1st aeroponics grow wanting advice

This is only my 2nd grow and my 1st aero grow. Looking for sound advice. My oldest plant was germinated 15 days ago. Took 1 day to pop. I left it in the cloning chamber until it was 4" tall (Norther Soul) and I think I stretched it too much before putting it under my hps (1,000 watts). My humidity has been between 40-50%. My temp. is consistant between 70-80. My light cycle is 24-7. My Ph was 6 and I dropped it to 5.2. I just bumped my GP flora grow up to 2 tsp. per gal. and a 1/2 tsp. floralicious plus per. gal. The roots look white and healthy and are coming thru the cups well. My colors are lighter green, should they be more lush and dark? And how is the size on my tallest being that I felt I streched it. I'm installing an a/c and co2 next week. Pics enclosed...any advice is helpful. (The other 2 shorter plants are Great White Shark).

one thing i dont like is that you have it constantly too wet on your lid, this is not cool, as for nutes i think thats too much at this point in the game but your plants look very happy with it, also try to get your a/c in there asap sinces its getting warmer , you need to keep the water temps under 75F or you will have bad problems, water temps 65-68 is perfect, remember the water will be at or 2 degrees lower than room temps, to stop those leaks, i usually make the holes for the net cups smaller that the cup itself, say a 2 inch net cup i would use a 1 3/4in hole saw so it fits tight and no water will get thru, always having small puddles of water under the canopy is a breeding zone for fungus gnats and all that other nasty shit

Hey, this site and guys like you are really kick ass. I cleaned up my area. I just got this cabinet with no instructions, I really appreciate your input. On my 1st grow I didn't get the quality I was looking for. That was in a 400w closet grow with a drip hydro.

does anybody have any advice on installing an ac and co2 in one of these cabs? my air cooled light sucks air from inside the cab and ill have to change that or my c02 wont work, im waiting for parts to extend the intake out side the cab. i have a medium stealth cab, hydrofarm c02 and a 5000 btu window unit ac, im really wanting this baby to WORK!!

is there another hole up at the top of the cab so you dont have to disturb the co2 inside? this is how i would run a cab and how its supposed to be done when using co2.....intake at the top so you can go fresh air----->fan pulling in fresh cooled air--->thru ducting to light---->ducting to outside cab, this way no odor comes out and you dont lose the co2, now since you run co2 your plants can go up to 95F and thrive, but if your in hydro your gonna want air temps around 72-75 max, cus the water temps will be at or just under room air temps, this is no good, plants will get root rot everytime when water temps get to 75F. how do you have your a/c set up? also when running co2 there is no need to bring fresh air into the grow space, since the plant only needs what little amount of co2 that comes with the freash air, so you eliminated the need for a fresh air intake, but you may need the intake for cooling purposes, since tents and cabs im sure arent good at holding up 40LB a/c units how do you use your unit? are you cooling the air in the room inwhich your cab is in? if so you may want to run an intake down low at the bottom of the cab to get that cold air in, so far i cant put enough emphasis on this but your main concern should be how to control water temps

can you post a pic of your setup? how many watts is the light you are using and what kind of exhaust fan and CFM are you running? in my experiences a cheap 250cfm duct fan can cool a 400w, brings a small closet to about 78-80...this is still not good for running dro, higher wattage lights means your looking at a 450cfm fan, better be safe than sorry and post a few pix maybe gonna have to rig that a/c into your cab....let me ask you, you feel comfortable making a hole in the cab? i can only say this about hydro, if you can have total control over the environment, you will have amazing success, no matter the experience level...im a slave to environmentals and if i cant have an a/c in the room then no hydro for me, also i have upgraded to water chillers and let temps run high, the plants explode with growth at higher temps when using the co2

Morris I can't thank you enough for your help. You sound very familiar with what I'm trying to do. I've built a wooden stand to hold the weight of the a/c. My vent parts will be here tomorrow and after doing a ton of research after your advice on how important water temp. is. I bought a Nano CL85 chiller with expedited shipping that will be here Tues. (my res is hot). Now with your new advice I'm confident by upgrading from a 265 to a 450 6in. inline my 1000w will run cooler. I've already got my Co2, but maybe you can give me some advice on dialing it in when I'm done with the a/c install? As far as cutting a hole in the cab...I'm a welder, I'm comfortable with cutting it up. I can upload pics of my set up. Let me know what you wanna see. Thanks for your help.

