First grow, 400w, DWC, White Russian, NEED YOUR HELP

M

midgaar

Active Member
Quick Specs
Seeds: White Russian from HGS.
Veg lighting: 2x 65w CFLs (soft and cool)
Flower Lighting: 400w HPS
Space: 3.5'x3.5'x6.5' Homebox L tent
Medium: Indoor DWC using hydroton rocks and rockwool

Greetings rollitup community,

This will be my first real attempt at growing. I picked hydroponics because there's more interaction and, to me, that is what a hobby is all about. I started this grow in a much smaller space. It was a 2'x1.5'x5' cabinet. I quickly realized that keeping temps in this small of a space was a lot harder then I thought it was going to be. I scraped the cabinet and picked up a Homebox L tent.

I'm setup in a bedroom with a window a/c keeping the room temp in the 70s. I have my tent vented with a 4" inline fan (170 cfm) that pulls air from the tent, through a carbon scrubber, through the cooltube, and out of the tent into the bedroom. This keeps my tent temps in the high 70s-low 80s.



My hydroponics system was purchased from stealthydro and is called bubbleponics. It's your basic 10 gallon rubbermaid DWC. It has an air pump and round air stone. It has a water pump that top feeds the plants in the young stages of growth. I got the entire system for $200 and it included the two 65w CFLs, all the pumps, tubes, nutes, ph up, down, and testing strips. I'll never buy another hydroponics systems after seeing how easy they are to make myself.

I'm currently on day 14 of veg but we'll start at the beginning. Please feel free at anytime to give me any advice. Tell me if I'm doing something wrong, or what you would do diffrently and WHY! Let me know if you see something I don't or if I'm doing a good job. Or just leave any comments you want.
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 1
Temp: low 80s
PH: 6.5 and going up
PPM: 000
Height: 1"
Health: a bit long

Notes:
Four sprouts under two 65w CFLs. Temps are in the high 70s to mid 80s. PH levels drift up 1-2 points per day it seems. I have to add PH down once everyday.

Sorry don't have pictures of the sprouts.
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 4
Temp: low to mid 80s
PH: 6.0 - 8.0
PPM: 600
Height: unknown
Health: Plants look good, have one that is struggling behind the rest.

Notes: Today I added a quarter strength nute for the sole purpose of stablizing my PH. The PH has been raising over 1 point per day and if I don't keep adding PH down it could get ugly. My PPMs were at 300 from only the PH down, then at 600 after I added the nutes. These are the nutes that came with my hydro kit so I don't know who makes them.

Notes from the future: Looking back on this I wish I would have just flushed the hydro res with fresh water and then added the nutes.

Sorry still no pictures, next post I have a couple for you though.
 
Silky Shagsalot

Silky Shagsalot

Well-Known Member
hey guy, good luck on your upcoming grow. on your ph drift. it's only gonna get worse. you need a larger capacity rez. you should have 5 gallons for each plant. once the plants start drinking/feeding, that little rez will be all over the place. plus, it'll be full of roots with no room for water.
peace
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 8
Temp: Same
PH: Still having problems keeping it below 6.0
PPM: 600
Height: unknown
Health: The little guy isn't going to make it. Today when I checked up on the plants and added PH down I noticed the runt of the litter was almost dead. It was withered over and lifeless. I pulled the rockwool out of the hydroton rocks to take a look at the roots. They were very white and looked very healthy. I pulled the plant from the hydro and considered it dead. I placed it out side in a pot I have a tomato plant growing in, just to see what would happen. I think the cause of death was the nutes or the PH problem I can't seem to get under control.

The other three plants are looking great though. Not showing any signs of sickness.

Notes: In hopes of fixing my PH problem I am going to be flushing the res soon.

Here are some pictures of the runt: (I didn't know there was a closeup button on my camera)



Here's the healthy plants:



 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 12
Temp: 76.5 (HPS running for 1 hour, a/c running for 1 hour)
PH: 7.5
PPM 550
Height: 2"
Health: Third set of leafs coming in. Very green, no spots, no wilting, look very happy. Roots are starting to hit the water and look white, maybe a little brown tint on some of the bigger ones. Stems are strong and purple, starting to turn green though.The water in the res has a musty smell.

