, just getting taller by the day.

 
Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
I came home to find the seedling in the rockwool all drooped over and its stem as flimsy as spagetti. So i tried to prop up the noodle but it ended up dieing...o well. As far as the rest grow everything looks fine, I'm just wondering why my seem to be growing so tall yet slow leaf growth, ive seen other seedlings sprout more leaves shorter. I dont think its a prob at all, just curious.
 
bobbyboy34

bobbyboy34

Well-Known Member
that sucks, yeah those rockwool cubes suck, rapidrooter plugs work so well, they wuill only hold so much water and never can get soggy, can't say that for rockwool
 
Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
i just dug one up to check the root growth, and its still a tiny tail sticking out of the rockwool like the 2nd day it sprouted. I've seen pictures of other dwc seedlings that have long roots hanging out of the netpots. Is this normal?
 
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Bullethead21

Well-Known Member
Your lights are way to far away for one thing...your plants are streching to reach th elight which is why they are not growing leaves to get bushy...just growing tall and skinny...this is bad.....

Peace!
 
Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
ah ok, I figured since it was a 400w MH that it would burn the things. I like how i set it up next to my shelving, I just adjusted the shelf like 6 notches , hopefully this brings some results.
 
Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
Haven't posted in a while, long story short, they went into shock, some died, a few were growth stunted so I just have one healthy one left.

Not really worried if it's male or female, just wanted to get a learning experience. This plant is way under developed for have been growing for well over a month now. I'm experimenting with some LST, seems to be working very nicely.



[url=http://imageshack.us]
 
Veritas0609

Veritas0609

Active Member
bump, about to post more pictures.

Question, If I do not have access to an in and out venting type system...will a carbon filter still work? Does there has to be a fan system pushing air through the carbon filter? Or just placing it there with a fan nearby will help the smell?
 
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