What's new

Newb here, would this be possible/super inconvenient?

moe.red said:
Hydro checklist (others please chime in)

Perfect world this is the goal. Fudge where you need to

Below:
RO water
Cal mag to 100ppm on the 500 scale.
Grow nutes light feed schedule to 300ppm.
Add the micronutrients last
Ph to 5.8
Temp at 70-72
Active bubbling
H2o2 (amount based on water volume and % on the bottle.)

Above:
Temp to 78
Rh at 60%
Leaf temp about 76
Veg spectrum
18 on 6 off.
200ppfd or less if you are having issues.
Very light breeze at this point

You want night time temps to drop a bit. This will happen when the lights go off. Can also cause an rh spike. Too much rh can cause fungal issues so keep an eye on it


This is the slow down and recover plants in early veg formula I would start with.

A lot more to talk about but let’s start there compared to where you are
Click to expand...
In my experience the recovery speed difference is night and day within these parameters.
 
Skinnypuppy80 said:
I appreciate the encouraging words :) I am currently trying to get water from the tub(tote inside) about 40ft(same floor) to the res just to fill and do a leak check. Will also have to do the water change the same way. The RO is installed about 30ft from where my RO barrel will b,that barrel will b right next to the res
View attachment 84478
Click to expand...

If you just want to move the water into the new container to do a test, rather than test any connections, just use a hose to siphon from one bucket to the other.
 
Update: Leak test failed due to 1 of 3 bucket crack repairs failed(out of 8 holes drilled for return pipe). New to drilling holes in hdpe, I'm surprised I didn't crack more. In the next 4 days I hopefully will have it tested and running w the new buckets. I ran across another thread here(slow night at work) that mentioned having to "burp" the caterpillar of the pahydroponics fallponics system, didn't know that was a thing! Just put a 1/4 valve at the top w a line? I believe @moe.red and @SweetLeafGrow were involved in this thread. Thanks for any input!!
 
If you have the hump in the return like pa hydro then yes bubbles will collect in the top of the hump and restrict flow back to the res.

Gary did it that way so he could still sell the tent I think.

I cut a hole in the tent where I needed it to avoid the hump altogether

Do you have access to a 3D printer? You can likely fix your leaks with some custom tpu gaskets that would cost pennies to make. Shoot me a closeup pic of the leaks and I’ll send explain
 
GoodShit97 said:
Try cutting your holes with a hole saw in reverse. (if you haven't)
You can even tape over where you are going to cut as well for extra support so it's less likely to crack.
Click to expand...
I did do it in reverse but the teeth on the hole saw i bought seemed more like for wood. Shouldve done the tape method though, I completely forgot about such.17355855566987432981577523775565.jpg
what i used b4
17355856124698388758642881615535.jpg
what i will be using
 
moe.red said:
If you have the hump in the return like pa hydro then yes bubbles will collect in the top of the hump and restrict flow back to the res.

Gary did it that way so he could still sell the tent I think.

I cut a hole in the tent where I needed it to avoid the hump altogether

Do you have access to a 3D printer? You can likely fix your leaks with some custom tpu gaskets that would cost pennies to make. Shoot me a closeup pic of the leaks and I’ll send explain
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm assuming u r right that it was a way to please his sponsor. Avoiding the hump altogether sounds more practical and less expensive considering the cost of elbows. Probably gonna be impossible to see exactly where the leaks r. The first pic is a site return where I cracked it and tried to repair w a heat gun and spare hdpe. It initially tested leak free when i used a spare bulkhead and gorilla tape for the opening of the bulkhead(pre installation of the bulk + pvc. 2nd pic is the bulk outlet from the res to waterfall. that one I believe I just got a little to close to the curvature of the round end resulting in a bad seal for the gaskets(3rd pic.)
1735585907046413074337046276865.jpg
17355863281353953121555385419015.jpg
17355872676138260550326293363387.jpg
 
I have 3 spare buckets to just drill again and replace those 2. Should I look into trying to find replacement gaskets or should the originals still be fine to use?
 
Well if you have the buckets might as well do it right.

If the gaskets are clean and undamaged reuse them.

Stay away from the corners too. The pressure pipe is a bit to close to the corner for a good seal imo. The purpose of using square buckets is to have a flat space to mount to so there are no gaps in the fittings.
 
Been side tracked cuz it was my 45th yr of life. Tmrw I will finally get my system going. Yes, I'm newb. Yes, this has been a 3 month setup w/out an actual grow. Maybe some day, someone will b able to learn about what to do!
 
