I wouldn’t recommend mixing your soils. Like @Carol4486 I do mine in layers. First is a section of nutrient-free Fox Farms Light Warrior for seedlings. Next comes Happy Frog, and finally Ocean Forest, the most nutrient-rich. Here’s a quick drawing of what I do:
You likely will not have to give your plants any nutrients until they are a couple of weeks into flower.
Doesn’t the tap root get pretty much all the way into the bottom pretty quickly?
Thanks very much for the information. I just thought that mixing would be better. Now I know that not to be true. I’m just trying to get all of this figured out before I start. I want to try to avoid any I D 10 T errors and I thank everyone for their help and advice.
Prior planning prevents pisspoor performance.
Got the call mag, the jeweler’s loup and a wireless thermometer ordered. What does everyone recommend to use to catch the run off? The 3 piece meter set has a TDS, EC meter, a PH meter and a soil PH / moisture meter. Is there anything else that I am missing?? I have another question for everyone. What is the best way to set up the carbon filter? I have seen it done 3 ways. 1) through the end of the cooled light fixture and then out of the tent. I’m not going this route. I have heard too many con"s and just don’t think that is the best option. I am cooling my light fixture with an in line fan of it’s own. Air from outside of tent through the light fixture and straight out of the tent. My understanding is that this will cause the little to no static pressure and lower any chances of smell leakage. 2) The carbon filter located inside the tent and air drawn through it and to the outside of the tent. This seems to be the most common set up that I have seen. 3) air ducted from the tent to the carbon filter located on the outside of the tent. I like this idea the most myself. My way of thinking is the less inside my tent the better. Don’t know if this is the right train of thought. Just makes more sense to me but, I truly don’t know, that is why I am asking for ya’ll’s opinion/thoughts/advice. Like I said, I am trying to come up with a plan before I start. I can always adjust and adapt along the way, if I run into any snafu’s. My carbon filter set up is 8" with an 8" fan. My light will be cooled with a separate 6" fan. My plan is to use an additional 6" inlie booster fan for my intake. All fans will have variable speed controllers. I don’t want to create any static or negative pressure to be as effective with smell/smell leakage ontrol as possible. As always any thoughts/comments/advice will be greatly appreciated. Also if there is anything else that I need or am missing, please let me know.
Carbon filters: Since you’re doing an inline fan exclusively for the fixture an 8" carbon filter is pretty big, you can certainly put it outside & “push” the air through it. I’ve had this set up before and it works fine, actually quieter for some reason than having the filter inside the tent?!
Heater?! You might not need one w an HPS fixture, they will throw some heat into the space so play that by ear.
Humidifier for sure & oscillating fan 12" or smaller.
Digital Microscope ($40.00± on amazon) but you wont need that right away, reserved for when you’re full into flower and nearing end of it to check trichomes.
Take it easy & I hope you’re feeling better 
@Mote
I have 2-6" vivosun oscillating clip on fans on the way, A lighted jewelers loupe. What size humidifier and heater do you recommend? I kinda thought that I would be fighting heat with the 1,000 watt bulb.
Thanks. I’m home now and got to sleep in my own bed last night nobody messing with me every other hour so, much better today. Took the day off to decompress. I will be back at work in the am.
I’m getting closer and closer to being able to put this all together. Soil arrived today 8 cubic feet of Happy Frog and 6 cubic Feet of Ocean Forest.
There’s lots of environmental variables that affect things, but in general as long as you have an air cooled hood (which you said you did earlier) heat shouldn’t be a problem with an HID light. I run a 1000 watt HID setup in my flowering tent which is in my basement, and I have to add a heater to the tent in winter or it gets too cold.
Watching.
What type of heater? What about a humidifier? Thanks for your help. I sure do appreciate it.
I actually have 2 small heaters and 2 small humidifiers I put in the tent during winter.
I use 2 small humidifiers just to help spread the moisturized air around. The best way is to actually pull in conditioned air from outside the tent, but my basement is too big to humidify just for the tent, so I do it that way instead.
For the heaters, I use a pair of Comfort Zone 1500 watt space heaters. They (or something similar) can be found at any hardware store. An oscillating heater would be even better to help spread the warm air around. I got mine at a hardware store, but here is the listing at Amazon just so you can see:
https://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Zone-HBCCZ35-Heater-Compact/dp/B005OTWU32/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=comfort+zone+heater&qid=1571860185&sr=8-9
The main thing (if you choose to do it the way I do) is to purchase analog heaters, not digital. This is so that they will come on automatically with the power and already be set to the correct temperature. Here is why…
I have one heater plugged into an outlet that is always powered. This is set to about 65°F so that the temperature of the tent will never go below that.
