First Grow, DWC NightOwl Heartbreaker

4/13 - Another week already! Did a res change today, and I need to come up with a better system/process. B/c of the setup, I had to use my electric siphon pump, but that was sucking up some of the roots as well (the root balls are huge!). The spigot the cooler comes with is handy for quick samples without disturbing the plants, but trying to empty the reservoir like that SUCKS b/c it is too slow and you have to hold it down the entire time. RDWC is becoming more and more enticing. I will likely have to start topping off instead of draining if I want to maintain the Scrog. That will probably happen anyway due to how fast they are drinking. I'm still ideating over the ATO system...it's insane how complicated hydrostatics is. It's also funny to me that growing can be as simple or as complicated as you make it...guess which camp I'm in. There is definitely a noticeable smell, but not so much that I need to put the carbon filter in yet. My SO says they smell like lemony BO 😂 * POST RES CHANGE * Heather: 860 ppm 5.78 pH 61.8 F water temp Helen: 860 ppm 5.75 pH 63.5 F water temp 4/15 - Things are going steady so far. Since they're drinking at least 1/2 gallon to 3/4 gallon a day now, I topped them off earlier with some diluted leftover nutes from 4/13. This was needed since Heather's ppm shot way up (I'm thinking it's from some of the dead roots that I wasn't able to clean yet). After adding back, the ppms are both looking good and where I want them. I'm not seeing any resin yet on the leaves. Good news everyone! I believe I have found a much simpler way to solve both my vacation and res change challenges! I'm going to set up a separate reservoir to each cooler (I've already bought 2 more igloo coolers, $22 at my local walmart), and have a pipe/tube connecting them at the bottom. The igloo cooler spigot is removable (thank god), so I don't need to make any cuts in the coolers. I'm planning on attaching a ball valve faucet instead of the spigot. At the end, it should looks something very similar to this person's setup, but with coolers: https://support.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/t/single-bucket-dwc-mods/41783 It's been a fun rabbit hole researching. I learned an insane amount about hydrostatics and did a few of my own science experiments (this was a fun one - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-gravity-auto-top-off.376602/), but in the end, I realized that the amount of trial and error to set up a gravity-fed siphon ATO is too much of a hassle, and using solenoid valves + float switches become too complex when needing to design backups if any of those fails (being in the tech field, it's a rule that things fail all the time). I also learned that DWC growing has A LOT of overlap with reef aquariums and home brewing, which I now know more about than ever. I'm planning to go to Home Depot in the next few days to start putting the extra reservoir together. It should make res changes 420% easier, and reduce the frequency of res changes by half. 4/16 - Ladies still looking pretty good (added new grow cam pic to show the tent coverage from the inside). I've weaved some of the larger stems into the trellis a bit more to give more light to the small ones in the middle. Heather's ppm keeps shooting up, but Helen is staying stable. I'm topping off later tonight with a lower dose of nutes until next week. Really excited to upgrade my system to have ball valves to make draining easier, and the extra res to make my life easier. Still no noticeable trichs or resin on the leaves yet. Can you tell I got yet another new dehumidifier? I think this is the one! 4/19 - Things have been going well so far. Ladies are still drinking a crazy amount every day, and I just added some more back (light nute dosage until the next round). The growth through the trellis has been pretty incredible. It's funny to think how nervous I was just a couple weeks ago when I thought I stunted them early on. The flowering stretch is REAL! I did a good amount of defoliation today on both plants (see pics). I removed about 1/3rd (probably less) of the lower fan leaves, and some of the lower bud sites that I could see would not be able to develop due to the canopy blocking the light. I probably should have been doing this a bit earlier on, but you live and you learn! Hopefully, the parts come soon so I can take it easy on mixing nutes every few days! ------ Thanks for following 🤙 Always, appreciative of tips or suggestions