4x4 Tent - Blue Hash and A-Train

Good Morning

My first grow journal. Welcome everyone. A little background; This is my third op. The first was potted dirt plants in a varment infested garage. The critters got more of it than I did. My second op is still going at my friend's house. That's a home-made ebb & flow setup. THIS is my first serious grow using all the knowledge I've gained through experience and community (RIU). I really want to do this right.

I've been slowly purchasing equipment and supplies over the last month. This shit is expensive! I've got:

4'9 x 4'9 GrowLab Tent
Stealth RO200 Water Filter
Ebb & Gro 12 System by C.A.P.
1000watt MH/HPS Lamp
Cool Sun 6" Hood
8" Vortex Fan
24/7 Nutrient Monitor

3 "Blue Hash" Seeds by Dinafem
3 "A-Train" Seeds by TH Seeds
1 "LA Woman"
1 "Lemon Skunk"

I will get 4 "OG Kush" clones this week to fill out my 12 pot system.

Here are some pics

Last week I germinated 11 seeds (3 croaked on me)


After 5 days I took the dome off.



Had to assemble the pot system. It was easier to do in the living room.



Had to Clean out the garage


And set up the tent. It's pretty big!



Last night I transfered all of the seedlings into larger rockwool. They are coming along nicely.



This weekend I'm going to finsih wiring the power, set up the RO system, and mount the fans and filter. Then I'll stick everything in the tent and run it 18-6 for a month or so.

There is a lot of work to be done still. I'm just getting started. My sister is coming to town next week so I've got to have everything tucked away and running on auto. With the holidays coming it will be hard to buy a bunch more equipment, but I still plan to purchase a Sentinal system and a Co2 setup. I can wait a month on that though.

Welcome to my grow.

Unfortunately I purchased a puny T5. I saw a "clone system" that had a single 2ft T5 floro mounted in the hood. I assumed that it was a single to avoid over-zapping the babies. So I purchased a 2ft 2-bulb T5 for my seedlings. That was almost $100 and I didn't want to spend $300 on a lamp I'll only use for a couple weeks every cycle.

So for the first week I kept the seedling under the dome, with the T5 on top. The dome is about 8" tall so the light was a little far away. The baby girls all stretched a little more than I would like. They were also on 24-0 light for the first week. They are on 18-6 for the last 3 days.

looking good man, I'm in!

I'm starting with Technaflora BC nutrients http://www.technaflora.com/products.php?product=18

So far so good, but I'm still in pre-veg. Has anyone used this product or know anything about what I should expect? For my other grows I've used Ionic Nutrients and I was very pleased, but these nutrients came with the EBB-12. Should I phase them out and go back to Ionic or should I buy more BC? What do you guys think?

You know I'm subbed

Looking good man - you had to one up me on the filter and get the 200, didn't you?

Just make sure not to leave it on all night and you'll be fine - even as un-handy as I am, installation's a snap.

I'll be watching anxiously

Bob Smith said:

You know I'm subbed

Looking good man - you had to one up me on the filter and get the 200, didn't you?

Just make sure not to leave it on all night and you'll be fine - even as un-handy as I am, installation's a snap.

I'll be watching anxiously

Click to expand...

Glad to have you. I'll definately need your input.

That's funny because my friend has the Stealth-100, but I THOUGHT he had the 200. So I bought the 200 not wanting a slower piss-dribble than he produces. Now I can only imagine the catastophe I'll create the first time I leave it on over night.

Luckily, I purchased a float valve I'll mount inside the 55 gal barrel. That's not fool-proof though because when the plants get watered the level drops and the water comes back on. If it fills too fast, I'll flood the garage before the water cycle is over. I should have bought the slower filter.

I'm glad installation is easy. I'm going to set it up this weekend. Just inside the garage door is my laundry room. I'll set up the filter in there and pop a short line through the wall. I've still got a lot of work to do.

smokingrubber said:

Glad to have you. I'll definately need your input.

That's funny because my friend has the Stealth-100, but I THOUGHT he had the 200. So I bought the 200 not wanting a slower piss-dribble than he produces. Now I can only imagine the catastophe I'll create the first time I leave it on over night.

Luckily, I purchased a float valve I'll mount inside the 55 gal barrel. That's not fool-proof though because when the plants get watered the level drops and the water comes back on. If it fills too fast, I'll flood the garage before the water cycle is over. I should have bought the slower filter.

I'm glad installation is easy. I'm going to set it up this weekend. Just inside the garage door is my laundry room. I'll set up the filter in there and pop a short line through the wall. I've still got a lot of work to do.

Click to expand...

If you don't mind, would love some picks of what a float valve is and how it actually works - could come in handy, you know?

And even though mine's a slow piss, even double that output is still gonna be ridiculously slow - you're lucky you have a sink close by to drain to, that's nice.

Bob, I will get you a picture of it this evening. Basically, you drill a hole in the side of the tub just above your desired water level. The stem sticks through and you tighten a nut to lock it in. The water line screws into the outside stem. Water rises and the float shuts the water off.

