Mitus - 4x 1000W // CO2 // Sealed Room // Hydro Drip

Hi everyone,
I have a mixed knowledge of Hydroponics that seems to be growing every single day. In fact, due to the things I've done because of my Hydro, I feel like now I'm an electrician/plumber/construction worker... not all of it was fun, but I can safely say that I learned a lot of valuable things.

My first grow was from some homemade aeroponic tubs... Had a blast... Then for my last few grows I've been using drip trays inside of grow tents. The tents are cool, but they also limit you on many things... height being one of the main things.

As you'll see in this thread, I've moved on to bigger and better things

I havent gone back to Aero just yet... but I will one day.

Ok, so this room that I built is 12'x12' by 9' high.
I'm using four 1000w, 8", air cooled lights, that are cooled on an external air source and vented externally as well. The lights are timed off of a C.A.P. MLC-4X which is hardwired into a 30A breaker in my sub-panel.
There are a total of 3 drip trays; one 4'x8' and two 4'x4's. Each tray will have its own res, located directly beneath each tray.
I'm running CO2 out of a 20lb tank w/ a C.A.P. Reg-1 on it. I also have a C.A.P. PPM-3 controlling the level of CO2 in the room. (I'll be keeping it at 1500 while the lights are on)
I have a Everstar 13,000 BTU Portable A/C inside the room. The exhaust from the A/C, runs outside the growroom and through a 6" HydroGen Ice Box (which is cooled by a 1/4HP chiller) and then back into the growroom. I'm doing this so that my A/C does not exhaust my CO2 out of the room. There are 2 wall mounted oscillating fans circulating the air in the room.

I have not picked a strain yet, but am in the process...
I'm going to be using mini rockwool cubes as my medium, inside of buckets that are roughly 2-3 gallons in size. There will be either 9 or 12 plants per light.

This is going to be an amazing journey... I hope you guys enjoy the ride

-Mitus

Use a two hose portable air conditioner and save a lot of money and trouble. There is no inside air exhuasted outside the room with a two hose air conditioner. If you have a long distance to your outside exit use duct pipe not flex hose and add a couple cheap duct booster fans to keep the air movement high.

Ya, buying a new A/C is a little out of my budget at the moment, but maybe sometime in the future.

-Mitus

I replaced my 3 seperate 25 gal res' with a single 70 gal res and fixed all my trays to drain back to the same res. I ran a 3/4" manifold around the room to feed the drip lines running to each plant.

Still waiting for my Hydrogen 6" Ice Box (first pic) in the mail, to see if I can cool my A/C exhaust and send it back into the room.

I've had several people going back and forth over whether or not the A/C exhaust on portable units is air from the room where the unit is located or simply exhaust from the hot coils inside the unit... Personally I've ran it in my seal-room and notice that there is negative pressure in the room with the A/C running... that can only mean that is is removing air from the room! So I either need to find an A/C that doesnt remove air from the room and is in my budget... or I need to pray that I'm able to cool the exhaust and send it back into the room.

Today I ran the lights for about 4.5 hours with the A/C on and just let it exhaust out of the room. Before anything was on the room was about 64 degrees... it caped out at about 75 degrees then started heading back slowly to 74... 73... and I ended the test run.

Once this a/c issue is resolved the room is ready to rock!!!

-Mitus

fatman7574 said:

Use a two hose portable air conditioner and save a lot of money and trouble. There is no inside air exhuasted outside the room with a two hose air conditioner. If you have a long distance to your outside exit use duct pipe not flex hose and add a couple cheap duct booster fans to keep the air movement high.

Click to expand...

fatman is right about the ac... either check out craigslist or propertyroom.com i got mine off craigslist for 200 ( might have been stolen ) but it still works..

And you're certain that those dual hose portable units do not expel any air from the room they are placed in??

The two hose air conditioner draws outside air tyhrough one tube that used only to cool its condensor and compressor and it is then exhausted through the second tube. The air that runs through the actual heat extractor in the front of the unit is drawn from the grow room and is blown back into the grow room. The inside and ouside air are seperated into front and rear sections of the units and do not intermix.

