I Need Some Feedback On My First Grow Room Setup!

[STOP]

looking sweet man

 

[Dutty Panty]

Love the wall charts

 

[CoNerd]

It's looking much nicer than when you started. There's probably more right than "wrong" at this point. You'd probably get better air circ by moving the big fan to the top of the room and use it to force air down. Use the small fans to set up a circular flow in the below, enhancing the direction of flow generated by the "ceiling" fan.

You want a standing vortex to form in the room. Pointing all fans towards the center is much less efficient. I'd use the big fan above the light and point it at the ceiling. The hot air will flow down the walls and cooler air will rise from below in the center, cooling the canopy. I suggest a session with a laser pointer, a spliff and the fans during the dark period to help you optimize the air flow in the room. Get everything working well while the plants are small and you still have room to work. I'd guess that the big fan up top and one smaller one on the pole would be enough for a room that size.

The footprint of the door needs some thought. How to make the best use and keep the plants back enough to get you and stuff in the door. The plants will soon fill the room and you'll need to reach the far corner (and behind the door) to water and maintain the plants. You probably wont be able to squeeze around the outside. I'd also suggest moving the CO2 tank and the vertical duct behind the door. You probably won't be able to open the door more than 45 deg in the end without something to hold the plants back.

Tape the seams to avoid places for bugs to hide. I also rotate my young plants under the lights to help the plants develop more evenly.

Are you going to run the CO2 only at night, while the light fan is off?

 

[GonnaGrow]

Are you going to run the CO2 only at night, while the light fan is off?

Currently my lights are "off" from 12pm-6pm then "on" from 6pm-12pm (18/6). I just ordered my digital environment contr. and co2 ppm contr. today. They should be here by 12.16.14 then I'm going to dial everything in. "Right now" my plan is that when the light comes on my environment controller or "EC" will turn the intake/exhaust fans off. At the same time it will turn the Co2 ppm controller or "CPC" on. The CPC will open the tank and raise the ppm to 1500. Now I want it to cycle the air in the room every so often and replace it with new air, but I'm not sure how often I should have it do so. From what I understand it takes the co2 so long to mix with the o2 so I would need to account for that. Whats your take?

 

[CoNerd]

Currently my lights are "off" from 12pm-6pm then "on" from 6pm-12pm (18/6). I just ordered my digital environment contr. and co2 ppm contr. today. They should be here by 12.16.14 then I'm going to dial everything in. "Right now" my plan is that when the light comes on my environment controller or "EC" will turn the intake/exhaust fans off. At the same time it will turn the Co2 ppm controller or "CPC" on. The CPC will open the tank and raise the ppm to 1500. Now I want it to cycle the air in the room every so often and replace it with new air, but I'm not sure how often I should have it do so. From what I understand it takes the co2 so long to mix with the o2 so I would need to account for that. Whats your take?

Ah, OK. The CO2 mixes pretty much instantly. Within seconds, the released CO2 spreads throughout the room.
It will start to displace the O2 in the room. It take time for the plants to use it, and they can only use concentrations above 1000ppm if the plants temperature is above 80-85F.

You'll want to adjust the airflow in the light cooling loop so the room only needs venting a couple of times per hour in order to stay about 85-90F. You'll also need to control humidity. You'll be using your dehumidifier in the basement to keep the intake air around 40%.

You really need to seal up that room if you want to get much effect from the CO2. You will absolutely need to separate the light cooling from room ventilation. When CO2 is supplied, then the room atmosphere remains sealed unless cooling or humidity control is needed. While the room vents, and if the room is not sealed, you will be wasting CO2, and will gain very little from it.

I've only used gasses in the lab, so it was set and forget and not growing cannabis. Perhaps some others who grow with CO2 can pipe up

 

[GonnaGrow]

You'll want to adjust the airflow in the light cooling loop so the room only needs venting a couple of times per hour in order to stay about 85-90F. You'll also need to control humidity. You'll be using your dehumidifier in the basement to keep the intake air around 40%.

You really need to seal up that room if you want to get much effect from the CO2. You will absolutely need to

Thank You! I was VERY meticulous when building the room to completely seal any gaps or cracks with silicone. There are no leaks. You could launch my room into outerspace. If the door isn't completely closed, the air going through the crack whistles like crazy. Since I haven't had a controller yet I did the math and figured out it takes .5 cu ft of co2 to fill my room and make it 1500 ppm. " I think" lol. So i slow my fans to a crawl and turn my tank on and set it to release 1 cu. ft. per hr. Within a hr the temp will be right around a steady 90F. So once my controller gets here I guess Ill try taking the carbon filter off my light and connecting the intake air duct to that end of the light. Then maybe make a new hole for the room intake and move the old intake fan to it. Something like this????