Weird how life is. I asked my friend to come out totally expecting to pay for all. After bar closes, dude unexpectedly drops off 2 plants. Might have to "experiment" w those 2, the crown rot survivor, and some other little bitch.
20250109_035106.jpg
20250109_040119.jpg
20250109_040134.jpg
 
Got 5 white widows in my first VG germ attempt. Anything above a 23% success rate would be nice. I get those to sprout and the reaper comes to whipe out the rest. May try to dwc 1 of the whatever survives if I get 4 widows, probably the crown rot survivor that I fim'ed and fucked up.
 
So I'm thinking my Crown rot surviving, Highly neglected, Experimental, Auto freeb(CHEA,) is in week 2 of flower?!
20250115_183641.jpg
20250115_183627.jpg
I moved it from a small clone tent into the 5x5 by itself. Currently in the small(15"×8"×5") clone tub as I have 4 photo seedlings ready to go in tmrw or the next day. I am just winging shit at the moment but am super excited as this is my first mature(I think?) plant!!
 
Cal deficiency? They r lighter colored green leaves with dark veins
20250117_174747.jpg
 
Omw into a crash course of hydro. Got 4 white widow photo seedlings in their final home on the 20th. Also couldn't just trash my first pine auto seedling(11/28,) which is in early flower, so put that in a makeshift dwc 7gal bucket. I'm assuming this is bad practice as they r all in the same tent. The auto is currently stressed by what I believe could be a P or K deficiency? Red stems everywhere. At this stage it should be a 1-3-2 nute ratio, yes? Gonna do a bucket swap today, so gonna have to figure out a diff mix of nutes with the bottles pictured below, any suggestions? Also, I'm suppose to remove fans below any bud sites or that r blocking light, yes? Thank you for any input/advice you ganja gurus out there may have!!
20250120_122112.jpg
20250123_094017.jpg
20250123_094047.jpg
20250123_100414.jpg
20250123_100812.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20250123_094004.jpg
    20250123_094004.jpg
    844 KB · Views: 1
I also just ordered a humidifier. Otherwise I have to keep most of the tent air flaps closed, exhaust fan off, and the mammoth mint 8 led at 30% to maintain like a 48% rh. But that leads my tent to b at 80° and water temps at 75° My lungroom(bedroom) is like 10% rh. I'd like to b able to turn on my exhaust, open up more air flaps, and turn my light up w out the RH dropping to like 10% and my heat going up probably 10° or more. Grow some weed I thought, shouldn't be all that hard lol. I'll get this shit dialed in at some point!
 
Again, I'm a complete newb at growing, but here's my next question. Should I mix my nutes in the 55gal ro barrel or just add them to the res while do water changes? I'm assuming u can do either but I think in the barrel maybe easier? I dunno, I tend to over think everything...
 
Skinnypuppy80 said:
I also just ordered a humidifier. Otherwise I have to keep most of the tent air flaps closed, exhaust fan off, and the mammoth mint 8 led at 30% to maintain like a 48% rh. But that leads my tent to b at 80° and water temps at 75° My lungroom(bedroom) is like 10% rh. I'd like to b able to turn on my exhaust, open up more air flaps, and turn my light up w out the RH dropping to like 10% and my heat going up probably 10° or more. Grow some weed I thought, shouldn't be all that hard lol. I'll get this shit dialed in at some point!
Click to expand...
For flowering under LED, 80F is actually a pretty ideal temperature. I try to keep my grow area between 78-84 during flower. If I'm at 80F, things are good. I haven't been following close enough to know if you're using anything from AC Infinity, but if you are ... they have a couple excellent choices in humidifiers that plug right into the AC Infinity climate control (UIS) system. The controller gives you the ability to have pretty tight controls over the environment. The AC Infinity humidifier also has presets that allows you to use it without the controller in the event you don't want to purchase it all at once.


Here's the link for the controller:

 
MiGrampa said:
For flowering under LED, 80F is actually a pretty ideal temperature. I try to keep my grow area between 78-84 during flower. If I'm at 80F, things are good. I haven't been following close enough to know if you're using anything from AC Infinity, but if you are ... they have a couple excellent choices in humidifiers that plug right into the AC Infinity climate control (UIS) system. The controller gives you the ability to have pretty tight controls over the environment. The AC Infinity humidifier also has presets that allows you to use it without the controller in the event you don't want to purchase it all at once.


Here's the link for the controller:

Click to expand...
Thanks for the response! And here I was thinking 80 was a little high lol I have a 6" charcoal exhaust, 4 6" S2 fans, and the humidifier I ordered i went w the t7. I guess what I was saying was I'd like to bump my light up, open up my tent floor air flaps, and turn on my exhaust w/out dropping RH significantly. I'm thinking of doing this to create better air flow as well as turning up the light? Dunno if that's a thing or not.
 
Skinnypuppy80 said:
Thanks for the response! And here I was thinking 80 was a little high lol I have a 6" charcoal exhaust, 4 6" S2 fans, and the humidifier I ordered i went w the t7. I guess what I was saying was I'd like to bump my light up, open up my tent floor air flaps, and turn on my exhaust w/out dropping RH significantly. I'm thinking of doing this to create better air flow as well as turning up the light? Dunno if that's a thing or not.
Click to expand...

