Thanks for stopping by @Johnnybsmokin. I just flicked lights on and nearly done with irrigation setup. But I have a real problem with heat. Air con is cooling inner room ok, but the vented heat it’s pumping into outer room has pushed it over 40 Celsius. So I’m just having a smoke and thinking through my options…
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Going to turn down ballasts to 400w. Not ideal with 600w lamps, but too hot in there. That’ll buy me some time to re-work set up. Never a dull moment!
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Hey @ozzie that 40 deg sucks, you’ll need to get that hot air from The air conditioning out of the room. I thought I was struggling with the high 20’s, in my cabs, that’s the problem in summer.
On another note, your babies are looking good, can’t wait to see the results once you get the temperature under control.
Cheers and merry Xmas
Johnny
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Hey @Johnnybsmokin, just checked room and inner room sitting at 27 so happy with that, outer room at 30 so yeah, ac vent pipe to outside as you suggested will be the go. Plants picked up a bit, but I think I’ve got a aphid issue. Found two yesterday, suspect eggs on 1 plant. I’ve read best solution is wipe leaves with neem and spray mild insecticide, pyrethrum, and dry media out so any larvae die. So I’ll do that this arvo and see how they go.
Merry Christmas to you as well mate,
Cheers
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Hey @Johnnybsmokin yeah mate I think I’m sorted with temps. Put cooltubes back up and changed the reflectors, sealed up door. A bit more ducting work to do but so far so good. I think the glass the lamp is surrounded by changes the footprint and intensity of the lamps so I may move them around. It maybe time to invest in an LED panel.
As for the aphids, the plants seem to have recovered ok. Only found 2. Got some spray for the plants and also a mild surface insecticide for the building. Hopefully it’s the last I see of them! Cheers mate
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It’s certainly been an interesting grow cycle so far…poor planning on my part has added to the work in changing setup. But some of that work is due to seeing the faults in design and changing it. But happy with it now, just a few things left to do. I’ll post photos and descriptions. Also, any opinions and suggestions would be most welcome! Cheers
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The 6 pots I’ve set out like this to try and make use of the light and avoid hot spots. An LED panel with be a sound investment at some point in the future.
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Also I stripped foil off walls and floor. Water had leaked through so didn’t want to risk mould. I will be laying panda sheer down once plumbing completed
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Reservoir to catch run off when using coco, but I’ve a small pump to be fitted so this will be used for recirculated system with clay at a later date
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I’ve tried to set up lights so to avoid too much cross over of the light footprint. A 4x4 space doesn’t really lend itself to the way HID lamps throw light. Last cycle i had issues with some plants getting light burn. I’m also considering dropping a 400w MH in amongst canopy for stretch period of flower.
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Looking good mate, those girls are coming along nicely.
I see you’ve been doing a fair bit of plumbing in there, nice job.
A question about the halo rings. Do you run those constantly, or a timed cycle? And are they on for the entire grow cycle, or only until the roots hit the nutes in their bucket? I know i could find the info sonewhere, but i’ve got the new years stone on early 
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Happy new year mate, I hope you seen midnight! I was in room reworking plumbing. Those halos will work good but way too much flow to use with coco. So back drip feeds. Next cycle I’ll ditch coco and use all clay balls and recycle nutrient solution. Halos will be dripping constantly then. I’ve foliar feed these ones too, photo taken straight after a spray so they look a bit droopy. I’ll start smashing them with feed starting on weekend. I’ve topped them as well, plan on another topping within a week.
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Happy New years to you too brother. Saw it through to 6am with the missus, good times 
Pretty quite New Years Day but lol
It looks like I’m heading down the path behind you. Still researching, but pretty confident that i’ll be going the clay/nutrifield/halo RDWC setup. I’ve got my a/c and dehumidifier, now just need to find a decent chiller and go visit hyalite to get the system…preferably before i decide i have to upgrade to led!
Those are some lovely looking ladies you’ve got going again bro, I’m jelly.
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Thanks @Jay , yeah I’m happy how they are progressing. I’m more patient this time round, but the change of set up etc still has the little voice in my head saying “ they should be bigger, better, stronger. Something’s wrong” haha. So maybe only slightly more patience than last round.
If you go the RDWC set up, depending on your space and number of plants, I’d look at the 27 litre pots. That way you can fit the mesh style pots and nutrifield feed rings to them. The 15 litre ones I’m running won’t take them.
The 27L and 15L pot, bucket and stand both look like this.
This is the feed rings and mesh pots. I’d would of liked to use them but realistically I don’t have the space for 27 litre pots.
Only downside I can see with mesh pots is there isn’t a great deal of clay for the plant to root into before hitting the water, so possible they could keel over. Not sure how likely that would be?
No doubt you’re across all this already. But one last thing…see if the shop can drill holes and fit the tub outlets to the buckets for you. I’m not too bad on the tools, but 3 busted pot buckets at home says otherwise. I tried using the top hat grommets first because I had some spares, but they leak.
Chiller sounds like the go…water out my tap was 24 today. 42 down here tomorrow. I’m hand feeding out a 20 litre bucket until I think of a permanent solution. If your reservoir is in the same room as plants should be ok. My big one is in outer room next to cooltubes exhaust holes. Haha. Nearly make a cuppa out of the water in it tomorrow!
Cheers
What’s nutrients you planning on running? I’m using Cyco range with this one, more or less full line up too. Comes in a box. Platinum sugar rush or something it’s called. Seems ok so far. Bout $270 for the box, remains to be seen if I’ve been sucked in or not by the glossy packaging. Bit of a sucker like that, just like fishing lures. They caught me more than I caught fish! Haha
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Sigh, I’m thick as pig shit sometimes 
Reading your post above and realized that the 4x 27L pots I’d been planing on wont actually fit into my veg chamber… just a little brain fart eh? So it’s either go a different system, go 2x pots(ouch) or rebuild/upgrade the veg chamber (realistically not going to happen anytime soon). I guess I’m back to building my own, not such a bad thing.
I’m hearing you on the mesh pot sizes. My plan was/is to use a double stack of scrog, for support as well as help spreading the canopy just in case they decide to topple. Good advice on the tophat grommets , i wondered if they’d do the job. Seems like the bulkheads will be the way forward for my DIY. Managed to pick some up for about $2.50 each on fleabay, on a slow boat from China. I’m definitely going to need a chiller up here, from what I’m hearing on the news you need one there today too! I think we might of seen the same glossy packaging for nutes, i was ready to order the cyco platinum when i found a chiller. At least now i have at least a month of watching your grow; before the boat lands and i can build the system lol. It was either the Cyco or Canna, i guess we’ll wait and see now.
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We made it through the day, cool change rolled in a couple of hours ago. Rather pleasant outside now. Anyway, you could still use the 15 litre pots and buckets, halos and a reservoir. Basically the same as I have, except the drain to reservoir I’d make 1”. Then plumb up as you see fit, chuck an air stone in each pot and 2 in reservoir, and experiment with pump on/off cycles. Agreed, designing and building is far more rewarding than ready to go kits.
Cyco nutes seem to be going ok. I looked at grotek also. Settled on Cyco over grotek mainly because they’re Australian made. (And the glossy packaging of course haha). I’ll keep you updated on anything I notice while using them. What’s your water like? Mine is ok, but I’m in an area where the dose the supply while in pipes and holding tanks, so to get ph to drop requires a bit of ph down but if slightly too much it drops real fast. I think that’s called “buffering” and has something to do with the chlorine. These Cyco nutes seem to require more ph down than last runs nutrifield nutes did. Then again it could be the water here. (Edited-I keep forgetting to tag you @Jay if I’m replying)
