Frankidank

New Member
Hello all,
Allow me to welcome any of you readers to my first thread. I’ve lurked through so many posts and have learned so much that I feel the need to thank y’all. Communities with attitudes like the ones I’ve found on these forums is what drove me to not give up on my dream to grow my very own top shelf nuggets.

Now I assume many will stop by from the title and to not displease anybody, I will assure right now that this isn’t click bait. I have no experience, personally. Growing up, I’d read forums and grow journals, filling with envious desire to attain the results that so many beautiful pictures have shown me are possible by truly anybody. I’ve researched plenty, and have saved up and now after so many years, my grow room is complete. Let me rephrase, the construction work is complete and the purchasing of equipment is complete. I’ve already invested at least several thousand dollars already and I would like to bring this to the community and ask for opinions, concerns, criticisms, hell just be honest with me.

THE GROW ROOM
So to begin the breakdown, my very small house has a covered porch on a concrete floor measuring around 4ish’x10ish’x7ish’ of course on the far end of walls measuring 10 feet is my front door. What I’ve essentially done with this space is wall it off completely after insulating it on all sides except the floor. Above the ceiling there’s a small space that I used to run ducting to exhaust air and smell out of the room. I’ve run two 20 amp circuits dedicated to this space and using joint compound, caulking, and expending foam spray, I’ve made the room airtight. I only walled off 4x8 feet for right now. As I still need a front door. (Have plans to wall off remaining space for a veg room for perpetual harvest) this room is not accessible from outside and has no doors. On the contrary, the only way to access this room is through a window that formally had a view of my yard through my porch from my living room. It’s a bitch to climb in and out of but I’m agile, have a sturdy set up, and again, would like an airtight/lighttight grow room. After completely the construction, I covered the walls in Mylar and cut a 6in circle out of my ceiling for exhaust. Then I painted the window sloppily black then a coat of white followed by Mylar curtains for further reflectivity.

THE GROW SET UP
So for my equipment, I decided to try my hands at deep water culture. More specifically a 8 bucket RDWC using 5.3 Gallon square buckets connected to two 13 gallon buckets set up as a reservoir and controller bucket. 2 rows of four buckets flow through 2 inch pvc into the controller bucket which feeds nutrient rich H2O to 1 inch pvc sediment filter leading to a water pump that branches off into 8 different 1 inch tubes that waterfall back into the 5 gallon buckets. Supplemented further by 1 air stone per 5 gallon bucket should hopefully mean my dissolved oxygen stays plentiful. I’m using 4 inch net pots and hydro ton as well as a set of advanced nutrients grow micro bloom and also will be running a water chill. I also have a 2x4 tent that I plan to use for hatching seeds, seedlings, until ready for transplant into their forever home.

My light are kind of a mix. I started my seedlings on a 1200 watt LED by greengo on Amazon. This was prior to when I learned what actual wattage was and thusly prior to my purchasing 2 mars ts3000’s. I have plans to buy a third but you will understand my hesitation later.

CO2
I’ve purchased a 50lb aluminum CO2 tank, regulator and an automatic day/night CO2 controller which should automatically cut output at lights out. I also bought the co2 rain system

VENTILATION
I’ve purchased a very large carbon filter and the Acinfinity cloudline T6 which should exhaust from the tallest point in the room. I will build shelves above the lights so that this is out of sight and out of mind. i will not have any air intakes for the hopes that pests will be less problematic with it being so sealed.

GENETICS
I am popping 5 Gelat.OG seeds and 3 Cheese seeds from seedsman seeds website. All feminized and 100% germination rate so highly recommended. Those seedlings are currently braving the 2x4 with my 1200w led hopefully not too close to them @19” above. Their only a couple days old but it seemed like they were really reaching for the light. Not the end of the world for me because I can bury them in a bit of hydroton when the time comes Ig. So far they look very cute but again this is my first grow so I haven’t a clue if they’re actually too far from the light.

I plan to do a whole price breakdown soon but at 500 bucks a light, a whole room addition complete with two circuits and three total outlets solely for this 4x8 space, all the buckets bulkheads and everything else, man we are in for a trip.

MY PLAN
So my whole goal here is to perpetually grow all of the perso and party herb I will need for long ass time. And master the art of this particular type of horticulture. But, I want this to be a maxed out grow. I would like the plants as happy as possible. And with all limiting factors removed as early as possible. Co2 staying at ~1400 ppm, humidifiers and dehumidifiers to regulate RH, a portable AC if necessary, max DO, 3 mars ts3000s, and rdwc using advanced nutrients to completely regulate PH. I wanna pull out all of the stops and provide y’all with the pictures that I used to live vicariously through. Now I can’t do that without help. I have some questions.

