Swaggs Great Canadian Adventure: Diving into DWC

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

We waited this long we can hang around for a bit . Hope you get it all sorted!

It'll be all worth it. It's my first run with DWC and maybe I overlooked some critical details that I shoulda paid more attention to. Basically they started to wilt and get really droopy. Roots were turning brown with the odd chunk of yuck on them. Nothing good. I'll give them a couple days till I post any pics. I'll still take some of them in their current state so no one makes the same mistakes as me.

 

[Icemann420]

Did I here dwc buckets. Looking good so far let’s knock this grow out the park. I’m in for this run. I also have quit a few dwc buckets under my belt

 

[NaturalSpirit]

Heya shed, love the bearded dragons! hope all goes well and the droopy leafs are history bro

 

[Alienpus]

It'll be all worth it. It's my first run with DWC and maybe I overlooked some critical details that I shoulda paid more attention to. Basically they started to wilt and get really droopy. Roots were turning brown with the odd chunk of yuck on them. Nothing good. I'll give them a couple days till I post any pics. I'll still take some of them in their current state so no one makes the same mistakes as me.

Is all that brown staining and yuck coming from your mycorrhizal root multiplier?

 

[Icemann420]

What’s the water temperature

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

Heya shed, love the bearded dragons! hope all goes well and the droopy leafs are history bro

I always wanted reptiles and finally made the move with support from the kids. Wife didn't want any

Is all that brown staining and yuck coming from your mycorrhizal root multiplier?

I think some of the staining was from that

What’s the water temperature

I'm having a hard time trying to keep the water temps around 20 deg C. I think the range is supposed to be around 18-22 ish. I put in 18 degree water yesterday and it's already at 21.5 now. Tent temp is 25 Rh 65-75 usually.

 

[Icemann420]

That would be around 68*f that’s in the zone but towards the high side. That could be the bad effect on your roots. Also I don’t see enuf (do) Dissolved oxygen Maybe also step up your air intake. Also there is a round spot on the back of the air pump that’s where fresh air comes in at try to keep it in a cool location so it pumps cold air in.

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

That would be around 68*f that’s in the zone but towards the high side. That could be the bad effect on your roots. Also I don’t see enuf (do) Dissolved oxygen Maybe also step up your air intake. Also there is a round spot on the back of the air pump that’s where fresh air comes in at try to keep it in a cool location so it pumps cold air in.

I turned the air pump all the way up and also set it up outside the tent and upside down for better air intake I guess. Any tips on how to keep these water temps down ?

 

[Icemann420]

I’ll start with water right out of the refrigerator 43*f colder water holds a higher oxygen Content then warm water my trick is to place the air pump in a cold location like on top of a ac vent so it sucks cold air in. Now all air pumps are magnetic vibrations pumps so they produced heat. So use longer airline it allows the temperature of the air to reduce as it travels. Kinda like a heat sink. Then rap your bucket and lid with a thermal blanket of reflective tape or a rap of any sort. It keeps the light from heating the bucket. Other then that a water chiller is the only true answer. Wait just hade an idea. I love to brew moonshine and on my still my patriot valve you could build a customs hardline with a outer jacket and have ice water circulate around the actual air lines be it’s self. But man that’s a whole different idea there. But a good one. Kind like a copper worm cooler

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

I’ll start with water right out of the refrigerator 43*f colder water holds a higher oxygen Content then warm water my trick is to place the air pump in a cold location like on top of a ac vent so it sucks cold air in. Now all air pumps are magnetic vibrations pumps so they produced heat. So use longer airline it allows the temperature of the air to reduce as it travels. Kinda like a heat sink. Then rap your bucket and lid with a thermal blanket of reflective tape or a rap of any sort. It keeps the light from heating the bucket. Other then that a water chiller is the only true answer. Wait just hade an idea. I love to brew moonshine and on my still my patriot valve you could build a customs hardline with a outer jacket and have ice water circulate around the actual air lines be it’s self. But man that’s a whole different idea there. But a good one. Kind like a copper worm cooler

U start with water that cold? I was told the lower end should be no less then 16 deg C (61F). I covered the lids and buckets with just a white stuff I found at the hydro store

 

[NaturalSpirit]

Looking fancy in their dresses

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

Looking fancy in their dresses

Doesn't seem to be helping at all. Water temps back up to 21-22 deg C again.

 

[NaturalSpirit]

Doesn't seem to be helping at all. Water temps back up to 21-22 deg C again.

Thats to bad, tough they still look fancy. What helped at my tiny box is freezing a soda bottle and put it in front of my ventilator. Maybe you can add a ventilator at the buckets? not really my comfort zone here so it might be a longshot ^^

 

[newty]

What about a frozen water bottle every day in the bucket to keep it cool? I’ve seen some of the dwc people use that or a chiller?

