Aero/NFT Grow in Tent w/ CO2, AC, Dehumidifier, and DIY Chiller

questiondj42 said:

So, I fibbed a little when I said I owned three.

The third one came today, and it has a busted off relay. It would only stay off for five seconds. So I called GH, who called Sentinel for the RMA. Sentinel's QC engineer called me to gather data in order to troubleshoot. And true to form, he was an awkward dude to talk to. Super focused on figuring out what was wrong. I can totally relate.

I'm super bummed about this, because it delays my flowering startup. I'm considering getting a timer with 15 minute intervals and doing 15 on, 45 off until the low range recycle is fixed. I have flower jones.

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Thats a real bummer man! I have great luck with the blueprint timer http://blueprintcontrollers.com/Product/Details/BDCT601

ThaMagnificent said:

working on it. I ended up buying the hdx 27 gal totes from HD and I just drilled the holes in the top. I'm going to have to take off 2in from the rails in the aero to make room. I guess the dimensions are a little different from rubbermaid?

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Looking great! Yeah the dimensions are definitely different with the more up to date products. i just eyeball and freestyle everything these days.

petert said:

Question about the totes? I've done a few for cloning.. Do you ever have issues with leaking from the edges? I was but found some waterproof window sealer material with adhesive on one side that I applied to the lip of the bottom section and close the lid on top. Seems to work great for me.

What do you guys do?

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The rope calk works good. Im sure what you're using is fine too...as long as its not leaching anything into your water from the adhesive. Your probably fine. If you see weird ph fluctuations and or issues with your plants you may consider the window sealer you are using. I never had any issues with the rope calk but I went away from it to be safe. Lately I have been just installing a couple bolts and wing nuts to keep the good seal. Some of my totes already come with a good seal and if you really look through them you can find one.

Alright veg unit is almost ready! I want to run it in a tent with a T5. Any suggestions?

Just found this thread . Great setup AK, I actually just ditched the sprayers and went back to an ebb & gro setup have been running for a while now. The sprayers worked ok but I had more trays setup the old way lol. I did find things stayed more stable when everything was running properly but that may also be the addition of a chiller as well. Looks like your killing it with what you've got. I need to find a way to keep roots in the root tray, the bastards grow through everything I try or the screens get plugged and I need to clean them weekly. Any thoughts? How u keeping them out of where their not supposed to be lol? Sorry if I missed that part .

AKGrowAreo said:

That is a true issue my friend. To aid in this issue I was able to put ball valves in between my rails and my main line to the pump so that when I close those two valves and open my valve to the hose 100% of the water pressure goes to pumping out the res and mo water goes into the rails. This will still leave you witha half inch or so of water so I have a cheap shop vac to suck out the rest.

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Does the .5" really matter? I have rain barrel hose bib fittings at the bottom of all res's that I can attach garden hose (and inline pump If I'm in a hurry) but yes it still leaves a bit, I've never worried about it and just let water fill run for a bit before closing valve to flush out the standing water. I need more room lol, my 8x8 room isn't big enough and I need to seperate clones and veg cause I would like to turn the T5's down to 12hrs for a couple of weeks before moving them to full HID flowering, flowering is two weeks behind everything .

ThaMagnificent said:

Alright veg unit is almost ready! I want to run it in a tent with a T5. Any suggestions?

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Apollo makes good tents for pretty good prices. I have a 4' wide x2' wide x 5' tall tent and its works great for veg. I have a 2' 8 bulb t5 and a 2' 4 bulb t5 in there so I can have 2 different heights and it works great.

I've only had experience the Milliard brand. I really like em, and shortly possibly won't be using either of my 2.

Budley Doright said:

Just found this thread . Great setup AK, I actually just ditched the sprayers and went back to an ebb & gro setup have been running for a while now. The sprayers worked ok but I had more trays setup the old way lol. I did find things stayed more stable when everything was running properly but that may also be the addition of a chiller as well. Looks like your killing it with what you've got. I need to find a way to keep roots in the root tray, the bastards grow through everything I try or the screens get plugged and I need to clean them weekly. Any thoughts? How u keeping them out of where their not supposed to be lol? Sorry if I missed that part .

