New Loft Grow Room - Input Appreciated

[Bubblegum31]

FLIR can definitely detect window temps. It can't see temps through windows but it picks up the window surface temp.

I've read everything possible on root rot and slime. Every mega thread on every forum on teas, sterilisers etc. I've even read everything I could find on fish forums. I've checked out every single product on the market and your suggestions are good ones. My environment is already pretty good (chilled water at 16-18C, 26C max air temps directly under lights) and I changed my res to a light proof bucket and lid so I'm hoping I can beat this quickly.

I'm going with the sterile approach first... Already taken apart the system and scrubbed with peroxide. Dutch Masters Zone is just a chlorine based steriliser. I'm using hypochlorite solution (DIY Clear Rez/Pool Shock) at 2ppm (high dose) so a very similar approach. Additionally I've hooked up an 18w inline UV filter plus an Ozone generator running at 250mg/h for 1 hour on and 4 hours off (I'm waiting on an ORP meter to get the Ozone levels dialed in perfectly). So we have... Peroxide scrub, Hypochlorite 2ppm , UV, Ozone... That should kill everything! But I'm creating a couple of new problems for myself because steriliser levels need to be perfect to avoid also killing plants and not causing an issue with nutrients. Anyway I'm aware of the potential problems and hopefully how to avoid them.

If that fails (would be very surprised) then hydro guard is another good suggestion. It is a beneficial bacteria product. The main alternative to sterilisation would be introducing bennies but I would probably be brewing some tea instead of using an off the shelf product. I have EWC, Great White, ZHO and molasses waiting in the wings. If sterilisation fails or I run into problems as a side effect then I'll try the tea route instead.

I'm not going to be switching to Coco before I have tried everything possible. Other people have beaten algae so I can too!

If I really have tried everything and have no luck THEN I might consider switching to another medium but it's not going to be a fleeting decision.

All the best man... Your answers dosent makes me get worried about you lol . Logic and simpel...

Now I am worried on my self loool

I didnt know that flir can check window temps as well

My flower room temperature without any kind of insulation is 24/25c

Do you think that this will show on a big time on flir?!

Two days back hele was above my home and stayed long!!

Yasterday I heard it as well....

So am started to get worried!!

Any suggestions!?

I dont think that the house walls will be warm if inside the home is 24/25 right?

Maybe the window?!

Should I insulate it you think?

 

[loftygoals]

All the best man... Your answers dosent makes me get worried about you lol . Logic and simpel...

Now I am worried on my self loool

I didnt know that flir can check window temps as well

My flower room temperature without any kind of insulation is 24/25c

Do you think that this will show on a big time on flir?!

Two days back hele was above my home and stayed long!!

Yasterday I heard it as well....

So am started to get worried!!

Any suggestions!?

I dont think that the house walls will be warm if inside the home is 24/25 right?

Maybe the window?!

Should I insulate it you think?

Windows will be fine at 25C. Don't worry about insulating them. Loads of people have their house temps set at 25C anyway. I insulated my loft because it would be giving off loads of heat if completely uninsulated. My insulation isn't even up to official building standards in the UK but it's plenty to hide the heat inside. A normal room at 25C is nothing to stress over.

Which country are you in? FLIR can't be used without a warrant in the US but can be in the UK. They don't use it to detect small grows in the UK, they're looking for whole houses that have been converted or people that are thought to be stealing electricity.

 

[Bubblegum31]

Windows will be fine at 25C. Don't worry about insulating them. Loads of people have their house temps set at 25C anyway. I insulated my loft because it would be giving off loads of heat if completely uninsulated. My insulation isn't even up to official building standards in the UK but it's plenty to hide the heat inside. A normal room at 25C is nothing to stress over.

Which country are you in? FLIR can't be used without a warrant in the US but can be in the UK. They don't use it to detect small grows in the UK, they're looking for whole houses that have been converted or people that are thought to be stealing electricity.

Am in holland bro,

Maybe that justify my english

Chees and flower land including cannabis lol

In holland helicopters is fucken every where!!

Seriously man its UP Normal how many heles they have in here!!!

In here they can flir with no warrant also if they just smell it they can come in!

I think ill have to buy one of those just to be in the safe side!!

Or maybe even if am not asking for too much you can try it for me??!!

Set any room on 25c and check with flir??

I dont steal electricity am running 6 lamps plus everything on 30amp breaker

am thankful we have 230v in here

Thanks for all the help in advance

Bubble

 

[loftygoals]

Am in holland bro,

Maybe that justify my english

Chees and flower land including cannabis lol

In holland helicopters is fucken every where!!

