First Ever Grow - Stealth PC Easy Ryder Bubbleponics

electropyro said:

For your fans read

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/358671-wiring-pc-fan-laptop-charger.html

and you will find a fan in their reccomended and used by a very smart man...

and thanks for clarifying that cfl thing lol...that would have been crazy getting all those in their lol..

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Thanks for the thread reference! Some good info in there -- One of those nice RVK inline fans would be great, but they are pricey. The computer fans I'm using are rated at 90CFM airflow and 19dB noise output, so pretty comparable to the ones he recommended. I currently have 2 fans wired onto a 12VDC power supply rated for 1A total current, so I'm set on that respect. I shouldn't have any trouble adding one or two more fans if I need to.

Check out this link. It is a great resource on general ventilation system design -- it is tailored more to larger grow rooms, but the same concepts can be applied for smaller cabinets as well.

aggreenvln said:

Good question... I don't have a PPM/EC meter yet, but I'm thinking about getting a decent digital one. For now I'll be using the recommended proportions on the back of the nute bottles and flushing every few days (more due to the small size of my reservoir).

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alright so when you add more fertz you just empty whats in there give it a quick wash and refill with the water adn fertz

joker250 said:

alright so when you add more fertz you just empty whats in there give it a quick wash and refill with the water adn fertz

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That's the plan! I may or may not add a drain valve in my reservoir for easy flushing if I can think of a good way to do it.

aggreenvln said:

Good question... I don't have a PPM/EC meter yet, but I'm thinking about getting a decent digital one. For now I'll be using the recommended proportions on the back of the nute bottles and flushing every few days (more due to the small size of my reservoir).

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I need to get me one of those... i dont use one.. i just measure out to how much water am putting in.. with dyna-gro it doesnt move ur PH its a very stable nute.

aggreenvln said:

That's the plan! I may or may not add a drain valve in my reservoir for easy flushing if I can think of a good way to do it.

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oh if you do end up doing a fluhing drain i wanna know how you do that. mybe just a plug ay the bottom with the res sitting p a bit??.. im very inrested

aggreenvln said:

Thanks for the thread reference! Some good info in there -- One of those nice RVK inline fans would be great, but they are pricey. The computer fans I'm using are rated at 90CFM airflow and 19dB noise output, so pretty comparable to the ones he recommended. I currently have 2 fans wired onto a 12VDC power supply rated for 1A total current, so I'm set on that respect. I shouldn't have any trouble adding one or two more fans if I need to.

Check out this link. It is a great resource on general ventilation system design -- it is tailored more to larger grow rooms, but the same concepts can be applied for smaller cabinets as well.

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PC fans can get the job done but an rvk is a must if your pushing an insane amount of watts.. like my goal for example is to put the least 1000 watts in my little dresser so heat will be a big problem especially those 105watters..

electropyro said:

PC fans can get the job done but an rvk is a must if your pushing an insane amount of watts.. like my goal for example is to put the least 1000 watts in my little dresser so heat will be a big problem especially those 105watters..

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Yowza! Very cool. You've got one then?

My roommate called when she was on her way home from work in order to ask for directions to the pet store, so I figured if she was already there I might as well ask her to pick up a couple airstones (I know, I know, but it saves me a trip for a couple bucks if they're okay). I requested two 6in rectangular stones and a t-valve. She complied and brought home a couple from Top Fin that work quite well in tandem. As you can hopefully see in the poorly composed picture, I'm getting a much more vigorous bubble now than I was with the circular stone. I may grab another at the hydroponic store some time if I'm in the area just to try it out, but for now I think I'm safe sticking with these. Huzzah!

I've been thinking about this over a bowl and I want to thank joker250 for the push to think about a flush drain more. I think this will really make the difference when dealing with a reservoir as small as .5-.75Gal. Being able to flush often without disturbing the plants will be very nice. Anyway, with that said I haven't really thought of any great ideas. The simple plug might work, but isn't the most elegant solution. Right now I'm thinking some sort of small plastic shutoff valve or tap that I can make a hole and watertight seal for. It would have to be as low as possible and preferably in a corner. Also, it can't take up any horizontal room in my case in the outward direction.

Another idea I had for an efficient solution is to simply use a water pump to automatically pump out nutes when I need to.

I think either idea could work and the second certainly seems simpler, but may be a bit more expensive.

aggreenvln said:

Yowza! Very cool. You've got one then?

