How to build and maintain your own custom bubbler DWC grow

[palerider7777]

lookin good can't wait till mine is at that stage

[deftdrummer]

07-06-07 Day #17 of Flowering.
Cab Temp: TOO HIGH ~ 100
RH: 50%
Nutrient Temp: TOO HIGH 78F
PPM: 850-1000
pH: 5.6

Ok, we have run into a few problems here during one of the worst possible times. Flowering is not when you want to start having things go wrong. We have not been inspecting the plants as closely as we should have and discovered some spider mites and webs. Fortunately they have not yet hit their max production rate. We quickly went to the local hydro store and picked up some stuff called bugzyme by garden grow. We were told it enables you to spray all through flowering if necessary to kill spider mites and other types of pests. It is 100% all natural so we figured we would give it a shot. We have tried using neem oil in the past but neem is more useful as a preventative measure and not meant for full fledged infestations which is what we are on the verge of.

In addition to that little problem we have run into severe heat issues here in CA. The temperatures in our garage (which is where the grow is) are in excess of 100F and only hotter in the grow tent. We have a fan hooked up to the light if you recall, so a good deal of heat is being extracted there, but the problem still lies with the natural heat that is just a part of this time of year. We bit the bullet and ordered A vortex 4" centrifugal fan that is rated at 175CM. CFM stands for cubic feet per minute. In other words, a 70CFM fan will move the volume of 70 cu ft. air in a minute out of a given space. The fan we bought would probably be overkill if used strictly as an exhaust since we only have 14.07 cu ft. For our space theoretically we would need a 42CFM fan max. However, what were thinking instead is that it might be perfect for pulling air from the light and the grow tent simultaneously since the light is not air tight. What it will come down to really is seeing how well the fan pulls air, and if our grow tent can tolerate the undoubted low pressure that will be created inside the chamber. Either way it will be hooked up to the highest point in the grow tent so there should be some large amounts of hot air moving out of there. We also still have the passive 4" air inlet that is cut out of the table top (bottom of chamber). This inlet is probably a bit small as a passive intake but it will have to do for now. In the future we might end up making it 6" since you always want to have a slightly larger intake than exhaust. Being that our exhaust is 4", a 6" intake should suffice when we get around to it.

I'll check back in a few days with some better pictures. The fan should be here in about 3 or 4 days max.

[palerider7777]

why not an ac unit i bought a small one for 100 bucks at home depot but my rooms is 8x8x8

[deftdrummer]

thanks for the idea palerider. We should be fine with just an exhaust fan since the summer won't be much longer, which would make a $100 kind of not worth it at this point. We needed a fan regardless so we will see how that does and then take it from there. We are trying to keep costs down as low as possible for the simple reason that we have already dumped so much money into this ongoing project that we would like to see some returns before we go spending any more money.

[palerider7777]

i here that

[palerider7777]

i just know i have a 8x8x8 area and even with the a/c in there on the hot days it's hard to keep it under 80 in there. so let me know if the fan works and how u set it up. cause i have mine set to run throught the light and it still gets hot in there.

[xcrispi]

Hey Deft ,
I know heats a real M/F there rt. now like 103-105 by Weedhound . Next go round you might try a 20-30 gal. res. and recirculating the sys. w/ a 7.00 120 gph pump . Im able to freeze 2 litre pop bottles of water and put em in the res. once or twice a day to keep water temps down .

Lookin good man :thumbsup:
Crispi :jointsmile:

[deftdrummer]

thanks for the advice crispi, we were actually considering that for this grow by just didn't end up doing it. It seems like it be pretty simple though - where did you get the reservoir from? Only problem is that we wouldn't want to spend the time and money on this kind of a setup since during the next grow it should be cooled down quite a bit. We will just have to consider it for next summer.

[xcrispi]

Res. = cheap heavier rubbermade / stearlite container and add your own grommets / fittings , homedepot has 10ft. rolls of black tubing too = you'll never have algee in lines like w/ clear blue junk from gen. hyd. bet you could do it for less than 20-25 bucks total even w/ the pump cost . Via Aqua 302 is pumps pt. no. I get em cheap on Ebay - or a petstore etc...
Crispi :jointsmile:

[deftdrummer]

07-08-07 Day #19 of Flowering.
Cab Temp: ~80F
RH: 45%
Nutrient Temp: 75F
PPM: 136
pH: 5.6

We did a nutrient replacement today with just plain pH balanced water. We wanted to try and flush out the roots for a day since they were beginning to show some rust coloring. We will do a full nutrient change tomorrow. We are still waiting for the centrifugal fan to arrive in the mail so we can get some serious heat relief and it couldn't take longer it seems!

We have also been spraying twice daily with the bugzyme for about two days now. The spider mites are very low in numbers and we'll continue to spray as long it takes to rid ourselves of the infestation. Spider mites can ruin flowering healthy plants in the matter of a week depending on how fast they spread. We don't want to take any chances, and ladybugs are not out of the question if the mites were to get that bad. We doubt it will come to that though.