First post - first DWC grow

I grew a few plants 15-20 years ago in soil, 400w HPS, etc.

Recently picked up a 4x4x6.5 tent. I bought 6 5 gal black buckets from home depot, plan is to have 5 plants and have the spare bucket to help with res changes.. will probably pick up a few more spares. Have a few 6" net pots and a few 8" ones.

I purchased a big air pump, 6 ports, I made my own 'bubble rings' for the bottom of the buckets. They seem to do alright, I'll run them for now and maybe pick up air stones later if those are better than what I have now.

Purchased a 600w Vivosun MH/HPS light with the air cool hood, then I ordered a 6" 440ish cfm fan, air duct hose, and a carbon scrubber.

I went with the GH nutes. Currently have 6 seeds or so germinating in paper towels, once they sprout I will cut rapid rooters down the middle and put the seeds in the rapid rooters and place them down in the net pots. I will have about a half inch to an inch of hydroton at the bottom of the net pots, put the rapid rooter down in there and place some more hydroton around the rapid rooter to stabilize it.

I have a ph meter, I do need a ppm meter or whatever they're called lol. Do you guys have any suggestions for one? Does my setup sound ok so far? I'm sure I will have tons more questions in the near future, just wanted to make my introductory post lol

I'm thinking even if a few don't sprout, I'll grow 2-3 this harvest just to get my feet wet with DWC, but my next run or two I will see about setting up a RDWC setup with a bigger central res. The seeds are from my first 1/8th I bought recreational here in IL. Strawberry Fields I think it was. One seed is random unknown bag seed. I ordered some AK47 seeds but I'll probably just hang on to them and my next crop I'm going to order something good. Just didn't want to spend a bunch of money on good seeds for my first try with hydro. I'd rather kill some bag seed plants

Brother, return your HPS. You can light that 4x4 with quality LED for less than $300. Unless you plan on buying a water chiller, the InfraRed heat from the HID on those black buckets is gonna make your grow a nightmare.

Airwalker16 said:

Brother, return you HPS. You can light that 4x4 with quality LED for less than $300

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lol.. see I originally ordered a 1000w (I know, not true watts) Bestva LED light. But then I got researching more and learned that those are not recommended. Started looking into QB's and figured that was way out of my price range. Figured a $160 600w HID light would do me better for now? I still have the bestva light.. doubt I can return it quick enough with all of this corona virus bs

What do you recommend for me? I'm definitely open to suggestions

2 of those if you want HLG warranty or just grab one of these right hurr for the same price as one of those....

Return your HPS and Bestva if you can. Just see if your Amazon order will allow you to do it. If not, it'll tell you when the return window closed. But as you can see, just spend the $250+50 shipping and get yourself a light that will make you happy. The difference in heat management compared to an HID is night and day difference. ESPECIALLY if you mount the driver outside your tent and dont leave it on top of the fixture.

Kinda reluctant to order anything from China at the moment, not because I'm afraid of the virus lol, but because I'd be afraid I would never receive the package or it'll take forever to arrive. After all of this crazy shit dies down, I will probably order one. I'm definitely going to try returning the bestva light. I'll keep the HID light even if I order one of those lights you posted, it's only $160 of the old fashioned 'golden standard' of grow lights. That and I also ordered the exhaust setup for it (also, just to mention this as well, my tent is directly below a vent in my basement. So I planned on taking the vent off, buying an elbow and running it down into the top of my tent. So cool AC air will be blowing in from the top, plus my fans in the tent - I should be alright on temps maybe.

But yes, no doubt I will order one of those lights from Meiju in the near future hopefully after this all blows over..

TurboSN95 said:

Kinda reluctant to order anything from China at the moment, not because I'm afraid of the virus lol, but because I'd be afraid I would never receive the package or it'll take forever to arrive. After all of this crazy shit dies down, I will probably order one. I'm definitely going to try returning the bestva light. I'll keep the HID light even if I order one of those lights you posted, it's only $160 of the old fashioned 'golden standard' of grow lights. That and I also ordered the exhaust setup for it (also, just to mention this as well, my tent is directly below a vent in my basement. So I planned on taking the vent off, buying an elbow and running it down into the top of my tent. So cool AC air will be blowing in from the top, plus my fans in the tent - I should be alright on temps maybe.

But yes, no doubt I will order one of those lights from Meiju in the near future hopefully after this all blows over..

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Well you see, when you order from Alibaba, you're in contact through email with the representative who send you a PayPal invoice you pay. You could get in to talks with them at least and ask what the time frame would be looking like? Just a thought. If you went with HLG, you'd get it in a matter of a couple days.