First Time Grow. Advice Greatly Appreciated!

depending on the size of the room, a 6 bucket system like that one would work well,but give the plants some room. they grow huge!
i don't know how much the price is,but that system is very easy to build,and fairly cheep too.you'd have less that 200 bucks in it.
lighting? 600 watt or 2, maybe even 1k.unless you keep the plants small,say a 2 week vedge with clones.

 

My two cents: I like where you are going with this, possibly consider a 600w though?

As far as the grow space goes, I personally prefer using grow tents. This is because in my experience it is much easier to regulate the environment with a tent as opposed to a room, and it is really nice to have the ability to break the tent down and leave no trace that you were growing weed.

 

i agree with mmmpatient about upgrading to a 600 watt light. 400 wont be enough for a 6 pot system.

 

You're correct, less intense light is better for the young plants. But save your money and just raise the MH lamp higher then you normally would when vegging.. Start the seedlings under regular florescent for 4-5 days to a week tops.. Then start them out with the MH about 3' above and day by day lower it down a little..

wert7676 is correct ( again ), using 6 buckets you want them at least 6"es away from the walls, and give each bucket at least a foot of space for the plants.. So that would be an area at least 3'x4'..

If the area is going to be 3'x4', 600 watts will give you 50w per sq ft. which is the minimum recommended lighting..

If you're going to scrog, you want at least 75w per sq ft. and up to 100w per sq.. So you will want to upgrade to the 1000w..

In any case, make sure the ballast is a digital one, you don't want the old magnetic ballast because they are very noisy and use more electric to run..

Also don't try an skimp on the lamp, get a good name brand digital ballast.. You will pay more, but you will get more back in the long run..

I tried one of them cheap digital ballasts (off FleaBay) and ever so often I would go check on my room when the lights should have been on, but the room is in total darkness.. The cheap digital ballast would not fire the bulb, so to make a long story short, after a few warranty claims, it now sets in my spare room collecting dust..

First time out I personally would not use the Lucas Formula..
You're going to have a lot going on learning and trying to dial in the system to have to deal with trying to dial in the nutes too..

I would go with Foxfarm's GrowBig and BigBloom if you want to use organics, or General Hydroponics MaxiGrow and MaxiBloom, which both are a mix and go..

Also do not skimp on the EC/TDS and PH pens..
I have had to trash a couple of the cheap ones, so the money I spent on replacements, I could have bought real nice pens!!

Hope that helps...

 

Yeah what he said ^^^^^

Now the question is using 6 buckets? Are you trying to grow commercial? What are the laws in your area for 6 plants? 6 plants, need a damn big tent.

Lucas is great, easy just keep the PH checked and adjusted to 5.7 -- 6.2 something in the middle is fine. Lets say your system holds 5 gallons full, after you have added back 5 gallons of plain PH adjusted water, change all the water.

Check my sig on new years bud porn and see if a 400w and 2 plants might be all you need in around 80 days or less from a clone.

HD

 

Do not, DO NOT buy a big hydro system like this.
It'll be expensive. Build your own.

 

Rumpleforeskin DIY bubble bucket system is the way to go.

Hydro is much easier than dirt and far more rewarding

 

How are botanicare nutes? Have thee hydro setup but not sure were to bubble, how much , and etc. Help please

 

The ONLY thing I did not like about the bubble buckets, what a pain in the ass when you had to change the nutes out every week...

That's why I went to a Ebb and Gro 12 site bucket systems, change one res and done..

But I switched the inner buckets for 10" net pots which is easier to move the plants from veg to flowering chambers, and set my controllers on a couple pieces of 2x4 to get the flood level a little higher than normal..

For my mothers, I went to a DIY Ebb and Gro with 10" net pots, that uses a 27gal tote, 250gph pump which feeds 1/2" inlets at the bottom of the buckets, and 3/4" overflow lines at the top of the buckets, and it all works on gravity back to the 27gal res..

If I remember right, the whole DIY system cost me around $150 to put together a 6 bucket system..

 

i agree 100 %. you also dont need to worry about nute concentrates touching the roots and damaging them, plus there is a low likely hood of root root in an ebb compared to buckets.(please i dont want to argue on this one)_

 

Well the first thing is that you have to change the nutes every week (some say every two weeks, but I did a weekly change), this in itself is a pain in the ass..

First off you have to have a spare bucket, then add water, add the nutes and stir, then check and adjust ph, then disconnect and remove the net pot of the bubble bucket you're changing and support it some how while you dump the old nutes out of the bucket, and finally dump the new fresh nutes into the bucket, then put the plant back into the bucket, and at last plug your air back up..

Now picture that 4 or 5 times!!
Again, what a pain in the ass that was!!

We also have to take into account that shit happens..
So now you are handling each plant on a weekly bases, and accidents happen, lets say one slips and you drop it, which has happened to me and on my best looking plant too!!

So lets say you you have that all down to a science, now let's add another twist into the picture... Say you have just one plant which is showing signs or some sort of stress..

With bubble buckets, it could be the batch of nutes you mixed for that bucket, say you read the meter wrong.. In an Ebb and Gro, you have one res, so if just one plant is showing signs, you know it is environment or something else, because if it was nute and or ph related, all the plants would show the signs.. So it kind of makes diagnosis easier too...


After using both bubble buckets and now the ebb and gro, I just feel the ebb and gro is so much easier to maintain.. I can enjoy my garden as opposed to working my ass off for it..


Great example is when I change my reservoir, I use a small external pump that is hooked to a outside water spicket, which is hooked to a garden hose and sprinkler system outside.. So when I want to drain my res, I just lower the hose into the res, turn on the external pump so it waters my lawn and fire up a joint (My neighbors cannot figure out how I get my dam lawn so thick and lush!! LOL)

To fill it, I have a hot and cold line which is hooked up into a Y valve and then a shut off valve, like these two, but metal..



I adjust the two valves until I get the right temp coming out, turn off the single valve to stop the water flow until I can get the hose into my res, and turn it on... Dump in my nutes and ph down (which after a while you know exactly how much you're going to use), mix with an extended paint mixer I made, and I'm done...

I can change my res faster than I can finish the joint I light when I started.. LOL

I been growing for close to 15yrs now, not only growing myself, but setting up other grows for people, from a farm house that was a 10,000w garden (ten 1000w lamps), to the 250w closet system..

In EVERYTHING I have learned over the years, ebb and gro or a flood and drain is the way to go, so you can spend less time maintaining the garden and more time enjoying it...

 

well put. i did bubble buckets they were so much work. more than hand watering soil. ebb and flow is simple. maintain one res and watch out for pests. simple as that