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THE MAKING OF HYDROMAG... Editor Cosmo MacKenzie cos@hydromag.co.uk Technical Assistant Editor Bill Sutherland bill@hydromag.co.uk And you shall have it! Go to page 16...

Good Day To You… …and welcome to Issue Nine of HYDROMAG.

It’s almost summer yet again. The trees are blossoming, the days are lengthening, and stoic young Brits up and down the land heroically try to light barbecues with wet matches in howling gales. The air is full of the sound of willow smacking leather (the cricket season is in full swing too), and the callous laughter of teenagers flocking to the wastelands with their BMX bikes and three-litre bottles of White Lightning. Here at HYDROMAG we’ve never understood those who proclaim autumn their favourite season. “But the colours! The reds, purples and golds!” The leaves are dying, people (“I love my job at the morgue – the blues, violets and crimsons…”). No, we’re all about the verdant. That’s why we spend so much time in our growrooms. But the beauty of the growroom is there’s no year-long wait for harvest. We don’t have to kick our heels, play tiddliwinks and read newspapers while waiting for the sun to rise, the clouds to open. The hydroponics grower, like a green-fingered Kim Jong-un, rules his growroom with an iron fist in a velvet glove. With this in mind, in our second theme-based issue, we take a detailed look at environmental control. Micromanage your crop with the best of them! Absolute power has never been such fun. You’ll find expertly-written features on growing in a vacuum; how to choose a fan; pH control… We’ve got an insanelygenerous competition, grunge music, fantasy films, your letters and much more besides! And finally, get your calendars out and circle the following dates: May 31st and June 1st 2014. Wherever you are, drop your secateurs and head to Coventry for Home Grown Expo - the Midlands’ first ever hydroponics trade fair (public and trade welcome). Companies from all over the world will descend upon the Ricoh Arena like Calum Best on an Ibiza bikini contest. Expect to see the usual exhibitors from our industry, along with a healthy sprinkling of others from the general gardening trade. The event organisers have guaranteed a spectacle never before seen in the UK hydroponics industry. We’ve already bailed out of friends’ weddings, bought our train tickets and prepared our thermos flasks – have you? Keep growing and thank you for reading! Ever Yours,

Lifestyle Christian Mason christian@hydromag.co.uk Lifestyle Buddy Mason buddy@hydromag.co.uk Managing Director / Sales Pete Turner sales@hydromag.co.uk Art Director Russ Sealey russ@hydromag.co.uk Project Manager Lydia Bennett lydia@hydromag.co.uk Design / Illustration Emma Godley emma@hydromag.co.uk Design Kim Tinker kim@hydromag.co.uk Accounts Claire Kennedy accounts@hydromag.co.uk Sales Administrator Megan Corless sales@hydromag.co.uk Sales & Feature Manager Nico Hill nico@hydromag.co.uk

HYDRO PUBLISHING LTD 5, The Old Bakery, 90 Acre Street, Lindley, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD3 3EL T: +44 (0) 203 384 8940 E: info@hydromag.co.uk W: www.hydromag.co.uk PRINTED IN THE UK

Christian Mason (Deputy Editor)

Thank you to our distributors: HYDROMAG is designed in partnership with PARA www.paraltd.com

All editorial is copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or be stored in any retrieval system in any form without the prior permission of the Publisher. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy no responsibility will be accepted for inaccuracies however caused. Contributed material does not necessarily reﬂect the opinion of the Publisher. The Publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited materials. It is assumed that any images taken from sources that are widely distributed such as the Internet, are in the public domain. However, since such images are passed between sources such as websites, the original source is not always possible to trace. The editorial policy and general layout of the publication is at the sole discretion of the Publisher and no debate will be entered into. No responsibility will be accepted for illustrations, artwork or photographs while in transmission with the Publisher or their agents unless such commitment is made in writing prior to receipt of such items.

ISSUE NO. 009 06.2014

Featured In This Issue... 38 08

THE FEED Wikipearl - Edible Food Packaging

A Harvard professor has a “road to Damascus moment” while eating a Scotch egg (possibly). The result? An environmentally-sound form of food packaging.

THE FEED Hydro in Hell’s Kitchen

THE KNOWLEDGE How To - Choose a Fan

FEATURE Fan/Filter Pressure Tests

This has nothing to do with profanity-spewing, choleric Scottish chefs. We investigate Hydroponics being taught at a New York high school…

THE KNOWLEDGE: Growing in a Sealed Environment

Growing in a vacuum. Could anyone hear you scream?

DISTRACTIONS A-Z of Music… Grunge

DISTRACTIONS: 100 Films to Watch… Fantasy

GROW GEAR Grow Gear

COMPETITION TIME Win Some Stuﬀ!

ASK THE EXPERT Letters

Once upon a time the music scene consisted almost exclusively of Jason Donovan, Milli Vanilli, and Jive Bunny. Then Nirvana happened…

John Lennon wishes he could have chosen one other than Mark Chapman. HYDROMAG looks at how YOU should choose your fan.

Not that we’re naturally untrusting here at HYDROMAG, but we like to put things to the test. In this issue – fans and ﬁlters.

Escape the grinding tedium of work, rent cheques, Angry Birds, food banks, Made in Chelsea, illness and death. In this issue – Fantasy!

The very latest kit for your growroom. The. Very. Latest. Kit.

FAVOURITES: Dimlux IR Plant Camera and Faran Centrifugal Humidiﬁer

Rule your growroom with an iron ﬁst. We take a look at two superb products offering greater control over your plants.

EXPERT OPINIONS pH Control

In an era where everyone thinks they know everything, we believe the death of expertise has been called prematurely. Our industry experts talk pH control.

THE KNOWLEDGE How It Works – Filters

“Dear HYDROMAG, what is ﬁlters”? Well dear readers, turn to page 32 to ﬁnd out.

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” (Corinthians 9:24).

Greenhouses in the Deep South, liquid v. powdered nutrients, and a collage. No, this isn’t a surrealist’s dream. It’s your letters.

key to their success is a protective layer of coating which seeks to mimic biological cells, known in this case as Wikicells. To quote the Wikipearls website again “The skin is a protective electrostatic gel formed by harnessing interactions between natural food particles, nutritive ions and a polysaccharide. Through this proprietary and patent-pending technology, the skin becomes more impermeable to water and oxygen than other edible skins available.” Wikipearls are due to be released to limited Whole Foods Stores in March Introducing Wikipearls, a technology that wraps food in plastic-free, 2014, and the Wikibar in Paris’s Rue du Bouloi is currently open to anyone edible packages... or simply, the vegetarian scotch egg! who’d like to sample them. Of course, consuming all of your food in ball form is an idea that many people The world of food packaging has gone through a number of would struggle with. Equally, the psychological barrier of eating fundamental changes over the past twenty years. Gone are the food which has probably been handled directly is one that the rows and rows of aluminium tins from our supermarket shelves. developers themselves are all too aware of. Even these tentative In their place paper and plastic have arisen, albeit adorned with steps, whilst positive, don’t really address the wider problem. the same vibrantly coloured and grossly misleading branding Pies, pasties and the Scotch egg all represent earlier attempts that has governed our buying habits for half a century. As the to address issues of food handling. Where once the problem was urban populations of the world have grown, so too has humanity’s seen as one of grubby handed manual labourers not gobbling up a predilection for pre-packaged foodstuffs, lazily conditioned into mouthful of coat dust or cow shit, the modern problem is far more a vague facsimile of an actual meal. Invariably this increased sinister in its breadth. How many sets of hands have really handled popularity has led to a relative increase in discarded plastic. the contents of your chicken salad sandwich before it’s reached the Britons are, relatively speaking, pretty supermarket shelves? For each of those hands good at recycling, We’re by no means the best is a (not so biodegradable) rubber glove. Even at it, and the lack of recycling facilities on our with the gloves, how many times have they own shores does rather negate all our hard been used to catch a sneeze, wipe a sweaty work by requiring petrol fuel vehicles to ship brow, or scratch an itchy arse? For all that our waste abroad, but that’s an argument for the public might be convinced of the beneﬁts another day. And so the question of how we of biodegradable packaging, convincing the package our food remains an ever present army of health and safety pedants in the UK spectre hanging over our increasingly ecoalone will be a whole other battle. friendly society. Neither does the Wikipearl address the Enter the fray Harvard Professor David dark and furry side of city life; where humans Edwards with Wikifoods; currently manifest gather in any sizable urban sprawl, so too in the form of the ﬂowery named Wikipearls. do the creatures whose lifestyles their own Wikipearls are, to be rather blunt about it, so resemble: rats. Sealed packaging acts as essentially the vegetarian version of a scotch a deterrent to rats by negating the wicked egg. Where the vogelnestje (little birds nest), sense of smell that guides them. One can only as the Dutch call it, wraps an egg in breaded imagine that when the packaging tastes as good as the Wikipearl sausage meat, so too the Wikipearl wraps one foodstuff in another. creators claim, they surely must smell equally inviting. To quote the developers’ website; SO, whilst HYDROMAG must bow to the greater wisdom of the “WikiFoods technology wraps a vast range of foods and beverages Wikipearl creators and rightly give them credit where credit is due in plastic-free and edible packages made of natural ingredients. (kudos), we would be remiss if we didn’t direct our beloved readers WikiFood envelopes are not just barriers against water loss and to a far more stalwart source of healthy, sustainable and locally contaminant entry, they are also delicious and potential carriers of sourced food; grow it yourself by utilising the products within this nutrition, and may deliver unique nutrients just like the skin of a very magazine! That’s one thing we have over the rats (for the time fruit.” being). In truth the Scotch egg analogy doesn’t really do Wikipearls justice; they are potentially capable of containing food in every state and at Find out more at: www.wikipearl.com any temperature, from liquid hot chocolate to frozen yoghurt. The

Edible Food Packaging

Hydro in Hell’s Kitchen The tree or plant is an obvious metaphor for personal development through education. Many schools use tree iconography as part of their crest design. As Aristotle once said, “the roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”: The learning process can be difficult – tedious even – but the years of toil are worth it when the reward is a sweet, juicy rounded intellect and a delicious plump repository of knowledge. But here at HYDROMAG our staff are all alexithymic and therefore incapable of understanding metaphor. So when we saw this quote from John W. Gardner (former Secretary of Education under President Lyndon B. Johnson): “Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants,” we thought he was being literal. But we’re not the only ones – the Food and Finance High School of Hell’s ≠Kitchen, New York, (possibly stung by Gardner’s criticism), is teaching pupils Hydroponics, Aquaculture and Aquaponics. Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Traditionally a working class Irish neighbourhood, and a place where the sight of 400 knife-wielding teenagers would normally make the blood run cold; it is now better known as a hangout for struggling actors, for its diverse ethnic cuisine, and its legions of trainee cooks (being the location of the Food and Finance High School on West 50th Street). Founded in 2004, and in partnership with Cornell University (an Ivy League research university), Food & Finance High School prepares students for college with a demanding academic curriculum complimented by a focus on mastering culinary skills. Students as young as 14 have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of food production, sustainability and nutrition. For anyone interested, extracurricular activities include French lessons, yoga, chess, cheese and poetry. It’s

a veritable conveyor belt of eccentric young chefs. The great majority of students get paid internships in Manhattan restaurants and food businesses, gaining certification from the National Restaurant Association. As well as learning how to debone a chicken, batonnet, whip up a tasty jus or a pâte à choux; students study management and learn how to start their own restaurant from scratch; from devising profit and loss forecasts, choosing menus, to picking linen for tables. But as befitting a partner of technical university Cornell, Food and Finance has science at its heart. And the cornerstone of the establishment, the pride of West 50th, is its legendary Hydroponics and Aquaculture program. Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE) is a scheme to parachute its scientists into the wider community “in pursuit of economic vitality, ecological sustainability and social well-being” (according to their mission statement). Trinidadian Philson A. A. Warner, founding director of CUCE’s hydroponics, aquaculture and aquaponics laboratories, brings his extensive knowledge to the grateful students of Food and Finance. Adopting Froebelian principles in its approach, the emphasis at Food and Finance is on experiential learning, with students encouraged to don lab coats and get their hands dirty. Twenty years ago the old school here in Park West was described by The New York Times as a “center for violence and fear”. Back then it was common to witness the occasional stabbing, but these days the only ones who need fear for their lives are the tilapia fish being grown in the school basement. Warner is breeding thousands of the creatures, a species known as the “aquatic chicken” due to the speed at which it reaches full maturity (typically inside six months). “We seem to be overfishing our oceans, so we have to find ways to produce healthy, clean staple fish on a large scale to feed the

............................................................................... Students as young as 14 have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of food production, sustainability and nutrition.

............................................................................... population that we have on the planet,” said Warner. This is being achieved without the use of antibiotics and steroids (unlike, in most cases, with their grotesquely plump feathered cousins). The fish reside in ten tanks, in which between 75 and 150 gallons of water are pumped a minute. Each creature travels approximately 24 miles a day into the current, while actually “standing still”. Once they’ve hit their 2-pound target weight the fish are harvested, sold to local business (the school currently sells roughly $120,000 of fish a year), donated to charity programs, and used by the students to master their filleting and cooking skills. Warner believes they will ultimately produce 16,000 pounds of tilapia every nine months. Amongst the tilapia are striped bass, catfish and swai. If you want some yourself head to the school for “Fish Fridays” - $2.50 a pound whole or $5 for fillets. Warner adopts a holistic approach and his system cleverly interconnects with a hydroponics grow area on the third floor. In the basement the tank water is continually monitored and purified. The purification process is somewhat unique - lurking at the bottom of the fish tanks, hoovering up solid waste, are 300 lobsters and 1,500 shrimp. What’s left in the water is nutrient-rich, and is channelled from the fish tanks through a complex network of pipes to drip-feed the plants on the third floor, which in turn clean the water for the fish. At present the school hydroponically grows 15 types of lettuce (about 500 heads a month), seven types of Chinese cabbage, and herbs for the kitchens – oregano, basil, thyme and parsley. And in idle moments, spurred on by restless scientific curiosity, Warner has also been manipulating the genes of his shoals of tilapia, engineering the fish to resemble red snapper, and looking at ways they can survive in salt water. There are further plans to rig up the school’s symbiotic, energy-

saving system to a greenhouse on the roof of the building. Unfortunately the recent global financial crisis has seen budget cuts for the school, something the non-profit group Food Education Fund hopes to counter with a number of fund-raising events. Whatever can be reaped from these benefit dos will help construct the rooftop greenhouse and a café to be run by the students. Warner has patented his systems – downstairs his aquaculture technology is called the Biologically Driven Re-circulated High-Speed System (BHS), while the plants are drip-fed using his Nutrient Drip Flow Technique (NDFT). But while some people reading of Food and Finance’s hydro and aquaponic programs might be chortling to themselves and uttering a few well-I-nevers, the principles behind such a curriculum are sound. Darwinist theories of Evolution are no more evident than in the field of technology. Man is inextricably drawn to build ever more efficient, less labour-intensive, cleaner solutions to his problems. But hydroponics is no longer the technology of tomorrow – its use is widespread today, with big commerce getting in on the act. With its productiveness, labourefficiency and conservation of land and water, the future is looking rosier for it now than at any time in its history. And gone are the days when poring over your tin of soup’s ingredients list would invite ridicule from colleagues. People today are more interested in what they eat than ever before (as evidenced by the popularity of films and books such as “Super Size Me” and “Fast Food Nation”). The mission of Food and Finance High School is to “enable all of our students to become self-directed life-long learners who use their minds well and are caring, reflective and thoughtful adults.” The future of hydroponics seems to be in safe hands.

