1st time journal: 6 plants, rdwc, 1000w, lemon skunk
- Thread starter booort
- Start date
1 week from sprout lemon skunk/11 days bag seed
Not much growth on top today, but had a root poking through the net pot on lemon skunk 3 and bag seed 1. Lemon skunk 1 looks like it's mangled somehow, and 2 of the bag seeds' new growth is purple (either too cold or phosphorus lockout is what I gather from reading up here). No idea if there's anything I can do to fix it.
Water temps at 71 degrees, 5.8 - 6.0 pH and still at 250ppm 2 days after adding nutes. Unsure on what the optimal temperature and humidity should be in the room at this stage of the game. I have messed around with the AC and the humidifier and exhaust fan some and have been keeping the room temp around 75 with fairly low humidity at 25% max. When I get humidity up to 50% by running humidifier on high and turning the exhaust fan off, it sort of smalls musty in the room after an hour or so. I decided to run the 6" exhaust, but it lowers humidity to about 25% max.
Not that anyone is reading this thread here anyways, but realized it might have been better to post this in the newbie central area but it's too late now I guess. Anyways, here are todays pics in case anyone else enjoyed comparing their growth in pictures. Any suggestions, comments or advice is much appreciated.
Not much growth on top today, but had a root poking through the net pot on lemon skunk 3 and bag seed 1. Lemon skunk 1 looks like it's mangled somehow, and 2 of the bag seeds' new growth is purple (either too cold or phosphorus lockout is what I gather from reading up here). No idea if there's anything I can do to fix it.
Water temps at 71 degrees, 5.8 - 6.0 pH and still at 250ppm 2 days after adding nutes. Unsure on what the optimal temperature and humidity should be in the room at this stage of the game. I have messed around with the AC and the humidifier and exhaust fan some and have been keeping the room temp around 75 with fairly low humidity at 25% max. When I get humidity up to 50% by running humidifier on high and turning the exhaust fan off, it sort of smalls musty in the room after an hour or so. I decided to run the 6" exhaust, but it lowers humidity to about 25% max.
Not that anyone is reading this thread here anyways, but realized it might have been better to post this in the newbie central area but it's too late now I guess. Anyways, here are todays pics in case anyone else enjoyed comparing their growth in pictures. Any suggestions, comments or advice is much appreciated.
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BleedsGreen
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't get under 25% humidity at that stage. I wouldn't worry to much about the mangled one at this point. The purple one has me puzzled, sorry no advice from me on that never seen it before so young. Again I wouldn't have any nutrients at that stage but that is me. They look pretty good to me overall, maybe not the purple one but I don't know.
Good luck! Oh and I do have this subbed just not an hydro expert yet so not a lot of advise I can offer, so people do look. Hang in there.
Good luck! Oh and I do have this subbed just not an hydro expert yet so not a lot of advise I can offer, so people do look. Hang in there.
Thanks man, I'll keep up with the daily pictures even without much feedback from others. It's not hard to do and some of my favorite threads I've read here were the journals with regular pics of the progress all the way from seedlings. Gonna run the humidifier on high for now. Might need to get a fan controller to control the humidity better I think, the 6" exhaust really sucks the air out of the sealed up room running at full blast.
doubletake
Well-Known Member
It takes a while for you thread to get going just keep updating people will come
if you get anytime check my thread out "going big with autos 7 nl 7 biodiesel in 5 gallon smart pots" it's in the auto flower section.
also mabey get a fan controller I think there like 20 something bucks if you turn that ex aughts fan lower your humidy will go up
idk if yours has ever gone out on you but one time my exaughst fan did and there was little droplets all inside my tent it was like the tropics in there so that's one way you could raise it.
if you get anytime check my thread out "going big with autos 7 nl 7 biodiesel in 5 gallon smart pots" it's in the auto flower section.
also mabey get a fan controller I think there like 20 something bucks if you turn that ex aughts fan lower your humidy will go up
idk if yours has ever gone out on you but one time my exaughst fan did and there was little droplets all inside my tent it was like the tropics in there so that's one way you could raise it.
Thanks for the support/feedback doubletake. I just read through your autoflower journal, good stuff, but the pics are way too small to see clearly.
As for the fan controller, I'm going to go looking for one today. I don't know if I should just get a cheap one or maybe invest the $80 or so in one of those controllers that turns the exhaust on when a certain temp/rH hits, then turns it back off once temps get into desired range. Room temp was 74 and rH at 24% when I first checked them this morning with the exhaust fan off and the grow room door cracked about 1 foot all through the night.
