Muddy
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As some of you know, I took a couple years off of AFN partially to explore and learn how to grow using RDWC. Hydro was the only area of growing that I hadn't previously tried. I had grown autos and photos both indoor and outdoors with good success. After a bust a few years ago I turned my attention toward indoor growing and stopped growing outdoors. I grew indoors using organics and soil less. I really had interest in expanding my capabilities so took the plunge into hydro.
The system I settled on is the Current Culture UC8XL. This consists of eight 8 gallon grow modules and one 8 gallon epicenter. The epicenter serves as a place for additional aeration as well as a convenient place to monitor pH, ppm, water temps and to replenish the system. While the total system capacity is 72 gallons it actually contains about 50-60 gallons depending on the water level. For the purposes of computing nutrient solutions I always work off a 50 gallon system. Replenishment is done via a 30 gallon plastic barrel hooked to the epicenter and controlled via a float valve. A 1/10 hp chiller keeps the water temps at around 67-68 degrees.
Initially my lighting was 6 FERO Bulldog LED lights. At 280 watts each, a total of 1,680 watts. Current Culture recommends two 1,000 watt HID lights for these systems. After my first grow I added four 2 bulb T5HO fixtures, two on each side. At 108 watts each, this brought my total wattage to 2,112 watts. I had some issues with the FERO LEDs. Two fixtures had 1 spot burn out on each. I was going to need lights for my veg room so decided to move the FEROs in there and replaced them with four UNO T5 XHO fixtures. Each bulb is 110 watts and with 16 total that's 1,760 watts, plus the 432 watts of side lights made a total of 2,192 watts. I was dissatisfied with the results from these lights, so one again made a change. I sold off the UNOs and replaced them with two Kind XL1000s. My current setup is the two Kinds along with the T5 HO sidelights. After this grow I plan to remove the T5s and use them in my garage. They will be replaced with four 108 watt LED strip lights. Same wattage as the T5s but a little less electricity and heat as well as a smaller foot print. So now I'm running a total of 1,692 watts. Less wattage than either the FERO or UNO setups but more light. That's 500 watts less which equates to a $20 per month savings on electricity.
My grams per watt has moved upward with every grow as I've refined my techniques and found the best lighting combo. Growing some Female Seeds Lemon Kush under the FERO/T5 HO setup I got .67 grams per watt. A mixed grow of Sweet Seeds Sweet Special and Killer Kush under the UNO/ T5 setup yielded .70 grams per watt. The last two grows under using the Kind/T5 lights has yielded .73 grams per watt for some Blue Dream and .72 grams per watt for Female Seeds Ice. My goal is that illusive 1 gram per watt. That would be 3.75 pounds from 8 plants. I see this as an easily obtainable goal that I hope to soon hit.
For nutrients I started out using Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect. They were a disaster and not recommended for RDWC growing. I had loads of problems with pH instability, highly fluctuating ppms, and root slime. I tried all the usual fixes, including teas, but half way through that grow scrapped the Advanced in favor of House and Garden. H&G were the nutrients initially promoted by Current Culture for use in their systems before they developed their own line. H&G tech support is excellent and were a big help in getting their nutrients dialed in. Recently I was offered the opportunity to test the Current Culture line, Cultured Solutions. They had just reworked their line and were looking for testers. My current grow is using their nutes. I'm finding them very comparable to the H&G line.
I run strictly sterile now. IMO compared to trying to run organics in these systems they are much easier to manage. My ph and ppms are much more stable, no issues with root rot and high quality product. At some point in the near future I'll be posting on the benefits of running sterile vs organic in RDWC.
I also invested in a new RO filter setup. It's 100 gallons per day with UV and back flush on the RO membrane. My water is around 12 ppm. I use two 55 plastic drums hooked together for storage. This gives me enough to fill both the system and the top off res at the same time if needed.
The whole room is run as a closed environment with no air exchange between the grow room and outdoors. I'm using a propane CO2 burner for CO2 supplementation. Initially heat and air was provided by a 12,000 BTU mini split heat pump. I had a leak and for obvious reasons couldn't call in an A/C tech to fix it. So I added a 14,000 BTU window air conditioner as well. I have since found someone I could trust to fix the mini split. Now that it's winter I run the window unit on A/C and the min split on heat. This gives me much better temp control and I'm easily able to maintain that desirable 10 degree difference between lights on and lights off.
Everything I've grown so far has been photos with the exception of 2 Mephisto Chemdogging. Up until my current grow everything had been done from seed. When I grew the Ice I only had 6 plants germ. So I filled out the system with the two Chemdogging. Running on a 12/12 schedule I wasn't expecting a whole lot from them. Both reach a height of about 40" and while one only produced 2 oz. the other gave 5. While I'm temped to do a full auto run on either 18/6 or 20/4 I hesitate because of the additional electricity. From a security standpoint that electric bill is my only real vulnerability. I purposefully limited myself to 100 amps total in order to reduce the possibility of getting carried away. I'm afraid that running a 20/4 schedule would push my electric bill to the point it might catch someone's attention. But I'm loving RDWC so much that I'm giving consideration to converting my outdoor grow box and growing RDWC autos in there.
Now for the good part, pictures! My current grow is Blue Dream and is my first grow from clones. These are 32 days into bloom. Stretch has finished and the buds are starting to swell nicely and the trics are forming.
