mrparanoid
New member
2nd time poster, long long long time lurker. I will be setting up a new grow soon, and wanted some pointers. The setup I would like to do is 1 mom/veg/clone room, 2 flower rooms on flip/flop, and 1 drying room. I have helped a buddy out with his grow for a couple of years, so I am not a total newb. 
I have outlined my questions, I hope some experienced growers can shed some light. Big ups to blazeoneup and so quick, ya'll sparked my interest years ago.
Hidden Door:
Any ideas on how to easily make a hidden door? Seems like easiest way would be to use the book shelf method.....get a book shelf and mount on wall with hinges, pull a book which pulls a latch on the floor, and it slides open.
Sound proofing:
Would only want to sound proof the wall that is exposed from the basement. Another words, the wall that the hidden door is on. Whats good way to sound proof? Dynamat?
IR Proofing + Sealing the room:
On top of sound proofing, I was hoping to use the poly sheild, which should take care of sealing the room + IR control. To properly seal the room, do I need to put the poly shield on the floor as well as the walls and ceiling? Has anyone had luck with poly shield, or is this all media hype? Here is the description of the product:
"Poly Shield is a black and white poly measuring 6' x 100'. Poly Shield is infused with metals that give it special properties that are highly reflective and protect the covered area form outside intrusive sources.
A thermal imager is extremely sensitive and reportedly can detect temperature variations as small as 0.1 degrees centigrade. The images created by the device can be projected onto a small viewing screen or preserved on video tape or photographs. The picture above shows a standard 1000 watt MH bulb glowing behind regular black poly on the left, and Poly Shield on the right, demonstrates the reflective qualities of the product.
Poly Shield is a single product that insulates against heat and cold, serves as an excellent vapor barrier, and is extremely reflective. This is an absolute must to seal your Grow Room and insure peace of mind!! Now available in 50 ft. rolls. "
Sump pump:
Since this will be in the basement, and hidden, I am concerned that if there is a leak somewhere, the basement would get flooded quickly. The 2 ideas that came to mind were 1) put a sump pump in the corner of the room, and perhaps poor some concrete and slope a bit towards that sump pump or 2) put a drain along the perimeter of the room that drains out the back of the house. What are other options, or is one of these the best?
Lights:
So the idea here is to have 4 lights in each flower room, and 2 250 watt lights in the veg room for the moms and put clones under small fluros. My idea was to get 4 ballasts and use flip flops between the rooms. I am planning on doing 4 600s in each room, so a total of 2900 watts continuous: 2400 watts in flower room, and 500 watts in veg room. Should there be a concern with that much power running 24/7 in a 4 bedroom home? Just 2 of us will live there. It doesnt seem like a whole lot, but wanted to bounce that question off yall. Planning on using air cooled Sun system or equivalent hoods. Hoping to get one that will give a nice 4x4 light area.
Fans:
For each flower room, the plan was to get 8 inch fans for the lights, and a 1 6 inch fan to exhaust the room. The 8 inch fan I was planning on splitting off to 2 6 inch tubes for each row of lights. So I would pull the air from a clean room into the fans and then back out into undecided area. Seems like a bad idea to vent directly outside. The light diagram is below, seems like the simplest method. Or should I get 1 fan per pair of lights? Obviously the goal in this project is to have it as simple as possible while getting the best bud quality out. So I wouldnt mind spending money on a bigger fan or more fans if needed.
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Odor Control:
So my idea on odor control is to put 1 carbon filter in each room (2 flower rooms, 1 drying room, 1 mom room). I would place can 50's in each room and then exhaust that into another room with a bigger filter and a fan that exhausts to outdoors, and right before it leaves to outdoors, put an ozone generator in the tubes to give it one last cleansing. I figure this setup is the safest and will leave the air clean before it leaves the house. Is this overkill?
Flip flop:
The flip flops seems safe from what I have read on here, is this correct? Has anyone heard of a fire hazard or other issues with these? Are there ballasts with built in relays to flip flop lights?
Greenhouse controllers:
I would like to place a greenhouse controller in each of the flower rooms to control:
Temperature (a/c and heat), humidity, co2, fans, nutrients for res (perhaps it would be best to use auto dosers for this), etc. I do not need one to control the lights, that would all be controlled by the flip flop relay. Any suggestions on which one to use? So quick, would love to hear your opinion on this one. I saw your threads on OG a while ago about some, but content is sadly gone now on that site.
For the drying room, I figure I only need a controller that would do humidity/temp. Is this assumption correct?
