Elephant Man's Grow Journal, 1st attempt

Been busy, busy, busy

Galaxy digital 400w switchable with Super Sun reflector. Gonna add cooling parts in the morning, but right now cab is stable at 80 (room is 75).

Next pic is of my very temporary 'apartment style' Reverse Osmosis system , hanging on a towel rack no less , soon it will be in the garage.

Big bagseed girls are 22 days old and as soon as I get the light height right, they are gettin' some FF Grow Big.

Last 2 pics are 14 day old new girls on the block, Troublemaker Kush and mystery (Afghani?) Dr. Chronic Indoor Mix.

Tomorrow I hope to start my DIY cloner too .

Lookin great man. I was tempted my last order to get an indoor mix. but 2 of each sorta worried me about getting a female of each. next time though might just do that.

Hey Elephant man, you're grows looking great mate! Can't wait to see the finished product. i was just wondering if you could explain whats the deal with the overdriven flouro's you showed earlier? just for the benefit of a novice grower like myself. is it just a twin ballast? can the tubes cope with the extra power if so?? keep up the good work

Thanks everyone!
Mutt: of the indoor, I tried 5 and 1 germed. I was sent the 'troublemaker kush' as a freebie ($45) I believe, because the 'indoor' are old. Pretty sure it is the seeds, all other 5 strains have had 100% success.

Offspring: Smash it up! Here is a couple links to OD:
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=12011&d=1162872569
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6926

Basically just trick 4 bulb ballast into putting all 128 watts to one bulb. Bulbs are said to live half as long (so figure 10,000 instead of 20,000 hours).
Great for closets and cabs and still way less heat than hid.

Thanks elephant man! I've got two 18w compact flouros just to start my grow, but there running from a single 70w ballast. does this mean they'll be using more than twice the wattage?

Offspring_36 said:

Thanks elephant man! I've got two 18w compact flouros just to start my grow, but there running from a single 70w ballast. does this mean they'll be using more than twice the wattage?

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I assume they are 2x 2 foot bulbs in a fixture.

Actually, you can overdrive those 2 footers the same way. Assuming you have adequate ventilation, I think temps on a couple 2 footers will only go up 2 degrees.

What you will have to do is go to your local home improvement store and pick up an 'Adavance REL-4P32-SC (yellow is 120v, red is 277v), home depot has them for about $19. You only can run one.

You will have to connect both 2 footers in 'series' or in simpler terms, connect both terminals to both bulbs together on one end of your bullbs. Essentially turning your 2x 2 foot bulbs into one 32watt 4 footer. Then wire your 'new 4 footer' up the same way described in the other thread.

If the ballast is wired correctly, it will put out 128 watts, 64w each to the 2 foot bubs, referred to as 200% overdriven. After heat loss you should be real close to 2x your starting lumens.

I hope that was easy enough to understand, I believe Biffdoggie has experience in this as well. I would like to try to explain better, but I have alot to do today. If I can get a little caught up this week, I will try to do a DIY.

Some more pics, everyone got transplanted, air cooled the cab, changed mother room around and added another room where I think I am going to do a 2 level 360 degree SOG.

Big bagseed lady is 27 days old.

nice your girls are looking good keep it up

Thanks guys.

A fellow grower came by today and told me every plant I have is female! Hope she was right.

Added another vortex today and started my test homemade aero cloner. Not happy with the first version, gonna work on it some more over the next couple of days. Here are some pics of what I put together on the first try.

Aeroflo misters and ProPump 275.

Wow, so much work left to do. Been moving everything to the garage, built a bubble cloner and took 6 clones from 3 plants, bagseed and biggie small who was almost misidentified as a male. Threw in a little hydrogaurd with RO water and 4 of the 6 got powder (just for fun).

Got the 'test version 2' aerocloner built and is under pressure testing in the bathtub right now. The new version will use it's own lid instead of the styrene I was messing with and the pump will be internal. Should have some more pics of that going soon.

I've been following a few SOG grow threads and I think I am going to do a small one, like 40 under 400 watts. I am going to try and use MG soil like my heroes THE BROTHERS GRUNT so it will be cheap. Picked up a big bag of organic MG with .10/.05/.10 today and some perlite for $8. No time release ferts except small amount of nitrogen, I believe.

If you ever read my first post, you will know this is as much about experimenting to me as it is about replacing pharmaceuticals.

That been said, I think I will be modifying my 'brand new unused' GH Ebb & Grow before these clones are even ready. My aerocloner is actually a test for a much larger 'full cycle' aero project coming up (anyone ever heard of TAG or pod racing?).

Threw in some pics of the above, the 3 biggest mothers, 2 bagseed and biggie small.
A pic of aerocloner testing (device will run in container, not in the tub).
And a pic of my other 5 designer strains, White Widow, Troublemaker Kush, AK48, Blue Mystic, and Miss Mystery Indoor Mix. All are days away from alternating nodes and probably 1 week from giving couple clones each. Everybody has been getting 1800 ppm of Fox Farm Grow Big every other watering for about a week.

Sorry 3 pages and still no bud pics .

More stuff:

I got my GH Ebb & Grow pretty cheap without the hydroton. After a little research I discovered I can use lava rocks, I mixed in some river pepples too (1/2). 4 bags for first run of 6 buckets cost me a whopping $16 as opposed to 3 bags of hydroton at $50 each. If you decide to try this also, get ready for a full day rinsing to get clear water. At first there is so much color you would think the rocks are melting, but keep stirring and they will come clean. I think I will run them through a florakleen rinse too.

