1st time grower, my setup so far.

[flipsticle]

Hello. I'm setting up my first grow room and could use some help. I am not doing this for profit, but more for personal pleasure.

I understand HydroGrowLED has stepped on a few toes with their aggressive marketing, but I am more interested in the product then the sales pitch. I did the research, and they offer a ton of information about their product, and I think it will be a good investment. The 336x 3W Extreme is the biggest baddest light they sell. I ordered the light today so I can't review the product.

I have no idea how much air my fans will need to move but I have two. A strong one and a slightly weaker one. I was thinking of making them both exhaust with a large DoItYourself activated charcoal odor filter on the intake inside the tent.

I got the tent on craigslist, and my friend hooked me up on all the food and chems.

I can't afford hydro yet cause my light cost so damn much so I would like to do some indoor organic to get started. I don't know what dirt or pots I'm going to get.

I also do not know if I want to do seeds or clones.

Here is what I have so far, please tell me what you suggest for whatever I might be missing. Just because I got a bunch of fancy shit don't mean I'll know how to use it, I'll be looking here to help with lots of pictures when it's ready. This should be fun.

Light: HGL 336x 3W Extreme (520W actual Draw, claims to be = 1500W HPS)
Tent: Sun Hut 54" x 54" x 84" (Black outside Mylar inside 4'6 x 4'6 x 7)
Fans: Elicent AXC 150B-C (Cubic Feet/Minute: 309 Max)
Elicent something something same but smaller ( probley 150-200 ft3)
Air Filter: DIY: Activated Charcoal wraped around some wire screen and chicken wire.
Food: DNF Gro A two part formula (seedling and cuttings or veg)
DNF Gro B two part formula (seedlings and cuttings or veg)
DNF Bloom A two part formula (fruiting and flowering plants)
DNF Bloom B two part formula (fruiting and flowering plants)
Chems: pH Down 30% h3po4
Safer: Insect Killing Soap
Grotek Monster Bloom
Western States Vitamin B-1

 

[Papa]

flipsticle,
to characterize HydroGrowLED as having "stepped on a few toes" is incorrect. it is a total scam operation, run by a con artist.

they present themselves as professionals, but are only professional thieves. whether they are repackaging poorly designed chinese led lights, or selling illegally imported automobiles, they are in the business of scamming folks out of their hard-earned cash, period.

for a bit of insight into who you bought your lights from, check out:



and as for their customer service, ask them to live up to their warranty and they might narc you out, as they have others:

http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-marijuana-growing/721795-hgl-buyer-beware.html



that being said, good luck with your grow! i'm sub'd.



.

 

[ballisticsurf]

LEDs

It sounds good my friend the one thing i will say and i had this problem is that LEDs do not dry out coco more the less dirt. I found Air Pots and Grodan cubes to work the best and use clones over seed. And make sure you get a PH Pen.

 

[edux10]

pics!!!

and those tents need a lot of air circulation/ventalation

looks good. interested on how the LED lighting system will work out for you.

heres to a bountiful harvest!!!

 

[flipsticle]

Soon as I can get my fan mounted later today I'll take some pics.

ballisticsurf-
Those Air-pots look awesome. Do you know if they are as good as advertised? I got some ph strips, but I like the idea of a pen too.

I always thought rockwool was only for hydro, which I can't afford this round.

My first idea was to use organic fertilizer and maybe mix in well composted horse poop, that we have an endless supply of. My friend told me everything would just get moldy and funky if I try that indoors. I donno if he is right or not, but it's got me wondering.

What do people think about indoor soil?

 

[cjk]

interested in this light. keep us posted..

 

[DieselBoy]

Search the forum for Subcool Super Soil. It's organic and pretty hot fertilizer-wise. Or just buy some high quality soil at your local supplier and feed with your organic DNF nutes. Plenty of people grow indoors in soil. The "smart pots" are becoming more and more popular.

 

[flipsticle]

Happy b-day to me! Just smoked a fatty and ate cake.

My lights get shipped today. I took some photos with my girls phone, but she only sent one to me. I'll get more pics and post them in the morning. So far I just have the start of my air system. My DIY carbon filter will be connected directly to the fan intake.

 

[flipsticle]

lights are on the way.

Here area few more pics. Nothing special yet.