Nice op! How long do you think the 20 lb. Co2 tank will last you?

Looks big. I'll pull up a chair and watch the show.

I'm not sure. This will be my first time using CO2. I'm hoping at least 7 days, but we'll see.
-Mitus

fatman7574 said:

The two hose air conditioner draws outside air tyhrough one tube that used only to cool its condensor and compressor and it is then exhausted through the second tube. The air that runs through the actual heat extractor in the front of the unit is drawn from the grow room and is blown back into the grow room. The inside and ouside air are seperated into front and rear sections of the units and do not intermix.

Click to expand...

Sounds like I need to get me one of those...

Something like this ?? http://www.hydrofarm.com/pb_detail.php?itemid=8482

-Mitus

"This unit does not contain a sealed compressor and a small amount of room air can be exchanged through the exhaust port" - Might be a problem for odor control.

ah gotcha, I missed that

Only using rockwool mini-cubes? Might hold too much water, I'd consider adding a repellent to the mixture, like hydroton or perilite. 50/50 or you can modify the ratio depending on watering needs. But in my experience rockwool holds far to much water for healthy roots.

Ive used em for the last 3 grows with little to no problems, but I do agree with you on the fact that it holds much more water.

Mitus said:

I'm not sure. This will be my first time using CO2. I'm hoping at least 7 days, but we'll see.
-Mitus

Click to expand...

Sounds about right

This looks like fun. Enjoy. I will be looking in on this one from time to time.

subscribed cant wait for this one++rep

So after lots of research I decided to ditch my former A/C & cooling method... I canceled my order for the Hydrogen 6" Ice Box and went out to purchase a new A/C unit that would meet my seal-room's needs.

I purchased an 18,000 BTU split A/C unit for roughly $1,000. I made sure to get one that runs off of 240V electricity so I can save my self a little juice. Tomorrow I'll begin the installation. I was a little upset to find out the unit did not include any wiring components... like the wires needed to connect the outside unit with the inside unit as well as a power cord or power supply... At least I thought the guy would of wanted to sell me one to squeeze some more money out of me haha... I'll keep you guys posted on the progress and here are a few pictures of the unit itself. I've already mounted the inside unit.

Once the A/C is done, all I have left to do is connect my res pump to the manifold and set up my res drain for when I do water changes.

-Mitus

Mitus said:

So after lots of research I decided to ditch my former A/C & cooling method... I canceled my order for the Hydrogen 6" Ice Box and went out to purchase a new A/C unit that would meet my seal-room's needs.

I purchased an 18,000 BTU split A/C unit for roughly $1,000. I made sure to get one that runs off of 240V electricity so I can save my self a little juice. Tomorrow I'll begin the installation. I was a little upset to find out the unit did not include any wiring components... like the wires needed to connect the outside unit with the inside unit as well as a power cord or power supply... At least I thought the guy would of wanted to sell me one to squeeze some more money out of me haha... I'll keep you guys posted on the progress and here are a few pictures of the unit itself. I've already mounted the inside unit.

Once the A/C is done, all I have left to do is connect my res pump to the manifold and set up my res drain for when I do water changes.

-Mitus

Click to expand...

WOO HOO AC baby!!
yeh some screw u on the copper hose for connecting the units and they can be expensive to install.. Eg. an installer will charge a standard price for installation which usually includes 5 meters of copper hose and elec wires THEN anything over 5 meters they charge at $100 per meter..

And to install them correctly mitus u need a vacuum pump to get the refrigerant through the hoses and get the pressure right, and for the unit to be signed off on otherwise the warranty will be void.. also they can only be installed by licenced dude bcos the industry is regulated bcos the refrigerant that runs thru the system is like toxic and Joe Schmo cant just go and pick some up from the local hardware..

That said, if ur fairly handy then u should be able to hook it up urself as jackmayoffer did, BUT the refrigerant wont be properly vacuumed which will/could result in ur machine not running to its full potential cooling/efficiency wise and also the unit not lasting as long as it otherwise would have..

Anyways this was alot to write so its a bit slapped together, i hope u make sense of it..
Im also on the split system hunt now as u know man..