1000 Watt Water Cooled Grow

Thought I would post an update for those of you following along. I have gotten my temps dialed in. When I was saying that there is about a 3 degree temp difference between the tent and the room I was mistakenly measuring the room temp from about 3 feet off the ground and not where the air intake is. There is only a 1 degree temp difference from inside the tent and the outside air intake...pretty sweet. Plants are coming along great, starting to develop their secondary growth. I will post pics in a few days to catch you all up.
 
Great call on the light. You are absolutely right that with your water cooling - the 2" is negligible. So in that case I think you should think about the outer eges. Will the extra throw of the 1K bring any more into that prime range vs what you have right now?

BTW, although I do have that chart on my page, I can't take credit for it. I have no idea where it came from, but I think Butcher posted it somewhere.
 
Papa Green said:
Great call on the light. You are absolutely right that with your water cooling - the 2" is negligible. So in that case I think you should think about the outer eges. Will the extra throw of the 1K bring any more into that prime range vs what you have right now?

BTW, although I do have that chart on my page, I can't take credit for it. I have no idea where it came from, but I think Butcher posted it somewhere.
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Yeah I remember reading that it came from Butcher. I actually am using a 1000 watt and was thinking of downsizing...hadn't considered lighting on the outer edges. With that in mind, I am pretty happy with it. My reflector is 34"x30 which is pretty damn big...actually the biggest the make, bigger than the magnum xxxl, and it is made out of the German anodized steel...it has great coverage. It is only made for the fresca sol, but if someone wanted to convert it I'm sure they could.
 
So my SLH is lagging behind the others even though it was the 2nd to sprout. I gave it a little bit of nutes to see if I could speed it up. we will see...
 
KiwiKing said:
So I ordered my supplies last month and most of it has arrived so I am starting a grow journal. Here is what I will be growing with.

Grow Supplies

4x4 grow tent
Fresca Sol water cooled fixture
Fresca Sol Magnum reflector 34"x30" (HUGE)
550 GPH water pump
1000 watt sun system 10 ballast
1000 watt Hortilux HPS
1000 watt Growbright MH conversion
Sun Leaves hygro-thermometer
120 GPD 6 stage RO filter
4 inch carbon filter
4 inch vortex fan
18 inch Oscillating fan
5 gallon Microkote treated pots ***

***this is a really cool product that acts as a chemical root pruner by using copper. This prevents root balls by causing the roots, once they reach the pot, to turn back around. Also creates an extremely dense root structure allowing much greater plant growth. Should make for some monster plants.

Nutes/Soil:

Fox Farm Ocean forest w/ 20% Miracle Grow Perlite
Dolomite Lime
Fox Farm Tiger Bloom
Fox Farm Big Bloom
Fox Farm Grow Big
Fox Farm Beastie Bloomz
General Hydroponics Subculture B
General Hydroponics Subculture M
Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus
Organic Blackstrap Molasses

Strands

sativa dom
Green House Seeds - Super Lemon Haze
Kiwi Seeds - Mako Haze

indica dom
Kiwi Seeds - Milky Way
Barney's Farm - L*D


I think that is everything. I am still waiting on the seeds to arrive from Single Seeds, a forum sponsor. I don't have a digital camera, but am going to pick one up tomorrow and get some pics up. Hope you all enjoy, I am really looking forward to using the MicroKote treated pots as they should produce some huge plants.

:thankyou:
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high tech stuff here
 
Great job, just rec'd your message about your chiller running hot. From the looks and what I know, sounds like you burned it up. I would recommend starting with a new unit. Most of the time when people retire these things it's after years of abuse. Plus new ones are more energy effecient. Mine is the 100 dollar unit from walmart. It is currently running 2 frescas 1-1khps 1 600hps plus the water cooled co2 generator. Mine has been running for almost 1 year now. the walmart unit is great because it's cheap and readily available. Lets be realistic, these things are mechanical and will fail eventually. Being such a critical piece of gear, I keep a spare on hand. total investment for a redundant chiller: 200 bucks.

I do agree, there can be hazards. but hey you read the same story with hair dryers too. Your indoor grow room can be a safe or as dangerous as you make it.

Be Safe, if you don't understand electricity, get someone who does to help you along.

where's your No Flow Switch?
 
budlydoright said:
Great job, just rec'd your message about your chiller running hot. From the looks and what I know, sounds like you burned it up. I would recommend starting with a new unit. Most of the time when people retire these things it's after years of abuse. Plus new ones are more energy effecient. Mine is the 100 dollar unit from walmart. It is currently running 2 frescas 1-1khps 1 600hps plus the water cooled co2 generator. Mine has been running for almost 1 year now. the walmart unit is great because it's cheap and readily available. Lets be realistic, these things are mechanical and will fail eventually. Being such a critical piece of gear, I keep a spare on hand. total investment for a redundant chiller: 200 bucks.

I do agree, there can be hazards. but hey you read the same story with hair dryers too. Your indoor grow room can be a safe or as dangerous as you make it.

Be Safe, if you don't understand electricity, get someone who does to help you along.

where's your No Flow Switch?
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Yeah, I had it laying around, its over 10 yrs old. I have been looking on ebay for one. I have been able to find several of the Haiers for around $75. Was planning on picking up a couple. I am actually going to do a retrofit, allowing me to place the ac unit in the window and just plumb water to it from the res and back. I don't have a no flow switch...
 