I hope things turn around man

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

What about a frozen water bottle every day in the bucket to keep it cool? I’ve seen some of the dwc people use that or a chiller?

I hope things turn around man

I hope so too. I've been putting in ice packs to try and keep temps cooler. This is going back to tending to them daily again which I was trying to avoid. I'm considering getting coco and using a bucket for a res and build a ghetto little drop water system on a timer type deal. I dunno. But these bitches ain't gonna make it I don't think. I didn't help when I snipped off a bunch of the old brown roots. I suppose I should probably pop some beans in the very near future.
I was wondering too if my ppms were too low? Research always yields conflicting results

 

[InTheShed]

Merry Christmas to the entire Swaggs family!

 

[SamSmith]

I hope so too. I've been putting in ice packs to try and keep temps cooler. This is going back to tending to them daily again which I was trying to avoid. I'm considering getting coco and using a bucket for a res and build a ghetto little drop water system on a timer type deal. I dunno. But these bitches ain't gonna make it I don't think. I didn't help when I snipped off a bunch of the old brown roots. I suppose I should probably pop some beans in the very near future.
I was wondering too if my ppms were too low? Research always yields conflicting results

Swags I do what Newty suggested and use frozen water bottles to control reservoir temps. I rotate them out of the freezer. The whole bottle being frozen solid slowly cools the water. It takes several days of this to get the water temps down. I just put a new bottle in every morning and take the old one out and pitch it back in the freezer. It helps. My temps run about 68-70 consistently. With the Z7 in there I don't have any issues.

As Ice pointed out an RDWC with a chiller is the way to go but that adds a lot of complexity running multiple strains as well as cost.

I have not gone back through your journal. I just found it. I will scope it out when I have some more time.

 

[SamSmith]

Is all that brown staining and yuck coming from your mycorrhizal root multiplier?

After looking things over ^^this mightbe the source of your brown goop. I know others use a little great white in their buckets but it tends to muck things up. If you want to use a product like that look into Orca.
Orca®

The roots will get stained the color of the solution that you use to an extent. I try to keep my bucket as clean as I can so I don't us anything that doesn't mix well. Silica goes in first if you are using it.

Where is your water level in relation to the bottom of your net pot? I kept mine 1" from the bottom until they were well rooted and then dropped it a bit more once they are established. It also looks like your hydroton is wet in most of your pictures. How often are you top feeding the little ones? You can get them too wet with the rooters. You want them to go searching for the water.

The PH is very important or at least it was in my case. That was the largest hurdle I had to overcome.Just because the nutrients are in the water doesn't mean that the plant can use them. Certain nutrients are easier to work with than others. I am an AN guy all the way in coco but I had a hard time with it always trying to correct in DWC. When I switched to GH Flora it holds much better. I also started correcting the PH first because my watered is buffered so strong if I don't give it 24 hours to stabilize then I am chasing numbers all the time. I get everything stable in the solution before I do a reservoir change.

Sorry if I missed a few things. Good luck going forward. DWC is a different mindset than coco. I am a coco grower as well. the two methods are different. The source water is more important and there is little margin for error in the nutrients and PH.

 

[EastCoastGhost]

After looking things over ^^this mightbe the source of your brown goop. I know others use a little great white in their buckets but it tends to muck things up. If you want to use a product like that look into Orca.
Orca®

The roots will get stained the color of the solution that you use to an extent. I try to keep my bucket as clean as I can so I don't us anything that doesn't mix well. Silica goes in first if you are using it.

Where is your water level in relation to the bottom of your net pot? I kept mine 1" from the bottom until they were well rooted and then dropped it a bit more once they are established. It also looks like your hydroton is wet in most of your pictures. How often are you top feeding the little ones? You can get them too wet with the rooters. You want them to go searching for the water.

The PH is very important or at least it was in my case. That was the largest hurdle I had to overcome.Just because the nutrients are in the water doesn't mean that the plant can use them. Certain nutrients are easier to work with than others. I am an AN guy all the way in coco but I had a hard time with it always trying to correct in DWC. When I switched to GH Flora it holds much better. I also started correcting the PH first because my watered is buffered so strong if I don't give it 24 hours to stabilize then I am chasing numbers all the time. I get everything stable in the solution before I do a reservoir change.

Sorry if I missed a few things. Good luck going forward. DWC is a different mindset than coco. I am a coco grower as well. the two methods are different. The source water is more important and there is little margin for error in the nutrients and PH.

Great advice Sam.

 

[Icemann420]

A quick google search came up with this