New Loft Grow Room - Input Appreciated
- Thread starter loftygoals
- Start date
loftygoals
Well-Known Member
I went and pulled out my wide angle lens to get a shot of the current LED height. I now have 720W (10x 100W COBs running about 70W each) of cheap COB LEDs in there and could get them about 5ft off the floor.
The veg room is about 6ft from floor to ceiling but is in an awkward shape:
The idea being to move the plants from there and into the 8x4 flower tents once they're big enough:
Where hopefully 2200W of lighting will be waiting per tent. Should have the lights up (in one tent at least) very soon. The RDWC setups have been built. Air pumps in place. Ventilation all sorted with each area carbon filtered...
The veg room is about 6ft from floor to ceiling but is in an awkward shape:
The idea being to move the plants from there and into the 8x4 flower tents once they're big enough:
Where hopefully 2200W of lighting will be waiting per tent. Should have the lights up (in one tent at least) very soon. The RDWC setups have been built. Air pumps in place. Ventilation all sorted with each area carbon filtered...
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Calvin Noir
Member
Fantastic job on your setup. I hope there is some seats free at the front so I can sit there and enjoy the show
loftygoals
Well-Known Member
Bit of fiddling today.
Put a 12 inch desk fan in a corner of the veg tent. It's slightly too strong on setting 1 so I've had to jiggle the plants around a bit.
As most of the seedlings are 8 days old I've upped the PPM from 350 to 500. Eventually balanced the pH at 5.8... I get a bit flumoxed by pH really. I have a auto pH doser which is going to go onto the flower reservoir and wanted to do the pH of the veg room manually as it shouldn't be as prone to drifting and gives me an idea of how to program the pH doser. So far I've been patient and not overcorrected and had to do the funky pH up/down dance. But it takes over an hour for the pH to settle and over that time it's really tempting to fiddle some more. Sometimes I forget to recheck for a few hours (like today) and have the plants sitting at pH 4.4 for a while
Ahh well, live and learn eh?
Also added a light timer. Moved from 24/0 to 20/4 which I think I'll stick with for the next 2 weeks...
Most of the plants have roots coming out of the netpots and into the buckets now. You can really tell which ones got there first as there's a dramatic increase in size already. There are just 2 Purple Afghan Kush seedlings and the 2 Blueberry seedlings (to be expected as they're 5-6 days behind all the others) which haven't made it out of the netpots yet.
Now I have a bit of a quandary... As only 2 of the Blueberry seeds made it I have 2 spaces free. Now do I pop a couple of other strains I fancy? Or do I just stick with these for now? I'm thinking the sensible thing to do is just grow out 14 plants and train them to fit the whole flower area? Considering I'm planning to grab a few clones and make some mother plants (have to setup an area for mothers in autopots still) from these it seems adding more complexity for a newbie like me would be an unnecessary burden at the moment...
Put a 12 inch desk fan in a corner of the veg tent. It's slightly too strong on setting 1 so I've had to jiggle the plants around a bit.
As most of the seedlings are 8 days old I've upped the PPM from 350 to 500. Eventually balanced the pH at 5.8... I get a bit flumoxed by pH really. I have a auto pH doser which is going to go onto the flower reservoir and wanted to do the pH of the veg room manually as it shouldn't be as prone to drifting and gives me an idea of how to program the pH doser. So far I've been patient and not overcorrected and had to do the funky pH up/down dance. But it takes over an hour for the pH to settle and over that time it's really tempting to fiddle some more. Sometimes I forget to recheck for a few hours (like today) and have the plants sitting at pH 4.4 for a while
Ahh well, live and learn eh?Also added a light timer. Moved from 24/0 to 20/4 which I think I'll stick with for the next 2 weeks...
Most of the plants have roots coming out of the netpots and into the buckets now. You can really tell which ones got there first as there's a dramatic increase in size already. There are just 2 Purple Afghan Kush seedlings and the 2 Blueberry seedlings (to be expected as they're 5-6 days behind all the others) which haven't made it out of the netpots yet.
