Bubblelicious, New York Power Diesel, and Super Skunk in DWC

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Sorry guys, been kinda hectic - had the holidays, a golf tournament and my birthday, but the main thing is that my camera is still at my buddy's house.

Everything's good, but I still have been procrastinating about setting up the veg tent - also had some yellowing of my leaves (only on three or four of the weaker plants), which I believe is a function of my pH getting up slightly too high (6.-6.4), and which I had attributed before to sun bleaching (seems to be an iron issue). To resolve, have started keeping my pH at a target of 5.7 with minimal swings (+/- .2 being the absolute largest swing) - just started today, will let you know how it turns out.

Other then that, things are good - gonna switch to 12/12 either tomorrow or Wednesday, and will get pics and an update up as soon as I get my camera back.

Sorry for the delay, and I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and enjoyed themselves.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Just set the flood timer for to turn on at 9:00pm, 11:00pm, 1:00am, 3:00am, 5:00am, 7:00am, 9:00am (as the lights go out), and then at 3:00pm during the dark cycle.

Set the light timer to turn on at 9:00pm and off at 9:00am.

Just turned the lights off for the first time, and I was astonished to see that there was light in there - after a moment or two of anxious panic (could actually make hand puppets on the wall), realized it was the light from the Sentinel sensor, which is green, so no worries.

All the clones are ~12", and the seedlings are all a couple of inches taller - the yellowing of the leaves is still an issue, as I only got the pH down to 6.2 (added more today) - if they don't stop yellowing in a couple of days, I'm going to change out the reservoir.

The canopy is massive, absolutely a sea of green right now (really disappointed that I can't take pics for posterity, as well as to show you guys).

Will certainly have my camera back by this weekend (if not sooner), so there will be pics then.

Been really busy lately, my girl just got an awesome offer for a new job in the city, so I've been on my find a job grind as well as studying for a test, but mainly I've resumed my addiction to online poker.

Need to find a balance of all those things right now, and unfortunately the garage has been at the bottom of my priority list.
 

wonderblunder

Well-Known Member
No shit... Online poker eh.... Better teach me...... I'm an addict on wheels for shit like that. Nothing like a little addiction.......
 

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
So now that you've used the Co2 a bit, can you break down the costs for us? I will get the bottle setup next month and it would help to know what I'm getting into. You're using 20lb bottles . . .1) how long do they last? 2)How much $ to fill 3)How much area are you saturating 4)Duration, frequency and ppm of saturation? 5) Do you have seperate filter and hood fans and intake? What shuts down?

I have one fan that sucks through the filter and past light before exhaust. Q: How bad would that be if I shut off the fan for 30 minutes? Would shit start to blow up because of too much heat in the hood with no air flowing by?

Question about Co2 generators. Can you get one that sits outside the tent and you run a line (like from the tank) into the tent? Or does the generator have to be in the tent with it's open flame? How much are you thinking you'll spend for your gen and which model are you considering?

A lot of questions. I appreciate your time and knowledge.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Wonder, don't do it, it's a nasty, nasty addiction.

1) Smoking, I go through about a bottle a month (rough estimate) running 24/7, so I'm guessing a bottle will last me about one flowering cycle on 12/12.

2) $15 to fill at my welding supply place.

3) I'm saturating a 4x4x7 cubic area, but with the flood table being about 2' high, it's more like 4x4x5.

4) I don't have a timer for the tank, it's all controlled by my Sentinel - deciding now what to run it at, thinking 1250 will do (vegged them at 1500, then went down to 1000, and then down to 600). Thinking either 1250 or 1500, not quite sure yet.

5) Yeah, I have my light cooled by its own 6" exhaust fan which is solely dedicated to cooling the light. Then I have another 6" hooked up to a filter for exhaust and a 4" for intake. So really nothing shuts down; the exhaust and intake fans almost never run, so it's really almost a totally sealed environment in there when the lights are on and CO2's running.

6) Really only you know how hot it's gonna get in there if you turn off your fan - anything reach 90 is too hot, IMHO. If the temps get too high too quickly, you're gonna need to redo your ventilation and have the light cooled by its own fan, as far as I know.

7) As far as the generators go, I've never seen and don't really know too much about them - I have a lot of the same questions as you, truthfully. Depending on if I ran it inside the tent or just in the garage in general would determine what size I'd need, but I really don't know much, honestly, or even what direction I'm gonna go with regards to a generator or stay with the tanks.
 

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
Great info Bob. Thank you. I will have to figure out my vent situation when I get the Sentinal I guess. For now, I will just leave the fan on 24hr.