As for the fan controller, I'm going to go looking for one today. I don't know if I should just get a cheap one or maybe invest the $80 or so in one of those controllers that turns the exhaust on when a certain temp/rH hits, then turns it back off once temps get into desired range. Room temp was 74 and rH at 24% when I first checked them this morning with the exhaust fan off and the grow room door cracked about 1 foot all through the night.
BleedsGreen
Well-Known Member
I would get the pricer ones because we all know cheap does not last!
doubletake
Well-Known Member
That'd be a good investment if you get the badass one with the thermostat if you could do it might as well it will help in the future and you won't even think about that 80 come harvest time and the other harvest to come in the future. Basicly it wil pay for itself ha.
The hydro shop was out of stock of a lot of the fan controllers, going to have to go back tomorrow and talk with one of the guys that is running a similar rdwc system there and is familiar with them and order one. I'll take your guys' advice and get a decent one, preferably something that turns the exhaust fan on when a certain temperature hits (not sure if it's possible to get something under $100 that will come on when the humidity gets to a certain level).
I removed the cheap Walmart humidifier from the room, it creates a lot of humidity fast but I noticed sort of a musty smell when I first opened the door to the room this morning. Was advised to get a container of water in there with a fan blowing on it to create humidity at a slower rate than the walmart humidifier does. Was a little worried about mildew, not sure if that can happen this early in their life or if it will be a problem. There are 2 cheap floor fans blowing the air around in the room and directly on the seedlings. The musty smell was worrisome though. Going to run the exhaust every couple hours for a few minutes until I get some sort of fan controller.
Here are the pics. Day 8 for lemon skunk, day 12 for bag seed. Roots are coming through the bottom of the netpots now, all of them except for the smallest purple colored bag seed. One of the lemon skunks has a 6" long bright white root already, so I was happy to see that progress despite very little top growth. 5.9-6.0pH, 250ppm still and water temp slowly climbing at 74 degrees now.
How do they look?
I removed the cheap Walmart humidifier from the room, it creates a lot of humidity fast but I noticed sort of a musty smell when I first opened the door to the room this morning. Was advised to get a container of water in there with a fan blowing on it to create humidity at a slower rate than the walmart humidifier does. Was a little worried about mildew, not sure if that can happen this early in their life or if it will be a problem. There are 2 cheap floor fans blowing the air around in the room and directly on the seedlings. The musty smell was worrisome though. Going to run the exhaust every couple hours for a few minutes until I get some sort of fan controller.
Here are the pics. Day 8 for lemon skunk, day 12 for bag seed. Roots are coming through the bottom of the netpots now, all of them except for the smallest purple colored bag seed. One of the lemon skunks has a 6" long bright white root already, so I was happy to see that progress despite very little top growth. 5.9-6.0pH, 250ppm still and water temp slowly climbing at 74 degrees now.
How do they look?
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BleedsGreen
Well-Known Member
Looking great man, keep at it. The purple one is a bit worrisome because I can't see any new (young) growth. But hell it was bag seed to begin with so nothing lost! The rest of them look really nice. I love the root shot but word to the wise don't pull them up all that often or keep them in the light long. Light kills roots.
Keep it up, don't get discouraged by lack of replies, your doing great.
Keep it up, don't get discouraged by lack of replies, your doing great.
Thanks, I wasn't sure if taking them out and exposure to light for a minute or two daily for pics would be bad for them. I'm gonna leave them in there from now on until the res change on Sundays.
Not much going on, not much to do. PPM is still 250 4 days after filling them up. I guess this means they are eating nothing.
pH is at 5.9, water temp 72. Room temp is at around 80 degrees now. I just plugged the 6" exhaust fan into a timer and it turns on every 3 hours for 5 minutes to remove some hot air.
Opened the lid to the control buckets and have the fan blowing across it, this keeps the humidity at about 35%. Seems to be working ok for now. A little worried about algae since light is getting in there, but I plan on changing the water in everything once a week so hope it's OK.
Purple looking one is getting better I think, as is the mangled looking lemon skunk. I'd guess it was a cold draft going through the room when keeping the door open to vent that caused their problems.
Not much going on, not much to do. PPM is still 250 4 days after filling them up. I guess this means they are eating nothing.
pH is at 5.9, water temp 72. Room temp is at around 80 degrees now. I just plugged the 6" exhaust fan into a timer and it turns on every 3 hours for 5 minutes to remove some hot air.
Opened the lid to the control buckets and have the fan blowing across it, this keeps the humidity at about 35%. Seems to be working ok for now. A little worried about algae since light is getting in there, but I plan on changing the water in everything once a week so hope it's OK.
