2 tent setup with hydroton ebb and ez cloner bogfan

[Bogfan]

Started growing hydroponically this week for the first time. I played around with a few outdoor grows for several seasons.
I have always been kind of a nerd about certain things and when I stumbled upon the Overgrow.com website in 2001, I read and read and read and red until I couldn't think of an more questions to ask, all I thought I needed was an opportunity to grow. I built a few small indoor strealth cabinets that worked well and even an few aeroponics systems(that I never got a chance to use).

When the Overgrow website went down in 2005, I went into mass depression thinking about all of the valuable information that had been lost. I realized I had almost fallen love with a group of people who gave so much to people that they could never possibly receive anything from.

I have spent the entire time since then thinking about the elaborate aeroponic/ ebb/ dwc/ nft/ aquaculture /raft/hydroton/ rockwool/ coir /phytocell /perlite/ recycled tire/ recycling/ chillling/ aerated/ ionizing/ carbon filtered/ underground/ rail container/ greenhouse/ solar powered high flow/ organic/ water cooled/ C02 /H2O2 system I was gonna build someday. Never happened.

Several months ago, I began reading thru the forums of RIU, It was wonderful to see the forums of this site in the spirit of overgrow.com I, like a lot of you nerds, have probably well over a hundred hours of speed reading the forums of RIU.
I hope I can help and be helped by a group of people here who realize that teaching and learning to grow with anonymous people who study the science of growing the cannabis plant is the safest way to grow.

I am chock full of knowledge with no practical hydroponic experience of my own, and I am not sure this is a good combo, but its where I have to start from so I am gonna do the best i can.

While starting this grow, I seemed to make the same mistakes I thought I was gonna make. I dont know if I am doing great or terrible but these are the methods that I have understood from my extensive reading best suit me. I would love to hear from people with similar grows so we can learn together. I plan on making lots of mistakes, I hope some of the experienced growers point them out to me.

Some things that I would like to passs on:
Dont begin your grow without having everything you need in place first. That includes a prepared area, ventilation, odor control, lighting, ppm/ph meters, thermometers, duct, hydroponic system, nutrients, etc.
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! Its our number one killer.

Heres the setup:
FlOWERING TENT
4x4x7 Homebox grow tent in a spare bedroom
600 watt FutureBrite ballast
cheapest 600 bulb at the store with backup bulb
6" air cooled hood
6" can fan
6" flexible duct
6" clamps for duct
Fan Speed Controller
Sunleaves Light hanging Yoyos
Garden Thermometer with remote sensor and Hi/low memory settings
18" can fan carbon filter
Botanicare 2x3 Turbogarden with lid and 5.5"round netpots
Hydroton
Air Pump w air line
Milwaukee ph meter
Milwaukee ppm meter
2 timers
Squid Power Strip
Wal Mart Humidifier
reservoir Thermometer
bungee cords
duct tape
zip ties
keep the twist ties that usually come with your equipment/ you will know why later

Clone/Mother/Veg Tent
31"x31"x5' Homebox Tent
Sunleaves 4-bulb 24" T-5 Fluorescent
EZ-cloner 30 site aeroponic cloner
CAP TIMER 4 Min on/1 Min off
Botanicare Microgarden 31"x12" 8 site with square pots and hydroton and timer and the smallest water pump I have ever seen, but it gets the job done.
backup pump
4" Sunleaves Centrifugal fan
Wal Mart Humidifier
Chains and hooks to hang light with
Timer for Microgarden
Reservoir Thermometers
Garden Thermometer with remote sensor and Hi/low memory settings

I just started the second week of flower with 1000 ppm 5.8 ph Gh flora Nutes. These are from bagseed and I dont expect a lotbut I want to give this system a go before starting the Bogbubble seeds I am germinating in the ez cloner now. Pics to come.

 

[Bogfan]

Here are some pics of the space I use. I began trying to use Fox Farms Nutrients, but had root problems in the EZ cloner and in the turbogarden. The root problems began when I left the EZ Garden unplugged for several hours. After that, the plants never seeed to be the same developing brown necrotis spots that eventually took over all the lower leaves. The Spots seemed to have worked themselves out after I finally moved to 700 ppm in the few days before flowering. Every time I increased nuted, before that, thay seemed to signs of burn. I flushed a total of 3 times while vegging and began adding Hygrozyme. Showed no improvement. The next group of seedlings I put into the cloner seem to have the same problems...browning roots and slow root development. I am not sure what I am doing wrong with the cloner. temp is 78 humidity is 50% 5.8 ppm good air flow and 24 hours of light with fluorescents. I just put the bogbubble seedling in the cloner and they arent looking too good at all. hey are in the cloner with some bagseed seedlings, and some cuttings I took before flowering the first bagseed seedlings.