A/C Unit:
I am assuming that this will be simple: put 10,000 btu portable a/c units in each flower room, and smaller units in the veg and drying rooms. Does this seem like the most cost efficient way? I have no HVAC experience, so not sure how I could use the central a/c.
co2 tanks or generators:
I recently heard about co2 generators, and how much it saves over the tanks. Any validation with this? Are the generators a more effiecent/cheaper way to get co2 to my girls? Seems like I would have to purchase 2 generators, since they can only get it during the light cycle, and the flower rooms will be flip/flopping. Is it better to let the co2 fall from the ceiling or be blown up from the floor with small fans?
Pest prevention:
Any moms/clones I get from friends will be quarantined, but still concerned with pests getting into the flower rooms, especiall mites. Is it safe enough to use those no-pest or pest-free strips and hang them in front of osciallating fans? Could this be a health risk (especially when bud is being smoked)? Is the norm to dissinfect between harvests and not worry about pests until they are present?
Systems I'm planning on using:
I currently have 2 flood and drain tables, so that will be under 1 set of 600s. On the 2nd set of 600s, I am going to use ebb/grow type of system (40-50 gallon trash can as res, controller bucket, and as many buckets as I can fit under the set of 600 watt lights. In the 2nd flower room, was thinking of having a soil bed, but not real sure Im up for lugging that much soil in every 2 months and disposing of used soil. Anyone know of auto drippers for soil that only drip if the soil needs it? May be worth doing soil if there are inexpensive drip systems for soil like this. If not, then I would probably just duplicate the first room as far as hydro systems go.
Nutrients:
The times I have worked on girls before, I was using floranova set of nutes along with liquid karma. The Advanced Nutes seem like they are the best for this hobby, can someone pipe in and compare AN with floranova?
Any other folks chime in who have used floranova along with other ferts and compare the two.
Trimmers:
Based on this type of setup, and the amount of bud I'm expecting, I was looking at different trimmers like: aardvark, trimmer pro, and a couple I saw in jorge cervantes book. I know no one who has used them and have never used one myself. I am curious to see who is using these, and how well/quickly they trim bud. I figure under each set of lights, I would do about 2-2.5 lbs, so really hoping to speed up the trim process. The goal is to make medicine, so basically wanting to know if these will provide head type of results.
Benches for buckets in sog type of setup:
I have noticed a few growers putting the buckets on short benches instead of the floor. Is there a reason why?
Last question but not least:
The ppm levels in tap water are below 100, so I am curious to know if investing in a Reverse Osmosis system is needed or advised.
I have outlined my questions, I hope some experienced growers can shed some light. Big ups to blazeoneup and so quick, ya'll sparked my interest years ago.
Hidden Door:
Any ideas on how to easily make a hidden door? Seems like easiest way would be to use the book shelf method.....get a book shelf and mount on wall with hinges, pull a book which pulls a latch on the floor, and it slides open.
Sound proofing:
Would only want to sound proof the wall that is exposed from the basement. Another words, the wall that the hidden door is on. Whats good way to sound proof? Dynamat?
IR Proofing + Sealing the room:
On top of sound proofing, I was hoping to use the poly sheild, which should take care of sealing the room + IR control. To properly seal the room, do I need to put the poly shield on the floor as well as the walls and ceiling? Has anyone had luck with poly shield, or is this all media hype? Here is the description of the product:
"Poly Shield is a black and white poly measuring 6' x 100'. Poly Shield is infused with metals that give it special properties that are highly reflective and protect the covered area form outside intrusive sources.
A thermal imager is extremely sensitive and reportedly can detect temperature variations as small as 0.1 degrees centigrade. The images created by the device can be projected onto a small viewing screen or preserved on video tape or photographs. The picture above shows a standard 1000 watt MH bulb glowing behind regular black poly on the left, and Poly Shield on the right, demonstrates the reflective qualities of the product.
Poly Shield is a single product that insulates against heat and cold, serves as an excellent vapor barrier, and is extremely reflective. This is an absolute must to seal your Grow Room and insure peace of mind!! Now available in 50 ft. rolls. "
Sump pump:
Since this will be in the basement, and hidden, I am concerned that if there is a leak somewhere, the basement would get flooded quickly. The 2 ideas that came to mind were 1) put a sump pump in the corner of the room, and perhaps poor some concrete and slope a bit towards that sump pump or 2) put a drain along the perimeter of the room that drains out the back of the house. What are other options, or is one of these the best?
