New Grower

What's up guys, just joined up. Been looking to this site for some good info for a while now and I think I'm ready to give growin my own a shot. I still have a long way to go and a lot of stuff to get, but here's what I got so far:

Growing room: 4"4 x 4"1 x 8ft height

Room is my closet, and it has a full window on one wall, outlet, and overhead vent (not sure if I can use the vent to my advantage or not).

Haven't chosen a strain yet, so was also wondering what a good strain is for beginners, maybe one that's a little easier to manage or something.

I'm thinking about making my own hydroponic system from scratch rather than buying one, but not sure yet. But I'm definitely going hydroponic.

As for lighting, based on what I've seen on here, MH 400w seems to be the lighting of choice. So I found a nice MH 400w lamp with perfect dimensions for the room.

So I think I've got lighting and feeding down. Ventilation is my main concern right now. But any advice on anything for starting out would be appreciated. I have one heat/air conditioning vent on the closet ceiling. The window can't be used I don't think. It's winter right now, and cold. So Idk if I'll need to insulate the window to maintain temperatures or what. Basically, I could hang a fan, or set up an osilating one in the corner. Is there any way I could use that vent?

As you can see I'm no expert at growin, so any help is apprecaited. Here's some pics of what I'm workin with.

At the very least, you're going to want to cover up the vent so the smell doesn't get out through it. I don't see any reason why you couldn't vent air out through it, after it's been filtered. It would save you from having to use the window or door, and the warm air would circulate to the rest of your house(small bonus during the winter). For a cheap and easy filter, try https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/7074-easy-build-diy-carbon-filter.html
I'm a new grower too. I built my own ebb and flow based off of ones I'd seen on these forums. It's pretty simple, and it's good for growing a lot of small plants. The hard part is finding tubs just the right size for your grow-table. If you want to grow just a couple of big plants(which might work better for your area), I'd look into DWC(Deep Water Culture). I know I've seen some good DIY threads for those too(maybe in the faq). I ended up hanging an oscillating fan high up on the wall and angling it down. It saves on floor space.
Good luck and happy growing!

For a 4x4 space, I would go with a 600W lamp, not 400W. Maybe even add some side lighting as well if your canopy gets too dense for the lower branches to get sufficient light. As for what strain, why don't you check out some of the seed banks and pick a few of your personal faves or some shit you'd just like to try. We can let you know the pros and cons, if any.

Alright thanks guys. If you guys or anyone else has any more tips on anything, please let me know.

MH lights are used for Veg rooms because they have a blue spectrum.

HPS lights are used in Flower because they lean more to Red / Orange this simulates Fall.


You can get 4x4 hydro trays and make your own for half the price of one bought. But that maybe a bit big for a 400 watt.

A 400 watt covers a 3x3 with enough lumens per square foot. And with a 3x3 tray you know it will fit in that space .

The 4x4 trays may be harder to use if you cant reach the 4 feet to tend your plants.

just an aside, but you are going to have to make that window lightproof for when you are flowering the plant.

Okay thanks, I'll make sure to get that window covered nicely, gonna keep the blinds up and patch over them so it doesn't look suspicious or anything from the outside.

My main problem is ventilation. I feel fucking retarded when it comes to this because I get confused about what I should do. My idea right now is to use that vent in the ceiling to bring fresh air into the room, and then I'm going to rig the door, by cutting a hole in the bottom and covering it from sight and have the carbon filter on that to keep the air coming out odorless. In addition I'm going to have an oscillating fan in one corner of the room to keep the air circulating.

Would this be sufficient for ventilation, or am I completely off track? I'm pretty confused about how to hook up the carbon filter, not to mention the ventilation process as a whole. So if anyone could walk me through that step by step that would be pretty fuckin great.

join the club - ventilation is often the toughest thing to work out. simplest is best even if it doesn't work perfectly.

my suggestion given what i understand of your situation( you can get all of this at your local hydroponics store + home depot OR htg supply online)

- get an aircooled hood for your light.
- use 4" or 6" ducting (whichever fits the hood you get)
- use either 4" or 6" inline fan
- and a compatible carbon filter.
- use the space under the door as a passive intake and exhaust your air through the ceiling vent.

the airflow would be as follows:

under the door - carbon filter - fan - light - ceiling, with ducting connecting everything from the carbon filter to the ceiling exhaust.

you need something that will let air in under the door but no light - people use a fabric like the kind that covers speakers.

I thought the purpose of the carbon filter was to clean/de-odorize the air going back into the apartment. Or is it just to clean the air going in to give the plants fresher air?


Thanks btw, that makes things a bit more understandable

Welcome to riu and yes a carbon filter does clean particles in the air but it depends which one you buy

Welcome to the wonderful world of the growing !
Take pride in growing, and find a method that works for you
may you be prosperous on your growing and abundant
Cheers !

jollygreen said:

I thought the purpose of the carbon filter was to clean/de-odorize the air going back into the apartment. Or is it just to clean the air going in to give the plants fresher air?


Thanks btw, that makes things a bit more understandable

Click to expand...

the only air going out of the room is going through the filter and into the ceiling vent. the airflow under the door should all be entering the grow area - its called negative pressure - caused by the fan sucking air out of the room.

Okay cool, I'm gonna try that ventilation plan, I'll take pictures later and post to make sure I'm doing it right. But one problem, that vent kicks out hot air when the heats on, will the intake fan sucking air from the room up into the vent be strong enough to reverse the flow of air in the vents, do you think?

Okay just dropped about $100.00 on initial supplies to get started to make the table I'm going to set them on. I'm creating the table myself out of wood, making it 24" tall to account for the possibility of using a hydroponic system.. I am kind of torn between soil and nhydro now... I'm thinking of doing soil first while I create my own hydro system. then doing half and half to see which gets better results.


Okay check it out, props to Zen for the idea on this carbon filter. Thanks desert for your idea, but I couldn't find any aluminum screening so I just tried out a different one. I took some pictures... I just made it following his guide on here. Wanted to know if it looked okay.

I have a new question. What type of fan should I use? Exhause fan. I'm looking for something small I could soundproof, but strong enough to redirect thef low of air in the vent. I found a perfect one that was built into connectable ducting, but for power it required me to require the ceiling light, and im no electrician so I decided not to do that.. Didnt know how much wattage it needed or anything. So I'm looking for a fan that can plug in maybe.. just not sure how to power the exhaust fan.

Thanks for the all the welcomes, this site is fuckin awesome. And thanks again for all your help.

bro use the vent to your advantage, have your fan pull the air from there into the attic and out a roof vent... i would disconnect the venting thats on it now and plug it up... you should see how mines goin down it took a bit of thinking but i got it figured out. i'd tell you how i would set it up all the way, not sure if people would get all mad or somthin... let me know, message me.. i could give some ideas... also if you got lime wire type "WEED How-to-grow-marijuana-dvd" under the video search its 690.3 meggabytes, so it will take a while, but it gave me some ideas for hydro not to mention its a decent video.

pics of attic/vent above closet:

i put the pics in order, starting from the bathroom closet; where im going to be taking the air from. threw the attic space and into the grow room, im working on the exhaust right now, but im going to use the same diffuser to exhaust it into my closet after it runs threw the carbon filter.

hey here is what ive got so far I'm just venting into my attic through my vent. here are some of the pics of my carbon filter connected right on my inline fan. I was wondering if i have to go up to my attic and plug up the heat going right into that room.

I also built a table here are the pics. I'm thinking that it might me too big for the room but oh well!