I wasn’t sure where to post, so I figured I’d just start a journal. Hopefully that’s alright for a first post. I live in a legal state, have some space in the basement of my house which I’ve started converting into a grow room(s). Ten years ago, I had one successful grow using rock wool and flood/drain tables. Other than that, no experience to speak of.
After a few months of research and forum trolling, I decided on building a 4 bucket/1 rez RDWC system. I work in a local dispensary which allows me to occasionally talk to patients about grow ideas. But honestly, all that talking with random people has left me confused and unsure of how to proceed.
My space is one big room 13 x 8 with 10’ ceiling. I sealed the room (as best I could) with panda film, and created panda wall making the room two… One 9 x 8 and one 4 x 8. I’m attaching pictures, but accept my apologies now. I’m no photographer. I did try to make a video, which is much more helpful for seeing the layout of my space, but I couldn’t attach it.
I think I’ve got ventilation sorted and that’s about all I’ve got figured out. On the subject of ventilation, I have two windows in the space. One used to to pull in fresh air, currently hooked up to an 8" inline blower, but I’ll probably just hook it up to a small 8" booster fan. It’s ducted up and across the room then back down to the window. I ran it, with the exhaust fan/carbon filter running, and it seemed to pull in too much air, hence downsizing to the booster fan. The exhaust is ported outside the second window. Hopefully the pictures give a general idea.
Basically I’m mentally locked right now and haven’t really progressed with putting things together for a while.
A few weeks ago I purchased HLG qb120x4 package with meanwell 240h 2100B and a pot from amazon. Today I put the fixture together and even though I have no idea if I’ll actually use it… That was a lot of fun, and I definitely wan’t to use qb’s for all of my lighting. I’m leaning on using 288 qb’s for the big room. Just not sure how many. I was originally thinking about buying 4 of the 600h’s because they were a kit, and I thought that was enough light. But lately, I’ve been second guessing light requirements. If the space is 9x8=72sq ft. I need roughly 3240 watts to light it up properly, yes? In any case, I’m enjoying the DIY aspect of building my own fixtures, so with some help on board and driver selection, I think I’ll have that solved this week.
Then there’s the issue of the actual RDWC system, and how in depth I want to set it up. My friend (a patient from my dispo) has an overly complicated setup, and he wants me to basically copy his system. I’m just looking to have a simple setup that I can drain and clean without much heartache. I haven’t purchased anything other than 3" PVC and 3" bulkheads. Leaning toward 13 gallon containers. The black ones with the lid that that opens. Not sure if I can say the brand name, but I’ve seen them on grow journals here. I have a 1/4 hp chiller which I’m planning on modifying so system water isn’t recirced through the chiller. That’ll be a later project if my water temps in the summer require my res to be cooled down.
I have the room divided, but I’m not sure why. Initially the smaller 4 x 8 space was going to be a veg room. But then I get into my head about the additional cost of building two systems, one for veg and one for flower. The idea of having 4 individual dwc buckets to monitor and adjust daily might be worse.
I’m not sure I need a separate veg room. Could I just run my 4 plants basically from start to finish in the main room? Once I learn how to train and crop my plants, even if that takes a few years, I feel like I could harvest 5 pounds every 4 months. Of course assuming all my parameters are in order. It’s not a super lofty goal is all I’m saying. If I’m running 3200 watts, and I’m only getting .5gpw… That’s still over 3.6 pounds. Even if that’s the best I ever do, I could live with that. So do I need a veg room?
Lastly, I am planning on running CO2 and I will be investing in a decent environmental controller to run the intake/exhaust and the CO2.
I’m sorry to ramble and be all over the place. Hopefully these pictures help show what I’m working with somewhat.
