UVRay
Well-Known Member
Hello, I've just joined the forum recently. I've been checking it out a while now and see a lot of great information being shared here and thought this would be a forum I'd like to join.
Anyway, I'm about to start a closet grow project. I've been ordering some items necessary to get started. I still have a few things to buy after I decide how I want to proceed.
I'd like to ask you guys what you think is best for my situation.
First off, this project revolves around my new grow tent. I bought one that is 4' wide, 2' deep and 7.5' tall. The tent is pretty nice. I paid $80 shipped off ebay and really didn't know what I'd receive but I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of the tent. It's nice and thick with well made zippers and vent flaps, etc. The frame poles are powder coated metal and the inside is reflective and seems well made and quite sturdy.
I'd like to have to grow areas in this tent is practical. A veg/clone area and a flowering chamber. I'm planning on running many CFL bulbs. I've got 23w, 27w, 42w and a few 68w CFL bulbs in both daylight 6500k and 2700k. I would love to use HPS for flowering but I don't want to deal with the heat issues as this will be a closet grow in my house and I'm not real keen on cutting a vent hole in my closet ceiling to vent out the heat from the HID systems. I suppose if my CFL project fails miserably I will rethink the HID option.
I have 10lbs of activated carbon pellets, CTC-60 I think. I'm hoping I can build my own odor filter using 5 lbs. leaving 5lbs for refilling later on. My original plan is to use my carbon filter to scrub odors from the tent, exhausting the tent air into the walk in closet where the tent is located. I have an inline 4" fan rated at 227cfm that I'll be using to move air through the tent. The closet has no vent for my central heat/ac but the closet door has enough air gap at the bottom so I should be able to get enough fresh air into the closet area and ultimately through the tent ventilation to do the job. Hopefully ventilation and odor control will be a non issue.
I'm still trying to decide which hydroponic method to use for my project. My day job requires me to travel quite often, sometimes it's only a day or two away from home per week, other times I'm gone Monday morning til Friday evening. I really need a system I can count on to run automatically with minimal fuss and maintenance that can run for at least 5 days unattended.
I'm looking at the DWC and Ebb and Flow type systems. I'm not partial to either system, just from what I've read about them makes me think either of these may work for me. I have a few large totes that are 20 gallon plus a few smaller ones maybe 10 gallon that I can use for reservoirs and/or controller tanks if needed.
My plant buckets are 5 gallon plastic buckets with 6" net pot lids. I have Hydroton pellets for grow media and I just got in a flat of 96 SureToGrow 1.5" starter cubes. I have two packs of the Technoflora "recipe for success" nutes starter packs to get going.
I've got a lot of excellent seeds taken over the last year from bagseed of some high grade I've had the pleasure to enjoy plus I've got some very special seeds from Barney's Farms, etc. that I'll likely use after a cycle of my stash seeds as I don't want to risk the high grade seeds on my learning curve.
After getting the system and process dialed in I'd like to move away from seed starting to cloning. I've ordered on of those small propagation starter kits that uses a 10"x20" tray and dome with a heating pad underneath to start germination and cloning. Ideally I'd like to be able to put the small starter station in the veg. section to keep it consolidated.
I need to finalize my plans for what type of hydro will work best for my needs, "must be able to run up to 5 days unattended". And the other variable is I need to decide how to outfit my tent for a split area for veg/clone and flowering. I've even considered turning the tent sideways so it's 7.5' wide x 4' tall and 2' deep. Don't know if that's a better plan than having the tent vertical. I suppose my vent holes would in the wrong positions but I'm not sure that's a show stopper. I'd rather go with the standard vertical setup but I'm willing to try other options if I think it will be a better way to go.
I'd like to use six 5-gallon pots w/6" net pots I already have. I can use DWC or Ebb and Flow. If I go with Ebb and Flow I plan to have my nutes tank outside the tent for space saving inside the tent as I really want to have two grow chambers in the tent and if I try to put the nutes reservoir in there it'll take up about half of the veg. area. I may be able to put the controller tank in the tent with the plants and have just the main reservoir outside the tent.
If I go with DWC then I guess I don't need a separate reservoir, but I was considering a controller tank (5 gal) that is plumbed to the pots like an Ebb and Flow so I can fill only the controller tank and let gravity fill all the pots attached plus it will give me a little more capacity for water levels to drop slower. I've seen some DWC setups that have a dripper ring in addition to the DWC underneath. Is that better than a std. DWC setup that only feeds the roots from the water levels?
Also, if using a 5 gallon bucket with DWC, seems like a huge amount of empty space in the bucket that must be filled with water/nutes before it comes close to the bottom of the 6" net pot inserts. Likewise on an Ebb and Flow system, the flood and drain cycles will need to fill up over 2/3rds of each 5 gallon just to touch the bottom of the net pots plus the overlap needed to flood the root systems during flood cycles. That seems wasteful to me. Can anyone comment on using 5 gallon buckets and the excess space they have. I was thinking of dropping a few clean bricks in the bottom of the buckets to displace some area so I won't have to run so much water/nutes just to reach the net pot levels. I know that may not be an issue later on once the roots grow and drop down out of the net pots and dangle down to the nutes but until then the fill levels will be quite high. Any suggestions or comments about this?
I'd like to hear from anyone who's already gone down the road I'm about to travel and make any suggestions regarding what system would be best for my needs considering the information I just posted regarding the best hydro method for my needs and any advice/ recommendations on the best way to setup my grow tent for splitting the tent into two discrete grow/flower chambers.
thanks!
