First time grower needing help to finish first grow setup!

hey guys, new to the forums.

ive been doing alot of reading and studying on this site and A LOT of others lol, but i still need some help finishing my setup. i want to explain my setup, and ask some questions after.

but basically whats going on...is me and a long time friend are going to try growing. we are currently building in his basement. we bought some lumber and built a 5 foot deep, about 6 foot high, and 8 foot long box that is separated in the center of the 8 foot stretch to create two rooms side by side that measure around 5x6x4 (one for veg and one for flowering). we bought a smaller tarp to wrap the bottom peices of lumber to create a tarp floor, then built and nailed lumber from the bottom part and up (if that makes sense). we did that to help with it being air tight. yesterday we bought more tarp and tarped the rest of the structure and used a lot of staples from staple guns to staple the tarp to the wood.

next we then cut a slit in the tarp the shape of a small door (around 2 foot wide and 3 foot high). we made an actual door by using a panel of styrofoam insulation, and stapled it to the open flap in the tarp. we made the cut smaller then the actual insulation door to that it would overlap the tarp from the outside. and we used velcro strips on the overlapped parts to create a good seal. we plan on doing this for both sides, but we only need one door to have access to the inside because we havent actually separated the two rooms yet. its just 2x3 wood beams that separate it for the moment, so both rooms are accessible.

we are now in the process of putting up the rest of the insulation. we are using 1/4 inch thick cheap styrofoam insulation panels that measure like 3 foot by 2 foot or so. maybe a bit bigger. we are tucking them in between where the wood and tarp meet, then stapling them from the outside of the structure so it stays on the wood. we are doing this on every side and the roof. and duct taping the panels flush with eachother, and anywhere else that may need it on the inside. then either stapling or hot gluing aluminum foil to all the insulation panels, and the inside of the doors. thats basically what were doing structure wise. if your interested in some pics, im sure i can snap a few.

our light setup were going for is 600w HPS for the flowering room, and 600w MH for vegitation. but i think for one grow were only going to use one room (maybe 5 or 6 good plants. we dont want to get too ahead of ourselves).

so far we have the light situation, and structure situation settled....i think. what im concerned of is ventilation, and co2. before i go buying supplies and cutting or building onto anything, i want to be 100% sure how im going to set it up. so far we have a carbon filter, that has a 190cfm fan connected to it (it came with the 600w hps bulb and the ulti lumenx dimmable balast that we bought off a guy off CL for 150 bucks). now my question is...would that fan be enough to properly exhaust a room of that size? with both rooms i think the total cubic feet is around 240. so the one room we plan on using for the first grow is around 120. also, i heard that the intake fan has to be rated with less cfm than the exhaust or it will cause a negative pressure or something. is that right? another thing is we plan on mounting exhaust piping near the front of the bulb, so the exhaust will pull heat away from the bulb (since we dont have an air cooled hood), and have another seperate exhaust vent for the room itself. then connecting both exhaust pipes into one that will run into the carbon filter. and having the intake fan mounted through a hole built into the tarp and sealed towards the bottom of the room. and of course having the oscillating fan in the room for circulation. does that sound okay? or am i missing something?

another question is about co2. were wanting to use co2 after we get the room up and running and after we have all the *querks* so to say of the room settled. because im not trying to blast the room with co2 when we first start it up and kill myself or ruin plants. my question is, i read online on a forum that co2 is pointless to use in a ventilated room setup because the co2 can escape through the open intake ports, and really only works on a enclosed room. is that right? for some reason i feel like its not. but then again im not experienced in this yet. also the open intake port worries me, could i rig up some sort of filter to filter any dirt/debris from the basement so it dont enter my room??? or am i looking at the intake system all wrong?? another question is, what all parts would i need for a co2 setup? from what ive read, ill need a co2 tank. (im buying a 20 pound this week). a regulator and timer, or a controller. or do i need all of those? i just want to buy a tank, hook it up, and have it come on with the lights and shut off when im at the right amount of ppm, be like that for a few hours (or however long you think is best because idk), exhaust, and do it again.

sorry for all the noob questions. i really want to make sure i have everything i need and a complete understanding of how everything is going to work before i buy or build/set it up. thanks for any help!

Why this styrofoam insulation?

well, we decided to use thin insulation and put aluminum foil on the insulation to help keep heat/light inside. we could see light penatrating the tarp at first. is that a bad idea??

...pictures

for sure man, give me a few minutes to snap and upload.

you want heat to esacpe not trap itself in your grow and with an HPS and MH its gonna get hot

so, you want heat to escape even with the exhaust setup? i thought the exhaust was supposed to be what gets rid of the heat inside the grow room?

pics posted for anyone who cares. its a work in progress still. we are putting a support beam for the door so its not so flimsy. still need the rest of the insulation and aluminum foil.

so nobody can give me any feedback with the qquestions i posted?

here ya go.