Lights:
So the idea here is to have 4 lights in each flower room, and 2 250 watt lights in the veg room for the moms and put clones under small fluros. My idea was to get 4 ballasts and use flip flops between the rooms. I am planning on doing 4 600s in each room, so a total of 2900 watts continuous: 2400 watts in flower room, and 500 watts in veg room. Should there be a concern with that much power running 24/7 in a 4 bedroom home? Just 2 of us will live there. It doesnt seem like a whole lot, but wanted to bounce that question off yall. Planning on using air cooled Sun system or equivalent hoods. Hoping to get one that will give a nice 4x4 light area.
Fans:
For each flower room, the plan was to get 8 inch fans for the lights, and a 1 6 inch fan to exhaust the room. The 8 inch fan I was planning on splitting off to 2 6 inch tubes for each row of lights. So I would pull the air from a clean room into the fans and then back out into undecided area. Seems like a bad idea to vent directly outside. The light diagram is below, seems like the simplest method. Or should I get 1 fan per pair of lights? Obviously the goal in this project is to have it as simple as possible while getting the best bud quality out. So I wouldnt mind spending money on a bigger fan or more fans if needed.
O 0
| |
| |
| |
O 0
\ /
\ /
F
Odor Control:
So my idea on odor control is to put 1 carbon filter in each room (2 flower rooms, 1 drying room, 1 mom room). I would place can 50's in each room and then exhaust that into another room with a bigger filter and a fan that exhausts to outdoors, and right before it leaves to outdoors, put an ozone generator in the tubes to give it one last cleansing. I figure this setup is the safest and will leave the air clean before it leaves the house. Is this overkill?
Flip flop:
The flip flops seems safe from what I have read on here, is this correct? Has anyone heard of a fire hazard or other issues with these? Are there ballasts with built in relays to flip flop lights?
Greenhouse controllers:
I would like to place a greenhouse controller in each of the flower rooms to control:
Temperature (a/c and heat), humidity, co2, fans, nutrients for res (perhaps it would be best to use auto dosers for this), etc. I do not need one to control the lights, that would all be controlled by the flip flop relay. Any suggestions on which one to use? So quick, would love to hear your opinion on this one. I saw your threads on OG a while ago about some, but content is sadly gone now on that site.
For the drying room, I figure I only need a controller that would do humidity/temp. Is this assumption correct?
A/C Unit:
I am assuming that this will be simple: put 10,000 btu portable a/c units in each flower room, and smaller units in the veg and drying rooms. Does this seem like the most cost efficient way? I have no HVAC experience, so not sure how I could use the central a/c.
co2 tanks or generators:
I recently heard about co2 generators, and how much it saves over the tanks. Any validation with this? Are the generators a more effiecent/cheaper way to get co2 to my girls? Seems like I would have to purchase 2 generators, since they can only get it during the light cycle, and the flower rooms will be flip/flopping. Is it better to let the co2 fall from the ceiling or be blown up from the floor with small fans?
Pest prevention:
Any moms/clones I get from friends will be quarantined, but still concerned with pests getting into the flower rooms, especiall mites. Is it safe enough to use those no-pest or pest-free strips and hang them in front of osciallating fans? Could this be a health risk (especially when bud is being smoked)? Is the norm to dissinfect between harvests and not worry about pests until they are present?
Systems I'm planning on using:
I currently have 2 flood and drain tables, so that will be under 1 set of 600s. On the 2nd set of 600s, I am going to use ebb/grow type of system (40-50 gallon trash can as res, controller bucket, and as many buckets as I can fit under the set of 600 watt lights. In the 2nd flower room, was thinking of having a soil bed, but not real sure Im up for lugging that much soil in every 2 months and disposing of used soil. Anyone know of auto drippers for soil that only drip if the soil needs it? May be worth doing soil if there are inexpensive drip systems for soil like this. If not, then I would probably just duplicate the first room as far as hydro systems go.
Nutrients:
The times I have worked on girls before, I was using floranova set of nutes along with liquid karma. The Advanced Nutes seem like they are the best for this hobby, can someone pipe in and compare AN with floranova?
Any other folks chime in who have used floranova along with other ferts and compare the two.
Trimmers:
Based on this type of setup, and the amount of bud I'm expecting, I was looking at different trimmers like: aardvark, trimmer pro, and a couple I saw in jorge cervantes book. I know no one who has used them and have never used one myself. I am curious to see who is using these, and how well/quickly they trim bud. I figure under each set of lights, I would do about 2-2.5 lbs, so really hoping to speed up the trim process. The goal is to make medicine, so basically wanting to know if these will provide head type of results.
Benches for buckets in sog type of setup:
I have noticed a few growers putting the buckets on short benches instead of the floor. Is there a reason why?
Last question but not least:
The ppm levels in tap water are below 100, so I am curious to know if investing in a Reverse Osmosis system is needed or advised.
