DIY Growbox build guide

[Macky]

23 degrees was the maximum, I know that its not optimal but I do not have a water chiller. Read that I should put ice cubes / cooler packs in the rez, but on a long run that is not really a viable option.
I think the root rot was absolutely my fault, I did not change the reservoir for 35 days.

As summer is coming up and temperatures are getting higher I will not give a second go to the large DWC tote. Probably going to convert to high pressure aeroponics setup, as they are much more resistant to high temperatures.

When I did dwc, i read you can use frozen cola bottle or something in the water to keep it cool. Have 2 bottles per bucket, and put one in, when it's melted, replace it and re freeze the other one and rotate. Cheap option. Never really did it as thought it might get too cold, and I didn't suffer badly with res temps.

But it's a nice cheap way to keep the temp f the water down, if tht might help next time.

Lot of hassle full hydro can be, I moved to coco and haven't looked back since.


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[British green]

23 degrees was the maximum, I know that its not optimal but I do not have a water chiller. Read that I should put ice cubes / cooler packs in the rez, but on a long run that is not really a viable option.
I think the root rot was absolutely my fault, I did not change the reservoir for 35 days.

As summer is coming up and temperatures are getting higher I will not give a second go to the large DWC tote. Probably going to convert to high pressure aeroponics setup, as they are much more resistant to high temperatures.

Try moving the air pump to the coldest possible place. I had mine sat in the intake and frozen bottles of water placed in the res will help. If you can’t get temps below 20 you are going to struggle. There’s a product called hydro guard which is lactobacillus bacterium and this will help no end with high res temps . You can make your own if needed by using rice water . Reds the organic mod will help with this if you send him a pm 😃🇬🇧


Sent from a green and pleasant land

[GrowBoxGuy]

Thanks for the advice guys, the situation got better now. All three plants have recovered and growing nicely.
I was much more careful with the ph down and nutrients this time. At the dwc water change 10 days ago managed to hit PH 5.8 spot on with 1340 EC.
Today I have measured and PH went up to 6.3 and EC down to 1000, so I added some PH down to bring it down to 5.8 again.

This slow PH upward creep over time is normal, right? I noticed it in the reservoir too, but there the PH only went up to 6.0 and EC stayed at 1280.




I cannot seem to do anything about the temps, its at 22,7C now. I have a 2nd air pump that I might add if things get worse again.
I think the aeroponics setup will be the solution for my temp issues. Started drafting how it should come together:


Planning to get 14 misters with 0,3mm orifice, 100PSI diaphragm pump, 12L expansion tank and a 12V solenoid.

[GrowBoxGuy]

(How I despise the 5 minute edit limit here...)
20mm HDPE tubing seems flexible enough to bend it into the tote, I would simply tap the tube for the misters.
I was able to get a 40 micron motorcycle fuel line filter that can fit the 3/8" tubing running to the pump, that should keep the gunk out of the mister heads.

[British green]

Salt build up could be a issue. Unless it’s constantly running. Aeroponnics is great way to grow but temps do still need to be check . Have you looked at the hydro guard or had a read on the lactobacillus bacteria 🇬🇧


Sent from a green and pleasant land

[GrowBoxGuy]

I did check the Hydroguard, but its super expensive. I was much more impressed with the lactobacillus culture, never heard of this before.
Going to try and make some using rice wash and milk using this method, I hope it will work out.

Thanks for the tip British green, really appreciate it!

Plants are still doing ok, next week I'll do a reservoir change and mix up a slightly stronger nutrient batch.
Oh and I kept talking about EC, but was measuring PPM (probably)

[newbfarmer1985]

looking good pal

[GrowBoxGuy]

Thanks

Recently I replaced the COB lights to 200W worth of LED strips consisting of 1560 LEDs in total.
It has a marginally better efficiency of 175 lm/W (3500K) and 180 lm/W (4000K), but I'm more happy about the weight reduction. Without the heavy coolers adjusting the light is easier now , not to mention cheaper to build.

Just got my first proper DSLR camera, once I figure out how to use it I'll have some better pics up. For now these will have to do:






This adjuster is made from a car tyre cap, a flattened edge nail and some hot glue:

[gardro]

Good to see you back GBG with a nice new light

Samsung F Series ?



🔆🔆https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-foru...post1070817743

Gardro's coco grow mentored by joker the smoker

[GrowBoxGuy]

Bridgelux EB Gen2 series, used the 560mm long strips as the 1120mm ones would not fit into the grow box
Same efficiency range as the Samsung F series. The Samsung Q series beats it, but I was not willing to fork out twice as much. Especially that I had perfectly fine LED COB lights before and I still find it hard to justify replacing them

Anyway... I went a bit mental spending on the box recently. I finished the High pressure aeroponics setup though, so I can finally cut back on spending.