8' x 8' Grow Room Setup

Hi there, I set up an 8'x8' grow space in a standard bedroom. I installed a 100CFM exhaust fan into the ceiling and it is directly ducted to a vent on the roof of my dwelling. There is also an A/C duct to control the temp. Here's what I have:

2 2000w LED grow lights, 1 1000w LED grow light
ground fan
20 5-gallon tubs
20 lids with 1 3/8" holes cut in the center (same size hole as Aerogarden pods)
20 Tetra whisper fish pumps to circulate the solution

The seeds will go in Aerogarden pods, which will be seated in the lids of the tubs. The tubs will be filled with water and Aerogarden nutrient (I've used the Aerogarden and its nutrient system to great success). Every two weeks I will flush the tubs and replenish the nutrient solution.

This will be my first time with auto-flowering. With regular seeds, I've always gone with a 24-hour on veg cycle and a 12-12 bloom cycle, which seems to work like a charm. Should I do the same for the auto-flower and just switch the light cycle once they start flowering? Also, some say DO NOT top, while some say to top at the 3rd node when a young plant. Opinions?

Any other suggestions or questions would be appreciated!

Cheers

What brand and actual wattage are the LED lights?

I know diddly about auto-flowers so I can't help there.

How many square feet are you going to have as actual canopy? With high quality LED you want somewhere around 35 actual watts per sqft. Note that the LED's you have are probably not going to cover the area you anticipate.

The Bestva 2000w LEDs are 185w actual, so that's a total of 370w. The space is 8 x 8. I was thinking of picking up two more, so I can keep the lights about 24" above the plants and have even coverage. That would be a total of 740w.

You don't need to change the light cycle at all for autos

Latavius Janikowski said:

The Bestva 2000w LEDs are 185w actual, so that's a total of 370w. The space is 8 x 8. I was thinking of picking up two more, so I can keep the lights about 24" above the plants and have even coverage. That would be a total of 740w.

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That's kind of a low number of watts for 64 sqft. Your looking at around 11 watts per sqft

Dryxi said:

You don't need to change the light cycle at all for autos

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So maintain 24hr light cycle? Or maintain 12/12? Thanks!

Latavius Janikowski said:

So maintain 24hr light cycle? Or maintain 12/12? Thanks!

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I don't grow autos but I listen to a lot of podcasts and according to those, ppl do 18/6 often.

**I had 18/12 as the light cycle (changed it), bad typo.

Dryxi said:

That's kind of a low number of watts for 64 sqft. Your looking at around 11 watts per sqft

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I think that would be an issue if they were HPS lights, but the conversion rate of LED wattage to actual wattage used isn't always indicative of how much light the plants are absorbing. Obviously, the 2000w LED doesn't give the same light output as a 2000w hps bulb, but it definitely has more light output than a 185w hps bulb. Make sense?

Latavius Janikowski said:

I think that would be an issue if they were HPS lights, but the conversion rate of LED wattage to actual wattage used isn't always indicative of how much light the plants are absorbing. Obviously, the 2000w LED doesn't give the same light output as a 2000w hps bulb, but it definitely has more light output than a 185w hps bulb. Make sense?

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As an example I have 2 550w (from the wall) top shelf LEDs, and 2 vertical 315w cmh...

... All over a 4x8

Latavius Janikowski said:

I think that would be an issue if they were HPS lights, but the conversion rate of LED wattage to actual wattage used isn't always indicative of how much light the plants are absorbing. Obviously, the 2000w LED doesn't give the same light output as a 2000w hps bulb, but it definitely has more light output than a 185w hps bulb. Make sense?

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Actually with those LEDs I'd rather have 185w of hps everywhere. Since you have ac and heat isnt a problem I'd go with hps or a large led strip light.

SwiSHa85 said:

Actually with those LEDs I'd rather have 185w of hps everywhere. Since you have ac and heat isnt a problem I'd go with hps or a large led strip light.