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Hey @Budley Doright ! Thanks for your kind words especially from a vet like you...
Its always tough to manage the roots. I have been able to stuff them back into the rails without having to cut them. In my veg unit they get all tangled up but I just gently separate and they seem to always be fine. I have 1" holes all over the bottom of my veg unit so the rots grow down into the res on the reg. I just try to lift alll my plants up every other day or so to keep them separated and out of the res. Iv thought about running a screen, but imagine they will always grow into the screen. Do you have a thread with pics of your current set up?

Budley Doright said:

Does the .5" really matter? I have rain barrel hose bib fittings at the bottom of all res's that I can attach garden hose (and inline pump If I'm in a hurry) but yes it still leaves a bit, I've never worried about it and just let water fill run for a bit before closing valve to flush out the standing water. I need more room lol, my 8x8 room isn't big enough and I need to seperate clones and veg cause I would like to turn the T5's down to 12hrs for a couple of weeks before moving them to full HID flowering, flowering is two weeks behind everything .

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Yeah the 1/2" really doesn't matter. I rarely actually lower it all the way. I do the same as you and just refill and drain again so I can flush out the remaining nutes. I am in the process of putting drains in the bottom of all my res because I am ditching the tent and putting wheels on on my units. They will just have a hose that comes out the bottom with a male connection to connect to my draining hose.

Ill post an update today!

letdown shifty said:

I've only had experience the Milliard brand. I really like em, and shortly possibly won't be using either of my 2.

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Me too bro. I actually have my tent pre sold to a buddy. lol

Update as of last friday

Update as of this morning...

Drywall is all mudded, taped, and sealed. Finishing and sealing the doors tonight then its time to start adding the bubble insulation to the walls and ceiling. Light movers, another 1000w light set up, 14,000 btu ac, cool boxes (go between my fan and air cooled lights to further cool the lights using water induction.), and a whole shit load of nutes are on their way. Gonna have 3000w total on light movers in the room. Fucking stoked!!!

You should go LED!

:curtain:

questiondj42 said:

You should go LED!

:curtain:

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I will one day go to LED, or plasma. I am just waiting for the tech to catch up. We are getting close...that's for sure!

Nice work...looking forward to watching this project take shape. Ive just srarted to try my hand with a home made mini cloner...veg. chamber with small bubble tote and 4x4 flower chamber with small rdwc and some soil specimens. On my third grow and want to lessen the time berween harvests. Keep up the good work.

Thanks bro. Sounds like your system is sick! Make journal or thread so we can all check it out.

Update:
Wow check out the monster on the right. Hope the stretch is over. Haha. Luckily these ladies are moving into their new home tonight. They are gonna love the 8.5' ceilings!

Left side is looking pretty darn good too. I feel lucky about it cause with all the building Ive been doing I have neglected my ladies more than I'd like to this time.

Holy stretch on the right side of your tent man....is that a sativa or a tree?
In the last pic...it looks like you girls are showing a little issue in their leaves maybe...in reference to the fading in between the veins. All looks good tho.

Hawzzy said:

Holy stretch on the right side of your tent man....is that a sativa or a tree?
In the last pic...it looks like you girls are showing a little issue in their leaves maybe...in reference to the fading in between the veins. All looks good tho.

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Ha, yeah that plant is a beast. Funny thing is that plant is a 80% indica, but I just vegged the fuck out of it and I guess it loves those 1000watts so much that she wants to kiss it. hehe.

On that last pic you can see some older nute burn on the tips of some of the fans. Luckily those are older leaves that I let get a little burned, and we all know once a leaf has been affected by anything there is no coming back for that leaf. I tend to run my nutes on the hotter side especially during the transition phase. Then I got a little lazy cause I was building the new room and I didn't top off the water for like 6 days in that res so there was only about 3 or 4 gallons left in the res and the girls were drinking way more water than they were eating nutes, and the ppm got all the way up to 3800, oops. lol. Good news is the ppm was only that high for like a day and buds fucking loved all that food so it was not all that bad of a deal for me. Not enough burn to cause any stunting so Im not worried.