1000w Hydro DWC 4x4 Tent

Qronyq

Qronyq

Well-Known Member
Just coveted to hydroponics. Decided to go the cost efficient route and buy 2 18g totes with a 80g air pump and 2 huge air stones like the ones you see in all the videos. I am doing 2 plants per tote. I purchased 4 clones the other day from my local dispensary: 2 God's Gift and 2 Spur Diesel.

I vegged these clones for 29 days under a 600w hps, and I wish I would have taken more pictures as the time went on. I'm on my second day of flower right now using a XXXL 1000w hps. I topped each plant a few times throughout veg. I super cropped all the branches day 1 of flower. I needed space for stretch in my tent. After about a week of flower I will lollipop all the plants more than likely.

I have been using tap water with a ppm of 112. I originally bought a RO system but it was only a 50gpd system. Too impatient to wait to fill 2 18g totes each with 10-12g of water. I have no water chiller either. I do use the frozen water bottle trick once a day while lights are on. Temps are usually mid 70s, nothing crazy warm. Tent stays around 78-84 degrees. pH tends to drift up daily due to the warmer water temp. I change out my reservoir every 5-7 days.

I'm using General Hydroponics expert Flora recercuilating series.

Here's some pictures from beginning till now. The Sour Diesels are the monsters, and the God's Gift are the other 2.

I have another thread on the hydroponics forum with the original posts as my babies have grown.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/dwc-18g-totes.917711/


Any advice and input welcome, this is my first hydro grow. Just now beginning flower.
 

Attachments

Porky101

Porky101

Well-Known Member
Cover the tote with reflective film while your plants grow. The black is absorbing the heat, heating up your water in the totes.

Use more than one airstone. You simply can't have enough. Put an airstone in each corner and make sure it stays there (they drift a lot and usually they all clump together).


Drain all nutes every week when they are larger. Get yourself a wet / dry vacuum cleaner to empty the totes.

Make sure your air pumps have backup power, if the power fails and your airpumps stop, 12 hours and your plant will be dead.

Ro water is great. Get yourself a holding tank for your RO filter and use that. RO water is unstable pH wise, so you need to buffer it. You do this by adding PH up to 10 then bring it down to pH 6. Now it is buffered and ready for nutes. You can repeat the process multiple times if you are finding large pH swings.

Your biggest problem will be root rot. You can avoid this by using a chiller, but those are very expensive. My cheaper solution has been plenty of air stones. It will make sure your plants get enough oxygen by the roots. With enough airstones you could allow your reservoir to hit 80f which is usually way to high with hydro... But as I said, put as many airstones as you can fit in there and they will protect your roots for you :)

If you decide to use H202 try use it when you don't have any nutrients present in the water and turn off your airppumps. Simply soak your roots in a weak solution for 1 minute and that should offer additional protection. I am not sure on the amount of h202 per gallon (you need to know the percentage the bottle comes in, highest I have been able to find is 50 percent). Try use warm water when cleaning the roots to increase the effectiveness of h202.


Good luck :) hydro is awsome once you have it dialled it...
 
Last edited:
Qronyq

Qronyq

Well-Known Member
Porky101 said:
Cover the tote with reflective film while your plants grow. The black is absorbing the heat, heating up your water in the totes.

Use more than one airstone. You simply can't have enough. Put an airstone in each corner and make sure it stays there (they drift a lot and usually they all clump together).


Drain all nutes every week when they are larger. Get yourself a wet / dry vacuum cleaner to empty the totes.

Make sure your air pumps have backup power, if the power fails and your airpumps stop, 12 hours and your plant will be dead.

Ro water is great. Get yourself a holding tank for your RO filter and use that. RO water is unstable pH wise, so you need to buffer it. You do this by adding PH up to 10 then bring it down to pH 6. Now it is buffered and ready for nutes. You can repeat the process multiple times if you are finding large pH swings.

Your biggest problem will be root rot. You can avoid this by using a chiller, but those are very expensive. My cheaper solution has been plenty of air stones. It will make sure your plants get enough oxygen by the roots. With enough airstones you could allow your reservoir to hit 80f which is usually way to high with hydro... But as I said, put as many airstones as you can fit in there and they will protect your roots for you :)

If you decide to use H202 try use it when you don't have any nutrients present in the water and turn off your airppumps. Simply soak your roots in a weak solution for 1 minute and that should offer additional protection. I am not sure on the amount of h202 per gallon (you need to know the percentage the bottle comes in, highest I have been able to find is 50 percent). Try use warm water when cleaning the roots to increase the effectiveness of h202.


Good luck :) hydro is awsome once you have it dialled it...
Click to expand...
Awesome response. I appreciate the time you took to tell me that. Got a lot of good notes off this
 
Qronyq

Qronyq

Well-Known Member
Day 11 into 12/12. I've super cropped, tied branches down, and I'm still running out of stretch room. Hopefully the stretch comes to and end very very soon.

They're some thirsty girls for sure, topping off with about 3 gallons of plain pH'd water every other day (starting with 10g on the reservoir change day).. looking forward to seeing the flowers to begin to develop.

Last time I'll try to fit 4 hydro plants in a 4x4 tent. Thas enough space for maybe 2... maybe...
 

Attachments

Qronyq

Qronyq

Well-Known Member
Day 30 of flower.

Monsters I tell you... Well the Sour D for sure. The God's Gift is a lot thinner. The Sour D will yield amazingly. God's Gift should be average.

These girls drink water like camels. Topping reservoirs off every day with 2 gallons of pH'd water. I'm still feeding using the General Hydroponics FloraNova Expert Recirculating series. I use full strength for 10g worth of water but I fill each reservoir with 12 gallons of water.

Still using tap water as well. Seems to be doing completely fine. It's a lot easier to manage water pH now that my plants are in a Ac cooled grow tent.

Finally done bending branches over 30 days in.. The stretch was real. I've learned that I'd do maybe 2 plants in a 4x4 tent. 4 was way too many, hydroponicly anyways. The God's Gift, according to strain, should have 4 more weeks of flower, and the Sour D 6 weeks. I'm thinking they may both go longer but we will see.

Stay tuned. .
 

Attachments

You must log in or register to reply here.
Top