The next 5 pics are of my finished 'version 2' homemade autocloner, should be able to half fill it next week.

I tossed a few straggling bagseed today, I have 11 potential mothers still, 6 designer strains and the rest are bagseed. I was moving some stuff around and decided to get a family photo.

Hey elephant man, your grow is looking real nice. as always i have another question, could you explain the process behind your auto-cloner an how it was made etc??

Offspring_36 said:

Hey elephant man, your grow is looking real nice. as always i have another question, could you explain the process behind your auto-cloner an how it was made etc??

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Yeah, absolutely. It is not my idea, I got it from another site . I will do a DIY, but first I have to get it to work . The basics are copying an ezclone ($300+), aeroponic atmosphere supposed to speed things a little, reduce medium, reduce additives etc. Supposedly with aeroponic cloning, humidity domes and foliar misting are not necessary. You can get misters at hydro shop, my local store has several types (I am experimenting with 2) but I also have some misters I bought at Home Depot (I'll explain later why they aren't the best though). The aeroponic spinners will work too.

Based on any 200-300 gallon pump, misters, pvc, container. You could even use 1/2 inch hose, I am using pvc because I am practicing for another upcoming project I will describe later. Of course, can be scaled up or down.

Hypothetically, if you calculate pump gph and mister gph you can actually use the pump to control water temperature, this where I am still experimenting. Of course, I could just add a $10 aquarium heater, but I will keep rebuilding it until it works the way I want. If anyone wants to try this, make sure you get the lowest gph rated mister you can find, and I can help you figure the rest if you need.

You could very easily put one of these together with 1/2 inch hose, there is a reason why mine is so complicated. It is testing and practice for a TAG experiment soon.

And thanks TBG, in my introduction post and 2nd post in hydro section I explained a little about my overly scientific 'mechanical' nature, I can't help but tinker with stuff . I guess if I am successful, my goal would be to eliminate the need to replenish supplies. I would like to eventually try and go mediumless, foam or neoprene full cycle, and who knows, maybe after enough learning I can try and make my own nutes. I don't mind initial cost, but I am not happy about the constant need for rockwool, hydroton, soil, whatever.

More DIY:

I learned I can make my own ph down (never needed up). Go to Home depot, pool shop, or auto store and pick up Muriatic acid or battery acid.

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS STUFF, EYE PROTECTION, GLOVES. DO NOT OPEN IT INDOORS, IT WILL BURN THE HAIR OUT OF YOUR LUNGS. Please read all precautionary warnings on the product before you buy it, make sure you know what you will be dealing with.

Ok, still with me? One gallon of this stuff will make 30 gallons of ph down. Take one gallon of filtered water. Pour out 8 ounces. VERY CAREFULLY pour in 8 ounces of your acid and you are done. From what I understand, this will dilute the acid to 20-30%, I can't remember, but what is important is that at this ratio your 'homemade ph down' will actually be less acidic than the store bought ph down, and safer too.

I got my acid at the depot, cost me $8 for 2 gallons, makes 60 gallons. Last time I checked, name brand ph down was $10+.

DIY #2:

A while back, when starting out, I thought I was going to score some deals on used stuff on ebay. I bought a 1kw diamond MH setup with hood and remote ballast for $99 + shipping. After a huge ordeal, 2 months later the dude sends me the setup - with an HPS ballast. Ordinarily no big deal, but while I was waiting, I had ordered 2 1kw MH bulbs ($$$). I actually bought 2 400 watt galaxy setups too while waiting.

So after about a week researching, trying to figure out how to convert this ballast to MH, I stumbled upon an old thread on how to do this. Basically, if your ballast is hps and is equipped with the correct transformer, you can go in and delete the igniter (or put it on a switch) and run a MH with it. Mine has been burning now for about 8 hours, hortilux eye bulb. If anyone wants to try this one, I can link you to some info, but I am not an electrician, so no detailed DIY on this one.

Really don't like the 1kw light, too much added heat. I have a 6 inch vortex on it with 8 inch ducting and my ac set to 86 came on within an hour, at night . I ran a 400 in same room with no additional cooling and never went over 80. I think I would rather have 2 400's in there.

Pics of the ebb and flood room, 1kw Hortilux eye on 4' light track, 'homemade jimmy rigged air cooled hood' with 6 inch vortex. 5000 btu ac, and 16 inch fan. There are ducts built into the room because in the summer, I am going to try to seal all this together and add co2, still have couple rooms to finish. Gonna call this the 'flood' room .

Mothers are in here tanning for the time being .

One more DIY , this one is for the DWC guys:

In the picture below, you can see I have 2 air pumps tied together, very simple redundant air pumps. I doubt these pumps ever fail, but I will bet the big DWC guys have an extra laying around . If either pump fails, or loses power, the other will still maintain airflow to all lines both are connected to, the gang valve is just a big 'tee'. If you have multiple pumps for multiple containers, you can tie them all together this way. The one way valves will keep the pumps from pressuring against each other.

been peek'n in here at ya grow and love your DIY stuff... just thought i would ramble about ph control.

I understand how your doing it but not real clear on why one wouldn't spend the same amount for a lifetime of ph down with GH dry products .. got a 1 pound tub 5 years ago and cant tell i used much out of it and i grow indoor and outdoor hydro both weed and vegi's..

anyhow love'n your DIY stuff bro... great info in here thats for sure

grow on