 

[Dutty Panty]

So I run my co2 high 2000 ppm. Yes I know they only can take 1500 but would rather be high than low. I run a sniffer and set to 2000. See attached pics. I also run my exhaust fan for only 15 mins every hour during light so less loss of co2. And exhaust runs all lights off due to photo light trigger on sniffer and timer

 

[CoNerd]

Exactly. It won't matter how high the exh fans run as they will put the room under neg pressure. In the winter time, the heat from the light will be nice to dump into the house. Not so much in the summer time.

 

[GonnaGrow]

Alright I got the light on its own fan, pulling air from the house into the light and out the wall. I installed a damper to let fresh air into the garden. I also covered the wall beside the door and ran a new 20 amp circuit just for my environment controllers. So far the PPM-4 is working great. co2 levels rise to 1500 really quickly and with it maintaining that level the entire time the lights are on it doesn't use much co2. Here's a few pics I still have to make one more hole for the carbon filter and fan duct work to go through. Then I should be pretty much done with this room.

 

[CoNerd]

Your plants are looking good! How are the temps and humidity doing?

I'm using a cheap indoor - outdoor thermometer with the wireless remote sensor below the canopy.

 

[GonnaGrow]

Your plants are looking good! How are the temps and humidity doing?

I'm using a cheap indoor - outdoor thermometer with the wireless remote sensor below the canopy.

Hi Nerd! Today they are 7 weeks old. I plan on 7 more days of veg then onto flower!. Temps are perfect! When the lights come on within 30 minutes its 85-90F and 55-66 RH with 1451+ ppm of co2. Seems like some of the leaves on my plants are getting this blue-ish sheen to them. I tried to capture it with my gopro but I don't know if you can see it. Moved some things around again, hopefully this will be the final time. One fan sucks air through the filter and another blows fresh air through the light. The two air streams combine and go straight outside. When the light fan is on full blast and the filter fan off,I cant feel any air coming back out the filter. But when I turn the Filter fan on full blast and the light fan off, I can feel a little air coming out of the light fan. I could get a cheap inline damper to fix that but since the air is filtered I'm too worried. I just didnt wanna cut another 6" hole in my room unless I have to. At least till harvest is over.

Maybe here you can see the blue.

 

[GonnaGrow]

So my seeds were Blue Cheese from Big Buddha Seeds. and this guys had the same. Is it all in the pheno?

 

[Ascended Master Kief]

Those gals are looking really good, and your setup seems great. To answer your question, color can be dependent on phenotype, and on environment. Nature and nurture.

 

[GonnaGrow]

Flower Time!!

8 weeks old! Flower started yesterday. Switched up my nutrient mix gradually over the last week. I've been using FloraNova Grow, Nova Bloom, Humbolt Honey, Humbolt Big Up Powder, and Liquid Karma. Switched out the bulbs for a brand new hps, and put the old MH in a econo wing for transition. I wonder if I should keep the MH throughout flower, or is it wasted light? It does raise the temp possibly causing the exhaust fans to cycle on too frequently. Right now I think it filling the room with co2 instantly then the fans cycle every 30 min. That's gotta be wasting a lot of co2.

I still have to figure out how to neatly arrange everything's wires, eventually installing conduit will be fun. I'm pretty close to where I sit back watch them grow.

Anyway here's some pics of what I've added to the setup.

 

[Ascended Master Kief]

Very impressive, mate! They're 8 weeks? Got big. You're sure to get a nice load of medicine from those gals when it's all said and done.

EDIT: Psst! Did anyone tell you on the 15th (December) your fly was open.

 

[GonnaGrow]

Tell me what you think about this. I didn't wanna do a full scrog because I wouldn't be able to move the plants around and access would be really tight once they are flowering. My 6x6 room is already pretty cramped with 4 plants and it's only the first week. I did however want a way to easily make the buds evenly spaced so here is my solution.

If I had planned better I would have put screens on all three tiers of the 'mater cages and put them over the plants wayyy sooner. I'll do that next run. Anyway, this is just a pic of the middle tier on the first cage. I'm not sure how tall the plants will get since this is my first go at this strain, but when they start getting close to the top tier I'll put a screen on it too. Hopefully this will help keep the buds separated. So what do you think? Ever seen someone do this? Lowe's only had three of the green painted cages left and my o.c.d. can't handle one plant having a different cage. I'll prob. break down and get a different one for the choco o.g. x orange o.g. .. It was a free sample from Wheezey seeds, anyone heard of them?

 

[Ascended Master Kief]

Awesome idea on the cages, mate! Never did see that before. Good thinking!

 

[GonnaGrow]

Thanks! I would have put them on there earlier. but the cages wont fit under the light untill the plants are this tall.

 

[GonnaGrow]

2nd week of flower!

 

[Dutty Panty]

Looking great.