If you are going to use co2 then you need a sealed room. No air in or out. Which mean you have to have an AC unit that exhausts into the room. If you have a sealed hood (which you said you didn't) then you could pull air from outside the room through the hood and back out of the room.

using outside rm air to vent your tent; 190 cfm isn't that large of a fan (4"?) so I'm assuming the carbon filter is small also. This might barely work for one side but not near enough for the whole area, but I'd give it a try you can upsize later if needed. Simplify your exhaust. Mount the carbon filter as high in tent as you can, hot air rises. You can mount the fan directly to the filter and hang it in the tent also or run pipe out the tent and mount the fan outside the tent, its better to pull air through a carbon filter than to try a push air through the filter. With the small fan use straight rigid pipe if you can, you will get more air flow through rigid pipe than through flex. Just use a passive air intake low in the tent wall. It needs to be larger than your powered exhaust line. (6" exhaust = 8" passive intake min)

thanks for the info man, and sorry for the late replies. ive been working the weekend and finally got some time to do some work! lol

but when we get paid tomorrow we are going to invest in an air cooled hood. how would that change the ventilation setup when using co2? because id really like to incorporate co2 with this grow, but i want to make sure i have ventilation right. but then again this is my first grow and i dont want to screw anything up by making things too complicated. so your saying theres no intake fan at all or exhaust when using co2? just alowing the ac to vent into the room? how would that work if theres no air in or out? and what about smell? im just kind of confused on how id set that up.

now without co2 i somewhat get it. ive read enough to where i can set that one up.

hes right-with a sealed room you would run your filter and fan inside the room(smell) ac(heat), co2, and no intake or exaust vents- i think it would be complicated considering your going to have 2 seperate rooms, you would need 2 ac's, co2 setups, or im sure you could vent air between the 2 rooms-ie flowering room blows air into veg room with ac and co2 in it that blows air back into flowering room-keeping temps and co2 levels stable, someone correct me if im wrong, but running 2 ac's and 2 co2 gens/tanks and controllers seems unnecessary and expensive.

putting that insulation down on the floor is a good idea- cement will get cold, and stapeling up black and white poly on walls floor and ceiling would make this set up ideal imo. buying a air cooled hood would mean you would run duct from a intake on one side of room to the hood then to a fan then exaust out the other side, keeping your ac costs down. If you have space in veg room for a portable ac big enough to cool your 2 rooms, a co2 tank and controller, it could be fairly simple- keeping temps stable in a sealed room is much easier then in a ventilated room, the air cooled hood would be best suited for the HPS which runs hotter then MH.

Well we had already decided to use just one room and interchange bulbs for the first grow. so we can have some experience under our belts before utilizing the other room. And we just don't have the cash to get the items for the other room. Also with that we decided to not use co2 untill the second grow. (Bills are a mother$*%&er huh?) Lol. Or is co2 a must???

So were going the ol' intake/exhaust technique for now. Earlier this morning we picked up the duct work and adapters. An oscillating fan. Some miracle grow starter soil for the seedlings. A grow dome that can hold 50 seedlings, a couple timers and a Ph meter.

Were still missing a few items I know. But were mainly focusing on the items to get the veg room operational. I figured we still have a couple months before they go to flowering to buy the rest of the stuff. Were only a month in and we have already got the majority of what we need. And we can pick more up weekly when needed.

But a couple questions, first tell me if this sounds right. I'm going to mount the filter towards the top inside the tent, have piping run out of the tent from the filter into the fan, drawing air out. Then cut a hole and mount an intake fan on the opposite side of the room towards the bottom. Now correct me if I'm wrong but you said I could run piping from the intake fan to the air cooled hood (cooling the bulb right?) And having it exhausted back out. Does that sound okay? I've got a setup in my head mapped out lol.

Also, whats black and white poly???

Another question. About nutrients, we don't have any veg nutrients. We only picked up starter soil for the seedling until they are far along enough to transfer into their own pots. Now when we get to that point what would be the best soil to get? Or soil/nutrients for veg stage?

Hopefully next payday (next week) we should be up and running, or at least have the rest of the items we need ordered. Veg side anyways. Any tips or items you think I may need let me know. Any info is good info to me lol.

There a couple of ways to run your ventilation. But 1st inline fans draw air better than they push air.

Now if you have 2 fans you'll want to use one for rm ventilation and the other to cool your light hood.
Vent line as you mentioned filter hi up, fan pulling rm air through the filter and out of the tent. A passive (no forced fan feed) intake will work just fine. This will take care of your bud stench problem.
Hood cooling line connect flex duct to the inlet and outlet, the inlet line should be run through the wall and draw air from outside the tent, through the hood then back out of the tent connected to the 2nd fan, this way you are not pulling any stench air from the tent and blowing it out unfiltered.

If you only have one fan then start with the filter hi up in the room run this to the inlet on your light hood and then the outlet goes out the tent to the fan. So your pulling hot filtered air through the hood and discharging out of the tent.

