Proposed First Grow Setup

[drazhar]

My proposed first grow setup
I have recently decided to get into growing. I have had originally decided to get a Stanley 336 growbox from Accelerated Technologies as I felt they have the best growbox on the market! They really seem to have the nailed concept of “stealth”. It is truly an AWESOME product! However, I ran into one problem: lack of money to pay for it. So, after coming to the realization that it would take me forever to get my hands on one of those boxes, I decided to buy a tent and borrow some of the concepts that impressed me about the Stanley 336. I know I could build a growbox for cheaper than a Stanley. While I do believe I have the technical skills to build a stealth box, since I have never even seen a growbox in person, I do NOT have the knowledge necessary to feel comfortable about building a “working stealth” growbox for a 1[SUP]st[/SUP] time project, as I believe that there are little things that go into making a box as stealthy as I need it to be that I do not know. Given what I know now, I still have so much more to learn especially since this will be my first grow.
At any rate, I realized that if I want to get into growing soon, I would need start with another alternative that was within my budget, and would still give me a decent yield, without compromising stealth. I have composed a list that I would like some review and comment on. BTW, this setup is based upon 5-gallon buckets in a RDWC setup that I built myself and am now testing this build.
Proposed System components:
1 - 2ft x 4ft x 6ft grow tent. (Sunhut grow tent. I was originally looking at Gorilla grow tents. But, they are almost 2x the price, and I am not sure that this tent is almost twice the quality as the Sunhut growtent.)
3 – 5 gallon black buckets where one is the control bucket for my RDWC setup. LOVE DWC concept!!
2 – 6 inch netpots
1 – Eco185 submersible water pump (I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet this pump is)
1 – Eco4 air-pump (a little noisier than I would like. I would like a quieter air-pump for stealth purposes)
1 – Phresh airfilter (carbon)
[h=1]1 - Vortex S-Line Ultra Quiet Fan 6" 347 CFM (Will need a fan controller)[/h][h=1]3 – 180 watt LED panels. Looking in to the VIPAR line that is 3w as I understand plants absorb 1w & 3w light better than 5w light.[/h][h=1]2 – Florescent lights to provide white light[/h][h=1]1 – RO filter[/h][h=1]1 – Meter to measure PPM, and water temps[/h][h=1]1 – Temperature/Humidity gauge[/h]Strains I am looking to buy from Nirvana and grow in my grow to keep smell either non-existent or low.

1. Northern Lights – This will be a part of my first grow!!
2. Blue Mystic – Low odor?
3. Bubblelicious – I heard this strain is low odor and/or doesn’t smell like mj during flowering
4. Papaya
5. Nirvana Urban Poison

That’s a basic list of my system to date. I have a couple of questions about my setup.

1. Anybody out there grow these strains? I am interested in comments from people who have grown these strains as I want to know about the smell during flowering. Especially the Bubblelicious strain.
2. I am also interested in airflow throughout the grow tent? Since smell in the grow area is a concern, I wanted to know if I need to have negative air pressure on tent(not preferred as I don’t like the idea of the walls of the tent being sucked in), or should it be roughly equal to tent cfm?
3. I also wanted to get an opinion about LED lights as I heard it wa better ot have small and more LED lights than 1 big LED light to ensure even light coverage throughout the grow area.

Finally, I have a question about nutes:
I am looking at using one of three nute packages:

• Dynagro
• Advanced Nutrients
• General Hydroponics

Which one of these do you recommend based on your experience? Any comments you all have out there would be useful. Thank you very much in advance!

 

[DrKingGreen]

I don't know a lot about DWC but it sounds like you almost have everything lined up. Papaya is tastey stuff, but I've never had any that was powerful. Are you ordering that S-line fan on a whim or have you heard one in person? My 8" arrives tomorrow and I'm excited to see what the hype is about. Smart move with the cheaper tent! I've used my $180 4x8 for 6 grows and put it up and taken it down. Still in great shape.

 

[GrowinDad]

I built my tent out of PVC pipe and Reflextix. Pretty cheap and durable.

You want exhaust at the top of the tent. You will need a carbon filter attached to an exhaust fan to control odor. For intake, passive is fine. Let the exhaust fan suck in the air you need. So yes, there is some negative pressure I suppose but the tent should not implode

LED are expensive but wonderful for small grows. No heat to worry about. No energy pull. I have one Area 51sgs160 in my tent. Their products do as they claim on their site.

I use DynaGro and am very happy with it.

If a first grow, why not go soil?

 

[JJJjay]

I built my tent out of PVC pipe and Reflextix. Pretty cheap and durable.

You want exhaust at the top of the tent. You will need a carbon filter attached to an exhaust fan to control odor. For intake, passive is fine. Let the exhaust fan suck in the air you need. So yes, there is some negative pressure I suppose but the tent should not implode

LED are expensive but wonderful for small grows. No heat to worry about. No energy pull. I have one Area 51sgs160 in my tent. Their products do as they claim on their site.

I use DynaGro and am very happy with it.

If a first grow, why not go soil?

+1

Oh if only I could rebuild my whole room again... So many kinks I would work out.

I agree with trying your hand at soil first, especially if its a small grow.

Go for the papaya for suuuuuuure.....

 

[wyteberrywidow]

I second the area51 leds they are some good pieces of work