HOW TO:

CHOOSING A FAN

MEASURING VOLUME Before you can even consider which fan to choose, you need to take an accurate measurement of the size of your growing area. In this case the volume of the growing area is measured is cubic metres (m3).

Reference Point: CalculatingVolume

Length x Width x Height = Volume (L x W x H = V)

Fans might not be as grand as your growth system, they may not be as alchemically appealing as brewing up nutrient solutions and they’re definitely not as sexy as reflectors (just me then?); but they are undeniably essential. Getting your extraction system right takes a little maths and a little time, which can be galling to newcomers. But never fear, HYDROMAG is here to break it down into bite sized chunks and hold your hand through the vaguely traumatic process. To start with, you could do with a basic understanding of the habits of air and its relation to temperature and high and low pressure within the Earth’s atmosphere; or you could just take it as read that hot air goes up and cold air goes down. Your bulbs give off heat, which you want to reduce, so it helps to have your extractor fan near your bulbs. Common practice see’s most people placing extraction at the top of the room, and the intake towards the bottom. Before you can do that though, you need to figure out which fan to choose, by following the steps below. We’ll be using a 2.4m x 2.4m x 2m tent as an example throughout, which is based on the standard positioning of a 600w light over every 1- 1.2m2.

This is the standardised way of both calculating and describing volume. Tent users will find this much easier, as your tent will almost certainly have been sold to you with its size described in this way. So using our example tent:

Example Tent:

2.4m x 2.4m x 2m = 11.25m3 Be sure to check that all three of your measurements are described in meters. Where one of the measurements is less than a meter, it will be described in centimetres (cm). In this case, you need to account for that in the equation, by adding a decimal point; so if the width is 75cm, you need to enter it into the equation as 0.75m, because 1 meter is made up of 100 centimetres.

VOLUME EXCHANGE Plants take in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and release Oxygen (O2) through the process of photosynthesis. Just as humans will suffocate in CO2 due to a lack of Oxygen, plants will conversely suffocate in O2 due to a lack of Carbon Dioxide. So as well as the primary need to remove excess heat, you also need to give your plants a steady supply of fresh air. Exactly how much air they need exchanged is in constant flux, depending on factors such as (primarily) outside temperatures or even just the size of your plants. It’s one of the aspects of growing that you will no doubt tinker with for years to come, eventually arriving at your own magic formula before deciding that it’s rubbish and starting all over again (welcome to indoor growing).

As a rule, the maximum exchange rate you should ever need is every minute per hour. That means that every minute you replace the entire volume of your growing space with fresh air. Every minute per hour should be ample to control temperatures except maybe when you’re in the peak of summer months. There will be times when you don’t need this amount of air moved (lights off, or cold winter months), therefore it is wise to use fan speed controllers to regulate and maintain a steady temperature.

The amount, frequency and temperature of air coming in to your growing space will alter the temperature within that space as well as, to an extent, the size of your plants. The only effective method of maximising the efficiency of your volume exchange rate is through frequent monitoring and trial and error. Going back to the example tent and using the every minute per hour rule, we can work out the volume exchange rate by multiplying the volume of the growing space by 60 (there being 60 mintues in an hour):

Example Tent:

11.25m3 x 60 = 691m3/hour (hr) So our volume exchange rate is 691m3/hr

CARBON FILTERS AND OTHER MITIGATING FACTORS There are a number of mitigating factors that will affect the type and capacity or size of fan that you’ll need. Silencers, the length and number of bends in the ducting used, ambient air temperature and humidity all have a potential effect, but some of them are nominal, especially in a smaller growing space. The most prominent mitigating factor in Hydroponics is almost always the Carbon filter. Carbon filters reduce unwanted odours, and even the most seemingly innocent plants can smell decidedly funky when grown using an indoor setup. Most reputable Manufacturers will provide pressure graphs that give exact figures;

As a rule you should plan for at least a 25% or ¼ reduction in the fan’s capacity. Returning to our example :

Example Tent:

691m3/hr x 1.33 = 919.03m3/hr So, Volume exchange rate multiplied by 1.33 (One and 1/3rd) equals the total volume of air that your extractor fan needs to be able to move, or to put it another way, this is the requisite capacity of your fan.

Our Example Tent: “ We’ll be using a 2.4m x 2.4m x 2m tent as an example throughout, which is based on the standard positioning of a 600w light over every 1- 1.2m2.”

FAN SPEED CONTROLLERS It’s always better to over spec your extractor fan, which is to say it’s better to buy a fan that has a greater capacity than you need. If you expand the size of your growing space at a later date, a fan with a greater capacity may be able to compensate for the added load, but if you buy one that’s too small, you’re going to need to buy a new one. Fan speed controllers regulate the speed at which your fan operates, so you can adjust them down to the necessary speed. Returning to our example;

Example:

NEGATIVE AIR PRESSURE Once you’ve chosen your extraction fan, you can move on to choosing an intake fan. The idea is to create negative air pressure within your growing space. Negative air pressure is achieved by extracting more air from a space than is allowed into it. This allows you to create and maintain a contained environment, and will direct all the extracted air through the filter, rather than allowing it to escape randomly. In order to achieve negative air pressure, you need to aim for an input of 15% less than your output, whilst remembering to account for mitigating factors like the carbon filter.

An RVK 10”L fan has a capacity of 1020m3/hr, meaning it will comfortably manage our load of 919m3/hr. When choosing your Filter, be sure to check that it can deal with a volume of air equal to or above that of your fan. If the filter is too small, you will get pressure build up which will reduce the output of the fan. To get an exact idea of how a filter will affect a plan you can refer to pressure graphs from manufacturers and cross reference the one for the fan against the one for the filter. Also, be sure that your fan, filter and ducting all slot together comfortablyideally visit a store before you purchase anything, just to be sure!

You work it out using this equation;

Reference Point: Negative Air Pressure Equation

Extractor Fan Capacity x Mitigating Factors (25%) x Negative Air Pressure (15%) So, returning once again to our faithful example;

Example:

1020m³/h x 0.75 x 0.85 = 650.25m³/h

So the necessary capacity for our intake fan is 650m3/hr. In this case an RVK 6”L would be a good choice, with its capacity of 660m3/hr. Worthwhile fan speed controllers have two inputs, meaning you can adjust both fan speeds accordingly. Ideally you want to see the sides of your tent sucking inwards slightly.

So there you have it, you’re now a qualified air conditioning engineer (not really). Our Fan/Filter Pressure test article overleaf should act as handy resource in your hunt for the ideal setup. Happy hunting! 14

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GROW TEST

FAN COMPARISON

Words: Charles Chillington

So then… extractor fans. I’m going to assume you all know why you need one of these. As it happens, I could do with an upgrade soon as well myself, and seeing as how there’s chuffing loads available now it would be good to know if there is any discernable difference between any of the various types before making my next purchase. All I really want is to get a fan that’s going to actually work well enough to keep my room cool. Simple as that. I’ve been looking at all the fans and their different ratings and trying to figure out which one I’m actually going to buy. In this day and age, this should be a relatively simple task. As a modern day consumer I expect products to work as well as the marketing jive claims they do. For those that don’t know me, I’m a fairly sceptical fellow, and quite rightly so: I’m sure the veterans of the hydroponic industry reading this can testify how sometimes products aren’t always what they are cracked up to be. There is now a lot of choice as to what fan you should be buying. Many companies are all after the coin in your purse, and will try to get it by any means necessary. You need to make them work for your cash; don’t just give it up straight away like a cheap slag. So before we go any further, I have put together a chart so you can quickly see the base statistics of the fans we are going to look at, and get an idea of what your initial options are. It’s not quite as intricate as the tent one last issue thank god, that one nearly gave me an embolism putting it together.

STATED SPECIFICATIONS FROM THE MANUFACTURERS:

So that’s that then, yeah? I can see what fans blow the most and that, see how much they all cost and stuff. That’s all I need right? I’m gonna go get me that ACME Fan-tassT1C one that looks so good up in this here chart. Bob’s your Uncle and Fanny’s your Aunt, my work here is done, and all my life problems are now sorted. For those of you that didn’t pick up on it (probably Americans), the above paragraph was steeped in sarcasm. Unfortunately that there chart doesn’t give you any indication as to how they actually perform. Seeing as how this is a critical product for my grow room; I want to know for sure the fan I get is the right choice for my situation. I don’t want to have to make several purchases in order to finally get the fan that works for me. My name’s not Moneybags McGee and I’m sure not many of yours are either. So let’s stop with all this hilarious rhetoric and get down to business then shall we?

PRESSURE LOSS Ok time for a sciencey bit, try not to zone out here... This comparison is all based on how fans react when placed under pressure. Anything you attach to your fan will cause airflow resistance, increase the pressure loss in the ventilation system and therefore decrease the overall airflow the fan creates. Imagine you’re trying to blow out as hard as you can and someone sticks their hand over your mouth. It will make you strain to blow, and reduce the amount you can actually get out. Same thing with fans. In a nut shell, how much pressure loss your ventilation system will create depends on: How good a motor the fan has, the impellor/fan blade design (if any) and what you are attaching to it. The main cause of pressure loss in an extraction run will usually be the carbon filter. So this makes it a good example to use to properly describe the effects of an increase in pressure loss. You should find that most reputable fan manufacturers will provide you with pressure curve graphs that actually show how their fans perform with increasing pressure. (See example A). This is the starting point of how to actually gauge how the fan will work when put under pressure. You can’t really just use this alone though. What you now need to do is compare it against the pressure curve graph supplied from the carbon filter you intend to put on it. (See example B). This filter graph shows two measurements on each axis: Airflow (measured in cubic metres per hour, or m3/h) and Pressure (Measured in Pascals or Pa). Find the value of air that your fan moves, in our case 7963/h. Look up the graph from this point to the part of the curve that this value cuts. Then follow along the pressure axis from this point to get the pressure that will be created, in this case roughly 155Pa. (See example C). Now you simply perform the same step on the original fan pressure graph, but start from the pressure axis with the value you have just got. In our case you can see that a pressure of roughly 155Pa means that our fan will be blowing 550m3/h. (See example D). This gives you a much more accurate idea of how much air you will be moving but still by no means what is actually coming out. As mentioned previously, most ventilation equipment will cause some degree of airflow resistance and increase the pressure loss, even something as innocent as a straight bit of ducting. I don’t know about you, but all this sort of finger-in-the-air ambiguity tends to get on my tits. What I really want to know is how each brand of fan actually compares to the others when put under the same conditions. Something that actually tells me how each fan really works. So that’s exactly what I decided to show. Get everyone’s fans all together and measure the varying outputs of each one.

THE COMPARISON To get a good idea of their performance, there were three things that I wanted to measure with all the fans, so let’s just take a little bit of time to explain how each of these were measured:

1. AIRFLOW Measuring this will show me exactly what fans are blowing what when put under various conditions. I used a Testo 417 anemometer to measure the airflow. A highly accurate hand held device kindly supplied to us by Alasdair from Solar & Palau. You simply set the parameters for the surface area of duct you are measuring (in our case the area of an 8” or 200mm circle), and the unit calculates the airflow. After taking the first few measurements, it became obvious that air doesn’t travel uniformly down the length of ducting. Imagine looking at a cross-section of the ducting, cut into four quarters. Air may well be travelling faster in the top left of the cross-section than it is the bottom right. However the variance I got over these areas was only ever up to +/- 50m3/h, and they always averaged out to the reading obtained from the centre of the ducting. I therefore held the meter as close and central to the vent hole as possible, and as perpendicular to the duct run as possible to achieve the most accurate results I could get for every type of fan. 2. SOUND LEVELS As any hen-pecked husband can testify, no-one likes a constant noise droning away in the background, so a comparison of the dB levels would indicate if any fans are relatively quieter than any others. We used a dB meter provided to us again from Solar & Palau and mounted it on a tripod at the same height as the fans. Then set to a distance of a metre away from the fan and at an angle of 45 degrees to the outlet. There was a fair amount of background noise (occasional angle grinding or baselines from the local chavs’ cars), so we measured the dB over the quietest periods we could, and took the lowest readings it gave us. The lowest reading being the one with the least background noise interference. 3. POWER CONSUMPTION By far the easiest to measure. We simply purchased a power meter from Maplins, plugged the bugger in, plugged the fans into it and BAM, we get a lovely accurate power consumption reading.

We used the same filter throughout the whole process, the Phresh 200/1000. I was initially a bit worried that it may not have been adequate for two of the fans that we had to test, but after being reassured that these filters are actually good for accepting more air than they are officially rated at anyway I calmed down a little. Then after seeing none of the fans get close to moving 1000m3/h in the first test, these worries completely evaporated. All the equipment was hung up onto 1.2m3 tent frames using rope ratchets, to keep things as close to how the equipment is actually normally used as possible. A smaller 1.6m high tent frame was used to keep the double elbow, and idiot loop duct run in the same

position for each fan. Basically everything was kept the same except for the fans themselves, to avoid anything affecting the results other than the fan itself. Now at this point it’s worth mentioning (even though you’ve probably already deduced this) that this was by no means a laboratory grade clinical testing environment whereby the results we get are 100% accurate. I would hazard a guess that at a very maximum, there could be a 5-10% tolerance of error in the results we obtained, but even factoring that in, we still got a great set of comparative results for all the fans. Whilst these results may not be stating what is exactly being blown, what they do show is how all the fans compare against one another directly in the real-life situations I’m putting them under. To be completely honest, that’s all I’m after really. Call me selfish, but I just want to know what fan is going to work for me.