So today I can home and check the plants. A few hours later I checked again and the SLH's leaves were curling...This lil plant has been a bitch, but none the less this freaked me out and I did a flush. I also ordered a new ph meter, the Hanna HI 98129, calibration solution, cleaning solution and storage solution. The only reason I can think of the plant's leaves twisting is a pH problem, so i'm tossing my $20 Milwaukee and getting a real pH meter. I did lower the lights when I came home, but I have been doing this every day and no other plant has had adverse affects. Also I recently watered the SLH with mild nutes and that's when I think the pH got off. The new hanna tests pH,TDS/EC, and temp. It also automatically calibrates for temp so I should have no more problems. Here are some pics of the SLH. The last is a shot of all 4, as you can see the SLH is Lagging big time...I also think i'm going to get some Canna Rhizotonic -- it just seems like a smart buy.

I also picked up a new camera, the one I had was a POS. It broke, I exchanged it, and it broke again. So today I just got a better one. The pictures are nicer as well.

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It's kinda hard to make out the curling, if you want more pics just let me know and i'll see what i can do.
 
I also noticed that the RH in the tent is at 40%. This is lower than it has been as I have moved the res out of the main room into an adjacent one. Any info on the subject would be appreciated.
 
Hang a wet towel in the tent. Plants look good. My guess is GH rushed the heck out of SLH to get seeds out. Now that SLH has won it's little cup twice, I could only guess GH is rushing to fill orders, probably have 5-10 or more SLH's kicking out seed so quality isn't much of a concern at this point.

I'd relax, and let the plants grow. Make sure light temps are not warming up the plants. Spray them daily, helps raise the RH right around the plants. I do see the "problem" of curling leaves, but IMO that is nature at work. Find two leaves that are the same on a tree. Never gonna happen and if you did I'd be worried it was a fake plastic tree. Nature does strange things, just relax and enjoy the grow. Ain't no point in growing if all it does is cause stress! Keep up you routine and the plants will do the same by growing. :peace:
 
Thanks for replying. I actually described the problem incorrectly. The leaves are twisting and not curling. Like if you lay your hand down flat and then try with you other hand to twist your fingers around so they would be facing up. Half the leaf is flat and the end half is twisting so that the underside is trying to face up.
 
The clones of SLH I made have not looked "contest" worthy at all. They look like they were out partying for the last week. Kinda floppy, and just there. They look good, nice and green, but more slacker then formal. I have notice that the SLH has more floppy thin leaves then other plants. Don't sweat it. :peace:
 
Yeah I'm not. There really isn't anything more that I can do other than flush. Does you SLH grow slowly compared to your other strains? The 3 other seedlings have really exploded in the past 36 hours, it's almost hard to believe how fast they are starting to grow. Yet the SLH only has a tiny set of secondary leaves with no sign on the 3 leaf set...The other 3 are growing into their 3 leaf set and the 3rd node is beginning to form.

edit: the twisting of the leaves does seem to be diminished today after the flush last night. I am pretty sure it was a pH issue.
 
Yeah, I'd say SLH is slower then others. I have one that seems to be taking off. I have plants/clones from diff times and SLH seems to be slower. At least initially. I'll find out when it/if takes off.
 
So you are a bubble head? What kind of setup do you have? I have been thinking about building a small Tupperware blubber to keep some mothers.
 
I have a couple 5 gallon buckets, and a homemade rubbermaid Deep Water Culture setup. I went to Lowes and bought a 14 gallon rubbermaid tote, went to the sprinkle dept, got an irrigation hub 8 port, then some air line. Had an air pump, air stones, hydro shop for a cheap aqua junk pump, does the job barely, and some net pots, went with four square ones as I knew I had females. Maybe spent $50. Pumps are the variable in price.

Same for the bucket, bought a hydrofarm waterfarm kit $14 (contains drain, airline, and drip ring) then bought a marineland fish pump, 120 gpg $22 (real good pump), then I got a net pot lid $8, then bucket $4, air stone $1 (had), air pump $10 had. So for under $60 I built a bucket that makes the hydrofarms look silly. HF's work for sure, but I just built one that I think is way better for less.

I run a 2x4x6 tent. 600whps. It's a fun hobby, building and growing. Now if I could just make light, and water, I'd be set. :rofl:
 
Yeah man home made bubble set ups are the bsneez. I have been wanting to build a 16 gallon tote conversion to house 4 moms but am thinking it might be too big. I want to keep the mothers as small as possible - i'm talking bonsi style, but am worried about the root mass becoming too large in the 16 gallon. right now i'm wanting to mom a mako haze, congo haze, mexican haze from kiwi and an L*D. Ideally I would like to keep like 10 or 12 strains in one bubble tub.
 
KiwiKing said:
Yeah man home made bubble set ups are the bsneez. I have been wanting to build a 16 gallon tote conversion to house 4 moms but am thinking it might be too big. I want to keep the mothers as small as possible - i'm talking bonsi style, but am worried about the root mass becoming too large in the 16 gallon. right now i'm wanting to mom a mako haze, congo haze, mexican haze from kiwi and an L*D. Ideally I would like to keep like 10 or 12 strains in one bubble tub.
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I think that would be too much.Stuff grows too fast/big to maintain a mom. Like you say about the root mass. I keep moms in dirt, 4x4 pots, bonsai style. It is actually fun to keep em small and they produce more clones then one can grow. They have to be trimmed every two weeks or so, and that provides 6-10 clones if needed so it can get outta control with say just 3-4 moms, trimming/cloning 2 moms a week.
 
On the plants not yet. There not root bound. Most are 4 months old and they were in 16oz cups, then to 4x4 a month or so ago. I have taken 6-10 clones off all of em so far either practicing and or grooming. I've done it to bonsai plenty of times.
 
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