Help me out please! New grower and setup!

Helltownhero said:

Im running co2 it allows to run higher temps...u dont need a vent system if u use co2 it will be a waste it will all get exahsted out..and yes u deff need a co2 controler a good one will run u around $300 thats a MUST!! Do u have offer up in canada its a app check it out..the roling ac work fine i used em for my first grows keot 2 1000w at a perfect 78 degrees but anymore lights than that yiur gonna have issues..yes the glass blockes out lumens how much IDK but i do knotice a difference wen not useing them better faster growth...airbox filter??? U mean carbon filter? If running co2 u want to scrub the air not vent it out reason for that is u will exahst all your co2..just put it in a corner and it will scrub the air and help with smell...run your lights at 100% burns em out faster if u dont..u going from seed? Or from clone?? I start my clones in rockwool then to solo cups then one galon pots then to 7 gal for a final pot...how big u want to grow your plants? That will determine pot size...what medium u useing? There is so much variables that go into this best way is to figure iut what works best for u and your style..u will get a different answer from every person trust me i learned the hard way..just do what works and utilizing tips u get off here what works for one person may not work for the other every grow is unique...old school works man as long as your environment is on point and soil/hydro s in check you will grow quality buds...strains and genestics also play a big part in that..use panda film for your walls easy to put up and takw down fast if needed i devide my veg and flower room with a few studs and just panda film keepa it sealed and no light leaks..cmh is not that good in my opinion for starting seedlings and clones its good but as for that not good enough..again this all my opinion and my experience...no set up is shitty as long as your environment is on point the fucking plants cant tell hahaha...sorry for my horrible grammar and spelling..i grow weed for a reason hahaha hope my info helps

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Apalchen said:

If your in Canada you should be good to air cool your room most of the year if not all of it, just run your lights on at night. The glass blocks roughly 10 percent of your light but keep em clean and close and you won't notice much difference as you can get closer although the biggest down fall of air cooled reflectors is majority of them have a bit smaller foot print. I like the blockbuster brand of air cooled hoods.

Yeah man get some grows under your belt before dropping all that cash. I mean I spent that much on my room but my tents paid for it. I also been growing a long time.

Cmh are awesome and not as hot as hps but still put off some heat. They are a luxury tho not a necessity. Simple hps works well.

I can't give good advice on soil as I can't grow anything in soil so not sure of pot sizes or anything for that. I simply suck at growing in dirt. Lots of people are the opposite and prefer it tho. And I know it's less work.

84 is high temp.if not running c02 and I wouldn't mess with c02 for now. It's something to add later when you've maxed out what you got and dialed it all in.

Don't be embarrassed of your plants you should have seen my first grow, was well over a 100 degrees plants as tall as me in small ass pots of some kinda wal.mart dirt. They were terrible. Was back before I knew about forums had to actually go buy a book.

DE bulbs are just the newest tech. They are a bit more efficient so put out more light. That being said not enough to worry about it in your situation as almost all of them are setup like a commercial fixture and get hot as hell. Your better off just getting traditional air cooled hps.

Sorry for the mess of a post I just keep scrolling up to see your questions and adding info. Think I got most of them let me know anymore u have.

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Helltownhero said:

I suggest this for a controler if u decide to run it..imo co2 is easy to run even for a begginer as long as u have the right equipment View attachment 4378702

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Empire.420 said:

Yes the airbox is a carbon filter with removable, replaceable filters thought it might be good for long term, looks well built.

Do you guys run hepa filtered air to your room? I'm presuming you don't if your running co2 because it will pull it out like you said.

So if you run co2 then you dont need all the fans and crap pulling fresh air in every 1-3 mins? I would just run 1 fan pulling through the lights and exhausting out the room?

I was trying to stay lower cost by using the 2 1000 w for my veg room and then buy new lights/hoods for the flower room?

Also are the raptor hoods or solarismax 66 good options? Should i be using 6 or 8" inlets for the cooling? im presuming 8' if ill be pulling through 3-4 lights?

would 3-4 hps 1000w air cooled be sufficient for my flower room?

As for the plants i currently got going. A buddy gave me a few clones of his Hawaiian Lights that ive be playing around with and practicing. I let them go way way longer in veg than i should have but it was more so to learn about the plants and growing. The next ones i really plan to go hard on will be from fem seeds. Are there any big players in the seed world i should know about?

How's barneys farms, g13 labs, royal queen, etc? or are there better seed ppl out there?

