Balls Out First Grow(Whie Widow Scrog, 430w Son Agro Aircooled, DWC, CO2)

cruzer101 said:

Hi Integra, once again very impressed.

You seem to have thought of everything this round. I hadnt seed the Hydrogen miniGen before. Sounds like although it takes a few minutes to get going its doing the job just fine. Very nice man. When the ppms drop frow 1500 to 1400 right away had you considered the fact CO2 is heaver than air and placement of your meter may have something to do with it?

I've seen those dual ballasts. Im considering one myself but I dont like the fact that if I had problems with it both lights are out. Looks like about a 20% savings vs. buying two though. BTW, do you notice any static on your phone or trouble with satilite signal (like direct tv) while its on? I hear they fixed that on the new ones.

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Here we go,
The co2 ppms shouldnt drop like they do just because the room is sealed and there are 3 decent sized fans moving the air around so the co2 doesnt settle. One of which is directly under the MiniGen. So its getting sucked out somehow. I suspect my dual hose ac. The minigen is also brand new, just came out like a month ago, so not many people have seen it. I does get the job done, but runs almost continuously during lights on. I was worried the propane would run out fast, but it has been on since Sunday and still going strong.
As far as the ballast, I had the same concerns originally, but as soon as I get the exta cash, I'm going to buy a backup ballast, which is never a bad idea. I get no interfence at all with anything at my house, but I have cable, not dish. But one thing to keep in mind with the dual is it only comes in 240v, so you'll need an outlet and a timmer for that. Its not hard to wire if you have open slots in your breeaker box and is fairly cheap($20). The 240v ones are also supposed to be up to 20% more efficient than the standard 120v.

cruzer101 said:

I hope you dont mind all my questions, its just that you just did what I been wanting to do.
The CO2 in such a small area. Whats your cubic footage and cycle?

I found with my thermostat set at 86° My cab kept exhausting the co2.

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To pull of the co2, you really need to be able to seal your room(cab). I did this by installing a dual hose ac, which isnt supposed to suck out all of the co2, but it might be doing it anyway. There are options that would work for you, but will cost some $$$. Setinel for example has a co2 controller and an environmental controller that can be set to raise co2, but when the exhaust fan kicks on, it turns off the co2, and then resumes it when the fan turns off. But you would have to find a way to keep it from kicking on so much. Best guess would probly be aircooling the light on its own and having a seperate exhaust fan. If it still comes on all of the time, maybe adding IceBoxed to your lights. But when you had your setup on before, did you have the light always cooled and a seperate exhaust fan, or just the exhaust hooked to the light and it came on all the time because the light heat wasnt being removed? That might solve your problem right there.

dude thats a pretty nice crop ill share mine as soon as i figure out how 2 post! but 33 Gs really? i had about 8 ww plants croped at about 157Gs well for your first go around you did a really fantastic job!! MAD PROPS its a full time job!!

letsGOburn1 said:

dude thats a pretty nice crop ill share mine as soon as i figure out how 2 post! but 33 Gs really? i had about 8 ww plants croped at about 157Gs well for your first go around you did a really fantastic job!! MAD PROPS its a full time job!!

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You didnt make it through the whole journal, did you? That was technically 3 grow and was just an expiriment to see what I could get with one plant. It was riddled with mites and had other health issues. Look back to the actual first one, White Widow=9.75oz. Then a kush set that died on me, then the test mango, and now revamped room running blue kush. Im pretty sure I will get a better weight this round than with the mango, but you never know. Sometime shit just happens. If any of the above interests you, feel free to look back through the whole journal, tons of info and pics, just to entice you a little, here's a shot of the white widow a week before chop.....

Great journal bro! very well done. +rep

I guess I need to spread the love around. Wouldn't let me rep you again.

cazador said:

Great journal bro! very well done. +rep

I guess I need to spread the love around. Wouldn't let me rep you again.

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Thanks alot Cazador. Glad you liked it. Time to burn one and check on the girls.

Integra21 said:

So its getting sucked out somehow. I suspect my dual hose ac. The minigen is also brand new, just came out like a month ago, so not many people have seen it.