Fan & Filter & 4m Ducting

THE TESTS

FAN

FILTER

FAN

FILTER

Fan & 1m Ducting (Free Flow)

FAN Firstly, we needed to get an idea of how the fans performed with as little restriction as possible. All we did was attach 1 metre of duct to the fan and then measure it. Although this ducting will create a very small amount of pressure, the direction of the airflow without this ducting was different with each fan. Attaching it meant that the direction of airflow from each fan would be roughly the same, with only the smallest of pressures applied. The subsequent configurations of duct runs were then connected in order and measured accordingly. Without further ado, here are the airflow results we obtained:

Fan & Filter & Two Elbows

FILTER

FAN

Fan & Filter & Idiot Loop

Fan, Filter, 4m Ducting and 2 x 90 Elbows

Make

Model

Rated Air Flow (m3/h)

Power (W)

dB Level

Power (W)

dB Level

Power (W)

dB Level

Power (W)

dB Level

Systemair RVK CAN FAN Vents Fan Flow

Sileo 200A RK 200 VK200 IFan8-200

796 820 780 1220

717 635 570 814

112 118.5 105 186.1

63.2 65.9 68.9 69.4

591 543 460 610

120 123.5 113.1 199.9

59.5 63 65.4 64.6

461 456 425 545

120.4 124.1 113.5 201.8

59.9 63 65.9 65.4

435 448 400 480

121.5 127 114.9 205.3

60 61.9 64.9 64.2

S&P Canfan Isomax

TD Silent 200/1000 200/870

1030 870

580 765

139.1 133.4

62.3 63.5

550 690

134.1 140.5

57.6 56.1

535 535

133.4 140.1

57.8 56.6

520 514

131.2 140.1

58.9 58.9

Canfan Maxfan HID Hyperfan FHD MF200

Pro 200 200 MF200

1220 1205 855

825 720 725

126.1 83 125.1

67.7 67.8 64.2

660 625 590

129.6 96.5 122.4

64.3 67.4 62.1

545 530 525

128.5 96.5 123.1

64.2 67.2 61.1

435 510 425

123.1 98 117.5

65.3 67 62.7

Tornado box fan Gekko box fan

200/1000 200/1000

1000 1000

520 520

199.1 200.5

66.3 58.2

382 405

183 189

52.1 51.5

330 350

180.9 184.5

52.4 51.9

283 290

181 192

51.7 52.1

Fan with 1 Meter Ducting

Fan, Filter, 4m of Straight Ducting

1 METRE DUCTING - FREE FLOW Now I don’t know about you, but I was pretty flabbergasted by these results. The order they are here is the order I tested them in. So I started with the RVK and thought “yep that’s as expected compared to what it’s rated at, everything going according to plan”. But as soon as I got to any others though I became somewhat boggled. None of them seemed to be moving the amount of air that they were stating or using the power they stated. Most shockingly the box fans were moving half the amount of air they are rated at. “Well fuck me” I thought, “I must have dropped a particularly large bollock here”. So I checked the machine, called and checked with Testo I’d set it right then came back another day to repeat it all. And well... I got the same results. FAN FILTER AND 4M DUCTING As you can see, the variance between how much air each brand of fan drops from just plonking the same filter on them all, is quite a significant one. The fan with the least amount of airflow drop from our initial readings is the Isomax from Can, which would imply that under this initial amount of pressure exerted, this fan performs best. The fan with the largest amount

of airflow drop, is the Tornado box fan. Over a 60% drop in output from it’s initial rating. It would appear that all the bad mouthing of box fans I’ve been hearing is becoming justified. However, one thing they do at least have in their favour is that they are a clear 5-6 dB quieter than the others (more detailed tables available online). Seeing as how the decibel scale is a logarithmic one, this is actually a very significant benefit they have over competing fans. FAN, FILTER, 2X ELBOWS AND 4M DUCTING Probably the most notable point for the two elbows is just how much more this massively effects the airflow. In general it almost doubles the pressure loss you see from the previous straight duct run. I was expecting there to be a fairly large airflow drop after attaching these, but not quite this much. As you can see, in some cases it more than doubles the amount of drop in airflow that you get from just the straight run of ducting. Also you can see at this point that the overall difference between the amounts of air being blown across all fans is reduced significantly. Excluding the box fans there is only a difference of just over 100m3/h between them. I say ‘only’, this amount can actually be make or break for a grow room so it is still fairly significant, but you get what I mean.

FAN, FILTER AND 360 DEGREE SPIRAL IN 4M DUCTING (IDIOT LOOP) I was actually quite surprised by the idiot loop results, on two counts. I thought that the airflow drop from an idiot loop would be roughly double that of the elbows (twice the curve). It is more (again varying over brand), but not as much as I initially thought. Also, whether it was quieter than with elbows varied a lot from fan to fan. Strange, but thems the results. This has all been a bit word heavy so time for some easier on the eye visuals. The following bar graphs show all the fans lined up next to each other and how they performed in each duct run. The first is in terms of airflow and the second is in terms of sound level. This way you can quickly see how they all compare:

The initial airflow of the fans was by far the biggest surprise to me. Even if you ignore the exact figure and just look at the bars in the graph as comparative airflows, many fans rated higher than the RVK simply aren’t blowing out as much. Which by the wonders of logical progression, means that they are blowing less than they are rated at. It’s worth pointing out that these are just the results for the 8” versions also. Each different size of fan within each brand has its own unique pressure curves and will therefore operate differently. This is a good indication of how fans vary between brands but is by no means a ‘be all and end all’ set of results. Disregarding the whole ‘initial airflow’ quandary for a minute, of all the bars of data there are shown here, the one I think I’m most interested in knowing about is the idiot loop. My duct runs often have stupid bends and unnecessary kinks in (I’m an idiot), so I really want to know how the fans cope in these harshest of environments. This completely rules out box fans for me. Despite them being very quiet, they simply crumble under pressure: 60%

less than rated is not what I need. They generally all use the same style Torin motors so are all highly likely to perform in a similar way. Also simply getting one with a higher rated motor in is just going to give more pressure loss, and a greater reduction of airflow from the rated amount. They are quiet, which is a good thing, but not at the expense of airflow. There are two, almost three fans (answers on a postcard) that catch my eye after looking through the above charts, but even still, before I can narrow it down further I need to consider all the other ins and outs that affect my grow room and analyse all this data further (plus any more that’s out there). Then when I’m confident enough in my decision, I’ll go and shower a lucky shopkeeper with the entire contents of my man purse. That’s also exactly what I recommend you do. Think about what the fundamental requirements are specifically for you, whether it’s: noise level, airflow or simply price. Apply these requirements as you deduce from all the data in this article (and elsewhere) which one is most likely to fit your needs, then go buy it (or wait till the next trade show you go to and see how lucky you can get on the blag!).

DIMLUX INFRARED PLANT CAMERA

Surveillance is a fact of life in modern society. Britons are allegedly caught on closed-circuit cameras an average 70 times a day. “Outrageous!” we hear you cry. “Only the guilty need worry,” we hear a few of you advise before lighting up your pipes and returning smugly to your Daily Mail. Leaving aside the civil liberty debate for a moment, we look at an area where the use of 24-hour surveillance can unite us all – in our grow rooms. Dutch company AirSupplies Holland have an ingenious infrared camera that should be a staple in everyone’s home – the Dimlux Infrared Plant Camera. Hooked up to your Opticlimate system, this piece of kit will watch over your plants like a guard dog on coke. INNOVATIONS Monitoring. The Dimlux Infrared Plant Camera, unlike a standard camera, forms images using infrared radiation rather than visible light. It’s not unlike in the movies, when we see a first person view through the thermal goggles of a sniper – the unsuspecting target trying to hide behind a wall, unaware he appears all too clearly in lurid red, yellow and green. Trained on the canopy of your grow area, this technology can detect with unerring accuracy any changes in the plants’ temperature. Specifically the camera monitors the plants surface temperature at canopy level – too high a temperature is a sign your plants are struggling with their evaporation capacity. This can be due to too little water or excessive light. Either way, your plants’ natural response to these conditions is to close their stomata, which means reduced (or no) absorption of CO2 , no photosynthesis, and therefore no growth! Rather than leave it to guesswork, using the Dimlux Infrared Plant Camera will leave you in no doubt as to your plants’ heat levels. Automated temperature control. If the plants’ stomata remain closed for too long you could be looking at charred foliage and irreversible damage to your crop. Fortunately this potential life and death struggle going on in the growroom needn’t give the grower sleepless nights or a stomach ulcer. You won’t even have to be aware of it going on! Rigged up to your Opticlimate Maxi Controller and DimLux ballasts, the camera will automatically trigger the ballasts to dim or even switch off until the temperature drops to an acceptable level. As AirSupplies Holland say “the canopy temperature is of greater importance to plants than the ambient temperature!”

CONS...? This is the part that we hate – finding flaws. We’re fundamentally cheerful here at HYDROMAG, seeing the good in almost all things. But there’s a point when even the most hopelessly optimistic has to admit a glass isn’t “1% full” (it’s empty pal, and it’s time for you to buy the next round - enough with the delaying tactics). Tragically this isn’t a standalone piece of kit. It’s an addon to the excellent Opticlimate System, meaning it’s not just the price of the camera you have to consider. You’ll need to buy the whole shebang, including ballasts obviously. All this control might corrupt the weak-willed. Noone likes to see growers cackling maniacally in their basements, drunk on power...

For more infomation visit: www.dimlux.nl

FARAN CENTRIFUGAL HUMIDIFIER We all love a bit of humidity. Scarred by another drab winter, the thought of stepping off a plane and being hit by a wall of hot, moist air almost brings a tear to the eye. And your plants are no different. Some inexperienced growers labour under the mistaken belief that plants don’t like high levels of humidity – they’re wrong. Particularly during vegetative growth they thrive in it – it’s an essential environmental factor to consider, and properly handled will result in increased yields. With this in mind HYDROMAG present to you the Faran Centrifugal Humidifier. A centrifugal humidifier uses a spinning disk that basically ‘tears’ water into a mist, atomising it into millions of tiny droplets. Faran, a South Korean company, have two main models for grow rooms – the HR-15 (effective area of 15 to 30m2 with a humidification capacity of around 1,500cc per hour) and the HR-50 (reaches between 100 and 150m2, with a humidification capacity of 2,500cc to 4,000cc per hour). The vast majority of hobby growers need only consider the HR-15.

INNOVATIONS Multi-purpose. A humidifier sprays droplets of water that hang in the air, cooling temperatures. It’s also essential to keep your plants’ environment moist, as high humidity areas naturally gravitate towards low humidity areas. Low humidity in your grow room will mean moisture leaving your plants. Ease of use. The HR-15 is a highly compact 31cm x 31cm x 47cm so will fit even the cosiest of spaces. And with centrifugal humidifiers there are no nozzles so no clogging. The unit has a handle for easy transportation around the grow room and simply connects to a water tap or tank. Automated control. Optional additional analogue or digital humidistats dynamically monitor the grow room and adjusts its output accordingly. When levels rise too far the unit turns itself off until the humidity in the environment drops back to appropriate levels. Equally, if levels fall back too far then the unit will power itself back on. Energy efficient. Both the HR-15 Humidification system and the HR-50 use only 90W of power, meaning lower electricity bills. Long lasting. Faran boast that their units built twenty years ago are still up and running today. And staff at HYDROMAG concur that they don’t break nearly as quickly as ceramic disc/ultrasonic foggers.

CONS...? It makes us almost nauseous to have to do this, but we’d be remiss not to point out the odd drawback of this system: The mist particles produced are larger than that of their ceramic disc (ultrasonic) cousins. This means it takes longer for the mist to evaporate properly in your room and raise humidity levels, particularly if the supply water is cold. This could lead to wetting on your plants and walls. HYDROMOAG recommends using a warm water supply to combat this. Deposits are likely to be left on your reflectors and within your filters – particularly if you live in an area known for hard water. HYDROMAG recommends investing in a Reverse Osmosis machine. Equally, don’t place your humidifier directly under a filter – it will wet and clog it up.

Expert Opinions:

PH CONTROL A hugely important aspect of indoor growing. Here we look closely at how monitoring pH control is critical to a successful crop. Whatever brand of nutrient you place your faith in, you ALWAYS need to consider how the pH in your reservoir is changing. I know it is tempting for the casual (polite way of saying lazy) grower to focus just on the EC, choosing to plod along in a cloud of blissful ignorance, harbouring the vain hope that “it’ll be reet. This lack of focus on your pH will quickly result in problems that as you have no information on, you will be clueless as to how to correctly rectify things. It’s a bit like as if you were drunk as fuck on your way home after a long night out, and just realised that you’ve dropped your house keys along the way. You’re not going to know where to look first and you can’t really see anyway, so it’s going to cost you considerable amounts of effort to sort this sticky little predicament out. Hang on a minute, that bench looks comfy though… It’ll be reet. I’m not going to go into any of the finer details of how it all actually affects things, I’ll let the knowledgeable folks on the following pages do that. That’s all a bit dry and sciency for me anyway, I’d rather just take the piss a bit and also give you some practical tips I gleaned from many a year running a Hydroponic Showcase Greenhouse:

1. Have a litre jug with diluted pH down solution at the ready. It’s always best to add a diluted solution to your main reservoir. It stops the aggressive chemicals causing any nasty reactions with each other. Maybe 5ml of down to a litre of water, depending on brand strength. Then slowly add this to your reservoir. 2. I found a combination of nitric and phosphoric in the pre-mixed litre gave best results. Be sure to add each one to the jug separately!!!! 3. Much like a large pair of cohones, your pH does actually need to swing. Different elements are available at different points, so don’t be super anal about it always having to be exactly 6.1 or whatever. As long as you are between 5.5 and 6.5 you will generally be totally sweet. 4. Use a diluted silicon solution if you need to raise your pH. As well as raising the pH level, you get the added benefits of silicon for your plants. Two birds stoned at once. 5. Calibrate meters regularly. Make sure you’re getting accurate readings. 6. Remember to actually check it. This one is arguably most important.

So what are some of the options, and are any going to be particularly suitable for you? It’d be good to get some more detailed information that would help you make the correct choice now wouldn’t it? Well then, let’s all sit down and get comfy while the clever folks from Canna, GHE and Essentials let us know how and why their products all do their thing, and then we can all make our own sensible and informed decision on which one we want to go for. How wonderfully empowering.

