Newbs Indoor CFL + LED Small Grow

I am a first time grower. I got into growing chili peppers and thought what the hell I would like to grow my own medical can. I don't burn a lot but enough to warrant a couple small plants. I started this some time in February. Can't recall exactly when.

After reading for hours on end and watching almost endless YouTube videos it became obvious that a clean sterile environment would produce the best results. So I started with that and decided to go with a tent. I don't have a clean basement, it's dusty, dirty, spiders and such down there. I went with the DR90. I have a low ceiling basement, 6' so this fit well. I'm not growing a lot so this would fit a couple plants I figured.

Water System:

Then I built out the watering platform. Thankfully my basement has old washer/dryer hookups so I have multiple 20 amp circuits as well as water right there. More on the electrical later.

I used:

R/O water (6 stage system)
4" intake from old dryer outlet
6" outtake through a panasonic 210CFM quiet fan
2 14gallon tubs stacked
1 300GPH pump from bottom tub to top tub
4 1" drain outlets back to bottom tub
10 airstones (5 on top, 5 on bottom)
2 model 700 JW pet air pumps
Fluval external pump with no media
1 Hydor rotating head (top bin, external pump outtake)
1 Hydor water circulater (top bin)
3 1 gallon bottles (co2 reactor)



The external pump has a 2 way valve than can be switched to a water exhaust line that is plumbed into the gutter system, this so I can flush in about 5 minutes. I believe the extra bin at the bottom is beneficial to a familiar aquarium concept, where if you have more water you are more resilient to mistakes. Since the botton tub is the only one that drops water levels when consumption or evaporation occurs I don't have to water or feed often. When the water drops I have a 1/4 line that comes out of the reservoirs that is plumbed directly into the bottom bin. Here I can top off as needed or refill from a flush without doing anything. Both tubs are covered with lids so no light ever gets into the water system.

Here's a video of the water system:

[video=youtube_share;VJ9Dag-qcNo]http://youtu.be/VJ9Dag-qcNo[/video]

The water ecosystem stays balanced as well for long periods of time in the top bin. No water drop-age to deal with.

Lighting and Electrical:

I thought a lot about the electrical. Read about the high pressure sodium and metal halide bulbs. These seem like a sure thing but to me I had a smaller space so felt even a 125WATT bulb I didn't want to deal with. I also want to run a low electrical foot print. I also didn't want a lot of heat issues being a smaller space. I wanted to try something totally random and energy efficient so I went with a combo 125WATT CFL and a 500WATT LED panel:

Lighting:
125 WATT CFLs, true 125WATT meaning they use 125WATTs of power, it's not the "equivalent" measurement which is commonly mentioned as well.

Running 2x125WATT CFLs 6500k veg and 1 500WATT LED panel. Total lumens is about 20,000. I switched to 2700k for flowering.

Air:
Along with the 210CFM fan I am running about 5.4AMPs of power on a single circuit. This feels good and comfortable for on a 20AMP breaker.

Heat Control:
I have a small heater hooked into a thermostat so it will come on or turn off to maintain the temperature. It's pretty small and it keeps up in milder temperatures. When it was cooler I don't think it had a chance. It runs at 2 AMPS. So now I am at 7.4 AMPs full.

Misc:
I also run a couple water pumps, 2 air pumps, and an IP camera so I can see the humidity and temperature without having to go into the room.



Lighting Update:
Later in the flowering cycle I wanted to add more light so I put in an 85WATT (300 WATT Equivalent) in one corner and another in the other corner. This added 8500 lumens and bumped my AMPs by about .8. So running full I am running about 8.5 AMPS.

Start of grow:

Now it's time to put it on a 24 cycle. Here are the plants under the lighting scheme as little babies. The first problem I realized thanks to RIU was that I had a serious PPM issue. I was at 50 and didn't even know it til I tested so that was quickly remedied with some nutes and up to 1k it went. Ouch. I went too high and had a pretty serious burn. I also realized that I needed to supplement mag/calc because I was using RO water. Once I brought the PPM down and got the mag/calc added the little uns started growing well and eventually clearing up.

CO2 Reactor:

For some reason I wanted to be sure there was co2 in the tent. I figured it couldn't hurt to pump a little extra into the base of the plants. This is cheap and hopefully has a benefit.

Mix 2 cups suger to 1 teaspoon of yeast for each 1 gallon bottle. Use warmish water and don't fill it up all the way, perhaps 4/5 full. Mix the yeast and sugar first the dissolve into the warm water.

Run the first line from just underneath the cap, not in the water mix, into bottle two submerged to the bottom, so it will bubble. Run another line from bottle two from just below the cap to bottle 3 submerged into the clean water. Then run another cap high (free air) line to your tent. Use aquarium silicone to get the seal on the caps. Let set for one day.

If the pressure is right and the seals are tight you'll see bubbles come into bottle two from bottle one. You will also see bubbles happen in bottle 3 at the exact same time as the 3 bottles are contained and pressurized the same. The co2 is now bubbling into the tent at about 8 second increments.

Here is a pic of the co2 reactor:

View attachment 2144543

And a video burp. The burp took longer than normal 'cause I squeezed the bottles which pushed some of the air out. It took 30 seconds or so to pressurize again.

[video=youtube;T3758zoy11E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3758zoy11E[/video]

6 weeks into vegging. About to start flowering:


With LED:


Without LED:

Here we are 2 weeks into flowering. I had to add this mesh thing incase the buds get heavy. I have no idea what they're gonna look like or if they look right as they are. The plants are really starting to stretch once I went into flower. I don't know if I'll have enough space!


All lights with mesh thing:


Just 2700k:


Close up of the first breaker:

A little update:







How do I know they are where they should be at this stage? It's been about 3 weeks of flowering. Anyone help?