ReeferDan's LED Garage

Whats up IC fam?!
Time to give back with a thread documenting a new room build and my first grow in it. Not sure if this belongs in Indoor Hydro, or this LED forum. Mods if you feel its better in Hydro, feel free to move it.

Anyways...
Took a lot of time to try to set up a "balanced" setup, working with only so much power/circuitry/amperage for this room drove me to build/design something that could do the most with the little i had.
Made some decisions, played a balancing act of how much light i could add, balance that against btu calculations for cooling capacity, with the whole time desiring to control the room temp/humidity to proper VPD tolerances.
Something i could set up and trust to automate and leave for a weekend here and there to live life.
Some room specifics to reference in the first post, pics and descriptions to follow.
Have to shout out pico for the manifold design, i took a lot of little touches from issack's room, including the dtw table design.
Lots of things i did come from learning experiences from the past, lots of stoned reading on this site, and experience from outdoor, cfl rubbermaid tub, 150w vert grow, 4k ebb/flow, now im here...

Lighting: (4) HLG 320w xl two QB 324 boards per fixture 2850k effective color temp
Cooling: 1 ton (12kbtu) "through the wall" air conditoner sealed up the best i could
Environment: 50 pint dehuey, air care 831000 humidifier - modified/hardwired to run on "low" anytime its plugged in
Both of these are controller by an Inkbird ICH200 humidity controller
Air circulation/scrubbing: 8x24" phresh filter, 8" hyperfan ducted down to 6" and ran above the lights with holes drilled for airflow
Hydro: Rockwool 6" hugo with floroflex style caps (knockoff), currently building/setting up a Pico style manifold for drippers
Nutrients: running kiss maxibloom 7g/gal
Co2: 20# bottle, titan manifold, autopilot cumulus s50 controller
Strain: OG Kush... personal fav, hard to find for me lately so i wanna have it

Couple pics of the room setup:

Room shot showing DTW tables
I really tried to get efficient with this room, and think of ways i could take "unwanted" things and use them to my advantage... airflow, heat, humidity, etc... Things one usually doesnt harness or utilize, i tried to think of how i could take it and use it to my advantage

Example 1- most people scrub, have a filter and an open fan end pointing at a wall or ceiling.
I took mine, put the filter low in the room to pick up heavy co2, ducted it up and around above the tops of the lights where the ballasts are to help cool them, rain co2 back over the plants, and keep air moving in every inch of the room


Gutters are ran to a bucket, inside is a sump pump with a float on it. I feel confident in leaving this to pump any water that has drained from tables, or my dehuey out of the room and down the drain. this pump should pump away water faster than my feed pump could supply it, in the event of something staying on that shouldnt.

Couple more pics for your viewing pleasure.

Waited longer than i wanted for my babies, they showed up and looked like absolute dogshit... Really wanted to bin them at several points, one died, but i have a few more than i need, so numbers wise im good. Spent the first two weeks just getting these back in health, and rooting.


really sorry clones came from a really unhealthy mom...
i will be self sustaining after this


started with a challenge...


getting them healthy


bringing them back
OG is really a mag hungry plant!


finally felt they were healthy enough so i could attack the little bit of PM they showed up with...
First dunk/spray

getting close to being ready to build/setup the dripper manifold.
Right now im only watering about 250ml every other day.
This is my first time top feeding rockwool, my last experience with it was ebb/flow, and ive learned from my mistakes there. having said that, dialing in feed times and volume will be new to me and a learning experience, but thats half the fun of this growing hobby!

may switch to coco at some point, but this first grow im shooting for keeping things easy, simple, learn the plant, the room, dial everything in and try to eliminate as many variables as i can, so i can keep nutes simple and easy, steady, while i dial in feed times, room vpd, etc and not have to second guess what the plant response is from.

Pics of the manifold build, might have this rocking through this weekend, plan to leave the room for the first 2-4 day stretch on autopilot while i spend memorial day weekend on a fishing trip.


layout/initial sizing, made a couple changes from my drawing


layout dialed, going to glue and drill tomorrow


My thoughts behind the iso valves and unions
1. takedown, it will be easier to set off to the side if its not 9' tall
2. if i decide to grow 2 strains, i will always put the one i believe to flower for longer on the left table, so i can continue to feed/water while disassembling the right table half


back half

I'll let the thread simmer here for now.

Any questions feel free to ask, i have more pics of the entire process in my gallery with simple descriptions.
If you want to pull up a chair for the show, glad to have you.
Any advice or constructive criticism is welcome, as long as its kept constructive, we are all learning here, at all stages of our grows whether you are in a cfl rubbermaid tub, or have a med warehouse, stoners think out of the box and im glad to hear those thoughts, its where i came up with half of my design!