Just so you know, I grow in soil. Many things are different, but also many things are still the same

I don't focus so much on raising my humidity. Yes, I get it that if you're looking to establish a certain VPD or VPD range why you might use a humidifier in some situations. I bought my T3 to use in my mushroom tent when I was growing them. Since I stopped growing mushrooms, I don't use the humidifier(s) for my grows. I'm much more concerned about high humidity during flowering than I am about low humidity during veg. My grow area right now is running about 50's% RH. My plants are only a few weeks old. "Ideally" the RH should be in the low to mid 60's according to optimal ... but the humidity level my plants are in is not harmful at all.

You're running hydro. I have a hard time believing your leaf VPD is as low as you're thinking. It's leaf VPD you're interested in. Your plants transpire. It's not the same as room VPD ... so my guess is that part of your environment is better than you might think.

Now root temperature in hydro is critical for optimal growth, and "too cold" or "too warm" will cause issues. I saw some posts where the hydro gurus were helping you through some root issues. You're in good hands with @moe.red or @Aqua Man guiding you.
 
Skinnypuppy80 said:
Again, I'm a complete newb at growing, but here's my next question. Should I mix my nutes in the 55gal ro barrel or just add them to the res while do water changes? I'm assuming u can do either but I think in the barrel maybe easier? I dunno, I tend to over think everything...
Click to expand...
Personally I would mix in the res. You will get some nute precipitation over time. Also doing it in small batches allows you to make adjustments as needed.
 
Skinnypuppy80 said:
I also just ordered a humidifier. Otherwise I have to keep most of the tent air flaps closed, exhaust fan off, and the mammoth mint 8 led at 30% to maintain like a 48% rh. But that leads my tent to b at 80° and water temps at 75° My lungroom(bedroom) is like 10% rh. I'd like to b able to turn on my exhaust, open up more air flaps, and turn my light up w out the RH dropping to like 10% and my heat going up probably 10° or more. Grow some weed I thought, shouldn't be all that hard lol. I'll get this shit dialed in at some point!
Click to expand...
You took on a big endeavor for your first grow. I did the same thing. The learning curve is steep.

What made you decide RDWC in the first place? Is yield the goal?

80* is fine as long as the rest of the grow is good. But if you went hydro for yield keeping the setpoints as close to ideal as possible along with the benefits of hydro is the goal.

When the plants get bigger the rh will go up. Until then you are limiting growth by closing stomata. If the plant does not breathe it does not move water nutes or sugars. Very low rh will be the limiting factor in the growth rate.

There will always be a limiting factor. Or many. For example if you need to seal the tent to hold in rh you are also limiting co2 getting replenished. Without co2 and h20 you have no photosynthesis. Low co2 slows it down. You are somewhere on the scale.

You can veg a weed plant on a windowsill. Does not make it the best way to do it unless you are trying to do a bansai or something small.

The RDWC grow style is all about removing limits to growth.

75* res temps is out of ideal range on the high side but still ok with that same caveat of if the rest of the grow parameters are good.

Your goal as the farmer is to figure out the best way to stay in the zone for as many of the parameters as you can employing the minimum hardware and electrons. Every growspace is different so do the best you can with the budget you have and let the plants do the rest. Make adjustments based on what the plants tell you. They will let you know if they don’t like something
 
moe.red said:
Personally I would mix in the res. You will get some nute precipitation over time. Also doing it in small batches allows you to make adjustments as needed.
Click to expand...
That was my initial way to add the nutes as I filled the system and added hydroguard and let it run for a day b4 I added the seedlings, than I added nutes to res.
 
moe.red said:
You took on a big endeavor for your first grow. I did the same thing. The learning curve is steep.

What made you decide RDWC in the first place? Is yield the goal?

80* is fine as long as the rest of the grow is good. But if you went hydro for yield keeping the setpoints as close to ideal as possible along with the benefits of hydro is the goal.

When the plants get bigger the rh will go up. Until then you are limiting growth by closing stomata. If the plant does not breathe it does not move water nutes or sugars. Very low rh will be the limiting factor in the growth rate.

There will always be a limiting factor. Or many. For example if you need to seal the tent to hold in rh you are also limiting co2 getting replenished. Without co2 and h20 you have no photosynthesis. Low co2 slows it down. You are somewhere on the scale.

You can veg a weed plant on a windowsill. Does not make it the best way to do it unless you are trying to do a bansai or something small.

The RDWC grow style is all about removing limits to growth.

75* res temps is out of ideal range on the high side but still ok with that same caveat of if the rest of the grow parameters are good.

