first grow and first post. i am not posting about ILGM products yet. i was given some free seeds and i am testing those out on my setup before i move on to my next round which are ILGM northern lights regular. all of that being said a quick description of my setup. mind you a lot of this is very much DIY!
my space: 57"Wx36"Dx86"H, painted with matte white latex paint and sealed with panda film.
my tank: I forget the dimensions but one of that’s smarter than me can do reverse volume math and maybe figure it out but it’s 97 USgal 16 gauge stainless steel, cover is made of galvanized steel and has been cut to hold 16 plants, sealed with weather stripping and covered with panda film for good measure.
setup: air pump with 6 way splitter running through one of the unused holes, leading to 6 10"x2" bubble stones. i’m think i have a bit of weird setup in that i don’t have an external reservoir to feed from (i may add one later but we’ll see how this goes) and i just used the bubblers. i think most would have done a drip system for a tank this large but i’ll be honest and say i didn’t want to build all of that and thought why not just a huge DWC?
medium: expanded clay pebbles using GH rapid rooter plugs to germinate and using 6" net pots
nutes: GH flora series
lighting: 1x 1000w Vander LED (2x10w)
ventilation: all DIY using a window fan with 2 fans, adjustable speeds, “thermostat” built into the fan, box built around the fan, charcoal filter to cover the box, 2 4" ventilation tubes to pull air out, 1 4" ventilation tube for fresh air intake also using a carbon filter there. also one circulating fan inside the room.
i think that about covers it. i have more details if anyone is curious about specifics but i figured this post was long enough! and here are a few pictures of the build out and what i currently have going.
@bob31 I have no idea what the strain is. The seeds were given to me and the gent had no clue what they were. I was thinking of sending them off to be tested but have no clue on how to do that!? And just checked pH this morning and we’re holding steady after about 3 days ppm are right at 1190.
Disclaimer: not a hydro guy
My only critique would be that doing a res change is going to be quiet difficult with resavoir that size. I think I saw somewhere that most DWC guys are changing out their water every 5-7 days or so. Also maintaining water temp, and ph could prove to be a little tricky.
I’m definitely interested to see how this progresses along. Please tag me in your updates.
@cooknkd, disclaimer here too! (Not a hydro guy either) if you have issues with keeping your reservoir cool you may have to go to an external reservoir.
I wonder if the larger volume is slower to change ph over time. …
@Ray4x I have a submersible pump that will drain it in about 15 min. And mind you, I’m not growing 16, it just holds that many. I’m only doing 4 or so at a time. But haven’t had to adjust pH in the 5 days since I changed the nute concentration.
Good deal on the seeds. Most of us just call them BS or Bad Seed when we don’t know their origin!
Those would be the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) numbers measured in PPM or parts Per million.
From Wikipedia:
pH (potential of hydrogen) is a scale of acidity from 0 to 14. It tells how acidic or alkaline a substance is. More acidic solutions, have lower pH. More alkaline solutions, have higher pH. Substances that aren’t acidic or alkaline (that is, neutral solutions) usually have a pH of 7. Acids have a pH that is less than 7. Alkalis have a pH that is greater than 7.
You pH in water would be 5.8 Have you been checking your pH? Also you need to check the temps of your reservoir.
I’m a soil guy, so I’m not sure what good temps are?
I like your setup. I am a newbie as well, but am growing in dirt on my first grow. But I would eventually like to go hydro. I have been doing a lot of studying on hydro so when I can take the plunge on one of my future grows I will hopefully know what I am doing. You got a great setup and I guess know your stuff. Good luck on those BS seeds. I have a batch of those that I was given as well as the ones I got from ILGM. Just now trying to see if any of them will sprout. Got 30 or 40 of them so got 6 in water right now and will set them up tomorrow to see if they will sprout. If they do, not sure what I will do with them. I don’t have room for them in my tent. But needed to see if they were any good. If they sprout, guess I will put them in a far corner of my place and see how they do. If they continue to grow or not doesn’t matter at this point.
Good luck on your grow and glad to see another newbie besides myself.
@bob31 I learned something new! they will now be called BS from now on. and in regard the the pH and ppm, there should have been an “and” in that sentence. i didn’t mean for it come across as if i didn’t know the difference there. meant that the pH was holding steady at 5.8 and the ppm were at 1190. i have meters to measure both. either way i appreciate the info! and from what i’ve read regarding water temp, it should be about the same as the room temp, 75 degrees give or take a few. i have a thermometer with a probe and external display so i’m covered there as well.
@Myfriendis410 i think as i get further into this i will agree but for my first attempt free is a good number then if i fail miserably i’m not out any $$
as far as the water temp goes, it certainly helps that the tank is stainless and it’s sitting on concrete! since starting this i’ve only seen the water get up to 78.9 degrees and it seems to have leveled off at about 77.5.
and only time will tell with the pH, i’ll check in the morning, during lights on, and see where i’m at. that’ll put me at about 2.5 days since my last check and that one was at 5.8.
@cyberblast thank you! i thought about soil but for some reason i opted for hydro, just something about it intrigued me. i guess that’s just the way my brain works, i dunno? so far though, it’s been a lot of fun and honestly it’s just all about the numbers. and i may garner some scoffing with this next bit of text but i opted to go with the “lucas formula”. it’s simple ratios and so far is keeping within acceptable ranges. in the future i will likely try a variety of nutes and such but i wanted to keep this first attempt as simple as possible, well, as simple as hydro can be, i suppose!
I’ll be updating here with anything interesting i come across. my next will likely be some more pictures so i can get some help with sexing the little buggers. they’re just over three weeks so i should start to see some identifying characteristics soon.
i do appreciate the kind words on my setup. good luck with your BS as well.
@Ray4x yea it’s a pump used to drain hot tubs so it should do the trick, methinks.
so far so good on the pH, hoping the size of the tank and the quantity of plants will help with not having to adjust it too much.
about the water change, it’s obviously easier to change out the water in a 5 gallon or so bucket but with the bigger plants drinking so much that have to change it more often. i also built this thing to handle 16 plants, accounting for 2 gal of water per 1 foot of plant height. that’s roughly 3 feet per plant, also i’m not ever going to try to get 16 plants in there, i’m thinking my max will be 10 at a time. i also can’t fill it all the way up or i’ll drown my plants, so once the net pots are in place and i fill the tank it ends up being 75 gallons.
and i will definitely tag you in further updates.
i’ve read great things as well. but it’s simple and i like simple, well somewhat anyway. and i was not aware of that, can’t say that i saw anything that said i would need the cal mag. maybe i didn’t look closely enough, which is very likely! off to do more research!! that you for the the link there, i think i read a snippet from that post a while back, definitely did not read the whole thing!
but it’s 97 USgal 16 gauge stainless steel, cover is made of galvanized steel and has been cut to hold 16 plants, sealed with weather stripping and covered with panda film for good measure.
