I'm going to start my first "Real" grow. I'm on a very strict budget and I'm almost certain I'm going to be overspending already so need some very good advice before I spend a lot of money for nothing. First off I'll list what my current shopping list might look like. Tent: DARK ROOM II Light: Dimmable Digital 400W MH/HPS W/ Cooling Hood & Reflective Wing. (Includes Timer & Hangers) Plants: Auto-flowering Dwarfs (2 Max inside the tent) Soil/Nutes: Fox Farms Outtake: 6inch 250CFM Inline Duct Fan (Booster) W/ about 2-3 FT Tubing connected to a home-made carbon filter near the window made out of Coffee Filters, Activated Carbon, Stockings, and Mesh pencil cup holders. Intake: Passive side wind socks (Maybe a small PC fan since I have like 50) My first question is about cutting cost, with all listed above I'm about already at $450 and I would like this to be under $400 as this is just for a plant or two. One way I could cut about $30-50 is without a air cooled hood, could I get away with using a normal reflector in such a tight tent with 1-2 plants max? or would the heat be too much for even the tent alone? Another thing is the ventilation, I heard duct fans are terrible for carbon filters and they might not even help hide the smell and its better to invest in an actual inline fan. The best I found is a 6inch inline fan at 450CFM for $95 and the carbon filter to go with it for $90 which is a ton of money just for that alone is like 21/2/5 my budget. Those are my main concerns, are the ventilation for the heat the 400W will produce and minimizing my cost anyway I can. Other than that I have a good idea about my setup and how I will go about things. I can cut costs a ton by getting rid of the tent, but I feel it would complicate things since my closet is far from my window for ventilation and I would have to cut holes in the door etc I was thinking of turing a old wooden dresser into a stealth box but I figured 400W high powered hot light vs Old wood isn't such a good idea. Let me know what you guys think of, anything will help.
My advice would be to wait till you can afford that extra 50-60 bucks. Get it altogether first time then you can just keep on growing with minimal problems