Firstly, telling y’all that my room is sealed then immediately revealing that I have an exhaust, filter and fan sounds Like “okay well obviously it’s not sealed then” Anybody with experience in this? I need to know if I should reseal that hoe and airtighten it. Or is that exhaust from the top of the grow room held up by a shelf still gonna waste too much CO2. My intention was to still use it for smells and air scrubbing, but only at night when my CO2 cuts off. Is this train of thought okay and if not, why?

Secondly,should I even be hatching seedlings in rockwool in a propagation dome under my 1200w led light from greengo. I have and they mention to hang it 40 inches above the seedlings. At 24 inches, there seemed to be some uncomfortable amounts of stretching so lowered the light and will see today if that brought any improvement. They’re now around 18” below the light.

lastly, what nutrients from advanced nutrients (OP I know ) tickle your fancy? Personally, the only nutes that I’ve decided on for this op is their grow micro bloom, overdrive, and big bud. I am open to suggestions as long as they’re accompanied by some persuasive reasoning/ first hand experience.

I hope to hear from some of y’all and maybe make a couple new mates. Until then, I’m signing off with a goodnight to all of y’all and happy growing!

-Frankidank
 

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Wow for a first grow you seem to have everything pretty much figured out. Good job man. Okay so the only problem I see is you have exhaust and no intake, if the air is being pulled from the room with exhaust where does the air that replace it come from if you got the room sealed tight like you said. If your exhausting air has to be replaced from somewhere. Okay so passive intakes need to be about double the size of the room exhaust so you will need to put two six inch holes for Intakes and on these holes you will need want a spring loaded damper. That way the holes only open up when exhaust is pulling. The other option would be to use a fan for intake. Either way if your wanting to conserve c02 I'd out a damper on all ducts coming into or leaving the room so that when your exhaust is not going there are no leaks.
 

BigHornBuds

Well-Known Member
Are you going to be bringing your co2 bottle into n out of the window? That will get old

What nutes fr AN ? None .
 

tiltswitch

Well-Known Member
Youve got your work cut out if youve never grown before doing dwc.set up sounds good , just be aware your extraction doesn't pull out your co2 when it kicks in. Do you have an enviro controller ? Id consider one , sounds like you got everything covered.
id go with sensi iits much better in my opinion. Big bud and overdrive I use and recommendd them.honeychome is good too
 

Frankidank

New Member
@Apalchen
I considered that, as well. And now that you’ve remarked how that’s able to be accomplished, I think that’s exactly what I will do. Two 6 inch spring loaded dampers. I can’t thank you enough for that input because I was worried that just exposing a couple holes would ruin the sealing of the room. But makes me wonder, should my exhaust have a damper as well. Or is the carbon filter without airflow good enough to provide a decent seal on its own?

@BigHornBuds
I have also realized the flaw in my logic of keeping the co2 tank in the grow room, even if it is shelved and elevated above the lights. If anything that sounds like more of a hassle. While I don’t have a direct solution yet, I’m considering the following.
1. Convert the living room on the other side of the window of the grow room to my bedroom.
2. Building a wooden closet space big enough to house the water chiller and CO2 tank side by side.
3. Drilling holes allowing the pipes carrying chilled water to pass through the wall to the grow room and doing the same for the wiring/air tubing of the CO2 tank.
I’m hoping that this will allow for cooler temps, more leg room, and easy tank refills but I’m still uncertain. Lol appreciate the AN reviews but why didn’t you care for them?

@tiltswitch
I’m sorry, did you mean that I should be careful not to exhaust my CO2 out of the room? But I currently do not own a environment controller. However, you’ve got me researching what those are and why I need one heavily now so thank you.
Also thanks for the AN recommendation. I’ve heard big bud and overdrives were musts for amazing flowering results but haven’t heard much on honeycomb so I will do some research. And is sensi better because it’s two part/so easier? Because tbh with you, I only bought grow micro bloom because I was under the impression that only those contained the “ph perfect tech”which would mean a bit more ease on my first time DWC lol.

Also, if I want to start taking progress and set up pictures, would I have to start a new thread in like a grow category or would I just start posting in here?
 

myke

Well-Known Member
I’m sure your aware of temps needed for Co2. Also the amount of light needed to make it worth while ,I think that’s why most of us choose not to use it.
 

