getting started

[ECOBANE]

Well hello all

I was hoping to get some answers for few questions.
I am about to start my first grow room and i just want to make sure im starting out right. My room is 7ft long by 4.5ft wide by 6.5 tall, i plan to run two 4 foot flourescents until sprouts emerge and then for another week or so and transfer to hydroton in a rubbermaid set up. Do I need to soak my hydroton in ph balnced water before i use it and if so what should that ph be? once i transfer to hydroton I will have 1000watt metal Halide and One 400 watt hps for veg and then vice versa for flowering, is this to much light for this room size? I do have an inline 400 +fan going into the chimney. Also do you think it is necesary to line the outside of rubbermaid with mylar? I know these r probably noob questions but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

ECOBANE Reviewed by ECOBANE on 07-10-2010. getting started Well hello all I was hoping to get some answers for few questions. I am about to start my first grow room and i just want to make sure im starting out right. My room is 7ft long by 4.5ft wide by 6.5 tall, i plan to run two 4 foot flourescents until sprouts emerge and then for another week or so and transfer to hydroton in a rubbermaid set up. Do I need to soak my hydroton in ph balnced water before i use it and if so what should that ph be? once i transfer to hydroton I will have 1000watt Rating: 5

[tinytoon]

Soak the livin hell out of the hydrotron!!! and I dont mean just overnight. Put the Tron in a tote or whatever and soak it in 5.8-6.0 water for aprox 12 hours then rinse and repeat atleast 2 more times for a total of 3 soaks. The more light the better as long as you can control the heat. I'm thinking bout investing in the heat blanket type things you install over the reflector to keep heat down from entering room. If you could put up a pic or something besides just saying using Rubbermaid. I'm gonna guess you mean DWC and if so then you could just paint the top white.

[ECOBANE]

Ok Thanks for the tips so far. soaked and rinsed the livin hell outa my ton, im on the 3rd soak now and prob gonna do a 4th. im getting quite nervous as germination time aproaches. My setup is 5 net pots on the rubbermaid with airstones and a submersible pump feeding the pots, i have mylar glued to the tops of the rubbermaid, i plan to put germinated seeds in rr inside humidity dome with 4 four foot fluros for about a week then transplant to system, i will then start the 1000 watt hps, temp in room fluctuates between 80.4 and 82.5, humidity with lights on is 53%, i plan to run no nutes for 2 weeks and then add superthrive and foxfarm growbig, to keep water temps down i plan to use frozen bottles(no other choice) i plan to keep the water at a slow steady stream, i also have some no slime liquid called aqua sheild. im gonna try to grow the cheese and white widow. at flowering im going to switch to ff tigerbloom, my current tap water is 334 ppm (Upper peninsula water). i have 3 fans and just cant get that temp down any further,exhaust fan is running full blast. I do have a 400watt mh/hps but not sure if that will be enough light for for ten plants (2 rubbermaid totes 33g) in this room size? any tips advice or corrections would be most appreciated , sorry for rambling on, here a few pics

Thanks

[tinytoon]

I'm guessing that the fans are exhausting out of room. Only thing I might be able to suggest would be either intake air coming from outside and venting to outside as well or (what I am stuck doing) get yourself a portable ac unit.
BTW I would go with the ST right from the get go, does real good job helping plants get started and such.

[ECOBANE]

Thanks for the tips. When u say vent outside do u mean out of doors or out of room also does a portable a/c have to be vented out of doors as this is not anoption for my set up. Will my plants struggle in the 80s?

thanks again for the help and replies

[tinytoon]

venting outside would be prime but not everyone can do that without worrying about LEO. You can vent to a seperate room or out a window or anywhere you pretty much want to to get the heat anywhere but inside your room. A portable ac unit also has heat that has to be vented but just heat, no poisonous gas or anything. If you are stuck in the 80's just be sure that air is moving as much as possible. Where are you currently intaking and exhaust from/to??

[ECOBANE]

I have the room in the basement, the intake vent 6" is coming in from the basement air in the lower left corner of the room and and the exhaust 6" upper right corner is is sucking out of room into the chimeney.

[ECOBANE]

I have the room in the basement, the intake vent 6" is coming in from the basement air in the lower left corner of the room, the exhaust is in the upper right corner with a 6" inline fan sucking out of room into the chimeney.

[ECOBANE]

now that was an oops!

[tinytoon]

Chimney is outside enough for me. Is your light air cooled also and does it also go up chimney??