help with start up

p thomas

Member
items i have:
1) 1000w HPS/Switchable Ballast (HPS-MH) 120/240VAC
2) 4x4 T5 fixture
3) Bedroom

all the elect. has been taken care of in the room.
im looking for ideas on venting and filtering.going to be using soil,have a bag of black gold.
do have some working knoweldge of ph/TDS-have a meter.

so if you were going to start up a room,on a budget,how would you put the items on hand into service and what other items will be required?
not looking to work with seeds rather start up with clones. so my exeperence lies with only with what i have read. any help from some of you pros sure would help.
 

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
i think if you go to the phresh filter site, they have a nice lil chart that will tell you how big off a fan that you need for your room, and how many cfms you will need as well.. even if your not planning on using phresh filters, i find the chart to be usefull...

if you've got enough room, and it sounds like you will, i would start two different areas, one for veg, and one for flowering.. i would use the t5's for the veg area and the 1k for the flowering room.. i use t5's for vegging, and my plants love them.. work great, low heat, and you get nice internodal spacing with them..
your going to also need a ph meter, some good nutes' and a couple of fans to circulate air..
if your a complete newbie, and even if your not, i always recomend finding the grow journal section of this site, pick somone who has your basic setup, and see how they did things.. this will go a long way to help you to avoid any mistakes that they may have encoutered, and also some solutions to any probs as well..
goodluck with the grow m8..
 

gobbly

Well-Known Member
few things you don't mention, like room size, or grow style.

Venting is going to be your biggest concern, and short of a tent, you'll need to pull air out of the room, and have at least a passive vent to pull fresh air in from. Odor is a potential concern here, so if you're not legal, don't skimp on that part of planning (look into carbon and ozone to start). If you are lucky you have an air cooled hood, which can require a little more to setup depending on your space, but have some major benefits (not the least of which is preventing chunks of heat from ever entering the grow space). In general you would calculate the cubic feet of your room, and determine how much turnover per minute you want, then it's just simple math to determine the CFM fan you need (and probably give yourself 10% extra to account for ductwork loss). There are actually some online venting calculators, as well as greenhouse venting calculators that work quite well for our purposes, especially if you know the starting temp and target temps.

On soil, my preference is to go with potting soil or topsoil, the real stuff, not the mixes that have nutrients added, just pure topsoil/potting-soil. I use 3 parts soil, 2 parts small perlite, and 1 part peat. You can also add organics like guano and worm casings at this point too. Realize the ratios are determined more by target PH than by anything, and were reached after playing around a little with the ingredients we get locally. Some people will need to add lime and other things to buffer for PH as well. That should give you a starting point though.

How to set this up is something you really need to think more on though. Personally I would try to setup something perpetual, but if that is a 4 tube t5, then it's not going to veg what you'd need to keep the 1000w efficient (imo at least). If you didn't require as frequent harvests, or the room is to small to split into a veg/flower areas, you could consider using the t5 as a supplemental light (maybe move it around illuminating one side of the room per day), or you could do a tray of small clones in a sog under that to flower. With more T5's, or the T5's to start and a 400-600w MH for middle to late veg, you could setup a perpetual that would produce quite well growing 4-6 larger plants.

Another idea, and something to seriously consider, is a scrog (screen of green). If you're not familiar with them, look it up, tons out there on them.
 

hammer6913

Well-Known Member
this is a 6 in inline fan i use in my tent i dont have a charcoal filter on this one but if smell is an issue get a 6 into 3 or 4 in adapter wrap it up with some screen and go to walmart or meijer one is much cheaper than the other for fish tank charcoal i use it in a 80 sq ft room with no smell escaping works great run your light fan from a fresh room attic just try not to use the air from ur room if you can get it from ur cold air return you will get all the co2 from ur house



 

p thomas

Member
great replies thanks. like the idea about splitting the room, any ideas about what to use for a light proof splitter..i do have access to more T5s so i would be able to support the 1k hps. still working on ventalation.. hammer6913 wheres that fan come from? great support thanks folks..
 
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