This is my first time growing. I decided to go for the bubbleponics route because hydroponics was always interesting to me and I wanted to make a kinda stealthy indoor set-up, odor-free. I've been reading a lot about bubbleponics and weed in general, took me a while to decide what exactly I was going to buy and build, and the list of parts was longer than I had expected.
Apparently in my country, things are kinda cheap to build yourself compared to what I've been reading. That's why I decided to go for cob leds, cheapest option, not much price difference between them and CFLs. My total cost (including coolers, water and air pump, etc) was about ~100 usd dollars. I built it inside half of my wardrobe, since I basically never used that part. It's kinda small but I think it's enough for one plant, even though I'm growing like 4 or 5 right now until I pick the strongest female looking one. Or something similar.
The gear:
Lights: 4x cob leds 50w each. Yes, those cheap driverless ones. I may or may not add some CFL lights later if I see the need, especially in the flowering stage. I put them together myself, bought a proper heatsink and a cooler (same one as the ventilation ones)
Ventilation: just 1 intake and 1 exhaust 4inch "pc coolers". Rated at ~104CFM. Super overkill. They gave me these by mistake, I had actually bought ones that were rated at 50-60CFM (which also were overkill, even with 25CFM I would have more than enough).
Pumps: 15w water pump, 880liters/hour. Air pump with 2 outlets, 4.5liters/minute (270l/h). I am quite happy with them, the caudal from the water pump looks good and together with the air pump, they move the water a lot. I am using 2 small air stones, big ones are cheap and I could buy them, but I really don't see the need right now.
Tools: 1x PHmeter (the cheap one recommended at growweedeasy.com), 1x thermometer suitable for water
Nutriments: Local. This at first was an issue because I couldn't find what was inside any of them unless the product was imported (this is extremely expensive). Luckily I found a local website that produces them themselves with a lot of information about what they do, which basically makes me trust them a lot. And they even give you their own PH+ and PH- !
Rockwool cubes: is there any other option? Rapid rooters and similar stuff doesn't exist here.
Soon: SCRoG!
The seeds: I don't know what they are. A friend gifted a lot of seeds to me after some of her plants went hermaphrodite.At this date, they are about 2 years old. Maybe even 3.
The journey:(dd/mm) (you can click any image to see the bigger version in imgur, and here's the current post's album: https://imgur.com/a/q7xwmv1 )
4th of February: germination process begins. Started with 2 plates and a kitchen paper. Plan is to finish building the lights and etcetera while the germination takes place.
5/02: I noticed it was drying too fast. Switched to an airtight tupper.
6/02: first roots sprout on one seed.
7/02: all seeds have roots. Some of them get too big. I'm in full panic mode. My wardrobe is not even close to being ready. I thought this would take longer... these are years old seeds! I spend 12+ hours finishing everything, it's summer, the afternoon is really hot. At around 11pm I put the germinated seeds inside cubes of rockwool. I find out the tubes I am using for the water pump are so thick and big, it's really really hard to bend them and make them stay in place. I spend hours trying to fix the issue. At about 2-3am I finish... I haven't turned on the lights yet.
The ph'd water with nutrimets is at a PH of 6.2. A little bit on the edge, I know I will have to check and correct it soon probably.
8/02: 2 seeds break the surface. At 8pm I turn on the lights for the first time.
9/02: leds are on a timer of course, it's set to run on a 18/6 schedule (from 12am to 6am lights are off). At around 2am I notice leds emit small amounts of light. More on this later.
10/02: I check the PH for corrections for the first time. It's up to 6.5. I get it down to 5.8. Water temperature is at 31ºc. I know they like hotter temperatures at this stage (with max being 30ºC) but it still worries me.
I notice that the tubes of the waterpump have some rockwool in them. This is because I cut some rockwool to make space for the tubes and make them stay still. The loose parts apparently got inside.
I don't think it can clog the pump, and I had already planned to change the tubes for smaller ones, so I don't see an issue.
