Dropa Dope My First Grow Journal 400 Watt RDWC 02/17/2010

[dmoose]

Your closet is Looking real Pro! I LOVE the idea of dual exhaust blowers and passive intake. hehehe Now you could build a small light box to block any reflection and/or direct light in the 5" gap, and attach it right to the door covering the holes. It should not restrict any airflow. The modifications to date, may be enough to cure your heat problem. The Chiller should be a HUGE Bonus.

You're doing GREAT!

 

[isthislegal]

Hey Drop, thanks for posting this man, I have the exact same closet, attic above and everything. I had been wondering how i would mount everything, but your pics cleared that up for me. Its much appreciated. Can I PM you??

 

[Dropastone]

Hey Drop, thanks for posting this man, I have the exact same closet, attic above and everything. I had been wondering how i would mount everything, but your pics cleared that up for me. Its much appreciated. Can I PM you??

Sure man anytime and thanks for checking out my thread. Welcome aboard.

 

[Dropastone]

Your closet is Looking real Pro! I LOVE the idea of dual exhaust blowers and passive intake. hehehe Now you could build a small light box to block any reflection and/or direct light in the 5" gap, and attach it right to the door covering the holes. It should not restrict any airflow. The modifications to date, may be enough to cure your heat problem. The Chiller should be a HUGE Bonus.

You're doing GREAT!

Thanks dmoose. I can't wait to get the chiller it will be here on Monday and I'm gonna defiantly get a bigger pump too. I like the idea of circulating the a water at a faster rate of speed. The pump I got now is a 66 gph and I'm lucky if it will do 5 gph, it will defiantly put my mind at ease. plus I'm still gonna get those buckets painted white so that should help a lot to.

 

[Dropastone]

Okay here's the deal I started out last night @ 9:00pm and it went like this. With my bedroom door open the whole time I wanted to get two different readings with door open and the door closed. Tonight I'm gonna get my readings with the door closed the whole time, which should be a lot better and reduce the heat even more.

09M 74.3
10M 75.4
11M 76.5
12:AM 77.4
01:AM
02:AM
03:AM
04:AM
05:AM
06:AM
07:AM 80.8
08:AM 81.6
09:AM 82.5
10:AM 83.4
11:AM 85.4
12M 86.2
01M 87.3
02M 88.1
03M 88.8

The longer the light is on the temp is gradually increasing hour by hour. Before making my adjustments it would have been @ 88.8 maybe even 90 by 7:00 Am. So instead of it hitting 90 fast it's taking a lot longer to hit that 90 degree mark. So now I think when I get the buckets painted white and the chiller hooked up I'll see more of an improvement with my temps.

What I think is happening is that my res is acting like a heat sink and absorbing all the heat throughout the day even the walls are absorbing the heat and gradually increasing my temps throughout the day.

I think I can live with my recent findings if I can get the final temp throughout the whole day to around 85 degrees because it's acting just like it would in nature, a gradual increase from dawn till dusk.

Another observation I made was that in the last 3 hours in the light cycle my fan leaves are getting droopy. Yesterday @ 3:00 pm at lights out my leaves were droopy. This morning they were looking real good and looked good all day until noon and they were droopy again. So the high temps at the end of the day is taking it's toll on my plants.

I'll post my next set of findings tomorrow evening.

 

[colbalt...blue]

been a while and alot of changes. remember i had the brown leaf problem? i raised the the nute level (moved the recommended dose forward a week) and now no browning on any of the new shoots. drooping leaves at the end of the light cycle? snap ... me too, i don't worry about at the mo coz like you said, in the morning they are pert and upright again. i was running around worrying about temp and humidity etc etc and suddernly thought "relax". glad i did, saved a fortune on various gismos.

this light box that doesn't restrict airflow, any info on how to build one? sounds like just what i need.

if you don't mind dropa i have a few pics of the girls i can post to show how they have come on since my brown leaf prob.
your babes are getting chunky despite the leaf probs.

