Newb's first grow, tents, Tasty LED's, SIP's, Auto fem seeds, Reg seeds, etc....

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
@JorgeGonzales

Here's some more ADHD action for you........ :mrgreen:

I took down both DWC buckets as even with frozen goodies in there my temps were not getting low enough to where they need to be.

So I slapped the AK 47 auto in a 1 gal smart pot for now and threw my largest seedling (Barney's Blue Cheese) into a SIP and boy did she like that move. I am running Roots Organic Soil in this SIP to see how it compares to FFOF and because I had enough of it on hand for the SIP. The SIP's so far have impressed me and are my go to I am just going to experiment with RDWC here in the future as it has been my Achilles heel (DWC) but now I see it's been because of water temps.......

I also tossed the incredible bulk auto back into soil in a 5 gallon smart pot with about 3 gallons of soil in it see if I can still save it........

So we shall see how things progress...........

I will say it is a lot quieter in this room now :bigjoint:

I am being told I should not veg these seedlings too long as I will quickly run out of room in my 3x3 so we will see what happens lol.....

Here's a pic including the ugly duckling Incredible Bulk Auto that refuses to die lol......

IMG_20160603_152406.jpg

And a pic of the Dark Devil Auto flowering in the veg tent under the T5's........

IMG_20160603_172655.jpg
 
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Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
You could always try hempy buckets next to your SIPs :)
Lol, I am good with the SIP's, will see how the hydro goes and I have some SIP experimenting coming up, want to try COCO for medium and bottom feeding to see what's up, we shall see soon, I am curious how the plant would do feeding itself from water/nutes in the res with coco vs just water when one uses soil.....
 
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Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Small update, I will refrain from boring pics today as I'm sure you're all sick of my puny buds on a couple of plants.

I have been messing with the veg tent and lighting because I am not sure why I am having issues with my plants and the T5 when others are running the same bulbs even and having no issues. I have portable A/C in the room set to 74 degrees all the time and the house A/C is always at 76 throughout the day with a vent also in this room. I am exhausting both my tents out into this same room at the moment.

My flower tent doesn't go over 84 during the day and lights on, and goes down to 72 at night.

The veg tent with the T5's hits up to 88 sometimes, with three circulating fans in there and a carbon filter exhaust fan setup.

I tried today shutting down one of the banks of the T5 and this did drop the temps some, but now I am not getting the spectrum I was after with all 8 of the bulbs I chose right........

So for shits and giggles I threw my Tasty T4- 1750 back in, slapped it on veg mode and the temps are down 10 degrees, the room is cooler and the flower tent went down a couple of degrees......

Found this very interesting, think the T5 might have come to an end of it's testing period with me......... especially with summer basically here and heat always being an issue for me............

I am also putting the RDWC on hold for the time being until I can set it up in a different space. I will be moving forward with SIP's, and will be experimenting with a DIY hydro/SIP setup running COCO and bottom feeding soon to see how that goes, if anyone has done this before please let me know how it went.

Stay Tuned and Happy Toking! bongsmilie
 
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GroErr

Well-Known Member
imo reducing tubes in those T5's aren't going to be much of a detriment if you take out the 3k's to manage your temps in there. I veg with the blue-range 3 watt diode LED's (bloom/reds turned off) and even then have to slow them down sometimes. My main veg tent blurple LED running with the veg switch (blues) pulls 190w total in a 2x4x5' tent. That's 24w/sq. foot. that T5 fully loaded pulls 440w, in the same space. That's almost too much light in that space and why you're having a tough time with temps. Only time I run that tent with the bloom switch, brining it to ~280w is the last week of veg or so. Even that's only 35w/sq. foot vs. your current 55w/sq. ft.
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
imo reducing tubes in those T5's aren't going to be much of a detriment if you take out the 3k's to manage your temps in there. I veg with the blue-range 3 watt diode LED's (bloom/reds turned off) and even then have to slow them down sometimes. My main veg tent blurple LED running with the veg switch (blues) pulls 190w total in a 2x4x5' tent. That's 24w/sq. foot. that T5 fully loaded pulls 440w, in the same space. That's almost too much light in that space and why you're having a tough time with temps. Only time I run that tent with the bloom switch, brining it to ~280w is the last week of veg or so. Even that's only 35w/sq. foot vs. your current 55w/sq. ft.
I hear you brother. But I just don't think taking the bulbs out would be the best route when I can use an LED to produce as much light or better pulling from the wall more efficiently and producing lower temps right....?

