Solar Deity
- 15
- 3
It's been a little slow around here so after lurking in this forum for 3 years, it's time. After reading everything Jack, Squirrel/Q9, UCMENOW, Texas Kid, Shady, Woodsmaneh, UCHQ, tipper, etc ever typed on this forum, I saved my money, bit the bullet and bought twin UC8XL's for a 12' x 16' basement. Since the release of Cultured Solutions nutes, it seemed like a no brainer to run the manufacture of the system's program. After seeing all the success with CS and UC Roots product from all here, I ordered a gallon of each.
I have access to a basement that we converted to a sealed room. Poured wall foundations here in New England keep the lights off temps no colder than 62. Our 12' x 16' flower room has 7 foot ceilings. Went with 2x UC8XL's because of height restrictions. I bought two systems instead of the double barrel to run different strains. I've learned this really isn't an issue as the concentrations are so low, any strain can be run along side another with great success. I wanted some room also between the four rows for maintenance. All my previous rooms were cramped and it's nice to have some space to prune and maintain. I went with 4k lighting and our room is sealed/closed with 6 mil poly. 6" cool tubes with hoods/reflectors, two per 8XL, in a closed loop to maintain CO2 levels. We drilled two holes in the sill of the basement, an intake and exhaust, so cold air comes through the room but never mixes. I have spared no expense building the room. I'm approaching 15K in materials. 100 man hours to get to here so far.
This is a hobby and I'm a bit of an electonics freak so we have 3 layers of environmental controller protection. I chose the Sentinel line of controllers. At lights on, the closed loop cool tubes come on at 72. It's low, but this is to stay ahead of the lamps once they are fully heated up. It's also on a Speedster so we can vary the draw. This time of year, low-med is all that's required to cool the 4 G watts. Next layer of cooling begins at 82. We have four blower fans in the corners that will mix the cooler air from the floor. This works well for the first 6 hours of lights on. Ambient outdoor temps right now are 20 degrees so mother nature is helping keep cool easily. These work in tandem with the final layer. After the room heat soaks, the last 6 hours only (usually), layer three kicks on at 84 degrees. A 6" Vortex pulls outside air through a UV scrubber and in to a Can66 on the floor for intake. The blower fan starts mixing this immediatley. To maintain negative pressure in the sealed room, our exhaust is an 8" Vortex on a Speedster which vents up the to the highest part of the roof through an existing stack. We lucked out with that as it was there already. They turn on at the same time and the speedsters allow us to fine tune the cycles. The CAP Gen2 turns off when the room reaches layer three at 84 so we don't waste CO2/gas. The Gen 2 turns out to be way overkill for a 12' x 16' x 7' room, but it's an advantage. The 8 burners take about 3 minutes to soak the room to 1200 ppm. It helps when the final layer of heat protection removes some of the CO2. We have the exhaust at the highest point of the room to leave the heavier CO2 at the bottom. Tests so far have the generator kicking on only every 1.5 hours or so after initial ramp up. It runs about every 4-5 cycles of exhaust after that.
Two 3 gallon humidifiers for veg and early flower to get the humidity up. Our outdoor RH is only 10-15% this time of year. 100 pint de-huey plumbed to a floor drain for mid to late flower. The entire room is run on (6x) 20 amp circuits. In hindsight, I should have run a 240V 30 amp circuit for the 4 lights, and a couple 20 amp circuits for the peripherals. Each UC8XL has a 1/10 HP chiller and a 55 gal top off res, along with a Danner AP 60 air pump all outside the 12' x 16' flower room. I'm about to start a thread and post pics on the setup for our first run.
I was the fortunate recipient of a Blue Dream clone. Made a mom out of her and have taken about 16 cuttings so far. She's blowing up in a 5 gallon smart pot under a 600w MH. We have our first roots from the first set of cuttings. It won't be long and I'll keep the updates coming. Here's a shot of the room. It's not totally finished. We need to tidy up some wires but it's close.
SD
View attachment 291381
I have access to a basement that we converted to a sealed room. Poured wall foundations here in New England keep the lights off temps no colder than 62. Our 12' x 16' flower room has 7 foot ceilings. Went with 2x UC8XL's because of height restrictions. I bought two systems instead of the double barrel to run different strains. I've learned this really isn't an issue as the concentrations are so low, any strain can be run along side another with great success. I wanted some room also between the four rows for maintenance. All my previous rooms were cramped and it's nice to have some space to prune and maintain. I went with 4k lighting and our room is sealed/closed with 6 mil poly. 6" cool tubes with hoods/reflectors, two per 8XL, in a closed loop to maintain CO2 levels. We drilled two holes in the sill of the basement, an intake and exhaust, so cold air comes through the room but never mixes. I have spared no expense building the room. I'm approaching 15K in materials. 100 man hours to get to here so far.
This is a hobby and I'm a bit of an electonics freak so we have 3 layers of environmental controller protection. I chose the Sentinel line of controllers. At lights on, the closed loop cool tubes come on at 72. It's low, but this is to stay ahead of the lamps once they are fully heated up. It's also on a Speedster so we can vary the draw. This time of year, low-med is all that's required to cool the 4 G watts. Next layer of cooling begins at 82. We have four blower fans in the corners that will mix the cooler air from the floor. This works well for the first 6 hours of lights on. Ambient outdoor temps right now are 20 degrees so mother nature is helping keep cool easily. These work in tandem with the final layer. After the room heat soaks, the last 6 hours only (usually), layer three kicks on at 84 degrees. A 6" Vortex pulls outside air through a UV scrubber and in to a Can66 on the floor for intake. The blower fan starts mixing this immediatley. To maintain negative pressure in the sealed room, our exhaust is an 8" Vortex on a Speedster which vents up the to the highest part of the roof through an existing stack. We lucked out with that as it was there already. They turn on at the same time and the speedsters allow us to fine tune the cycles. The CAP Gen2 turns off when the room reaches layer three at 84 so we don't waste CO2/gas. The Gen 2 turns out to be way overkill for a 12' x 16' x 7' room, but it's an advantage. The 8 burners take about 3 minutes to soak the room to 1200 ppm. It helps when the final layer of heat protection removes some of the CO2. We have the exhaust at the highest point of the room to leave the heavier CO2 at the bottom. Tests so far have the generator kicking on only every 1.5 hours or so after initial ramp up. It runs about every 4-5 cycles of exhaust after that.
Two 3 gallon humidifiers for veg and early flower to get the humidity up. Our outdoor RH is only 10-15% this time of year. 100 pint de-huey plumbed to a floor drain for mid to late flower. The entire room is run on (6x) 20 amp circuits. In hindsight, I should have run a 240V 30 amp circuit for the 4 lights, and a couple 20 amp circuits for the peripherals. Each UC8XL has a 1/10 HP chiller and a 55 gal top off res, along with a Danner AP 60 air pump all outside the 12' x 16' flower room. I'm about to start a thread and post pics on the setup for our first run.
I was the fortunate recipient of a Blue Dream clone. Made a mom out of her and have taken about 16 cuttings so far. She's blowing up in a 5 gallon smart pot under a 600w MH. We have our first roots from the first set of cuttings. It won't be long and I'll keep the updates coming. Here's a shot of the room. It's not totally finished. We need to tidy up some wires but it's close.
SD
View attachment 291381