Now I have a bit of a quandary... As only 2 of the Blueberry seeds made it I have 2 spaces free. Now do I pop a couple of other strains I fancy? Or do I just stick with these for now? I'm thinking the sensible thing to do is just grow out 14 plants and train them to fit the whole flower area? Considering I'm planning to grab a few clones and make some mother plants (have to setup an area for mothers in autopots still) from these it seems adding more complexity for a newbie like me would be an unnecessary burden at the moment...
roundplanet
Well-Known Member
Goodgagamoo what a great job! I wish the best of luck with this and many many more grows.
resinhead
Well-Known Member
Time for an update with some pics I guess...
So I have one of the tents up. Fits perfectly into place. I'm going to be using the space above the tents to hang my carbon filters and fans which saves wasting space inside the tent.
View attachment 3623395
Have started to built the RDWC system. I'm using 20L buckets (Plant!t branded which have flat sections on both sides so should form nice seals against the plumbing):
View attachment 3623388
I didnt buy enough pipe inserts (needed for every pipe connection with the plumbing system I'm using) so had to stop but all I need to do now is connect up the reservoir which will be outside the tent. Have also put a 10 socket extension in the tent which is rated at 3250W (I'll be using 2400W per tent max).
View attachment 3623404
I'm building in isolation valves so that the reservoir, tent and pump can all be separated without a flood. I'm also connecting up a chiller (Hailea HC300) via a closed circuit inside the res and will be connecting up a Bluelab Guardian for monitoring and a Milwaukee MC720 for automated pH control. Here's where all that will sit:
View attachment 3623389
I'm planning to run a drainage hose from the dehumidifier back into the reservoir too
Also moving ahead with my budget water cooled COB LEDs.
I'm using steel flat sections (much cheaper than aluminium) which have been painted with Hammerite straight to rust spray paint mainly to stop me constantly getting dirty hands from the bare metal. I've then epoxied on cheapo chinese aluminium water blocks and then used thermal cement to attach the COBs. The thermal cement can be separated with moderate force which means I can upgrade to Cree CXBs (or whatever I fancy) after a couple of grows if I want. I had to made modules which attach together as a massive 4x4 light wouldn't fit through the loft hatch! Here are the lights going on:
View attachment 3623392
I've used a selection of cheapo COBs as you can see. I'll be running them around 70W each so we're talking 1100W at the wall per 4x4 area. That's not quite what I planned previously but it makes my life easier when building the lights (which I'm all for!) For every 4x4 area there are:
4x warm white
4x cool white
2x blue
6x red
And then I've used cheapo braided hose to link the water blocks with cheapo chinese hose clips to secure the hose to the barbs. The connections are very tight (using 8mm ID 14mm OD hose on 10mm barbs with 12mm clips) so I would be very surprised if there was a leak but I'll test that soon enough
View attachment 3623394
The top 2 barbs will be connected together and the bottom 2 will be the in/out connections.
I can't power it all up get because I'm waiting for some power converters to arrive from the far east (resistors arrived yesterday yay!) but because I built an air cooled test unit for my seedling/clone tent I know it'll work fine
Oh and here's the corner where the room's intake and extractor sit. I just need some ratchet straps to arrive so I can hold the secondary carbon filter up and attach it to the bathroom extractor vent.
View attachment 3623390
This really is the business end of the build now!
Dang! Your approaching this project like an experienced pro! Nice work!!
loftygoals
Well-Known Member
Room intake is from the old bathroom extractor vent in the roof so I get fresh air coming in. Room extractor is into the bathroom (old bathroom extractor vent). So all the heat goes into the house and there is no heat signature visible from outside. I have a FLIR camera and have checked it out myself. Compared to the neighbours the roof is about the same temp and THEIR chimney stack is hotter than mine
I have 2 dehumidifiers ready to go for when it gets humid in the house/loft.
awil7698
Active Member
Awesome man some set up . Can I ask where you got your flir camera?Room intake is from the old bathroom extractor vent in the roof so I get fresh air coming in. Room extractor is into the bathroom (old bathroom extractor vent). So all the heat goes into the house and there is no heat signature visible from outside. I have a FLIR camera and have checked it out myself. Compared to the neighbours the roof is about the same temp and THEIR chimney stack is hotter than mine
I have 2 dehumidifiers ready to go for when it gets humid in the house/loft.
loftygoals
Well-Known Member
"FLIR one for iPhone 5" can be had for about £110 on ebay. Plug it into an iPhone 5 and you have a FLIR camera! Works very well and can be used to check canopy temps, light temps, locations of pipes in walls etc too.