The reason for having the T5 full blast was/is because there are three autos in here and two of them have started to flower and will stay in here to finish their life out as the 18/6 schedule jives with the photo's vegging in the same space. This is the fun part about this all, getting stuff in and doing real life testing in your own environment to find what does and doesn't work better in your grow :bigjoint:

Also if I can have just as good of light with half the watts being used then I don't see the fail there lol......

If it was a 3x3 I'd just get another 315 CMH but that's not the case and I am not touching that flower tent until the NL is done as that tent is on cruise control to bud heaven lol......
 
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GroErr

Well-Known Member
I hear you brother. But I just don't think taking the bulbs out would be the best route when I can use an LED to produce as much light or better pulling from the wall more efficiently and producing lower temps right....?

The reason for having the T5 full blast was/is because there are three autos in here and two of them have started to flower and will stay in here to finish their life out as the 18/6 schedule jives with the photo's vegging in the same space. This is the fun part about this all, getting stuff in and doing real life testing in your own environment to find what does and doesn't work better in your grow :bigjoint:
Hey for sure if you have the cash to replace them the LED's do a better job in veg and much more efficiently. I was suggesting that due to the temp issues you were seeing. Until you get the LED's in there removing a couple of tubes is a quick option. Cheers.
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Hey for sure if you have the cash to replace them the LED's do a better job in veg and much more efficiently. I was suggesting that due to the temp issues you were seeing. Until you get the LED's in there removing a couple of tubes is a quick option. Cheers.
I already did slap my Tasty back in brother (T4-1750) that's where I saw the tent temp drop 10 degrees...............

The LED is on hand, as is the T5, and the flower tent is running the 315w LEC CMH....

Clear as mud......... :dunce:
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Ok so let's see if I can actually get some feedback here from some of you guys, and let's see if we can keep this civil as lately anything LED turns into pissing matches over small minute differences in performance in the real world. Data sheets are cool, but I am looking for feedback from people who have tested their methods and theories with plants, MJ, or other. I don't grow data sheets, I grow medicine for myself.

Here is what I am looking to do, get out of a DIY COB build for my 2x4' tent I am transferring this post from another thread to not be a hijacker :)

** I need to cover my 2x4 tent for veg and also have the ability to flower autos in there while photo's continue to veg.......

I would like more even canopy coverage across the board vs just being able to say in the middle at 18" my PPFD is better than yours etc I could care less about that. I want to remote mount my driver outside the tent to help even more with heat now that I got the temps down ripping the T5 out and testing the Tasty LED in it's place. I would like pin heat sinks and the ability to dim my lights as well.

Maybe I am naive about something but before I pay what a Vero 29 costs wouldn't the CXB 3070's be a good alternative in the same price range?

No matter as this is about DIY on a budget not that it matters, I can afford to go all 3590's but I feel there are other options that will work as well in the real world and I want to customize the light to my needs and growing area.

So this brings me to the Citizen 1818's/1212's vs the Vero 18's and Vero 22's....... double the price for the Vero 29's/CXB 3070 won't double my yields so not sure it's worth the extra coin that could go to buy other things.......

I think that spells it all out.......

I could rip my Tasty LED's apart, BUT I think it's more cost effective to sell them and go DIY from scratch.......... especially if I can get suitable COB's in the range of $15/each or less..........

If it helps any I have (2) of these drivers on hand brand new that I can use but don't have to:
IMG_20160604_191820.jpg

So let's hear it guys, what do you say............
 
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Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Ok guys.... small update.......after some feedback with a couple members via pm I have taken the following direction for building my first DIY LED light.....

I ordered 8- Vero 18's from digikey, (4) 3500K & (4) 4000K, will run these off of one of my Mean Well 240-1050B driver. This should allow me to cover the canopy nice and evenly and I will have the dimming function. I am trying to locate some pinned heat sinks (preferably pre drilled and tapped) for these, and want to use angled aluminum and rivets to put it together.