Your goal as the farmer is to figure out the best way to stay in the zone for as many of the parameters as you can employing the minimum hardware and electrons. Every growspace is different so do the best you can with the budget you have and let the plants do the rest. Make adjustments based on what the plants tell you. They will let you know if they don’t like something
Click to expand...
When I first started smoking in my teens, I always heard, "yo, this is hydro, the best weed to smoke!"(paraphrasing) Sure, could've just been hype, but stuck with me and what initially had me hooked. Than I researched more into it and the bias was that is was and quicker, larger yields, and more than just planting a seed in some dirt w a light(not knocking u soil guys, u all know way more than I) I decided quickly that was the route I'd take. I dunno, I like having to take measurements, adjusting the environment and nutes to said measurements, and feeling like I accomplished "winning" over an obstacle.

The auto in flower is just fucked but couldn't abandon it till it really starts hindering the 4 photos. Will try to keep a decent balance, but overall, the photos r my main objective.
My main limiting factor atm is rh being low. W only one air flap open, temps close to 80, I get RH at like 52 and room vpd at like 2 something. Bought the humidifier so I could open up all the air flaps and able to turn on the exhaust thinking it would be better if I had a circulation of air flow. I could be wrong, probably am lol. Atm of dialing in the environment of the plants, hence the humidifier which I believe will b a game changer for the grow area.
I may have to get a chiller as well, my res temp is at 75° :( I'm pretty deep into the setup already so I'll have no problem in getting one.

Thank you Moe, Aqua, Stoney, Steam, and all the rest of u beautiful bitches for holding my hand this long!! Fuck, took me how long just to get it all set up?! Also, a huge fan of the VG! I sucked at germinating and that thing, first try, got a 100% germ rate!
 
The association of good weed and hydro is out there for sure. But there is a lot that goes into what makes weed good to a specific person.

Take a look at what @smoke does. He has a purpose built RDWC where he is able to control every environmental variable. He even has ph dosing. He makes growing trees and getting a pound per plant seem effortless.

I’m not sure his result is better than the same seeds grown in soil by a master grower. But he gets a lot more in the same time. I think that is what hydro brings.

I did a side by side comparison of organic soil vs RDWC on clones and the result of the blind taste test by professional smokers was right down the middle. Some liked the soil some liked the hydro. But I got 4x in hydro what I got in soil. @MDK did a really in depth smoke report that is here somewhere.

At the same time growing fast has drawbacks. My feeling is that poorly grown hydro will not be as good as properly grown soil. Healthy plants in all parts of the life cycle is what produces the best smoke. Generalization sure but it think it mostly holds true.

The best way to avoid the drawbacks is to optimize the conditions the plant is in.

As you know, very low rh will make the plants close stomata. It is an evolutionary drought response all plants have. The less stomata that are open the slower the plant metabolism. On the flip side too high rh means the stomata are open and the plant is trying to move water from the roots to the atmosphere but there is little room in the air for more water. So too high rh slows everything down as well with the added risk of fungal infections.

That said, getting the rh in the right zone is kinda like priming the pump. Once you start getting good vegetative growth the plants will put plenty of water in the air and the challenge for us hydro guys is typically trying to dehumidify. On a typical grow I need a humidifier for the first 2 or 3 weeks then by the flip active dehumidification is required.

I run sealed tents with a mini split ac and co2 so my only option is to use a dehumidifier in the tent. In your case, your dehumidification come from exchange of dry air outside the tent and pushing the wet air into the lungroom.

That blower moving air to the lungroom unfortunately controls several of the setpoints you are trying to achieve. For example if you try to remove rh because it is 70% you cannot do so without pushing heat from the lights out too. Ideally these 2 setpoints would be controlled separately. If you get your rh down but the tent temp goes to 70 along with it, that will slow down growth.

In addition to both rh and temp, co2 replenishment will come from that blower being on. Which essentially means you need to run that blower some every day regardless of your temp and humidity. So using the blower to control 3 setpoints that are not related to each other is quite the blunt instrument. That is why I have humidifier dehumidifier temp up and down and co2 all controlled individually.

From an engineering perspective the best way forward for you would be to raise the rh in the lungroom to the level you want it in the tent. Then use the blower to draw off heat while brining in co2. This has the added benefit of being good for the human occupants in that space too.

If you are still with me I can explain further. Raising rh in your apartment will require a bigger humidifier but they are easy to build. Feed it with a float valve plumbed to your 55 gal RO barrel and it’s a set it and forget it kinda thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Skinnypuppy80
Newbs 1st grow! Complete failure or a "by the skin of my teeth" documentary 🤔🫣
2 3
Replies
81
Views
2K
Aqua Man
Aqua Man
I
A sneek peek deep into N2's garden thread
6 7 8
Replies
237
Views
7K
Aqua Man
Aqua Man
Back
Top Bottom