You can get an android version and a iPhone 6/iPad version but they're about double the price. Beyond that you're getting into serious cash for dedicated FLIR hardware.
I really wanted one for peace of mind. If I hadn't have been able to check my roof temps myself I'd either have stuck triple the insulation on or might not have started the grow at all. There are reports of a guy with a FLIR camera mounted on a drone looking for grows to rob in my area and the police helicopter also flies over my house every day. It's well documented to have a FLIR camera and looks for grows in between other activities. So I'm very paranoid when it comes to heat sigs!
Edit: here's a link to the story about the grow thief in my area http://gizmodo.com/clever-crook-uses-a-drone-to-find-weed-so-he-can-steal-1564697853
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loftygoals
Well-Known Member
Arrrrggghhh I have brown algae. Realised on Monday night that one of the Viper Cookes and one of the Pineapple Express looked stunted compared to the rest. Checked out their roots and there was a small brown patch on the Pineapple Express. Because the containers are black it was difficult to see much especially with all the air bubbles. So I switched off the air pump and there was some brown algae on the inside of the rubber grommets which was slimey to touch
So I did some reading. This is definitely not pythium as the water is well oxygenated (around 140L/min of air in only 80L of nutrient solution) and is chilled (max 20.2C min 15.5C average 17-18C). Brown algae apparently loves this sort of environment too
So on Monday I changed the nutes and made up a Hypochlorite solution which was applied it at 1ppm. On Tuesday I added another 1ppm. In the meantime I ordered a UV filter and had an Ozone generator waiting in the wings anyway.
So this morning I did some cleaning! Dumped the nutes and washed the whole system through with peroxide solution. Scrubbed all the system through with a brush and flushed it with 120L of RO water. My previous reservoir was a black rectangular tote from Ikea... I realised it was very slightly opaque and a light leak might have caused my problem... so I had to unplumb it and swapped it to a 20L black bucket. Redrilled the holes for the RDWC, chiller, fill and drain ports. Attached my new UV filter. Put the Ozone generator in there too.
Have filled it up with fresh 550ppm nute solution and 2ppm chlorine (hypochlorite again).
The stunted plants already seemed to be making a recovery with just the hypochlorite doses this week so hopefully adding the ozone and uv will keep the algae at bay especially as I've swapped the res too... fingers crossed!
So I did some reading. This is definitely not pythium as the water is well oxygenated (around 140L/min of air in only 80L of nutrient solution) and is chilled (max 20.2C min 15.5C average 17-18C). Brown algae apparently loves this sort of environment too
So on Monday I changed the nutes and made up a Hypochlorite solution which was applied it at 1ppm. On Tuesday I added another 1ppm. In the meantime I ordered a UV filter and had an Ozone generator waiting in the wings anyway.
So this morning I did some cleaning! Dumped the nutes and washed the whole system through with peroxide solution. Scrubbed all the system through with a brush and flushed it with 120L of RO water. My previous reservoir was a black rectangular tote from Ikea... I realised it was very slightly opaque and a light leak might have caused my problem... so I had to unplumb it and swapped it to a 20L black bucket. Redrilled the holes for the RDWC, chiller, fill and drain ports. Attached my new UV filter. Put the Ozone generator in there too.
Have filled it up with fresh 550ppm nute solution and 2ppm chlorine (hypochlorite again).
The stunted plants already seemed to be making a recovery with just the hypochlorite doses this week so hopefully adding the ozone and uv will keep the algae at bay especially as I've swapped the res too... fingers crossed!