EXPERT OPINIONS | CANNA

The abbreviation ‘pH’ stands for the Latin pondus Hydrogenii or potentia Hydrogenii (pondus = weight, potentia = strength, hydrogenium = hydrogen) and in chemistry it is used to indicate the acidity of a solution. It is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution. A hydrogen ion (H+) is always bound to a water molecule (H2O) and this is often described as (H3O+); pH is thus an indication of how many acidity-causing particles there are in a solution. One unit of pH means ten times the amount of acid (=H+). It can be calculated according to a negative logarithm. For example: pH 5 = -log 5 = 10-5 = 0.00001 mol [H3O+] per litre of water. pH 6 = -log 6 = 10-6 = 0.000001 mol [H3O+] per litre of water. A pH value always falls somewhere in the range between 0 (extremely acidic) to 14 (extremely alkaline). A solution with a pH value of 7 is neutral. To give you an idea - vinegar and cola have a pH of less than 3 and are ‘acidic’. Soda and soap have a pH of more than 8 and are alkaline. Pure water at room temperature has a pH of 7 (neutral), while the pH of tap water is usually slightly higher. Did you know, incidentally, that many ‘natural tissues’ such as our own skin, plant tissues and growth media have a pH value between 5.0 and 6.5 and are thus slightly acidic? In fact, both people and plants have a slight preference for substances that are somewhere between slightly acidic and neutral. This is partly because many minerals are more easily absorbed in this pH range. Another interesting fact is that a pH value of around 5.5 is so common in nature that some plant experts actually consider this to be ‘neutral’. pH in practice - We have already mentioned this, but we would like to say it one more time: the availability of nutrients to the plant depends heavily on the pH value around the root hairs (the rhizosphere). When the pH value is between 5.2 and 6.2(slightly acidic), most nutrients can be absorbed by the roots. If the pH is higher than 6.2, calcium phosphate will start to build up and certain metals (trace elements) will be more difficult to absorb. A common issue in the first week after planting: you will experience a light green colour in the

upper part of the plant. If the pH is lower than 5 manganese poisoning can occur. At that point manganese is the only metal that can be absorbed by the plant. This produces small brown ‘rust spots’ on dull, dark green leaves, or leaves with autumn colours and even leaves that die and fall off completely.

“Did you know, incidentally, that many ‘natural tissues’ such as our own skin, plant tissues and growth media have a pH value between 5.0 and 6.5 and are thus slightly acidic?” How to fine-tune your pH - Plant food is generally acidic (pH below 7). The more food that is added to the feed tank (the higher the EC), the lower the pH will fall. Hard water (with a high mineral content) will buffer some of this acidity. So when nutrients are added to this kind of water, the resulting pH may be different to what you would otherwise expect. To achieve the right pH in your feed tank, it may be necessary to do some fine-tuning. You can do this using pH- (strong acid, which lowers the pH) and pH+ (caustic soda, which raises the pH).

CANNA pH- Grow This is a solution containing nitric acid that can be used to lower pH in the tank during the vegetative phase. This product consists of acid (H+) and nitrogen. We recommend the use of CANNA pH- Grow during the growing phase, when plants need more nitrogen. CANNA pH- Bloom This is a phosphoric acid solution that can be used to lower pH in the tank during the generative phase. The product consists of acid (H+) and phosphorus. We recommend the use of CANNA pH- Bloom during the flowering phase, when plants absorb more phosphorus. CANNA pH+ This is a potassium hydroxide solution that will raise pH. The product will also enhance the pH stability in the feed tank. CANNA pH+ is only needed to fine-tune the pH of the feed solution - if the solution is too acidic or if the grower has accidentally used too much pH- for example. This product can be used in both the vegetative and the generative phases. CANNA pH - & pH + Available in 1L.

PH- and pH+ are also available at lower concentrations.

EXPERT OPINIONS | GHE

Everybody who grows plants should know about pH. It is one of the 2 main factors to monitor when growing in hydroponics. The pH level quantifies how acidic or alkaline a solution is, and it is expressed on a scale from 0 to 14. Zero being the most acidic, fourteen the most alkaline and obviously seven being neutral. What fewer people know is that this scale is a logarithmic one. This clever-sounding word simply means that the rate of application increases or decreases by a factor of ten at each step. There are ten times more H+ at a pH of 6 than at pH 7, one hundred times more at pH 5 etc. The same applies of course for OH-. This has an obvious practical implication: the closer your pH is to seven, the smaller the amount of acid or alkaline you will need to adjust it. Say your solution is at a pH of 4 and you want to raise it to 6,5. At the beginning, you will have to put a lot of alkaline to see your pH going up significantly. However, once you get around 6, a small quantity raises it significantly. This is why it is not uncommon to go above or below a desired pH and to have to correct it. The pH is especially important because it is one of the factors regulating the uptake of fundamental nutrient elements by the plants. In hydroponics all the plants are grown in a slightly acidic nutrient solution, regardless of the fact that in nature they may prefer a neutral or even basic soil. In soil, pH is also important, but it is much more stable than in a hydroponics solution because of a factor called buffering capacity. Without going into finer details, it is the capacity of a soil when being watered with an acidic or basic solution to maintain its natural pH level to a certain extent. It is a chemical process that also happens in a nutrient solution, but on a smaller scale. Over time, the natural tendency of a nutrient solution is to increase in pH. This is due in part by contact with the air(therefore oxygenating your solution will accelerate this process), but also(and more significantly) as a by-product of the plants’ nutrient up-take process. You will always need pH down to adjust your nutrient solution, very rarely pH up. Most city waters are alkaline because often the pH is raised artificially to protect the water pipes from corrosion. The only reason why your solution could become more acidic, it is if you develop a large quantity of microorganisms in your nutrient solution. They have a short life span, and when they die in mass, they acidify the nutrient solution. To raise your pH, you can always use your tap

“The pH is especially important because it is one of the factors regulating the uptake of fundamental nutrient elements by the plants. In hydroponics all the plants are grown in a slightly acidic nutrient solution, regardless of the fact that in nature they may prefer a neutral or even basic soil. In soil, pH is also important, but it is much more stable than in a hydroponics solution because of a factor called buffering capacity. ” water, but to lower it you do need to use a pH down, usually a strong acid. In most cases nitric or phosphoric is used. However, those acids are also plant food, and can sometime when used in excess or at a wrong time unbalance the nutrient solution.

Our pH down is formulated to be adapted to all stages of a plant life, from seedlings or cutting until flowering of fruiting. All the elements that it contains are used by the plants to promote both healthy roots and lush flowering. When we formulated it, we gave ourselves a challenge: can we make a product that not only lowers the pH efficiently, but also can buffer that pH, and helps to keep it low? …and we did just that! Our product has the unique ability to provide a good buffering capacity. Thanks to the organic acids incorporated in the mix, this formula will fight the rising tendencies of your nutrient solution and will tend to keep it between 6 to 6,5 a good range for your plants. In fact, if you use a well balanced hydroponics nutrient, the only time when you will need to use our pH down is when you adjust the pH of the water out of the tap. Once into the tank it will stay within the desirable parameters. What could be easier?

GHE pH Down Available in 1L.

EXPERT OPINIONS | ESSENTIALS

Most people know that pH is the scale by which we measure acidity and basicity (alkalinity) and many can remember from science lessons at school that it goes from 0-14; with 7 being neutral, less than 7 is acidic and greater than 7 is alkaline - that is where the easy bit ends. The simplest definition of pH is the negative logarithmic value of the Hydrogen ion (H+) concentration in an aqueous solution. This results in every shift of one full unit on the pH scale being a tenfold shift in acidity or basicity, i.e.: pH 4.0 is 10 times more acidic than pH 5.0 and 100 times more acidic than pH 6.0; pH 10.0 is 10 times more alkaline than pH 9.0 and 100 times more alkaline than pH 8.0. So how does this affect simple gardeners I hear you ask? Well, the availability of essential mineral nutrients that a plant requires for healthy growth is affected by pH, as is the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) of the specific substrate it is growing in. Cations are positively charged ions, found in several of the major nutrient elements – Potassium (K+), Calcium (Ca+) and Magnesium (Mg+) as well as Ammonium (NH4+), a plant available form of nitrogen, and some of the trace elements. A high CEC in soil gives a very stable pH and also good fertility, due to its ability to hold and give up nutrient cations. The optimum pH of soil or compost is slightly acidic to neutral (6.0-7.0). The impact of this is that with good quality soil or compost, we do not need to rigidly control the pH of water and nutrients because somewhere close to neutral will be fine (pH 6.0-7.5). Coco coir is one of the popular growing medias and it provides a halfway point between soil/ compost growing and pure hydroponics. Coir is naturally slightly acidic, though not as well buffered as soils and it has low soluble mineral contents. The pH of applied nutrient solutions should be slightly acidic (6.0-7.0), so once again no need to be too strict. When all nutrients are supplied in solution, for example in hydroponic growing (and particularly re-circulating systems), we need to have the most control of pH, though even here some fluctuation can be an advantage. The optimum is about pH 5.8, though it can be allowed to drift up to about 6.5 before being adjusted down. Letting the pH outside this range for any extended period will likely result in serious deficiencies and very quickly.Testing pH accurately requires laboratory conditions and very expensive equipment because it is affected by temperature and pressure; also pH

meters should be calibrated before each use. However, when growing plants, being within a couple of points proves accurate enough.

“Testing pH accurately requires laboratory conditions and very expensive equipment... However when growing plants, being within a couple of points proves accurate enough.” There are products available that allow you to adjust the pH up and down. pH Up consists of potassium hydroxide. It is better to use potassium hydroxide as potassium is an available plant nutrient, whilst others such as sodium hydroxide can cause problems. When lowering the pH, use a pH down, generally phosphoric acid. It has a strong buffering capacity because it contains three Hydrogen ions which can disassociate independently and this allows improved pH control. Phosphoric acid is a better pH Down as it contains available plant nutrient as phosphorous, whereas nitric acid gives off toxic fumes.

ESSENTIALS® oﬀers quality adjusters in the form of both pH Up (Potassium Hydroxide (KOH)) and pH Down (Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) - and for novices at 25% strength. This version makes it easier for novice growers, so there is less chance of overdosing and it also makes it safer to handle. ESSENTIALS® pH Up, pH Up Easy Control and pH Down Easy Control are all available in 250ml and 1L variations, whilst ESSENTIALS® pH Down is available in 250ml, 1L and 5L bottles. Please note: DO NOT store pH Up and pH Down next to each other.

ESSENTIALS pH Up & pH Down Available in 250ml, 1L & 5L.

pH Control

A selection of other pH Control products currently available on the market...

GROWTH TECHNOLOGY PH UP AND PH DOWN Growth Technology have a full range of control solutions, essential for correct nutrient management within hydroponic systems. We manufacture these products using only the purest and most concentrated sources available. Growth Technology pH UP contains Potassium Hydroxide (KOH). This is a very caustic liquid and should be handled with extreme care. Our product, at 25%, is stronger than some competing products. Always check the label for best value. Growth Technology pH DOWN contains Orthophosphoric Acid (H3PO4). The concentration is 81%, which is one of the strongest on the market, so handle with care. This is a very dense liquid and should feel much heavier than water. Bottled in black and red – the internationally accepted packaging colours for aggressive liquids. These products comply fully with all health and safety regulations. Available in: 250ml / 1000ml pH up 250ml RRP £3.99 / pH up 1000ml RRP £11.99 pH Down 250ml RRP £4.49 / pH Down 1000ml RRP £11.99

AVAILABILITY CHART As you can see from this chart, in hydroponic systems, it will depend on what the pH is as to what nutrients will be available. In a run to waste system, compare the run off from your pots to the original reading in the reservoir, or if in a re-circulating system look at the fluctuation in the reservoir on a day to day basis to know what to set the pH to on the next top up. It will always fluctuate, which as you can see from the chart, you actually need it to. As long as you are regulating it between 5.5 and 6.5, you will generally be ok.

Health and Safety Needless to say these are highly aggressive chemicals. Always take maximum security precautions so you don’t end up melting half of your scrotum oﬀ or something. A brief run down of things to consider are: ALWAYS wear gloves and eye protection when handling aggressive chemicals. Even if it does make you look like a bit of a serial killer. Always store in LOCKED cupboards. KEEP AWAY from children... and hippies. Hippies tend to become an uncontrollable mess of excitement and confusion when you start talking about bottles of acid, and might end up doing something stupid. NEVER directly mix pH up and pH down together. Further health and safety details are available from loads of online sources, but above all, just use your common sense. However, I know from some of you even this may be asking too much.

DUTCH PRO PH DOWN GROW Dutch Pro oﬀer two versions of pH down(nitric and phosphoric), and one pH up for correct maintenance of a nutrient solution. Dutch Pro - pH Down Grow: A 38% concentrated Nitric Acid solution used for reducing the pH of your nutrient solution. Nitric Acid is ideal for use during the vegetative growth cycle, as it will supply additional Nitrogen that plants commonly demand more of during this period. Dutch Pro – pH Down Bloom: A 30% concentrated Phosphoric Acid solution. Phosphoric Acid makes for great use during the ﬂowering cycle, supplying additional Phosphorous to plants that commonly demand more during this period. Available in: 1L / 5L / 10L / 20L pH down grow 1l: £6.99

“Health and Safety - Always take maximum security precautions so you don’t end up melting half of your scrotum off or something.”

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WATCH THIS SPACE: HOW IT WORKS:

Carbon Filters Welcome friend, to a corner-stone in HYDROMAG’S constant progression and evolution. As a devoted reader I’m sure you are aware that we like to provide you lot with more than the usual rhetoric on products you generally may otherwise come across. We don’t slyly focus more on particular sets of products because we have vested interests in their promotion and sales, or produce articles that are heavily biased to a particular type of theory, that tailors your choice towards a particular product. Even though we are an advert funded magazine, we like to keep everything nicely balanced, even if it does annoy our sponsors. We generally don’t do things by halves either, so rather than get just one person’s take on something, we like to go all-out and get at least three. That way we can be nice and fair and give multiple manufacturers a platform to extol the virtues of the theory behind their products. This in turn gives you the opportunity to get a take on a subject that involves multiple people’s opinions and doesn’t pigeon-hole your thinking down any particular avenue. This type of feature is fundamentally all based on the saying that: ‘Knowledge is Power!’. Sounds great if you leave it at that. However, my over-active brain generally starts connecting unrelated dots wherever it can. Being a fan of the saying ‘Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’ got me thinking that if knowledge is power, and power corrupts,

We’ll be testing all the UK’s Carbon Filters in an upcoming issue of HYDROMAG

then really all we’re actually doing here is corrupting the minds of millions up and down the country. Son of a bitch. OK, everyone stop reading now please and go kill some brain cells in whichever manner you deem most appropriate. If anyone asks what’s going on, just tell them you’re not going to let ‘The Man’ corrupt you with facts or baffle you with his ‘science’ any more. Take that Status Quo! Anyways… If you haven’t guessed by now, this first ‘How It Works’ feature is on the theory behind one of the key pieces of equipment for an indoor grow room: Carbon Filters. In days gone by, things were much simpler for the humble grower. You pretty much only had one choice to go for so that was what you got. You get what you’re given. Now however, there are various versions of filters on the market, and different methods that each adopts to do its job. As usual, the best way for you to decide which one you want to purchase is to get some background knowledge on how they all work. So, I have got together the minds behind the products: Phresh Filters, CarbonActive and Bulldog Filters and asked them all to spill their thoughts on filters so we can all soak up any jewels of knowledge they are gracious enough to bless us with. Let’s see what they had to say for themselves.