Frankidank

New Member
@myke
yessir. Or rather, the extent of my knowledge is the general awareness that with CO2 ppm’s around 1300-1500, the plants can handle higher temperatures. Around a max of about 85/86°. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. And that’s also why I have the plans to use a total of 3 LEDs. I’m either thinking of 3 mars TS3000s or 2 of those and 1 SF4000 by spider farmer.
 

myke

Well-Known Member
@myke
yessir. Or rather, the extent of my knowledge is the general awareness that with CO2 ppm’s around 1300-1500, the plants can handle higher temperatures. Around a max of about 85/86°. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. And that’s also why I have the plans to use a total of 3 LEDs. I’m either thinking of 3 mars TS3000s or 2 of those and 1 SF4000 by spider farmer.
I’m only going by memory here as I was looking into it also years ago. Something like 50 watts a sq/ft of HPS and 90F. This is what turned me off about it.Also the hi humidity needed.this was years ago so maybe there’s new info now but your Led lights I’m not sure are even close to what you’ll need. I hope I’m wrong. I’m old school and use HPS for the heat as there cheap.
 

Frankidank

New Member
I don’t care for AN because you are getting 30cents worth of food for 20-60$ a ltr.
Your paying for the marketing & the Kool pic on the bottle .
Idk about that one...from a hydroponic store ive seen exorbitantly higher prices than necessary. I do a lot of amazon shopping tho and have found 1L of each priced around 30 dollars with free two day for prime members. I think if you buy in larger amounts you can save a bit more. Could I inquire about your nutrients? I am simply under the impression that advanced nutrients has been researched and despite a higher premium, the buds produced are superb, the ph is always balanced, and you won't have to look far for them-every store stocks.

I’m only going by memory here as I was looking into it also years ago. Something like 50 watts a sq/ft of HPS and 90F. This is what turned me off about it.Also the hi humidity needed.this was years ago so maybe there’s new info now but your Led lights I’m not sure are even close to what you’ll need. I hope I’m wrong. I’m old school and use HPS for the heat as there cheap.
okay so I tried to logic this one out as best as I could. I would like some secondary input. The Mars TS3000 only draws 450 real watts per unit. I'll be running three of these. 450x3=1350...with the room being about a 4x8 = 32sqft (this is where I hope I'm not tripping. square feet is only LxW so I shouldn't try to do this math with the height of the room included for some reason) so 1350/32= ~42w/sqft
Further, their website claims that this LED will equate to a 750W HID. Ipso facto, 3x750=2,250/32sqft=~70W/sqft
Upon further research, yes I can see that a lot of plants will actually prefer hotter environments with CO2 supplementation. Should my LEDs not provide adequate heat, I would definitely probably remedy that with a small space heater connected to my hygrometer/temp controller
 

tiltswitch

Well-Known Member
I'll be honest with you I doubt you need to run the co2 , its used in huge grows like a warehouse with hundreds of plants, when I have used it I saw no real difference .you want to try and keep things simple for your first grow.it really doesjt matter which nutes you buy its how you use them that matters
 

BigHornBuds

Well-Known Member
Idk about that one...from a hydroponic store ive seen exorbitantly higher prices than necessary. I do a lot of amazon shopping tho and have found 1L of each priced around 30 dollars with free two day for prime members. I think if you buy in larger amounts you can save a bit more. Could I inquire about your nutrients? I am simply under the impression that advanced nutrients has been researched and despite a higher premium, the buds produced are superb, the ph is always balanced, and you won't have to look far for them-every store stocks.


okay so I tried to logic this one out as best as I could. I would like some secondary input. The Mars TS3000 only draws 450 real watts per unit. I'll be running three of these. 450x3=1350...with the room being about a 4x8 = 32sqft (this is where I hope I'm not tripping. square feet is only LxW so I shouldn't try to do this math with the height of the room included for some reason) so 1350/32= ~42w/sqft
Further, their website claims that this LED will equate to a 750W HID. Ipso facto, 3x750=2,250/32sqft=~70W/sqft
Upon further research, yes I can see that a lot of plants will actually prefer hotter environments with CO2 supplementation. Should my LEDs not provide adequate heat, I would definitely probably remedy that with a small space heater connected to my hygrometer/temp controller

I use Greenleafs MegaCrop n there supplements.
If you think that they are a special researched food , then the marketing is working .
AN will grow great weed, but so will the rest ,
I simply choose to pay 99% less for my nutes.
I use that $$$ to keep me happy , not Big Mike flying around in his jet .
 

bdt1981

Well-Known Member
I'll be honest with you I doubt you need to run the co2 , its used in huge grows like a warehouse with hundreds of plants, when I have used it I saw no real difference .you want to try and keep things simple for your first grow.it really doesjt matter which nutes you buy its how you use them that matters
Exactly. 20% of 2#s not much but 20% off 100 pounds is quite a bit.
 
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