The other heater is plugged into an outlet that is on the same timer as my lights. This one is set to about 75°F so the temperature will never go below that while the lights are on.
Having both of these ensures that I will have ideal “daytime” and “nighttime” temperatures in the tent regardless of how cold the basement and intake air becomes.
For what it’s worth, I use an oil heater in my vegetation tent. This might be something to consider as well as it will maintain a more consistent temperature. Since the light is on for 20 hours a day in my vegetation tent, I don’t need a “nighttime” heater. There is a miniature oil heater available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/COSTWAY-Radiator-Portable-Electric-Thermostat/dp/B076J929TG
@TommyBahama. Thanks for the reply. I already have 2 of the oil filled heaters laying around the house that I use on one of my other endeavors, from time to time when needed. I have also seen some ceramic heaters that plug into a receptacle. 500 watts and 350 watts w/a remote control. Kinda like the idea of analog since I have to work. So do you think that the oil filled would be sufficient? Would I have to use both? One for lights on and one for lights out. What type of humidifier? Just trying to make sure that I have all of my ducks in a row before I drop the seeds in the water. Hopefully I will get most everything assembled this weekend. Changed plans from basement to a bedroom that I don’t use right now. Didn’t think the wife would go for that. Now that she realizes that I am serious, she is getting more on board. I usually use this room for the dog’s room with all of their crates in it, she wants to move the pups into the basement. I love this idea as, I will be able to put a keyed lock on the door. This is all starting to come together and I can’t wait to get started. Like I said before, I kinda jumped the gun and started a 00 Bubble gum, it was an extra seed that came in a order so, I figured WTF. Now I have it under 2x 60watt grow bulbs from Wally World and I must say that I am quite impressed. I am already starting to LST her, maybe too early, but no pain no gain. Back when I grew outside exclusively. I used to hang clothes pins on my branches weighted with fishing weights. I am learning so much from this forum and I greatly appreciate everyone’s responses. I have never had access to such a tremendous amount of knowledge. I sure do appreciate everyone’s help. Once I finally get up and running, I will try to keep everyone posted. I may need some assistance setting up a grow journal so all can see my journey. Everyone here has been so helpful and I consider you all as my friends and I don’t say that much. In my profession, I have a lot of acquaintances and very few people that I call friends. I am looking forward to the help from everyone on my journey. We will see what happens. I hope that you have a great evening and again thanks for all of the assistance and help.
Like I said, I kinda jumped the gun and am now trying to get the rest of my set-up in order
Damn, it sucks to be a stoner and so impatient. Now I have no choice either s**t or get off the pot.
I figure the more that I can bend it now, the stronger it will be in the future. Maybe I am wrong with this train of thought. I have always been a bit of an extremist but most of the times it works out well.
Once I get set up, I will drop 5 more seeds each a different strain.
Is this bedroom in the upstairs (conditioned) portion of your house? If so, you might not need any supplemental heat or humidification. If that is the case, I would just wait and see - both for heating and humidification. Also, in a bedroom (much smaller space than a basement) you might be able to put a space heater or humidifier outside of the tent, rather than in it.
As far as humidifiers go, I use both the ultrasonic type and the evaporative type.
A small ultrasonic one with digital controls is nice because you can set a very precise humidity setting. The disadvantage is that they don’t throw a lot of moisture in the air, but this may work great in a conditioned space.
The evaporative type tends to be the opposite. They are usually analog and not very precise, but throw a lot of moisture into the air. This might be a better choice in an overly dry environment.
Since I have both and it is exceptionally dry in my basement in the winter, I use both in the same tent.
Regardless of the choice, be sure you have a couple of clip fans in the tent to help move all that moisture, heat and air around so it is as evenly distributed as possible.
On a side note, the digitally-controlled ultrasonic humidifier is what I use when I am drying my harvest so I can closely control the humidity.
Yes this room is in a conditioned space upstairs in our living area. I am just trying to be prepared for any snafu’s that may come my way. My intent is to keep as much of my equipment outside of my tent as possible.
