cab virgin, need design input

[crsaz]

of so I picked up a colest maid cabinet this weekend(I belive it is the replacement for the old c22 cabs 48"x20"x72") I want to add about 10-12" of depth to the cabinet to make it 48"x32"x72"(any have any links to a good documentation of this process?) I currently have a 400w digi. MH ballast laying around. I want to add another so 800watts total, in a pair of aircooled hoods(I was gifted a 6" yeildmaster ii by a friend and figured I'll get another to match it) I should have minimum heat issues with a sufficient inline fan.

my q's mostly pertain to rdwc set-up. I want to have a main tub(it measure like 24"x17") to put a pair of plants to scrog on one half of the cab and on the other I want to set up mini rdwc buckets(2gal buckets) 3x3 so 9 buckets my q is how high up on the bucket chould I drill the drain(or better yet how much water depth do I want in the buckets?) and will I be fine placing the resivoir directly under the main grow room letting the buckets gravity drain into the res. for return will I be ok with like a 550gph pump running to a manifold with drippers going back to each bucket. say 2 1/4" drippers to each bucket, and 3 to each plant in the big tub. I hope that makes sense lol. Im new to all thes high tech methods, my last and most succesful grow was under the 400w mh in my closet in soil, now that I think i've got a feel for it I want to maximize my yeilds, and get a little better quality(taste wise my last grow came out tasting real earthy)

 

[crsaz]

bump...
I got my rdwc configuration figured out, ho much room should I leave between the bottom of the net pot and the surface of the water ? 1"?

and could anyone point my towards a quiet inline fan? how many cfm should I have for my cab size? would 350cmf be sufficient? and last but not least how big should my resivoir be? I have both a 18gal and 31gal rubbermaid roughneck laying around, they would only be around 2/3ds full so I would guess the 31 gal would be better, the 31 would leave my with 36"x30"x17" for my mother/veg chamber.

thanks in advanced and sorry for all the newb questions.

 

[crsaz]

nobody has anything to say?

 

[JacuzziSplot]

connect 2 face to face with one set of doors for 40"

 

[FreezerBoy]

Until roots are long enough to easily span the eventual air gap that DWC uses, maintain contact between plant and waterline. Baby roots hidden in Hydroton are subject to near immediate dehydration and death when bubbles are the sole means of watering.



When roots are 3-4 inches long, drop waterline 1" below the pot. Some maintain 1" religiously. I allow it to drop 6 inches and more between top offs ONCE roots are long enough to clear such a space.

The smaller the res the faster the disaster. Go with the largest tub that's reasonable. I use an 18 gal tub with 12 gal of nutes for a single plant. I can leave for 2 weeks with no worries, I can go 3 weeks but, it's not pretty when I get back.

 

[crsaz]

bubbles are the sole means of watering.

would the water returing from the res. be conisered a second watering source.

connect 2 face to face with one set of doors for 40"

dang, shoulda thought of that(accces from 2 sides would be awesome) I decides to use a doweling jig, the 2 sides are already joined(I will post some build pics when I get aliitle furher along in the build)

 

[FreezerBoy]

Are you talking top feed drippers? That'll do.

 

[crsaz]

yup, I am going to use 1/2 loc-line since I have loads of the stuff laying around, with nozzles that reduce to 3/8", I played around with it in the tub lol, with the help of a ball valve I can get a nice slow and steady stream with a 100gph pump(ball vslve was more than 1/2 way closed, so with the 950gph I should be able to get even flow through all 12 returns.

 

[crsaz]

I was browsing around at home depot and I saw they have some 5000btu window a/c units for $99 I was thinking of picking one up since I have some seed form the most insane purple bud I've ever had, on have 3 seed so lets hope theres a female in the bunch. could I just mount it in the equipment "chamber"? I plane on making a chamber on the top to house ballasts, gfci/electronics and my inline fan, I was thinking I should have room to somehow mount it in there blowing cool air into the grow room and have hot air vent out next to my carbon scrubber.

 

[crsaz]

ok so I went ahead and picked up the a/c unit, my concern is safley mounting it and noise, the thing is relativly small (roughly 18"x12"x12") but its also heavy, 40lbs or so, the shelves max load rating is 50lbs so this coupled with both my ballasts on it and my lightgs haning from it will be beyond that. I think I will be able to add som supports, my main question is how bigh should the a/c box that is venting the hot air out be? will a 8"x8" square vent be enough? should I do a round venting with a booster fan to help pull out hot air?

 

[crsaz]

its time to order a fan and carbon scrubber, should I go with a 6" vortex or an 8" vortex on a controller to reduce noise? would a 6" on a controller be efficiently cool 1k+watts of lighting? 800w for flower 300+/- for veg/clone, and I am looking at the can33 or should I go up to the can 66? more is better when it comes to odor removal right?

 

[crsaz]

no one else has any advice?