Seriously man its UP Normal how many heles they have in here!!!

In here they can flir with no warrant also if they just smell it they can come in!

I think ill have to buy one of those just to be in the safe side!!

Or maybe even if am not asking for too much you can try it for me??!!

Set any room on 25c and check with flir??

I dont steal electricity am running 6 lamps plus everything on 30amp breaker

am thankful we have 230v in here

Thanks for all the help in advance

Bubble

It will look something like this:

But that's what most houses look like anyway. There's nothing to be worried about at 25C. It will look normal compared to the neighbours.

Have a look at this story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039768/Police-raid-home-Blunkett-Bobby-infrared-helicopter-mistook-bad-insulation-cannabis-factory.html

That's what I wanted to avoid! You can see her loft glowing compared to everyone elses... but everybody's windows are glowing, its nothing to worry about at all

 

[Bubblegum31]

It will look something like this:

But that's what most houses look like anyway. There's nothing to be worried about at 25C. It will look normal compared to the neighbours.

Have a look at this story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039768/Police-raid-home-Blunkett-Bobby-infrared-helicopter-mistook-bad-insulation-cannabis-factory.html

That's what I wanted to avoid! You can see her loft glowing compared to everyone elses... but everybody's windows are glowing, its nothing to worry about at all

Thanks alot man.. I live in ground floor I have no chimney..

I have just found acompany online that rents expensive flir equipments in here

Maybe ill try it my self just to know how it all looks like

Thanks alot for your answers and all the best in ur grow.

We are following

Bubble

 

[loftygoals]

I'm on day 13 now. So here's a 2 week update...

After scrubbing the whole system yesterday and loading up the UV filter, Ozone and Hypoclorite the plants are probably quite stressed. They had their roots dangling in the air for about 2 hours so there's obviously been a little drying. So far there's no sign of slime anywhere and the water still looks crystal clear.

Previously I was using Canna A+B with Rhizotonic and Cannazyme... yeah... screw the extras! I've dropped down to just Canna A+B with the sterilising agents.

Here's a pic of Viper Cookies day 11:



And Viper Cookies Day 13:



Despite all the fucking around there has been some reasonable growth. The roots seem to be recovering:


You can clearly see which roots are old (creamy brown colour) and which have sprouted since the sterilisation began (white roots coming from the bottom). You can also see where the tips of the old roots probably dried out a little yesterday while I was cleaning. I'll try to post a comparison shot next week.

As you can see I've also added "collars" of plastic sheeting around the netpots. They block out any light which might have been coming through the very top corners of the hydroton and only took a few mins to make with spare sheeting I have laying around so I thought were a worthwhile addition.

Also... I said I wasn't going to get AC because it wasn't needed in the UK... well I changed my mind! Yesterday we had a mini heat wave (already gone lol) and the temps outside got up to 17C for a while in the afternoon. The loft got up to 30C with lights on I set the light schedule to 18/6 (was 24/0 for week 1 and 20/4 for week 2) and have lights off from 11am to 5pm but once I power up the flower tents at 2000W each flip flopping 12/12 over the summer I'm going to have a problem! So I got myself a portable 1 ton AC unit Only problem is the fucker is so heavy! Ever tried to carry a bulky 37kg unit up a loft ladder on your own? ZOMG! I got it about 6 steps up but had no way to keep my balance plus lift so had to come back down. I'm having to make a rope harness and have ordered a set of pulleys to winch the sucker up into the loft!

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

your name should have been "Weedguyver" ....i needed somewhere to grow so i built this professional grow room out of duct tape and baling wire

 

[SoOLED]

..and THEY say stoners have no motivation, lack the ability for complex tasks and computation.

why the reputation for lazy cartoon watching morons?

case in point, this build from, conception, construction, to execution of purpose.

I wish this was on Netflix with a few seasons, so I can see what happens already =)

 

[Bubblegum31]

..and THEY say stoners have no motivation, lack the ability for complex tasks and computation.

why the reputation for lazy cartoon watching morons?

case in point, this build from, conception, construction, to execution of purpose.

I wish this was on Netflix with a few seasons, so I can see what happens already =)

Ja man ppl think that growing those ladys is piece of cake and for lazy ppl they have no idea how much work you have to do on daily basis!!

 

[loftygoals]

Can you believe the British weather? I bought an AC thinking we'll be having a heat wave... Woke up this morning... It's been snowing overnight and everything is white!

 

[Bubblegum31]

Can you believe the British weather? I bought an AC thinking we'll be having a heat wave... Woke up this morning... It's been snowing overnight and everything is white!

