My first 5’x5’ DWC setup!

Are there any special adapters or mounts I may need to get the CMH fixture onto the raptor hood? Or are they fairly universal? I do have a brain and if I had it in my hand I’d be able to tell but I’d rather order everything at once than receive something and find out I have to wait another week for an ADAPTER!

Cmh mogul socket adapter

Please see avatar
Lol

Keep it coming, I dont mind.

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I’ll only ask one tsp at a time :rofl:

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Just to be clear, were you saying a single 315 would do the trick for my area, or I should use multiple single 315’s over a 630? My IQ is 147, I swear.

Multiple hoods

I’d put as many hoods with 4-6" spacing over the area you flower in for best results.

It’s the initial equipment cost that gets ya. But in 3 months power savings, you break even

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Thanks man. The current culture is definitely a great way to go. Very efficient on media, man hours and nutrients. Yields are insane as well. Ever need any help with some of the nuance details, just dm me.

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How much money do you have to spend on lighting? I’m looking at these currently

https://fluence.science/store/spydr-series/spydrx-plus/

The gavita 1650e and 1700e is comparable with the spydrX. But, the spydrX has the ability to remote mount the ballast to save a bit more ambient heat. The gavitas do not have that option.

If I were to pull the trigger on an built led setup, the spydrX would be my choice (x3 or 4 in my room)

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I’m not entirely limited on budget, I have some capital and plenty of financing options. I’m just trying to be as efficient as possible with purchasing (what else is new)

I know LED systems are up and coming and are showing some insane results, but I wanna stick with whats tried and true. I’m not highly experienced yet so I don’t expect I’ll be squeezing every bit of potential out of this new setup right away. Like I said I don’t wanna cheap out, but I also am only running this to see what I can personally get out of a 5’x5’. Afterwards I’ll determine if with my skill, it would be economically viable to scale up. Top shelf is KEY to me. I do plan on processing as well but for the most part this will be smoking flower so if y’all are keen on any popular strain banks (good genetics, honest, reliable) Feel free to list some below. Obviously I’ve heard of a major few but it’s good to hear personal experiences and opinions. Price is a concern but not a limiting factor for the most part.

Another issue with the LED is that it has to be 6” from the canopy and it doesn’t give you much flexibility if there’s a little difference in height among the girls. ESPECIALLY if I have more than one strain (I planned on starting with two) that way if I screw them both up I know it wasn’t the strain, it was my skills. Or lack there of! Raising and lowering separate buckets might affect the way the system drains as well. (Likely but I don’t know for sure)

Also I’m not opposed to spending more but I was hoping to keep the lighting under $1k. I’m not even sure what the DWC system is gonna run me yet because I’m still not sure how much space it occupies. The websites don’t even tell you the size of the buckets, let alone if there’s a proximity limit or hose distance limit. There are no dimensions what so ever lol

These are the things that come to mind so far. Sorry for all these paragraphs. I at least tried to keep grammar and spelling in check lol

The content is rough to find sometimes. I’d suggest going through hydrobuilder.com to see more of the specs on these units. These can also be built for much cheaper than they cost. I just got spoiled with buying them second hand. I see them on Craigslist constantly for at least 1/3 the original cost.

If you wanna build one, I can for sure help you with that. 5 gallon buckets with uniseals works very well. They even make net pots for the tops of 5 gallon buckets. These systems can be built easily if you want to diy it. There’s a lot more to talk about if you wanna pull the trigger and go that route. Let me know, and I’ll word vomit at you some more. Haha

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I don’t think ambient heat will be an issue in my setup. I will have sufficient airflow as well as fresh air from outside. With winter around the corner, I may actually have to add a space heater since fresh air will be moving from outside. Currently average temps are around 75°F which means with that air being pulled in, I’d still need a bit more cooling to keep it below that outside air temp. Honestly though by the time I actually have this up and running the average temp outside should be about 60-65°F so this is almost working out perfectly. Now to just settle on an official system. I keep getting tossed back and forth. I started with intention of an aeroponic system, did research and ended up on a Bubbleponic, now I’m onto EBB and Flow. I realize the whole point of Bubbleponic is to enhance veg growth, and although I’d still benefit from that, I won’t be vegging very long (< 3 weeks including rooting from clone) the moms will always be vegging but they’re not dependent on fast vegetative growth.

I’ve run ebb n flow and like the quality I can pull off with it. I’ve found that the media cost is more expensive, more man hrs with scrubbing reservoirs once a week and doing res changes. And more moving parts to possibly have issues with. I have a warehouse though and most of these “negatives” are only a real issue because of the scale at which I do it.

Dont bring in outside winter air intonation warm environment. Your asking for optimum mold conditions. And a heap filter is a must if you do so to filter any air.

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HEPA filter better than carbon filter? I thought HEPA was a carbon filter! Maybe it’s just a specific grade?

Also by this comment I take it you mean, outside winter air is not the same as cool air coming out of an AC unit?

Hepa filters small pollen like particles and is made to filter airborne particles

Carbon is just for smell

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You’d be surprised by how my heat is generated by lights.

For a decent harvest, you need quite a bit of light. I dunno cmh wattage, but for me, I found with led if I use right around 30w/sf it’s the sweet spot.

So, let’s say cmh is the same, 30w x 20sf is 600w. For led, extremely efficient chips put out 60% light, the rest is put out as heat. This is under perfect conditions running them very soft. I know cmh bulbs aren’t as efficient, so lets say 40% as a random #. That means whenever the lights are on, you’re adding 360w of heat to your tent.

Just my input, also not dissing cmh in anyway.

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@Curious_Roberto All constructive criticism is welcome. I have done enough research on LED to claim a minimum wattage per sq.ft. but so far I’ve been basing my grow on setups I’ve seen that are producing good yields.

@Demontrich hate to keep quoting you lmao

Correct me if I’m wrong, you’re running 4x315W CMH in a 5’x13’ area while getting some pretty sick results.

That’s 65 sq.ft. At 1260W. I forgot what your actual yield numbers were. At those numbers though, it’s just under 20W/sq.ft.

By other calculations I’ve made, for HPS depending on the hood I’d need about 600W for my 5’x5’ but by Demon’s numbers I technically only need about 400W of CMH. So technically I feel I’m overshooting with two 315’s but they don’t make 400’s that I’ve seen at least.

Yes, its actually an 8x12 room, but I set it up 2.5’ offset from center so I have a walk path to water and such.

Yes
4x 315 = 1265w total

Yield is determined by genetics, grower skill, and environment.

If you’ve tried to tag me or dm me on a certain forum, I use a different name as i got banned from speaking the truth. I had tons of grow info posted publically over there. In detail as well.

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“Yield is determined by genetics, grower skill, and environment.”

THIS THIS THIS

So because of this statement ^ this is why I want to make sure I tackle all these engineering issues before going into the grow.

If something’s wrong with the grow I want to know with certainty that it’s because I’m doing something wrong not because “I don’t have the right pump” or “just don’t have enough light penetration” or not enough air flow, etc.

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God luck with the setup man. I want the try some cmh goodness someday, but I’m limited to a 2x4 flowering tent.

Just letting you know about heat regardless of what lights you go with. It’s crazy how much heat lights generate.

In the winter the heat is nice if your area gets a little cold, but definitely plan ahead for the summer months.

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