Speaking of my design, it has been running really well. Everything is balancing out and staying within the temps/humidity that i have things set for. Really happy with the balance of temps throughout the entire room, it really feels dialed.
Shooting for daytime temps of 80-85*F 70-75%RH / nighttime 10* and 10% less, and the room stays in the VPD sweet spot all day. CO2 is around 850ppm

Sorry for the sideways pics, i try to remember to hold my phone sideways, but i dont always remember LOL



ReeferDan

Looks like a very cost effective set up, without leaving anything out.

I use a greenhouse, and one thing that helps with sanitation/ mold spore reduction is the elimination of wood if possible.
Not really practical for most so next option is sealing it with paint or sealant.
You might not have high enough humidity for it to be an issue, but if so mold needs dead stuff to grow on

redlaser said:

Looks like a very cost effective set up, without leaving anything out.

I use a greenhouse, and one thing that helps with sanitation/ mold spore reduction is the elimination of wood if possible.
Not really practical for most so next option is sealing it with paint or sealant.
You might not have high enough humidity for it to be an issue, but if so mold needs dead stuff to grow on

Click to expand...

Good point
I’ll have to keep an eye on that... both tables are made of wood, as well as some of the bracing for the air ducting, and the window cover/surround for the ac, shelf for the dehuey.

Nice setup my man! Is this your first try with quantums and did they replace hps's?

I have the same boards, two 324 qb's on a 320h driver running 160w per board in a 5 x 2.5 tent to see how they yield. If they hit 14-16oz at 320w I'm going to replace my 1k hps's room with 8 of them. Tents 3 weeks into bloom and trichomes and density is happening nicely. I also have four 132 qb's and two 120 qb's, loving the quantums so far. Those V2 288 look nice that just came out.

Nice to see some quantum action on this site, seems IC is years behind RIU in the LED department. Good luck with grow I'll be following along.

Pro Headies said:

Nice setup my man! Is this your first try with quantums and did they replace hps's?

I have the same boards, two 324 qb's on a 320h driver running 160w per board in a 5 x 2.5 tent to see how they yield. If they hit 14-16oz at 320w I'm going to replace my 1k hps's room with 8 of them. Tents 3 weeks into bloom and trichomes and density is happening nicely. I also have four 132 qb's and two 120 qb's, loving the quantums so far. Those V2 288 look nice that just came out.

Nice to see some quantum action on this site, seems IC is years behind RIU in the LED department. Good luck with grow I'll be following along.

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First run with this room, first run with these lights.
Don’t have any baseline to compare to.
I’ll be curious to see how your tent does to compare too, feel free to throw some pics up I don’t mind. Stick around too I’m glad to hear your input on how the light is working for you.
Did you veg under the 320s? If so how far did you keep the lights away? Mine are about 36” at the closest right now, not sure if I should lower and keep at a constant distance or leave em up high and let the plants grow to them to get more intense light as they get bigger... I know when stretch is done I’m gonna shoot for 18-24” from the tops

The plants in my quantum test tent 5 x 2.5 are cherry chems from topdawg, no keepers. I ran them all once before under a 600hps in my genetic test tent that's 2 x 4, now that tent has four 132 boards running at 280w. The 5 x 2.5 tent is 25% of my main room so figured if it yields equal to half a 1k hps then im done with hps. I bought the tent just to test these boards.

I vegged the cherry chems under a 600 MH genesis bulb, the bulb brand makes huge difference when it comes to MH 600s. When i switched to the quantum test tent they didn't like the spectrum I felt but I think starting them under the 2850k from the start they will do good. I plan to switch out my MH 600 to two 288 v2 boards at 4000k if the 324 test out good.

I started the 324 boards 48" above the top of the plants at full power. After they started to respond well I moved it down to 36", took about a week. Then I just let them grow up to lights just like I do with 1k hps's. Now there 20-24" away from lights. I'm seeing 45,000 lumens on meter on closest tops which puts them around 730 par based on HLGs conversion of 61.5 lux = 1 ppf. I noticed the plants do well around 15,000 lumens to start under for first couple days till they adjust to all the photons.

I'll grab some pics later tonight for you to check out. Plants are looking great. Real lush and green. Trichomes just started developing. I'm using megacrop in veg until 3rd week bloom then switching over to veg+bloom dirty formula till 2 weeks before harvest.