Purple looking one is getting better I think, as is the mangled looking lemon skunk. I'd guess it was a cold draft going through the room when keeping the door open to vent that caused their problems.
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Having some problems.
Moved the reservoir buckets out of the room. Moved the 400gph submersible water pumps out out of the reservoirs and are no longer submerged (to lower temps). They are now sucking water from the reservoir through about 8 feet of poly tubing then connect to the 4 port manifold for top feed (extra circulation).
Built a new reservoir out of a cheap 12 gallon igloo ice chest. Wanted to see if the cooler would keep water temps lower than the 5 gallon reservoir bucket. Going to run them both simultaneously to test it out.
Ruined one of the $18 ice chests by cracking the inner shell by drilling one of the 4 holes too close to each other. Lesson learned.
Managed to get 1 igloo ice chest setup with 4 holes and no leaks (used a lot of silicone on the exterior). Filled the reservoir with about 8 gallons of water (was this my mistake? Not clear on how much water ice chest should hold to prevent problems - should reservoir be only 4 gallons which is same as single net pot bucket?).
An hour after connecting this, one bucket in each "set" started to overflow. Didn't catch it right away so it was a mess to clean up the gallon or so of water that spilled out.
Shut off the water pumps and raised the level a few inches of the buckets connected to ice chest reservoir by placing spare floor tiles underneath them. Removed 4 gallons water from the ice chest reservoir. Made sure the height of the bucket was a few inches higher than the return hole on the ice chest reservoir.
30 minutes later the water level in each bucket was still uneven, 1 bucket had way more water than the other two. Maybe clogged with a piece of hydroton in return line?
Shortened the length of 1/2 tubing that runs from each individual bucket to the ice chest reservoir. Evened the water of each bucket manually by scooping up water from the highest bucket.
My guess to fix this is to build a safety overflow connecting each bucket in the set to each other and then out of the room to the reservoirs.
Heading to the hydro shop now to buy more connectors (grommets etc) to make a 1/2" tubing connection up top near the netpot level to prevent this from happening again. I hope I am on the right track by doing this.
Also bought one of these for each bucket that has a net pot:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesh-Design-1-1-inch-Sink-Strainer-Stopper-Kitchen-Bathroom-Sink-Tub-/330719354634?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo=SI&its=I&itu=UCI%2BUA%2BFICS&otn=21&pmod=360474007707&ps=54
I am thinking this will prevent hydroton from clogging the return lines. Thinking it might also keep the roots out of there too. Only way I can think to get it to stay in place is to wedge a piece of stiff poly tubing cut to size so it presses the screen over the hole. Don't want to use any glue, and can't really make any holes in the buckets with a screw or staple or anything.
I sure wish I would have connected the buckets with 1 inch tubing. Hydro shop had no grommets and connectors for anything bigger than 1/2". Next cycle I am going to change out the return lines to 1 inch poly if I can find them. Don't want to use pvc because I like the mobility of the poly tubing connections.
Off to hydro shop now, this really sucks...hope the over flow connections at the net pot level in the buckets will prevent an overflow again. On the bright side, the water temps in the reservoirs that are moved outside the room have dropped to ~69 degrees.
Will post pics tonight when the work is done and problem solved (I hope).
As always, any comments, suggestions, criticisms etc are welcome.
Moved the reservoir buckets out of the room. Moved the 400gph submersible water pumps out out of the reservoirs and are no longer submerged (to lower temps). They are now sucking water from the reservoir through about 8 feet of poly tubing then connect to the 4 port manifold for top feed (extra circulation).
Built a new reservoir out of a cheap 12 gallon igloo ice chest. Wanted to see if the cooler would keep water temps lower than the 5 gallon reservoir bucket. Going to run them both simultaneously to test it out.
Ruined one of the $18 ice chests by cracking the inner shell by drilling one of the 4 holes too close to each other. Lesson learned.
Managed to get 1 igloo ice chest setup with 4 holes and no leaks (used a lot of silicone on the exterior). Filled the reservoir with about 8 gallons of water (was this my mistake? Not clear on how much water ice chest should hold to prevent problems - should reservoir be only 4 gallons which is same as single net pot bucket?).
An hour after connecting this, one bucket in each "set" started to overflow. Didn't catch it right away so it was a mess to clean up the gallon or so of water that spilled out.
Shut off the water pumps and raised the level a few inches of the buckets connected to ice chest reservoir by placing spare floor tiles underneath them. Removed 4 gallons water from the ice chest reservoir. Made sure the height of the bucket was a few inches higher than the return hole on the ice chest reservoir.
