Pictures Of My Grow Rooms Built Inside Garage With Questions for Suggestions

[newguy41410]

this is where i plan to put the volume reservoir and maybe the control reservoir if it will fit. I'm thinking about using a longer flatter storage tote for the volume reservoir so i can put oon that wooden reddish shelf ive already got in my garage.

Built what will basically serve as a duct for my passive intake, out of wood

gonna finish sealing up all the cracks in the structure with silicone and put the batts insulation in before slapping on reflective R-tech foam insulation boards.
It doesn't look like much and isn't pretty but i feel like ive spent so much hundred hours single-handledly planning and building this out. My first time setting up a subpanel and fabricating a room and am happy with how its turning out so far. Made some minor mistakes that cost time here and there but im a rookie at building all this stuff and the experience so far already has taught me a lot!

ok, i've got a little bit better view of your intentions and plans after this last post.

with your plan of two scrog screens with two plants under each you will need 4 plants after all. you will have 8.75 sq ft per plant so you will have to keep them small and flower early.

i am not the right indian to ask about scrogging. i'm about to do it on what is for me a larger scale, 16 plants in 7 gal containers each trained to a 4.5x4.5' screen. i have not done any scrogging in over 12 years. but i intend to top really early and train the canopy as flat as possible in veg before going to the screen. you should go to the coco forum and look at DJM's thread. he is a master at the scrog.

about the irrigation differences. you can fully flood the plant/medium container. this positively drives out all the old gases and pulls in fresh new gas. works great and there is no guess work or experimentation with the volume. full is full.

but it requires large pumps. big reservoirs so you don't starve the pump. large diameter pvc tubing on both delivery and return. multiple valves that must be tuned rather precisely so that you evenly flood all containers at once without any of them overflowing. this approach is more expensive to set up and more time consuming to build than the pulsed irrigation technique.

in the literature "pulsed" or intermittent irrigation is considered to be a subset of drip irrigation. it is superior to a straight drip because you achieve a more evenly wetted medium. i won't go into the reasons for that here but believe me, it do!

to do a full flood in one of the 7 gal containers i use would require about 2 gals of solution because you must have enough to not only fill the airspace but also overwhelm the drain at the same time. with 12 containers that's about 24 gals and it needs to be delivered in a very short period of time requiring all the stuff mentioned above. also you cannot use any media that floats.

right now i'm back to 30 seconds or about 1/2 gal every 90 minutes with the turface/perlite mix. so with the same theoretical 12 plants that's only 6 gals per event. much easier to achieve and much less expensive. the pumps run for only 8 minutes per day.

in the same environment either way grows the same size plant.

in the ppk we are watering the medium, not the plant. we are trying to keep the medium within an ideal band of parameters. so yes you can fire both rooms from the same timer.

thanks for all your help again d9! i went to home depot today to pick up some 2 gallon buckets while getting some insulation and they dont have black ones, only white. I'll probably just order some online. I can go to lowe's and get the blue ones but i dont like the idea of having lowes logos on my badass ppk modules i have time to wait for itt o come in the mail anyway i need to finish biulding the actual grow room.

basically where im at now regarding ppk research is irrigation. Need to figure out which pumps im going to need for my setup. I think I may want to strongly consider doing pulse feed since you mention its cheaper and you have been running pulse feed lately. I see the simplicity in flood but if i need more expensive pumps and take more time fine-tuning things then i rather look into pulse feeding. Going to read some threads and probably do a little google fu before knocking out. Thanks again brotha

 

[delta9nxs]

http://www.marinedepot.com/Danner_S..._Powerheads-Danner_Mfg.-DN1123-FIPHFF-vi.html

2 of these are all you need. they have 1/2" inlets and outlets that can accept 1/2" pipe thread to 1/2" hose barb adapter which fits the hose.

you're welcome!