 

[Dropastone]

What's up dude? Yeah it's been a little while since I heard from ya, glad you stopped back by. I haven't had anymore problems with brown leaves and they're looking pretty healthy at the moment. As far as the temp goes yeah I've been obsessing a little but I don't nothing else better to do.
Actually I think I'm done obsessing. I'm getting some great results today and I'm not gonna worry about my temps anymore. I'll post my finding a little later. I just wanna know what's going on in there at all times so I can better understand the operation of my setup better. Two more changes are still to come, I'll be starting on those tomorrow.

As far as the light box goes I haven't got to that yet. I may not even use it I'm going to Lowes today to get some type of dark filter for my intake it should block most of the light. If not I'll build a light box and this is the best way for me to describe it. In my case I think it would be like building a rectangular box with the top and sides removed you know like a u shape then screw it to the inside of the door. Another Idea I had was to build an L shaped box. 1 side screwed to the door and the other side pointing down towards the floor.

dmoose might chime in and have a better idea for ya. He's been pushing me in the right direction for a little while now.

Hey colbalt, you got a grow journal if so post a link. If not you should start one and I'll subscribe for sure.

 

[Dropastone]

It's like night and day the temps held steady until around 11 am. At first it started out rough like a ten degree difference in the first hour, I never noticed that before until today.

Here are the results.

09M 73.7
10M 83.1
11M 83.6
12:AM 83.4
01:AM 83.3
02:AM 82.0
03:AM Sleeping
04:AM Sleeping
05:AM Sleeping
06:AM Sleeping
07:AM 82.0
08:AM 81.5
09:AM 81.5
10:AM 82.0
11:AM 83.8
12M 85.8
01M 86.9
02M 88.1
03M 88.8

Got my chiller and florashield today. I'm getting ready to do some shopping here in little while and I'll post another update tomorrow after I make some more alterations.

 

[colbalt...blue]

glad to hear it's under control. you are right to monitor everything, as far as i'm aware the bible on DWC hasn't been written yet so every little helps. i'm about 14 - 16 days ahead of you on my grow.

journal? maybe after this one i'll journal my next grow.

here's something to cheer you up, my landlord is having the flat totally rewired ... shit ... i have a plan that will stall him till after harvest. however his guys are coming round to assess the job next week so i'll have to have the girls without power for about 20 mins.

after harvest i'll break the room completely down and store everything in the attic. rewire, plaster and paint. seems a bummer but hey i want to do a bit of a re-design any-hows and it would be difficult with clones on the hatch.

yeah would love some details on the light box .. sort of get what ur saying but would love a link if anyone has one. cheers

 

[Dropastone]

That sucks sorry to hear about that. Are you gonna hold him off that long until harvest? What if those guys want to assess your apt now?

 

[Dropastone]

So I went to Lowes and I found this.

Easy to install just push it in. Take them out every week or two then wash'em and reuse'em

If for some reason that don't work out I got some green scotch bright pads and some Velcro. I'll just Velcro them to the door.

Got my chiller today and I'll be installing it tomorrow.

Tomorrow should be it as for modifying my grow room and I'll be glad because I'm tired of messing with it. I just want to sit back and let it do it's thing.

Peace

 

[isthislegal]

lookin good bro, i'm still with ya!

 

[colbalt...blue]

That sucks sorry to hear about that. Are you gonna hold him off that long until harvest? What if those guys want to assess your apt now?

thanks dropa it's just an initial visual first. no digging around. anyhows my setup is in a locked storage cupboard i'll just tell em i'm storing some stuff for someone and i'll get the key asap if they want to look. no visible electrics or intakes/exhaust. sound and light proofed. well .. that's the theory anyway .

how will i hold them off that long? erm ... can i PM you?

been thinking about designs for a light box and i think i've come up with a cheap, easy to make solution. i'll do some tinkering and let you know.

love ur chiller, here's hoping it works out sweet. and the light filters on the intake seem to block out most of the light. nice job

 

[Dropastone]

Yeah You can pm me dude. It sounds like you got a nice little setup. I painted my buckets and I just got done hooking everything up. I had to get my Coleman cooler and put it in my bathtub. I filled it with water and put cpl of boards across it to support my net pots. They must have been in there for about four hours and were looking a little wilted. I filed my buckets and put some florashield in there the directions say to just put florashield and and let it circulate for about an hour before adding nutes. Now my babies are looking real sick. I'm not sure whats going on. They're in the night cycle now. I think I might wait till 9:00 O clock tonight when the lights come on and see what they look like before I add any nutes.

