I'm wondering if you will need a carbon filter for an attick, would the smell just rise along with heat or will it stay trapped and just boil into an out of control heap of ganja reak. would the best thing doing it open in the attick or in a concealed box with a cabron? is the carbon filter good enough to hide the smell from the next room over or does it just help contain it in the household? Also what is the prime amount of plants for 400w MH? one more thing, i'm not sure if i should start with hydroponics or not. I kind of want to build some bubble buckets but i'm not sure if it will be worth it for first grow? Should i do it old school and stick to soil or go hydro?
You need an intake air supply and exaust through a carbon filter for your grow area. If the exaust is blowing into the attic, there shouldn't be a smell in the house. But if you have high humidity in your grow area, it doesn't take long for the active carbon to clog up, and results in the filter releasing an odor. You could fit 4 good size indicas under a 400w MH (MH should be used for vegging), or you could put 9 lowryders under it. Bubblers are just as easy as soil, infact, i'd say easier (i grow in both). With bubblers, the plants get what nutrients you give them. You can just flush waste nutrients down the toilet. Explosive growth and usually harvest earlier than soil. With soil, you can end up with salt build up (nute burn). Soil is more forgiving (you will have time to fix a problem before it gets out of control) Soil is bulky and a pain to dispose off. Soil is handy if you haven't much room to work with. People say soil is a better smoke, but the people who smoke my weed cant tell the difference, if you flush both soil and hydro out well before harvest there shouldn't be a difference.