Third Grow

[dejayou30]

I picked up a 50 gallon res and two of those bubble curtain things. I like the amount of bubbles they produce compared to the stones. The stones seem to get clogged faster too. The only thing is keeping them suctioned to the bottom, but I am going to use glue to hold them down. So I will have a total of three bubble curtains in there because I have an extra one in my grow room after I switched back to the stone because it was too late to glue it down and the suctions didn't work. I'm just going to lay the two lids with my plants in them across the top of the 50 gallon bin for the next 4.5 weeks and cover the open area not covered by the lids with a trash bag and some mylar. Pretty ghetto, but hopefully it will do the trick. The fungus gnats are also back...

[Weedhound]

Deja....check out the last page of my C crowd thread.....link in my sig......what X-Crispi says about root suffocation.

I'd use something other than plastic to cover your dark spots.....even a towel or something would be better just because there is some air exchange with a towel or paper vs plastic.

I too have turned ghetto for the last few weeks of my grow. We seem to be battling the same issue.

I hope that works for you.....you deserve a good grow.

[xcrispi]

Ghetto or not you've given the roots tons more space :thumbsup:,

And DWC is that easy Deja . I wouldn't worry about the roots soufocating quite yet , you'll notice ph drop once they are really rotting good . Weedhound just cant get air to penetrate the giant mass / cube of roots in the upper halves of her containers . Your root system while huge , looks to be still penetrable by the air bubbles . I love the air curtains too BTW . less clog , no disenegration , washable -n- reuseable .

I think they'll come back strong and show you some love in return .
Peace bro.
Crispi :jointsmile:

Is your avvy a young Dave Mustaine ?

[Weedhound]

That boy has some roots THIS TIME doesn't he??

[rhizome]

WH- have you looked @ the Ario aerators? Whole sh^tload of aeration compared to airstones, now that yer getting into straight DWC. Better distribution through the res, too.

[Weedhound]

Deja....sorry to bust your thread but rhiz could you check my log and let me know what you think about these damn roots? I don't want to nurse that damn thing along if cracking it open isn't really going to help. I'd LOVE your thoughts.

[dejayou30]

Ok, conversion was completed in ~90 minutes. The old system is cleaned and on backup in case this one fails for some reason *knock knock*. The roots are starting to gradually sag into the water from the brick shape it was from being cramped into those bins. How much of the root mass should be in the water vs out of the water?

The only problem we ran into is that the sides of the res bow when filled half way with water, but the good thing is that duct tape holds them where they should be! :thumbsup:

Weedhound: Since you wouldn't use plastic to cover the open area because of air flow, would it be OK to just leave it open? The foliage is THICK over the area, so not much light can get through. The only real danger would be leaves falling in there and getting in the water/roots and maybe doing harm? I dunno, I'm new to this whole DWC thing obviously.:jointsmile: Here are some pics!

[Weedhound]

As long as you have your airstones going you can let alot dangle....at least 1/2 but more is ok. Its good to have a few inches between your net pots and your water level.
Check your ppms every day....going up or down?

PS....more airstones....more air happier plants....never hurts to add extras....

[dejayou30]

I think I might pick up a couple more curtains and another dual pump so I can put some on the ends. My only question is how in the hell I am going to clean this thing! What do you guys/gals do for maintainance and how often?

[dejayou30]

Well, a minor setback. The walls of the bin I selected are way too thin and one side collapsed, almost causing my plants to fall into my res! I used a big board and some bungee straps and wrapped the bungee around and put the board on the side that was bowing out to hold it firm. It is working pretty well for now. *knock knock*

I still think cleaning this new res is going to be quite a task because of how bushy my plants are and how small my room is. I have no where to put them in the mean time of cleaning the res. Can anyone reading this give me some insight on what you do to maintain your DWC res? Do you take the plant(s) out and scrub the res down or do you just pump the old water out and fill it up with new water?