My kick ass 400w grow tent setup w/ waterfarm

cream8

Well-Known Member
are you using a controler reservoir or are you doing nutes for each seperate waterfarm unit?
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
Males are usually the strongest growers. You've got a 50/50 chance of getting males, so he probally wont be the last one....wait...I thought these were clones?
No, I took clones from these plants prior to flowering. In hopes of preserving a female genetic line. So, I accomplished that much. I have two confirmed female clones that I will use as mothers for my next garden. And you right about the males being the strongest growers. Of the 3 big plants I have the shortest one is the female. Well, make that 2 big plants now, as the male is dead. I just cant tell yet what the sex is on the remaining big plant. Im leaning towards it being male, but still to early to say for sure.


are you using a controler reservoir or are you doing nutes for each seperate waterfarm unit?
Yes I am using two controler reservoirs, one for each tent. One tent is flowering and one is vegging.
I wouldnt want to try and keep up on a dozen waterfarm units, the reservoir is the way to go.

 

cirrus12

Well-Known Member
No, I took clones from these plants prior to flowering. In hopes of preserving a female genetic line. So, I accomplished that much. I have two confirmed female clones that I will use as mothers for my next garden. And you right about the males being the strongest growers. Of the 3 big plants I have the shortest one is the female. Well, make that 2 big plants now, as the male is dead. I just cant tell yet what the sex is on the remaining big plant. Im leaning towards it being male, but still to early to say for sure.




Yes I am using two controler reservoirs, one for each tent. One tent is flowering and one is vegging.
I wouldnt want to try and keep up on a dozen waterfarm units, the reservoir is the way to go.

Waterfarm seems like a decient system. $309 for 6 buckets and a res, not too bad considering what other hydro systems go for.
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
The GH Waterfarm comes with 8 units, I could only fit 6 in a tent. I added 4 more units to it to make it a 12 unit system. It comes with a kick ass air pump, tri pack of GH nutes, all connections, and tubing. All you need is a 50lb bag of Hydroton.

Day 31 (day 4 flowering) I had to cut down a male plant, thats why it looks different.

 

cirrus12

Well-Known Member
The GH Waterfarm comes with 8 units, I could only fit 6 in a tent. I added 4 more units to it to make it a 12 unit system. It comes with a kick ass air pump, tri pack of GH nutes, all connections, and tubing. All you need is a 50lb bag of Hydroton.

Day 31 (day 4 flowering) I had to cut down a male plant, thats why it looks different.

Can you reuse hydroton or is that something that should be replaced after each grow?
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
You can absolutely reuse it. Just wash them in a bucket with a drop of bleach. Then let them dry or skip the drying and rinse thouroughly, the bleach will not persist for very long. For obvious reasons you should wait several days before using your freshly sterilized hydroton.
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
yo puff.....google ario aerator 4
That looks pretty cool. Next time I need an air pump Ill check it out, or maybe even if I dont need it. ;-)

I'm having some thoughts on the garden I have growing. This is a difficult decision but I think its the right move. I want to take my big female plant and turn her into a bunch of clones, keeping 1 or 2 for future mothers, then flower the rest right away. Ill replace what I have in there now with the new clones. I dont want to kill any perfectly good plants though, but I cant keep them all. I was reading a thread about harvesting every 2 weeks. The grower was taking large cuttings, much larger than normal. Instead of 4" clones Ill take 8" clones, I think thats what Im going to do. What do you guys think?
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
Tomorrow I’m going to make some big changes. This is my first grow in ten years and I have learned a lot. First off, if you want to have a garden that will work with tents and tight spaces you need small plants! Its nearly impossible to grow a healthy small plant. You have to make them. Ill take all the branches off my new month old mother plant and make a bunch of 8"-10" clones with her big thick stems. After a week they should be root bound and bam! Into the flowering chamber they go. I’m going to simplify things by making 12 big clones and fill my closet with them. That way I can get away from having two reservoirs, and different light schedules, etc... After giving it some thought I’m going to use a straight 12/12 light schedule. Its the most efficient, this way I can take parts of the system offline at night, plus save some electricity. I can take the big fan offline, most of the pumps, just leave air circulation. The hydroton isn’t going to dry out overnight with the light off. I noticed that running the drip system at night causes moisture to build up which leads to salt deposits from the moisture evaporating when the light turns on. Its making a mess, plus I don’t think its supposed to do that. When the whole thing is running full steam ahead it doesn’t make that much noise. But it is nice to hear total silence at night, being that my grow room is really just my 4'x5' bedroom closet 3 feet from my bed. Back to my point, you really need clones to do a sea of green. I’m going to start a new grow journal when I finish this last step. Ill begin the next one with some notes on how I got to the point of having female clones and pick up from there. Now all I have to do is figure out where to put my Endless Sky, oh wait I get my Jardin Dark Room tomorrow. I’m going to be gardening all day tomorrow. But I think this is the right move. The plants have overgrown the tent and its out of control. After a few harvest I'll play with the light schedule. Besides how will I know if its working or not if I dont have a base line to compare it to.
 

