First hydro grow - Chem Valley Kush and Kandy Kush

So this is my 2nd grow and my first hydro grow. First grow ever (just harvested 2 weeks ago) was indoor, soil, 9 green crack/green cush, 3 Buddha Passion, and 1 White Widow - GC came out reasonably well. Once I can get some good pics I'll put em up. A bit fluffy, but very crystally and tasty as a mofo.

My Flower room is 11'ish by 13' with a 2' deep closet and an additional 3x6 entryway into the room that doesn't infringe on the 11x13'.

2 1000w Sunsystems Magnum XXXL 8" vented hoods (adding 2 more after this run for 4kw total)
2 8" Vortex fans
1 39" tall Phresh Carbon Filter
Insulated 8" ducting
Custom built silencer boxes for fans
1 6" inline fan for intake vented through a hepa rated air conditioner filter
CAP EBB Monster system - 55 gallon res w/ 5 gallon bucket system and 6 stock sites (dual 5gal buckets) + 6 homemade site expansions. Filled with hydroton

Room has been covered in white side panda film for max light refraction and to eliminate light leak.

Not running much else beyond my first run with the soil. Just switching over to the Ebb Monster system.

Didn't keep a log through veg so I wont go too far into detail, but if anyone has specific questions please ask and I'll do my best to remember and respond.

Due to the limits of the CAP system, I'm only running 12 sites. I could not access a larger reservoir and couldn't accurately determine if I could expand past the 12 pots. The remaining plants that have been in veg will be given to friends who will either mom them out and give me cuts for the next run or flower them directly.

I'm running 5 Kandy Kush (had 6 but one seemed suffocate itself and died the other day =/ ) and 7 of the CVK (had 5 in veg but someone brought me 2 extras).

CVK are all approx 2' tall and the KK are all about 3'.

I am running the full H&G line upon suggestion from friends who are significantly more experienced than I am. These nutes did a great job even through all my novice mistakes on the first run. I also add additional Sea Cal or Sea Mag depending on the plants' needs.

The CVK all came from one friend who had a large outdoor grow this summer in Norcal. His return on the harvest was fantastic and these cuts came from the majority pheno he had. His outdoor plants hit 8-10+ feet and all dropped 6-8 oz on avg. The KK came from Harborside Health Center in Oakland.

Vegged for about 7 weeks under T5. The KK stretched like crazy early and kept stretching. Was on 24 hour but switched back to 18/6 about 3 weeks ago to slow them down.

I have pics of the room and the 12 girls. I will upload and link them once I get a bit more time but for now it's time for sleep.

got lazy last nite and didnt up the pics. if i can on my lunch today I will. Girls looked good last night. Res slowly climbing up to 6.0 ph. Normally run the res at 5.5-5.8 after adding nutes.

Will probably take more pics tonight as well as post the other ones.

OK so here are the pics of the room and plants from Monday when I started this log.

noticed a lil bit of what looks like mag deficiency so i added about 200ml to the 55 gal res (had put in 50ml on Monday so this makes 250ml added total).

Have been digging hardcore through the H&G thread to learn more about the nutes. I would really like to add an RO filter to the room setup real soon.

I'm running a big high on the base ppm because i didn't do an awesome job cleaning the hydroton. Res water staying constant between 5.8-6 even with the Mag addition.

Ok so I definitely had a lil bit of a mag deficiency and the added mag in the res didn't quite do it so I mixed up a half gallon of Magic Green foliar last night and sprayed shortly after lights came on (lights on at 7p, sprayed about 8p). I noticed at the time that a few of the girls were already sporting pistils that had looked like they exploded out with overnight. I was really excited to see this as they've only been 12/12 for 4 days or so (going into the 5th cycle).

I went back in the room around 10pm just before leaving to go play a gig almost all of the plants had gotten all the proper color back. No chlorosis on the leaves and all the new sprouting growth looks happy.

I'll take more pics tonight when I get home (hopefully I can remember to do it right when the lights are coming on.

I also talked w/ a friend last night who's been using H&G and he said he doesn't even both PH'ing his water any longer. This cat knows his business well and has been in the game for many many years. I know what he's grown and it is 100% dank all the time.

ok here's some more pics of the room.

the boxes on the ceiling are sound boxes for my 8" vortex fans. The boxes were made with some fiber board, 1" stripping, a shitload of wood glue and screws. I had a friend fab them for me as the fans are attached to the ceiling and the vibration made for a lot of unnecessary noise.

everything is ducted with insulated ducting for heat purposes as well as sound purposes. Standard ducting is loud when you put that much air through it.

The intake has the regular ducting only because the fan used is just an inline booster fan to make the air flow a lil better. Intake has it's own venting on top of the garage to the outside and that filter is a hepa air conditioner filter. The exhaust has it's own roof cap as well.

I also put some pics of the pistil formations at day 4/5 of flower. I'm really stoked these CVK are showing so quick. My friend got monster yields from his outdoor hydro grow this summer and these clones came from his favorite plants out of 90 and all showed the same pheno so I have good expectations.

Next round I'm adding 2 more of those xxxl 8" hoods and rearranging the filter placement and fan box placement to accommodate better. These 8" vortex are rated for like 736cfm and the room is only 10-11' x 13' (without closet and entryway space.

ok so the kandy kush were too stretched and purple stemmed all the way through so I replaced them with 2 romulan and 3 durban 12's (durban skunk x romulan from harborside oakland)

the 5 new girls seem to be liking the 12/12 flip and the cvk are starting to show really nice hairs and flower formations. tonight I'll try to remember to snap some pics after the lights come on.

switched the flood to 3x a night, every 4 hours. 7pm, 11pm, 3am. lights go off at 7am.

The romulan seems to go back and forth between being really happy and not so happy and I'm not sure if they're seated deep enough in the buckets so I moved one of em down and will see how it rsponds tonight.

why do you put the lights on overnight?