Setting up my hydroponic (ebb/flow) grow room - starting off right

I have a very concealed space buried deep within my house that's approximately three feet wide and deep. I've wrapped the space with heavy duty plastic (black) and plan on hanging white or reflective plastic on the walls to reflect the light. There's just enough room to hang my 1000W HPS in a reflector (on chains to allow for height adjustment).

Ebb & Flow Hydroponic System
I've never done hydroponics before, but I've read a lot of articles on the topic and decided the best system for my purpose would be an a storage tub reservoir with a small pump that pushes water up into the cement mixing tray full of pea gravel. An overflow tube drains the water once it has reached the top of the gravel and the pump tube becomes a drain once the pump turns off. The only possible problem I see is that the bulkheads I installed in the bottom of the tray are not flush so there will be a small amount of nutrient solution left in the bottom of the tray. I'm hoping it will be insufficient to cause root rot. I plan on running the pumps on a timer for 15 minutes three times a day.

Carbon Dioxide/Ventilation
I have a CO2 tank left over from when I did aquatic plants so I plan on putting the regulator on a timer to flood the room with CO2 twice daily. The exhaust fan is also on a timer so I can have the exhaust turn off just before the CO2 floods the room and turn back on shortly after. I will probably have to adjust the amount of time the fan is off based on the temperature fluctuation to avoid overheating. My ventilation consists of a continuous operation bathroom venting fan which blows into a dryer duct out the roof. I also have a small fan which I'll position inside the room to increase airflow through the foliage.

At the moment I only have the one area set up for flowering and haven't yet figured out a good place for a grow room so I'm planning on using the same space for both...just adjusting the timers accordingly.

I have not yet purchased any nutrients, but am looking at BC Boost/Grow/Bloom gallon jugs for $49 + s&h from 4hydroponics.com. I'm also tempted to pick up some Dutch Master Reverse/Penetrator to avoid having to deal with cloning by feminizing the plants. I have read quite a bit about cloning and it seems simple, but again I'm limited in the amount of space I can use and don't have a good place to keep a mother plant isolated.

Finally, I'm thinking of purchasing seeds from SeedsDirect.info (aka. GoldenGlow?) since I don't expect to make it to Amsterdam myself to mail any back very soon.


Any comments and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

As I work my way through the various threads and FAQs on this site, I ran across a scoring method created by rhizome that I thought I'd give a try.


A) Appropriate Size - The space is on the small size, but then again other than limiting the number of plants I can grow I don't know that's really a bad thing as it just means light is going to be more concentrated. Just in case I'll score it at 20/35.

B) Ventilation - My output fan pulls the hottest air from inside the reflector and vents it outside after passing through a dryer duct which has the side effect of possibly cooling it a bit to avoid thermal detection. I don't think I could need better ventilation for such a small space so this one scores 35/35.

C) Privacy - Nobody has any business finding, or even suspecting that this room exists. 50/50

D) Discretion - The only regret I have is that the hot air may not have a chance to cool sufficiently before being vented. While it may not garner much unwanted attention, it could be hard to explain such hot air being vented for such long periods every day. 35/40

E) Adequate power - I ran dedicated 220v and 110v lines so this one gets 25/25.

F) Distance to water - While I don't have water inside the grow room, it's quite close. 15/15

G) Temp Stability - This ties closely with ventilation as the room will pull in air from the surrounding house. 30/30

H) Availability - It's my house and my space. 20/20

Total Score: 230/250

Brother, if I could give you some rep on this statement alone:

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into the cement mixing tray full of pea gravel

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I have looked all over this planet/internet for economical trays only to find the price and shipping was, at a MINIMUM, over $100 per tray. I am off to my local hardware store where they have 3' x 4' x 10" heavy plastic trays for.............ready?.............$19.99 :thumbsup:

My gift to you, google hempdepot. Quick, stealthy, honest business.

I am a noobie too but 1000 watts in such a little space does sound like a lot though.....you sound like you have a great start.
Best of luck.

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Originally Posted by jst300z

Brother, if I could give you some rep on this statement alone:



I have looked all over this planet/internet for economical trays only to find the price and shipping was, at a MINIMUM, over $100 per tray. I am off to my local hardware store where they have 3' x 4' x 10" heavy plastic trays for.............ready?.............$19.99 :thumbsup:

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Glad I could help! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jst300z

My gift to you, google hempdepot. Quick, stealthy, honest business.

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I checked them out and it seems like a pretty decent source, although they seem to be out of the less expensive strains and since this is my first attempt I don't want to invest hundreds into my seeds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jst300z

I am a noobie too but 1000 watts in such a little space does sound like a lot though.....you sound like you have a great start.
Best of luck.

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Thanks. If I were doing it over I'd probably purchase a smaller lamp as it's overkill, but hopefully in the next year or so I'll be building a house and I can put in a more appropriate grow room where that lamp will be better utilized. ;)

1000w is better suited to a space at least 4x4 feet- spend ALL the money you saved on plastic on a high quality, high CFM blower!!!

To keep the tub properly drained, tip it so all the water flows to one corner.

I'm not all that hot on the gravel idea. Risk of interactions between minerals in the stone and your acidic solution is high- especially if the gravel contains bits of limestone, marble, or 'puddinstone' or another conglomerate that may contain bits of these. You could find yourself with rising pH that is difficult to maintain. Try hydroton instead- after initial treatment (just a few days' soak in a solution adjusted to pH 6 and maintained there), it's inert, plus it's light and porous and maintains an ideal moisture level. I'm all about CHEAP, but choose your substrate carefully. To save money and weight, consider doing containers (6" or 8" polypots) of hydroton. Then you don't need as much of the stuff.

Have fun!