CO2 Burner, water storage and RO Filter.
Close up of RO filter. UV filter is mounted on top, outlet for UV filter on right. Back flush mechanism hanging in front.
The system I settled on is the Current Culture UC8XL. This consists of eight 8 gallon grow modules and one 8 gallon epicenter. The epicenter serves as a place for additional aeration as well as a convenient place to monitor pH, ppm, water temps and to replenish the system. While the total system capacity is 72 gallons it actually contains about 50-60 gallons depending on the water level. For the purposes of computing nutrient solutions I always work off a 50 gallon system. Replenishment is done via a 30 gallon plastic barrel hooked to the epicenter and controlled via a float valve. A 1/10 hp chiller keeps the water temps at around 67-68 degrees.
Initially my lighting was 6 FERO Bulldog LED lights. At 280 watts each, a total of 1,680 watts. Current Culture recommends two 1,000 watt HID lights for these systems. After my first grow I added four 2 bulb T5HO fixtures, two on each side. At 108 watts each, this brought my total wattage to 2,112 watts. I had some issues with the FERO LEDs. Two fixtures had 1 spot burn out on each. I was going to need lights for my veg room so decided to move the FEROs in there and replaced them with four UNO T5 XHO fixtures. Each bulb is 110 watts and with 16 total that's 1,760 watts, plus the 432 watts of side lights made a total of 2,192 watts. I was dissatisfied with the results from these lights, so one again made a change. I sold off the UNOs and replaced them with two Kind XL1000s. My current setup is the two Kinds along with the T5 HO sidelights. After this grow I plan to remove the T5s and use them in my garage. They will be replaced with four 108 watt LED strip lights. Same wattage as the T5s but a little less electricity and heat as well as a smaller foot print. So now I'm running a total of 1,692 watts. Less wattage than either the FERO or UNO setups but more light. That's 500 watts less which equates to a $20 per month savings on electricity.
My grams per watt has moved upward with every grow as I've refined my techniques and found the best lighting combo. Growing some Female Seeds Lemon Kush under the FERO/T5 HO setup I got .67 grams per watt. A mixed grow of Sweet Seeds Sweet Special and Killer Kush under the UNO/ T5 setup yielded .70 grams per watt. The last two grows under using the Kind/T5 lights has yielded .73 grams per watt for some Blue Dream and .72 grams per watt for Female Seeds Ice. My goal is that illusive 1 gram per watt. That would be 3.75 pounds from 8 plants. I see this as an easily obtainable goal that I hope to soon hit.
For nutrients I started out using Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect. They were a disaster and not recommended for RDWC growing. I had loads of problems with pH instability, highly fluctuating ppms, and root slime. I tried all the usual fixes, including teas, but half way through that grow scrapped the Advanced in favor of House and Garden. H&G were the nutrients initially promoted by Current Culture for use in their systems before they developed their own line. H&G tech support is excellent and were a big help in getting their nutrients dialed in. Recently I was offered the opportunity to test the Current Culture line, Cultured Solutions. They had just reworked their line and were looking for testers. My current grow is using their nutes. I'm finding them very comparable to the H&G line.
I run strictly sterile now. IMO compared to trying to run organics in these systems they are much easier to manage. My ph and ppms are much more stable, no issues with root rot and high quality product. At some point in the near future I'll be posting on the benefits of running sterile vs organic in RDWC.
I also invested in a new RO filter setup. It's 100 gallons per day with UV and back flush on the RO membrane. My water is around 12 ppm. I use two 55 plastic drums hooked together for storage. This gives me enough to fill both the system and the top off res at the same time if needed.
The whole room is run as a closed environment with no air exchange between the grow room and outdoors. I'm using a propane CO2 burner for CO2 supplementation. Initially heat and air was provided by a 12,000 BTU mini split heat pump. I had a leak and for obvious reasons couldn't call in an A/C tech to fix it. So I added a 14,000 BTU window air conditioner as well. I have since found someone I could trust to fix the mini split. Now that it's winter I run the window unit on A/C and the min split on heat. This gives me much better temp control and I'm easily able to maintain that desirable 10 degree difference between lights on and lights off.
Everything I've grown so far has been photos with the exception of 2 Mephisto Chemdogging. Up until my current grow everything had been done from seed. When I grew the Ice I only had 6 plants germ. So I filled out the system with the two Chemdogging. Running on a 12/12 schedule I wasn't expecting a whole lot from them. Both reach a height of about 40" and while one only produced 2 oz. the other gave 5. While I'm temped to do a full auto run on either 18/6 or 20/4 I hesitate because of the additional electricity. From a security standpoint that electric bill is my only real vulnerability. I purposefully limited myself to 100 amps total in order to reduce the possibility of getting carried away. I'm afraid that running a 20/4 schedule would push my electric bill to the point it might catch someone's attention. But I'm loving RDWC so much that I'm giving consideration to converting my outdoor grow box and growing RDWC autos in there.
Now for the good part, pictures! My current grow is Blue Dream and is my first grow from clones. These are 32 days into bloom. Stretch has finished and the buds are starting to swell nicely and the trics are forming.
CO2 Burner, water storage and RO Filter.
Close up of RO filter. UV filter is mounted on top, outlet for UV filter on right. Back flush mechanism hanging in front.
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