Zero's Grow Room

First time poster, first off, a little intro:
I've been growing outdoors for a while, this season is nothing but bad luck. First location, my 50 clones were stolen by someone probably within the community, the second location the sheriff made quick work of. So now i'm looking towards indoor hydroponics. Here are my current design, it'll be my first grow room, but I like to do things right the first time. Any opinions would be appreciated. This is a plan of 55 plants with 8 600w lights and a drip and drain system. I'm planning on using hydroton rocks for the medium. The ceiling is about 7 feet tall. I'm thinking about working smaller with 35 plants, but i'm not sure about how tall my plants will grow, or how wide. I'll be growing some OG Kush. I plan on making everything fully automated. Since this would be my first indoor hydro grow, I would love any feedback such as size of buckets, design changes, anything! Thanks!

Note, each square is half a foot. so the pots are spaced 2 feet from each other from the center of the buckets. My secondary plan of 35 pots would be spaced 3 feet from the center of each bucket, which i've only roughly sketched up the plan. the lights will be vented as well, how adequate should the fan be for the lights alone?

Also, i'm not sure how many GPH do i need my pump to achieve for this system.. bump?

Welcome to RIU! I'm another new member as well.

It seems like you have your plan coming along really well, nice blueprints too! I'll try help to the best of my knowledge with some of your questions.

First with 35 plants, 2 feet in-between each center pot, with about .75 feet in between them?
288 sq feet. with 4800 watts of lighting. 4800/288 ~ 17watts/sq foot. It is said 50watts/square foot is optimal (or 5000-6000Lumens), nothing less than 25 unless its for a mother or clones. I think your lighting needs are maxed out, but then again this doesn't account for the space around the edge of the garden... all in all 35 plants might be a little tight for 8 lights even if they are small/ trained somehow. BUT I only have personal experience with my smaller cab. I'm trying to remember, Ive seen a room similar to this one, but running 20 plants, also air cooled hoods. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uEsXJYC810

For the fan to cool the lights, it would prob be a good idea to have 2 good (400+cfm inline fans), 1 for each row of lights ( having 1 with the big U seems very inefficient).

I would say if you have a hydro store around you too check it out. I'm sure they can provide personal assistance in setting up a grow of your caliper, most people who work at hydro shops are pretty friendly, and are willing to help since its sales for them too. And they usually give you a discount too if you reciprocate the friendliness. Prob would be a good idea to visit them, work with an individual, you can bring in your plans/questions. BUT you don't have to buy anything until you are ready, so you don't waste money on equipment you realize you didn't need/doesn't work.

Good luck making the switch to indoors! OH and sorry to hear about your first two crops guerrilla??, sucks shit happens...

Bucket systems can be a pain in the ass. What are you using for nutrients? What is your plan for ventilation? what hoods are you going to use? Are you going to use C02? If you want to do a drip system 6" Rockwool Hugo Blocks on top of 8"x36" slabs on 4x4 or 4x8 ebb n flow trays. That would be better than Hydroton because you can better control the moisture gradient of the Rockwool.

Damn, i'm disappointed to hear that my lighting is inadequate. I was following the guideline how 600watts would cover about 6 feet, hence the spacing. Thanks for the advice on the avoiding bends on my cooling my lights, I adjusted my shopping cart to include and extra inline fan. I will be using:
LumenAire 8" Reflector x8
600W Lumatek Digital Ballast 120/240V x8
600 HPS Maxlume Bulb - 90,000 lumens x8
Can MAX Fan 10" -1019 cfm
Can-Filter 66 - 26" Carbon Filter
Suncourt 8" In-line Duct Fan - 600 cfm x2

I wanted to avoid the 1000W due to heat reasons and since it's less efficient than multiple 600w. The hydrostores in my area aren't so well informed, and are in it for the money with huge markups. purchasing everything online will save me several hundreds of dollars. There are some things that are reasonable, such as grow mediums, which i will use my local hydrostore for.

Also, not using CO2 as of yet, trying to spend as little as possible while still have a good chance of success. I'm not quite sure i will switch completely to indoor, but I'll see how things turn out. The choice of hydroton is because of cost reduction, since i can reuse them. I plan on using a General Hydroponics plan for nutrients.

Thanks for your input! I'm already putting off ordering items for a while now, I really need to get this rolling! Will continuing to use only the 8 600w lead to a failure?? Is extra lighting necessary??

Dude hit me up with a pm, I can help you get the stuff you need. I am a part owner of a hydro shop and I set up big systems like this on a weekly basis.

I'm too new to be able to send Pms. I was planning on purchasing everything through bghydro, their prices on their lights seem cheapest around right now.

No worries, just shoot me a pm when you can. Take my word for it, don't skimp on your equipment when growing indoors. Your first expense is your cheapest, use quality gear and it will reward you with years of quality bud.

grower834 said:

Fresh, circulating air is required for grow room.High humidity is key to indoor hydroponic gardening.In moderate climates, much temperature adjustments are usually not needed, but when you use grow rooms to grow in extreme conditions, it is necessary to make arrangements to regulate the temperature of your grow rooms.

Click to expand...

High humidity is not key to indoor hydroponics gardening. Not being an idiot is much more important.

Just ran into a small speed bump. I just realized that running that many lamps will definitely trip my fuse box. I'm looking into getting an electrician install a 240v outlet into my room. I would like multiple 240v outlets, but that seems a bit suspicious. Don't have a clue about electricity, anyone have any idea what I tell the electrician to do?

[URL="http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/ItemMatrix.asp?GroupCode=TIPBDPC120&MatrixType=2&selelement1=undefined&selelement2=undefined&selelement3=undefined&selelement4=undefined&selelement5=undefined"]http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/ItemMatrix.asp?GroupCode=TIPBDPC120&MatrixType=2&selelement1=undefined&selelement2=undefined&selelement3=undefined&selelement4=undefined&selelement5=undefined[/URL]

Would that be sufficient for 10 600w's?

That light controller will do the job. Just tell tell the electrician you want a 240v power line on a 30 amp braker. If he asks what is for tell him you and your wife are into bondage and leave the rest to his imagination.

240v hid lighting uses the NEMA 6-15 plugs? I'm thinking it might be cheaper for me to install multiple NEMA 6-15 receptacles around the room rather purchases the power box.

It would be cheaper but you really should keep all the ballasts together in a separate room. You can still build your own light controller for a lot less than you can but one. So instead of placing the receptacles around the room put them on a board in the same room as the ballasts.