I called HGL to find out if my lights shipped. They said I should expect it to arrive around the 12th. I know thats what most of you want to see, so sorry for the wait. I'll still have plenty of questions.

Tomorrow night I will try to build my air filter. I will double wrap a aluminum door screen with activated carbon, and hold it together with chicken wire. It should look decent, and I will post pics when done. I was going to put it right above the grow light connected to the fan intake.

Todays questions are:

Do I need a dehumidifer? I live in a pretty dry climate but this will be in a tent. My friend says if I have fans that blow the leaves I won't get mold or bugs. But I wanted to hear what other think. (I was thinking ladybugs to control mites)

What size planters do you recommend? I'm pretty sold on those air-pots, and can't decide between 3.4gal or 5.2gal I was thinking of doing 9 plants.

 

[flipsticle]

My hardware store has been closed last few times I checked. I finally got in and asked for activated carbon filter, and they showed me roll of some stuff that gave me doubts. I asked them to look up the sku number of the product to double check the material. Turns out is was some latex prefilter crap. Might use some on the outside of my filter and over my intakes, cause it's cheap. I'm still looking for a big ass sheet of activated charcoal. I think I'll order it online tomorrow.

 

[testez]

ebay has everything you need

 

[flipsticle]

The led has landed!

My Light arrived on Monday but it took a week for youtube to upload my 1.6gig video. Since I never done it before I had some issues.

So here it is.... me opening my 336x pro......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8HKAZ6Peeg

 

[flipsticle]

my friend gave me 2 dying plants. I thought I'd see how they recover under my new lights, while I'm still setting up. One is in pretty bad shape and I don't think will make it. The other has some hope.

Currently I'm a bitch to the light cycle. I need a decent cheap timer that won't fail. I'll post some pics real soon.

 

[CA5P3R]

my friend gave me 2 dying plants. I thought I'd see how they recover under my new lights, while I'm still setting up. One is in pretty bad shape and I don't think will make it. The other has some hope.

Currently I'm a bitch to the light cycle. I need a decent cheap timer that won't fail. I'll post some pics real soon.

I use all Noma Digital timers for about $20 each, they have been reliable so far.

 

[K11NG]

glad to see were gonna get some tru test done with these lights. more people who go out and purchase these leds the more info we can get on the technology and narrow down the companies. good luck, also not to sure its the best idea to post videos linked to threads with faces, catch my drift. imo

 

[flipsticle]

I been having a hard time getting the website to except my pics uploads. I'll try again later. The first plant I had was beyond hope. The second one is staying alive with just water. But I had to turn off half the leds because it was cooking the plants at aproximately 24 inches. The lights arn't hot but the intensity may be too much at that range durning a veg.

So I am having a bitch of a time finding a system to put in here. I decided Aeroponics in honor of my late grandfather, who was a famous botanist. It doesn't sound like more work then I can handle. I already have a ton of pets that require daily attention, this will be one more. It doesn't sound much harder then checking the temps and sprayers daily.

I looked at the super expensive multiponics tree frog. It looked really nice but felt I was shorted two plants because the way the tray is set up. I also was worried about the some aspects of the design, and wanted all the info on what pumps and foggers it uses. However all attempts to contact the company lead to a dead end. I don't even know if they exist any more, so I'll pass on that.

My second choice was the Aerojet. The 4x4 tray for 16 plants looked like what I wanted in an easy to service prebuilt system. I looked further into this and droplet size is apprently too large to be aeroponic according to the guy who had them setup at his hydroponic shop. 700-800 cost to much for NFT results IMO. I was also worried the sprayers were too low and would get covered in roots.


I would also like 1500PPM Co2 system with monitor and controller. I want to max out my space.

My budget for these two big ticket items is about $2000.00 give or take. Does that sound legit? Can anyone tell me what is a good Aeroponic system for my space? I don't care if it has some NFT run off in the roots, but I would like some >50 micron action under the hood.

I WANT PEARLY WHITE ROOT HAIRS AND MONSTER BUDS!

