My First Hydro Grow - DWC

Hello everyone, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Trey, but my internet tag has been H8tter (Hater, not hatter) for as long as i can remember (don't worry, I'm actually a really nice guy ) I'm a relatively new grower, i have 1 crop under belt, 4 "guerrilla farming" plants and 4 soil/indoor under a 150HPS.

This is my first in depth grow journal. I've Built a 4 plant Hydro Drip/DWC which is running under a 400w MH/HPS with 6" cooling tube/reflector in a 24"x34"x 52" Mylar reflective chamber. I have two 6" inline duct fans, one for intake the other for exhaust on cooling tube. 160GPH water pump, drip rings, air stones, air pump, netted pots, res etc...
I went to a local dispensary and picked up some clones. One Raspberry Kush, 2x Sour Grape Haze, and a Mr. Nice Guy.

FYI - I started Dec 4th, so I'm already 20 days into veg. I'll try to give a accurate synopses
of the mayhem that was the first two weeks of this grow. I appreciate all comments, advice, and criticisms ya'll have to offer.



Tri Meter, 400w Ballast, Timer, PS


My closet grow chamber


Day 1

I was so nervous, knew nothing about hydro really other than what i read quickly on the internet and forums.

The first week is coming to an end and i they're still alive!

I had a few issues arise. Due to the design of the DWC, the pump needed to be running non stop in order for the system to stay charged and not overflow the res. (the 1/4" drain lines at the bottom of the individual plant tubs weren't plugged and would slowly drain down in to a res that's too small to hold 12 gallons of fluid - space limitations) so the plants suffered from over watering during the first 5 days. I defiantly kept the rock wool too wet. Plugged the drain lines, went through a plethora of timers before i found one that could handle the work load.

I bought a used Trimeter off Ebay, plugged it in and assumed it was correct. (Calibration fluid? what's that?) about 8 days in the Trimeter wouldn't hold a pH reading (constant fluctuations) went to hydro store, guy explain i needed a new probe or calibrate the one i have. Bought the PH 7 and 4, Youtube'd the "how to" and discovered that what originally read as 5.8-5.9 was actually 6.2-6.3.

Another mistake i made was using full strength nutes from day 1 . Not sure the impact this had on the health/progression of the plants, but they look decent. If my trimetere was reading correctly (and i'm sure it wasn't) it said the water was at 100ish and nutes raised it to 550-600


Day 2


Day 3


Day 4


Day 5



Day 7

Ph 6.2-6.3
PPM - Not calibrated
Res Temp - Avg 64F
Low/High Chamber Temp: 70F - 82F
Low/High Humidity: 42%-60%

I started off week 2 by remaking the drip system. Instead of 1/4 line flowing freely down the hydroton, i made drip rings out of 1/4 soaker hose and installed a 4 port flow regulator. established a feeding schedule. 26 minutes of watering followed by a 3 hour off period.

I pruned the older fan leafs off around days 10-11 to uncover more light for the new growth, which was starting to come in quite nicely.

Day 8 Vid: [video]http://s510.photobucket.com/albums/s350/H8tter/?action=view&current=Day8.mp4[/video]

By day 14 all the plants roots had reached the res below them.


Day 8


Day 9


Day 10


Day 11


Day 12


Day 13


Day 14

Ph 5.8-5.9
PPM - Not calibrated
Res Temp - Avg 63F
Low/High Chamber Temp: 69F - 81F
Low/High Humidity: 39%-53%

Greetings ya'll. It was a great week and the plants are looking strong! After the roots hit the water they really blew up quick. I topped 3 of the 4 plants, the one in the bottom left corner is diagonal and already has multiple side shoots.

Swapped out the MH for my HPS and changed the lighting to 12/12.
feedings have also changed. Now doing six 30 minute feedings with an hour and a half between each feeding from 6am to 4:30pm. I also included one feeding during the middle of the dark period (12:00am-12:30am). Swapped out the water in the res and mixed my "transition" nutes for one week. 50% veg formula/50% flower formula.



Day 15



Day 16



Day 17




Day 18



Day 19



Day 20



Day 22


Avg. PH - 5.8-6.0
PPM - Still not calibrated
Avg. RES temp - 62F-65F
Low/High Chamber Temp: 69F - 79.5F
Low/High Humidity: 32%-60%

OK... We're finally caught up!

Let me introduce the plants:



This is plant right here is my boy, er um...girl..er, yea! But seriously look at that creature. This Raspberry Kush hit the res first in 12 days. Illustrates the difference in growth rates after roots hit the water.



It's stem is thicker than my fingers!



This is the first of twins of Sour Grape Haze. Didn't mean to get two, but oh well, sounds yummy!



Here's my other Sour Grape Haze. I refer to this one as SGH 2


Last but not least it's a Mr. Nice Guy!!! Took longest to reach the res (14 days) but is catching up.


From here on out it's up to date day to day action pack goodness~