 

[josh420stillblowed]

lookin good bro just dropin to see the new mods and to see the grow have the plants gotten any bigger?

 

[Dropastone]

lookin good bro just dropin to see the new mods and to see the grow have the plants gotten any bigger?

Hey josh thanks for checking in dude. Yeah they're getting bigger. I was a little freaked out earlier because they weren't looking so hot. All that time in the cooler really stressed them out and they were looking real pitiful. I just checked on them a few minutes ago and they're coming around. I got the chiller set for 68* but it hasn't went below 72* I'm still feeling it out. I want to post some pics but I want my plants to snap back and looking normal before I do. Hopefully later today or tomorrow for sure.

 

[josh420stillblowed]

alright man keep us posted

 

[LEDZEP]

Dropa...where did you end up putting the chiller?

 

[Dropastone]

Dropa...where did you end up putting the chiller?

It sets outside my closet in my bedroom. I bought a Sunterra pump @ 130 gph and I got it cranked. When the lights are on the temp still rises but it hasn't went past 75 and it hasn't went below 72 at night and that's a good 10 degree difference. If I can't get it droped past 72 I'm thinking I should just set the chiller at 72 so that it doesn't work so hard. I'm curious to see how low it will get tonight. I'm just wondering if I move the chiller into my grow room if it will cool better because I got about a total of 15 feet of hose running to and from the res and that probably makes my pump work a lot harder. Is yours well ventilated? The instructions say to have 2 feet of space between the back and sides of the unit to allow for proper ventilation and I only have about 10 inches of space. It's only been one day so well see how it responds in the next couple of days. I'll post some pics tonight when the lights come on for sure, even though my plants still look stressed. I'm hoping they will recuperate more tonight and look better in few hours when the lights come on. I never would have thought that moving them to the cooler and back to the res would have done that to them. I still haven't given them any nutes yet but I'm starting to wonder if I should.

Peace.

 

[LEDZEP]

It sets outside my closet in my bedroom. I bought a Sunterra pump @ 130 gph and I got it cranked. When the lights are on the temp still rises but it hasn't went past 75 and it hasn't went below 72 at night and that's a good 10 degree difference. If I can't get it droped past 72 I'm thinking I should just set the chiller at 72 so that it doesn't work so hard. I'm curious to see how low it will get tonight. I'm just wondering if I move the chiller into my grow room if it will cool better because I got about a total of 15 feet of hose running to and from the res and that probably makes my pump work a lot harder. Is yours well ventilated? The instructions say to have 2 feet of space between the back and sides of the unit to allow for proper ventilation and I only have about 10 inches of space. It's only been one day so well see how it responds in the next couple of days. I'll post some pics tonight when the lights come on for sure, even though my plants still look stressed. I'm hoping they will recuperate more tonight and look better in few hours when the lights come on. I never would have thought that moving them to the cooler and back to the res would have done that to them. I still haven't given them any nutes yet but I'm starting to wonder if I should.

Peace.

I have mine on concrete out in a garage. It has to keep things warm now cause we had some storms come through and it's kinda cool. I read not to put it on carpet. If you have to put it on carpet, get a tile or somthing hard and flat to put under it. Also try slowing the pump a little. I have mine hooked up to an adjutable 80-160gph pump and I have it about a 1/4 from the slowest setting so there is a slower flow of water. It is surrounded by the cabinet and some other things in the room and doesnot have the 2' around it but it gets plety of air. What is your pump room temp? Is there a chance the water is heating up before it reaches the res? you can always insulate the outflowing water line??? I don't have to pump mine that far, I wonder if that is causing it to work so hard and heat up? How hot does your grow room get? The pump won't really work good if the ambient temp is 85*-90*. You can always try running it closer and see if that does it. I haven't really tested its cooling ability when the outside air is 78*+
I'll keep watching keep us posted
Peace