Hi everyone.
I’m about to embark on a big new project. I’ve only really grown outdoors with the exception of a few cycles in an old fridge with a viper450 but have never gone full hydro. So my space is a 5mx4m rectangular room with which I’m intending on running 9 plants first go with the intention of going to 12 then 15 then 18 gradually. I know that’s ambitious but I’m gonna give it a crack any how. So my questions are basically what path I should go and how I should set it up. My budget isn’t unlimited however I wanna start with quantum boards and humidifiers and all the good shit to get me started and don’t wanna get trapped having to go and rebuy again because the stuff I got isn’t doing the job. All help and opinions appreciated ;)
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I see @dbrn32 is still the light Guru?
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Yes he is.
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Hlg Qb260w xl - best price for light/ sq ft
Check out autopots xl 6.6 gal- solid plastic molds and will water soil plants for you. Just top off reservoir.
Keep the space with same strain for each cycle
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He was 2 or 3 year ago when I was here daily and is still in it up to his elbows which is good to see.
I’ve searched thru old posts (I know he gets the same questions over again) with the rooms that are similar were mostly from years ago and I’m sure the LED technology has changed a lot since then and I don’t wanna be buying old bin gear if there’s better value elsewhere. 
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Thanks bob, I’m thinking of going full hydro for this one, as nervous as that makes me, but I think that’ll get me the better yield and turn around time. I’d like to stay with soil for the couple of day issue buffer but hydro is the go right???
How many of those lights would you suggest? I don’t wanna be underpowered😏
All the same strain makes sense but still disappoints a little:rofl:
I’ve been building up a nice little bank of ILGM seeds over the years and I want them all… in bud form… right now 
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Hlg has rspec now which provides more far red for flowering. Great lights and I’ve personally seen quality product from them.
Personally I’m still using v1 and v2 boards I haven’t yet invested into the new ones just yet.
Having a bunch of them I can say when I do need more lights I’ll go rspec, just filled room with other generations
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I do hydro, soil , a few coco plants running around. I’ll tell you, it’s definitely the environment and the size of the planter that matters most!
Side by side of rdwc system and Autopot 4 pot xl system
Each tent has 4 plants in it
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Could find one where they’re on the same time but they are just as fast, just as big and just as easy.
Both systems have their downside
Autopots- soil needed to start, more expensive startup easier overall
Hydro- potential for system to leak but cheaper running cost overall
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Just watched the hlg kit build, looks piece of piss. 
I like easy. I like familiar also but I think I like easier better:rofl: and I’ve got more plumbers tape then Mario and Luigi.
How many lights have you for each 4 plant tent? They look very healthy , no scrog screens? Not worth the hype?
How much do your end results vary between hydro and your auto pots??
I mean there are several ways to go about it, if you want to every square foot as usable space then you would need 26 lights and roughly that’s be close to 7k. Now if you can narrow down to floor layout of what you’re gonna use you can get closer to something realistic. I normally size a plant at about 2ft x 2ft (0.6m x0.6m roughly. So with your space you have plenty of room to have a nice amount of walking space even with 18 plants. So maybe one of us can provide an effective and efficient floor plan, if you don’t mind providing a layout. Also with this kind of electrical pull you may want to get an electrician to run another main line or at least a sub panel into that room with excess outlets for your leisure. But you for sure won’t be able to run these off a couple of outlets with power cords.
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1st cycle of autopots so cant tell you average yet but hydro I’ll yield anyway from a bit over a lb- 2 depending on strain.
2 hlg 260 and a filler for far red spectrum, as you can see I bought in before rspec were available else I wouldn’t need to fill
They say 1 260w will flower 2x4 area , I push the limits and go 3 lights sometimes I’ll even add a light below to fill out larfy stuff a bit more
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So couple things to also think of
Where’s your fresh air intake coming from (lungs of the operation)
Where’s exhaust going
After that the rest is all downhill
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If you want qb’s, you can save a couple bucks by assembling components yourself instead of buying the kits. I would try to cone up with a plan for how you’re going to use the room. Then we can look at what you’ll need for lights.
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An electrician will definitely be involved in running me enough power to keep everything safe, my layout isn’t set in stone but to start I was thinking 3 rows of 3 to start with, plenty of room to move around and I wanna contain everything in the room. The rooms located inside A big precast concrete building so I’ll just get my intake from the floor and exhaust thru a carbon filter back out thru the roof. I’m happy to save some $ building my own Quantum’s but will need a thorough shopping list. How’s the paper trail for all of that thou. Should I spread my shopping around or hit it all at once? Thanks guys👌
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Personally with that big of a purchase of equipment I would wanna finance it to be paid off over a year or so, make it easier on yourself. Most light companies will work with you on that. If you wanna do the 3x3 initially maybe building/buying a qb fit for one plant would be best for instance I believe the HLG120 is enough for a 2x2 or one full plant, so having 9x will allow optimal customization of canopy height for each plant and you can wire them in series with a bigger driver you can buy separate. Also would be easy to add on when you’re ready. You could also build a similar model as dbrn said. Little more time and effort but they sell led diodes cheaper in bulk so you can save even more cheddar there. I’m no expert in air circulation but a few fans would be good if you already have them, but for air circulation fans in and out, I’m not sure what you need however if you need a beefier model those can be financed. Now that you have a full room another thing to consider is if you wanna run a gas line and run CO2 and seal the room, which isn’t so bad. Are you using tap water or water from another source? If tap maybe consider where the nearest tap to the room is, it might make sense to run a water line. Do you have a drain? Obviously the goal won’t be to break anything but if a water line or container broke, does that flood the whole building or can it disperse itself down a drain? Do you have any windows needing covering?
What are you gonna do to control the temp and humidity? These are what I initially consider in these situations
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I did some quick searching on pre assembled, so this can for a 100% fact can be reduced in price but lights will run you about 1200$ for the HLG120’s, for your space roughly I found this which is both quiet and fairly powerful, comes in 4” and 8”
This is not including your hydro system which if you go for auto pots the 9xl is 415$
Add nutrients for this system so like another 200$-250$
So roughly like 2k to start
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Here’s a rough layout of what you could do. Feel free to use or not just a quick overview of what could be.
A hlg 260 would cover a 2x4 space, I don’t know anything about the 120’s the price point per sq ft of light output always seems better on the 260’s running a pair of 288 boards to me atleast.
As I don’t know the layout of the room I could only make a rough design of what could be.
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You know what I made a mistake, I meant to consider the qb288’s which are on sale currently for about 80$/ board and those are good for 4sqft for full cycle ignore the qb120’s those are much smaller and are good for 1sqft
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You see @Powaforce, its really all about how far you want to go down the rabbit hole.
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