Notes: My second res should be here today. Same size res as the one I'm currently using but it'll make changing out the water so much easier. Will be flushing/changing out the water and nutes when it arrives. Also made a trip to the hydro store and picked up some GH Floranova grow & bloom.

Test running the HPS for 3 hours with the a/c only running for an hour to see where my temps sit.

Here's some pictures of the plants.



 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 12 part 2
Temp: 75
PH: 5.7
PPM: 460
Height: 2"
Health: Same

Notes: HPS test went well, temps are stable at 5-10* of room temp with the a/c on energy saver mode set to 70*.

Well I cleaned the res and changed out the water and nutes. Used RO water I got for 40 cents per gallon.Started the Floranova nutes and the PH balanced itself out at 5.7 without any PH up or down.:mrgreen: Three teaspoons of nutes were too much. PPMs were at 550ish when they should have been at 300. Six gallons of water was good but I added a seventh to bring down my PPMs to 450. With seven gallons of water the netpots are sitting right on the water level. If they are still touching the water tomarrow I'll remove some water from the res.

I had a chance to take a closer look at the roots while changing out the water. There were a lot more then I had thought. They are, for the most part, white. Some have a very slight brown tint to them. I think the old nutes and the massive amounts of PH down are to blame for the brown tint of the roots, the res was tinted the same color before I cleaned it.

Root pictures:



 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 13
Temp: 80
PH: 6.0 (added a couple ml of PH down)
PPM: unknown
Height: unknown
Health:
I think the plants are looking great. There's one slightly dry tip on the biggest plant, on one of the lowest leafs. Roots haven't gotten any more tint to them and more are poking out of the netcups and they are pure white. I did notice a couple of bugs in the tent. Little greyish flying bugs almost like gnats or fruit flies. I'd say they are a tad bigger then fruit flies. I was thinking maybe white flies, but they have more of a grey or brown color and are not pure white. I have seen the same flies above the sink in the kitchen.

Notes: Ran the HPS all day today with the a/c on energy saver. Temps are stable at 78-80. Will continue to have the HPS on 18/6 along with the CFLs.

I'd like to get another air pump inside the res. I think next week I'll swap out the water and nutes again and remove the water pump and top feed tubes. They have collected a scum on them that I would rather not have in the res. I'm also considering dumping some kind of flushing solution like clearx through the netpots to remove any salt buildups. What do you guys think?

No pictures this update. :cry:
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 14(where I currently am at)
Temp: 78
PH: 6.1
PPM: 600
Height: 3"
Health: Overall health looks good. Killed a few more of the flies things today. Plant #1 is starting to develop little rusty spots on its leafs. Plant #3, on one leaf, has two small dots the same as plant #1s. Will do some research to try and figure out what this could be. Also all three plants might be showing very, very, very slight signs of nute burn. Leaf tips are just bearly discolored and dry.

Notes: PH down 3ml to 5.2. Added quarter gallon of water bringing PPMs down to 580.

Pictures of my new spots.


What's up with the slight wilt? This normal? (plant #3 in first pic, #2 in second) Also notice on the lowest leaf in the first pic you can see the 2 little dots I was talking about.



Other then that they look good. (plant #1)


 
G

gWeesE

Well-Known Member
i also mad e the istake of buying the bubbleponics from SH. I since then turned it into a cloner, as like silky said, res is too small and it was too hard to control rez temps without a chiller. a chiller is almost a must when running dwc. 65f-68f is ideal temp needed to keep root rot away.

good luck midgaar...i hope everything works out for ya

gWeeSe
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
I'm already over $1000 invested in this grow so there will be no more big purchases, such as a chiller, for some time. I've seen some pretty wicked DWC setup that run at room temp and produce harvest after harvest. A chiller it something I will pickup someday but I just can't afford one for this grow. Are you sure that the brown tint is root rot? Next time I change out the water I'll clean the roots and see if they are slimy. Are there any solutions I can use on the roots? The tips of the roots aren't real brown or anything, it really just looks like the roots were sitting in brown/red water, which they were. Think I should add another air stone and pump?

As for the res, I was thinking about building a couple of rumple's bubble buckets but that might not even be until next time around too. I'll link the post for the bubble buckets once grasscity.com comes back online.
 