 

[LEDhead]

COCO air pots and ScrOG it!!
With all the air movement going on in there and if this is going to be a passive air flow the co2 will just be a waist of $$$ in this small of space, as for the LED looks killer :) I'm doing LED's now too they seem to work but they DO let off heat I've noticed and unlike my HID that I can vent I have to keep the garden cooler with the LED's in there but Nice set-up :harvest: Def. get a ph pen even TDS pen too humidifier/dehumidifier and ScrOG it :)
The LED lights are not the same Lumens/FC as HID lighting, they are PAR so it's more the correct spectrums needed then just the intensity/distance so I don't think the LED fried your ladies because the diode doesn't emit radiant heat as traditional HID lighting

 

[testez]

vitamin's to reduce stress bro! I highly recommend superthrive, and b-52 both tried and true.

 

[flipsticle]

COCO air pots and ScrOG it!!
With all the air movement going on in there and if this is going to be a passive air flow the co2 will just be a waist of $$$ in this small of space, as for the LED looks killer :) I'm doing LED's now too they seem to work but they DO let off heat I've noticed and unlike my HID that I can vent I have to keep the garden cooler with the LED's in there but Nice set-up :harvest: Def. get a ph pen even TDS pen too humidifier/dehumidifier and ScrOG it :)
The LED lights are not the same Lumens/FC as HID lighting, they are PAR so it's more the correct spectrums needed then just the intensity/distance so I don't think the LED fried your ladies because the diode doesn't emit radiant heat as traditional HID lighting

Lots of good advice here? I will be getting a portable meter of some sort. For PH I just been using some of those paper test strips until I get one. Know of a good one?

What did you mean by a passive air flow? Do you mean co2 will spill out the intake vents at the bottom of the tent? I have another (slightly smaller) fan I can hookup to the lower side vent to bring in air and seal the flaps. Do you think it would help.

I just want to be clear I'm not using the Yeast methood. My plan is to get a tank/regulators/monitor/controller setup, sync it to the fans and lights. The Ventilation will only kick on when temps are high, and will automatically shut off the Co2 (lights off will also shut off Co2). I will keep it at 1500PPM. Maybe in the future I'll get an A/C and just run the tent sealed. This rig cost about a grand, but if what I hear is true (improves yields by 25%-30%, especially in aeroponics) Then it should pay for itself.

I do not know what the exact lumens are on my LED. I had one plant sitting a foot under a 520W LED pannel at full blast. I also been letting it get pretty dry by not watering it as much as I should, and not feeding it. So I'm sure that's at least half the problem. I finally fed the plant, turned off half the LEDs and raised the light up a little and it's much happier.

These double-lens directional 3W L.E.D.s are insanely bright. After a short time in my tent, my retina is burned in the spectrums of red and blue. It's funny when I walk out all I can see is the color green. It's like having plant vision. I will be getting some shades to save my eyes.

 

[LEDhead]

Lots of good advice here? I will be getting a portable meter of some sort. For PH I just been using some of those paper test strips until I get one. Know of a good one?

What did you mean by a passive air flow? Do you mean co2 will spill out the intake vents at the bottom of the tent? I have another (slightly smaller) fan I can hookup to the lower side vent to bring in air and seal the flaps. Do you think it would help.

I just want to be clear I'm not using the Yeast methood. My plan is to get a tank/regulators/monitor/controller setup, sync it to the fans and lights. The Ventilation will only kick on when temps are high, and will automatically shut off the Co2 (lights off will also shut off Co2). I will keep it at 1500PPM. Maybe in the future I'll get an A/C and just run the tent sealed. This rig cost about a grand, but if what I hear is true (improves yields by 25%-30%, especially in aeroponics) Then it should pay for itself.

I do not know what the exact lumens are on my LED. I had one plant sitting a foot under a 520W LED pannel at full blast. I also been letting it get pretty dry by not watering it as much as I should, and not feeding it. So I'm sure that's at least half the problem. I finally fed the plant, turned off half the LEDs and raised the light up a little and it's much happier.

These double-lens directional 3W L.E.D.s are insanely bright. After a short time in my tent, my retina is burned in the spectrums of red and blue. It's funny when I walk out all I can see is the color green. It's like having plant vision. I will be getting some shades to save my eyes.

Passive air meaning the intake and exhaulst will always be on pulling out the heat so the co2 will just pass though with the air unless you can turn off the exhaulst close the flaps, because the co2 is heavy and will spill out too, and keep the temps at 80-82F exchanging the air every 2-3 hours then the co2 is a waste.

LMAO glass don't help :cool0041: I have 4 Kessil H350's and some really dark glasses and I see green still but I'm going to see if some welding glasses will work :)