First time DWC - how does my gear look?

J

JP12345

Member
GROW ENVIRONMENT
4x4x6 tent
2x240W LED lights w/timer and contactor
Hyperfresh V2
Hygrometer
12" desk fan for under canopy
2x9" fans for above
SCROG frame with 100lb fishwire
2x84L Totes
4x6 inch net pots
1800L/H airpump
6 air stones (3 per res)
Cheap pH and EC meters (but with calibration solution for both - I've played around with them and understand how they work)
Water temp thermometer
Water pump to drain reservoirs

PROPAGATION
Propagation dome
Rootit cubes
SweetZZ seeds
Syringe

NUTES:
Maxibloom (going for KISS method)
CalMag (Vitalink)
Liquid Silicon (Growth Tech)

Not sure if I should buy (advice needed):
Beastie Bloomz
Hydroguard
Lux Meter
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
Yes on the hydrogaurd.Air pump seems big,do a test.make sure its not making heat.May need more air stones.Google back pressure.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
JP12345 said:
I guess I meant PAR meter - but I'm sure your answer would be the same...thanks!
Click to expand...
not sure how much a PAR meter is? i wouldn't spend too much on one personally.
i bought a $20 LUX meter off ebay. it's good enough just to get a ballpark of ppfd (you multiply lux by a constant (which i forget at the mometn) to get ppfd.
 
J

JP12345

Member
Okay, so I have everything I need now and I am ready to germinate.

Should I germinate under my lights though, or will somewhere in the house do? I have a propagation dome but no heat mat. It's too big to put on top of my modem which is in a drawer somewhere...
 
.Smoke

.Smoke

Well-Known Member
If you want a Lux meter that will do you some good you might want to check out this post of mine...
.Smoke said:
I'm pretty diligent about measuring my light amounts over my canopies. It's been a huge pet peeve of mine that I don't have an actual PAR meter; just a $25 Lux meter from Amazon.
So I've been doing the math, but basically guessing @ my PAR amounts from my mh/cmh/hps.

I saw this MIGRO video (I know :()
where he uses the Apogee SQ 500 to measure PAR for 3000, 3500, 4000, and 5000k spectrum white LED, MH and HPS and gives a chart reading and calibration for a $30 Lux meter off Amazon... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07Q56D14Z?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

So I ordered one, got it today and tried it out.
View attachment 4657093
Nothing special. The display is easy to read even under direct light, but the sensor head rotates 270 degrees so that can be avoided.
It reads on average about 5k-7k lower than my other meter does which is why I bought it. For $30 I now have the peace of mind actually knowing what I'm giving to my girls.

If you don't want to watch the video but are interested in the details, here's a couple pictures of the charts for MH and HPS
View attachment 4657078
View attachment 4657079
I also went ahead and made myself a chart on the wall for 150/300/600/800 PAR->Lux# (they say messy handwriting is a sign of intelligence...or I just really suck @ it. don't make fun :))
View attachment 4657080
The best part is now that I know how much light I need, I've been able to make adjustments and have figured my costs out to be about $0.13 per/hr when lights are on atm.
So, if you're anal about measuring your light spread (and money) like I am but aren't rich, I would definitely consider taking a look @ the video.

On to the growing part...
I got lights/plants shifted around. Everything is @ a minimum of 600 PAR @ the dimmest point of the canopies.
315cmh running in the veg tent for now.
View attachment 4657084
White Widow #1 is still under 650w hps and I couldn't be happier with the way she looks 1 night after getting defoliated.
Last night
View attachment 4657105
Today
View attachment 4657085
She's going back to a 12/12 schedule now that the pistils are established.
View attachment 4657086

And thanks to my recent exhaust work and light adjustments, I've found I can only open 1 vent on each tent a wee little bit to maintain a 75F temperature with my fans on low... :shock:
View attachment 4657091
View attachment 4657092
Click to expand...
It gives all the info on a $30 Lux meter you can get from Amazon. Shane from MIGRO did a Lux to Par comparison for it using an Apogee SQ 500.
All conversion tables and links are available in my post or the video. It covers 3-5k white Led and mh/hps.

It's about the only TRUE par/lux side by side I've been able to find and the readings are so close, it was worth saving $300 not buying a PAR meter.

Hope that helps.
Best of luck!
bongsmilie
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
JP12345 said:
Okay, so I have everything I need now and I am ready to germinate.

Should I germinate under my lights though, or will somewhere in the house do? I have a propagation dome but no heat mat. It's too big to put on top of my modem which is in a drawer somewhere...
Click to expand...
Goggle it. Soak in water 12-24 hrs then into rockwool or peat pellet
 
J

JP12345

Member
Thanks. I have done mate. I've been Googling stuff since I first started this thing!

There's a million and one people out there promoting their own "100% germination method!" and I just wanted to see what people here do.
 
Billy the Mountain

Billy the Mountain

Well-Known Member
Most popular technique seems to be the paper towel method. Soak seeds in distilled water overnight or so, put them between a few sheets of damp paper towel. You can then put the seed(s) and paper towel between a few plates, concave sides together. Some prefer ziplocks instead of plates. Should be 99% successful with either method.
 
J

JP12345

Member
Billy the Mountain said:
Most popular technique seems to be the paper towel method. Soak seeds in distilled water overnight or so, put them between a few sheets of damp paper towel. You can then put the seed(s) and paper towel between a few plates, concave sides together. Some prefer ziplocks instead of plates. Should be 99% successful with either method.
Click to expand...
And then transplant them to my propagation dome and water until the roots get longer?
 
Billy the Mountain

Billy the Mountain

Well-Known Member
Yeah, once they pop, transfer to your medium of choice, keep the humidity up, moderate brightness. I use rapid-rooters and simply wait until I see roots emerging and then transfer to their final destination.
 
J

JP12345

Member
UPDATE:

Germinated my 4 seeds last night - direct to root riots (which were soaked for 24hrs in deionized water).

The seeds are currently sat in the unlit tent - temps/humidity have fluctuated for differing reasons (RH mostly) but it's currently sitting at 22c and 72-80+% humidity with the dome half off/sometimes on.

I've also just squeezed out a bit of the excess water in the root riots as they were a bit saturated.
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
The only thing I would worry about is the temp of your Rez since you didn't list a chiller. But with only a few buckets just save some empty water or soda bottles and put them in the freezer with water in em. You might have to play around with how often to change them out til you get it figured out.

The reason temps worry me is that under led you should be running higher day time temps and it can heat up your water. Another good idea is to locate the air pump outside of your grow tent so that the air it's blowing into the roots is not hot.

When I ran dwc I never had temp issues with the water but my day time temps were only 75 degrees with night time temps at 65 degrees. I also wrapped my buckets and lids in reflectivex insulation. Back then it was popular to use sm-90 and hygrozyme in the buckets, I never got any root issues with that mixture but I'm unsure if it was just because my temps were good or because of the mixture. Bad thing is sm 90 has been pulled from the market, but it's not that popular everywhere I just found a gallon jug still on the shelf a couple weeks ago.
 
N

Nugg_Monkey

Member
As soon as you can upgrade to recirculating do it. Having climate control at the root zone eliminates a lot of potential problems. The upkeep is actually a lot easier than DWC too. It may not sound like a lot of work but watering individual DWC buckets can actually become a task. The res if big enough will keep your plants going for at least a few weeks before you have to worry about topping up. The cost isn't a lot for a second hand aquarium chiller. I'd go a 1/4 HP for what you described. This is a 3 pot (52L) system. The res and the chiller are outside the tent.IMG_20200611_175111.jpg
 
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