9 bucket DWC grow room

So I am building a grow room and I wanted to get some out side input on it. Any suggestions with reasons on why you think I should make that change would be greatly appreciated! here gos...


The Room
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The veg and flower room will be one chamber that is 6'x6'x7'. I use 2"x4"x12' from the local HD. Its just a simple structure that has a bottom and top frame with 4 posts on each corner screwed in to the 2x4s. I then take panda plastic and use a staple gun from the inside to create the walls. It is black on the out side, and white on the inside, and very reflective. Its is also thick and can take a lot of pushing and pulling. After making the walls, ceiling, and roof, I then make a door with a tape on zipper. The room has two 400 watt HPS's, air cooled hoods that have a pebbled reflector. I have the fans all hooked up to one inline 600 cfm fan. It pulls through a can filter, then through the first hood, then through the second hood, and then to the inline fan and out of the room through a duct that I cut in. I have a passive intake at the top on the opposite side that pulls in cold air. All of the electrics are on the out side above the shoulder.

The System
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I have a 9 bucket system that is all fed through a controller bucket. The controller bucket is fed by a 105 gal res. The controller has three tubes coming out of it at the bottom through 1/2" holes. Each one of the tubes is a dedicated line for a row of three buckets. Since there is 9 buckets, that makes three rows of three. Its a simple DWC system, each bucket is 5 gal, and has a 1" air stone in it, water fed from controller from the bottom. They have 6" net pot lids, and I use rock wool and grow rocks in the net pots. The nutes are botanicare veg and flower, cal mag, and some hydro guard for the water. I have a Hanna TDS meter, temp, and PH. A digital temp gauge, and regular timers for the fans and lights. The strains are Blueberry, HOG, and AK-47. I cant really think of any thing else at this time.




What im looking for is any suggestions regarding what I should add or take away. Im not sure if the passive intake is best or should I use a intake fan? And if so,what kind and what CFM. Please explain why as well. Thanks. laterz..

picilo:stoned:

nothing..... BUMP...

Sounds like an excellent plan to me. I have ran DWC in the past with amazing results.

well i use passive seem to work good for me but i also have a small space, if you chose to go for the intake idea pc fans work great make sure they arent the cheap ones.

A little change of plans. After consulting my local grower, I have been instructed to go from the two 400's to a 1000 HPS. Also, to have a 200 CFM squirrel fan in place of the passive intake. He said I will need to bring air in with this type of set up, and with this many full size plants. Also that in the middle of the two 400s, where they cross, it would be a good amount of canopy penetration. but around the sides it woould be horrible. With the 1000 watt I will have sufficient canopy penetration and good over all spread of the 6'x6' area. Thanks for the comment, i hope it will be a successful grow. Im looking for about 3-4 oz per plant, and so im wanting a over all harvest of about 32 oz dry weight. Do you guys think this is possible to achieve with these strains and this set up? laterz..


picilo

IMO a single 1000 is only good for a 5x5 area but 6x6 will work. The light on the outside edges will not be as effective that's all.

Getting the hot air out is just as important as brining in fresh air;).

With a strain like AK an experienced grow should be able to pull around 2 lbs. per 1000 watt light. If yer new expect around 1.5:thumbsup:

Sounds good, but it's sometimes required that one makes modifications along the way. I personally can recall around 10 grow-room makeovers in 3 years...

If you can switch all systems on including lighting and maintain adequate environment then chances are you are already well on the way to having plants that like their surroundings, which actually pays off.. good luck fellow herbalist

Well this is my 9th or so grow that will be what I would call professional. I have always done dirt grows, tree style, in 5 gal buckets. BOG style basically. I have got over 3 oz a plant before in and mostly average about 2-3 oz per plant every grow. The last time I used a 400watt over one 5 gal DWC and got 9 oz off of it. Its just I have never done one as large a scale as 9 buckets. I know from experience that a larger room can cause larger problems that are unexpected.


So regarding AK-47, you daid it is a strain that requires experienced growers... What should I look for, and what should I look out for with this strain? Also does any one have experience growing BB or HOG, and if so any suggestions on how it grows, yield, time, temp, nutes, ect... laterz..


pic

Did you say you are feeding from the bottom? Or are you using the typical in water line at the top of the bucket that sprays on the medium? Remember you need some sort of way to keep the grow medium wet and encouraging root growth. Once its all established then it is of less concern.

Maybe I just misread you. Remember, when recirculating DWC is done correctly it is explosive, so with 9 plants and only 1 light, I would veg for less then 2 weeks. Maybe longer if its your first time but be careful. They will quadruple in size.

Yes I do feed the water through the bottom. I use the bubble stones and water level to get the water to splash up on the bottom of the net pot. As the roots grow more, I lower the water level a little. Its all in the bubble stones making so much splashing that keeps the roots and medium wet until more root growth comes. I have been told before to use a drip or something to feed the water from the top down, but I have done it this way and had success in the past. Hopefully the controller I am building will make this task easier.

Advanced Nutrients Mother Earth Bloom, Sensi Bloom, Barricade and Fulvic F1 have rewarded me greatly while growing the AK47... Hygrozyme was the root enhancer. 7-8 Weeks finishing with huge tops and dense nuggs.. sorry no pics! Biggest harvest under 6 600W-hps yet for me... 150 Oz dry weight, but around 100 plants

Thanx for the reply home.grower. I will take those nutes into consideration with this up coming grow. laterz..


picilo