I would be honored to help newbies come up with a good first set up. Anything i can contribute to help them would be fantastic. This is the perfect setup for a first time grower because it is cheap to construct and is almost idiot proof due to the wick method. All items can be bought for under a hundred dollars and will give you enough to do many crops. probably 2 or 3 years worth. buy the lights at walmart because if they happen to go out they will exchange them for free. keep the package the bulbs come in to make it easier to exchange.
I used a stereo box for my grow room. It fits in the closet but doesnt use up all the space. If you are stealthy enough and run wires correctly no one will even be able to tell that its anything but a box. the box i used was 3 ft high 18 inches wide and 18 inches deep. I put my lights on a ballast and hung them from the inside of my box. i put the ballast on a rope so i could lower and raise the lights as necessary. I covered the inside of the box in white stickers to reflect the light. I am sure paint could be used or even mylar but i used stickers and it seemed to work fine for me. occasionally some of the stickers would yellow. i would just put new ones over the yellowing ones and problem solved.
As far as soil I used equal parts miracle grow potting soil, perlite, and vermculite "use caution when handling vermeculite". I used small 3 inch pots and took 3/8 diamerer rope about ten to 12 inches long, tied a knot in the middle of the rope and dropped the knot end into an empty pot making sure that the rope goes through the hole in the bottom of the pot to hang into the nutrient solution. the knot keeps the rope inside of the pot without slipping out of the pot. then i fill my pot with soil mix as stated above and i fill slowly curling the remaining rope around and up the pot so it keeps as much of the soil moist as possible.
As far as lights I used "light of america" brand "white" energy savers the twisted ones that use 32 watts and put out as much light as a 150 watt bulb. I am uncertain of the color "soft white or what color" but they are at walmart and you cant miss them. the packaging is yellow and blue. i believe any of the higher watt bulbs would suffice. these are the ones i chose. make sure they put out at least 2000 lumens. more would be preferable but could make the grow space far to hot. The lights i used are between 6 and 7 dollars each at wall mart. Keep lights no more than 5 inches away from top of plants but no less than 2 inches to assure good plant growth and prevent burning.
As far as nutrients go I used standard peters 20 20 20 for vegging and peters super bloom 10 50 20 "i dont have the npk but it IS the peters super bloom nutrient" for flowering. The first week i went half strength for vegging, second week full strenth. when switching to bloom formula flush soil so plant can go to bloom. dont be afraid to use both ferts at a half and half ratio for a few weeks into flowering. it helps with nitrogen loss. then the same for blooming,one week half strength then full strength up until one week till harvest when i went straight to water. As far as a resevoir i used the glad disposable tupperware. they have blue lids. i cut a hole in the lid just big enough to fit about 1 inch of the pot into it and be stable. DO NOT FORGET TO FLUSH SOIL EVERY 3 WEEKS. then immediately back to nutes. this washes the excess salts from the soil but will cause no deficiencies because you immediately go back to nutes. cover the resevoir in something so light can not penetrate it because this will cause algea growth. then just fill the resevoirs as needed.
Do not veg for more than 3 weeks because you will run out of room in your box and the roots will be to large for the pot. this is only effective if you go two weeks veg to stabilize the clones then straight to 12/12 for flowering. Run lights at night to help with temp and use the days for your dark period. if possible leave door to the box open so it stays even cooler but only when lights are on.
Use fans to blow air in and out of box. blow air out of the top of the box to remove hot air and a fan low in the box to blow in cool air. make sure plants get hit by the air of the fan so that the stalks thicken and help keep the plant strong enough to hold the buds that will eventually weigh down your plant and could cause stem breakage.
Dont be afraid to use the fementing co2 idea either. i figure it cant hurt. Odor Will be a problem, especially deep into flowering but the alcohol scent from the co2 helps a little bit but not enough. The lingering scent of skunk will permeate through the room. lots of febreeze worked for me but it never eliminated the smell. Temperature WILL also be a problem. these lights heat up and can easily kill your crop if you do not pay attention. another way to help with the heat is to take a 1 liter bottle and freeze it. let it sit in the grow box while the lights are on and when they come off you can refreeze it. Oh one more thing, make sure that during the dark period that all holes are sealed. You cannot have any light going in the box. take your time and you will be rewarded. The resulting bud will be very airy and fluffy due to the light source and possible lack of enough light but it will still be potent if you have a potent strain.