White Rhino Hydroponics First Grow Cree White Led

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
THe tap water here is fine, 6.5-6.8 ph, not too much chlorine, supposedly the best in South America for a big city. Fuck it... I'm gonna dump out the Reverse Osmosis crap and get back to using liquid from the tube

The last time I *tried* hydro but killed deh plants was with a 5 gallon bucket, which was actually a glass tank. I blacked it out, with lightproof black sheets of paper and electric tape. Anyway, after about a week of having things rolling, I peaked in the tank by removing teh light proof cover and I saw turbidity, the tap water had turned cloudy. I had that 5 gal tank running on a 5 watt pump, small stuff.

So now that's why I decided to concentrate my holding tanks for the little plants, I think maybe enough oxygen rolling the water around will prevent turbidity from taking hold.

In summary, the plant is back in a new holding tank, now 2 liters. The old 1 liter tank was spot clean when I pulled her out of that one. I wrapped her little tank in a black garbage bag, heavy caliber so no liight leaks. Added her 2 part Macro and Micro nutes and no ph adjustment because it was alright, 5.5, I'll check it 2morrow. Peace
 

BBYY

Well-Known Member
Sounds like your getting your shit together, like feedings and now learning the right way to run a hydro setup.

I feel your going about this the right way. Learn with something disposable at a not gonna break the bank level, get it together then throw up a more economical.
What your doing for one plant is easy to do to 4 without changing too much. So i just wanted to iterate that.

May I ask, If you do plan on upping your system to a 4 plant one, what are your plans for lighting. I assume your experience in LED's can make it possible for you to rig up something along the lines of the LED UFO that is marketed , I am interested to see what you come up with.
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
THX BBYY, you're right, i'm just trying this out on one white rhino seed to give it a shot without investing all my seeds. I've seen the cost of some good fem seeds on the internet, and they aren't cheap, best to be safe with what i already have.

About the Lamps, I have a chinese supplier where I get packs of leds inside of tubes 50. They are 3 watt white, good lumens and cheap. The light you saw in the latest pic is just 18 watts. My next design is a panel that is an 8 inch square, using 18x 3 watt lamps for 54 watts, (49 watts real), all running off of a power supply of 12 volts and 5 amps. Doing it this way can save you guys 50 percent on the super UFOs you see on line. Just a little patience and circuit knowledge...

The 54 watt panel might be as big as I go for now, because I plan on strategically hanging panels where they are needed, rather than just sticking to a single canopy light.

I'm working on the 54 watter, I'lll have some pics up this weekend. PEACE
C/O

Sounds like your getting your shit together, like feedings and now learning the right way to run a hydro setup.

I feel your going about this the right way. Learn with something disposable at a not gonna break the bank level, get it together then throw up a more economical.
What your doing for one plant is easy to do to 4 without changing too much. So i just wanted to iterate that.

May I ask, If you do plan on upping your system to a 4 plant one, what are your plans for lighting. I assume your experience in LED's can make it possible for you to rig up something along the lines of the LED UFO that is marketed , I am interested to see what you come up with.
 

BBYY

Well-Known Member
Nice.

I took intrest in LED lighting and circuits back when I saw some college kids who made a sweet ass beer pong table using relays and circuits to make a colorshow on the table while they played pong.
but I never took it far enough to get supplies and actually construct something, none the less took it into the grow room. I wish you luck, and that things work out.

If you ever can, you might wanna take a change at some cheaper , non fem seeds. Get a nice cut and keep her around to supply you with female clones. More flexible and IMO better then buying fem seeds.

I am still not too sure on if this is just something seasonal for you , or its going to turn into a infatuation like it did me, and if its really what your gonna adopt as a new hobby, then getting nice genetics and keeping them around should be a priority. Also a "Area" that will be your dedicated grow space. Something with good light reflection , air movement and temp/humidity should be constructed.
Ill chat with you later, good luck.
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
Hey everybody, new pics up tomorrow. same plant :) Still under 6 x 3watt white LEDs, gonna upgrade that soon too. The plant is green and healthy, lots of roots. actually it has more roots than leaves i don't get that. I cut off 4 of the oldest fan leaves, they were hit hardest from using the RO water, and had some black spots in the center. The center stalk beefed up about 5x, much thicker than last week.
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
Hey Everybody, so my experiment plant had gone about 1 week without artificial light or even direct sunlight. I've been short on $ and sold the 18 watt LED component above the plant and ever since then for about a week, she haz been pissed off at me and not growing. I just got a 27 watt light on her, 3w x 9 white THIS MORNING!!!. I know 27 isn't big balls but it's bigger than enough for this tiny plant. Now anyway, just wondering, did I make her sick by not having any light? She wasn't in darkness, but not in a window either, just kinda in the middle of my office near a window, but not in front of it. I checked the roots in the bucket, and all are nomal, a creamy color with no odors of rotness. No brown. Just slow to nothing growth. No pics because she didn't do anything since the last time. I suppose she will perk up by Monday, and let you all see her... PEEEEACE!
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
Hey Homies, I just got back from the internets and found out some more about turbid tap water. I guess i got to get back to RO water, but find a south american alternative to calmag. I am going to try to support the girl as long as I can keep her alive, but I see the turbid water may be affecting her roots. Before they were very white in RO water, now they are creamy. OH well, told you guys, that's why I was doing just 1 plant to work out all the kinks. Next time I want to do 2 or 3 plants. But this one is still alive. Gonna post pic on Monday
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member

