In need of some professional advice. (SWC)

Hello all, I'm new to this forum and to growing cannabis. I've been smoking the plant for over 8 years but just recently got the interest of actually growing.Let me start off from the beginning. I live with 3 women in a 1 bd apartment who have random people over at random times, so growing openly was out of the option, I started looking into "stealth" grow boxes that kind of fit my budget.
I stumbled upon something called the Cash Crop 2.7, its dimensions were 36" T x 16" W x 9.5" D. I intended it for 6 plants.(I did not do research before ordering it, stupid me). I also ordered seeds (Advanced Bio Diesel Mass and Heavyweight Fast and Vast). The Cash Crop 2.7 came with rapid rooter plugs and netpots, and so I germinated the seeds (100% success) and planted them. The cash crop2.7 introduces a small hydroponic system (SWC), per whos instructions i was to submerge netpots 1/4 ionch into small 1 gallon water reservoir. The seedlings rly liked it and grew pretty damn fast, on 2nd day the head came out of the rooter plugs and roots were reaching into the water from net potsView attachment 2910369. Then I had a buddy come over and ruin my excitement bubble by saying " dude that box will bearly fit 1 plant how r u gona grow 6?". After some thought, he was right, no way I can pull off 6 plants in there unless I want an eighth off of each plant. So I got this briliant idea to build my own bigger box, the entire idea cme to me from seeing how the cash crop 2.7 works. I went to home depot and some hydroponic stores around and spent exactly or a bit less than what I had to pay fro the cash crop 2.7 to assemble a box thats 3x times the size and has 5x times better equipment. The box's dimensions are 2 x 3 x 3 ft. I know its small but once again I gotta make it not so noticable and make it fit into the closet. Its an air tight box(future smell proof).
with a
4" 100 cfm fan blowing in
a 70cfm 4" fan inside rotation the air
,and a 6" 240 cfm fan as the exhaust.
I also mounted a 150w HPS light insid the box ( approx 2 feet from the plants),
As the reservoir Im using 2 5gal totes which i first taped over with white tape and over it foil tape.
Currently I have 3 plants per tote, with a round airstone pumping pretty huge amount of bubbles underneath each of the net pots.
I laso have 4 CVFL bulbs (6500k) suspended from the ceiling of the box approx 2-3 inches away from plants(planning to add 2 more, per calculations of lumens/sqft i need more, but once again im using a small space so i need professional advice on this too.)
Im using the eco air 1 commercial pump ( its strong and very quiet).
Here are pics of the box I made.
View attachment 2910383View attachment 2910382View attachment 2910379View attachment 2910377View attachment 2910378View attachment 2910380View attachment 2910381


Here are the current specs of my grow.
Air temp 75-90 (depending on night or day) during night i have an airduct that i extend out to the patio poutside to bring cooler air into the box to cool it down a bit( althought it doesnt rly need it)
water reservoir temp(65-70),
water ph levels- i do not let it get past 6.5 and not below 5.5. I use ph up and ph down from concentrate, I add litterally 1-2 drops ( small reservoir i was adviced to go drop by drop not to hurt the plants and to change reservoir every week.)
I remove plants from their reservoir ofcourse, while adjusting their ph levels.
I did not plant all seeds exactly in one day, 4 of them in one day, 3 more about a week later, I use rapid rooter plugs for all of them, I alsao have a 6pack of the plug container that i keep the babies in and just have hem sitting in 1/4 inch of ph adjusted water. i dont water them from top because the plugs are moist from me keeping them 1/4inch in water. I use distilled water only for my reservoir. I DO NOT use ANY nutrients yet, was advised not to til about 3rd - 4th week of grow.

SO to sum all of that up, I have 3 small(10 day old) plants that have been replanted into clean(none soaked in ph adjusted water) clay pebbles, I carefully helped the small long root coming from each rooter plug to go through the 5" net pots when replanting so that it hangs out a bit, then put the pebbles in all around. At the moment the ewater reservoir is barely touching the netpots, but the skinny roots are dangling in water right above air stone bubbles( little strong but i heard more bubbles dont hurt.) and the other 4 are still in rooter plugs.

Im still a bit confused about when to exactly replant the seedlings, I mean one of the 4 babies that I haveent replanted yet has roots all over sticking out of the rooter plug but no long string of a root from the bottom like the other 3, so im still not sure exactly how to plant it so that the roots get water and the rooter plug doesnt get soaked to damage the roots. But thats not the problem.

Heres my concernsorry for the long ass story but i think i had to bring you guys up to date to help you help me.) The plants( to me atleast) look fine? i mean I do not see any yellowing( only light green) but the plants look kinda small. I dont mean to sound jealous but i look at pics of other people that grow in soil and their plants look a bit bigger and beefier than mine. but once again this is the reason I came here to get advice from experts, im not expert to be able to tell and have no one IRL who i can really consult with, internet is my friend.

The plants that im talking about being small are about 1"-1 1/2" tall (from the rooter plugs) they all have their first and second set of leafs(after the initial two). They are not yellow, they do not have any yellow or brown spotting, they look a little bit light green. If you need pictures ill be glad to post them i just need to turn off my lights(they interfere with the color spectrum of the camara).
2 of the bigger babies kinda started "LEANING" a bit, the other one is straight as a pole.

