Grow Tent in Attic, Need Help? +Rep for answers!

I've been looking for a thread like this. I'm going to keep watch on this and check out other people's posts.
Bump.

Also, did you purchase your seeds online or from a local dealer? I'm kinda' hesitant about purchasing them online because I still live with my 'rents (I'm 17) and don't want them finding out about my little op, lol. Should I just set up a fake address or have 'em send the package to a friend's house?

Originally Posted by FOAM

At this point I have not purchased any equipment nor do I know that much if anything about growing. I am a newbie when it comes to growing so please excuse me if I don't understand grow terms or equipment that I may need. I will be setting up my grow tent inside my attic, any suggestions or comments would be welcome.

TENT QUESTIONS?

I want to purchase a grow tent with the dimensions of 4'x4'x6' tall. I have been looking at a few online browsing google & i've seen a couple for around a 100$ & a few for 500$. I am hoping to get one of the cheaper ones but I a lot of the cheaper ones use pvc pipe, I heard that pvc tubes can under a light can put toxic shit on your plants. I plan to grow up to five plants max at a time, will a 4x4 & 6 foot tall grow tent do the trick? Also I was wondering do hydroponic tents have to be grown hydroponically or can it also be grown organically?

I keep coming across New 4' X 4'X 6.5' Hydroponics Grow Tent Hydro Box Hut Cabinet by Sky Enterprise USA on amazon.com. This I believe would be ideal for me considering I only will be grown 5 plants max. I ordered 2 different strains recently that are both medium grow height, Nirvana "White Widow" & Nirvana " Bubblelicious."



PRODUCTION INFORMATION:
48(L) x 48(W) x 78(H)(4ft x 4ft x 6.5ft) Hydroponics Tent
Tent Exterior: Black Polyester Nylon Plastic Lined Grow Tent
Tent Interior: Utilize Thermal Film.
Highly Reflective Non-Toxic Waterproof PVC Plastic.
Removable Waterproof PVC Plastic Floor Tray
Built in Heavy-Duty Zippers and Velcro, Which Makes it Easy to Assemble and Disassemble.
Multiple Ventilations: (2) Top Circular Vents, (1) Right Circular Vent, (1) Left Circular Vent, (2) Back Circular vents.
(3) Receptive air ventilation with flaps located on 3 different sizes of the base of the grow tent.
Side pockets for storing PH Meters
Metal rails for lighting equipment.
Strong powder-coated framework with flexible plastic connectors
Light-proof Material: Prevent light from entering or exit for controlled light cycles.
Removable Roof Cross Members which makes it easier to adjust lighting and accessories.



LIGHTING QUESTIONS?

When it comes to lighting, I have no idea about anything but I plan to use a 600 watt light bulb for my plants. Not really sure what type of lights I will need, I was looking at led & I feel that would be the safest but when you need watts I don't see that happening. If anyone can shed some light on this idea I would be greatly appreciative. I did notice this higher the wattage on led the higher the price & I am trying to cut cost because I only plan to grow 5 plants at a time. I was also seen that a lot of you use cool tubes for your grow setups, would a 600 watt cool tube work for a 4x4x6 grow tent safely? I am really worried about the heat that they will put off, I will be setting up in my attic & do not want to burn my new house down, please keep in mind that the grow tent will be made of nylon. A friend suggested a timer for my lights so just in case I get too stoned it would turn them on/off for me. Can anyone suggest a cheap brand that is reliable & maybe explain how to setup? I was told that temperature is a big issue in attics, I have central ac & I am willing to hookup a duct if needed for my grow tent.

VENTILATION QUESTIONS?
Thanks snodegd for replying back to my "Introduce Yourself" post about ventilation in your attic. I will quote this below considering I still don't completely understand some of the terms, perhaps some pictures to help explain exactly how to setup? Can someone please create a shopping list of things I will need for ventilation? I want to try to keep supply cost down as low as possible but I was a somewhat small professional setup.





OTHER QUESTIONS?

If there is anything I will need for setup that I did not mention please let me know, this will be my first setup & I plan to have a nice setup that I can take down when needed. I also hear a lot about co2, can anyone tell me how this works and what are the benefits? Please help me build the perfect grow tent, I want to get it right the first time. I have not purchased anything yet.

Why are going to use a tent? Do you have more room than that? Anyways I don't use tents but i have a weird space with a water heater divivding part of it.

Are you going to be using dirt, bubbleponics, aeroponics, drip?

Why only five? You will need a veg and a flower if you dont plan on waiting a long time before harvests. Also a cloning area.


I would rather use 400 watt or 1k watt. i am not a fan of the 600's. Most 400s and 1ks are MH or HPS. I dont like the leds but thats just personal experience. If you are only doing 5 you dont need more than a 400 watt light although you could you use one.

If you buy a cheaper ballast(magnetic) it will use more energy over time than a digital ballast. I got mine at igrowhydro.com.

You will also need a a refector. A 6" cool tube will suffice. I think I got mine at hydroponics.net(greentrees).


I will never take or post pics sorry.

If you can explain your attic in detail or pics i could help more. height length width. Unless your set on the tent.