 

[BloodShot420]

what up bogfan? looking very nice!!! Overgrow was the shit - i about memorized the place the same time as you did... I was CRUSHED when it disappeared... i really did fall in love with it.

I am looking at settting up some tents like you have there for mothers... where did you buy yours??

your shelf looks like a display at my local hydro store this will be going good if you pop some real genetics in there... you got them on order yet? might as well go for it! if you mess up, you will still have some decent shit to smoke.

Before Overgrow:

After Overgrow:

 

[Bogfan]

I bought the boxes at a local grow store.Homebox is the brand name. There are several brands out there now. I looked at them all(I am an overshopper). The Homebox was hands down the winner. I t was tough to spend the cash on all the storebought things when I knew I could build them but I wanted to try and be sure I wasnt getting in over my head on what I could reasonably manage. Dealing with leaks and proper drains wasnt what I wanted to be focused on this time. I have enough trouble working the digital timers that I messed up and bought.
I am gonna hold off on ordering seeds for a while. I really want to grow the bogbubble out and take clones. I am a little nostalgic about the bogbulle and I had good results in the past. I am having trouble keeping the little suckers alive right now. The Ez Cloner isnt as foolproof as I had led myself to believe. I may have to switch to rockwool. Its just hard admitting that I made a $300 mistake by buying it right now. I feel certain there is just some little something I am missing with the little stunted bogbubble seedlings. I ordered them thru the mail several years ago seedsdirect I think. Anyway, I believe they are either defunct or not shipping to the states now. Seedbay was the last place I saw them.

 

[Bogfan]

bogfan? looking very nice!!! Overgrow was the shit - i about memorized the place the same time as you did... I was CRUSHED when it disappeared... i really did fall in love with it.

I am looking at settting up some tents like you have there for mothers... where did you buy yours??





The Worms Way Stores carry Homeboxes and those stores are employee owned. I usually find some very knowledgeable people there.

 

[BloodShot420]

i have shopped at worms way online, I like that place... wish i had one closer to me. i dont think there's even one in my state, although i'm on the east coast...

i hear the EZ clone machines get a little too hot... the water that is.

i'm not sure if there is an air stone or not, but there is that water pump that runs 24/7 in there... and under load too - apparently that can heat the water up too much if you leave it in there too long... what kind of water temps are you experiencing? how often do you change it? do you check the pH?

 

[Bogfan]

Yea, I change the water every week and treat it with H2o2. Ph is always 5.8 unless I do something stupid like over ph down. I had a 4 min off 1 min on timer that I have recently hooked up to the EZ Cloner which seems to help to keep the res temps around 69 degrees. It is 75 degrees in the box that its in. Before the timer it was running about 75 degrees. I bought a 6 vented hood but wish I would have bought a cool tube. I didnt consider the hood radiating that much heat back into the room.
The EZ Cloner came with an air pump and a venturi tube for oxyenating the water, I didnt see that many bubbles so I upgraded the air pump and got one of those disc shaped airstones that are supposed to be the best, who knows. I am really trying to do overkill everytime I can on this grow.

 

[Bogfan]

Today I cut down 10 of 14 plants. They were males and I knew they had to go, but it hurts to cut down 10 plants. I am not sure if i stressed them to be that way or if I actually do have that bad of luck. Anyway, I am in depression. The bogbubble seedlings seem to be doing much better than a few days ago. I added nutrients to the EZ cloner to get it up to 250 ppm. I hope it doesnt kill them.

 

[Bogfan]

My bogbubble seedlings have been in the EZ cloner for 3 weeks and have shown very little growth. I have flushed twice, tried them with no nutes and with 300 ppm. Nothing seems to help them. Their ph is a constant 5.8 and the temp is 68 degrees. Humidity 50%. I have been using H2O2 also. Any ideas would be appreciated. As the pics show, they all seem to have different problems. Cant seem to get them to grow.