My roommate called when she was on her way home from work in order to ask for directions to the pet store, so I figured if she was already there I might as well ask her to pick up a couple airstones (I know, I know, but it saves me a trip for a couple bucks if they're okay). I requested two 6in rectangular stones and a t-valve. She complied and brought home a couple from Top Fin that work quite well in tandem. As you can hopefully see in the poorly composed picture, I'm getting a much more vigorous bubble now than I was with the circular stone. I may grab another at the hydroponic store some time if I'm in the area just to try it out, but for now I think I'm safe sticking with these. Huzzah!

I've been thinking about this over a bowl and I want to thank joker250 for the push to think about a flush drain more. I think this will really make the difference when dealing with a reservoir as small as .5-.75Gal. Being able to flush often without disturbing the plants will be very nice. Anyway, with that said I haven't really thought of any great ideas. The simple plug might work, but isn't the most elegant solution. Right now I'm thinking some sort of small plastic shutoff valve or tap that I can make a hole and watertight seal for. It would have to be as low as possible and preferably in a corner. Also, it can't take up any horizontal room in my case in the outward direction.

Another idea I had for an efficient solution is to simply use a water pump to automatically pump out nutes when I need to.

I think either idea could work and the second certainly seems simpler, but may be a bit more expensive.

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not yet saving money for one do..

just make it simple on yourself and do what i do.. clean out the resorvoir manually i do it once a week and my plant doesnt get stunt or anything..

Hey guys, some quick news here.

I emailed sensibleseeds to ask if they could provide me with a tracking number because I read something that implied they would. Here was their response (within 4 hours might I add):

Hi *insert name here*,
Your order was sent on the 19th so should be with you soon; no tracking I'm afraid as we sent it regular airmail to improve the stealth.

Best regards, *insert name here*

The Sensible Seeds Team
http://sensibleseeds.com
t: +44 1252 333611

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So, looking good! Hopefully my seeds will arrive in the next couple days . My girlfriend is coming to stay with me for a few days over the weekend so I probably won't start germinating until Tuesday, but it'll be good to finally have everything here and ready to go!

And electro, the reason I'm choosing to flush every three days is to compensate for my small reservoir size. I don't want to let my PPM get too high, and the plant will be drinking fairly quickly anyway methinks. So though I could flush manually with some effort, I just think it would be much simpler to have a more efficient way to drain my res.

Huzzah!

So, in the interest of entertainment and semi-full disclosure, I'll tell you a short but sort of funny story. My mom called me up around noon to say she had a tiny package for me that came in the mail, and asked if I was around at the apartment so she could drop it off (I was staying with the 'rents over the summer). Immediately I figured it could be one of two things: Seeds or a light fixture. I submitted all of my Amazon orders at the same time and they all came to my apartment, so I figured that was a very low probability. I stepped outside with my dog to wait for her and sure enough she pulls up and hands me a small square box with ROYAL MAIL stamped on the front (other packaging details excluded intentionally). A big *OOPS* bell went off in my head... I must have put my credit card billing address as the shipping address as well! *cough* Good thing I opted to give them my middle initial, as the package was just labeled Mr. X X Lastname. My mom and I have the same first initial and last name, so if I hadn't she may very well have thought the small package was for her and opened it . Close one!

Anyway, with all that said and done, I am now the proud owner of five feminized Easy Ryder seeds. They also included a bonus pack of three feminized Special Kush #1. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with them as I really don't intend on growing anything in an area much larger than a PC any time soon, but I'll try to think of something! Perhaps some experimentation down the road. It would be a shame to let them go to waste. How long do seeds stay good if I don't open the package (normally-sealed seed-pack)? Thanks, sensibleseeds.com! I placed my order on August 15, card was charged on August 16, shipped on August 19, arrived August 25. Pretty good!

Next step: wait. Although I'm really excited about having my girlfriend come up for the weekend, it will be a tough few days. I can't wait to get one of these babies germinated!

Stick around, more updates later I'm sure.

I got really impatient a little bit ago and decided to talk with my girlfriend about germinating while she's up here, and guess what ... she's all for it! So without further adieu, I have begun preparations. I plan on using the water-soak method and go from there directly to rockwool. Currently I have a small cup of Brita-filtered water coming to room temperature in my kitchen. As soon as that happens, *plop*! In goes the seed.

I'm currently contemplating the best method to use to soak my rockwool cubes for the night. I'm thinking I'll just use more Brita water and adjust the PH to about 6. I have also read that some recommend soaking cubes in a light nutrient solution, so I'll check the back of my nute bottle and see what it says. I doubt I'll do this though... slightly paranoid of nute burn, especially considering I don't have a PPM meter yet.

So yes... it is decided. A ~24 hr soak in PH6 filtered tap water. Hopefully by that time my seed will sink in its cup and I can get right to it!