Pro Headies said:

The plants in my quantum test tent 5 x 2.5 are cherry chems from topdawg, no keepers. I ran them all once before under a 600hps in my genetic test tent that's 2 x 4, now that tent has four 132 boards running at 280w. The 5 x 2.5 tent is 25% of my main room so figured if it yields equal to half a 1k hps then im done with hps. I bought the tent just to test these boards.

I vegged the cherry chems under a 600 MH genesis bulb, the bulb brand makes huge difference when it comes to MH 600s. When i switched to the quantum test tent they didn't like the spectrum I felt but I think starting them under the 2850k from the start they will do good. I plan to switch out my MH 600 to two 288 v2 boards at 4000k if the 324 test out good.

I started the 324 boards 48" above the top of the plants at full power. After they started to respond well I moved it down to 36", took about a week. Then I just let them grow up to lights just like I do with 1k hps's. Now there 20-24" away from lights. I'm seeing 45,000 lumens on meter on closest tops which puts them around 730 par based on HLGs conversion of 61.5 lux = 1 ppf. I noticed the plants do well around 15,000 lumens to start under for first couple days till they adjust to all the photons.

I'll grab some pics later tonight for you to check out. Plants are looking great. Real lush and green. Trichomes just started developing. I'm using megacrop in veg until 3rd week bloom then switching over to veg+bloom dirty formula till 2 weeks before harvest.

Click to expand...

Sounds great!
You’re doing some good testing! Good info on the heights and lumen/par readings. That’s pretty much what I did with the lights as far as height, I’m going to leave them where they are at and let the plants reach up to them from here.

We will have some good comparison notes from our grows! Thanks for checking in!

Heres some quick pictures. Running 76-78f as high with a little 4'' exhaust fan. I was originally going to put them outside but decided to test the quantums instead.

Lookin proper headies!!
Do you have your lights hooked to a wire shelf?

Yeah a wire closet shelf. I got idea from guy over on RIU, greengrassgrower1. Check out his thread if get a chance, https://www.rollitup.org/t/from-des-to-leds.948046/ I just bought the two board two heatsink combo from hlg and a 320h-c1400a driver. My 132 four board rig is same thing but boards are almost touching each other so it's like a blanket of light.

The HLG Quantum Boards are the real deal. I just finished a run with the HLG 550 and I'm blown away. Amazing production and quality like I've never seen before.

-Funk

Sweet man.! Looking great. Your hard work has paid off.! Room looks bad ass

issack said:

Sweet man.! Looking great. Your hard work has paid off.! Room looks bad ass

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Right on Isaack! Your threads/posts/pm’s we’re a big inspiration for many of my details.

It’s always cool to put a new grow or setup together and take a little something from this grow, a little knowledge from that thread, mistakes made from friends or past experience and try to wrap it all up in one design to incorporate the best from all of it.

I may be picking your brain on your watering times/frequency/ volume. I understand you are in coco, but DJM’s thread gave me inspiration for this room and I’m going to try to get my rockwool to rock out with as explosive of growth as I can, and I may switch to coco at some point, I have some friends that kill it but they don’t multifeed.

FunkBomb said:

The HLG Quantum Boards are the real deal. I just finished a run with the HLG 550 and I'm blown away. Amazing production and quality like I've never seen before.

-Funk

Click to expand...

Thanks for stopping in Funk!
Glad to see another QB success story!
Any advice after your run with the 550? Could be any lil tip or trick or difference in plant behavior, something obvious or out of the box I should keep in the back of my mind?

So glad you got this thread goin.


You room looks great.Love the diy air flow over the boards and sinks.


Don't forget to mention that a/c bud.Big advantage with those things over a typical window banger.I'm sure there's a lot of us that would benefit from knowing more about the "through wall" units.



FD

ReeferDan said:

Thanks for stopping in Funk!
Glad to see another QB success story!
Any advice after your run with the 550? Could be any lil tip or trick or difference in plant behavior, something obvious or out of the box I should keep in the back of my mind?

Click to expand...

For me stretch was less in flower.But i'm only on my 2nd run with mine so take it for what it's worth.

I'm running a 600h

FlaDankster said:

For me stretch was less in flower.But i'm only on my 2nd run with mine so take it for what it's worth.

I'm running a 600h

Click to expand...

Good to know! I’m assuming this kush will get lanky so I’m trying to top and supercrop and do what I need to get her to Bush out.
If these QB’s chills em out a lil during stretch that’s good news!

I’ll touch on the “through the wall” ac when I get back to my laptop and can post pics...