First time DWC. Advice greatly appreciated!!

After lurking around this site, I decided to pull the trigger. Living here in Michigan, and having my patient card, and a caregiver card, my dream is finally coming true.

I built a room that is 11x6x7. I will be dividing the room into 2 rooms within the next week or so. The room is wrapped with 5 mil mylar, and has a cement floor that is cooler then the room at all times " good for keeping the temps down in the buckets, I hope"

Equipment:

1000 watt digital ballast that is dimmable to 50% 75% 100%. 1000 mh bulb, and a 6" super cool hood. I got all that from HT supply for less then $400. They actually have a store kinda close by : ) I will be adding a second 1000 watt within 2 weeks. Also have 2 150 watt hps laying around, and another 150 watt mh.


5 gallon buckets
netpot lids
Advance nutrient A/B Grow A/B Bloom
bubble stones
Air bubblers
black tubing
Cloning try with some small CFLs
Phototron LOL, probably not gonna use that too much, and may just take the T5 lights out and make something cool from that.
digital PH tester with PH calibrating solution
6' duct from outside to the light, then 6' duct for exhaust. Fan goes after light. Currently have the inexpensive fan that you can pick up for $28.
Second 6' exhaust that will suck hot air from the top of the room into a homemade charcoal canister.

Should be up and running for a few test days today or tomorrow. I'm going to watch the temps, and decide if I will need a heating/cooling/humidity control unit.

Room is almost complete so pics coming soon.

Plan is to do a perpetual grow. Not going to do CO2 until I have completed at least 1 or 2 rounds.

I have a power box with 2 30 amp breakers, so should not have any power issues : )

I have been reading a lot, so I'm just looking for any "I wish I new this when I started advice" Thanks everyone, and happy smoking : )

small issues quickly become really bad ive found so just make sure u have clean water, no light leaks in the root area, plenty of oxygen and moisture on the roots and clean clean clean lol

Clean clean has been my motto so far : ) I did spray down the room with an organic mold and pest killer, before putting up the mylar. No light leaks : ) I was thinking that I may want the air pumps not in the same room, therefor cooler air, and more oxygen??? Water will be dialed in to the proper PH, and I will be starting with 25% of the recommended nutes. I was going to do a Ebb and flow, but wanted individual buckets to start out in case I did something dumb!!

Oh I'm using the grey buckets from Lowes, no light gets through those, and I have the net pot lids, and am going to use hydroton as my grow medium.

DWC is great if you get it right, you sound like youve got it pretty sussed to me

Thanks!!! Hoping I can get it right on the first run!!

I did on my first go and had amazing results, on 4th run now and finally having issues with algae which are a real c#*t do deal with im finding so keep your water clean lol

in a room like yours go ahead and plan on an ac and a dehumidifier. and upgrading to a real fan.

By keeping the water clean, I assume proper PH, and not letting light get into the bucket. When I drain the buckets, and put new water in, should I clean them first. I plan do this weekly, if so what would you recommend to clean it with??

I figured I would need an AC, and possibly a better fan. I'm currently shopping around for AC/Heater/dehumidifier with thermostat on craigslist. All and all even with an ac unit, and the second 1k light, I will be under $1500 for the entire setup, including building the room : )

Thanks for the advice!!!

I clean my buckets with hot bleach water.

No i mean no organic material in it such as in some tank water (like mine) and if youre using town water let it sit overnight to evaporate some of the chlorine etc. Yeah you should clean your buckets, i use diluted bleach and then rinse with vinegar and water to remove any chlorine left over (ive heard vinegar does this but dont quote me on it lol) food grade h2o2 is good for cleaning also. Yeah with 1000w lamps superstoners right a fan etc will become essential

I have well water, which is actually really tasty to drink : ) Good call on the bleach water to clean. Any idea on a safe amount to mix with say 1 gallon of water for cleaning, and amount of vinegar to mix with the water for rinsing??

hey man just started my first dwc setup and i thought i would share alllll the problems that i have encountered so far, buy Ph up and down, get PH 7.0 and decent PH Pen, get a quality 700 Series PPM pen. The city water vs ro water argument will never end. you can buy a britta filter for your sink that will remove pesticides and and poisons without removing to many hard nutrients like calcium and mg. Water temps in DWC, i just shelled out the 250 for a 1/10 hp chiller, i plan on a very cool water source to avoid the future head ache that is coming. I am also experiencing problems with my return drip lines for some reason, they stop start dripping and 1 wont drip at all, its either hose gravity or the pump already broke. good luck man, every day its something else with this damn DWC system, but at the same time, what i thought was just rediculous is actually pretty easy. Its pretty much like a salt water fish tank, ever ran one of those?

i just go by the instructions on the bottle lol, vinegar i just use a bit and swish it around then rinse with hot water. My tank water is nice aswell and has a really low ppm count but it still gave me algae so be careful. Maybe just boil it and cool before you use it.

Yeah thats true what ixisnowixi says, a ph pen or test kit and an ec/ppm meter is essential for accuracy or you can empty your resevoirs every other day but this will use heaps of nutrients so youll save by getting the pens

I have the digital PH pen, PH up and PH down, as well as the PH 7.0 and PH 4.01 to calibrate it. I did read when growing in water, to make sure to calibrate the pen both ways. Time to get building, pictures later tonight... I hope : )

tmoney im on the same pace ur at. im in the midwest and have been on this site quite a lot and have learned a lot. im gonna start a journal and add some stuff and ask ?s. cool thing about this its kinda hippie like how everyone offers real help. i like the way u seem to know what u know but arent to smart not to learn. im gonna watch for ur posts and try and keep up. i have some questions myself for others but need to run to garden store for some final things lol. peace

and thanks isnow cool info. im doing bubblers myself. it seems that is gives some nice results and is a simpler concept.

Ya for sure man. This site has tons of info on it for sure. Everything you need to know is right here. Pics still coming soon on this thread, just finishing up the mylar, and sealing the room up. : )

J.money I just started purchasing my set up yesterday but won't be growing for a few months. Since my set up will be similar to yours, I am interested in watching your progression. What DWC system are you using? Check out Mr. Green on youtube http://youtu.be/yTiwmiatH9g. He has some great tips and about the first 38 minutes are him setting up his grow rooms, while the rest has to do with the grow process. You have been talking about pics and I want to see them tonight!

josephDOTmoney said:

Any idea on a safe amount to mix with say 1 gallon of water for cleaning

Click to expand...

I use a splash.