At this point I'm also considering changing the bucket for a more horizontal container. Those are hard to find here, and most of them are made of CLEAR plastic.
Apparently in my country, things are kinda cheap to build yourself compared to what I've been reading. That's why I decided to go for cob leds, cheapest option, not much price difference between them and CFLs. My total cost (including coolers, water and air pump, etc) was about ~100 usd dollars. I built it inside half of my wardrobe, since I basically never used that part. It's kinda small but I think it's enough for one plant, even though I'm growing like 4 or 5 right now until I pick the strongest female looking one. Or something similar.
The gear:
Lights: 4x cob leds 50w each. Yes, those cheap driverless ones. I may or may not add some CFL lights later if I see the need, especially in the flowering stage. I put them together myself, bought a proper heatsink and a cooler (same one as the ventilation ones)
Ventilation: just 1 intake and 1 exhaust 4inch "pc coolers". Rated at ~104CFM. Super overkill. They gave me these by mistake, I had actually bought ones that were rated at 50-60CFM (which also were overkill, even with 25CFM I would have more than enough).
Pumps: 15w water pump, 880liters/hour. Air pump with 2 outlets, 4.5liters/minute (270l/h). I am quite happy with them, the caudal from the water pump looks good and together with the air pump, they move the water a lot. I am using 2 small air stones, big ones are cheap and I could buy them, but I really don't see the need right now.
Tools: 1x PHmeter (the cheap one recommended at growweedeasy.com), 1x thermometer suitable for water
Nutriments: Local. This at first was an issue because I couldn't find what was inside any of them unless the product was imported (this is extremely expensive). Luckily I found a local website that produces them themselves with a lot of information about what they do, which basically makes me trust them a lot. And they even give you their own PH+ and PH- !
Rockwool cubes: is there any other option? Rapid rooters and similar stuff doesn't exist here.
Soon: SCRoG!
The seeds: I don't know what they are. A friend gifted a lot of seeds to me after some of her plants went hermaphrodite.At this date, they are about 2 years old. Maybe even 3.
The journey:(dd/mm) (you can click any image to see the bigger version in imgur, and here's the current post's album: https://imgur.com/a/q7xwmv1 )
4th of February: germination process begins. Started with 2 plates and a kitchen paper. Plan is to finish building the lights and etcetera while the germination takes place.
5/02: I noticed it was drying too fast. Switched to an airtight tupper.
6/02: first roots sprout on one seed.
7/02: all seeds have roots. Some of them get too big. I'm in full panic mode. My wardrobe is not even close to being ready. I thought this would take longer... these are years old seeds! I spend 12+ hours finishing everything, it's summer, the afternoon is really hot. At around 11pm I put the germinated seeds inside cubes of rockwool. I find out the tubes I am using for the water pump are so thick and big, it's really really hard to bend them and make them stay in place. I spend hours trying to fix the issue. At about 2-3am I finish... I haven't turned on the lights yet.
The ph'd water with nutrimets is at a PH of 6.2. A little bit on the edge, I know I will have to check and correct it soon probably.
8/02: 2 seeds break the surface. At 8pm I turn on the lights for the first time.
9/02: leds are on a timer of course, it's set to run on a 18/6 schedule (from 12am to 6am lights are off). At around 2am I notice leds emit small amounts of light. More on this later.
10/02: I check the PH for corrections for the first time. It's up to 6.5. I get it down to 5.8. Water temperature is at 31ºc. I know they like hotter temperatures at this stage (with max being 30ºC) but it still worries me.
I notice that the tubes of the waterpump have some rockwool in them. This is because I cut some rockwool to make space for the tubes and make them stay still. The loose parts apparently got inside.
I don't think it can clog the pump, and I had already planned to change the tubes for smaller ones, so I don't see an issue.
At this point I'm also considering changing the bucket for a more horizontal container. Those are hard to find here, and most of them are made of CLEAR plastic.
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