Warning: very long thread.
Just wanted to introduce myself (you can call me Bob
) and thank all of the selfless members here who put all this information out for people like me to lurk around for months and plan out our grows and learn from other's mistakes so that we may be able to minimize our own.
To give some background, I used to grow about eight years ago (started in soil and worked my way up to "bubbleponics") on a shoestring budget and produced mediocre bud, but nothing too great. This time I've decided to do it right, and unfortunately that means spending ludicrous amounts of money, but such is life. BTW, I should mention that I'm not handy in the least (like not even a little bit).
Anyhow, have finally convinced my girlfriend to give me full control over the garage, so I'm off and running.
Am going to start out with a 2x4 Sun Hut LG with a digital 400W HPS for vegging (I know, MH is the best for vegging according to most, but I've found that HPS works fine for me, and I prefer more to less lumens - if the plants start stretching I'll buy a MH bulb, but I'm gonna stick with HPS for the time being). For flowering, I have a digital 1000W HPS in a Sun Hut XL (4x4).*
*Would like to add an additional 4x4 Sun Hut once I've worked out all the kinks from the first.
Both fans have air-cooled reflectors and will have 6" inline fans (435CFM) cooling them.
As far as ventilation goes, going to use a 4" inline fan (200CFM) with a carbon filter for exhaust for my 2x4 and a 6" inline with a filter to exhaust my 4x4. Intake with be a 4" axial fan (100CFM) for my 2x4 and a 4" inline (200CFM) for my 4x4.
Planning on flowering 24 plants at a time, staggered to about 12 per month for a perpetual harvest - using Rubbermaid 18 gallon containers, which after countless hours scouring the Internet, are the best containers to maximize my space (6 fit perfectly in a 4x4, and I'll have 4 plants per container). Not sure yet if I'll go single cola or top to get two colas per plant; need to do some experimentation to see which yields better. BTW, my tap water is 7.5pH and 170PPM - the pH stinks but the PPM reading is better than I would've thunk for where I live.
Have been growing some bag seeds from my buddy outdoors in soil (totally incognito, we're very secluded from everyone) to have to test out the system when it's up and running (they're about 16" right now), and just got my order from Nirvana yesterday - Superskunk, New York Power Diesel, and Bubblelicious.
So far, have purchased:
2x4 Tent
400W HPS
1000W HPS
9 Air pumps (dual outlet)
20 14" air stones
2 4" inline fans
3 6" inline fans
9 Rubbermaid 18G Containers
Digital TDS Meter
Digital pH Meter
Seedling Heat Mat
Aquarium Heater (for the bubble cloner)
CAP TMP-DNe Adjustable Heating/Cooling Thermostat (for veg room)
Thermometers
Still need to purchase:
4x4 Tent
6" and 4" ducting
CO2 Generator (propane)
Atmosphere controller (for flowering room)
4" Carbon filter
6" Carbon filter
4" Axial Fan
Ozone generator
Oscillating fans
Reservoirs for nute changes (trash cans)
Hydroton
Pond pump (for nute changes)
Where I'm at:
Tried to setup the 2x4 tent last night, but it appears as though I'm missing the crossbars for the Sun Hut LG (they are the bars numbered "5")- did anyone else have this problem? Anyways, gonna see if I can get around that somehow with my total lack of engineering skills.
Going to head to the hydro store and then to Home Depot to pickup everything I need (light hangers and the ductwork) to try and get the tent setup tonight (still waiting on the inline fans to get here, should be a couple of days).
Questions I have:
How the hell do you mount an oscillating fan in a Sun Hut?
Anyone else get their Sun Hut with poles missing, and if so, how did you fix it?
Used Sterilite for my last bubbler system, and these Rubbermaids seem much more flimsy - should I double up on containers? Anyone's experience and/or horror stories to make me go buy some more would be appreciated.
Anyone think that my exhaust system (in either tent) won't be adequate? I know that it would be without filters, but I've never used filters before and am not sure how much restriction they will cause to the inline fans and how much the CFM rating will be effectively lowered by.
If anyone can think of anything that I've overlooked or wants to comment in any way, that is more than welcome and would be greatly appreciated.
Um, that's about it for now, just wanted to say hello and thank you to all the members here for their help.