Have either of you guys used DWC or full hydroponic setups? Is it easier/less maintenance than a soil grow?



Yeah im in BC canada, so the summers do get fairly warm +15 to +30 celcius and the winters about -20 to -30 celcius. So im playing with quite the range lol.

Also about the glass, i've heard the round cool tubes do not block the light like the flat glass does? however it seems like all the shade are shitty in comparison to the nice sealed hood units.

Can you recommend any good 1000w HID lights w/ hoods and ballasts that wouldnt break the bank? Ive been looking at the raptor hoods and solarismax66 as they both seem to have large footprints.

In my room 8' W x 15' L x 7.5 H would 4 of the cool tubed hoods suffice? Keep in mind thats the total inside dimensions of the room and i was hoping to leave a 1' or 1.5' section all the way around them for easy access?

Do you guys use scrog nets? ive been looking at building my own and have the parts/fittings on order. Building it out of pvc.

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Empire.420 said:

I already have a co2 generator, not sure if its good or not but its propane based. Ill take pics of it so u can see if its worth running.

Would running co2 in the room make me require less fans/filters etc thus cutting the cost down a bit while being more efficient?

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Helltownhero said:

Im not a scrog guy i do supper crop and do some HST to increase yeilds i shoot for a harvast every 6 weeks dont have time to weave em through yhe net and all that shit...again thats my prefference..no aor coming in or out PERIOD just wall fans and co2 gonna need a dehumidifier also..air cooled hood are a 50 50 with me they work to a point if u have higbt issues use em ccuz u can get your light closer to the plant..again of your cooling the hoods and running co2 make sure its not sucking out of the room oitside to outside...im gonna make it simple for u...take the hoods u have fuck co2 for now hook em up 8inch 6inch whatever they are atach the filter to one end hang it high up in the room then connect all thw lights via ducting and get and 8 or 6 inch exahst fan hurricane makes good ones they are fairly cheap...get some soil some one gal and 5 gal pots start in the one transplant to the 5 wen they are a foot tall..water wen needed keep the room at 72-80 degrees at 50-65 humidity run your lights at 18/6 and flip em 12/12 wen they are half the desired finishing hight they usually double in size during flower...do that and u will get bud..its simple and easy...hortilux 1000w bulbs are good and any reflective hood will work..amazon u can get vivosun 1000w balast for 95$..

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Empire.420 said:

I believe I'm running hortilux bulbs right now already, just running what my old man already had haha. As for the hoods, they are pieces of shit and aren't even cooled so I'm having to stay probably 2' above the plant to keep the canopy temp decent. My plants are different heights so that doesn't help lol.

And I'm thinking with only 7.5'H in the room I should probably use cool tubes or the cooled hoods because once I account for the hoods and mounting hardware that 7.5 goes down a fair bit.

For repotting I was told to never hop pot sizes or it stunts the growth? I was told to go from 1 to 2 to 3 to 5 etc.?

Also for the whole co2 stuff, would it be more efficient and cost effective to run the co2 and use less fans and filters or should I just run normal airflow to the room and say fuck it to the co2. I wouldn't even consider co2 if I didn't already have a generator. I forgot to take a pic of it but going back up in a bit so I'll try to remember then lol.

Took a few pics, not sure how well they'll turn out as the lights are on but I'll post some up.

***** I also noticed some weird shit happening to some of the fan leaves. Can anyone let me know what this is and what it's cause by? *****

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Helltownhero said:

Hold off on the co2 seems like u dont even have the right equipment for it...just run a ventalated room air intake and exhaust..u need the fams and filters anyway running co2 or not, just the difference is the room is sealed..plants look ok to me your doing just fine...ditch the generator you dont have the equipment to cool the room it adds more heat unless u want to buy a 2000 split ac unit...get compressed co2 its better in my opinion..

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Empire.420 said:

Im not currently runnin any co2 on this setup. Dont even have that great of airflow either These are all reasons for changing rooms and rebuilding lol.

All i know that he does have is the generator and propane tank but i dont think he has any monitors i could use so i would have to purchase that.

And so you would still run carbon filters in a sealed room? and hepa filters?

the hepa seems pointless unless the air is coming from an outside source no? And the carbon also seems pointless if the room is to be sealed with no air in or out? Could you further explain these 2 things?

Also do you know whats going on with my fan leaves there or is that normal?

