New Room

[steelyeyes]

I'm building a new room to grow in. I'm limited to about 8x12 feet with a ceiling that slopes from about 8 feet to just less than 9 feet.

I'm currently running ebb and grow buckets in two rooms that are 4x6 (600w veg and 1K flower) and things are working out well enough that it's time for the next step. The UC system seems like that's it. I think I can fit the UC8XL in there but it might be snug. The UC9 XL 13 would fit better but 4K watts is a lot more power than I really want to use right now and 2K on movers won't grow as good of quality bud...but I could be wrong..:)

I have another room that will be my tank room with reservoir(s) and air pump(s) and clones in it. If all goes well with the new setup I'll retrofit my current veg, flower, and tank room (after ripping out some divider walls) to the same setup so I can have one in veg and early flower while the other is growing buds like I do now on a bigger scale.

The first few things I need to know are:

Horizontal or vertical lights? My plants aren't getting super tall, like 4' max, and I think part of that is strain genetics (the purps) and part is that a 2 gallon pot only allows so many roots. With the room the XL has for roots I'd expect taller plants and maybe benefit from vertical lights...but I'd like to hear from someone that actually know something about it before I spend any money. I really only want to do this project once. Buying the wrong thing and replacing it is expensive...I learned that one already.

Chiller size? If I go with the 1/6 hp max. recommended chiller size I don't think there will be any extra capacity to run an ice box or two to maintain room temps once I get advanced enough to run CO2 in the room. So what size should I get? I'll be running 2K watts and external temps here rarely see the 80s with a few days at most in the 90s.

Nutes? There are threads on that. I've been having good luck with H&G aqua flakes and most of their additives but I gather that they aren't the most popular with the UC system owning crowd. I don't want to reinvent the wheel so it looks like Jack MAYHOFFER's recipe will work.

Strains? I'm running the purps now and it makes some fine bud with decent yields for my experience level. I'm getting more and better buds every time but I'm open to anything that works better too. I have access to lots of varieties. I've tried white widow, NY diesel, blue widow, and bc big bud so far with varying results. The purps likes what we do I guess. I'm going to toss in a couple kush variants (woody and headband) next time and see how they do but I'm open to anything that anyone with actual experience can tell me that works.

 

[hiboy]

Great idea with the uc. Just got one myself and am going to redo the existing room soon. For you to get an idea of the uc sizing, go to their website and you can see what will fit for you. I got lucky and found the perfect one for me on craigs list for 1100 bucks. uc12xl. Im sure you been following some of the growers threads for uc grows. I would start studying, some say easy, some cant seem to make it work. Most say 1/2 hp will do ya , i went with a 1 hp for 800. new clearance model, incase i wanna expand. Your plants arent getting very tall in 2 gallon pots, thats def. holding them back. I think jack did a thread on vert vs horiz side by side and i believe there wasnt any diff, cant remember exactly, u may wanna read it. And of course if you wanna run vert lights that are not ducted in cool tubes your gona need large a/c output. Lots of things to think about and like you said do it once right and spend the dough.
hiboy

 

[RMCG]

The spacing on the XL would make it tough for vert lighting.

 

[steelyeyes]

I was leaning toward air cooled horizontal so that works. Ordered the 1 hp chiller on the other thread. It should be more than enough and it was an amazing deal, even with shipping from FL to WA.

I thought up a way to stretch my room to a bit over 12 feet long so the 8XL should fit fine. My other room might be tight but the entry is on the long side so it should work too.

 

[hiboy]

Just got my chiller to brah, website said 88 lbs but when delivered it read 63 lbs. Stinking playas. But still an awesome deal delivered. Had to click a box on their site that said i am not using this chiller for an illegal grow. Thought that was kinda wierd but i went with it.
hiboy

 

[steelyeyes]

I'm legal where I'm at so it was cool. I think the freight weight included the hell for stout packing and pallet it came on. Time to shop for lights and stuff. I like the lumatek 1K dimmable ballasts. About the same price as any other digital 1K I've found but you can lower, or increase your output if you need to save $ on power or jam more light at the end of flower.

Having the 1 hp chiller for my set up will let me cool my room(s) with iceboxes in the summer so that's nice. My lights will have a stand alone air supply for cooling so I won't need to load the chiller with those. I think it will be simpler to run a CO2 setup if my lights aren't adding so much heat or using room air to cool them.