 

[newguy41410]

I'm not sure what size holes i should put in my partition wall to act as a vent? My exhaust fan is a 8" vortex hooked up to a carbon filter. My fresh-air intake is a 14" x 6". Not sure how to go about making a hole in my partition wall (wall that divides flower and veg) to act as a vent. Not sure if i should use PVC piping to to do this. If so, what size PVC pipes and how many? The thing is, im not sure home depot carries PVC elbows for 6" or 8" pipes. Guess Ill have to take a trip to the home depot later and go over my options. Would appreciate some input or suggestions on simple ways for me to achieve this in the meantime

EDIT: seems the popular thing to do is use PVC pipe as light trap intake? In my case, my local home depot sells 4" elbows for 5 dollars. I would need 8 of them for 48 square inches of ventilation and i am not sure that is even enough for me. 40 dollars for 48 inches of ventilation doesnt sound reasonable to me

 

[newguy41410]

alright just went to home depot and bought two 14x8 grille covers that can be opened and closed so im hoping i can adjust exhaust airflow with it. i put one low on the ground on one side of the wall and on the other side of the wall its about 1 foot higher. Then i put black fabric on the opposing wall behind each grille cover so light wouldnt reflect so much. Check out what i did:

theres a TINY bit of light that leaks through to the flower room. the last picture above is a picture of it with the lights off in the flower room. its really really dim so my camera had a hard time picking it up in the pic. I should be okay right?

 

[growingcrazy]

That is enough light to cause a problem and can be easily fixed. You can apply your black fabric to the vents also. That adds 2 more layers of light diffusion. Also make everything inside between the vents flat black to stop the light from reflecting off anything. If that doesn't work a light trap will be needed.

I like the room build, I will be following along.
gc

 

[newguy41410]

That is enough light to cause a problem and can be easily fixed. You can apply your black fabric to the vents also. That adds 2 more layers of light diffusion. Also make everything inside between the vents flat black to stop the light from reflecting off anything. If that doesn't work a light trap will be needed.

I like the room build, I will be following along.
gc

hey welcome to the thread and thanks for the input. yea i want to put black fabric over behind the grilles but i just realized that my two walls are only spaced 1.5 inches apart. A width of a 2x4. So I think I heavily constricted airflow by offsetting the holes vertically the way I did. I think the farther apart I place the vents VERTICALLY the greater the DEPTH needed between walls to maintain the same CFM potential. and my depth is only 1.5 inches. Damnittt. im thinking i gotta spend money on more foam boards and toss this wall away after peeling it off and ripping it up in the process so many times. Or just waiting til my vortex arrives and seeing how it works for now. Anyway, i was saying i wantt o put black fabric over the grilles but im afraid it will restrict airflow even more. Maybe just do the whole thing over if u think that light will affect my ladies :/

 

[newguy41410]

http://www.marinedepot.com/Danner_S..._Powerheads-Danner_Mfg.-DN1123-FIPHFF-vi.html

2 of these are all you need. they have 1/2" inlets and outlets that can accept 1/2" pipe thread to 1/2" hose barb adapter which fits the hose.

you're welcome!

hey delta i have a question about the ppk system. Ordering 2 gallon buckets for my ppk sites and was wondering what size control bucket to get and while i was thinking of that i was trying to wrap my head around control bucket size effect on nutrient mixing frequency; I was wondering if having a bigger control res would mean i could have more nutrient mixed at a time? meaning i could go longer without adding nutes to the system? Or does it not matter because there can only be a specific height of liquid in the control res to keep the PPK modules from overflowing? Also, as time passes the plants will drain the nutes and the PPM will change and i will have to adjust accordingly correct?Sorry if seems like a noobish question just dont have my hands on buckets to experiment and dont want to learn lessons that chip away at my wallet hehe

EDIT: as i sit here meditating (brainstorming) i am starting to wonder if the reason you have seven 55 gallon totes in your system is so you can add more volume to your system without overflowing all the PPK sites? Because the way i look at it is if you add a bucket to your current system the overall water level will fall a little right? so you need to add more (volume) to bring the water level back up. if you do that. So adding buckets is a way of adding volume while keeping the same water level? basically seven 55 gallon totes in series works for your system but you couldnt use one 385-gallon bucket because youre only filling up the container a couple inches at most right? am i on the right track of thinking as far as water levels in relation to the control bucket goes? just trying to make sure i understand as much about control res as much as possible before i pull trigger on purchase.