Phresh Filters .................................................................................................................................................................. Author: Garry Mcconnell. History - 13 years in an underground coal mine in central NSW Australia. Just like the Welsh, I know coal. It’s black, it’s dirty and the money was good.

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Under The Microscope If we could magnify a particle of activated carbon 1000 times, what we would see is pure carbon forming an irregular lattice structure – looking very much like a car wash sponge – lots of air voids and about 1/3 carbon mass. In coal activated carbon, the coal is heated in an atmosphere with no oxygen. Coal gas, sulphur and heavy tars vaporise, leaving a semi pure carbon. At a temp of 1100 degrees Celsius, steam is forced in to the kiln, the remaining light coal tars explode out of the particles of coal, as they escape they produce micro and macro fissure and fractures throughout the carbon structure. Some carbons have tiny pores ideal for atoms, and others have macro pores ideal for the larger organic molecules. Macro and meso pores are a result of the type of carbon used in the kiln process. Each type of carbon source, coconut shells, wood, anthracite coal, brown coal, even peat can be made into activated carbon. Each source gives a varying ratio of meso and macro pores. The remaining carbon matrix has a huge surface area. One gram of activated carbon has more than 500m2 of surface area, 1kg - 50 hectares of surface area of surface area.

To Put It In Scientific Terms Activated carbon works in 3 ways. 1. Chemical attraction; simple Van der Waals forces, magnetic like attraction of atoms. So a carbon atom has a positive charge, molecules, with a negative charge are attracted to the carbon and stick together 2. Entanglement; imagine that the molecule to be captured is like a fine cotton thread, and then the carbon is like Velcro. As soon as the target molecule passes over the carbon, it gets caught and tangles on the surface staying stuck. 3. Meso and Macro pores; molecules and atoms get caught like tennis balls in a drainpipe. Every molecule has an optimum size to get caught. If the macro pores are too large then atom-sized targets will pass through. Whereas larger molecules can bounce over the tiny Meso pores. Having the target molecule fit the exact sized pore results in the best capture ratio and ultimately the best activated carbon for the task. The future of activated carbon capture is carbon aerogels, where the carbon matrix is exactly tailored to the target molecule.

Activated carbon filters are not all the same. What’s the difference between the original and the copy? They look the same on the outside, but it’s what is on the inside that makes the difference. Phresh filters use only triple activated carbon from Western Australia. The carbon is sized, de-dusted and graded for activity. Do we iodine test? Yes but as only as an initial guide. Why? The carbon filters we build are for specific airborne molecules, iodine isn’t one of them. We check every batch of carbon for 100% absorbency against complex airborne hydrocarbon molecules, after all that’s why you’re buying the filter. Filters are machine packed, weighed for consistency and then sealed in plastic to preserve carbon activity.

Available Sizes Description

CFM

Phresh® Filter 4” x 8” Phresh® Filter 4” x 12” Phresh® Filter 4” x 20” Lo-Pro Phresh® Filter 6” x 16” Phresh® Filter 6” x 24” Phresh® Filter 8” x 24” Phresh® Filter 8” x 39” Phresh® Filter 10” x 24” Phresh® Filter 10” x 39” Phresh® Filter 12” x 39” Phresh® Filter 14” x 39” Phresh® Filter 14” x 48” Phresh® Filter 14” x 50” XL

150m3/hr 200m3/hr 125m3/hr 400m3/hr 550m3/hr 750m3/hr 950m3/hr 850m3/hr 1400m3/hr 1700m3/hr 2100m3/hr 2500m3/hr 3800m3/hr

CarbonActive Activated carbon is a natural, CO2-neutral product that is made from renewable raw materials. Activated carbon consists of at least 90% carbon and has an extremely porous structure. The source materials used in the manufacture of activated carbon are carbonaceous matter like wood, peat, coal or coconut shells. They are derived in a similar way to charcoal and then activated. The activation process improves the carbon’s adsorptive capacity and hence its performance. Activated carbon consists of an irregularly arranged crystal lattice of carbon atoms. The randomly displaced lattice layers have the effect of enlarging the porous structure and thus also the filter surface. Four grams of activated carbon have a surface area equivalent to that of an entire football pitch. Air pressure loss: Every cubic metre of capacity specified for a fan is measured at 0 Pa(Pascal) pressure. To get a high airflow in your system it is important that the fan is strong enough to pull air through a carbon filter. An average fan has an air pressure of max. 250Pa. An average carbon filter has an air pressure loss of 300Pa. To solve this problem and still get enough air moving, it is a good idea to oversize the carbon filter. In general, when you purchase your filter, make sure its cubic metre capacity is 20% higher than the fan output. The pressure loss will then be almost halved and you are assured optimal filtration efficiency.

Tips To Improve Longevity No dirt, dust or smoke! These close the pores of the activated carbon, thereby preventing the neutralization of the air. Always use a pre-filter and replace it when dirty. However, micro particles such as very fine concrete dust or smoke will move freely through the pre-filter. Therefore, never smoke in the vicinity of a carbon filter. Cigarette smoke reduces the life of the activated carbon the most! While cleaning the room, the carbon filter must be removed to prevent possible intake of micro-dust and consequent damage of the activated carbon. Never humidity over 75%! This exerts a negative influence on the capacity of the carbon filter. Also note that using humidifiers will produce a limescale residue very damaging to filters. Therefore, use only lime-free water for humidification. RO machines provide a good solution for this problem. Never exceed the stated cubic meter (m3/h) of the carbon ﬁlter! This will result in too short a contact time between the air and activated carbon, whereby the neutralization is minimized. The capacity of the fan should be 20% lower than the capacity of the filter. Thus, the activated carbon will have enough spare capacity and can neutralize the air continuously. The given cubic meter (m3/h) of the carbon ﬁlter should never fall below 75%! The cubic meter (m3/h) must be always at least 25% of the total output of the filter. This ensures a constant pressure in the cylinder. For example: If the maximum output of the filter is 1000m3/h, then the air flow should never fall below 250m3/h.

About CarbonActive Available Sizes Description

CFM

CarbonActive 125mm x 250mm CarbonActive 150mm x 210mm CarbonActive 150mm x 420mm CarbonActive 200mm x 220mm CarbonActive 200mm x 440mm

310m3/hr 320m3/hr 800m3/hr 710m3/hr 1250m3/hr

CarbonActive would like to introduce our brand new EC Inline Filter Unit on to the hydroponic market. After listening to our clients and partners, we discovered the need of a better, more secure system with a very low noise emission. This initially led us to develop the possibility of double air filtration. While using a granulated carbon filter in the tent and for the second filter a light weight particle filter on the end of the exhaust run, we make sure that all the molecules are neutralised by 99.9%. CarbonActive is the only manufacturer which provides the market with both technologies. Further to our granulated and particle carbon filters is our very first Inline Filter System. The digital EC fan in the unit produces an air pressure of 1200Pa, which makes sure that there is always enough air being moved, even when you use the exhaust air to blow back through your air-cooled lights! While running the system on 30% capacity, you won’t hear ANY noise! We call it the “stealth mode”.

Bulldog Filters A History Of Combating Contaminates For many years carbon has been the most successful material used for absorbing unpleasant contaminates from the air stream. At Bulldog Filters we are by no means an exception to this rule and manufacture using only the highest standard of carbon material available. We are however an exception to the standard manufacturing processes of carbon filters, as we will now explain a little further. We only use granular activated coal-based carbon with a high activity (steam activation from selected grades of bituminous coal). This particular carbon source exhibits an equal balance of absorption and transportation. With a pore size of typically 0.02mm diameter, this allows the efficient absorption of a range of organic contaminants from the environment. These granular particles are then bonded tightly together to create an enormous absorption surface area, typically 1000 square meters per gram of bonded carbon. As the contaminated air passes through the carbon filter, the unwanted gasses are absorbed and retained within this mass of pore cavities, similar to water being absorbed into a sponge. The principle of air filtration is to remove unpleasant contaminates from the discharged air stream. In the worst case scenario, if these are allowed to escape unfiltered they could potentially harm or damage the environment. To succeed in this basic principle of filtration it is critical that all of the contaminated air passes through the filter and is not allowed to escape unfiltered into the environment. Our patented bonding process guarantees that the carbon thickness remains constant throughout its entire life cycle at either 40mm (1.5 ins.) or 50mm (2 ins.). This eliminates the problem of carbon settlement from our product that can sometimes be seen in the loose fill carbon manufacturing method. This unique bonding process ensures there is no possibility of air passing through a carbon-less pocket of the filter and therefore carrying unpleasant contaminates into the outside environment. This carbon bonding process is carried out by mixing an accurately weighed amount of a hydroxypropylmethylcellulose adhesive together with the high quality carbon granules using a very stringent and closely controlled set of procedures. This material is then compacted into shape at a regulated rate so as not to crush the carbon causing the granules to turn to powder and render the filter useless. Finally the finished carbon core is oven dried at 60째C and a protective cloth is attached to the outside of the carbon core.

Filtration Is Only Achieved On A Porous Surface Air cannot pass through solid material. As much as up to 50% of the air flow is lost when forced through materials such as perforated steel mesh, a common material used to retain loose filled carbon filters. As a consequence of the bonding process, we require no such restrictive mesh frame and therefore we are able to maximise air flow over 100% of the carbon filter surface area. This in turn allows our filter to be manufactured smaller in size, meaning greater optimisation of available grow room space and greater ease of installation for the user.

In A Nutshell Bulldog Filters offer fantastic air flow results and a more efficient use of space than traditional filters. Coupled with the peace of mind that all air will be treated through the uniquely bonded, replace-able carbon cell; you know you can count on our British manufacturing processes. Bulldog filters are committed to reducing their global carbon footprint, with this in mind, the Bulldog filter is designed so that only the inner carbon core needs to be replaced, not the complete filter. This is replaced very easily in a few minutes without the difficulty of disposing of the complete filter. As the carbon cell has no harmful chemicals within its manufacture, the cell can be easily broken down for disposal or used even as a soil additive.

Available Sizes Description

CFM

Bulldog Filter 125 x 200mm Bulldog Filter 125 x 280mm Bulldog Filter 125 x 330mm Bulldog Filter 125 x 420mm Bulldog Filter 200 x 280mm Bulldog Filter 200 x 300mm Bulldog Filter 200 x 420mm Bulldog Filter 200 x 560mm

160m3/hr 240m3/hr 320m3/hr 400m3/hr 400m3/hr 520m3/hr 640m3/hr 800m3/hr

Growing in a Sealed Environment

The Key to good gardening is to simply let the plants grow, or so a great man once told me. An insightful and poetic mantra indeed, but entirely lost on me at the time, due to fact that I was seven years old. From every cold frame at the bottom of the garden to the glorious heights of The Eden project, when it comes down to it, we’re all doing the same thing- setting the stage as best we can to allow plants to do that thing that they do so well. Indoor gardening and hydroponics offer us a greater level of control than traditional gardening, and growing in a sealed environment takes that control even further. Think of sealed growrooms as your very own, self-contained biomes. Beyond environmental omnipotence, sealed growrooms are ideal for introducing CO2 controls and require minimal extraction. Naturally there are downsides too; Sealed growrooms are expensive, both to set up and to run. If you are planning to venture down that road, here’s HYDROMAG’s guide to doing so. There are four primary factors to consider with a sealed growroom; Temperature, humidity, CO2 levels and air movement/cleanliness. All of these factors are more than likely going to operate to extreme levels and so will need a great deal of kit to control. Wherever possible it’s well worth setting aside an area outside the growing space for your extra tackle. This and the expense alone, means that sealed growrooms tend to be much larger endeavour than your average growroom.

Temperature

Lights

The size or area available to you will generally determine how many lights you can use. In a sealed grow room the intention is to keep excessive heat down to a minimum. Maximise the spread of each light through the well thought out use of cross-over lighting. Choose your reflectors keeping your room layout in mind at all times. Installing air-cooled lights removes the bulk of the problem at the source. However, despite their name, the goal is not to actually cool down the bulb. Cooling a bulb diminishes the output in terms of the intensity and spectrum of light that they are emitting. This is a particularly prevalent issue with metal halide bulbs. The intention is to remove the heat from around the bulb in the form of hot air, before it has the chance to permeate the rest of your growing space rather than literally ‘cool’ the bulb. Although the spectrum emitted is still somewhat affected, dimmable ballasts are a great way of controlling excess heat from lamps. There are a number available on the market, some with more functionality than others. More recently control equipment has become available that will automatically dim your lights based on the temperature of the room. The Gavita version uses an air temperature probe to assess the environment and change the lamps’ output accordingly. The Dimlux ballast, used in conjunction with the IR plant camera, and opticlimate controller (see page 22 of this issue) takes that functionality to the next level.

Air temperature control An Air conditioning (AC) unit is going to be the beating heart of your sealed growroom, their cooling capacity is measured in British Thermal units (BTU). BTU is a measure of the amount of energy it takes to heat or cool one pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit. Most HID lights give roughly 3.4 BTU per Watt (so a 1000w lamp requires 3400 BTU). Multiplying the total Wattage of your lamps by 3.4 will give you a good indication of the size, or load capacity, of AC unit that you will need. Remember, it’s always best to buy an oversized unit (it is not just the bulbs alone that contribute to the total BTUs in the room: fans, ballasts etc) and run it at a lower capacity, rather than risk having to buy a bigger unit at a later date. Try to avoid single unit air conditioners, as they produce unfiltered growroom air that you will need to dispose of. Split units avoid this issue using coolant to transfer heat between units. Look for ones with easy, quick coupling coolant pipes. Water cooling is an incredibly effective method of heat control. Water’s natural physical properties are far more effective at conducting and storing energy than air. Grow room air can either be cooled down by being passed over the internal cold water pipes or heated up by the temperature regulated heating elements in the unit. The water conducts heat from the hot air, which can then be drained away or reused in a closed-loop system. This process requires a relatively large amount of water, more often than not from the mains. The Opticlimate works on this premise, and can be installed by attaching to the mains water supply with the supplied connectors, and is surprisingly easier to install than you might first think. It monitors and controls: cooling, heating, dehumidification, air filtration and circulation all from the one unit. Its lightweight removable dust and carbon filters contribute to an overall low level of noise output and provide excellent air scrubbing/cleaning. The diverse functionality of this unit means it’s currently the ideal choice for a sealed growroom, tackling many environmental problems all at once.

