Hey everyone!

I'm very excited about this grow. Mostly because it's my first one,but also because I am a medical user. I was blessed with a genetic disease called ulcerative colitis, which is an autoimmune disease that makes my body think my bowel is filled with unfriendly bacteria. So my immune system goes all rambo on my bowel. It's no fun. Thankfully I discovered MJ, and I am happy to report that as of two weeks ago, I am a legal grower in the country of Canada.

I'm doubly excited about this grow because George has been immensely helpful and transparent in answering my every question. After months of pain and suffering I was introduced to marijuana after taking a handful of drugs like prednisone, Imuran and Remicade (all at once...) and still not getting total relief in November 2012. Modern drugs are amazing, but MJ is just as amazing and I am happy to be able to grow my own. Since then I've been reading about growing every single day and educated myself to the best of my ability. After I felt I mastered the basics of botany science, I started making detailed inquiries to the various LED manufacturers. I was shocked to realize so many of them were amateurs and had no idea what they were doing. Cali Lightwork offers the best PAR/watt/dollar ratio of any other modern fixtures (induction or LED) I could find. So I got two SS400W!

I'm super excited to be sharing this with you. I look forward the experience of watching these plants grow.

Technical stuff:
Strain: Serious Seed Kali Mist (Fem)
Tent: 2x4
Light: Two Solarstorm 400W
Air Pump: General Hydroponics 320GPH, 20l/min
Medium: DWC 20 gal. (growing 2 plants)
Nutrients: AN complete line (Sensi Grow AB for veg, Connoisseur AB for bloom)
Humidifier: Air-o-Swiss AOS-7135
Dehumidifier: Delonghi DICODD50P-285243
CO2 Controller: Sentinel CHHC-4
Tank regulator: Sentinel CO2 Regulator
Airflow: Two Vornado 12” vortex fans at speed 1
Chiller: JBJ Arctica 1/10 HP set at 65°F ---> that was a mistake. I should have went with a 1/4hp right away.
Reservoir: General Hydroponics Covert Tank 33 gal.
DWC Chilling: Hydro Innovations stainless steel 12” CoolCoil
Tubing: ½” ID Nylon braided tubing
AC: Icebox 6”
Fan: Can-Fan Can-Max 6” HO Speed Adjustable

Pics:

Day 1










Day 2


Day 6


Day 7


Day 8






Day 9


Day 10




Day 12 (today)

Welcome to the forums!

That is certainly one of the most detailed journal introductions we've had so far and it looks like you've done your homework too. My suggestion, right off the top of my head, is to separate your two plants more and get a larger DWC "bucket/tote" to give you a little more fluid capacity. 6 gallons for two plants will require you to fill up multiple times per day, when they get older, and since they're so close they'll get too crowded. I assume that you're going to SCROG since you only have 2 plants in a 2x4 tent.

If you have questions feel free to ask and we'll try to help if we can.


SME

Yes I will be SCROGing. I've definitely done my homework but this is still my first grow. As you can see on day 10 the light was too close and it caused PAR stress (or whatever you may call it... the fixture uses a tight angle lens which I didn't know about) which is a newb mistake. They are recuperating now.

I have also added a lightrail today:









It was an impulse purchase after I read this passage in the book I've been using as a reference book to grow.



Not sure whether a light rail really can increase yield by 10-20% but for the cost it seemed worthy of the investment (if true).

SME: I bought this system in the first two weeks of my research and I knew too little about growing in general to make the most informed decision. I completely overlooked the size of the res.

Which size would you recommend?

I will also space the plants as you suggested. At firs I thought it'd make better use of the light but since I have a lightrail now this whole point is moot.

Thank you for your guidance!

Light movers are not the best solution to getting more yield. Light movers can help even a canopy out a little but only at the expense of the growth loss when the light moves away from some plants. With 2 SS400 lights in that 2x4 tent you're well under the suggested space given by CLW so you definitely do not have a situation where you don't have enough watts per square foot. I'd ditch the mover and just keep the lights 4 feet apart, on center but that's just me, it's not like the mover uses a lot of electricity so if you WANT to run it, run it. Your biggest problem (other than being a new grower) will be dealing with the heat, the chiller will be enough to deal with the nutrient temps but the "ice-box" will add to your heat load too so keep an eye on it. Two SS400 lights in a 2x4 tent will be warmer than you think.

Since you are going to SCROG, height shouldn't be a big problem so I would get as big as you can fit (within reason) in the floor space available. Anything over 20 gallons will be overkill for 2 plants in SCROG with your size tent.

Don't be ashamed; you can tell us which light you tried first, we wont tease you very much.

There is a lot of misunderstanding on how the icebox works and I'm not sure whether my photos are clear so I think I'll explain how it works for the benefit of others because it took me a while to grasp the concept.