EDIT 2: as i sat here typing EDIT i remembered something and checked out 'something wicked comes this way' for the hundredth time and realized you mentioned your supply buckets and your 55 gallon totes water levels were at 7" high. I think this answers my question? hahha funny how i understand something so much more after reading the same thing over and over 20384 times

EDIT 3: okay did some more meditating. thinking since my whole setup is next to my washing machine.. i think im going to tap into the washing machines water source and put a Y on it. so a constant source of cold water will be filling up my control reservoir which i think will be a 55 gallon tote. anyway, im probaby going to buy a small RO filter if i can find one not too expensive. it will constantly filter water and dump it straight into my control res. Float valve will shut off the ro filter water source. sound better than having to fill up 5 gallon water containers at my ro filtered kitchen sink (which takes approximately 8 hours to get 5 gallons of ro filtered drinking water btw) and haul it out to my garage dump in elevated volumer res? ok its 4 am and i shoulld sleep. mustve been a sativa i smoked earlier

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Greetings Snook! Welcome to my humble abode (or what ive managed to build so far at least) May I pick your brain on some things? I have been researching PPK for the past couple nights and am still trying to wrap my head around some things. I was set on running coco DTW until @speedofgreen introduced me to PPK and after reading up so much on it I am now trying hard to come up with a PPK build that wont give me headaches down the line (i want to make sure i get it right the first time before i start building).

With that being said I noticed you had a PPK build of your own and I am hoping I can gain some insight through your experience. I understand how and why PPK works but the main things I am stumped with are trying to figure out the ideal sizes for everything in regard to my available space. (I am not worried about space for a main reservoir because I can place a main reservoir(s) outside the grow rooms and plumb it through walls into the grow rooms.)

Delta9 told me i probably shouldn't use a setup like his because of my grow space. So I am wondering what PPK parameters would be different for a grow space like mine? I have a 7x7 ft. flowering room. And my ceiling is 7 feet high. Is 4 or 6 PPK sites way too much for my floor space? Should I be aiming for more smaller-sized plants because of my grow space? Should I do less plants but huge sized? Do I aim for a 4" air gap just like bigger PPK growers do? D9 had mentioned that i should go with a more compact PPK system but im not sure if that just means size everything down? Like container sizes and plant count? Should I purposely aim for a smaller plant size because of my headroom? Can I still run a 3-container module like this one here:
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Or does my grow area limit the potential of these kinds of builds?

Sorry if I seem a little wet behind the ears (I am ), I just learned of PPK recently so its still fairly new to me although ive done lots of reading on it. I just don't have experience with PPK and this is actually my first own grow at home where I will be tending my own garden and not someone else's . I just want to make sure I don't build a system with an expensive or painstaking "weak link" or "bottleneck." Hope you can give me some input to help me get the ball rolling on my PPK build!

looking good and love the sketch !!
Hahaha

 

[420ish]

my grow room now is in my garage.i have two rooms ,a 6x8 x8 foot veg room and a 8 x 10 x 8 high flower room.
i am using 4 cxb3590 driven at 50 watts each per light.
1 light per ppk plant site.
i vertical scrog them to screens.
i do have my pump under each plant.
when i move plant from veg room to flower i take the bucket lid and pump with the plant to the flower room.i am planning on changing that out.
here is a picture of one of two walls in my flower room.i try to take one plant every week or two and replace right after.i am only running one wall right now.the single plant was from the old grow.
my last grow room had 8 plants going with 8 200 watt cxb lights one per plant.

 

[newguy41410]

my grow room now is in my garage.i have two rooms ,a 6x8 x8 foot veg room and a 8 x 10 x 8 high flower room.
i am using 4 cxb3590 driven at 50 watts each per light.
1 light per ppk plant site.
i vertical scrog them to screens.
i do have my pump under each plant.
when i move plant from veg room to flower i take the bucket lid and pump with the plant to the flower room.i am planning on changing that out.
here is a picture of one of two walls in my flower room.i try to take one plant every week or two and replace right after.i am only running one wall right now.the single plant was from the old grow.
my last grow room had 8 plants going with 8 200 watt cxb lights one per plant.https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=65955&pictureid=1705441View Image https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=65955&pictureid=1687570View Image

love what you got going on man. cant wait til im up and running! what are you growing btw?

also can i ask a question regarding the CXBs? im planning to run 4 ppk sites in my 7x7 flower room. two ppk sites under each 2.5 x 7 ft SCROG (horizontal).

