Resevoir Size?

I have multiple questions related to my setup I'm about to put together. I plan on having a Veg room with mothers/clones and a flower room with 3 different tray of three different flowering stages. This way I can harvest every three weeks Below is a picture of my setup.



I have a couple of questions:

*Would I be able to get away with a 10 gallon tote with 7 gallons of nutrient water as a reservoir for each tray? The trays are 24"x36"x8" and I plan on using 6x6x6 rockwool cubes as the medium (there will be 6 plants to a tray).

*For the flowering room, would 1 2ft. carbon filter be enough?

*Could I use a MH bulb for the first 3 weeks of Flower? I know I CAN, but would I lose out?

*When I pH my water after I add the nutrients, should I have to check it after that? If I check it 3 days later and it's fluctuated should I correct it?

I'd appreciate any help here, and will definitely give the rep deserved

The first 2weeks of flower is basic veg state so i dont feel you will loose much if any.
Ph should be checked daily till your confident in its habbits. Only adjust when ph hit
6.0 and adjust to 5.6 and let it swing back to 6.0. As for scrubber i would rec a 60
Pound scrubber.

And res size, fill your tables up and how ever many gal. It takes triple that and you
Should be good. Remember small res tanks are harder to keep cool! And there harder
To keep ph stable.

I have no idea about the answer, but can tell you how you can calculate it.

In order to figure out how much fluid you need, take the internal dimensions of the tray and multiply it by how deep you're filling it. So if you fill a 2x3 foot tray up to 5", you need 24*36*5 cubic inches of fluid. You can then use Google to convert from cubic inches to gallons -- or just calculate the volume of your tote the same way and see if it fits.

Now, figure at least a quart lost from each plant each day. It may be more in certain stages of growth, it may be less, but I think this is a generous amount.

Now, figure that you need at least so much liquid in your reservoir for your pump to lift it without sucking air and losing pressure. Add that to what you've got so far. That's about how much you will need your rez to hold -- if you're going to fill it every day.

I doubt that that small tote will suffice. Someone else I know who's running a similar system uses 40 gallon reservoirs, I think.

I don't think that using a MH for the first three weeks of flower will cause you to lose out significantly.

Yeah, you should check it after that. Check your pH every day until you get a good idea of how the nutes react to both aging in the tank and your flower cycle -- then, usually, every few days is OK. You can and should correct the pH of the rezes if they get too far out of whack.

I just wanted to ask why are the lights to all 3 stages of flowering the same? Don't you expect your plants to grow? Somewhere in there you are wasting light.

@bwpz also remember your not aiming to flood the table to the full line! Just flood it 1 to 2 in max!
R/w 6x6 hugos wick like a bitch so you can safe in water use right there.

phillipchristian said:

I just wanted to ask why are the lights tot all 3 stages of flowering the same? Don't you expect your plants to grow? Somewhere in there you are wasting light.

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each table is a different cycle of time. But all of them are running at the same time

hellraizer30 said:

each table is a different cycle of time. But all of them are running at the same time

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I understand that and I am not trying to be rude. I'm on my iPad and it's a bitch to type. You would think though that any plants that require a 600w light at the end of flower will not require that much light at the beginning. And the contrary is probably true as well, if you need 600w in the beginning of flower for your plants then you probably will need more by the end.

Not rude at all bro im on the same unit as you! The way i look at it is if you start with 600 then finish with 600.
If it was me i would have 1000 on those tables, 600 are better suited for overlaping light with many light units.

hellraizer30 said:

Not rude at all bro im on the same unit as you! The way i look at it is if you start with 600 then finish with 600.
If it was me i would have 1000 on those tables, 600 are better suited for overlaping light with many light units.

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each table is only 2x3 ft. he should be good with the 600s. 1000s use to much power for such a small space. the 3 600 could technically overlap if the tables werent walled tho which would be pimp. or put 2 1000s in xxl hoods above it all.

im curious as to if his setup is already in place cuz that 5.5x4.5 ft space is gonna be packed to within 2.5inches a wall with just those trays not including racks for em.. no room to actually get in there to check the babies.

Wow i didnt even see that lol guess we wait for a reply

The rooms will be just a 2x4 constructed frame with velcrowed panda film walls so every wall will be accessible (except two against a wall maybe). The reevoirs would be under the wooden table I'll build to set the trays on.

I figured if they don't need the full 600 in the beginning then I could always dim it to 50% or 75% to save a little bit, but with the production of it I don't think it'll matter too much And everyone thanks for the replys, one grower had the same tubs I have and use one of the same tubs as the res as well, he said it was good for about 15 gallons. I'm not sure how often he had to top it off, but I calculated that using 1 cup of Big Bloom per resevoir would take a whole quart in just one cycle of water, is that right? It's just crazy going from barely using any nutrients in soil and then bottles in hydro xD

I get the panda film idea kind of from Mr Green's I Grow Chronic!, how he had the tarp velcrowed in front of the flowering room, but I'd be using panda film

You might do better yield wise if you had all three bloom tables in the same room, better to overlap light

They are all in the same room, the 4.5x5.5 room. There's two rooms, the Veg room and the Flower room. Each is a frame with panda film walls.

Ok cool what you got for cooling!

For the veg room I'd have my 435 cfm fan as exhaust. For the Flowering room I'd have a 740 cfm fan and they'd all be connected through cooltubes. Would this be enough or should there be a stronger fan, or another fan?

I'd have oscilating fans as well.

A 740 cfm fan should do x3 light in the bloom room and im guessing theres a scrubber?

Yes I just got my 2ft. Phresh Filter in today, I'll be getting a 3ft. one for the Flower Room.

Sounds like you got most of it planned out. If you are looking to save a little money you probably can run the first 2 flower tables and your veg tables on 400w lights. A 400w light has a optimal footprint of 3.5x3.5 at 8" from the glass. You could probably run the whole thing on 400's. Not sure if you already have the ballasts though? If not, and you want to stick with 600w lights look at the Lumatek Dual Ballast. You get 2 ballasts for the price of 1.5. I've seen them as low as $275 on BGHydro.com Just a thought. They have to be wired 240v though.

I already have the 3 bulbs for 600w and the price difference for the extra 2 ballasts I would need is only a $10 difference, so I figured the wattage is worth the extra money.