Roger A. Shrubber
Well-Known Member
Good Luck.
sorry i took so long to check out your stuff, you're doing awesome.
keep posting, you have some great ideas
sorry i took so long to check out your stuff, you're doing awesome.
keep posting, you have some great ideas
Bubblegum31
Well-Known Member
I thought that flir cant detect windowes temprature, is that is not correct?!Today has been quite productive. Had a day off work
I've sealed off the loft completely now so wanted to check for heat leaks with my new FLIR camera. Put a 2000W fan heater up there over night and in the morning it was 34 degrees in the loft. -3 outside this morning... There was frost on the outside of the roof and the average roof surface temp was around 1.5C. Exactly the same as the neighbours(can't show pics of the house for obvious reasons)
Also built the veg room walls and have the floor ready for the pond liner to go in. Just waiting for some double sided tape to arrive and I'll be putting the liner down... hopefully this weekend.
On track to get the seeds going by the end of the week *fingers crossed*.
Bubblegum31
Well-Known Member
Raise seeslings temprature to 25 c
They will germinate in no time
All the best
Looking great
Subd
Bubblegum31
Well-Known Member
Not trying to put you down..Bit of an update...
Seedlings seemed to be doing ok but not perfect. I noticed some dark spots on the 1st true leaves on the Blueberry seedling a couple of days ago. Then yesterday evening I noticed the roots all had a very light brown colouring
I had spent the day setting up my water chiller loop in the RDWC reservoir anyway so I fired it up for 20 mins and it brought the water temps down to 17C. Then I thought screw it.. changed the water and gave the clone king bucket + pump a wash in hot bleach. Then reloaded fresh water (again RO ph 5.8 200ppm) and put the seedlings back. The old water smelt like the seeds that rotted away a while back in tap water
So it looks like I'll need a chiller to keep the water cool in the cloner too. I've ordered a 60W Peltier, heatsink and 120W power supply which I'm planning to make into a DIY water chiller and attach to the side of the clone king. I can power it with one of the thermostatically controlled plugs I bought a while back to keep the water at a constant temp. Fingers crossed... Until then it looks like I'll be cooling the water manually once a day
I've also hung and wired up/ducted my carbon filters and fans today. I'll take some pics over the next couple of days... the second tent should be going up tomorrow too. Then I'll have everything "grow" related out of the main house
Hydro is very hard for a first time grower..
I started in coco, while everybody sayed start in soil, I didnt liesten.
Till my second run I was learning alot and getten better by time.
Still coco is hard for me to switch to hydro
What I wanna say is that you are still very early in your grow.
Just get two bags of dirt or even coco briks that expands in water if you dont wanna go up and down your home with 50L bags, and release ur head from this headache...
Any way you are doing great alot in here will be watching your grow, great setup.
All the best
Bubble
Fast dog
Well-Known Member
My man you are very well informed and prepared, your set up is fire !!! You must of waxed plenty of dosh on this project its mind bending I don't think I've ever seen someone go about their first grow as good as you have are you sure you havnt done this before lol and your very lucky to have a space like that available I will be watching your thread closely mate exciting stuff congratsArrrrggghhh I have brown algae. Realised on Monday night that one of the Viper Cookes and one of the Pineapple Express looked stunted compared to the rest. Checked out their roots and there was a small brown patch on the Pineapple Express. Because the containers are black it was difficult to see much especially with all the air bubbles. So I switched off the air pump and there was some brown algae on the inside of the rubber grommets which was slimey to touch
So I did some reading. This is definitely not pythium as the water is well oxygenated (around 140L/min of air in only 80L of nutrient solution) and is chilled (max 20.2C min 15.5C average 17-18C). Brown algae apparently loves this sort of environment too
So on Monday I changed the nutes and made up a Hypochlorite solution which was applied it at 1ppm. On Tuesday I added another 1ppm. In the meantime I ordered a UV filter and had an Ozone generator waiting in the wings anyway.
