Page 5 of 14

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 5:42 pm
by AlphaOmega
teetee wrote:
I must say though, the primary source of heat in my set up is the LED. That actually pumps out hot air like 6 hairdryers (but then again it does draw hot air from the top of the cabinet). Even then I have a 6" and a 9" fan circulating air.... I might have to find a way of keeping the LED cooler or exhausting the warm air directly. I do have a carbon filter directly above it, that must surely remove most of the hot air produced by the Helios???

:grin:::::

Any ideas out there?


yo mate, thought id pop in and lend a hand, The led has intake fans at the top, so putting a filter directly above it could be starving it a bit of fresh air.
This has always been on my mind and the best way I sorted it was to turn one fan around on one of my two extraction holes at the top of my cab.
So one is blowing in from the top and the other one is sucking out.
Lowers the temps of the LEDs exhaust by quite a bit.

This is before I turned one of the pc fans around, my filter is attached at the back of the drobe aswell, 2 5 inch tubes, a y splitter and a 5 inch filter attached to back of drove by brackets.
The LED is also a Helios 6

Top.jpg


maybe that'll help, or another idea was to put extraction holes in the top sides aswell maybe with two smaller pc fans extracting the exhaust directly out. might implement that one next time.
Nice setup tho mate, wicked

:geek:

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 6:39 pm
by teetee
Cheers AO for your views. I really dont want to make another hole in the cab, but I may just have to....
got a few ideas off you though so thanks.
:grin:::::

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 8:38 pm
by teetee
DAY 48

Hi Guys,

Everything's looking good. I checked the res last night and found that the girls had drunk 5-6 litres of water. EC had dropped from initial 0.8 to 0.7 and pH had moved from 5.8 to 6.1, res temps 19C, Air temp 28C CO2 between 680 and 850ppm (running out of gas).

Last night, I took 5 litres of RO water, added 1.6ml Cal Mag and 2.5ml Aqua Flakes A&B to replace lost nutrients, then added a further 5ml A&B in order to start increasing the EC. After minimal pH up adjustment with silicone and cooling down to 19C (to avoid shocking the roots), I added it to the res and noted the EC moving from 0.7 to 0.8. pH 5.8. I was hoping the EC would go to 0.9, but never mind... will add more tomorrow again.

The Girls are looking good for the increase in nutes. Lots of visible growth in every plant.

No1 had very small, thin looking leaves before, now they are thickening out and getting bigger. This plant used to get a lot of brown tips and patches, which now seems to have settled. The main branch was bent almost 90 degrees, and after fimming, the new side branches are spreading out nicely, some have been fimmed again, and growth is good.

Nos 2 and 3 are very bushy, most of the new side branches have been fimmed, and so there are lots of activity going on under the canopy. They are spreading out really well.

No 4 is getting there, she's very healthy, but she didn't stretch very much before I fimmed the main stalk. Consequently I have a very compact bush growing, but the side branches are developing nicely, and I expect to see some very noticeable spread from her in the next 2 weeks.

Looking at other growers' experiences with Pineapple Chunk, there has been mention of a variant which is slow to stretch, but then really goes mad later on, so maybe that's no 4.

Here they are, and compare them to the pics of days 43 and 45, they really have grown!

DSC_0124.JPG

DSC_0125.JPG


Tonight I am going to remove all my LST ties, and re-tie them down,maybe cut away some of the bigger leaves to get more light into the lower parts and develop those new side shoots. By tomorrow night, I expect another 5 Liters will need replacing, so I will consider bringing up the EC again a notch.

I'm still not happy with the CO2 situation... now I think my new regulator isn't letting any gas out!!!!!
I did various tests, plugging in directly, checking polarity, reversing polarity, to such a point I ran out of gas, dammit!!!
I called Esoteric - they were great - they immediately put a new regulator in the post, for next day delivery, and I just have to send them my old one in my own time!!! The owner (Jeff) is extremely knowledgeable - having written a brilliant Hydro textbook, and although they can be pricey in some areas, they literally stock EVERYTHING and more. Plus the customer service is brilliant (remember, they took back my Ecotechnics gear even though I bought it elsewhere).