Does your attic have air ducts from your heating/cooling system? Do you have ducts to your roof accesible from the room?

I

DO NOT BUY THE CHEAP ONE.

I will give you practical reasons based on my own experiences.

1st White plastic does not reflect like the silver tent
2nd Not all materials are non-toxic to plants. In fact there are several companies in the past and present that have and make materials that kill the plants inside of them. Especially the cheap ones. Dark room fixed there late 90's issues with plant toxicity.
3rd Improper ducting in the cheaper tents leads to a situation in which you cannot properly vent the tent. Unless you rig everything, and cut holes in your tent you just baught, which defeats the purpose.

If you want to go cheap. Buy a 100 foot roll of Panda Film(Black outside/white inside) and make a room! Down load or buy Jorge Cerventes Ultimate Grow DVD, he explains how to make a cheap room in that DVD. I built my version of one and saved over 700$

4th 6' may not be enough height for what you are doing, espeically if you go big on lights.

On lighting, you will have to go with a single 600w most likely(because of heat, especially if you want to go cheap). Get a ballast that does both HPS and Metal Hallyde. Buy both bulbs. Use the Metal Hallyde for Vegging, and the High Pressure Sodium for Blooming.

On ventilation. BIG ISSUE, you are in an attic. You need attic ventilation, making hot air expel from the attic iself, especially if you have a tent. Remember, the tent will always be between 10 and 15 degrees hotter in the summer, and in some situations 10 to 15 degrees colder in winter.

If you can score 6" cool hoods, or cool tubes, you can get a fan that is bigger than 6" Vortec and a number of other companies make 6 8 10 12 etc. Home depot and a million other places carry an adapter that makes 10" 6"s for this exact aplication. If you can do it, you want cold or outside(at least bug screen filtered) coming into the light hood/cool tube, and exiting out of the tent, and if possible right out of the Attic.

But also remember, on attic ventilation, even if you are growing medically, attic fans that turn 24 hours do raise Eyebrows.

Originally Posted by Krawnik

I've been looking for a thread like this. I'm going to keep watch on this and check out other people's posts.
Bump.

Also, did you purchase your seeds online or from a local dealer? I'm kinda' hesitant about purchasing them online because I still live with my 'rents (I'm 17) and don't want them finding out about my little op, lol. Should I just set up a fake address or have 'em send the package to a friend's house?

If your P's dont open your mail then no worries!!!!

CO2 is like air to you.

CO2 equals bigger better and more in the area of yield.

It isn't cheap to do right.

There are a number of cheaper solutions now though. If you have the money, get a meter, regulator, and CO2 tank or CO2 generator. Or go cheap, get a CO2 boost b ucket, or CO2 pucks.

The pucks are about 5$ each and work for one light cycle aprox. The CO2 boost bucket, is essentially a paint bucket full of funk with a fish pump, that constantly pushes out CO2. There are no real numbers on how much or for how long, but it is suggested that you will see the difference in a 4x8 area with one CO2 boost bucket. I had to use 3 in a 10x15 area. They are 150$ each. I have heard they last for 3 months or longer, but this was not my experience.

Once thing, unless you are using the pucks, you should be consistant with the CO2. Don't buy a tank of CO2, start the process, get your plants used to 1400ppm of CO2, then cut them off, because you don't think you saw a result or because you realise the cost of constantly refilling the tanks. KEEP THE CO2 ON! ! ! Once you have started, don't stop, you can cause stunting, and other issues!

Remember, a big issue is what strain you are going to grow. And your grow medium.

If you have a grow table(6" TO 12" height on top of a resevoir(18" to 24 "), and a standard Sus System 6"(12" to 18") air cooled hood. You have just cut the plants possible grow area to about 24"s, and thats if the plants are allowed to touch the lights. Which they are not. At this point, if you are to give the plants even say 6"s of space between the light and the tips of your budding plants, you would only be able to grow an 18" plant in this scenario. So be careful, plan before you plant!

Remember, even a bucket system is aproximately 18"s off the ground, and a light hangs, aproximately 18" from the ceiling(especially if you have yo yo's on the lights for bringing them up and down. If you add light movers, you lose another 8"s to 12"s. With a 78" tent, you really need to do the math. OG, Big Buds etc wouldn't be best in this situation. You want shorter bushier strains.

Are you doing Buckets, Soil, Tables?

I would suggest a 6" cool tube, you might get away with 2 600's but you not get away with 1000watt bulbs in a tent that size unless you add a 1500$ ductless a/c to the "tent"

Ventalation,.... Im somewhat familiar with these tents. Seen em at the store and givin it some thought as to how to vent, clean the air and bring in fresh air. I think it can be done for about $250. Its a small area so you could use a 4 inch or 6" inline fan attached to a hepafilter goin out. The in duct could be just a 6 or 8 inch aluminum flex duct or any type of duct that could be bought at home depot for 20 bucks. Cheaper the better. Have that duct coming in attached to a roof vent or gable vent. Doesnt have to be to professional just as long as its big enough to bring your girls some fresh air to breath.