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Empire.420 said:

I have been ph'ing my water to roughly 6 and then adding nutes, then retesting an trying to stay between 6-6.5. My local grow shop said my runoff should be coming out at 6 but i just learned that so am gunna try that now. Prior to that i wasnt checking my runoff ph.

I am currently in soil, some special mix from my local grow store, not sure what all he puts in it but its got lots of perlite and he said he also adds bat guano and some other things. As for nutes i have been using the Green planet lineup. Im currently using their Bloom A + B, Rezin, Terpinator, Pro cal and some Roots gold. According to the chart this is the last week ill be adding roots gold. The roots gold was in place of Rhizotonic. I do a water/feed alternation.

I also definetely do want to keep the smell down. I live on an acreage so my neighbors aren't particularly close but still dont want to risk it. I see what you mean by it scrubbing the air now. Just basically hook a fan to it but have it pulling from room and putting it right back into the room?

Should i possibly look into DWC or hydro as opposed to soil? I see some of those pot systems with water and they look like they may be alot less maintenance? They also seem like you'd be able to leave your plants for more than a day or two at a time? Better for travelling an whatnot?

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Empire.420 said:

im only 3 weeks into flower at the moment so i still got a solid 5-6 weeks left. Im just following what my local grow store has half ass told me to do lol. He told me to not put nutes to it till i water 2-3 times as the soil has a fair amount built in and need to get some of that gone before adding more. The feed chart i have seems like im adding quite a bit though... Ill take a pic of that later as well and upload it and maybe you guys can have some insight on that as well.

I am using well water as well so im not sure to what effect that plays. I was debating getting a ph/ppm meter to make things easier, only using the drops or w.e at the moment.

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Empire.420 said:

Im using well water. I should probably ph/ppm meter it and see where im sitting to begin with but i dont have the meters yet Well i got some old AF ones but i doubt theyre calibrated or working properly.

I do alternate my water and feedings. water one time, feed the next etc. The feed chart i believe is pumping in 1000-1400 ppm it says? im not entirely sure ill have to grab a pic when i head to the shop later.

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Empire.420 said:

The only reason i was considering using all of that is because i have most of it available to me already lol. The only thing im really wanting to change would be my lighting as im sure im going to run into heat issues once i move into the new room. Im currently only running 1 1000w HPS but non air cooled so running into heat issues for my heights.

Im considering getting a cool tube or 2 and using my current ballasts to cut the heat down though.

Are flat glass cooled hoods or round glass cool tubes better?

Also should i be considering double ended options or just stick to the OG Single endeds?

Basically for right now im trying to learn but also wanna setup a halfass decent room cause im really enjoying it! Having a good time with it so far and would like to keep going but with the right gear. I just dont wanna buy something sub par now and then 2 crops later realize i shoulda spent the extra little bit and got something better ya know?

Im not looking to spend a fortune but for now i probably need a few new lights/ballasts, ph and ppm meters, fans, and maybe a flood table or 2.

What are some good accurate ph and ppm meters?

I do have a few buddies who grow so were all kinda looking to take it a little further. Just looking to get my hand at it first and get the quality on point, then i can worry about the quantity later.

Any little tidbits of advice are greatly appreciated!

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Helltownhero said:

Nothing i mean NOTHING in this hobby is cheap...only good thing is once u got it u got it u got it the initial investment blows..if i was u i would invest in a nive 3 ton split ac

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Empire.420 said:

Yeah i know it can be very very pricey lol i just meant cheaper in terms of some companys may be having wicked sales or stuff like that. Or maybe someone knows of good deals on certain piece from certain places to buy etc. I know its not cheap to get into and im aware of that but nothing is really cheap these days for hobbys, at least this one has a chance to give me some return lol

Im more so not wanting to waste money in terms of buying something then 3 months later buying something a bit better then 6 months after that buying something better etc. Rather just get some halfass decent gear out the gate so im not constantly upgrading and left with a whole ton of gear i won't use. I get i can only prepare so much but just figured i'd ask around first to see if anyone knows of some good deals floating around.

Im not entirely sure the split a/c is an option for me at the moment with needing to buy all the other equiptment as well. I havent looked but im assuming theyre a couple grand at least? I feel like 1 of the portable a/c's could work for me given my smaller room sizes but i could be wrong.

So are you basically saying run regular lights without the cool tubes and buck up for an A/c instead?

Also can you shed any light on the DE vs SE lights? I found a few cool tube DE hoods for cheap AF but probably shitty quality im assuming.

Do DE run different ballasts than SE or are they compatible?

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