 

[Bogfan]

The flowering plants are doing well under the 600 and the Turbogarden. I just cant seem to get my seedlings in the EZ Cloner to grow roots. I would love some advice on using the EZ CLONER. As a sidenote, the seedlings in the EZ CLONER seem to be growing lots of smaller roots inside the neoprene itself. THe roots hanging down in the water spray arent growing at all, but inside the collar they are growing small roots every couple days that never make it out of the neoprene collar. I have slid the plants down in the collar a few times so that the new root inside the neoprene collar were exposed to the spray but they never grew anymore after being exposed to the spray. However new small roots always seem to grow inside the collar. The plants look stunted and the roots havent grown. ANY IDEAS?

 

[BloodShot420]

try to warm the water in the ez cloner up a little to about 75... i think most ppl use slightly warmer water for clones...

did you clean any of that stuff out with harsh chemicals before you started using it (bleach?)

 

[Bogfan]

Yea I have cleaned it out several times with a mild bleach solution and H2O2. I have been trying to keep the root temps at about 70 degrees. I put the heater back in the ez cloner reservoir a few days ago. I will raise it to 75 tonite. I got restless and added nutes for a total ppm of 500. Hope I didnt kill them. I will clean reservoir again tommorrow with nothing but H2O. That stuff is getting expensive.

 

[Eharmony420]

get rid of the nutes! From expereince I can tell you that nuteing early is the worst thing and 500 sounds real high.

 

[meltdown213]

I noticed your tent has white plastic walls which is bad no matter what brand it is. The walls in mine turned yellow from the light....can't be good for the plant. Take them back and get the silver-lining ones.

 

[Eharmony420]

My tent walls are fine.

the things is like a year or 2 ago a tent company put out a series of tents with bad walls. they off gassed and went poison when exposed to heat.

they have been mostly recalled. you gotta make sure you dont get those. i bet he did not. it is very hard nowadays to get the poisonios ones. I even bought the cheap budboxx off ebay and it is doing fine for 5 months now.

panda film is what the stuff is called and it is doing ok for many years world wide

 

[trouble9039]

Bogfan- Don't use nut's in ur ez cloner only PH balanced water and just keep ur temps lower than 78 f and u should be ok! Are u putting seedling's into ur cloner? The pic look's like those were sprouted in paper towel! The ez cloner is A great device once u get it under control.... I use it for my clones all the time and I have had problems but I got them all worked out! Keep it clean and simple and no nut's!!!

 

[meltdown213]

My tent walls are fine.

the things is like a year or 2 ago a tent company put out a series of tents with bad walls. they off gassed and went poison when exposed to heat.

they have been mostly recalled. you gotta make sure you dont get those. i bet he did not. it is very hard nowadays to get the poisonios ones. I even bought the cheap budboxx off ebay and it is doing fine for 5 months now.

panda film is what the stuff is called and it is doing ok for many years world wide

I bought my old one 28 days ago from the local hydro shop and returned yesterday for one with silver walls. I also told myself they had been fixed and recalled. I'm so glad I was able to return mine...Dude, The walls turned yellow.

Same price so why risk it?

Peace

 

[trouble9039]

what happened meltdown? The tent walls turned yellow? I was looking at those awhile back but know I have A 870sq ft room just for my grow's! For A longtime I used A pora privy for camping and used mylar on the inside's.

 

[Bogfan]

I have faith in the tent for right now. I dont believe the tent is the variable that is holding me up on the seedlings. Although they look like they are a week old, they have been in the cloner for 4 weeks now. Thats why I decided to give them nutes. The new leaves dont seem to be showing burn yet, and they were looking really rough without nutes so I really dont think that is the prob, although I am not sure. I am gonna raise the temp a bit before I get rid of the nutes as long as they dont show any burn.

Yes, I started the seedlings in a paper towel and I assumed that it would be easy to take them out of the towel and pop them in the cloner. This has turned out to be much more difficult than I thought.

TROUBLE9039 What type of probs have you had with your cloner. Any other good advice?

 

[meltdown213]

what happened meltdown? The tent walls turned yellow? I was looking at those awhile back but know I have A 870sq ft room just for my grow's! For A longtime I used A pora privy for camping and used mylar on the inside's.

My 400 watt lamp stained the walls yellow. You could tell where I had my light set. Shitty, if you think about how much these cost.

You can't help but notice the negative rep of the white walled tents. All manufactuers have swithced to silver and claim no toxic gas in ads.

My advice would be to return(if you can) and buy silver ones.

Good luck!