NFT Northern Light Auto RQS 2.0

This is the start of my second grow and also second Northern Light Auto from RQS, the goal is to hit #1 in g/plant for that Strain. I didn't take as many notes as in the last grow but there are timelapses, some photos and metrics from probes. Started with 3 Seeds and then picked the 2 strongest. The System is a NFT System but due to the size of the tube and root growths the solution with submerge the roots ~70% later on. To combat that I use 3 small 1.5w air pumps, these are super silent, if one dies I got 2 more running and to be honest air pumps used in DWC systems are often oversized and rely on Broscience. In my Salad/Herb NFT Systems I don't use any air pumps and the plants are just fine and grow great. This time I added sprinklers to humidify the air inside the tube, slightly moisturize the Rockwool and speed up root growths. Spoiler: Was a great success :) The ratios for the fertilizers are not accurate in the following weeks, I have a 120l Reservoir that is filled 90-110l I top it up once or twice a week to sustain PH and EC, if you want to copy it just go by the EC and use the B (Calcinit) and A (Kristalon Blue/Orange) 50/50. I mix the solution myself with dry salts that I bought in bulk 25kg bags. 4l Water(distilled/RO preferably, tap water is OK) + 1kg salts mixes just fine, keep the solution dark and cool and it will stay stable for months. Dry salts don't expire if kept cool and dry so only mix what you need and keep the rest stored as dry salts. 40ml A + 40ml B is about 2EC and 6PH with my tap water, very similar to Canna, Plagron etc. isn't it? just with the twist that I pay ~20% of the known brands. P2O5, K2O, MgO etc. are always the same as long as they are produced by a good manufacturer, Yara is a world leader in fertilizer production just not to be found in you general hydroponics or hardware store. Any other known manufacturer is fine as well, pick the cheapest. Check Hoocho on Youtube to see a guide on how to mix your own solutions, it ain't that difficult trust me. From week 5 onwards I also use Oxygen granulate (KMPS, CAS-70693-62-8, 2KHSO₅ * KHSO₄ * K₂SO₄) if you want to use this check pool supply stores and buy the cheapest. Keep this one dry, cool and dark. I used a old pill bottle to keep some ready to go because it came in a 1kg container and I only need 2-4g per serving + the bottle has a silica pack in the cap. From week 6 onwards I used Haifa Grow Clean for Details check week 6, I use this one as dry salts and add it directly to the tank, it does not interact in a bad way with the solution. For meassurements I use a generic 8in1 Meter "PH-W218" branded by many companies, as usual, check stores and buy the cheapest. (Check week 1 for an image of it) I got mine from Aliexpress for ~70€ it uses the Tuya app so you can always check your metrics and export them aswell. The PH and EC probe are accurate and are giving me stable results for almost 1 year now, I re calibrate the PH probe once in a while and it is tops 0.15 off after a month, always double check your results with PH drops/paper. Bluelab is... A LOT more expensive for less value. For the timelapses I use 2 Tappo C210 2k Cameras, these have the ability to make the stream available trough RTSP so that you can access it trough a link in a browser and that way I snap a Screenshot with a raspberry pi :) after that I just render it with blender to a timelapse. Sadly they seem to have trouble with the bright lights and I get image trouble over the course of the day, if you have a recommendation hit me up :) The script I use to take the Images: #!/bin/bash ########################################################################################################################################## ##### A script to save images from a rtsp capeable IP cam, Tapo C210 (2k image quality) for example in my case. ##### Images are saved in a directory named "2024_01_01" for example, it uses the "date" command within the system it is running on. ##### You can then render the images to a timelapse, I use blender for that. ########################################################################################################################################## RTSP_URL_LEFT="rtsp://:@:/stream1" #sets the variable for cam LEFT access RTSP_URL_RIGHT="rtsp://:@:/stream1" #sets the variable for cam RIGHT access while true; do TIMESTAMP=$(date +"%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M_%S") #sets the timestamp variable DIRECTORYLEFT=/$(date +"%Y_%m_%d") #sets the directory variable with current day for LEFT DIRECTORYRIGHT=/$(date +"%Y_%m_%d") #sets the directory variable with current day for RIGHT mkdir -p "${DIRECTORYLEFT}" #makes a directory for each day if it doesn't exist for LEFT mkdir -p "${DIRECTORYRIGHT}" #makes a directory for each day if it doesn't exist for RIGHT ffmpeg -y -i "${RTSP_URL_LEFT}" -frames:v 1 -vf "format=yuvj420p" "${DIRECTORYLEFT}/${TIMESTAMP}.jpg" #captures a frame from the RTSP stream and save it as a JPEG image for LEFT ffmpeg -y -i "${RTSP_URL_RIGHT}" -frames:v 1 -vf "format=yuvj420p" "${DIRECTORYRIGHT}/${TIMESTAMP}.jpg" #captures a frame from the RTSP stream and save it as a JPEG image for RIGHT ################################################################################################################################ ##### Waits for 180 seconds, change that depending on how precise you want the timelapse to be, less waiting = more images ################################################################################################################################ sleep 180 done Hope you like my diary, leave a comment and a like if you like it :)