I originally bought the (3kg) CO2 cylinder from an aquatic shop in Wales - just couldn't get one in downtown Rotterdam, I don't plan on going back to Wales again anytime soon, and no one will refill the cylinder (even though it's brand new). Luckily London Beer Gas delivers food grade CO2 in 6kg cylinders to your doorstep. It's for the plants in my aquarium mate!!! Their website even states that it can be used for that purpose - so no more making up stories about repairing old lawnmowers with a MIG welder. The new cylinder has arrived, meaning that I will be peeking round the curtain for Mister Postman tomorrow like an excited child waiting for my new regulator. I wanna crank up that CO2 to 1200ppm and get those girls BIG.

I wish you all the very best of smoking pleasure this evening!
:grin:::::

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:15 pm
by teetee
DAY 53

This week I have been slowly increasing the EC by adding extra nutrient during water top ups.

4th Dec (day 47) moved from 0.7 to 0.8
6th Dec (day 48) moved from 0.8 to 0.9
8th Dec (day 51) moved from 0.9 to 1.0
tonight I will do a full res change and move to 1.1

I've been sorting out the CO2 situation. I have realised that the Ecotechnics gear wasn't dosing high enough or often enough - mainly because it couldn't stay in a state where the fans were off for long enough. Also I wasn't keeping the humidity high enough because of the near constant extraction fans.
The Harvest Master has given me much more control over the environment, and the ability to link the humidifier to it has resulted in much more time where no fans run. Unfortunately, however, the sensors for the Harvest Master were not working properly, so I had to return the CO2 sensor..... MORE DELAYS. The new sensors arrived, and I still couldn't get decent CO2 levels - nothing more than 850ppm.

After more investuigation, I realised the solenoid switch for the regulator on the CO2 bottle wasn't operating (in other words, the electronic valve for the CO2 was faulty), so I sent that back to Esoteric. They were great, sending me a new one before receiving my one back. Funnily enough, they gave me back my old Ecotechnics one. It arrived and this week I actually recorded levels of 1200ppm ....... then it shot upto 4800ppm.... not good for plants. I spent a little while playing around with the settings, and then realised that I had run out of gas!!!!!

Luckily I have a new supplier of C02 who deliver to my doorstep. The next day I received it and connected it all up. Still getting way high levels of CO2 in the 4000-5000ppm region. The customer service for Harvest Master are great, and he led me through various solutions. It turns out that the Ecotechnics regulator has a fixed output of 0.17L/min which is OK ordinarily, but in such a small enclosed environment, it was too much. I needed a new regulator, one that could reduce the operating pressure down to 2-5 Bar. It was also dosing huge amounts at night, which it's not supposed to do - plants don't need it at night. I was also pretty concerned that any CO2 leaking from my cab may go downstairs where we sleep - CO2 is an odourless asphyxiant!!!!! It turns out that was due to a faulty relay - I have a spare, so that's sorted.

I've done some homework on gas regulators, and safety is paramount. If a cylinder tips over and the regulator gets knocked, or if the regulator is poorly made, it basically becomes a cannon, and will blast a hole through a wall, easily. There are 2 types of regulator, single and dual stage. Wescol are a trusted UK brand, and make nice regulators with 2 dials, one for tank pressure, and one for operating pressure. A dual stage regulator is more precise, as it will hold the same set operating pressure regardless of how much gas is left in the tank. SIngle stage regs tend to need constant slight adjustment of operating pressure, which is not ideal in my space, where small changes are big issues. Dual stage regs are basically 2 single stage regs in series, so the cost is more than twice the price. There's no way I would get one second hand or on E-Bay. I am ordering it this afternoon, but am coping with the Ecotechnics (single stage) regulator by turning it almost off completely - not precise or easy to do.

We're getting there though, and hopefully all CO2 issues will be sorted by the end of the week, just in time for flowering!

Here's how they are today, I did some major LST work on them just before taking the pics. No 1 top right, no 2 bottom right, no 3 top left, no 4 bottom left.

DSC_0127.JPG
no 1 and 3 take up most of the space, but no 1 has fought back, and no 4 is spreading out now.

DSC_0128.JPG

DSC_0129.JPG
The current set up.


Thanks for checking in, more soon
:grin:::::

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 12:36 am
by ledbud
looking nice teetee bro, they will be going crazy soon.
just sit back and wait for big fat buds.
:grin:::: :grin::::: :grin::::

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 1:42 am
by teetee
it's 1am, technically day 56 but really, it's still.......