Cloudiness / Turbidity

Cloudiness is usually a result of suspended clay, iron, or organic matter such as algae. Cloudy water will sometimes turn clear if allowed to settle – a precipitate will form on the bottom. Note that bore water containing iron can be clear when first pumped, but quickly turn cloudy before settling as a precipitate – see section above on “iron”.
In the event that the cloudiness remains, precipitation may be induced by adding precise amounts of filter alum (aluminium sulfate) or sodium hypochlorite if caused by iron. However, the downside of using filter alum is that it increases the water’s EC.
Failure to remove cloudiness may result in dripper blockages. Also, hydroponically grown plants can be more prone to root borne diseases when turbid water is used.
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
hey guys, I know a few were watchin' this thread. The plant is pretty well screwed by Noob mistake, and $$ matters aren't helping, because I think the plant would be fine if moved back to RO water + a calmag substitute. Oh well, I'm going to keep growing, new plant in 2 weeks or bust. The plant of this thread is still alive, but doesn't look to good, roots went from white to creamy thx to turbid tap water. PH was fine, O2 was good, airstone good, temps good....
 

BBYY

Well-Known Member
hey guys, I know a few were watchin' this thread. The plant is pretty well screwed by Noob mistake, and $$ matters aren't helping, because I think the plant would be fine if moved back to RO water + a calmag substitute. Oh well, I'm going to keep growing, new plant in 2 weeks or bust. The plant of this thread is still alive, but doesn't look to good, roots went from white to creamy thx to turbid tap water. PH was fine, O2 was good, airstone good, temps good....
Once you fix the water issues, you should be able to trim the roots back a bit and promote new root growth. This will require a bit longer veg time, so it will recover prior to flowering.
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
thx BB for checking back, I'm gonna keep her alive. I think this week I am getting some cash flow, going to buy some new nutes and the calmag alternative, because I can't get real calmag here, and i am gonna put a photo up tomorrow of the original plant. I have 2 part hydro food, and one of the bags got left open a couple of days and the damn Chem sucked up humidity, and became a sopping mess. I guess the nutes are shot too
 

BBYY

Well-Known Member
So is the hydro shit liquid or a solid powder type?

I am sure its still good, just now it has moisture. I assume the only problem you can run into if you dont dry it is mold and fungus will thrive on it. That is if its a solid powder type. If its liquid and left out and if it started to crystallize you just mix it with equal amounts of warm water and then double the dosage.

Otherwise if you ever need something in quick response you can always private message me and I will try to help.

Wish ya good fortune with future op's.
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
Hey BBYY, I got the 2 part nutes in a chem shop down here, it's all in spanish but the man that sold it to me said it's for any hydroplant and for Veg/Flower stages. One part is minor nutes and the other part is major nute, both have different colors, major is white and minor has a lot of minerally and clear crytals. so they are a dry mix, and the white crystals one day started to look like a melting snow ball, and even some water collected in the drawer under the bag where I stored it. <<<Because I left a bag open, I was super baked or something at the time I guess. Needless to say, the stuff was 3 bucks for 16 ounces of hydrofood The chem shop appears to mix it themselves, even has a list of the nutrition on it, standard chemical abbreviations you guys can understand in english, ill post it this week. so I'm just gonna get some more, and ask them about using RO water with plants that have cal and mag deficiencies. I'm gonna hit up the chem store by Friday... any other recommendatins BBYY? I'm gonna clip back the roots of the plant, they are already beginning to have odors and the creamy color is heavy, even when I just touch some of the roots, they are willing to break. The bottom green part of the plant is super strong, I would love to trim the rotten crap (75%) and keep her a live because the base roots already split out and looks like a mini Tree. Peace!
 

BBYY

Well-Known Member
See I wish I knew more about fucked up water and some insight on how to fix it, but I never had that issue, Hope something works fast.

Also it might not hurt to ask the hydro owner, I am sure he has the same problem and knows ways to fix it.

and I ain't sure if your nutrients are fucked, I never seen a part be crystallized before. I had powder bloom/grow nutrients before, and I got them wet, but just let them dry back out before usage. Might wanna buy something better, do they have liquid snutrients?
 

ChronicObsession

Well-Known Member
HI BBYY, Some news on the water situation. I still don't have spare $ to go run out to the hydropon store for cal mag alternative, but I did try to get my head around some solution that already exists in my apartment. I took a look at the specs on the 2 part hydro solution dry mix and read that it has 15% calcium and 13% magnesium, 14%Nitrogen (Nitric, not ammonia), 6% phosphorous, 15%potassium, amongst other trace elements. it's all in spanish so pls excuse my english spelling of the chems.

I read a post today about how some PH around 5.8 can cause intake problems of some nutes, because there is no "perfect ph". Finally I decided to dip it around 5.2 and see if I can force my little bitch to suck up the stuff that is already in her food. I'm going in the dark because my aquarium PH tester probably is not what you guys would like to see me using. I discovered that just the nutes alone will cause the PH to go down into the fives, according to the strip tester. I switched back to 100 percent RO water today, and was feeling up my babies roots, taking off the old stuff. Really there was no root rot at all. She just suffers nute problems. OH well, PICs up later, roots and stems. I am glad I didn't put her in the trash b4, I was getting that idea from the other NOOBS that maim their plant then give up on it and start a new one... haha, vicious cycle. that's like throwing an unwanted newborn in the dumpster. PEACE!
 

BBYY

Well-Known Member
Yea bro, Its important to stick around and get figure the problem out, rather then tossing it out. You will never learn that way..

About the Ph,.....Most nutrients have Ph buffers in em. So I always check my Ph and change it if needed AFTER the nutrients are mixed in.

I am sure your plant will come around....+ your right, them Aquarium litmus paper strip for checking ph is garbage.
 
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