Improving my 1000w hydro grow room.

[Ne0nSage]

First off I would like to say hello to my fellow THC farmer’s. I have been a member of Gardens cure for many years but I am starting to stray.

I have several grows under my belt in soil, Rockwell, and very little success with grow rocks. I am looking to revamp my room to get the best bang for my buck!

Exhaust - Stanley blower converted to a 4'’ duck (soon to be 6'’)
Lighting - 1000w HPS w/ Hortilux eye bulb in a hydrofarm square reflector
Nutrients - Botnicare grow, bloom, liquid karma (Expecting to switch or at least add bigbud and overdrive)


Equipment that I have.

2 2x4 trays and stand
3 Aquarium air pumps 2 are 2output and 1 single output
400GPH pump
140GPH pump
Pump manifold for 2x4 tables
16 drip lines and stakes

My goal here is to find the right setup that will yield 2lbs every 3 months without Co2. I have a central ac that will cool the room to 70deg with a 50% RH, due to power issues I can't run a window ac and Co2 as I would like.

Options

1. Rockwell Stick with my trays and drippers and run a drip system
2 COCO Canna COCO in 5gal pots with drain to waste and hand water
3. DWC Make a set of recirculating bubble buckets
4. NFT Nutrient film technique

I am including a couple pics of my space and what’s in there now. I will be doing this change over after these WW and Kush plants finish flowering. They are expected to be done in 2 months, I am waiting for the day to flip (gotta get a bloom booster).

Please help decide what is my best option for my space Thanks in advance!

 

[Stackin Paper]

For 1 i'd get that ballast down off that water tank or whatever it is, if that falls you're fucked, whether it lands on you feet or not, it won't do it any good, hope no water is near it either cos then you really will be fucked, after 2nd inspection that tank looks like its the res to the hydro set up, PLEASE for your own safety get that down off there asap. Safety is paramount, alongside securuty of course.

Either get a tent or build a box around that space to enclose it and get that ballast away for the grow room in a cooler area.

 

[Ne0nSage]

For 1 i'd get that ballast down off that water tank or whatever it is, if that falls you're fucked, whether it lands on you feet or not, it won't do it any good, hope no water is near it either cos then you really will be fucked, after 2nd inspection that tank looks like its the res to the hydro set up, PLEASE for your own safety get that down off there asap. Safety is paramount, alongside securuty of course.

Either get a tent or build a box around that space to enclose it and get that ballast away for the grow room in a cooler area.

The "water tank" is a bucket that is full of hydroton and it is only there to keep the ballast off the ground incase of water leaks BUT i do see your point it should not be up so high that it can fall down and break...

Thought about closing it in with black and white poly and a zipper to get in and out just havent got around to it...

 

[Stackin Paper]

Yeah the black and white poly should do, get the real thick stuff though, don't know where ya get it but somebody i know has it in their loft and it works pucker.

 

[tuffgong69]

hi neonsage,got plenty of space there..would drop that mylar lower,looks bit too high up..need reflection on all of the plant..if your gonna use black and white then its not really an issue..get two 12 inch or so lengths of 2x2 inch wood and put your ballast on that,just high enough off the ground in case of any water spills,also helps damp any vibration noises too..good luck with the grow and watch them widows,they really like to stretch..tg:cool

 

[ProGroWannabe]

If all-out yield is the goal, I'd do DWC or NFT if it were me. I've researched them both to death, but have to stick with my coco for stealth reasons---coco makes no noise..lol, and where I am now, noise is a MAJOR no-no. Otherwise, I'd be doin NFT by now.

DWC is more mistake-tolerant than NFT, but not by much. Either way you go in active hydro you run the risk of losing plants if pumps fail. BUT there are thousands of folks putting down massive grows with hydro too. So it's really up to you.

 

[spinkus]

Here is my example. I pull 1 elbow per table every month. You could do both every two months though, just more work all at once. I have 2 - 3x3 table under 1 600 watt HPS w/light mover. I use 60-65% pro-mix and 30-35% FF Chunky perlite. I fit 62 pots in each table for a total of 124 under my single light. I water from the bottom and then drain at the end of the light cycle. The moms, clones and pots are really key for success. I'm not saying this is the way to go, just an example. I yield 7-9 g dry on each SOG top so it works well for me. Lots of ventilation and air-movement. And leafing after 42-49 days. Anyways here's some pics. 1st is table 2, fresh round a comin'. 3rd is current. 4th is last table last round I believe. 5th are the badass pots. I use the short-one. Great yield - Low watts - No hydro(passive hydro I guess...)
The grid is made from screen board, the table is from Botanicare?

