Sup Fellow blades? So, I'm finally starting to settle down in my new condo and decided to go ahead and give it a go for the first time. Well acctually second but the first didn't count. It was about 14 years ago when I was 19 and I got busted before I even switched to 12/12, but that's another story. I'm sure that along the way I will incounter many questions so any responces, replies, or comment would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance. Anyways, I decided that the garage would probably be my best spot since the attic is too crammed also, it would be too hard to try and access on a regular basis. Here's a pic of the cabinet I want to use. It's about 2'x6.5'x4' dxwxh.
I've also been piecing parts together. This is what I'm working with so far. NextGen 400w/600w HPS/MH Ballast 400w HPS Hortilux bulb 6" air cooled hood from Hydrofarm 125w CFL with a hood also from Hydrofarm 2 GH drip buckets 4" inline fan (in the mail) Carbon scrubber (in the mail) Duct silencer (in the mail) 22"x30" Botanicare Tray (on order with the hydro store) CO2 tank with a reg and valve and a bunch of other crap(timers, meters, yoyo's) that I bought off a dude from craigslist. The plan is to divide the cab into 2 rooms. A veg/clone room and a flower room. The veg room is going to be 2'x alittle more than 2' and the rest will be for flowering. I want use an ebb and flow system for my flowering room with the res underneth the cab. I chose the ebb and flow because I have height constraints and figures that I could maximize my space if I had just the flood tray in the cab and the res outside of the cab. The cab had alot of light leaks at the seams so I lined all the edges with duck tape. Then I light proofed the door with some 1.5" trim and some foam tape and drilled a couple holes for ventalation. The guy I bought some of my stuff from suggested that I might want to try growing some lettuce or something first just to get the hang of it and to make sure there is nothing wrong with my setup. I thought that was a pretty good idea. What do you guys think?
Next, I built a light trap for the intake and exaust. The plan here is to run my electric cord, ebb and flow water lines, and co2 hoses throught the intake hole on the cab and the throught this other port on my light trap box with the black plastic sleeve. Then I'll just seal off the hoses with the black plastic and a velcro strap. Went to Walmart and bout a 97 cent can of flat black paint and plan on spraying the inside of the box soon.
Placed some hooks into the ceiling for the lights, carbon scrubber, and for what ever else I'm going to need to hang. I wondered around Home Depot stoned as hell for about 3 hours trying to figure out how I was going to hang up all my shit. Then I put up one of the posts that's going to be used divide the room I didn't put the other post up yet cuz I've got some of that Panda plastic on the way (also in the mail) that I want to use to divde the room since it's light proof and has that white reflective side. Hung up a little mylar in the veg room. I did a pretty crappy job of that. It was kind of hard to reach in there and staple as I weight about 300 lbs. So now I'm just waiting for the UPS guy.
Update... Been really busy and progress is slow. Got everything in the mail now exept for the fan which happened to be on backorder and should be shipping out next week. Used a coule of sheets of the Panda plastic to divide the room. Also made a panel for my intake, exaust, and electricity. Light proofing the intake and exausts' 3 1/4" holes. Mounted a little computer fan that I picked up from Fry's along with a AC/DC converter that has like 6 diffrent output voltages, so I can vary the speed of the fan. Hoping It'll be enough ventalation for my veg room. Put a some carpet down to help out with the noise. Hung up the 125w cfl above the 2 GH drip bucket I plan on using for 2 mothers. I also rigged up this light for my propigation/veg dome. Bought 3 of these floresent light fixtures and switched out the bulbs. Next I mounted the 3 fixtures together with a couple pieces of wood, screwed a couple of eye loops into the wood, attached some yo-yo's and hung it up. Veg room is just about done. Need to work next on organising the wires, hooking up the pumps, and put together an irigation system for the propigation/veg dome.
Did you add air stones to your drip buckets? I just got drip buckets and was debating on putting stones in.