Just wondering if you think each COB LED can easily cover a 2-and-a-half-foot footprint?? If so, i think im going to run 8 COBs in one single row over each SCROG ( i have 16 COB LEDs to use in flower room)

 

[420ish]

i do use the 3 gallon rough neck totes .i have used them with 2 11/2 inch drain pipes per tote and am now using 1 3 inch drain per tote.
the two pics i am now posting are the 3rd plant from the right and 2nd plant from the right in the 4 plant pic in my previous post.that pic was around dec 12,the two new pics last week 2/11/2017.the 2nd plant from the right (2nd pic) was chopped right after the pic.210 grams or so dry from 1 plant 215 watts at the wall.

 

[420ish]

love what you got going on man. cant wait til im up and running! what are you growing btw?

also can i ask a question regarding the CXBs? im planning to run 4 ppk sites in my 7x7 flower room. two ppk sites under each 2.5 x 7 ft SCROG (horizontal).

Just wondering if you think each COB LED can easily cover a 2-and-a-half-foot footprint?? If so, i think im going to run 8 COBs in one single row over each SCROG ( i have 16 COB LEDs to use in flower room)

my racks are 2 1/2 feet wide.the light in one row does not quite get the full 2 1/2 foot lit up great.it does work but the edges are not as lit as i would like.i am keeping my lights only 16 to 18 inches away from the back screen so maybe 20 inches would do the trick for you!
the plants are 1 blueberry platinium and 3 gg4. the blueberry is the farthest left in the 4 plant pic .the pic from the old grow is purple og 18
my racks are 2 1/2 foot wide by 6 foot high.the screen starts around 20 inches high.the screen is around 2 1/2 foot by 4 foot .my lights are about 46 inches but the cobs are not spaced all the way to the ends.
you might want to build your lights with the cobs alternating sides to get a little better spread over the 2 1/2 foot wide

 

[newguy41410]

View Image View Image i do use the 3 gallon rough neck totes .i have used them with 2 11/2 inch drain pipes per tote and am now using 1 3 inch drain per tote.
the two pics i am now posting are the 3rd plant from the right and 2nd plant from the right in the 4 plant pic in my previous post.that pic was around dec 12,the two new pics last week 2/11/2017.the 2nd plant from the right (2nd pic) was chopped right after the pic.210 grams or so dry from 1 plant 215 watts at the wall.

sweeeet. i would be ecstatic with that yield. what are you using for media? all coco?

 

[420ish]

sweeeet. i would be ecstatic with that yield. what are you using for media? all coco?

i am using turface screened through reg window screen.the purple og 18 hit over ten oz per plant @200 watts.my patients dont like it though.the blueberry hit a little over 7 oz .my only problem with the ppk is self made.i do not have my pumps in the main res but in each plant site bottom bucket.so far the two sites farthest from the control bucket have gotten too high on the ec but i just drain that bucket and all good.since mine is perpetual i will redesign when i get the other wall started .that side i will do differently and then change this side

 

[newguy41410]

Should I dump my giant nutrient bags into 5 gallon buckets? is it okay if my buckets arent 'food grade'?

 

[Snook]

Should I dump my giant nutrient bags into 5 gallon buckets? is it okay if my buckets arent 'food grade'?

If you are talking storage, yes but make sure the lids of those buckets are tight and secure.. this stuff is very hygroscopic. I keep bulk Jacks&Calcium in 2 gallon kittly litter bottles and small containers for regular mixing small amounts (18 gallon) for daily/weekly use and they both turn form a white blueish color to blue in short time in those small containers even though I cover them after each use. nice looking build..