Keep us up to date on any generator info you get, but an extra $15 per flowering cycle ain't shit imo. It certainly doesn't justify spending 400+ on a generator after you've already dropped a bunch of $ on tanks.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Great info Bob. Thank you. I will have to figure out my vent situation when I get the Sentinal I guess. For now, I will just leave the fan on 24hr.

Keep us up to date on any generator info you get, but an extra $15 per flowering cycle ain't shit imo. It certainly doesn't justify spending 400+ on a generator after you've already dropped a bunch of $ on tanks.
Yeah, it's not so much the money, as the time and hassle of driving them and sneaking them into my car at night wrapped in a towel so the neighbors can't see.

Not really sweating the few hundred I've dropped on my tanks and regulator, so that's not really a factor - it's more the cost/safety/security of getting a plumber to install a "T" valve on my natural gas line to run through the wall into the garage.

Anyways, just checked on the girls, all is well - bumped the CO2 up to 1000PPM, and got the pH down to 5.7 on the nose from 6.2.

If there's not noticeable improvement (or at least no more yellowing), then I'm changing the rez out.
 

rbahadosingh

Well-Known Member
Yeah, it's not so much the money, as the time and hassle of driving them and sneaking them into my car at night wrapped in a towel so the neighbors can't see.

Not really sweating the few hundred I've dropped on my tanks and regulator, so that's not really a factor - it's more the cost/safety/security of getting a plumber to install a "T" valve on my natural gas line to run through the wall into the garage.

Anyways, just checked on the girls, all is well - bumped the CO2 up to 1000PPM, and got the pH down to 5.7 on the nose from 6.2.

If there's not noticeable improvement (or at least no more yellowing), then I'm changing the rez out.
hey bob. why only 1000ppm on the co2? i give mine 1500ppm all the way through.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
hey bob. why only 1000ppm on the co2? i give mine 1500ppm all the way through.
I started out vegging them at 1500PPM, then realized that was prolly wasted on them as they were 2" tall at the time, so backed it off to 1000PPM - after going through my second tank, bumped it down to 600PPM (still vegging, mind you), and then bumped it up to 1000 yesterday for the first day of 12/12.

Going to get up to 1500 ASAP, but just feel like until I get this yellowing situation under control (which I hopefully did with the pH lowering, seems to be an iron issue), that CO2 at 1500 is kinda overkill if my nutes are limiting their growth anyways.

As soon as they back to being green and healthy (they are for the most part, only two or three of the weaker plants are yellowing noticeably) then they'll get flooded with 1500.
 

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
Is that a constant level or does the sentinal provide a cycle flood-flush thing? Can you set it to cycle or constant? I have a few questions about how the controller controls things and how much input is required / allowed by the operator.
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
It's a constant - with CO2 tanks, from what I understand, it's much easier to keep the level closer to your setpoint, because they can turn the flow on and off every second or two, whereas a generator needs to be run for a certain amount of time, which means you're going to go further over your setpoint, I think.

In terms of controlling the Sentinel, it couldn't be easier - plug in my exhaust fans, dehumidifier, CO2 regulator, and heater, set it to the points I want, and it's done.

Took about three minutes to set it up, and besides changing the CO2 PPM settings, haven't had to do a thing.
 

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
I have an old portable dehumidifier (that weighs a ton) but it blows a serious amount of hot air out the back. Is this normal? Does it require ducting?
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
I have an old portable dehumidifier (that weighs a ton) but it blows a serious amount of hot air out the back. Is this normal? Does it require ducting?
That I couldn't tell you - I'm having to run a heater to keep my temps up, so my dehumidifier's heat is not a concern as of now (although come summer that will be a different story, I'm sure).
 

Bob Smith

Well-Known Member
Firstly, lemme say that I'm glad I've found the source of the yellowing - it's an iron deficiency, caused by my pH being too high (98% sure). That being said, am going to bump my CO2 back up to 1500 tonight.

Seems that my tester again was off by .3, so 6.4 was really 6.7, and the 5.7 I lowered it to last night is really 6.0, so I'm going to shoot for 5.6 each time, and adjust when it gets +/- .2 away from that number.

Long story short, obviously am going to calibrate my meter every week from now on, but I had another question - there's a fungus-y type gunk on a probe (I guess) - not the glass part, but the "paper" part - would it be okay to let my meter sit in either 1) bleach or 2) 35% H2O2 for a couple of hours and see if this stuff would die and fall off? Can I scrub this off (gently) with something or will that fuck my meter up?

Not a big deal calibrating my meter weekly (all I have to do is adjust to the 7.0 and the 4.0 takes care of itself, so far), but I'd like to minimize the variance towards the end of the week; any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
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