Failing aero

As you can see in this photo. Im currently full of 45s or 90s, to get th exhaust out of tent. Should I make adjustment? Any expert advice before I get to adjusting?

Thanks!!

Well every 90 cuts your air flow a bunch - as do 45's - but 400CFM is more than enough for a 4 x 4 tent. I have that size in a 4 x 8 tent and the negative pressure was a bit too much, so I added an incoming 170CFM fan to bring in outdoor, filtered air and lower the negative pressure a bit.

Do you have a carbon filter or do you not have concerns about the smell?

Richardz said:

It's official, I killed everything. Going to clean up, set up exhaust fan, and be completely ready to go this time. Got a huge supply of ph down. A ph pen, and a ppm pen, and a 400 cfm exhaust. (Should I buy a control panel to adjust the exhaust fan? The thing is crazy powerful.)
Also, should I buy a fan for fresh incoming air? Or will the negative pressure just suck in enough?

I have 10 new females coming. Should I germinate them in a napkin and then just drop them right on top of the rocks?

Now, since the growrocks don't retain much water. I don't really need a watering cycle?

Any other tips are greatly appreciated. I have roughly another 10 days to get prepared.

Thanks!

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Rapid rooter plugs, and once you start seeing a couple of roots pop out, strip most of the plug away...leaving some of the plug there is fine, it will be overcome by roots and not be an issue down the road...then drop into your unit...

Yes your watering way to much. It took me a bit to get the watering down with seedlings and yup it was frustrating lol. I've also tried all different methods of getting the seeing into the net pot and using root riot cubes have been the most successful, not sure if the right choice for droppers or nozzles. As much as I don't like RW I would use them with drip and sprayers. Putting the rooted seedling directly in the rocks, while worked, did not work well. The whole key is water and how much. I was always worried about the thing drying out and watering/flooding every hour or less, and the girls looked like crap. I have found that three floods a day are perfect in my setup. Until roots are established I keep it at 3, once the roots are established flood times are less critical and when plants are well into veg I flood every .5hr for 15 min. (Shortest cycle on timer), as for ventilation each 90 adds 5' equivalent pipe, without knowing temps it's hard to say if that's enough, if it's just for fresh air then you u should be good. And yup, you'll probably want a charcoal filter lol. Also I do start out with lite nutrients at around 200-300 ppm. Here is a pic of roots 10 days after putting them in net pots, and 15 days. What's your res temp?

I'm back! Been busy as hell, and waiting on seeds. I altered my tent a bit. Did a 90 degree spin on the light so hopefully the vent can pull direct hot air from it, rather than setting up complex duct work.

Budley Doright said:

View attachment 3947032Yes your watering way to much. It took me a bit to get the watering down with seedlings and yup it was frustrating lol. I've also tried all different methods of getting the seeing into the net pot and using root riot cubes have been the most successful, not sure if the right choice for droppers or nozzles. As much as I don't like RW I would use them with drip and sprayers. Putting the rooted seedling directly in the rocks, while worked, did not work well. The whole key is water and how much. I was always worried about the thing drying out and watering/flooding every hour or less, and the girls looked like crap. I have found that three floods a day are perfect in my setup. Until roots are established I keep it at 3, once the roots are established flood times are less critical and when plants are well into veg I flood every .5hr for 15 min. (Shortest cycle on timer), as for ventilation each 90 adds 5' equivalent pipe, without knowing temps it's hard to say if that's enough, if it's just for fresh air then you u should be good. And yup, you'll probably want a charcoal filter lol. Also I do start out with lite nutrients at around 200-300 ppm. View attachment 3947032 Here is a pic of roots 10 days after putting them in net potsView attachment 3947033, and 15 days. What's your res temp?

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Thanks for the reply. Great info.

Yup, I basically flooded 24x7. My grow-rocks don't really retain any water, but the rooter plugs were soaked 24x7. Oops.

I'm going to change my watering cycles to 3 per day to start.

My temps suck!!!! It's a basement, so it's cool sometimes, really muggy other times. The basement is 100x easier to temperature control during the winter.

My Rez temps are pretty chilly. 4 air stones running. Does it need to be checked?

What's your guys choice for PH pen? There's so much that goes into buying one.

Seeds are here! I'm not ready to start I don't think.

Thanks!!

