First time growing

[Jsimo]

Hey all,

So I've been lurking around the site for a few weeks now trying to get some ideas for a grow. I had decided on the top fed dwc system i found on here with a few changes to try to make life easier during water tests and reservoir changes. Planning on 4 plants. And also planning on trying scrog.
I've got:
everything for the dwc system ( air pump, stones, hydroton, water pump/ manifold.
rapid rooters
GH nutrients/ph up & down and ph and tds meters.
Grow room is a 4x4x6 ipower tent
the light i got is a viparspectra 450w (im thinking i might have to grab another before flowing starts with this tent size)
Blue dream seeds on the way.
Exhaust will come shortly too, don't think i need to exhaust much until the smell gets overpowering as my basement is currently at 35% humidity and 65 degrees so I may need to keep all the humidity and heat I can in until flowing.
So with that being said I have a few questions.
1. am I missing anything?
2. How far down should the water level be below the net pots?
3. Can i start the seeds in the rapid rooters, and if so, should I wait until they sprout to start the top fed and bubbles?
4. Should the top feed be set to drip or a stream?

[Toker1]

1. Extraction fan to remove the heat build up from the light
2. At first only an inch or 2... but when the roots start dipping in the water 3-4 inches.
3. Yes & you can start the top drip right away.
4. Drip when they are young...stream as they get larger.

[Farmall]

My tops feed runs 15 minutes on every hour and has since it started after germination. Bubbles also from day one. Not sure on this one but I hear that algae elimination is very important and that 1/2” clear water level tube on the blue bucket would violate that rule as the light exposure thru it can cause algae to bloom. FWIW

[Jsimo]

1. Extraction fan to remove the heat build up from the light
2. At first only an inch or 2... but when the roots start dipping in the water 3-4 inches.
3. Yes & you can start the top drip right away.
4. Drip when they are young...stream as they get larger.

Awesome thank you!
I will have a fan coming soon, but i might need a bit of heat in there with it being 65 right now, plus I'm not sure if the led will build up much to begin with yet. But i will have one to control the environment the best i can and to use s filter to get rid of the smell.

[Toker1]

A watt is a watt. Doesn’t matter if it comes from an LED or an HPS. It’s a measurement of energy transfer in a moment in time. watts = heat. No matter what the source is.

[Jsimo]

My tops feed runs 15 minutes on every hour and has since it started after germination. Bubbles also from day one. Not sure on this one but I hear that algae elimination is very important and that 1/2” clear water level tube on the blue bucket would violate that rule as the light exposure thru it can cause algae to bloom. FWIW

Ok, I'll have to grab another timer then. I will have to see if i can find some blue tubing to limit the light as well. Being outside the tent it would get limited light from just from when I'm hanging out downstairs, but I don't want to take any chances either. Thank you!

[Farmall]

I treated 6 buckets to blue tint tubing... I have about 92’ left....hahahaha

[Mr.furley]

Get yourself a good Ph Test pen and if you have one, have you started to test your water?

[Jsimo]

Get yourself a good Ph Test pen and if you have one, have you started to test your water?

Yeah I have a ph pen and tds pen, i tested a glass of water and the readings were 6.9 ph and around 175 for tds so it appears I'll have to adjust the ph down depending on what the nutrients do to it

[Mr.furley]

Most nutes will drop you PH. Look forward to your grow, give us lots of pictures.

[Toker1]

How do you plan on keeping the water temps in control?

[Jsimo]

How do you plan on keeping the water temps in control?

Well if they get too hot I'll probably have to insulate the reservoir a bit, i have quite a but of portable ac unit duct insulation left (Pretty much a bubble wrap type stuff covered in a reflective surface) and worse comes to worse i can throw some frozen bottles in the outside reservoir. If it is too cool I'll grab an aquarium heater or something.

[Toker1]

The pumps from the top feed will warm up the water. You can reduce the heat input into the water by running the pumps on recycle timers.
Might want to invest in a water chiller if you can afford one.

[Jsimo]

I don't expect much heat issue until maybe summer which would be the next grow i imagine. I'm in Michigan so it's pretty cold here right now and will only get colder, i think having the bucket outside the tent and on the cold cement will help a bit, but if the pump introduces that much heat I'll probably turn it off all together once the roots get into the water. That's if running the pump on a timer doesn't do the trick. I'm a bit too strapped atm for a chiller so hopefully it doesn't come to that until the weather heats up again. This'll be a bit of a learning grow and I'm not expecting huge yield but it'll let me know how the environment changes once everything is fired up. Might get everything filled tonight again and turn the light on to see what happens to the water and tent temperatures. Just got the email that the seeds arrived today so hopefully i can get them put in this weekend, or maybe next weekend with this being a holiday weekend.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Your gonna do fine, HappyGrowing! !

[Toker1]

In that case... you can always turn off the top feed after the plant is well established and let the bubble ponics do the magic.

[Farmall]

The timers come with 96 little tabs on them each representing 15 minutes, so every 3 tabs the 4th in on. I think it was $11.00 ? It doesn’t even matter that the time is correct since it’s every hour no matter what. My nephew lives in Michigan, he says it’s freakin cold in winters.... I’m sure you’ll be good

[Jsimo]

The timers come with 96 little tabs on them each representing 15 minutes, so every 3 tabs the 4th in on. I think it was $11.00 ? It doesn’t even matter that the time is correct since it’s every hour no matter what. My nephew lives in Michigan, he says it’s freakin cold in winters.... I’m sure you’ll be good

I have one already for the led, they're pretty cheap, id steal the one for the Christmas tree but my fiance would kill me. Lol. And yeah, we've been waking up with an inch or two of snow that'll melt throughout the day for a few weeks now, it's about 32 degrees right now. Soon it'll just be all snow and I'll be getting the snowmobile out!

[Jsimo]

So i got the seeds today, 6 blue dream (fiance wanted that and that's mainly who will be smoking it) also got two free black Russian, and 1 white Widow. How hard would it be to manage 2 blue dream and 2 black Russian seeds in one room and reservoir? Is that just overcomplicating things with the possible nutrient needs differences and growth rates/heights? I'm planning on scrog so that and training might help the height thing until flowering. If it's just a bit of yield loss on the black Russian (assuming the sativa bd would stretch more so light would be set higher for that) i wouldn't be too hurt. But if there's s lot more complications ill just forget it. Or do one off stain and just assume it won't be perfect by keeping everything ideal for the blue dream.

[Jsimo]

Impatience got the best of me, going to try it! There seems to be a million ways to start seeds, I ended up putting them in my rapid rooters, putting a few clay pebbles in the bottom of Dixie cups with a quarter inch or so of ph'd water and then putting them under a plastic coffee can in the vicinity of a baseboard heater. I decided against trying to germinate in the tent due to the lower temperature. So hopefully that'll work, i imagine it'll get around 75-80 where it's at with where our heat is set (70°). Baseboards never really get to hot to touch or anything.

[Toker1]

I never ph adjust my seed or clone water (or at least not until they get older). I find I get the best results using plain tap water. But my tap comes out basically clean and neutral from the source.

[Jsimo]

Another timer arriving tomorrow with 15 minute increments for the pump, and bit the bullet and ordered another viparspectra 450. Next order will be the carbon filter and exhaust fan but for the time being I'm just gonna pipe it out the top (house had an old dryer vent to the outside that i foamed shut. I'll be cutting the foam out and it'll be functional) and I'll put a fan up to the intake of the tent.

This waiting game for the seeds to put is a killer though.