Lol

You will need it one day believe me ..

Now the temprature outside is 10\18 c maybe even less

What are you going to do in june\july when its 24\25 outside

I have mine on standby

 

[loftygoals]

So yesterday I noticed some more slime had grown on the rubber grommets in some buckets. Not a lot but enough for me to notice as I know exactly where to look. Roots have made a recovery in that they are not brown or mushy but they don't seem to be growing particularly fast. So what to do? Well I gave another dose of hypochlorite 1ppm (that makes 4 doses in a week) and ran the ozone generator for 5 mins in each bucket individually and also gave everything another clean. The reservoir seemed clear so I think the UV steriliser and ozone in the res are working but the individual buckets (and probably the roots) have been colonised with bacteria which is managing to grow on surfaces again. Hopefully running the ozone in individual buckets will sterilise them.

Then I ran the ozone generator on 1/2 power in the res continuously overnight (had been running at 60 mins on and 240 mins off for the past 4 days). This morning there was no sign of slime algae anywhere but most of the plants looked a little droopy! There is also a rust ring evident probably where the ozone has precipitated out the iron from the water (well known effect of ozone). So I think I have as close as I can get to a sterile environment...

Inevitably there will be spores or dormant bacteria laying around the place. Some people call this "hydro herpes" because it pops up when you least expect it... now is the time to hit it hard! So I started to brew some EWC tea yesterday. I'm using 5ml Great White, 2.5ml Molasses, 30ml Earthworm Castings and 4L RO water in a 5L bucket with an airstone which has been brewing for 24 hours. This morning I turned off the ozone and UV, emptied out the system to remove any residual chlorine and then refilled with RO water. Have pH'd down to 6.0 and added around 1L of the tea to the system equally distributed between the plants.

I'll run 24 hours without nutes and then add them back at 1/4 dose for 24 hours before bringing them up to around 600ppm at 3 days. I'll be aiming to add 1L of tea to the system at 3, 6 and 9 days. Hopefully... hopefully... this beats it once and for all!

 

[Bubblegum31]

So yesterday I noticed some more slime had grown on the rubber grommets in some buckets. Not a lot but enough for me to notice as I know exactly where to look. Roots have made a recovery in that they are not brown or mushy but they don't seem to be growing particularly fast. So what to do? Well I gave another dose of hypochlorite 1ppm (that makes 4 doses in a week) and ran the ozone generator for 5 mins in each bucket individually and also gave everything another clean. The reservoir seemed clear so I think the UV steriliser and ozone in the res are working but the individual buckets (and probably the roots) have been colonised with bacteria which is managing to grow on surfaces again. Hopefully running the ozone in individual buckets will sterilise them.

Then I ran the ozone generator on 1/2 power in the res continuously overnight (had been running at 60 mins on and 240 mins off for the past 4 days). This morning there was no sign of slime algae anywhere but most of the plants looked a little droopy! There is also a rust ring evident probably where the ozone has precipitated out the iron from the water (well known effect of ozone). So I think I have as close as I can get to a sterile environment...

Inevitably there will be spores or dormant bacteria laying around the place. Some people call this "hydro herpes" because it pops up when you least expect it... now is the time to hit it hard! So I started to brew some EWC tea yesterday. I'm using 5ml Great White, 2.5ml Molasses, 30ml Earthworm Castings and 4L RO water in a 5L bucket with an airstone which has been brewing for 24 hours. This morning I turned off the ozone and UV, emptied out the system to remove any residual chlorine and then refilled with RO water. Have pH'd down to 6.0 and added around 1L of the tea to the system equally distributed between the plants.

I'll run 24 hours without nutes and then add them back at 1/4 dose for 24 hours before bringing them up to around 600ppm at 3 days. I'll be aiming to add 1L of tea to the system at 3, 6 and 9 days. Hopefully... hopefully... this beats it once and for all!

Wish you all the best.... Doing good so far..
If this didnt work... Go get you H&G Roots excel and dutch zone

They work together very well..

Never tryed the combo but H&G I use regularly and it suppose it protect roots with like a film cover

And everybody says good stuff about zone and that it works with Roots excel as its not bennys as ppl think....

You have invested alooooot till now, so Ill pay this extra cents and spare your self the headache..

This probleem is taking long like that, and if any thing it causes headache and slow growth beside all the stress you have them go through by changing the sloution almost daily to different nutes and regime

Try to make it more simple..

My 2 cents

Bubble

 

[loftygoals]

Wish you all the best.... Doing good so far..
If this didnt work... Go get you H&G Roots excel and dutch zone

They work together very well..