 

[420ish]

i use empty cat litter buckets.the lids are pretty tight.i have not had problems with moisture getting in the cat litter buckets.good luck !

 

[delta9nxs]

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Should I dump my giant nutrient bags into 5 gallon buckets? is it okay if my buckets arent 'food grade'?

you got the wrong yara liva, you need the "greenhouse" grade that is totally and instantly water soluble. the tropicote will turn into a gel. it is designed for top dressing and mixing into soil.

the bags look almost the same. you want this one;

http://www.yara.com.au/crop-nutrition/products/yaraliva/0884-yaraliva-calcinit/

 

[delta9nxs]

here are some drawings that might help you. in your pm to me you wanted to run a line from your ro filter straight into your control reservoir, the one on the floor. this is wrong.

you want to accumulate your ro water in a tank that is not shown here. that tank could have a float valve on it also to keep it from overflowing.

in one drawing below there is a tank labeled "bulk res", also called a volume tank, and in the next there is the elevated tank in blue. same thing. this is where you mix nutrients. you don't mix in this tank until it is empty. then pump over your ro water and mix in nutrients.

the tank on the floor is the control reservoir. this is where the float valve goes that supplies the system from the bulk res.

these show the pump in the control res which works fine but it's easier to do it the new way.

click on the blue one. ah shit, it used to be animated.

 

[newguy41410]

you got the wrong yara liva, you need the "greenhouse" grade that is totally and instantly water soluble. the tropicote will turn into a gel. it is designed for top dressing and mixing into soil.

the bags look almost the same. you want this one;

http://www.yara.com.au/crop-nutrition/products/yaraliva/0884-yaraliva-calcinit/

dammmmitt!!! uaifjadfhfkhkfjkdhkadfhdfhfdhfdhfdshhdsfhfdf sorry just a little frustrated at the moment lol. i gotta drive 45 minutes and beg this old man to let me exchange this Tropicote bag for the Calcinit bag cause my dumbass threw the receipt away YESTERDAY MORNING hahah. If he doesnt let me exchange i guess im shelling out another 20-something bucks.... So this tropicote stuff is useless to me then eh?

here are some drawings that might help you. in your pm to me you wanted to run a line from your ro filter straight into your control reservoir, the one on the floor. this is wrong.

you want to accumulate your ro water in a tank that is not shown here. that tank could have a float valve on it also to keep it from overflowing.

in one drawing below there is a tank labeled "bulk res", also called a volume tank, and in the next there is the elevated tank in blue. same thing. this is where you mix nutrients. you don't mix in this tank until it is empty. then pump over your ro water and mix in nutrients.

the tank on the floor is the control reservoir. this is where the float valve goes that supplies the system from the bulk res.

these show the pump in the control res which works fine but it's easier to do it the new way.

click on the blue one. ah shit, it used to be animated.

ok thanks so much once again! glad i asked before going through with building. So here's what i think i just learned:

-i want a volume res to make sure the control reservoir is never starved which will make sure my pump buckets will never starve which will make sure my pumps will never starve?
-volume res will be where the mixing is controlled at, not control buckets

So here's my PPK plans:
Water supply > RO filter > Elevated Volume Res > Inline Tee for one line to go to Veg Room Float Control Res and one line for Flower Room Float control res > Pump Buckets inside respective grow rooms > Turface > Wick> Circulate back to Control

QUESTIONS: for ANYONE to answer please (d9 doesn't have to answer every thing although his word is gold to me )

1) Basically the bigger the volume tank the better right? Because I wouldn't have to mix the jacks and calcinit as often?

2) VOLUME RES: Can I fill a 55 gallon rubbermaid storage tote up with water without any problems? (the tote won't flex and break or burst on me will it?)

3) Is 55 gallons overkill for my system? Should I just get 27 gallon HDX tote for half the price of a 55 gallon?

4) I have a 10-gallon storage tote to use as a Float Control Reservoir. Should I use two of them in series to add more volume to the system? Or save my money and use one?

-unrelated question: Can I paint my white vent, black with spray paint right now? it is refracting a little bit of light from the veg room. I wont have plants in the room for at least two weeks so is it safe to spray paint this vent black?