New Grower First time grower. Need suggestions on my set up.

[Nate4twenty]

Hello all, i just want to thank you for looking at my post. Without a site like this, i don't know what i would do.

I am a complete beginner. I have done some research online, but the more research i do, the more questions i get.

I really want to grow, and right now, i have a little extra spending money. I'm willing to commit if i can get the help i need to feel comfortable with my purchase.


This is a little about the set up i wish to have

Grow Tent
32x32x63

Ventilation
4in Inline duct fan+Carbon filter
Oscillating table fan

Lights
400w hps/mh
400w cmh

Medium&Nutes
Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Fox Farm Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom

Seeds
???
3-7 plants at a time

My quetions

​

Lighting:

• What would be my best choice here?
• Can i start the seedlings under the selected light choice, or will i have to go with something softer?
• How far should i keep the light away from the seedling/plant?
• Do i ever have to change the bulbs for a different light spectrum? If so, when?
• How many plants can i manage under the chosen 400w light?

​Medium&Nutes

• Anything i should add or is everything okay?

Ventilation

• Will i have heat problems?

Seeds

• I will have to do some more research here for a good trustable seedbank.

 

[Chester]

I would suggest a change to Happy Frog rather than Ocean Floor ...

 

[dude]

Hiya matey

Let's have a look see....

Firstly, 32x32x63 what?
How many plants is always a tough one. I'd go for 50cmx50cm per plant.

If you have a cfl or T5 or a smaller hps/mh then you could use that.

Kepp the light as high as you can in the beginning if its a hps. Don't know what a cmh is, sorry.

Its probably a 'dual spec' bulb so no. But yes if you only have a blue or red one.

Don't know of those nutes or soil sorry. I suposse as lon as you have a grow,bloom everything should be OK.

Don't know of you will have heat problems, you shouldn't but I don't know how hot it is, how long the lights are on, ventilation, etc etc....

Attitude seed bank is trust worthy in my opinion.

Atb bro.

 

[organic]

Hi Nate, If you only have 63" to play with.

A carbon filter for a 4" fan is about 8"-10" dia so say 12" with hanging and always best to have it at the top. -51"
Say 6" below the filter for the light to hang from the top -45"
The width of a 400W light is around 8" with reflector attached -37"
A minimum of at least 12" from the top of the plants with a 400W if you have a fan whipping the hot air of the tops -25"
A clip on 6" fan works well for this.
12" for the pot and saucer

Using all minimum quotes there, could be slightly more or less leaves around 13" as growing space.

Not leaving you very much room for plant growth is it. Are you able to exchange the tent for a slightly bigger version? Everything else seems spot on except for the tent.

 

[BobbyGrow]

I went from a 2x2, to a 3x3, to a 5x5 and its still too small. If I could go back and do it all over id spend the money on the tent. So worth it to have space to move about in their. Nothing worse then clutter. Best of luck! Im new too, actually i woke up to 2 seedlings emerged from their rooters this morning. Yay

 

[Nate4twenty]

Hi Nate, If you only have 63" to play with.

A carbon filter for a 4" fan is about 8"-10" dia so say 12" with hanging and always best to have it at the top. -51"
Say 6" below the filter for the light to hang from the top -45"
The width of a 400W light is around 8" with reflector attached -37"
A minimum of at least 12" from the top of the plants with a 400W if you have a fan whipping the hot air of the tops -25"
A clip on 6" fan works well for this.
12" for the pot and saucer

Using all minimum quotes there, could be slightly more or less leaves around 13" as growing space.

Not leaving you very much room for plant growth is it. Are you able to exchange the tent for a slightly bigger version? Everything else seems spot on except for the tent.

Oh how i wished i seen this post before i went all in. Unfortunately i committed a bad error, and i'm hoping there is some way to turn this into a good investment. Ive attached some pictures of my set up. I want to note that when fully zipped up, the inline fan sucks in the tent making it less then 32x32. Also, when purchasing the reflector, i didn't realize that i needed another inline fan. So what i did was removed the glass panel to make it a regular reflector. Will this be okay? Do you have any suggestions on turning this around?

 

[Trapper]

Well,

a couple things...

You could lose the 5 gals. and move to wider diameter 3 gal. that'll buy to some space

and

I don't think you're obligated to run the filter above the light...turn both 90º and still run
the filter up top but beside the light. Your light's footprint won't be centered but you
can probably get it close.

my 2 cents, their may be something flawed in that theory.

I was also under the impression that one could run the filter outside the tent and push air
through the activated carbon as opposed to drawing through it....but IDK

 

[late]

Start with one plant.

You are going to make mistakes. That is OK, we all have been there, it's just cheaper and quicker
and less painful to start over if it's one seed...

You need to settle on a growing method. Read about growing methods, there's stuff here about it.
My tent is even smaller, you can get a lot of pot out of it. Stagger the grows, in a month start another
seed. Start the seedling in a corner so it doesn't get the full blast of the light.

There's a lot here that comes with experience, and the particulars of your situation. You may not need a second fan,
are you planning on growing through the summer? You want the temps to stay below the 90s, and that can
be tough in the summer. After my current plant is done, I will stop til the Fall.

I have a Can Fan, there are a bunch of good fans, you get what you pay for...

Having tried different potting soils, I have decided to use a local organic potting soil.
It's expensive, but it's good stuff. When I say expensive, it's about the same as the pot
store products like . But it's not hot.

There are some tricky moments. Seed starting is tricky. It's not hard, it's just easy to screw up.
My current method is to put a tiny bit of seaweed nute in some room temp water and wet a paper towel.
I then fold the towel a couple times, put the seed on it and fold it again. Then put it in a dish, and cover the
dish with something, maybe another dish. Then put it on top of the fridge. Don't let it dry out,
but you also want to tilt it so any excess runs out (before it goes up on the fridge). When the seed pops, it is super fragile, be super careful.

These are the nutes I have been using. The box has everything you need, including that seaweed nute I mentioned.

http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Box-Starter-Kit/dp/B004PS4B08/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399123117&sr=8-1&keywords=general+organics+go+box




http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053NKHDY/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That is the pot I use, I really like it.

 

[Fish Juice]

unless I'm missing something here, I think you've got great equipment potential here. I would just put the glass back in, move the fan out of the tent and raise it all up. then use four gal. sq. pots & lst your plant, no prob. As far as plant numbers go, unless you're growing super compacts, you'll only want one or two. Once they have a canopy they'll fill the little tent up completely. No worries, just ease into a bigger tent, you have good lights & fan/scrubber setup, use this for your first couple grows and then convert it to a veg tent, buy another bigger tent for flowering.

 

[Nate4twenty]

Awesome, thank you for all of the replies. Ill switch the carbon filter and fan to the outside and post the new set up! I kind of panicked for a moment there. Phew.