As far as the ballast, I had the same concerns originally, but as soon as I get the exta cash, I'm going to buy a backup ballast, which is never a bad idea. I get no interfence at all with anything at my house, but I have cable, not dish. But one thing to keep in mind with the dual is it only comes in 240v, so you'll need an outlet and a timmer for that. Its not hard to wire if you have open slots in your breeaker box and is fairly cheap($20). The 240v ones are also supposed to be up to 20% more efficient than the standard 120v.

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Yea, sounds like a leak alright. I assume you are hooked up to a 5gal propane bottle. I would like to know how long it lasts.
This dual hose ac is new to me also. Gonna check that out.

I didnt know the dual 600 only came in 240v I was looking at the 250w and I thought it was 110v I will have to look again.
I have a friend who has Direct tv and wanted to know.

Thanks for the info bud, I'll be hanging around.

cruzer101 said:

Yea, sounds like a leak alright. I assume you are hooked up to a 5gal propane bottle. I would like to know how long it lasts.
This dual hose ac is new to me also. Gonna check that out.

I didnt know the dual 600 only came in 240v I was looking at the 250w and I thought it was 110v I will have to look again.
I have a friend who has Direct tv and wanted to know.

Thanks for the info bud, I'll be hanging around.

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I think the dual 250w comes in 120v. But as far as your co2, did you have the light cooled and a seperate exhaust, or just the exhaust hooked to the light?

Integra21 said:

Density varried. Mango was fairly dense, but not as dense as the widow. With these new 600's, hoping for real dense.

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With what you know now would you have waited a couple of weeks to save for 6oo's off the bat or would you have done it the same and still gone with the 400?
Reason i ask is I'm about to start a test grow with a 400wHPS I came across. Trouble is, if I wait a few weeks i can go with a 600...
I figure I can start and veg with the 400 and hope I get the 600 in time...

hightyde27 said:

With what you know now would you have waited a couple of weeks to save for 6oo's off the bat or would you have done it the same and still gone with the 400?
Reason i ask is I'm about to start a test grow with a 400wHPS I came across. Trouble is, if I wait a few weeks i can go with a 600...
I figure I can start and veg with the 400 and hope I get the 600 in time...

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And thats exactly what I did. If I started with the 600, I think i would have had more to deal with. I think starting with the 400w was still the right choice and now I have it for a great veg light. But I also didnt have the means of starting with a 600w even if I wanted to. If your tight on money, I would definetly stick with the 400w, by then you will have a better understanding of what you want and how to make it work best for you. But if in any way you feel like you want to start out with the bigger one, dont hold back on my account.

That's actually really good to hear. Thanks! I'm gonna reference your journal, if you don't mind.

I currently have one 400 watt, and am planning to buy another 400 watt and put them both in air cooled hoods.

I have a kick ass veg light- a 4ft 6 bulb T5 which outputs if I was told right nearly as much as a 400 watt and can be put closer.

A thousand is a little out of my reach. But a 600 is a little under. The two 400's should have great coverage in my 4x5 room, sitting right over each's own DWC rez.

But I am afraid that 400's just don't have the penetration of depth... They don't fatten the bottom up. Even if I put two in- the light will phade before it reaches the lowest branches. This is much of what I am trying to avoid with the upgrade. What are your thoughts on light range and penetration? and what I should do?

Love the set up, read it all. Silent observer.

i cant belive more people arent posting. looks really good. i grow the same strain in soil and you get about the same yields for such a small plant but your hydro should be far more over all. I'm also firing up hydro at this time.... good work on this post too. thats very time consuming.

blueorganics said:

i cant belive more people arent posting. looks really good. i grow the same strain in soil and you get about the same yields for such a small plant but your hydro should be far more over all. I'm also firing up hydro at this time.... good work on this post too. thats very time consuming.

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Thanks. It can take up some time, but its how I keep track as well, so its worth it. First person I met who had the Blue Kush genetic on here. This grow should definetly be better than any of the previous ones. Sit back and enjoy the show. and now on with a new update.....