It's always wise to monitor res temps. I've just started using a maechanical chiller that I built to ensure temps stay at 66. I've never gone this late indoors and yup it posses some issues lol. I haven't used air stones in quite some time and all my DO is supplied by waterfall and fountain effect. I may be able to get away with higher temps in the res with airstones, not sure though, I found some stability issues using them but may have been my setup. Please don't think I'm an expert at this because I'm not lol, I learned a lot by fucking things up and not doing that again lol. I'm just starting to get some great results out of my setup and basically it came down to res temp control and finding nuetrients that worked well with my water makeup. I had really good luck using hydroguard but this is the first run without it and honestly by keeping temps low it's not needed and the root structure is as good without. I also had great luck using Aqua Flakes but it's pricey and I have a nuetrient company close by that reverse engineered it that I now use. The only other additives that I use are silica and vitanimo, not sure they do much but I had major blotching (cal/mag def.) and the vitanimo seemed to have stopped that. As for not ready, well my first run I thought was gonna die every other day lol. PH pens are my arch enemy lol. I've tried Hanna, bluelab, and a couple of others but the one I have now was a cheap Amazon one that is 2 years old and works great, I also have an HM as backup. I'll try and find the one I use and post it but keep in mind I may have just gotten lucky at $35 compared to $100 for the bluelab. Good luck and keep posting as the grow progresses for any help from the more knowledgable hydro guys .

This one, had to crop it so no number, had my name and address on the first pic lol.

Aero is when roots are not bound by a medium. Instead, they hang free in space and are fed periodically, either by mist (HPA) or spray LPA

Consider replacing air stones with a low pressure pump ~ 400 gph. Simply put a riser on the pump that clears the water level. Mine uses a Hydro Halo Drip ring and is on a separate timer as running 24/7 can overheat the water

Thanks for the tips guys.

I'm back in action today. Cleaned everything. Water was gross! Looked like my pool 2 summers ago, deadly.

Seeds ready, exhaust pumping, timers for water and lights set.

I'm going back to the rooter plugs because this is how I WANT to do it. It's just easiest, I think. I just don't feel confident placing these new sprouts in some rocks, and handling them with my hands and such. Seems like it should work, if I tweak it right.

-is the exhaust to high to work properly?

Here I go!!

Thanks!

Your exhaust should be fine, the higher the better for removing heat. Wooo hooo good luck .

are you sticking with the GH 3part for nutes?

PetFlora said:

Aero is when roots are not bound by a medium. Instead, they hang free in space and are fed periodically, either by mist (HPA) or spray LPA

Consider replacing air stones with a low pressure pump ~ 400 gph. Simply put a riser on the pump that clears the water level. Mine uses a Hydro Halo Drip ring and is on a separate timer as running 24/7 can overheat the water

View attachment 3949217

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That sure has a lot of stuff in there lol.

im4satori said:

are you sticking with the GH 3part for nutes?

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Yes sir. But this time I'm going to let the babies grow a bit. I literally put the first cycle of nutes in on day 1 transfer. Not sure if that hurt or not, but defiantly waiting a solid week of decent root growth before any nutes this time.

Budley Doright said:

That sure has a lot of stuff in there lol.

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Lol yea. I gotta be honest. I'm to newb to even follow what he was getting at.

I'm ignorant, but working on it

He was saying instead of airstones use the water pump like a fountain to add DO to the water (I think) That's how I do it but a tad different . I'll keep preaching it though, as far as I'm concerned, your res temps are the key to a trouble free grow . If you can maintain below 68 your halfway home IMO.

Temps look decent! 70 deg. 64% humidity.

5.9 ph

300 ppm!

Setting up timer for water now!

Budley Doright said:

He was saying instead of airstones use the water pump like a fountain to add DO to the water (I think) That's how I do it but a tad different . I'll keep preaching it though, as far as I'm concerned, your res temps are the key to a trouble free grow . If you can maintain below 68 your halfway home IMO.

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Ok starting a log today of PH, PPM, and now adding Rez temp. (Forgot Rez temp)

when you mix your nutes

full strength veg formula
per gallon
grow 7.5mls
micro 5mls
bloom 2.5 mls
calmag 2mls
Epsom salt 1/4 tsp

full strength bloom nutes
6mls grow
3mls micro
6mls bloom
4mls calmag

when sprouts are ready to be fed give them half strength bloom nutes for the first two weeks


manage your reservoir with these rules in mind

PH goes up (fast) and EC/PPM goes down ..... raise EC/PPM
PH goes down and EC/PPM goes up....... lower EC/PPM

the ideal goal is for the ph to climb slow and the EC drop slow thru the week

Richardz said:

Temps look decent! 70 deg. 64% humidity.

5.9 ph

300 ppm!

Setting up timer for water now!

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those plants are so small they shouldnt be getting anyting except water

and that light is too strong for those tiny seedlings they should be under a fluorescent

after they have a couple full sets of leaves and the starter leaves (the round leaves at the bottom) start to turn yellow then you feed them