I didn't want to drill a hole in the tub and I was thinking about designing something to drop down in the tub and mount to the float, but anything just sitting in there would just float without turning the water all the way off. I'm going to have to drill a hole.

You still can't leave the water on all the time, but it should avert any major disasters.

Bob Smith said:

If you don't mind, would love some picks of what a float valve is and how it actually works - could come in handy, you know?

Click to expand...

Had to use my phone for the pic. But this will give you a rough idea of it's size. The water line gets screwed into the stem I'm holding onto


PS. How do you insert small pictures that get bigger when you click them?

smokingrubber said:

Had to use my phone for the pic. But this will give you a rough idea of it's size. The water line gets screwed into the stem I'm holding onto

PS. How do you insert small pictures that get bigger when you click them?

Click to expand...

Thanks man, appreciate that - to put pictures in, I just go to "manage attachments" and insert them - don't do anything special, and they all just come up as thumbnails when I post that get bigger when somebody clicks on them.

smokingrubber said:

I'm starting with Technaflora BC nutrients http://www.technaflora.com/products.php?product=18

So far so good, but I'm still in pre-veg. Has anyone used this product or know anything about what I should expect? For my other grows I've used Ionic Nutrients and I was very pleased, but these nutrients came with the EBB-12. Should I phase them out and go back to Ionic or should I buy more BC? What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

I've heard good stuff about the BC nutes but I use Ionic myself and have for years . . . guess I'm stuck in my ways

I will switch to Ionic when the BC is gone. It came with the ebb system, so I might as well use it if it doesn't suck. You're about to buy another ebb system (check ebay I got mine for $440 out the door). If you're not going to use your starter kit, how much do you want for it? PM me if you're interested.

Last night I installed the RO system



I really love how easy it is to open then tent and access it from all sides



Slung the carbon filter into place and strapped it up with 35" rubber bungies.



Here are the babies. 12 days old.



So now I've got to figure out the ducting. Right now, I've only got one fan. It's a monster though! My plan is: 6" line from the filter to the hood. 6" line from the hood to the fan mounted outside the tent. Since the fan is 8", I will have to put an adaptor just before to fan. Then the output is 8" up through the cieling and out a roof vent. I'll slap the output right to the roof vent. All incoming fresh air will be through the cracks in the garage. I might leave a window cracked in the garage, depending on how loud the whole thing gets when it's running.

Today, I'm going to: 1) wire up my 220 electric panel. 2) cut the hole in the ceiling and run all the ducting. 3) finish plumbing the ebb system & test it. If everything goes as planned, tomorrow I'll fill up the room and kick this bitch off. What am I forgetting?

PS, the hanging heater won't be used until I get the Sentinal.

PSS, I don't see a "manage attachments" button. When I use the "insert image", this is what happens.

thats a really nice setup i been wanting to get one of those tents....not enough money though

MRLD said:

thats a really nice setup i been wanting to get one of those tents....not enough money though

Click to expand...

It IS a really nice tent. I've been very impressed with it. Plus, it's got windows on the front I was a little sketch about spending the $ on it, but I'm glad I did.

My friend, who helped me set it up, went out and bought 2 the next day. He also grows and he had a bad case of "tent envy." LOL

Damn dude, this is gonna be one sick grow!!!

Looks like you got everything in order. Good luck with the rest. The Blue Hash should be tasty

Sunday afternoon update:

I started yesterday a little late. After working all morning and 2 trips to Depot & Orchard . . . I finally got down to biz.

I mounted the fan on the wall and cut a 8" hole in the ceiling. I pre-assembled the vent parts and sent a crawler to do my dirty work. He needed supplies though.


He plumbed the attic while I plumbed the tent.



And finished off the inside of the tent.



Then today, I wired the electric panel and purchased a speed controller.



Now the problem is NOISE. The fan is mounted directly to the wall. The opposite side of the wall is my living room. When I engage the speed controller the fan hums until full power. It's fine at full go, it's just sucking a massive amount of air. That in itself is loud too. What do I do? I could try to mount the bitch to the ceiling with bungies, but I don't have much headroom to work with. This sucks.

I'll still finish out plumbing the bucket system today. Then I'll fill the reservior and test everything. I can hook up the reservior monitor and calibrate it. I don't think I'll put the babies in there yet though. I won't get the reservior heater until tuesday and the system has to be quieter somehow.

Any good suggestions?

I fixed the noise problem by mounting the bitch to the ceiling. MUCH better. I was kinda bummed for a minute. Almost gave up for the day. Smoked a bowl and pressed on.

I've finished plumbing the buckets and I installed the float valve. Now the barrel is filling and I will test everything later tonight. Ah, I might wait on that test till tomorrow. I couldn't stand it if there were a problem and I had to take something apart again. I might save that adventure till tomorrow.

In the morning I will post pics of my progress.

Looking very good, my friend - reading and seeing the pics of you setting up takes me back a month or two when all day every day was getting my tents ready for the ladies - it's a rewarding time, especially in hindsight.

The noise from those fans suck, doesn't it? My garage sounds like a Nascar race.............also hung my filter with the same 35" Home Depot bungees - they work great.