I'll also stop by the computer store and the hardware store on my way to trivia night tonight and pick up some light fixtures and an 80mm case fan to make sure everything is fully assembled by tomorrow.

Pictures and updates in a bit!

Two pictures: Soaking rockwool and soaking seed.



The rockwool is in plain filtered tap water that was adjusted down to a 6ish PH, perhaps slightly below 6 (I'm using a manual PH test with color reference... not so exact, but good enough). The seed is in this same filtered tap water with no PH adjustment (around 6.5).

Hey everyone,

Now that we've got this show on the road, feel free to post pretty much whatever you like! I am hoping this thread turns into a good discussion and reference for the small community of PC hydro growers.

well i have to say i always wanted to know how seeds came i knew they had to look nice with a card that tells you a little about the plant exciting!!! and if you cant think of anything to do with them seeds you can always send them in the mail to me ill takegood care of them

your still going to post your grow on here i hope i still want to start watching these girls grow.

aggreenvln said:

Two pictures: Soaking rockwool and soaking seed.



The rockwool is in plain filtered tap water that was adjusted down to a 6ish PH, perhaps slightly below 6 (I'm using a manual PH test with color reference... not so exact, but good enough). The seed is in this same filtered tap water with no PH adjustment (around 6.5).

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Cant wait for it all to begin =) good luck

Hey guys! Thanks for chiming in!

Thanks for the concern joker . I'm sure I'll think of something to do with them. And yes, I'll definitely be keeping this thread fully up-to-date over the course of the grow.

electropyro said:

Cant wait for it all to begin =) good luck

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Couldn't have said it better myself!

I picked up a couple 80mm CPU fans from Best Buy today before trivia (I had $12 on a gift card I thought for sure was expired -- hooray!). Antec 3-speed Tricool with blue LED. At the highest speed setting (who would run it at less?!) they are rated at 34CFM/30dBA. A bit louder than I would have hoped, but a very good amount of airflow for an 80mm. I'm thinking I'll mount one on the front panel and one on the back panel, both near the top (front intake, rear exhaust). These will mostly be for the purpose of light cooling. I ran my thermometer 6-ish inches away from my 125W CFL earlier today for a couple hours and it stabilized around 92 degrees with a room temp of high 70s. This is a bit high. Hopefully with some more circulation and a cooler ambient temperature I can get this down to around 80.

Seed update: I just opened up the dark little cabinet in which I'm keeping her and gave her a little poke into the water. She was VERY slow to rise. Considering she has only been soaking for 6.5-7hrs, I think she'll be sunk by morning.

Pictures to come!

Alright fellas. I just put in another 4-5 hours of work on the beast and she's looking mighty good.

But! First thing's first. An hour or two into working on the case, I decided to check on the seed. Sure enough, I opened the cabinet door and this is what I saw!


Neato, so since she sank so much sooner than expected and my rockwool isn't done soaking yet, I decided to paper towel germ her. Here are some pictures:


On to the hardware end of things -- My goals for tonight were to enhance my ventilation system and to install/wire the first of five more CFL sockets on the back velcro strip. This is to ensure that my system is 100% ready to power on as soon as my little girl germinates, whether that's later today or some time this weekend. My guess would be sooner rather than later.

The ventilation upgrades required a number of steps. The rear exhaust fan was much easier than the front intake. For the rear, all I had to do was drill mounting holes in the case and cut out a square of Panda Film / duct tape, then mount the fan and carbon filter. The back was so simple because there is already a perfectly sized hole for the fan, so I didn't have to cut away any large pieces of metal.

The front intake fan was a bit trickier and way more time-consuming. First, I removed the front panel and measured/marked where I wanted the fan to be (I chose center-front at the same height as the top rear fan, providing for quick airflow past the lights to whisk away heat). I stripped away a square of duct tape on the outside and a square of Panda Film / duct tape on the inside.


I tested the fan using just the holes already present (visible in above picture), but I didn't feel like enough air was getting through. Luckily, I remembered I had a circular metal-cutting drill bit laying around and I was able to use it to take out a sizable chunk with about 8 or 10 well-placed holes. I then drilled mounting holes and mounted the fan on the outside of the case. In order for it to fit in the front panel I had to remove two of the plastic HDD rack covers. This also allows for better airflow through the front grate and a nice blue LED coming out the front of the case, which gives it a very legitimate look from the front when it's fully closed up! The front panel locks, so I don't see an exposed fan being a problem. I doubt it will ever get opened again unless I need to modify something else.


After this, I put the front cover back on and got to wiring up the new fixture. Very straightforward, nice end to the work-night. Here are a couple pictures showing both light fixtures and the fully assembled system.