Thanks for all the kind words my fellow GC brothas. NewGrower-No, I didn't add any air stones to the buckets. I don't think they need them. Do they? 6inarow-22" here's a pic of the package.
This is my first hydro grow, The guy at my hydroponic store said I don't need them, but I started a thread and everyone said add them. I figured it couldn't hurt and added them.
if the 2 drip buckets for the mother plants have a DWC bubble bucket system where the roots of the plant hang through a net pot directly into the water resevoir then YES they definitly need Airstones. id just go to walmart to the fish/aquariam aria and buy 2 little aquariam air pumps (i think theyre like 5 bucks) and buy like 2 6" airstones and some air tubing. then install them and put them in the buckets and watch the plant explode
Thanks for the idea. Maybe I'll dissconnet the air line to the drip system and slap one of the extra air stone I've got when the root hit the water or maybe I can just trim the roots. I got one of these pumps here at the pet store. The ones that it came with were just way too loud. I live in a condo and there is a niehbor on the other side of those walls, so sound is definitly an issue. BTW if anybody has any tips on sound proofing please share. Esspesially with the ventalation. I have a duct silencer on the way in the mailbut not sure how well it's going to work as I know those inline fan are pretty loud. Also had a buddy of mine install a 220v outlet to run my HPS lamp yesterday.
My hydroponic guy threw in my air pump for free thank fully.I know they make little sound canceling machines for like counseling and stuff, but i think they have to be on the out side of the room, I also know that stapling drink carrier from the drive through to the wall help.
And also, I had VERY thin Styrofoam and I have my air pumps on the wall and i put that between them and the wall to prevent that rattling vibration noise.
Thanks for the tip. Update... So my buddy installed a 220v outlet and I asked him to just put it behind my freezer to kind of concel it thinking that I could just run an extention cord. Serched at Home Depot for an extention cord and all they had were llike 9' extentions so I had to make my own using a regular 120v cord, then I chopped the ends off and put the 220 plugs on. Got the irrigation and the electricty hooked up. Just need to figure out what kind of time schedule I want to use meaning what time of the day do I want to run my lights. Depending on how loud the inline fan and exaust is. I also redid the carpet and placed these absorb pads underneth just incase of a little spillage. Now on the the flower room next. Need to figure out how I'm going to hook up and cram all these new toys (carbon filter, hood, 6" inline fan, and duct silencer in here. It's looking like it may be challenging.
Update coming soon. Been busy with life and had some kinks in my project to figure out. Camera just broke as well so had to get another. Here's a link to the biggest hurdle that stalled that project the longest. http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/820328-inline-fan-noise-too-loud-suggestions.html
Ok, So I ripped out the old cab and built a new one. This cab was just too limited by vertical space. My thinking was I could also mount my Ecoline fan to the floor to damper all the vibrations. Which absolutly didn't work. So I pulled the trigger and tried out this Panisonic Whisperline inline fan which is f'in rocks. It's much quieter and doesn't vibrate like the other one. I ran the cab for about a week or so and took notes on my temps, humitity, and C02 ppms. I got the Co2 dialed in with a timer to cordinate with my exhaust filling the room for 10 mins every 2 hours to about 1600 ppm. The problem is my temps, of course. Nothing is ever easy. My canopy temps are about 91-95 and the air temps are 86-89. So I went out and bout an a Soleus KY-28U 8000btu Portable AC from a dude on Craigslist and realized it doesn't fit. So I moved my big ass co2 tank to the veg room and I'm going to just run the line through the wall and moved the AC into the flower room. I ran The AC's exahust up next to my carbon filter thinking that the exaust would just get sucked out. NOT!!! There was too much heat coming out of that thing. So, I'm thinking about building a box out of some extra parts I have, now to catch all the hot air, scrub it, and blow it out of the exaust. Kind of like this. Does this sound like it may work or am I just too high? Any other suggestions? My funds for this project is just about tapped out. I should probably just save my money and bought a split AC in hind sight.