30 minutes later the water level in each bucket was still uneven, 1 bucket had way more water than the other two. Maybe clogged with a piece of hydroton in return line?
Shortened the length of 1/2 tubing that runs from each individual bucket to the ice chest reservoir. Evened the water of each bucket manually by scooping up water from the highest bucket.
My guess to fix this is to build a safety overflow connecting each bucket in the set to each other and then out of the room to the reservoirs.
Heading to the hydro shop now to buy more connectors (grommets etc) to make a 1/2" tubing connection up top near the netpot level to prevent this from happening again. I hope I am on the right track by doing this.
Also bought one of these for each bucket that has a net pot:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesh-Design-1-1-inch-Sink-Strainer-Stopper-Kitchen-Bathroom-Sink-Tub-/330719354634?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo=SI&its=I&itu=UCI%2BUA%2BFICS&otn=21&pmod=360474007707&ps=54
I am thinking this will prevent hydroton from clogging the return lines. Thinking it might also keep the roots out of there too. Only way I can think to get it to stay in place is to wedge a piece of stiff poly tubing cut to size so it presses the screen over the hole. Don't want to use any glue, and can't really make any holes in the buckets with a screw or staple or anything.
I sure wish I would have connected the buckets with 1 inch tubing. Hydro shop had no grommets and connectors for anything bigger than 1/2". Next cycle I am going to change out the return lines to 1 inch poly if I can find them. Don't want to use pvc because I like the mobility of the poly tubing connections.
Off to hydro shop now, this really sucks...hope the over flow connections at the net pot level in the buckets will prevent an overflow again. On the bright side, the water temps in the reservoirs that are moved outside the room have dropped to ~69 degrees.
Will post pics tonight when the work is done and problem solved (I hope).
As always, any comments, suggestions, criticisms etc are welcome.
Attachments
BleedsGreen
Well-Known Member
You can also get all the supplies you need from lowes or home depot, they carry poly and the connectors. At a much cheaper price too.
Thanks for the suggestion, I started at Home Depot/Lowes, but they didn't have what I needed. I think it might be more seasonal, not much demand for these parts in the winter.
The poly from home depot/lowes is terrible, seems real stiff and thin. Bought 100 foot roll of the good hydrofarm tubing already from hydro shop last week for $20 (must have been priced wrong, seems too cheap).
Home/Depot lowes has very little grommets, nothing that seems good and water tight like the ones I buy from the hydro shop. They had nothing what so ever to build a water tight connection for poly tubing to a hole in a 5 gallon bucket. The Home Depot guy said they get asked for these parts a lot expecialy from home brewers. Even the pvc ball valve shut off things are over $5 each, the ones I get at the hydro shop are $2.25 each (not as solid as the pvc ball valve at HD but works just fine so far).
Believe me, I'd prefer to just run a few blocks to home depot, but I just can't find solid connectors/grommets to connect the 1/2" poly to the buckets.
The poly from home depot/lowes is terrible, seems real stiff and thin. Bought 100 foot roll of the good hydrofarm tubing already from hydro shop last week for $20 (must have been priced wrong, seems too cheap).
Home/Depot lowes has very little grommets, nothing that seems good and water tight like the ones I buy from the hydro shop. They had nothing what so ever to build a water tight connection for poly tubing to a hole in a 5 gallon bucket. The Home Depot guy said they get asked for these parts a lot expecialy from home brewers. Even the pvc ball valve shut off things are over $5 each, the ones I get at the hydro shop are $2.25 each (not as solid as the pvc ball valve at HD but works just fine so far).
Believe me, I'd prefer to just run a few blocks to home depot, but I just can't find solid connectors/grommets to connect the 1/2" poly to the buckets.
BleedsGreen
Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear that, my Lowes has all of that and different qualities as well in the pond section. The folks up here are really into their ponds.
More problems...leaking water, took many hours but finally found the problems and built another set of 4 buckets to replace leaking ones.
The little girls are getting bigger and look like they are ready to move to the other room with the dimmable 1000w MH. Only problem now is the ballast is malfunctioning, it comes on then shuts off and gives a blinking LED code for a short or bulb problem. Bulb is brand new, tested it and ran it for 4 hours a few weeks ago. Today it comes on for a few minutes occasionally and then shuts off. Tried several other outlets, tried running no other devices (all pumpps unplugged, AC unplugged, etc). Can't be electrical cause we installed 2 new 15 amp circuits specifically just for this room and everything else runs fine. I think it's a faulty ballast, it's a NANO XTREME 1000w dimmable, going to return it tomorrow and hope it solves it.