OH one more important thing i really forgot to mention. Before i got my totes covered up and all, I was using a tote with a clear lid, I did not have enough tape to cover the lid, so i left it as is for about 2 days, the water temps got warm, and the same day i felt the water warm i threw that tote away and got myself the ones im using now. i did not see any significant damage or anything out of the ordinary with the roots.(once again not an expert). but the tote was covered with a bit of slime, not visible, but if u drag ur finger across the inside it will slide. After i replaced the tote and water reservoir along with airstones and air tubes, i started noticing SMALL pieces of this white/clear goo or snot looking like substance on curtain parts of the netpots. Its such a small amount you litterally wouldnt notice if you didnt look close. I immidiately took the plants out of those clay pebbles and washed and replaced the water reservoir once again. It has been about 10 hours now and I dod not see any slime since. thought id tell you this incase that has anythoing to do with slow growth.

I know most of you will tell me since I'm a first time grower to stay the fuck away from DWC or SWC for thats too much to handle for afirst timer and thats exactly what I will do probably, but I'd really like to make this work, so far I dont have any problems but the slow growth.

If you need anymore information and/or pictures please feel free to ask. Thank you before hand for reading this and trying to help out.

You are too hot for certain.
Anything over 85 stunts growth. The higher above that temp, the more the stunt.
You can supplement with Co2 but I really don't see how you can set that up in stealth.

There are those who will try to tell you that they grow around 90 and it is fine. Only reply I have to that is, get your temps right and see what a difference it makes.

You want around 80 during light, 65 during dark.
It is important to have a marked temp drop during the night cycle.

Not saying that is your only problem. I grow in soil, I have a hard time smoking hydro, I find the hydro flavor overwhelming in comparison.

Right now the air temp is in the low 70's (after night) usually the temp will not go past 85-87 during day, but i will post the temperature update around 3-4 pm to be sure. Only recently i got the fans(3 days ago) before that i just had the fan that i use now for circulation of air inside the box as the exhaust only, i had no intake fan just a 4" hole open to suck air in. since the fans have arrrived the temps are almsot perfect from what i have read, but once again i will post todays temp after 4-5pm

current water temperature(after night) 65F

Pics not showing up for me but sounds like a very nice start.

You should do a grow journal on the Vast And Fast. A lot of people seem to be interested in that strain, I have not seen any photos from a home grow on those and I've looked everywhere.

Here are the pics of the fast and vast plants that I think are growing a bit slow(7 days old not including 2 days of germination)


Here is a picture of my setup, the airpump is outside and feeding air through a 10 ft tube, i put it outside the box so it would blow cooler air into the reservoir, i figurted thats the only way to keep the reservoir colder than the air temp, is to pump colder air into it.


here is how much the root is exposed on each plant, its dangling in the water bubbles.



This is the plant that Im not sure when or how exaclty to replant it into clay pebbles without getting the rooter plug soaked:


and finally here is a pic of the water reservoir, please tell me if thats too many bubble or thats too strong, i have a way of lowering it a bit.

Air temp just spiked to 85, since i put the air duct back inside, still monitoring it, im gona get a digital humidity/therometer in the next 2 days so i can post temp exactly to the decimal point.


So far 0 traces of any kind of clear/white slime, 10 hours after changing reservoir.

Im about to go buy a digital Thermometer/Hygrometer, figures the one that im using to measure room temp is a "Floating Thermometer for aquariums", i dont know if it makes a difference in the actual reading i mean temperature is temperature, but to be safe ima get one so i can also know the humidity. I tested the EC of my water reservoir, its 0.2, is that bad? is so how would i go about raising it?

Quick update:

Ph water reservoir - 6.1
Humidity level 25%
Air temp 88F
Water temp 71.7f
EC 0.2

Hey deyjdyjjian, the pic or link u posted didnt work

Morning update(7:00 AM) :
Ph was 7.1, readjusted to 5.5
air temp 81F
water reservoir temp: 69.5
E.C 0.2
Humidity 35%


no change noticed in the growth of the plants, except the ones that have not been planted yet

Kontraband said:

Pics not showing up for me but sounds like a very nice start.

You should do a grow journal on the Vast And Fast. A lot of people seem to be interested in that strain, I have not seen any photos from a home grow on those and I've looked everywhere.

Click to expand...

I will try to as long as I can keep them alive xD haha

I don't think you are as far behind as you may think you are. It takes them a good week or two after breaking surface to really start growing vigorously. 88 air-temp is too high though. I know it is difficult to work temps down, I have gone through it a few times myself, but it will pay off to try. Once again, 88 isn't going to kill it or even harm it very much. It will slow it down though. Also if your temps are inconsistent, going from 80-88-80- etc. it can cause hermie issues in sensitive strains.

Hey all i just got back from work to find my plants suffering ((

air temp was 94 and water temp was 74, I completely washed out and changed the water in the reservoir, the ph is at 6.0.

I'm afraid Ill have to switch to full on fluorescents or those new LED lights, since they dont create much heat.....

Also I think I might have a slight beginning case of Pythium, the water reservoir smells like a "FISH TANK" litterally.... and found some white resedue on my air tubes...

I have not gotten aroun d tpo getting the Dutch Masters Zone yet and i wont be able to probably until next Monday.....

I really hope that Dutch Master stuff will help me a bit...... Im gona turn off my CFL's over night and see what the difference is with just having the HPS working, if it goes back to the same temps ill just use Fluorescents.