Blue Kush
Day 7 Flowering
Co2 ppm: 1450



And here's the veg room as promised. I put the last pic here for refrence to the size of the piss mom
Piss Mom

New Blue Kush mom

Hopefully new Mango Mom

The Blue Kush clones going into flower tomorrow

and just one of my new flower tub being filled tomorrow

This was just a quick update, the next should be better. Had spent my whole weekend cleaning up the natural disaster in my basement. I was out on Saturday night and when I got home, heard the sound of rushing water. Went downstairs and the basement was flooded with 2" of water. It has wall to wall carpet. Aparently the water in line to the drain to waste valve for the MiniGen had poped off and flooded my entire room about 8" deep. The entire flower tub was submerged. Messed the nutrients up to 400ppm and 7.1ph. Spent the hole weekend sucking up water and drying my carpets. really sucked. After the water was soaked up, change the tub out with a fresh batch of nutrients. If you look closely, you can see the dried water dropplets on the walls. Hope I never have to fix a disaster like this again.

Ugh, I had just about decided (today, actually) that a HydroGen was the way to go and then I read that story - doesn't sound good as I've already flooded my garage without adding more possible issues.

Other then that, things are looking very nice - BTW, what size neoprene inserts are those?

Can't sleep (happens a lot when I'm planning shit in my head) and I'm thinking of building an aero-cloner, but I'd need some fairly large inserts (my 1.5" won't hold the massive clones I'll need to take).

Bob Smith said:

Ugh, I had just about decided (today, actually) that a HydroGen was the way to go and then I read that story - doesn't sound good as I've already flooded my garage without adding more possible issues.

Other then that, things are looking very nice - BTW, what size neoprene inserts are those?

Can't sleep (happens a lot when I'm planning shit in my head) and I'm thinking of building an aero-cloner, but I'd need some fairly large inserts (my 1.5" won't hold the massive clones I'll need to take).

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Dont let that discourage you Bob. I have real high water pressure and not really the best part(the one that failed. It was in so way the MiniGen's fault and I promise, should never happen with a res, mine is drain to waste. They are 3" inserts that fit my Heavy Duty 3" pots.

Integra21 said:

Dont let that discourage you Bob. I have real high water pressure and not really the best part(the one that failed. It was in so way the MiniGen's fault and I promise, should never happen with a res, mine is drain to waste. They are 3" inserts that fit my Heavy Duty 3" pots.

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Yeah, not too worried about it - I'd be using about a 25 gallon reservoir, and even if that flooded, my garage has concrete floors

BTW Integra, was reading over the Hydro Innovations FAQs page, and they describe exactly the issue that you're having with condensation forming on the water line(s) - they say that it shouldn't happen with humidity <50%, but if I'm reading your agrometer correctly, it looks like you're at 39% - still having that problem?

Also, about to post some correspondence I've been having with someone over at Hydro Innovations in my journal, if you're interested.

EDIT: One more question - have you noticed any interference with your Sentinel from your electronic ballast? Was looking at ballasts last night, and if there's going to be an issue with interference, I'd almost rather go with the less efficient magnetic.

Bob Smith said:

Yeah, not too worried about it - I'd be using about a 25 gallon reservoir, and even if that flooded, my garage has concrete floors

BTW Integra, was reading over the Hydro Innovations FAQs page, and they describe exactly the issue that you're having with condensation forming on the water line(s) - they say that it shouldn't happen with humidity <50%, but if I'm reading your agrometer correctly, it looks like you're at 39% - still having that problem?

Also, about to post some correspondence I've been having with someone over at Hydro Innovations in my journal, if you're interested.

EDIT: One more question - have you noticed any interference with your Sentinel from your electronic ballast? Was looking at ballasts last night, and if there's going to be an issue with interference, I'd almost rather go with the less efficient magnetic.

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yeah, I read the same thing and my rh is always below 50%, but Im 90% sure it will go away as soon as it warms up a little., Tap water is real cold making the pipes real cold. I ran it on a 5 gal res to fix this problems, but after being on for a constant 3 hours, the water would get too hot, since I have no chiller, so back to drain to waste it went.
as far as the balast, I havent noticed any kind of interference with anything.As long as you get the new ones(dim knob on it) they are properly shieled. so no need to change any plans yet.