Anyway, I'm about to start a closet grow project. I've been ordering some items necessary to get started. I still have a few things to buy after I decide how I want to proceed.
I'd like to ask you guys what you think is best for my situation.
First off, this project revolves around my new grow tent. I bought one that is 4' wide, 2' deep and 7.5' tall. The tent is pretty nice. I paid $80 shipped off ebay and really didn't know what I'd receive but I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of the tent. It's nice and thick with well made zippers and vent flaps, etc. The frame poles are powder coated metal and the inside is reflective and seems well made and quite sturdy.
I'd like to have to grow areas in this tent is practical. A veg/clone area and a flowering chamber. I'm planning on running many CFL bulbs. I've got 23w, 27w, 42w and a few 68w CFL bulbs in both daylight 6500k and 2700k. I would love to use HPS for flowering but I don't want to deal with the heat issues as this will be a closet grow in my house and I'm not real keen on cutting a vent hole in my closet ceiling to vent out the heat from the HID systems. I suppose if my CFL project fails miserably I will rethink the HID option.
I have 10lbs of activated carbon pellets, CTC-60 I think. I'm hoping I can build my own odor filter using 5 lbs. leaving 5lbs for refilling later on. My original plan is to use my carbon filter to scrub odors from the tent, exhausting the tent air into the walk in closet where the tent is located. I have an inline 4" fan rated at 227cfm that I'll be using to move air through the tent. The closet has no vent for my central heat/ac but the closet door has enough air gap at the bottom so I should be able to get enough fresh air into the closet area and ultimately through the tent ventilation to do the job. Hopefully ventilation and odor control will be a non issue.
I'm still trying to decide which hydroponic method to use for my project. My day job requires me to travel quite often, sometimes it's only a day or two away from home per week, other times I'm gone Monday morning til Friday evening. I really need a system I can count on to run automatically with minimal fuss and maintenance that can run for at least 5 days unattended.
I'm looking at the DWC and Ebb and Flow type systems. I'm not partial to either system, just from what I've read about them makes me think either of these may work for me. I have a few large totes that are 20 gallon plus a few smaller ones maybe 10 gallon that I can use for reservoirs and/or controller tanks if needed.
My plant buckets are 5 gallon plastic buckets with 6" net pot lids. I have Hydroton pellets for grow media and I just got in a flat of 96 SureToGrow 1.5" starter cubes. I have two packs of the Technoflora "recipe for success" nutes starter packs to get going.
I've got a lot of excellent seeds taken over the last year from bagseed of some high grade I've had the pleasure to enjoy plus I've got some very special seeds from Barney's Farms, etc. that I'll likely use after a cycle of my stash seeds as I don't want to risk the high grade seeds on my learning curve.
After getting the system and process dialed in I'd like to move away from seed starting to cloning. I've ordered on of those small propagation starter kits that uses a 10"x20" tray and dome with a heating pad underneath to start germination and cloning. Ideally I'd like to be able to put the small starter station in the veg. section to keep it consolidated.
I need to finalize my plans for what type of hydro will work best for my needs, "must be able to run up to 5 days unattended". And the other variable is I need to decide how to outfit my tent for a split area for veg/clone and flowering. I've even considered turning the tent sideways so it's 7.5' wide x 4' tall and 2' deep. Don't know if that's a better plan than having the tent vertical. I suppose my vent holes would in the wrong positions but I'm not sure that's a show stopper. I'd rather go with the standard vertical setup but I'm willing to try other options if I think it will be a better way to go.
I'd like to use six 5-gallon pots w/6" net pots I already have. I can use DWC or Ebb and Flow. If I go with Ebb and Flow I plan to have my nutes tank outside the tent for space saving inside the tent as I really want to have two grow chambers in the tent and if I try to put the nutes reservoir in there it'll take up about half of the veg. area. I may be able to put the controller tank in the tent with the plants and have just the main reservoir outside the tent.
If I go with DWC then I guess I don't need a separate reservoir, but I was considering a controller tank (5 gal) that is plumbed to the pots like an Ebb and Flow so I can fill only the controller tank and let gravity fill all the pots attached plus it will give me a little more capacity for water levels to drop slower. I've seen some DWC setups that have a dripper ring in addition to the DWC underneath. Is that better than a std. DWC setup that only feeds the roots from the water levels?
Also, if using a 5 gallon bucket with DWC, seems like a huge amount of empty space in the bucket that must be filled with water/nutes before it comes close to the bottom of the 6" net pot inserts. Likewise on an Ebb and Flow system, the flood and drain cycles will need to fill up over 2/3rds of each 5 gallon just to touch the bottom of the net pots plus the overlap needed to flood the root systems during flood cycles. That seems wasteful to me. Can anyone comment on using 5 gallon buckets and the excess space they have. I was thinking of dropping a few clean bricks in the bottom of the buckets to displace some area so I won't have to run so much water/nutes just to reach the net pot levels. I know that may not be an issue later on once the roots grow and drop down out of the net pots and dangle down to the nutes but until then the fill levels will be quite high. Any suggestions or comments about this?
I'd like to hear from anyone who's already gone down the road I'm about to travel and make any suggestions regarding what system would be best for my needs considering the information I just posted regarding the best hydro method for my needs and any advice/ recommendations on the best way to setup my grow tent for splitting the tent into two discrete grow/flower chambers.
thanks!