Never tryed the combo but H&G I use regularly and it suppose it protect roots with like a film cover

And everybody says good stuff about zone and that it works with Roots excel as its not bennys as ppl think....

You have invested alooooot till now, so Ill pay this extra cents and spare your self the headache..

This probleem is taking long like that, and if any thing it causes headache and slow growth beside all the stress you have them go through by changing the sloution almost daily to different nutes and regime

Try to make it more simple..

My 2 cents

Bubble

Thanks for the input. Yeah, this is a bit of a pain... but I feel confident things are under control. I'll give the tea 2 weeks from now and reassess.

Here's a side by side 36 hour comparison of what just sterilisation has done for me before adding bennies:



As you can see new roots are growing and looking good.

I picked that plant to compare because it has easily identifiable landmarks on the roots so you can see it's the same one. Here's one of the other plants:



Showing good signs of recovery. I will keep posting updates good or bad as it seems like root rot/slime in RDWC is a common problem!

 

[incogneato420]

Subd in. Got a bit of attic envy lol. Looking to do an attic grow room as well but not near the same amount of room

 

[Gregor Eisenhorn]

Lofty I have been following for some time, but I have to ask this.. why the hell weren't you given your own TV air time? You could of made your own episodes, that would of been so fun to watch.

Anyway, I'm no tinkerer so I cannot fully understand the things you did, but I must say that this is the most proffesional grow room/build I have ever seen, fantastic job that equipment is top notch... maybe one day I'll have a go at my attic and see what I can do.

This is proper chicken soup and it looks like everything is starting to turn around, those roots are recovering nicely.

 

[loftygoals]

TV sounds like waay too much hard work!

Had an incident with the RDWC pump blocking off this morning. Mixed up 1/4 dose nutes and an hour later nothing seemed to have mixed. pH and EC were all over the place in different buckets. Checked the pump and there was no flow to the res. Isolated it with the valves (really grateful for putting those in now!) and pulled the pump out. Checked it submerged in some water and got no output but it was buzzing like the impeller was spinning. Opened it up and there was some plastic debris from drilling holes when I assembled the system stuck together with some root matter to completely obstruct the flow. Rinsed it off under the sink and it was clear in 2 seconds. Screwed it back together and it's been perfect

Here's another roots comparison pic. Left to right we have:

1. 4 days after I first saw slime and started sterilising. The roots seemed to be making a comeback but the plants didn't seem happy up top with all the chlorine+ozone.
2. 36 hours later - when I added bennies
3. 24 hours later - plants now looking much happier up top too.

I'm confident most of the plants will fully recover from the slime now. The vast majority are looking healthy with good root growth. Only a couple of the Purple Afghan Kush plants are looking a little stunted and droopy, but I think I just caught it in time. A couple more days and I think the whole lot would have been toast because the roots seemed to be disintegrating quickly!

 

[loftygoals]

Some root porn. Check out the hairy mycorrhizae covered roots!

Applied the second dose of tea and upped PPMs to 600.

Some leaves are showing signs of ozone damage. I think it has it's place but definitely have been converted to a benny believer! I was going to top after 3 nodes but I think I'll wait a while now.

Here's Pineapple Express day 17 from seed:



Next up I need to sort out the mother room. I'll start on it tomorrow... It never ends!

I have a 110W T5 fixture, 6x autopots, plastic sheeting and some pond liner to install. Before I can do that I need to build one last internal wall. I've been putting it off because it's going to be quite a tight squeeze working in a corner of the loft. I've been planning on taking the tops I remove from the best looking plants, rooting them and using them for the mums.

 

[loftygoals]

The pulley came today:



Put a hook above the loft hatch and hung it up... what a mission!

Managed to haul the AC unit to the loft entrance and then it was a real nightmare pushing it up from underneath. 2 people would have made life much much easier. At one point I did wonder what would happen if the AC just got stuck in the loft hatch and I couldn't move it anywhere hahaha

I've hooked it up now and had it running this afternoon as we've had another mini heat wave. Has controlled temps nicely

I was planning on suspending it from ropes/ratchet straps (like my chiller) but I'm not sure I'd trust the weight. I have it sitting on a neoprene foam pad at the moment and that seems fine.

This build has been a lot more expensive than I initially planned!

 

[Roger A. Shrubber]

it is incredible how fast it adds up, have to go buy chain, hooks, timers, power strips, extention cords, hose clamps, exhaust hose.....i can't walk out of the hardware store without being 50 bucks poorer, but somehow happier.
can't even imagine what you've invested, but it looks like its going to pay off