Black/White plastic is just that, black on one side and white on the other, it is used to cover windows in a grow rm, white to the inside black to the outdoors.

As far as nutes there are way too many with too many claims to say this is the only way to go. If I were you I'd start with a simple one bottle veg formula and a one part flower formula. (use the same brand for both to start with) General Hydroponics has good products at a good price, but there are many others also. As far as what I use, I use Osmocote Plus, just mix it in with the soil when you build your pot and water, its really that easy to feed your plants.

okay okay, now i definitely get what your trying to say man. ive got the ventilation setup drawn up according to what you described, and it sounds pretty legit dude. one hole for passive intake, then the filter and fan connected to another hole for exhaust (for room ventilation). and a second intake hole with piping ran to the intake of the hood, and a second exhaust hole with piping running from the other side of the hood to the outside of the tent, with a fan connected to it (strictly for hood cooling purposes). so basically two inlet/outlet systems.

the black and white plastic, would that be like in the grow room itself? or just on the windows? because there is only one window in the basement, and its practically blocked off from the outside already.

and for the nutes, ive read about the two part nutrient system on another thread on here. one for veg and one for flower. we already picked up the flowering nutes when we picked up the ballast, light, and hood. it was a package deal. its General Hydroponics FloraNova Bloom 4-8-7, would that work? but what im concerned about is the type of soil/nutes to use for veg. do i get soil that dont have any nutes in it and add the stuff from the bottle to it? or find soil with nutes in it AND combine the stuff from the bottle with it? i feel like that would be too much though. ive read on here that someone used like 1/3 peat moss 1/3 fertilizer and something else, and then used the nutes from the bottle. i like that idea. im just worried about it because right now all we picked up was the starting soil for the seedlings, and here in a few weeks or more (idk how long) were probably going to have to move them to seperate pots and use different soil correct? because starting soil shouldnt be used for the entire vegging period.

thank you again for all the good info. and sorry for all the questions, again, i just want to be 100 percent sure so i can grow with confidence.

Sounds like you have your ventalation figured out, if you do decide to use co2, just set your exaust fan to turn off when co2 turns on. black and white plastic is for the inside of the room, you would staple it up on the floor walls and ceiling of your room to keep moisture in and reflect light, plus its easy to clean. you shouldnt leave the inside of your grow box as is, at the minimum you need to paint it flat white.

Yeah from what everyone has said I feel pretty confident i got the ventilation part okay.

But we thought about whenever we decide to use co2, (or at least when we can afford to get the setup) to let it leak in through the passive intake untill the desired ppm then cut off, and have the oscillating fan distribute it around. And at the same time having the exhaust system shut off, but come back on every so often to exhaust the heat. Would that work?? Like have a controller that monitors temps in the room, and when it reaches a certain specified high temp, the controller turns the exhaust sysytem on untill the inside reaches a certain specified low temp. And connect the controller to a timer that comes on during light hours. Do they sell something like that?? Or if they dont maybe I can monitor how long it takes for the temps inside the tent to get hot enough to exhaust, and set a timer in intervals during light hours to do so.

But we weren't going to leave the tent how it currently is. We planned on finishing it up later today by putting up the rest of the insulation, and stapling aluminum foil everywhere, and rigging up the ventilation system.

Kbro1988 said:

and for the nutes, ive read about the two part nutrient system on another thread on here. one for veg and one for flower. we already picked up the flowering nutes when we picked up the ballast, light, and hood. it was a package deal. its General Hydroponics FloraNova Bloom 4-8-7, would that work? but what im concerned about is the type of soil/nutes to use for veg. do i get soil that dont have any nutes in it and add the stuff from the bottle to it? or find soil with nutes in it AND combine the stuff from the bottle with it? i feel like that would be too much though. ive read on here that someone used like 1/3 peat moss 1/3 fertilizer and something else, and then used the nutes from the bottle. i like that idea. im just worried about it because right now all we picked up was the starting soil for the seedlings, and here in a few weeks or more (idk how long) were probably going to have to move them to seperate pots and use different soil correct? because starting soil shouldnt be used for the entire vegging period.

Click to expand...

Flora Nova is a good product, go ahead and get a bottle of their "Grow" formula also for the veg period.
Get soil WITHOUT any nutes. hopefully your seeds are in a qt or less of the seedling soil. If you're in a small seed starter then you should see roots popping out within 2 wks. Then transplant to larger pot. You can use an in-between size pot if you want (use less nutes during veg) or you can go straight to your final pot size, most folks will recommend doing this.
Mix the nutes into your water, mix at a lower rate than specified on the bottle, and work your way up.

I had figured to use soil with no nutes. We have some more things to order so we will get the veg nutes then. But what kind of soil do you reccommend? Should i go for the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 mixture? And add the nutes with the water? Because thats looking pretty promising lol. Right now were using the seedling starter soil with nutes in it. Untill we transplant into bigger pots, then do what you said.