The dream set up

So...I "know a guy" that has constructed a masterpiece of homeostasis. This room is 4x8X8. All the walls and floors have been fiberglassed in with a high glass vinylester resin with wax in it. The walls are insulated with R-19. The floor has two pieces of ply in between which is dynamat for insulation and sound control. Irrigation lines are run down the walls and come out 0.5 meters above the floor. The glassing is done in such a way that the system is a watr tight, nearly air tight, tank. His initial plan was 24, 20 liter buckets. This morning he thought...hmm if his tank is water tight mabey the buckets should be scrapped and just fill the bottom with soil. But he figured before attemting such an undertaking he better check with the RIU team to see if this idea is feasible. He would fill the bottom up to the irrigation lines with ocean forest and perlite.

Just a little bragging rights...2 1000watt HPS, CO2 injection on the ceiling, filtered city water through misters on the walls at aprox 1 meter. Entance is through a hatch on the ceiling via ladder. Give him some feed back on the bucketLESS grow.

Cheers...good responses will be rewarded with pictures of his masterpiece...

I am confuzed.. This "masterpiece of homeostasis" goes on to describe a room and then talks about a "tank" then about dirt. So is he growing hydroponicly or in soil? Either way your still going to need those buckets. If the room is 8 foot by 4 foot and the soil is only 6in deep your talking about 16 cubic feet of soil. Thats alot of weight and labor and I bet your thinking "i could have plants everywhere!" Well the number/yeld of your plants has little to do with the amount of dirt they have to grow in but more so dependent on your lighting, neuts, and growing conditions. 16 to 24 hydro pots inside that room with those lights would be the way I would go. If you friend is looking for that "masterpiece of homeostasis" growing hydro or areoponicly will easily out do those soil pots.

Syriuslydelyrius said:

I am confuzed.. This "masterpiece of homeostasis" goes on to describe a room and then talks about a "tank" then about dirt. So is he growing hydroponicly or in soil? Either way your still going to need those buckets. If the room is 8 foot by 4 foot and the soil is only 6in deep your talking about 16 cubic feet of soil. Thats alot of weight and labor and I bet your thinking "i could have plants everywhere!" Well the number/yeld of your plants has little to do with the amount of dirt they have to grow in but more so dependent on your lighting, neuts, and growing conditions. 16 to 24 hydro pots inside that room with those lights would be the way I would go. If you friend is looking for that "masterpiece of homeostasis" growing hydro or areoponicly will easily out do those soil pots.

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The "room" is the "tank" what i was saying is that the "room" has been all glassed in from floor to ceiling replicating a "tank". and he was thinking more along the lines of like 1.5 feet of soil in the bottom. but...using a hydro system could simply drain into the bottom of the "tank" and be collected back to the reservoir. I hope that wasnt too confusing to follow. anyways what i gathered from your post is that this is a bad idea and most likely will not work to fill the bottom of it with soil.

if i need to further clarify i will and get some pics up tonight...

oh i wasnt trying to say that he's a master of growing. all i meant by that is that humidity, temp, air flow, and bacteria will be 100% controllable...not trying be a pompas ass hole lol

Barrack Osama said:

oh i wasnt trying to say that he's a master of growing. all i meant by that is that humidity, temp, air flow, and bacteria will be 100% controllable...not trying be a pompas ass hole lol

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Buckets defently the way to go. If you were thinking 18in of soil in a 4x8 room thats 48 cubic foot of soil. That is an insane amount of weight. Your also going to find it harder to controll humidity and bacteria in this situtation because your entire floor is 18in of wet soggy soil that doesnt have a place to drain. If you were to fill the floor space with 5gal buckets that have drain holes in the bottom and filled with a good soil mix your better off. Then when you water them the extra water will just drain out to the floor.

If your thinking hydro now or in the future your still going to need a water tank. Useing the floor isnt going to work for mulitple reasons. Like the fact you will be standing in water while tending your plants, the door to enter this "tank" is how far from the floor" In a hydro system your tank will have an air pump like a fish tank to keep the water airiated. You will be adding water to your tank to replace what the plants used and you will have to be adding neuts in the proper amounts as well. So a tank with 1 gal or 1/2 gal incriments is a must..

The sealed up "tank" sorta room your describing will have its advantages like being able to really spray and clean the place with a hose and water. Giving you the ability to be sloppy messy and whatever else because its easy to keep clean. If bugs become an issue that tank give those bugs less places to hide etc..

pics!........

aknight3 said:

pics!........

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Sorry guyz he's been hard at working trying to finalize the project. Styrene builup has gotten well over 500ppm while glassing in corners but here it the progress so far. After wiring, closing the lid, and installing the CO2 controller i'll start a new thread and give detailed instructions on how it all went down. As you can see all corners and cracks are completly glassed in with #1 mat and polyester resin. I recomend one do some home work before attempting to glass a tank for there are serious helth risk involded if you do not protect your self.

Here is the dream setup, and mother nature has built it for you!

that is a sweet setup, obviously grow in buckets, cleaning the roots and sludge and deposits would be way too much work, than carrying around a bucket. Now just mount some shelves on the wall and grow vertically as well. eight foot ceiling is pretty high, especially in a 4x4 box .. what lights are you planning on running.

Resident Kush said:

that is a sweet setup, obviously grow in buckets, cleaning the roots and sludge and deposits would be way too much work, than carrying around a bucket. Now just mount some shelves on the wall and grow vertically as well. eight foot ceiling is pretty high, especially in a 4x4 box .. what lights are you planning on running.

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if any this were real and not cgi lol I would be running 2-1000 w HPs with hortolux bulbs. Can you go into detail about shelving and vertical growing ?