Just wanted to introduce myself (you can call me Bob
) and thank all of the selfless members here who put all this information out for people like me to lurk around for months and plan out our grows and learn from other's mistakes so that we may be able to minimize our own.To give some background, I used to grow about eight years ago (started in soil and worked my way up to "bubbleponics") on a shoestring budget and produced mediocre bud, but nothing too great. This time I've decided to do it right, and unfortunately that means spending ludicrous amounts of money, but such is life. BTW, I should mention that I'm not handy in the least (like not even a little bit).
Anyhow, have finally convinced my girlfriend to give me full control over the garage, so I'm off and running.
Am going to start out with a 2x4 Sun Hut LG with a digital 400W HPS for vegging (I know, MH is the best for vegging according to most, but I've found that HPS works fine for me, and I prefer more to less lumens - if the plants start stretching I'll buy a MH bulb, but I'm gonna stick with HPS for the time being). For flowering, I have a digital 1000W HPS in a Sun Hut XL (4x4).*
*Would like to add an additional 4x4 Sun Hut once I've worked out all the kinks from the first.
Both fans have air-cooled reflectors and will have 6" inline fans (435CFM) cooling them.
As far as ventilation goes, going to use a 4" inline fan (200CFM) with a carbon filter for exhaust for my 2x4 and a 6" inline with a filter to exhaust my 4x4. Intake with be a 4" axial fan (100CFM) for my 2x4 and a 4" inline (200CFM) for my 4x4.
Planning on flowering 24 plants at a time, staggered to about 12 per month for a perpetual harvest - using Rubbermaid 18 gallon containers, which after countless hours scouring the Internet, are the best containers to maximize my space (6 fit perfectly in a 4x4, and I'll have 4 plants per container). Not sure yet if I'll go single cola or top to get two colas per plant; need to do some experimentation to see which yields better. BTW, my tap water is 7.5pH and 170PPM - the pH stinks but the PPM reading is better than I would've thunk for where I live.
Have been growing some bag seeds from my buddy outdoors in soil (totally incognito, we're very secluded from everyone) to have to test out the system when it's up and running (they're about 16" right now), and just got my order from Nirvana yesterday - Superskunk, New York Power Diesel, and Bubblelicious.
So far, have purchased:
2x4 Tent
400W HPS
1000W HPS
9 Air pumps (dual outlet)
20 14" air stones
2 4" inline fans
3 6" inline fans
9 Rubbermaid 18G Containers
Digital TDS Meter
Digital pH Meter
Seedling Heat Mat
Aquarium Heater (for the bubble cloner)
CAP TMP-DNe Adjustable Heating/Cooling Thermostat (for veg room)
Thermometers
Still need to purchase:
4x4 Tent
6" and 4" ducting
CO2 Generator (propane)
Atmosphere controller (for flowering room)
4" Carbon filter
6" Carbon filter
4" Axial Fan
Ozone generator
Oscillating fans
Reservoirs for nute changes (trash cans)
Hydroton
Pond pump (for nute changes)
Where I'm at:
Tried to setup the 2x4 tent last night, but it appears as though I'm missing the crossbars for the Sun Hut LG (they are the bars numbered "5")- did anyone else have this problem? Anyways, gonna see if I can get around that somehow with my total lack of engineering skills.
Going to head to the hydro store and then to Home Depot to pickup everything I need (light hangers and the ductwork) to try and get the tent setup tonight (still waiting on the inline fans to get here, should be a couple of days).
Questions I have:
How the hell do you mount an oscillating fan in a Sun Hut?
Anyone else get their Sun Hut with poles missing, and if so, how did you fix it?
Used Sterilite for my last bubbler system, and these Rubbermaids seem much more flimsy - should I double up on containers? Anyone's experience and/or horror stories to make me go buy some more would be appreciated.
Anyone think that my exhaust system (in either tent) won't be adequate? I know that it would be without filters, but I've never used filters before and am not sure how much restriction they will cause to the inline fans and how much the CFM rating will be effectively lowered by.
If anyone can think of anything that I've overlooked or wants to comment in any way, that is more than welcome and would be greatly appreciated.
Um, that's about it for now, just wanted to say hello and thank you to all the members here for their help.