 

[Texas Kid]

Why the grid on the table? to hold up bags? if your usin the pots at the bottom pic, where does the grid fit in?

62 pots per so are they 3" square pots?

Seems like a waste of the 3x3 when I pull 3+ lbs off of the same 3x3 with 9-16 plants max with minimal veg time. If I hold my mouth just right I get the same or better yield off the 9 plant not the 16 but 2 gallon flower pots are the key.

Ebb and Flow 3x3 with dual 600w hps will average 3-3.25lbs everytime. If you back off to a 1k you get roughly the same results as well with a little less heat.

I used to run a single 600w over a 3x3 with 18-24 plants in 5.5" square pots and consistantly get 2-2.5 lbs on a quick flip 10-14 days veg from clone.

I am runnin (2) 3x6 tables side by side with 3k on a heavy duty light mover and it will rock 10-12lbs right out of the gates. I have the same setup with only 2k over as well but I am not diggin the light pattern as much on that one so i am likely to bump it up tp 3 or 4k in the next little bit.

Tex

 

[spinkus]

Yeah TK the grid is to hold the square pots pictured they tend to fall over, and moving them around to get the canopy right is easier with the grid to kinda "hold" them in place.

I wish I could run 2 600's but due to small apt can only run 600 flower 400 veg. Your setup does sound good for him though as he already has a 1000k to play with.

I thought I was doing good pullin 1.5-1.75 gram a watt!

Also can't run hydro because of temps in the summer, chiller=to much power.

 

[Texas Kid]

Hydro is killer in the high temps and I never needed a chiller at all even in the Texas heat, outdoor ambiant temps of 100+ for months on end, high 80's in the flower room.

I ran the 2 600's in a single hood to combat the same space challenges. I modified a large super spectrum hood to house both mogul ends and the two bulbs, worked great.

Shit maing, 1.75g a watt is killer, especailly with a 600w

Tex

 

[leadplant]

I've had great results with NFT. Made it out of white plastic gutters, 1/2 inch pvc pipe and 3 inch rockwool cubes placed in the gutters. Super easy and cheap.
The best part was the ease that the cubes could be placed and moved around - perfect for high density SOG.
The waterfall into the res tank made it unnecessary to have airstones which clog up fast. Its always good to build in some redundancy - have 2 pumps running simul.
My initial great results were followed by a string of so-so's or worse. I quit hydro because of repeated failures. Only recently did I figure out that my res temps were too high causing the dreaded pythium fungus. If your ambient rooms temps arent consistently below 70 degrees, I'd recomend a res chiller with this technique.

 

[ProGroWannabe]

That's good info on NFT leadplant! Thanks.

 

[Ne0nSage]

Thanks for all the ideas guys but i think i am trying to stay with less plants. My flower room will only have 9 plants in it due to the 25 plant limit in my state. That way i think if i get a month of bushy veg in seprate room then get a couple weeks under the 1k and then flower for 60 days. At the same time plants go into flower room i will take 9 new cuttings for the next run so that will leave me 18 total plus a couple mothers.

Strains available

White widow
Big Bud
Norther lights
Hash plant
Pure powe plant
Blueberry
Bubblegum

 

[Ne0nSage]

Also thinking about running the 2 2x4 tables with 6 in each one offset the tables by 4 weeks on a 8 week strain and have 6 in veg for a month before going into first flower tray. At that point i have 18 plants and still room for a couple mothers and still be under the count. Only Question is what method should i use rockwell cubes ontop of slaps? I have had some bad run ins with hydroton so i dont want to use that. My last run was 14 ww plants under 1k veged for a month and only got 5 oz's good smoke but not enough already out....

 

[vanno]

Texas Kid, what strain are you growing?

 

[doubleds]

Pimp my garden

OK DUDE

Here goes. Get rid of that reflector and hang the bulb vertical down the centre. Leave enough room to the walls to keep a 2ft diametre bush w room from bulb, about, lets say 4 ft. You will use 4 plants with the light hitting the plants from the side.

check out this link, if it interest you pm me and we will carry on with the hi flow dwc system.

with one light you will get about 12 ounces per plant turning them every day.