So that's total 155W of CFL for veg (125W of 6500k, 30W of 2700k), and even presumably 3W of usable blue LEDs from the top rear case fan!

After a bit of cleanup and this post, it is time for me to get some SLEEP!

Good morning and good night.

aggreenvln said:

Hey guys! Thanks for chiming in!

Thanks for the concern joker . I'm sure I'll think of something to do with them. And yes, I'll definitely be keeping this thread fully up-to-date over the course of the grow.



Couldn't have said it better myself!

I picked up a couple 80mm CPU fans from Best Buy today before trivia (I had $12 on a gift card I thought for sure was expired -- hooray!). Antec 3-speed Tricool with blue LED. At the highest speed setting (who would run it at less?!) they are rated at 34CFM/30dBA. A bit louder than I would have hoped, but a very good amount of airflow for an 80mm. I'm thinking I'll mount one on the front panel and one on the back panel, both near the top (front intake, rear exhaust). These will mostly be for the purpose of light cooling. I ran my thermometer 6-ish inches away from my 125W CFL earlier today for a couple hours and it stabilized around 92 degrees with a room temp of high 70s. This is a bit high. Hopefully with some more circulation and a cooler ambient temperature I can get this down to around 80.

Seed update: I just opened up the dark little cabinet in which I'm keeping her and gave her a little poke into the water. She was VERY slow to rise. Considering she has only been soaking for 6.5-7hrs, I think she'll be sunk by morning.

Pictures to come!

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Remove that blue led.. it will ruin your off cycle..

electropyro said:

Remove that blue led.. it will ruin your off cycle..

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Hmm, you could be right. I didn't think of that. I'll cut the wire -- any daytime benefit of 3W of blue LED is probably not worth the risk either way . Thanks for looking out!

So I was brainstorming/researching shut-off valves earlier, and it finally just clicked that I could simply run some tubing through a hole in the side of the container and clamp shut the outside end. I spent some time thinking about the best spot to put it while smoking a bowl, and decided to draw from my brewing knowledge and siphon my nutrient solution off rather than letting it dump out of a hole. I placed the hole most of the way up towards the back, and ran roughly a foot of 1/4" air-line through the hole. I did my best to make the seal watertight with duct tape. I think it will hold off, considering it may not even be fully submerged in liquid anyway.

I'm thinking about taking the carbon filter off of my upper intake fan to get more airflow by my lights. Air should only be entering it, so I'm not too concerned about smell, moreso the risk of a big light leak and the possibility of a positive-pressure environment. I'll mull it over while I take a few more puffs.

Anyway, the case is good to go for my little sproutling! I just lifted the lid and the paper towel a bit to check moisture level, and I noticed there is already a tiny taproot sticking out of the crack in the shell!

Another update in a while.

Okay, RIU is being weird again and not loading (anyone else experiencing that the past day or two?), so I can't post. But anyway, I've been sitting here mulling over the ventilation issue and I think I'll just cut a bunch of little holes in the carbon filter. That way much more air will be allowed through, while I'll also have some light protection and a cover for the ugly edges of the hole.

aggreenvln said:

Hmm, you could be right. I didn't think of that. I'll cut the wire -- any daytime benefit of 3W of blue LED is probably not worth the risk either way . Thanks for looking out!

So I was brainstorming/researching shut-off valves earlier, and it finally just clicked that I could simply run some tubing through a hole in the side of the container and clamp shut the outside end. I spent some time thinking about the best spot to put it while smoking a bowl, and decided to draw from my brewing knowledge and siphon my nutrient solution off rather than letting it dump out of a hole. I placed the hole most of the way up towards the back, and ran roughly a foot of 1/4" air-line through the hole. I did my best to make the seal watertight with duct tape. I think it will hold off, considering it may not even be fully submerged in liquid anyway.

I'm thinking about taking the carbon filter off of my upper intake fan to get more airflow by my lights. Air should only be entering it, so I'm not too concerned about smell, moreso the risk of a big light leak and the possibility of a positive-pressure environment. I'll mull it over while I take a few more puffs.

Anyway, the case is good to go for my little sproutling! I just lifted the lid and the paper towel a bit to check moisture level, and I noticed there is already a tiny taproot sticking out of the crack in the shell!

Another update in a while.

Okay, RIU is being weird again and not loading (anyone else experiencing that the past day or two?), so I can't post. But anyway, I've been sitting here mulling over the ventilation issue and I think I'll just cut a bunch of little holes in the carbon filter. That way much more air will be allowed through, while I'll also have some light protection and a cover for the ugly edges of the hole.

Click to expand...

same here been having problems with RIU... if their is a tiny taproot you should go ahead transplant already..