Newb here, would this be possible/super inconvenient?

[moe.red]

To break it down, max photosynthesis the genetics will allow is what you are attempting to achieve.

The process of photosynthesis is commonly written as: 6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6 + 6O2. This means that the reactants, six carbon dioxide molecules and six water molecules, are converted by light energy captured by chlorophyll (implied by the arrow) into a sugar molecule and six oxygen molecules, the products.

So if you limit CO2 at the stomata or water up the roots, you are limiting sugar production. The other primary driver is photons, which we have not even started to discuss yet. Light is by far the most important of the 8 environmental factors that go into cannabis.

In RDWC, I would say the optimal setpoints to strive for in veg are

Res temp 70-72*F
Dissolved O2 at 100% for your temp and altitude. Somewhere in the 8-9mg/L range


This is achieved thru bubbling atmospheric gasses in the res. Too much and you will only be adding CO2 once the max DO is achieved, which screws with PH as carbonic acid gets formed. Too little and the DO will drop, resulting in the limit to growth being O2 in the roots. Properly sizing your pumps and airstones is your job here.

PH at 5.8
8-10 turns per hour of water in the res
Appropriate nutes*
Either actively sterile or a beneficial bacteria colony established

Temp at 80
RH 60%
CO2 at or above 400PPM
Lights to maximum ppfd for the plants**
Spectrum correct for stage of growth**
Air movement


*nutes are a whole different discussion
**so is light

If you view your growspace thru this "max potential" kinda lens, it helps you not to make mistakes with your build. Try to achieve as many of these setpoints as possible in your situation.

You have the same mentality I had when I first jumped into hydro. I made a ton of mistakes. Truth is I enjoyed every one of them. Chicks dig scars. Learning curve is steep. Worth it.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

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.

Absolutely will take any advice u have to give. I haven't turned on my exhaust or opened air flaps cuz it drops humidity to the 12% of my lungroom. I most definitely think getting my apartment up in RH would help a lot! I have a t7? aci humidifier on its way already. Would that be sufficient enough or would you suggest to use that just for the tent and build one for the apartment as well? I also am thinking of installing a floor to ceiling curtain that I have to partition the room and see if that could help as well.
I was under the impression my lack of air circulation through tent was also a big hindering factor, thanks for confirming that. Any advice of a jump off schedule to run the exhaust? Like set it to run for 5 mns every hr?
Would love to get to the set it and forget it point, will be a trial and error sort of thing i assume

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

To break it down, max photosynthesis the genetics will allow is what you are attempting to achieve.

The process of photosynthesis is commonly written as: 6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6 + 6O2. This means that the reactants, six carbon dioxide molecules and six water molecules, are converted by light energy captured by chlorophyll (implied by the arrow) into a sugar molecule and six oxygen molecules, the products.

So if you limit CO2 at the stomata or water up the roots, you are limiting sugar production. The other primary driver is photons, which we have not even started to discuss yet. Light is by far the most important of the 8 environmental factors that go into cannabis.

In RDWC, I would say the optimal setpoints to strive for in veg are

Res temp 70-72*F
Dissolved O2 at 100% for your temp and altitude. Somewhere in the 8-9mg/L range
View attachment 87771

This is achieved thru bubbling atmospheric gasses in the res. Too much and you will only be adding CO2 once the max DO is achieved, which screws with PH as carbonic acid gets formed. Too little and the DO will drop, resulting in the limit to growth being O2 in the roots. Properly sizing your pumps and airstones is your job here.

PH at 5.8
8-10 turns per hour of water in the res
Appropriate nutes*
Either actively sterile or a beneficial bacteria colony established

Temp at 80
RH 60%
CO2 at or above 400PPM
Lights to maximum ppfd for the plants**
Spectrum correct for stage of growth**
Air movement


*nutes are a whole different discussion
**so is light

If you view your growspace thru this "max potential" kinda lens, it helps you not to make mistakes with your build. Try to achieve as many of these setpoints as possible in your situation.

You have the same mentality I had when I first jumped into hydro. I made a ton of mistakes. Truth is I enjoyed every one of them. Chicks dig scars. Learning curve is steep. Worth it.