LoudBlunts

Well-Known Member
since you are upgrading....


what is your water looking at?

i say we should mod ya res with some float valves with a RO system on that bad boy.

i get my ario aerator tomorrow!!!! got it shipped for 16 bucks. 3 day
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
Btw/ The Waterfarm reservoirs are two stage w/ float valves. And I have an RO system for my reef aquarium. It perfect, I use my reef water filter to grow my reefer. You should have seen that one coming. lol. That so bad.

Let me know what you think about your ario aerator, they look interesting. Its been a long time since I have new design on an air pump.
 

LoudBlunts

Well-Known Member
Btw/ The Waterfarm reservoirs are two stage w/ float valves. And I have an RO system for my reef aquarium. It perfect, I use my reef water filter to grow my reefer. You should have seen that one coming. lol. That so bad.

Let me know what you think about your ario aerator, they look interesting. Its been a long time since I have new design on an air pump.

well that is cool. im thinking about building a controller bucket to my standalone res. i built a res for my RO system. but if i were to add the float valve to the standalone res...i think it would be too much tubing..... so i wanna do a controller bucket and have it elevated over the res. with float valves.


im still waiting on my aerator. i feel like shit, so i dont know im going to mess with it today. apparently i came down with some nasty cold. i hate this intermittent weather man.


and btw, can you take pictures of your res with the float valve. i just want to see how its hooked up
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
Puff hows the light schedule coming? :peace:
I decided to make some big changes by turning my big healthy female into a bunch of large clones. Im going to repopulate the garden with all clones. Im still fine tuning the setup and having so much equipment running at different times is adding a leve of complexity that Im not ready to deal with. I need more expereince before I can even tell you if it works or not. I still think its a great idea and I when I do try it, you can count on the fact it will be done right. One of my hobbies is saltwater reef aquariums. Im an expert when it comes to that field and that has allowed me to take on the learning curve of hydroponics a little faster than most. Your going to be seeing me around here for a while. Im about to start my new grow journal tonight. I have been cleaning and sterilizing everything in preperation of taking my clones. My first batch all made it and that was my first attempt. I really didnt have to do anything, the Daisy Cloner is simple and it works. So I dont want to make it sound like Im worked so hard on them. I change the water once after 5 days and by day 10 they were growing roots so I put them into my dwc under a cfl.



LoudBlunts you wanted to see some pictures of my plumbing :hump:lol









Day 32

 

LoudBlunts

Well-Known Member
puff explain these float valves.... is there a tubing coming from that float valve?


im kinda confused on how to hook up it.


could you take more pictures on hook its hooked up? more in detail.......


and oh yea, good news. that aerator is small as fuck!!!! i mean very small. i think it creates mad bubbles, but my girl think the three bubble curtains make more bubbles. but the rena pump is louder than the ario aerator
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
puff explain these float valves.... is there a tubing coming from that float valve?


im kinda confused on how to hook up it.


could you take more pictures on hook its hooked up? more in detail.......


and oh yea, good news. that aerator is small as fuck!!!! i mean very small. i think it creates mad bubbles, but my girl think the three bubble curtains make more bubbles. but the rena pump is louder than the ario aerator
Sure, your lucky I was flushing the whole system today. So I took some clearer photos for ya,





The top reservoir has a connection running to the float valve in the bottom reservoir. The bottom reservoir has two outlets, one is used as a water gauge, the other goes to the buckets that are daisy chained together with T connectors. Dont forget to put shut off valves in as many places as needed to take the reservoir out without making a mess, they are not included but necessary if you want to be able to do maintenance.
 

Puff

Well-Known Member
where did you get the grow tent that looks like a mini clothes closet
That one is a HomeBox Small tent. 23.5" x 23.5" x 64". You can search around for them. I dont remember where I bought it. They go for about $100 + shipping. If you want to put a hid lamp in there its going to have to be a small one, like 250W or less. Its really best if you use a cfl light. I have a comet 200W cfl in there and fits snug as a bug. Its 23.5" long the same size as the tent.
 
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