Humidity

Humidifiers

There are two standard methods that are used; Centrifugal and Ultra Sonic. Centrifugal humidifiers spin the water and ‘smash’ it through a fine grate, creating water particles, or droplets. As the relative size of these particles is larger than the ones produced by the ultrasonic versions, they generally take longer to evaporate into the air and therefore raise the humidity at a less efficient rate. A warm water supply will reduce this evaporation time and increase their efficiency. Ultrasonic humidifiers vibrate ceramic discs at ultrasonic frequencies, causing the water to break up into minute droplets which are dispersed as a fine mist. The higher surface area of the water within this mist means it evaporates and raises the relative humidity much more efficiently than centrifugal versions. Ultrasonic humidifiers aren’t without their own downsides though; the discs do have a tendency to break and require replacing quite frequently. Also, ultrasonic humidifiers are very sensitive to any impurities within the water supply. Tip: If you want to maintain the lifespan and performance of ALL your equipment then it’s best to use humidifiers with Reverse Osmosis water. This reduces the deposits and staining on reflective surfaces and degradation of carbon filters through the calcium carbonates being left after the evaporation of the water on said surface. A particularly destructive problem in hard water areas.

Dehumidifiers In a sealed growroom, with minimal extraction, the growing space will become humid very quickly. As your plants begin to fill the growroom and particularly during bloom, this can be a real problem. Other than the multifunctional Opticlimate, there are two commonly available versions of dehumidifiers. Desiccant dehumidifiers use a desiccant to absorb the water which is then rotated and the water is removed. They tend to work at a constant rate over a wide range of temperature levels and operate at quieter noise levels than their compressive counterparts. Air compressor based de-humidifiers use a refrigerating gas which passes humid air past hot and cold coils, wringing the moisture out en route. They work at their most efficient when at relatively higher temperatures and they’re usually cheaper than their desiccant counterparts. However, in a grow room environment with a constantly changing temperature, they’re arguably less efficient than a desiccant version. Also, the CFCs help to expand the already huge hole in The Earth’s fragile atmosphere.

CO2 Levels Since sealed growrooms use minimal extraction, they also have far less fresh air coming in. CO2 supplementation is therefore essential. Background CO2 levels average at 300-400ppm (parts per million). When you first start using CO2 supplementation, it’s best to aim for an average of 800-900ppm. The top level mark is usually around 1200ppm when you’ve got everything dialled in and properly pumping. CO2 delivery systems are many and various, too many to list here. If you can afford precise monitoring equipment which also delivers fresh CO2 to your growroom, it’s going to make life infinitely more manageable. Probably the most basic delivery system is mycelia mass bags, which use fungal spores to create CO2. The problem here is the relative lack of regulation on offer. Units which use a pre-calculated room size to monitor and adjust CO2 output are the next step up from this. Then there is precise monitoring equipment that analyses the environment to obtain the exact ppm in the atmosphere and then dose accordingly to achieve the levels that you have set it to. Which unit you go for depends largely on how much time and money you have on your hands. Uniform CO2 dispersal is the key to success. Carbon dioxide by its very nature will want to fall and settle, as it is a heavier element than oxygen. For this reason, good air circulation/movement around the room is essential to maintaining even levels without spikes or dips in certain areas, especially over the plant canopy. With air-conditioning units you will need to have enough pedestal/circulatory fans to evenly distribute the CO2. An Opticlimate, when properly installed will constantly be re-circulating air back over the top of your canopy, although it’s still wise to have circulatory fans as well if needed.

Air scrubbing / cleanliness As the same air is constantly circulated in a sealed grow room, you need to ensure that it is adequately treated for any potential build-up of fungal spores or other air borne contaminates that may potentially infect your plants. The range of options you have here is simply a fan attached to a carbon filter recirculating the enclosed air (again the opticlimate has in built filters for this purpose) or UV units that treat the air passed over them using the deadly properties of ultra violet light on a microscopic level. The last thing you want is an outbreak of powdery mildew or botrytis in an environment you’ve spent ages on hermetically sealing to stop exactly this sort of thing in the first place.

Hopefully this has been a useful guide for the sorts of things you need to consider when growing in a sealed environment. It’s by no means as in depth as it could be, but is a good starting point for you to decide what sort of approach you would want to take. The sort of benefits that can be achieved using this sort of environmental control really need to be seen to be believed, and once you tread down the sealed grow room route, you are likely never to look back.

GRUNGE Generation X Seattle, Washington, noted for its punishing rain, late night coffee shops, the most iconic suicide spot in the world (the George Washington Bridge) and ‘Grunge’, a vibrant music scene in the early 90s that was responsible for a cultural revolution, comparable to the impact of kaleidoscopic 60s Rock and Pop, Punk or the golden age of Hip Hop. In its halcyon days, Grunge had a huge impact on the cultural footprint of the planet, altering fashions, attitudes and cinema. Grunge’s musical form borrowed the distortion and heft of Classic Rock and married it to the anger, authenticity and social conscience of Punk and early Rap, hippie sentimentality left up on the shelf for too long and soaked in flammable, empowering cynicism. These jaded hippies formed ‘Generation X’, a swathe of society classified by their progressive social tolerance and vehement individuality and chronic mistrust of the establishment or conformity. Generation X director Richard Linklater’s movie ‘Slackers’, which followed the lives of some young ‘generation X-ers’, was quoted as saying ‘Slackers might look like the left-behinds of society, but they are actually one step ahead, rejecting most of society and the social hierarchy before it rejects them’. The movie depicts young adults who are more engaged by philosophising and ruminating, than the prospect of starting a family and working on a career. Careers and families are what constitute in many people’s eyes a ‘good life’, almost making a competition out of the need to become a ‘successful citizen’, as if such a thing existed, but Generation X-ers didn’t want to play that game. They thought that you might in some way be denying your true self by putting on a sort of mask to give the illusion that you are what society thinks you ‘ought’ to be. The pressure put on oneself to relentlessly chase a ‘normal life’, to ‘fit in’ and create this protective, middle class bubble of safety and respect for yourself, was inhibiting and done in bad faith. They thought detaching from that game was more valuable, that living a life without fear of judgement and having the conviction to just ‘be’, would perhaps be a more rewarding and authentic life. Undeniably in parts this world view holds some

truth, but the life of a ‘free thinking individual’ is often laced with a tendency toward narcissism, escapism, irresponsibility and perhaps immaturity. The Grunge uniform for this ‘authentic’ life was long hair, ripped jeans and of course tattoos and piercings, symbols of freedom and individuality, apathy worn as a badge of honour. The slight irony of this being that the people that have dyed hair, outrageous tattoos and crazy facial piercings are in fact saying ‘screw you, look at how little I care about what you think’ and in so doing displaying how much they care about what you think. We all like a bit of adoration and the disciples of Grunge’s secret from themselves, was that they perhaps wanted to be loved, for not wanting to be loved. It was an insurmountable paradox for Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, who tragically blew his head off age 27, also severing the head of the movement. Teenage angst has paid off well, now I’m bored and old’ - (Serve The Servants). Grunge was short lived. The rejection of the mainstream, became mainstream. The world moved on and commercial music went back to the hollow, corporate micro penis of nothing that it is today. There is a lack of heroes in the public eye that genuinely stand for something worthy, God has little influence, there’s no respect for politicians, teachers, or the monarchy and if you go by YouTube comments we have no respect for each other. The internet has democratised our opinions and diluted the value of our potential apostles. We are now each other’s auspices. If Kurt Cobain was the spokesman of ‘Generation X’, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber are our spiritual leaders now, in what comedian Stewart Lee terms the ‘Angry Birds Generation’. Art is our guide, it is didactic, it suggests to us how we might live, it is essential and right now we are starving for art of greater value. Grunge was the last music scene to have a credo, a message of at least some perceived value. For that we must doth our cap and hope for something more substantial and useful in our current generation’s cultural oeuvre, than ‘Angry Birds’ or ‘Flappy Bird’… especially as I can’t get past my depressing score of 30…

PEARL JAM TEN (1991) 10cc, The Lovin Spoonful and Pearl Jam are all bands named after references to male ejaculate, but don’t let that put you off. Their debut ‘Ten’, is one of the biggest selling albums of all time going 13x platinum since its release. It catapulted both Pearl Jam and Grunge into the stratosphere and is often cited as an equal partner to Nirvana’s Nevermind as the two most important albums of the decade, with Eddie Vedder’s vibrato festooned yowling also having influenced a generation of bands. Whilst most or all other ‘Grunge’ acts seemed to have had a limited life span, it is the depth, passion, sincerity and sensitivity behind their immense talent as musicians and original songwriters, combined with their ability to achieve utter ‘heavy-osity’ that has allowed them to endure. They are the only band from the era still easily

NIRVANA

packing out stadiums worldwide, with tickets to their last gig at the Astoria in London selling out in minutes and being sold on for thousands of pounds. They are a hardworking, honest, truly truly exceptional rock band in every sense and by a distance one of the best live bands going. Ten is a timeless, absolute bonafide rock classic and a joy to listen to from start to finish.

NEVERMIND (1991)

After the rampant capitalism and self indulgence of the 80s, with the music scene being Stock, Aitkin and Waterman, glam rock and the New Romantics, there was a watershed moment in England where literally EVERYTHING changed overnight. The band was Nirvana and the vehicle for them was channel 4’s irreverent chat show The Word. This being their first TV appearance in England, the audience were not expecting much from a show that once encouraged a member of the public to eat a bowl of verrucas and toe nails, ‘just to be on tv’. Out walks a shabbily dressed, messy, long haired left handed dude in jeans, claiming ‘Courtney Love is the best fuck I ever had’ before launching into a sprawling, magnetic, chaotic version of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, the first time anyone had heard it. Its much needed massive rock cock fucked the country’s brains out of their glitzy 80s stupor, leaving everyone to wake up the next day wondering what the hell happened. Within hours Nirvana hoodies and ripped jeans were worn by everyone, guitars were cool again and posters of Cobain were on the walls of the youth’s bedrooms. The biggest star of the 90s was born. Nevermind is as fresh today as it was then. Its contents may be sullied by its derisory title of ‘teen angst’ music, but look past that element and you have an exceptional songwriter and lyricist, drummer Dave Grohl, a collection of eternally memorable songs and a superstar that we miss dearly. The wheels of nostalgia are turning ever smaller. We live in hope that a new movement, where ‘the fashion is all about the passion’ might be right around the corner…

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE (1992) Ok. So RATM aren’t actually Grunge, I hear you chuntering over your let’s face it embarrassingly small aubergine yield. Well you’re right, but screw you it’s our magazine and whilst stylistically it is ‘rap metal’, we feel it was sufficiently part of the movement to count and miles better than many other bands from the era, ranking in the top 500 albums of all time in Rolling Stone. There are few bands out there that are as enjoyable to rock out to as RATM. They are loud, angry, cynical and have a collection of fantastic songs to head bang and freak out to. The ‘Fuck you I Won’t Do What You Tell Me’ refrain in Killing In The Name Of, and the ‘Bullet In The Head’ refrain in er ‘Bullet In The Head’ are such contagious and glorious examples of great rousing songwriting, that even the Dalai Lama would find it hard not to jump up and down screaming ‘Fuck You I Won’t Do What You Tell Me’. If you haven’t heard it go and buy it, if you have go and buy it again. Essential listening for anyone into heavy music.

SOUNDGARDEN Superunknown (1994)

Lead singer Chris Cornell has one of ‘the’ inimitable rock voices and is celebrated as a hero of the genre, with ‘Superunknown’ being one of the seminal albums of the Grunge movement, with the track ‘Black Hole Sun’ being their magnum opus, having a famously disturbing Lynch-esque music video that firmly belongs in the canon of MTV’s rock’s greatest videos. They were part of Seattle label Sub Pop records, who are credited with being behind the Grunge scene explosion having the likes of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney on their roster. More Zeppelin and Sabbath than The Melvins and The Pixies, they have an epic, guitar heavy, classic rock sound, the centre piece being Cornell’s voice and if big rock voices are your thing, then you need to check them out.

PIXIES

‘Basically we were just ripping oﬀ The Pixies’ - Kurt Cobain

Wave Of Mutilation Best Of (2004)

‘Basically we were just ripping off The Pixies’ - Kurt Cobain. The Pixies were simply an extraordinary band, that really don’t sound like anyone else before or since. They are a unique and bizarre punk rock art project with a love of melody and guitars and a knack for deconstructing songs and putting them back together again, making them utterly memorable and anthemic. At first, you might listen blankly with incredulity, but they are a band that break the sort of rules that immediately marginalises most of the world as an audience. That audacity is quite appealing and allowing them to take you into their confidence will make you feel a bit clever for liking them, it makes you part of the refining the audience process. On this compilation of greatest hits there are some staggeringly catchy songs from a vital and incredibly original band, with ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ and their most famous ‘Where Is My Mind?’ used at the end of the movie Fight Club being particular highlights.

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Death, when personified, is often portrayed as a meandering old scythe-wielding skeleton in a cape (most of us would fancy our chances of beating him in a 100 metre sprint). But the reality is he’s more like a ninja. Hiding in the shadows, unseen, poised to strike with unexpected swiftness. He’s in the back of your car waiting for the moment you take your eyes off the road. He’s scuttling across the rooftops, kicking off a loose chunk of concrete as you withdraw cash from a machine below. He’s lurking in the bar ready to karate chop your weakened carotid artery as you innocently sip your pint. Can anything be done to defeat him? Of course not. He’s a lethal, unstoppable bastard. No amount of training in a Shaolin Temple will help - because tragically life’s not like the movies. He’s going to get you and you’ll just have to take it on the chin (or the gizzards, or between the shoulder blades – wherever he wants to put it). All you can do is go about your business and try to eke out as much fun as possible from the limited time you’ve been given; maybe explore your inner world, try to educate yourself? And is there anything more fun and / or educational than a great movie? And is there any better way to take your mind off your impending demise than to escape to the realms of fantasy (our genre this issue)? This edition: Fantasy. Typically involves the odd bit of magic, the supernatural, myth and legend. Might even involve some swords. It’s a particularly escapist genre where anything goes.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson (2001) This is the first and best of Peter Jackson’s trilogy, largely for being the least CGI-heavy, the one where story takes precedence over action, and it’s arguably the instalment most evocative of Tolkien’s original material. It was a brave punt to allow Jackson to helm LOTR, his previous films having been small, bizarre movies like Bad Taste, Braindead, and Meet the Feebles. He was a specialist in trashy horror, a soulmate of Troma. Every major studio passed the opportunity to produce it, all in the belief there was no money to be made in the Fantasy genre. But Jackson was determined and found a willing partner in New Line. Entrusted with an eye-watering $93m, and given creative cart blanche, he didn’t disappoint – bringing the book to life in a way many thought impossible. The outstandingly good cast were shacked up with each other for a year and a half, bonding in tattoo parlours and surfing together, therefore lending the ‘fellowship’ an authentic feel of brotherhood. Jackson and New Line’s greatest achievement is perhaps that despite the vast budget and associated pressures, they never pandered to a teenage audience, playing Tolkien the only way anyone should - dead straight.