DAY 55

Now that the CO2 is working well and is able to be monitored, plus the increase in nutrient strength, the Girls are doing really well.
There seems to be visible growth each day... I must find a way of measuring this, because it looks like some areas are growing at least a centimeter or more a day.

All plants have had their primary stem fimmed or topped (no 1) and LST'd by bending over about 80 degrees, and all secondary branches have also been fimmed, a lot of the big ones have been trained outwards to spread the canopy, and even some of the tertiary branches have also been fimmed and trained.

THERE ARE LITERALLY TONS OF NEW GROWING SITES all growing like the magic beanstalk, only outwards rather than upwards!!!

No 1 started off so well, but soon fell behind. As I have said, it is different to the rest, looking crispier and lots of brown tipped leaves, none of which seemed to get very big either. She's there in the middle of the picture, bordered by no 2 at the bottom edge, and no 3 at the left edge, Actually, as no 2, and no 3 are bigger than no 1, they are beginning to grow over her.

DSC_0154a.jpg
no 1

DSC_0157a.jpg
no 1 close up to show brown tipped leaves. In general, this plant has smaller and different shaped leaves to the other 3


No 2 is doing very well indeed. I'm gonna have to drill off the net pot cover at some point, as it's stem is just the same size as the hole!
DSC_0153a.jpg
no 2


No 3 is the best plant, she started off slow, germinating 2 or 3 days later than no 1 and 2, she is really taking over the space for no 1 and no 4.
DSC_0155a.jpg
no 3


No 4 is finally getting there. It hasn't stretched much so the inter node distance is quite small compared to the rest, but she's got thick healthy foliage that's spreading well with the aid of a few soft ties.
DSC_0156a.jpg
no 4


Here they are together...
DSC_0158a.jpg
group shot from above

DSC_0159a.jpg
Group shot from front


Together, they have consumed 11 Litres of nutrient solution since the reservoir change 2 days ago, with the water level dropping by almost 4cm.

Therefore, I made up 11L off RO water with 2.5ml Cal mag and 15ml Aqua Flakes A&B, and topped up the tank, increasing the EC to 1.2.

I really think I should get on with flowering, but will probably wait till the weekend.

I'm also considering pulling no1. I'm worried it maybe a hermaphrodite or a male - unlikely as these are so called 'feminised' seeds. I did stress them out a little at the seedling stage, so maybe that has turned it into a hermie? I may just keep on growing it just to see, but the moment any bollocks show up, out it comes!!!

Anyway, must go to sleep now, I'm shattered from looking after 2 kids and a puppy all day - a puppy that has the potential to shit and piss at free will anywhere, same for the baby actually. Maybe I should put a nappy on the pup! :lol:

Thanks for checking in. At this crucial stage, please pass on any hints and tips about going into flowering you might have. Thanks Guys!

:grin:::::

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 7:46 am
by LEDDWCRigger
Make sure the T5 are not touching the plants. Despite being fluorescent, they do get hot enough to case heat damage, due to small tube diameter. Even the 4ft bulbs get quite hot.

BTW, did you know the sun is roughly 93 lumens per watt efficiacy? Lousy, eh?

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 4:26 pm
by teetee
Hi,

I was just looking through my pics, and thought I should show the growth from day 43 to day 55.

That's just 12 days...

DSC_0123.JPG
Day 43

DSC_0158a.jpg
Day 55


Is this amazing growth due to the CO2 or the increase in nutes?

:grin:::::

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 10:03 pm
by ledbud
lovely teetee.
:cool: :cool: :cool:

Re: Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk with Helios 6 & CO2

PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 2:25 am
by LEDDWCRigger
teetee wrote:Hi,

I was just looking through my pics, and thought I should show the growth from day 43 to day 55.

That's just 12 days...

DSC_0123.JPG

DSC_0158a.jpg


Is this amazing growth due to the CO2 or the increase in nutes?

:grin:::::


This is primarily going to be due to the nutrient increase. You are essentially at your limits with transpiration/respiration with CO2 in veg, but when you flower that CO2 is really going to boost things, and you'll want to boost it upwards of 1,000-1,500ppm when you get into your second or third week of flowering.

Love the 12 day spurt comparison!