Will do pics tomorrow, so exhausted from troubleshooting the leaking buckets, must have spent 12 hours a day taking things apart. Can't wait til this is dialed in. Neither can my wife who is getting annoyed at me being in the basement for the last 3 days straight.
The little girls are getting bigger and look like they are ready to move to the other room with the dimmable 1000w MH. Only problem now is the ballast is malfunctioning, it comes on then shuts off and gives a blinking LED code for a short or bulb problem. Bulb is brand new, tested it and ran it for 4 hours a few weeks ago. Today it comes on for a few minutes occasionally and then shuts off. Tried several other outlets, tried running no other devices (all pumpps unplugged, AC unplugged, etc). Can't be electrical cause we installed 2 new 15 amp circuits specifically just for this room and everything else runs fine. I think it's a faulty ballast, it's a NANO XTREME 1000w dimmable, going to return it tomorrow and hope it solves it.
Will do pics tomorrow, so exhausted from troubleshooting the leaking buckets, must have spent 12 hours a day taking things apart. Can't wait til this is dialed in. Neither can my wife who is getting annoyed at me being in the basement for the last 3 days straight.
One pic of the new buckets connected with 3/4" tubing in a loop (the correct way I guess). Previously each bucket connected to the reservoir bucket, new way is each bucket linked together which seems better.
The purple straggler bag seed looks good now, as does the previously mangled lemon skunk.
The purple straggler bag seed looks good now, as does the previously mangled lemon skunk.
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BleedsGreen
Well-Known Member
Looking good!
Finally finished building the new buckets and connecting them with the control bucket outside the room:
The temperature of this room is more consistent since it has the air conditioner in it. They sit about 3 feet under the 1000w MH and it stays at about 75 degrees now.
Water temperature still gets to 70 degrees within a day of changing it. Can't invest in a $1000 water chiller now, so I guess I'm gonna be adding a lot of frozen 1 gallon water jugs.
In the process of building 3 more buckets so I can move the other 3 bag seeds that are still under the T5 in the adjoining room:
Connecting everything together with the 3/4" poly tubing will be worth it I think. Overflow shouldn't happen now (I think).
The temperature of this room is more consistent since it has the air conditioner in it. They sit about 3 feet under the 1000w MH and it stays at about 75 degrees now.
Water temperature still gets to 70 degrees within a day of changing it. Can't invest in a $1000 water chiller now, so I guess I'm gonna be adding a lot of frozen 1 gallon water jugs.
In the process of building 3 more buckets so I can move the other 3 bag seeds that are still under the T5 in the adjoining room:
Connecting everything together with the 3/4" poly tubing will be worth it I think. Overflow shouldn't happen now (I think).
Started buying good water from Walmart in the 5 gallon jugs, was told we get a lot of chloramine or something here in the tap water. ppm of tap water has been below 100 but I'd rather just be careful and use the good R/O water.
Increased the dosage to almost 50% of what is recommended for the botanicare line at week 1 veg. Used full strength CalMag, full strength roots excelerator, about 40% of the veg formula and 50% of the liquid karma, 33% of the silica. PPM is at 400.
Here are the bag seeds, still under the T5, about 48 hours after adding the new nutrient mix:
These look pretty good to me and seem like they are taking the nutrients well.
Now the lemon skunk is another story. Their nutrients were changed about 24 hours after the bagseed nutrients (changed these yesterday). 2 of them are starting to look like they are hurting, but these symptoms were showing before the nutrient change. I am hoping this was just a heat problem. They are still showing these symptoms after being in a better climate room for the last 24 hours (75 degrees consistently) and are now under the 1000w MH which is 3 feet above the buckets. 1 looks like it is doing OK, the other 2 look like something is starting to go wrong:
View attachment 2512532View attachment 2512533View attachment 2512530
Increased the dosage to almost 50% of what is recommended for the botanicare line at week 1 veg. Used full strength CalMag, full strength roots excelerator, about 40% of the veg formula and 50% of the liquid karma, 33% of the silica. PPM is at 400.
Here are the bag seeds, still under the T5, about 48 hours after adding the new nutrient mix:
These look pretty good to me and seem like they are taking the nutrients well.
Now the lemon skunk is another story. Their nutrients were changed about 24 hours after the bagseed nutrients (changed these yesterday). 2 of them are starting to look like they are hurting, but these symptoms were showing before the nutrient change. I am hoping this was just a heat problem. They are still showing these symptoms after being in a better climate room for the last 24 hours (75 degrees consistently) and are now under the 1000w MH which is 3 feet above the buckets. 1 looks like it is doing OK, the other 2 look like something is starting to go wrong:
View attachment 2512532View attachment 2512533View attachment 2512530