U r making my brain hurt w all that info lol
I most definitely will put the time into dissolving all of that and learn how to incorporate it into a maximum effort grow! My major drawback has been RH, which I'm gonna correct ASAP. Also started researching not only VPD but LVPD as well. Never thought there'd be soo much shit that I'd have to control to b just a decent grower... fuck! lol Kind of love it though

 

[steamroller]

U r making my brain hurt w all that info lol
I most definitely will put the time into dissolving all of that and learn how to incorporate it into a maximum effort grow! My major drawback has been RH, which I'm gonna correct ASAP. Also started researching not only VPD but LVPD as well. Never thought there'd be soo much shit that I'd have to control to b just a decent grower... fuck! lol Kind of love it though

You want LVPD so get an infra-red thermometer if you don't have one.
The leaf temp is very important in the true calculation. Without it the reading is not as accurate or reliable IMO.

 

[moe.red]

Absolutely will take any advice u have to give. I haven't turned on my exhaust or opened air flaps cuz it drops humidity to the 12% of my lungroom. I most definitely think getting my apartment up in RH would help a lot! I have a t7? aci humidifier on its way already. Would that be sufficient enough or would you suggest to use that just for the tent and build one for the apartment as well? I also am thinking of installing a floor to ceiling curtain that I have to partition the room and see if that could help as well.
I was under the impression my lack of air circulation through tent was also a big hindering factor, thanks for confirming that. Any advice of a jump off schedule to run the exhaust? Like set it to run for 5 mns every hr?
Would love to get to the set it and forget it point, will be a trial and error sort of thing i assume

Let me get some pics tomorrow on humidifier and you can decide if it is something you want to tackle. But yes you can get the rh up in the apartment pretty quick with ultrasonics.

In terms of exhaust timing I would put that decision on a controller like an inkbird temp rh controller. Set it to monitor and control temp to 80. If you do not reach 80 turn your lights up. If that is too much light for the plants raise the light. You can find the happy medium where the blower kicks on a couple times an hour to blow off excess heat. Then put the humidifier in and set it for 60.

The only thing I would caution you on is your rh will spike at lights out due to drop in temp. The blower will not be coming on. This can become a problem and needs to be monitored to see what your system does.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

Let me get some pics tomorrow on humidifier and you can decide if it is something you want to tackle. But yes you can get the rh up in the apartment pretty quick with ultrasonics.

In terms of exhaust timing I would put that decision on a controller like an inkbird temp rh controller. Set it to monitor and control temp to 80. If you do not reach 80 turn your lights up. If that is too much light for the plants raise the light. You can find the happy medium where the blower kicks on a couple times an hour to blow off excess heat. Then put the humidifier in and set it for 60.

The only thing I would caution you on is your rh will spike at lights out due to drop in temp. The blower will not be coming on. This can become a problem and needs to be monitored to see what your system does.

I do have an ACI pro69+ controller which has my 4 aci S6 fans, 6" aci charcoal exhaust, mammoth 8 mint led, and soon to b had aci t7 humidifier connected to it. I went all for automation as much as possible.
But yeah, I'd like to check out the humidifier. I'll have to Google ultrasonics to know wtf that is lol

 

[moe.red]

I do have an ACI pro69+ controller which has my 4 aci S6 fans, 6" aci charcoal exhaust, mammoth 8 mint led, and soon to b had aci t7 humidifier connected to it. I went all for automation as much as possible.
But yeah, I'd like to check out the humidifier. I'll have to Google ultrasonics to know wtf that is lol

There is nothing wrong with the aci it’s just not large enough enough for a whole apartment sitting in the teens.

We have been in a real cold snap for over a month. I’ve got a 3400 sq foot house, not including the basement. Without my humidifier I am also in the teens. With it I’m sitting at 45%.

So much better for the people and everything in the house.

So much easier on the aci in the tent to go from 45 or 50% in the lungroom to 60%.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

There is nothing wrong with the aci it’s just not large enough enough for a whole apartment sitting in the teens.

We have been in a real cold snap for over a month. I’ve got a 3400 sq foot house, not including the basement. Without my humidifier I am also in the teens. With it I’m sitting at 45%.

So much better for the people and everything in the house.

So much easier on the aci in the tent to go from 45 or 50% in the lungroom to 60%.

Sounds like the smarter decision to get the whole apartment up, would love to check it out.

 

[moe.red]

Found an old pic of a 5 disk humidifier




I’ll try to remember to get a better picture tonight