ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Cool stuff. Don't buy more HID lights, get COB LED lights or Quantum Boards instead. Both are available through vendors here on RIU. A bit more expensive up front but no bulb changes, better spectrum, less heat, less watts and they last nearly forever.So how's the build going?
Very interesting read but very over-engineered IMHO. One tall RubberMaid tub with four plants in that size grow space would do a great job and yield just as much without all the plumbing etc that you envision for what really is a simple concept.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not dissing your concept. It looks great and after reading all 11 pages it's obvious that you've put a lot of thought into it all and really flexed your CAD muscles to good ends.
I'm adding on an 8x4 grow space to my grow room and have pretty much decided to go with 4 individual tubs that sit on their own dollies with ScroG screens attached. As I'll be running different strains I don't want one central reservoir plus if the dreaded root rot were to rear it's ugly head then only 25% of the crop is threatened. It's not a lot of work as I've done 40 - 50 DWC tub grows since 2001 and can deal with it in my sleep almost. Ain't gonna be a pretty as what you've dreamed up but as I already have most of the materials and gear it won't cost much or take a lot of time putting it all together.
Your thread has inspired me to lay it all out on paper as I haven't played with a CAD program for almost 30 years when I went back to school for chemistry. We had a basic drafting course so chem-sci students could at least put down on paper something they needed built then hand off the drawings to someone else to build. Still have all my drafting tools and now an itch to put them to work so thanks for that.
I was planning to get into running a continuous grow with autoflowering plants and sketched up a simple NFT table idea I had. Build it out of plywood and coat it all with fiberglass tho it could be an open frame holding 6 or 8" plastic pipe cut in half lengthwise for the channels to set the pots in. Square tubing would be ideal but would have to source that outside my area.
The light(s) just stay on 18 - 20 hours/day and I'd feed smaller plants in one end as I removed ripe plants from the other. One pump to feed nutes into the top and gravity feed back to the rez. Airstones in the rez with an external pump for the nutes. Simple PEX or even garden hose for the feed line to the table.
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This is the simple ScroG setup I came up with years back and have done a few like it and it works great.
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Here are two of them as I plan to use going forward tho these aren't ScroGed and have way too many Afghani Kush plants in each tub. My DIY chiller works pretty good for the $28 it cost me for two fountain pumps to circulate the nutes from each tub thru coils of 3/8" tubing up to the chiller tank filled with anti-freeze and back to the tubs. I already had the tubing and the cooler was gifted a few years earlier so why not?I'm going to use air cooling to chill the tubs in the new room as it's always cool in the utility basement where the magic happens. 58 - 60F is the warmest it gets down there so no A/C needed.
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Each tall tub holds 50L/12.5USG and only need topping up every 3 or days and with pH Perfect nutes I just have to top up with RO water, check ppm and shoot some fresh nutes in to bring the ppm back up to target level. One nute change after the stretch for each is all I do so that's easy as well. I have a $3000 Polar Bear distiller that came with the house that I'm going to sell to buy an RO unit as it's a PITA and dangerous to haul the 5gal jugs down the narrow flight of stairs into the basement. Not to mention I'm 62 and pretty severe arthritis and possibly fibro as well tho the witch doctors from South Africa we have here have no clue how to do anything but hand out pills I don't need or want.
Sure wish I had cheap power like you. Here in Alberta, (the energy province), I'm paying almost $90/mth to run my 1000W light 12hrs/day at 23.5¢/KWH. Plan to go with 2 x 600W HPS on my light rail to do the 8x4 grow space. I have a tent that size but a room will be better in the basement as it gets close to freezing down there when it's -30C outside. The room itself will be 8x6 so I have 2' of space along the grow space to work on the plants without cold air blasting the plants. I may use the tent upstairs in the spare bedroom for a veg space but may just use the bare frame to get more height for hanging lights etc.
Maybe start with a simple grow room and with all the money you save not buying pot elsewhere you can pick up the gear to build your dream room in a year or so after you start cropping some real plants. I'm a little OCD myself but I think you might be further along that road than me.
Two years of planning is enough. Time to grow some green! View attachment 3973462
With hydro costs like yours, such a fixture would pay for itself in under a year.