Conan the Barbarian DIRECTOR: John Milius (1982) The 1980s saw a rash of raw, low-budget sword and sandal epics, dripping with blood and gism (‘The Sword and the Sorcerer’, ‘Conan’, ‘Beastmaster’ and ‘Krull’ all coming out within 15 months of each other). And none were better than Conan. Milius, the writer of Dirty Harry and Jaws, co-wrote here with Oliver Stone. Also getting behind the camera to direct, he created the perfect role for the muscular, (admittedly wooden) acting of Schwarzenegger: a monosyllabic barbarian. Playing to his strengths, Schwarzenegger is superb as Conan, seeking vengeance for the slaughter of his tribe at the hands of shape-shifter James Earl Jones. Joining Earl Jones in raising the tone somewhat is Ingmar Bergman-favourite Max Von Sydow. (Sandahl Bergman, playing Conan’s love interest, is not related). While unashamedly pulpy, Conan boasts some top class effects for the time. Similarly, the set and costume design, as you’d expect from the production designer of Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’, is fantastic and importantly makes the ﬁlm believable.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail DIRECTOR: Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam (1975)

“The 1980s saw a rash of raw, low-budget sword and sandal epics, dripping with blood and gism”

Frequently appearing in top ten lists as one of the most quotable films of all time; Monty Python and the Holy Grail was the Pythons’ first real stab at cinema, and it marked the directorial debut of Terry Gilliam (whose difficulties co-helming with Terry Jones fortunately didn’t put him off). Knights who say ni, cows on catapults, the killer rabbit, and a limbless Black Knight are amongst the many memorable moments in this movie – possibly the most gloriously absurd of all the Python movies. It’s practically worthless to describe the plot (very loosely based on the tale of King Arthur), as the narrative is an almost irrelevant backdrop to a series of hilarious, surreal set pieces, that in turn get increasingly ridiculous and reductive. The Pythons parody the sword and sorcery subgenre to great effect here, finding an amusing twist to every associated trope. It’s still hilariously anarchic.

Wings of Desire DIRECTOR: Wim Wenders (1987)

“Wings of Desire’ goes to show that not all Fantasy films are characterised by sword fights and wizardry.” ‘Wings of Desire’ goes to show that not all Fantasy films are characterised by sword fights and wizardry. Unable to be seen (except by children) angels patrol Berlin, listening in to the innermost thoughts of humans, but unable to communicate or engage physically with them. Bruno Gantz (of more recent ‘Downfall’ fame, playing Hitler) here plays an overcoat-wearing angel who falls in love with a trapeze artist. Peter Falk plays an exangel, now American actor Peter Falk (just watch it). The cinematography is quite beautiful; shot in black & white when we see the world through the angels’ eyes, and naturalistic colour when the camera focuses on the humans. It’s a fairy tale, a peculiar romance, shot like an art film. In order to be with the object of his desire (played by Solveig Donmartin) Gantz must lose his wings, his immortality, and suffer like the humans. It’s a beautiful treatise on the nature of humanity.

Excalibur DIRECTOR: John Boorman (1981)

“Most of us are familiar with the story of Camelot, but not many have seen it realised in such a magical, dreamlike way.”

See the oﬃcial trailers for these movies. HYDROMAG YouTube channel will be full of playlists to supplement our articles. You can also see sponsored playlists from our advertisers. Visit: www.youtube.com/user/hydromagazine

Most of us are familiar with the story of Camelot, but not many have seen it realised in such a magical, dreamlike way (not many have seen it quite this bloody or laced with full-frontal nudity either). ‘Excalibur’ was made with an extraordinary cast featuring a host of British and Irish stage stars, and includes early performances from Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart and Cheri Lunghi. As with many great ﬁlms, ‘Excalibur’ is “a dream to some, a nightmare to others” (to quote a line from Merlin). While some purists took umbrage at Williamson’s playful, almost anachronistic, skull-capped Merlin, and others railed at certain liberties Boorman took with the narrative; ‘Excalibur’ is not supposed to be a faithful retelling of the story. This is an hallucinatory reimagining of Arthurian legend, set in a land of dreams, with lavish visuals and sound (the thundering score heavy on Wagner and Carl Orff). It’s a paean to a Golden Era, a yearning for a time when Man and Nature were one.

“‘Excalibur’ was made with an extraordinary cast featuring a host of British and Irish stage stars, and includes early performances from Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart and Cheri Lunghi.”

GROW GEAR Grow Gear gives you a taste of our advertisers’ premier products, from popular classics to new-fangled curiosities. We can’t guarantee that they’re right for you, but we can tell you that we wouldn’t have them in HYDROMAG if we didn’t respect their work. Even if you aren’t in the market for something new, Grow Gear is well worth a read.

H.I.D Iceline Pipe New to the hydroponic scene and poised to take the irrigation world by storm is a product that I’m sure will have many manufacturers kicking themselves over because they didn’t think about it sooner. It is based on an extremely simple principle that will have a significant impact on the performance of most hydroponic systems currently found on the market. High temperature is something that all indoor growers will suffer from. The nature of the beast that is high intensity lighting is that it gives users the awkward by-product of a shit ton of radiated heat within the grow room environment. Equipment currently exists in many forms to deal with this heat to stop its detrimental effects on plants (extract fans, air conditioners, nutrient chillers) which all generally are fairly pricey (albeit necessary), however one aspect that has not previously been catered for is the humble irrigation pipe. The temperature of your nutrient solution is highly important when it comes to correctly caring for your plants. If the water is too cold it will shock the roots and conversely if it is too hot it will promote the growth of anaerobic diseases. A lot of attention is given to the reservoir’s temperature, but before now, not so much to the irrigation pipe. Water left in your drip lines between irrigations in standard black piping can quickly get to a level of heat that will be detrimental for roots, and leave you with a temperature in your pot that can hinder your plants’ progress. Iceline Pipe defeats this problem in one fell swoop. It is essentially comprised of two layers or cores. The inner layer being black and the outer layer being white. The outer white layer reflects any radiated grow room heat energy while the inner black layer prevents any light penetrating, eliminating any potential for algae/bacterial growth. Simple but effective: initial test data show an average 10% drop in temperature within irrigation lines and a 3% drop within the plant pots. This difference can have significant impacts on plant health and be a lifesaver in summer months. Iceline Pipe provides an easy fix to nutrient problems commonly associated with high temperatures. Once you try black you never go back!!! Iceline is proud to finally set this age old quandary straight… Available in all popular sizes.

GROTEK Heavy Bud A proprietary blend of essential nutrients and both simple and complex carbohydrates, Heavy Bud is an energy source for your crops. The additional organic acids only improve its eﬀectiveness at delivering the plant exactly what it needs to grow larger, higher quality crops. Elements in its formula are fundamental to the production of amino acids, plant based sugars, and uniform crop development. The aim of Heavy Bud is to ensure the highest quality crop possible by improving the plant’s ability to produce better ﬂavour, taste, aroma and overall quality. Note: This formula is sold as Heavy Bloom in some countries.

GROW GEAR CANNA Canna Rhizotonic; Success starts at the bottom Healthy roots are a key factor for a successful harvest. CANNA RHIZOTONIC is the product you need for healthy roots. CANNA RHIZOTONIC is a powerful, algae based, vegetative stimulator for plant roots. It stimulates new root growth on plants that are already rooted but also stimulates new root growth on cuttings. It speeds up the germination process and improves the strength of a plant. Do you want the best for your roots? Use CANNA RHIZOTONIC. For more information about the product visit www.canna-uk.com.

CANNA Will you be a WC 2014 Pool Winner? Drinks? Check! Something to snack? Check! Flatscreen? Check! Apito? Check, check, double check! You undoubtedly have prepared yourself for the 2014 Football World Cup or you will be prepared very soon. Please add this line to your checklist: ‘Visit wc2014.canna-uk.com and complete the CANNA WC 2014 pool’, because you can win seriously amazing prizes! A small clue, without saying too much: have you ever been in Amsterdam!? Everyone can participate, even when you do not have the slightest idea about football. You just have to complete your predictions at the pool wc2014. canna-uk.com (easy!) and maybe you are the lucky one going to Amsterdam. For more information go to www.canna-uk.com.

GHE BioWeed® BioWeed is derived from a blend of cold processed seaweeds that enhance the vitality of both the plant and soil. Seaweed, and its extracts, have long been recognized as stress reducing agents and powerful plant boosters. BioWeed works synergistically with all fertilizers to promote vigorous, healthy growth. Put simply it is ideal for all plants, at all stages of growth. Compatible alongside all types of nutrients and additives; In hydroponic systems, in any substrate or in your garden. Informations and dealers: gb.eurohydro.com

H.I.D Growlab 2.0 From the inventor of the original grow tent. The GrowLab™ has long been a first choice for growers who want a quick and convenient indoor garden. It’s a fuss-free solution—no need for tools or DIY know-how. Simply unpack, assemble and convert virtually any space into a clean and productive growing area in minutes. Designed to make life easy, the new GrowLab™ range has been completely overhauled to incorporate exciting new features and improvements to give you the best possible growing experience. The GrowLab™ is everything you expect from a portable, indoor grow tent—and more! Wide range of sizes available.

GROW GEAR IKON Sugar Rush Suga Rush may enhance ﬂowering when used in hydroponic and soil-free systems such as cocopeat. Suga Rush contains potassium which is essential for the translocation of sugars. Maximizes your plants’ bloom potential. Increased taste and aroma. Websites: www.ikon-international.com // www.cycoﬂower.com

IKON Potash Plus Potash Plus strengthens plants and aids in water retention which improves yields and transportability. Cyco Potash Plus also makes a positive contribution to the environment by balancing other nutrients, especially nitrate, to make sure they are taken-up and used by plants eﬃciently. Websites: www.ikon-international.com // www.cycoﬂower.com

BIOBIZZ Biobizz® is pleased to add the 250ml collection, the 500ml member and a big 10 litre can to the family of Biobizz products. Expanding the size assortment allows Biobizz to oﬀer you more choices when browsing for your plants’ needs. Therefore, do not hesitate to consider one of the new family members!

BIOBIZZ 500ml of Nutrients Juice for your Roots To give your plants a good and healthy start it is important to give them the right nutrition. That is no problem when you have the 500ml Root---Juice™ bottles! They are coming soon! Then, Root---Juice™ will be available in 250ml, 500ml, 1L bottles and in 5Lcans, which makes it suitable for all quantities!

BIOBIZZ 250ml Collection Finally, the 250ml collection will be complete, with all liquid fertilizers becoming available in 250ml bottles! This means that we welcome Bio---Grow, Bio---Bloom™, Fish---mix™, Top··Max™ and Alg---A---Mic™ to the smaller bottles; Easier to carry, less to worry about.

BIOBIZZ 10L of (Bio) Heaven™ 10L cans filled with Bio---Heaven™ are coming! This organic product has been, and still is, available in other sizes for smaller usage, and now also for the big growers who need more and prefer to buy 10L in one go.

GET The Aroma Formula You just have to try this great way of feeding your plants. The Aroma Formula will give you bigger yields than you are accustomed to. Why? Because when you feed your garden, you’re not just giving your garden an A & B formula of plant food. What do we mean by feeding your garden? GET wants you to increase the amounts of A & B concentrate as your garden grows. Doesn’t that make sense; there’s no way that a big, high performing plant uses the same amount of feed as when it was small, Right? Well, don’t you think you should read more?

GET Power Thrive Yes, it has been a long time that Power Thrive has been giving growers better yields. Why? It isn’t the minerals that are in the most supply that makes a plant grow, but the minerals that are in the least supply have the biggest eﬀect on overall growth. Plants do not have the ability to replace one mineral element with another, when it wants that particular mineral element. Power Thrive supplies all the minerals that a plant, or for that matter your soil, needs to provide that award winning plant!

SHOGUN Dragon Force Maximising growth in the last 2 weeks before harvest, SHOGUN Dragon Force is uniquely formulated for maximum impact at this critical late stage of flowering. Used in place of your regular bloom nutrients, Dragon Force stimulates an intense ripening effect on fruits and flowers whilst also signalling your plants to increase the size and weight of crops at a stage when growth would normally be slowing down. Use in conjunction with Sumo Boost for maximum effect.

GROW GEAR HYDROSTATION Maxi Controller The DimLux Maxi Controller can control 160 DimLux Ballasts/Full fixtures without the need for a switchboard, time delay units and relays. Just plug them in, set the on and off time and you’re ready to run. Light Control: - Dimmable in singular percentile increments - Asynchronous timing option: Run shorter days - Simulate sunrise/sunset Temperature Control: - Optional light dimming based on air temparture. - Emergency Auto-shut off in event of extraction/irrigation failure. Humidity Control: - Optional Control of humidification equipment. Vapor Pressure Defecit: - Optional IR plant Camera. Dims lights based on plant surface temperature for ultimate VPD control. Particularly useful during irrigation failures. CO2: - Optional CO2 monitoring/Control RRP: £246.99

FDP Switchbox All-In-One The Switchbox is a complete controller for lights, fans and heaters with a safety function that ensures your room is never over temperature. Using state of the art software, lights are switched on in series, so there is never a peak voltage. Fans are controlled with a Double Digital Fan Controller, and a heater is activated on lights-out to ensure perfect temps day and night. And should we be hit with another hot summer this year, lights will be switched oﬀ one by one if temperature gets too high! Available in 2 and 4 light models.

FDP Nebuliser Hand Sprayer ECO With summer just around the corner you can be sure the bugs will be too. As important as the preparation you use to spray your plants, is the equipment you use to spray them. With a Nebuliser Hand Sprayer there is nowhere for bugs to hide. The liquid is atomised and distributed via a fan assisted motor. This means total cover is guaranteed and best of all there is no need to crawl around on all fours! Just open the door and get to work from a stand still.