IcanMJ

IcanMJ

Well-Known Member
I understand the cost being a problem. You still have the pump in the water? Take that pump out fill the res water up more the air bubble should get water to the bottom roots. that pump is making alot of heat. alos the air pump more close to you air in take so your air bubbles are cool air. I found frozen water bottle to be more of a problem then a help. I have heard that a fan blowning on the water can cool it. good luck start watching your water temp it is very important. SM-90 is a nice product to help you clean and keep your res clean.
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
I think I'll try that. The water pump in there isn't needed anymore now that the roots have hit the water and the feeding tubes are only collecting slime and crap. I'm going to take a trip to the hydro store tomorrow and pick up another air stone to get more bubbles. I'll just clean the res and swap out the water and nutes then too.

Thanks for the advice!
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
So I think I might just be in luck. I pulled the water pump and feeder tubes and they were nasty full of gunk. The pictures of the roots taken before were of only one plant and they haven't gotten any worse. The other 2 plants, sitting directly over the bubbles have roots that are pure white. They have like only 2 or 3 roots tinted brown. I'm thinking it's because they are sitting right over the air bubbles or something. The water is much cooler then room temp water. When I hit up the store tomorrow I'll pick up a therm to see what is really is. I'm thinking by adding more air stones and bubbles and a good scrubbing will take care of my problem. The leafs of the plants smell so dank, I'd really hate to see these little buggers die. I'll update the journal tomorrow after I get everything changed and cleaned. Would 3-4' of air hose be too much if I got an oversized pump? I was thinking of sitting the pump right next to the a/c unit so the air would be nice and cool going into the res.
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Ok so I made a trip to the hardware store and the hydro store. The guy at the hydro store said he didn't think it was root rot, he said I had bugs. This was before I told him about the flies I've been seeing. I guess they leg eggs in the hydroton and rockwool and the larva eat the little hairs on the roots causing them to turn brown. Just in case I picked up some h2o2, sm-90, and go gnats.



I also changed out the water and nutes in the res, added some sm-90 and go gnat in there too. I covered the res with panda film to keep the light out. I picked up a nice new air pump and a few air stones, there's a lot more bubbles now. The one thing I forgot, and I'm kicking my self still, is a thermometer to check the res temp.



I think they are a little shocked from what they had to go through today. They got an hour long bath in h2o2, then about 30 min bath in sm-90. Then I flushed the growing medium with the sm-90 solution and the go gnat stuff. Tehn flushed with water and put in the res with new nutes. PPMs at 450, PH 5.8. I sprayed the leafs with go gnat as well. Roots are 90% white now! :mrgreen:

I picked up a few things at the hardware store and made two bubble buckets. I'll finish the third tomorrow and then I'll transfer the plants to them. Take a look.



I'll update proper tomorrow or Wednesday when everything settled and they are in the new buckets.

Hope this works,
Peace
 
IcanMJ

IcanMJ

Well-Known Member
looks great. only thing that I see is your tubing is clear look for some black/uv blocking tubing you dont want to fight algae next :)
 
M

midgaar

Active Member
Day 16
Temp: 74
PH: 5.7, 5.7, 6.1 (left to right)
PPM: 250, 180, 200 (left to right)
Height:
Health: All three are wilted and stressed out. I don't blame them for what I've put them through the last few days. The left most plant has spotty leafs, and one is dry and almost dead even. I gave them another h2o2 and sm-90 bath today before the change from the res into the buckets. Roots look a lot better, nice and white now. I think they will bounce back in a few days. I think I also burned some leafs by foliar spraying them with the lights on.

Notes: The left most bucket has a very small leak from the drain. I'll have to fix it next week when I change out the water and nutes. Today is their first day in the new buckets so we'll see how that goes. Changed the water and nutes out today when I transplanted them to the buckets. I just went with a low dose of nutes and water, nothing else. They are pretty stressed out and I hope they bounce back. I think I'll just sit back and let them do what they want for the next week and see what happens.

Some pictures :blsmoke:


 
Last edited:
IcanMJ

IcanMJ

Well-Known Member
a little superthrive will help keep them from stressing so much. but like h2o2 only use it when needed.
 
jimbizzzale67123

jimbizzzale67123

Well-Known Member
Hey lookin good bro nice transfer you should have a better result. Soil is just as interactive as hydro its all a hobby bro, you shold try soil you might like the results better.
 
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