So this morning I did some cleaning! Dumped the nutes and washed the whole system through with peroxide solution. Scrubbed all the system through with a brush and flushed it with 120L of RO water. My previous reservoir was a black rectangular tote from Ikea... I realised it was very slightly opaque and a light leak might have caused my problem... so I had to unplumb it and swapped it to a 20L black bucket. Redrilled the holes for the RDWC, chiller, fill and drain ports. Attached my new UV filter. Put the Ozone generator in there too.
Have filled it up with fresh 550ppm nute solution and 2ppm chlorine (hypochlorite again).
The stunted plants already seemed to be making a recovery with just the hypochlorite doses this week so hopefully adding the ozone and uv will keep the algae at bay especially as I've swapped the res too... fingers crossed!
Bubblegum31
Well-Known Member
Arrrrggghhh I have brown algae. Realised on Monday night that one of the Viper Cookes and one of the Pineapple Express looked stunted compared to the rest. Checked out their roots and there was a small brown patch on the Pineapple Express. Because the containers are black it was difficult to see much especially with all the air bubbles. So I switched off the air pump and there was some brown algae on the inside of the rubber grommets which was slimey to touch
So I did some reading. This is definitely not pythium as the water is well oxygenated (around 140L/min of air in only 80L of nutrient solution) and is chilled (max 20.2C min 15.5C average 17-18C). Brown algae apparently loves this sort of environment too
So on Monday I changed the nutes and made up a Hypochlorite solution which was applied it at 1ppm. On Tuesday I added another 1ppm. In the meantime I ordered a UV filter and had an Ozone generator waiting in the wings anyway.
So this morning I did some cleaning! Dumped the nutes and washed the whole system through with peroxide solution. Scrubbed all the system through with a brush and flushed it with 120L of RO water. My previous reservoir was a black rectangular tote from Ikea... I realised it was very slightly opaque and a light leak might have caused my problem... so I had to unplumb it and swapped it to a 20L black bucket. Redrilled the holes for the RDWC, chiller, fill and drain ports. Attached my new UV filter. Put the Ozone generator in there too.
Have filled it up with fresh 550ppm nute solution and 2ppm chlorine (hypochlorite again).
The stunted plants already seemed to be making a recovery with just the hypochlorite doses this week so hopefully adding the ozone and uv will keep the algae at bay especially as I've swapped the res too... fingers crossed!
Use hydro guard or dutch master zone
loftygoals
Well-Known Member
FLIR can definitely detect window temps. It can't see temps through windows but it picks up the window surface temp.
I've read everything possible on root rot and slime. Every mega thread on every forum on teas, sterilisers etc. I've even read everything I could find on fish forums. I've checked out every single product on the market and your suggestions are good ones. My environment is already pretty good (chilled water at 16-18C, 26C max air temps directly under lights) and I changed my res to a light proof bucket and lid so I'm hoping I can beat this quickly.
I'm going with the sterile approach first... Already taken apart the system and scrubbed with peroxide. Dutch Masters Zone is just a chlorine based steriliser. I'm using hypochlorite solution (DIY Clear Rez/Pool Shock) at 2ppm (high dose) so a very similar approach. Additionally I've hooked up an 18w inline UV filter plus an Ozone generator running at 250mg/h for 1 hour on and 4 hours off (I'm waiting on an ORP meter to get the Ozone levels dialed in perfectly). So we have... Peroxide scrub, Hypochlorite 2ppm , UV, Ozone... That should kill everything! But I'm creating a couple of new problems for myself because steriliser levels need to be perfect to avoid also killing plants and not causing an issue with nutrients. Anyway I'm aware of the potential problems and hopefully how to avoid them.
If that fails (would be very surprised) then hydro guard is another good suggestion. It is a beneficial bacteria product. The main alternative to sterilisation would be introducing bennies but I would probably be brewing some tea instead of using an off the shelf product. I have EWC, Great White, ZHO and molasses waiting in the wings. If sterilisation fails or I run into problems as a side effect then I'll try the tea route instead.
I'm not going to be switching to Coco before I have tried everything possible. Other people have beaten algae so I can too!
If I really have tried everything and have no luck THEN I might consider switching to another medium but it's not going to be a fleeting decision.