ANT E E

A R ANT

www.secretjardin.com

GROW GEAR PLAGRON Cocos Pebbles SUBSTRATE / NON FERTILISED Hydroponic growing with a stable pH and excellent drainage Cocos Pebbles offers the advantages of both Cocos Premium and Euro Pebbles. The cocos will keep the pH in the substrate stable. The pebbles provide the substrate with excellent drainage and an adequate oxygen level. Plagron Cocos Pebbles is a 50/50 combination of high quality Cocos Premium and Euro Pebbles, also known as ‘the cleanest pebble out there’. Controlling the pH is easy, because this substrate is buffered for a stable pH throughout the entire cultivation period. The EC value of Cocos Pebbles is extremely low, therefore the grower has full control over the fertilisation. Plagron Cocos Pebbles is suitable for almost any hydroponics system, because of the excellent drainage that the pebbles supply. Advantages of Cocos Pebbles: • Completely buffered substrate with a stable pH • Excellent drainage • High oxygen level • Guaranteed low EC value • Combine Cocos Pebbles with Cocos A & Cocos B for the best results Do you have any questions? servicedesk@plagron.com For additional information about Cocos Premium, Euro Pebbles and other products check www.plagron.com

PLAGRON Growmix SUBSTRATE / NON FERTILISED Growing without problems on pre-fertilised soil Plagron Growmix is specifically formulated for an easy growth phase and a controllable flowering phase. The finely tuned combination of high quality white peat and black peat provides optimal airiness in this mixture. Plagron Growmix contains a lot of white peat. White peat is harvested from the top layer of the peat fields; the youngest layer. This peat is airy and drains extremely well. The mix of white peat, black peat and worm castings ensure a smooth growth phase. The use of nutrients during the growth phase of the plant is not required. The worm castings, along with the added mineral fertilizer, ensure adequate nutrition for young plants. This low nutritional value makes this potting-soil perfectly suited for transplanting young cuttings and rooted seedlings. Plagron Growmix gives your plants a healthy & vigorous start with an excellent basis for rich flowering and abundant harvest. Like all quality Plagron potting soil, Growmix is rich in oxygen and does not shrink. Advantages of Growmix: • Best quality peat for a light soil structure • Grower decides on fertilisation during the flowering phase • Ideal for planting young cuttings/rooted seedlings • Combine Growmix with Terra Bloom for the best results. Do you have any questions? servicedesk@plagron.com For additional information about Plagron Growmix and other products check www.plagron.com

PLAGRON Lightmix SUBSTRATE / NON FERTILISED Hydroponic growing with a stable pH and excellent drainage Growing profitably and fertilise at your own insight Plagron Lightmix is a mix of the very best, carefully selected types of peat. The addition of various types of fibre and perlite result in a lightness and oxygen level found only in Plagron quality substrates. Lightmix is pre-fertilised for only one week. This allows the grower to have full control over the plants’ nutrition. Plagron Lightmix contains a lot of black peat. This makes Lightmix a relatively heavy soil, through which water can be easily held. Black peat is the bottom layer of the peat; the oldest layer. Plagron only uses frozen black peat. Freezing the black peat improves the structure, in which added nutrients are better absorbed and water is easily retained. Lightmix is mild in nutrients, making it ideal for young plants to have a great healthy start. It gives the grower control to fertilise the plants to your liking. Lightmix soil will retain and release the added nutrients as required by the plant. The low EC value of Lightmix also promotes rapid rooting of the plant. All Plagron quality potting soil is light and does not shrink. Advantages of Lightmix: • One week pre-fertilised • Retains water easily • Growing profitably • Available with or without perlite • Combine Lightmix with Terra Grow and Terra Bloom for the best results. Do you have any questions? servicedesk@plagron.com For additional information about Lightmix and other products check www.plagron.com

SHOGUN Sumo Boost A true heavyweight flowering bio-stimulant, Sumo Boost is an astounding new product that activates your plants’ flowering receptors on multiple levels. The result is a focused flowering response that increases yields, quality and nutrient uptake throughout the bloom stage. Its dilution rate compared to similar products also sets it apart, providing not only superior boost performance but also unparalleled value. Shogun Fertilisers are now available to hydroponic stores throughout the UK, visit www.shogunfertilisers.com to be a stockist www.facebook.com/shogunfertilisers

PLANT VITALIY Plant Vitality What feels like a lifetime ago we launched many great working products, sadly many of these weren’t well marketed or advertised. One product that people will know is plant vitality + Well thankfully now Plant Vitality is back, fully licensed products, fully approved, fully regulated, professional products for you serious professional growers of varying crops.First to market from our new range is Plant Vitality Killermite, a professional product aimed at serious professional users. A working product to combat the dreaded Borg, spidermite, both red and black. So finally folks Plant Vitality is back and the battle of the borg is won.

GROW GEAR GROTEK Monster Bloom A classical Bloom enhancer, Monster Bloom has a reputation for assisting plants in growing the largest flowers possible with its concentrated proprietary formula. Starting with high grade key ingredients, Monster Bloom encourages prolific blooming, higher plant metabolism, assists in starch (sugar) production, while improving bloom and fruit quantity. Highly soluble this formula is excellent in water based hydroponics but equally as effective in a soil or soilless mix. Applied during the mid stage of flowering, monster bloom targets plant processes that induce floral development. This unlocks your plants’ genetic potential to create the best blooms possible, which can lead to a surprising effect on overall yield. Monster Bloom is a supplement and should be added to your base nutrient to get maximum impact. Working together- Quantity and Quality Combine Combining the floral explosion of Monster Bloom with the carbohydrates and organic acids in Heavy Bud gives growers a powerful combination. While Monster Bloom is causing plants to grow more and larger blooms and fruit, Heavy Bud is applied to create floral complexity giving you a finished crop with fruit that have better flavour, aroma and taste.

SECRET JARDIN Orca Tent Secret Jardin is proud to annonce the integration of the Orca in its new range of tents. After being the first to integrate highly refletive Mylar, Secret jardin goes further by offering an exceptional range. The Word from Orca: “ORCA Grow Film® brings the latest reflective microfiber technology to the hydroponic market. The patented white plastic microfiber structure effectively scatters light from highly reflective crystalline fibers within the substrate. ORCA’s microfiber structure provides a unique surface combination of high reflectivity and true diffuse reflection. A reflective combination that is both powerful and highly efficient; significantly improving results over traditional reflective wall covering solutions.” With the Orca, obtain 20% more light directly (test 1) and 50% by reflectivity (test 2). The Orca Tent is the best reply for the end users who want the best. You want to boost your results, so wear your sunglasses and go for Secret Jardin Orca tent!!

H.I.D Sicce Voyager Nano For over 40 years Sicce has manufactured pumps of the highest quality for growers of all levels.The Word from Orca: Amongst the range is the Voyager Nano micro stream pump. Designed to be totally silent it will provide maximum ﬂuid movement with no vibration and minimum power consumption (3 watts). Now available in the UK exclusively from Hydro Industry Direct the Voyager Nano is fully submersible and can be attached to any tank with Sicce’s innovative dual magnet connection mount. Sizes: 1000 l/hr & 2000 l/hr

GROW GEAR H.I.D Uber RNA Introducing RNA, another unique product from the company that isn’t afraid to think differently. Designed and developed to be easy to use, Uber RNA is the most complete and effective foliar veg booster on the market. RNA works by providing your plants with a unique combination of micronutrients and specific amino and nucleic acids. This combination stimulates genes responsible for branching, stem girth and stem thickness as well as increasing the number of flowering sites. Studies have shown that by increasing a plants’ carrying capacity you increase its potential yield. Put simply RNA will provide you with the best framework possible to support maximum yield. Sizes: 1ltr, 4ltr

H.I.D Liquid Lead Another product manufactured by GROWHARD Australia for over 20 years, Liquid Lead stands alone. It contains a special formula precisely designed for the heaviest harvest. A unique blend of organic enzyme activators, vitamins, essential amino acids and carbohydrates work in combination to unleash the full flowering potential of your plants. Add to your current schedule during the last week of flower and continue to use throughout flush. Fruit will continue to increase in size and density during this critical period when using Liquid Lead Sizes: 1ltr, 5ltr

H.I.D Intake Filter Have you ever thought about the quality of air that you feed to your plants? Most people haven’t. In general air is supplied to the growing area without filtration, meaning that it is often rich in contaminants. The Phresh intake filter has been designed to remove anything harmful from the air supply before that air reaches your plants; mould spores, pests such as spider mites, dirt and dust are all removed and trapped inside the carbon fibre bed. Plants are healthier and less susceptible to disease and infestation from bugs. Sizes: 4inch, 5inch, 6 inch, 8 inch, 10 inch, 12inch

H.I.D Pro cal Green Planet Pro-Cal is an excellent supplemental source of Calcium, Magnesium and Iron. Plants engaged in rapid growth can often come up short on these essential elements so supplementation is a great idea. For the savvy grower Pro-Cal is a must have in their arsenal of plant growing weapons. More concentrated than other similar products and modestly priced Pro Cal is an essential additive for growers in Coco. Sizes: 1ltr, 4ltr, 10ltr

BIOPONICSโ ข 100 % ORGANIC HYDROPONICS

Patent nยบ 05.11569 15/11 / 05

B R I N G I N G N AT U R E A N D T E C H N O L O G Y T O G E T H E R

COMPETITION...

By now this issue of HYDROMAG has no doubt whet your appetite for a brand new extraction kit. If you’ve been drooling over all of the fans and dreaming up a whole new scheme for controlling your growroom environment, but your dreams are bigger than your bank balance can stretch to covering, then you’d best read eagerly onwards and prepare to gird your loins. Thanks to your best buds here at HYDROMAG (and with the help of our generous sponsors), you lucky peeps have the chance to win the answer to those dreams! A complete extraction kit, ﬁt for even the most hardened hobby grower out there, is on oﬀer this very issue. Blammo. Now go get yourself a change of trousers.

1ST PRIZE

Extract: 6” hyperfan, 6” inline phresh filter, 5m of 6” insulated ducting, connecting clips Intake: 4” intake filter, 5m of 4” insulated ducting connecting clips

Also up for grabs...

A RUNNER-UP PRIZE... GSE Temperature & Negative Pressure Controller

This month’s competition prizes are kindly donated by :

HOW TO ENTER...

As of HYDROMAG ISSUE 008, there is a new way to enter competitions. You must now go to www.hydroshow.tv/competitions and enter your phone number and email address in to the form. Your information will not be shared with third party companies. *Full terms can be found at www.hyrdoshow.tv/competitions-terms

The HYDROMAG surgery is open for business...

LETTERS “Don’t get taken down the garden path...” As both a store owner and product manufacturer, Bill Sutherland believes in honest advice. If he buys too much of one product for his store, he doesn’t try and oﬄoad it or force it on his customers; he’ll give them the product that works and disregard the useless stuﬀ. It’s this approach that makes him the perfect person to answer any questions you have about Hydroculture.

Get in touch with us by writing to us at: 5, The Old Bakery, 90 Acre St, Lindley, Huddersﬁeld, West Yorkshire, England, HD3 3EL or alternatively email Bill directly bill@hydromag.co.uk You can also get in touch via Facebook & Twitter: facebook.com/hydromag twitter.com/hydromagazine

HOTHOUSE Hi Bill I live in a Zone 8 area in the Southern US. I have a hobby sized greenhouse (130 sq. ft.); normal venting does not reduce temperatures to a level that is anywhere near satisfactory. I plan on burying 55 gallon drums outside my greenhouse and putting a shade over them for my reservoirs. What are the most cost eﬀective cooling solutions for my area? From my not very extensive research I’ve been looking at water chillers and possibly a fog system like an Aquafog Turbo XE. The fog solutions in particular seem like overkill for a small greenhouse. Reddit user Thews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hi Thews,

PONDERING POWDER

Greenhouses in the Deep South need to have a roof that can be opened up to let the heat out, or sides that roll up each day to allow a breeze through. You are experiencing a greenhouse eﬀect, where the trapped heat cannot escape. The exhaust fan you’d need would be very large and on continuously throughout daylight hours. If you still want to go ahead with a fan, then choose one that would empty every cubic foot of space of the greenhouse within 3 minutes. L x W x H = ﬁnd an exhaust fan that will remove this volume of air every 3 minutes.

Hello Bill Why liquid nutrients over powdered nutrients? Pros vs. Cons. Reddit user F-That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Greenhouses are great for starting plants then transplanting them outside once the weather permits. Have you ever thought of setting up 2 x 1000watt Metal Halides to grow your favourite crops inside? With the 2 lights you would have the same size growing area. You would also be able to control the light colour spectrum and hours of daylight. This would allow you to force your garden into flowering when you want to. White light Metal Halide is great for growing crops and High Pressure Sodium red light acts as a flowering spectrum. Yes, no artificial light compares to the sun, but there can be other problems when growing in a greenhouse, like: heat, humidity, cold, security, water source, and the opening and closing of doors (thereby letting the cold, the heat or indeed bugs in). All these things are what make the indoor growing scene much better than greenhouses. Cheers Bill

Hi F-That, Most manufacturers of plant foods build them in liquid form for 2 reasons: 1) We (the manufacturers) take the time to dissolve these mineral elements on your behalf in order to ensure the elements disperse correctly in your reservoir. Using powder incorrectly can result in precipitation. This occurs when adding salts to your volume of water if they have not dissolved fully. 2) Because each element has its own speciﬁc weight and through shipping over long distances some elements would settle to the bottom. No one shakes powder salts, but everyone intuitively shakes liquids. This allows the elements within to fully disperse.

COMELY COLLAGE HYDROMAG would like to thank the lovely crazed fan (Adam Robb) who sent in this marvellous montage. We love you too! (As promised, you’ll now get to spend one night with our editor Cosmo MacKenzie. Please be advised Cosmo likes Red Burgundy and white roses.)

Cheers Bill

AND FINALLY... From next Issue Nico Hill (writer, hydro-expert, sales wizard and winner of HYDROMAG’s coveted March Employee of the Month award) will be joining Bill Sutherland in answering your queries. Keep them coming in and we might start chucking some freebies your way!

All plants need is love NCE E I C &S

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Success starts at the bottom

CANNA RHIZOTONIC; getting you to the top Every grower wants a successfull growth and get the best end result. Therefore CANNA developed CANNA RHIZOTONIC to get healthy roots. As all the success starts at the bottom! For more information about CANNA RHIZOTONIC please visit the CANNA website. www.canna-uk.com