For the $96 cost plus shipping on the COB's I am excited to see how they perform. Now I chose this route over Citizen because I do not need extra COB holders and what not, and well to try something different than what everyone else is doing, and the current I will run them at they were tested at so...... solid data there......

I am curious to see what the build turns out like and how it will perform, can't wait to get started.

So what else do I need to get now guys?
I want to mount my driver outside the tent unless you guys think the one driver would be fine in there with the COB's passively cooled........?
What connectors, wire, etc..... I have never done anything like this lol.......
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Northern Lights- Day 24 of 12/12 Buds Are forming and stacking I can see them popping through the white hairs this is getting exciting:

IMG_20160605_144552.jpg
 

BOBBY_G

Well-Known Member
Found this very interesting, think the T5 might have come to an end of it's testing period with me......... especially with summer basically here and heat always being an issue for me....
how old are your bulbs? you could be down 20% on lumens after a year.

you could go spend $80 at home depot for 8 philips 2100 lumen bulbs and have that baby back up at a reduced output but much much greater efficiency for then next 5+ years on those 'bulbs'
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Bulbs are brand new as old as the light a week maybe............

It will be going on Ebay and if I don't get out of it what I am looking to get I will do as you suggest with the regular bulbs for a different project growing veggies......
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
What's going on guys, if anyone is still following lol. Update from the garden. The NL plant is loving life in the flower tent under the CMH, she's really putting the show on, sometimes I look at the pictures and then it hits me that's my plant. I never thought I'd have such a nice looking plant on my first go so I'm happy. She's drinking about 3/4 gallon of water per day consistently.

Now for some of my further SIP testing. I have not transplanted my seedlings to their SIP's yet, I want their roots to get a chance to expand in the 1 gallon pots for a bit first. The one seedling I tested with moving straight from the solo cup to the SIP has taken a bit to start sipping. I had a feeling this might happen with no top watering while the plant searches so I used my largest seedling for this. However, now as of today my runt of the seedlings is almost the same size as this one in the SIP that was once my stud. So from now on I will either go from solo cup to 1 gallon pot first, or just start in the 1 gallon pots. The loss of growth was not worth it.

The Dark devil Auto continues to flower nicely, and the incredible bulk that was dying outside is showing some new signs of life and is flowering too. Maybe she'll give me at least a zip dry who knows.

After some back and forth today about T5's, I decided to go to HD and grab some regular white T5 bulbs and give the T5 a go again, because I couldn't imagine I was the only guy having so much trouble with one. Well it worked. I got (4) 3500K bulbs and (4) 4100K bulbs. Temps are much lower than they were before with the agromax spectrum I had created picking and choosing bulbs.

Tomorrow I might mess with putting the 10K finisher in it along with the (2) 6400K bulbs I have. So far the plants have loved the change to the T5's now that they're not too hot. It's amazing to swap a four COB 3590 for this and get such vigorous new green growth lol......it is also double the watts so........

I am pretty certain the issue I am having is simply the agromax UV bulb burning my plants. As it did once to the plant I currently have in the flower tent. I also think the combination of the pure par and the pure UV might be too much for the plants being run the whole time the light is on.

I will continue testing with the T5........

But there will be another change coming in a few weeks, one that just kinda came up unexpectedly. So the ADHD continues @JorgeGonzales the wild ride is not over yet.

Cheers :peace:
 
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Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Got back home and all is good with excellent new growth. I didn't lose my veg tent :)

For the time being the T5 will stay in lol........... high/Low for tent has been 82/77 with humidity at 60/58 with the swapped in bulbs. Clearly the T5 Pure UV bulb has been my issue, even from 3' away lol.

The flower tent is just cruising on auto, about to fill the SIP before she goes to sleep. Such a beautiful plant that has been through so much and turned around so well after the burning with the UV bulb testing. I am very fortunate with her thus far and fingers crossed for the finish line they say she can finish anywhere between 7-9 weeks @ Nirvana Seeds......... we shall see.

I need to get my harvest supplies in order lol.........
 
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