i run a 5000btu a/c in a 3x6 closet and it works perfect, its an analog one, with these you can hook up a cap thermostat for 60bucks, i know your going for major cash already but i used to run my a/c on a timer, now if your a/c has a digital therm on it even betterwith the thermo you just set it to 72 and your done, yea that 1000watter puts off major heat, even with a 450cfm, you should be just right about 78-80F so u still need the a/c, maybe you can chill the room that the cab is in, and just run the cool room air into your cab using an intake fan? if you can maybe give that a shot first before you put a nice hole in your cab, personally i put holes in everything!!!! and if i fuck up, i got some nice 6mil black n white poly to cover =) as for the chiller, always a wise investment, to be honest your gonna have to run some water in the cab and let the chiller do its thing before you cut for the a/c, if you can get away with only runnng your cooling fan for the light, that alone with the chiller should do it, no need for a/c...believe me you get root rot once and if you have the money you will always get a chiller, that will protect your investment, its not everyday some people need help and are looking to cut corners cus of the budget, make sure you PM me sometime, i want to know how its going

theres a sticky on this site, not sure what forum, its a co2 calculator, a cab that size, probably a small amount for 15mins, if you look on your co2 regulator you see those numbers, they represent square cubic feet per minute, it takes me 30 minutes on 0.5sqfm to fill a room thats 8x8x8, with the calculator on this site you just enter your cabs cubic feet and it will do the rest, you may have to run your tank for like 2-5mins daily to acheaive 1500ppm and i dont use any fancy controllers although thats my next purchase, every now and again i test for ppm's using the test syringes, another thing, you have reliable testing meters? i get my stuff from ebay, good good stuff for cheap cheap cheap, brand name....ebay user name is e*seasongear

Ebay is cool... I have decent luck on craigslist.org also. You just gotta weed through the idiots haha

-Mitus

if you live in a ganja friendly city craigslist is good, other than that you can barly find an aqaurium metal halide, CL in cali is a hydro shopping mall

shit!!! i think im losing my white roots! they went from white to tan overnight. my chiller doesnt get here till tue and my res has been upper 70s, i got home late and the temp was 80! ive been doing the frozen jugs of ice thing but i cant be home all the time. ive just started using h202 a few days ago 1.25 tsp per gallon, can i jump up to 2.5 tsp a gal yet? this sucks balls.

depending on the strenght, the 3% h202 is good at3-4 teaspoons atleast, anywhere from 10-30 ML per gallon should be good, thats 2-6 teaspoons, it will only be effective for 3-4 days, so dont forget to add some in a few days

Thanks again Morris you've been a big help. I'm gonna upload some pics tonight so you can look at em.

Been a stressful last couple of days. Unknowingly had a pump go down for about 15 hours. Came back to severely wilted and dried plants. Turned the pump back on and they came back pretty quick, but does anybody have any advice on the leave damage? Should I trim it and if so what's the best way? This high res temp. is really stressing me out. I'm doing frozen bottles til my chiller gets here.

do the frozen bottle for sure, that discoloration just might be mag def, or lockout from PH flux, when you get a chance get a shot of the roots, can you get that a/c into a window and let that room get cold then vent the cold air into the cab?

morriis, Ive got my install finished for the ac and chiller and re vented the light with outside air, im hoping my new fan gets here soon, untill then im running my 265, the new one is 450 cfm and im hoping it will help, i bought a aqua euro cl 85 chiller and im dialing the pump flow today, ive got my res temp down to 72 when the cab is 76 but im hoping to get a little cooler. maybe i should of bought a bigger chiller, have you heard anything about the ice probe chillers? there only 100 on e bay and Id buy one if it would help me get my res down to 68. unfortionatly my roots have turned somewhat brown, Im praying they will be ok, if i post pics tonight maybe you could give some advice? Im heading to the hardware store to get a couple fittings and a co2 bottle from the welding store and turning my co2 on tonight!

Got the install done and its 420. Just finished setting the flow meter on the Co2. 80 degree day today, my cab is running 78 with a res temp of 68! Has anyone out there ever insulated their res? Any advice on getting the most yield? I have 7 plants going now and it's hard to throw any away. I've done no pruning/fimming and have zero experience with this, do I have too many plants?

yes insulate your res, home depot sells rolls of this shiney stuff thats sticky, now that you got your co2 flowing, see if you can raise temps, see how high you can get room temps without going over 70F in the water, the reason for this is the plant absorbs co2 much better at higher temps, 95F will kill a non co2 plant, mine thrive at those temps, i just grabbed a few cc-50 polar bear chillers and 12k btu a/c's and sealed up the room, now you dont have to exhaust anything, just vent the light and watch them explode

you got bonafide root rot, fortunatly for you, i can see you like to do thing right the first time, get yourself some hygrozyme, since i fancy myself the root rot expert, pull your plants out one ata time, mix 3% h202 at 3teasponns per gallon, spray the roots then put them back into the tub with a fresh rez of water and h202, change out the rez daily until you get the hygrozyme, its pricey buit well worth it, when you get the hygrozyme change out the rez daily, do not use h202 with it, the rez will get nasty from the hygro eating up infected roots, the water will get brown and slimey, some think this is bad and they got beat, this is the enzyme in effect, change out the rez for every day for 5 days in a row or untill all brown roots are dissolved and you will see a mighty growth spurt in roots, this will set your grow back 2 weeks atleast, the reason for the rez change is in an aero system you dont want that nasty shit getting sprayed back at your roots, plus the much in the water will jam up your spray heads, so basically u have to change out the rez of system wont function right. dont mind me saying im the root rot expert, i have gained most of my rep points helping guys out with this, plus i went thru it 3 times and won every time, if theres anything else just hit me up with a PM