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If I run the four LEDs they will be in two strips of coverage area, so I'm going to do that and hope for the best, since I already have two of the LEDs. I ran a 1000w LED in my 3'x3' space and it was sweet!

Dryxi said:

I don't grow autos but I listen to a lot of podcasts and according to those, ppl do 18/12 often.

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Cool I'll check into it further but thanks for the starting point.

SwiSHa85 said:

Actually with those LEDs I'd rather have 185w of hps everywhere. Since you have ac and heat isnt a problem I'd go with hps or a large led strip light.

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Also, I can shrink the space to 6'x7' and still fit all 20 plants in there. What about that?

Latavius Janikowski said:

Also, I can shrink the space to 6'x7' and still fit all 20 plants in there. What about that?

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Your 740w would shine on a 5x5 space but it will still grow good stuff in a 6x7 but you really would do better with more light.

Dryxi said:

Your 740w would shine on a 5x5 space but it will still grow good stuff in a 6x7 but you really would do better with more light.

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Cool, I just measured and I can get it down to 6'x6' with the 20 containers. I can always expand to 8'x8' and add more lights and containers if I like the setup. Thanks for the advice.

Latavius Janikowski said:

Cool, I just measured and I can get it down to 6'x6' with the 20 containers. I can always expand to 8'x8' and add more lights and containers if I like the setup. Thanks for the advice.

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Could always just keep the extra space to start more since the light cycle doesnt have to change could get some really nice perpetual harvests going by timing when you germ ur next set of autos and after a couple rounds ur timing shoukd be near perfect where you always have ur next cycle ready for the bloom

Gardenator said:

Could always just keep the extra space to start more since the light cycle doesnt have to change could get some really nice perpetual harvests going by timing when you germ ur next set of autos and after a couple rounds ur timing shoukd be near perfect where you always have ur next cycle ready for the bloom

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Yep, and thanks to your ideas, I rethought it and can configure in 7x3 for 21 square feet and get the cycles going when I expand it and add more lights.

That's not nearly enough light for that space. What brand LED are you using? Check out my 4X8 room setup in my sig. I was using 3 MarsHydro TSW2000 and that wasn't enough, so I went for 2 TSW2000 and ordered a TSW3000 to replace one of them in the flower section. (It'll be here next week.) With that much space and an AC unit, you can do HPS or you're going to need a lot more LED light. Your space is 2X bigger than mine and you're planning on using 1/2 the light.

Do you have a drawing of how you want to lay everything out? Maybe we can take a look at that and opine on a better way to do it.

I'm still a newbie, but I've been really happy with growing autos. If you're doing a space that big, you can do what I'm doing and run a line. Crack 2-3 seeds every 2 weeks and have a perpetual grow going. you'll be harvesting 6-8oz every 2-3 weeks. Plenty to go around.

Good luck, and keep us all in the loop as to what you're doing. Lots of great people here that can help make the most of what you're doing.

CptTripps said:

That's not nearly enough light for that space. What brand LED are you using? Check out my 4X8 room setup in my sig. I was using 3 MarsHydro TSW2000 and that wasn't enough, so I went for 2 TSW2000 and ordered a TSW3000 to replace one of them in the flower section. (It'll be here next week.) With that much space and an AC unit, you can do HPS or you're going to need a lot more LED light. Your space is 2X bigger than mine and you're planning on using 1/2 the light.

Do you have a drawing of how you want to lay everything out? Maybe we can take a look at that and opine on a better way to do it.

I'm still a newbie, but I've been really happy with growing autos. If you're doing a space that big, you can do what I'm doing and run a line. Crack 2-3 seeds every 2 weeks and have a perpetual grow going. you'll be harvesting 6-8oz every 2-3 weeks. Plenty to go around.

Good luck, and keep us all in the loop as to what you're doing. Lots of great people here that can help make the most of what you're doing.

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Thanks for the advice! I've narrowed it down to a 7'x3' space with the 2 2000w lights and 1 1000w. I can expand the space once I get more lights. I'll check your setup too.