The icebox is in fact a watercooled radiator. My water chiller cools a closed loop that starts in the 33 gal. reservoir, then goes through the icebox, then in the chiller, then though a stainless steel coil inside the nutrient reservoir, and back into the reservoir. The water inside the DWC never touches the water in the watercooled loop.

I am running a sealed tent. Inside the tent is the icebox, attached to a regular can max fan. This max-fan is connected to the CHHC-4 controller which is set at 83F. When the fan activates, it pushes the hot air of the tent through the icebox, which is cooled by water, and in turn it cools the air of the tent down. Hydro Innovations recommends that the water running through the icebox be 10F cooler than the target air temperature for every 1000W HID lights in your setup.

So if I had a single 1000W (I'll have 800W) and want to keep my ambient temperature at 83F my water only needs to be at 73F for the icebox to be effective. It's winter here, so the ambient temp in my room is 70F. Essentially the chiller only has to handle the stress of the light. So far, 1/10 hp is plenty for this 100W light, but I will be upgrading to a bigger one very soon (most likely 1HP... thinking ahead for future expansion).

So this whole Icebox/Chiller setup is like a closed circuit watercooled air conditioner for my sealed tent.

I didn't even know this existed until someone spoke about it, but it sure works perfectly and is 100% stealth (can't hear it).

I will go to HomeDepot and get a 20 gal reservoir, thanks for the suggestion!

About lightrail: I'll recycle it in another tent later.

Thanks

I know how the ice box works but you said you were also using a "CoolCoil" to keep your nutrient temps down. Ice box suggests 1/4 hp for each 1000w HPS light so your 620+ watts and the added heat load from cooling your nutrients (you want that in the 65-68 F. range) might be a bit much for a 1/10th hp chiller, especially in the summer. That said, you are going to be running CO2 so the plants can tolerate a higher ambient temp. There is also a theory that higher day temps, during flower, may actually increase yield under LED lights. My suggestion is to keep an eye on nutrient temps and canopy temps after you get your lights and everything else running just to make sure.

I just wanted to throw it out there for the other amateur growers like me. It was really hard to understand the concept behind the icebox at first because "watercooled" to me always has been about using water to cool something directly. So I thought the water was supposed to cool the LED directly, like I use watercooling in my PC. It doesn't help that HI's website is crap and the documentation nearly non-existent. The manual included with the icebox is great though, the PDF should be on the website. It would have answered all my questions!

The reason I got it is because I initially invested in CO2 thinking passive ventilation would be enough (obviously I was terribly wrong). So then it occurred to me that I either had to somehow cool the air inside the tent and keep it sealed or use active ventilation and waste CO2. That's when someone mentioned the icebox and it basically took me a few days of hunting down information to piece it all together. HI never returned my e-mails. During summer I got a 10,000 BTU AC unit that cools the room so it will be under control, hopefully.

I've set 83F because that's what it said was best in the book under CO2 supplementation, but I will differ to you if you say more or less is better since the book is a few years old and I'm sure you know just as much as good old Ed. For instance it's the first time I hear higher day temps in flower with LED may help. Sounds interesting!

What kind of temps are we talking about? 85F or like 90+ under CO2?

Merci beaucoup!

I've grown for decades but I'm by no means the best grower out there. Personally, I like 78-80 without CO2 and 83-85 with. The higher-temp-LED theory hasn't been tested enough, imho but *if* you ran 85 during veg and the first week or so of flowering and bumped that up to 88-90 they *might* like that a lot. 90 is a bit high under most conditions but outside temps often get higher than that and outdoor plants thrive despite that. If they show heat stress you can always drop it a bit again and you still want "night" temps about 15F cooler too.

SisterMaryElephant wrote: Personally, I like 78-80 without CO2 and 83-85 with. The higher-temp-LED theory hasn't been tested enough, imho but *if* you ran 85 during veg and the first week or so of flowering and bumped that up to 88-90 they *might* like that a lot. 90 is a bit high under most conditions but outside temps often get higher than that and outdoor plants thrive despite that. If they show heat stress you can always drop it a bit again and you still want "night" temps about 15F cooler too.

Perfect. I wrote it down.

I've established a routine in which I check the plant every day at the same time and record data (ppm, ph, rh, temp, etc.) so I'll be taking pictures and report back here at first sign of trouble.

I'll be proactive and order the bigger water chiller immediately. I don't want to be caught with my pants down.

Well, if you do get a bigger chiller now you'll definitely have room for some expansion later, you did mention other tents in the future so there you go. 1/10th might have been enough but when it comes to chillers; a littler bigger is better than a little too small.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this works for you, you have a very well thought out system so now we just need to get you some experience.