chazbolin
Well-Known Member
Being in So Cal there is a plethora of deals to be had on old Conex shipping containers. You can get a 40' in reasonably good condition, for around $2,500 that won't leak, much, and will close up as tight as a ducks butt. I've seen other 'modular' building grow rooms that went from trailers that you could tow around to interlocking panels that could get pretty exotic and pricey. But for what I wanted to do, which was set up the interior so I could run 1 gal pots with short stout plants on a 10 week cycle on two shelves that would flood and drain. Using coco/hydroton as a media, I lay a single level of 1" black lava rock in the bottom of each 1 gal pot than take the rest in a mix of coco and hydroton.
As you'll see the 4' x 8' industrial shelving acts as a good foundation to lay out the tubs that were built out of OSB plywood on the base with 2 x 6 sides that let me lay in pond liner material to make the bed water tight. There are two plumbing lines that go from a 300 gal reservoir outside the conex to each tub. Water height is determined by how high the standpipe is in each tub. When the pump is running, once a day for 15 minutes, all the beds will be recirculating that res water. Since the coco likes to wick the water up the water level in the bed is set for 2". When the plants are young I'll top water but as they get bigger that should not be necessary.
Power is limited to a 120/240v 40 amp circuit. So I need to keep my equipment loads within that. I have been using a sentinel controller to handle temp/humidity/CO2 levels but I'm finishing up an environmental controller that will handle those tasks as well as allow me to program photoperiod and a pump control and jog which basically runs the pump for 10 seconds every hour to churn the reservoir. There are airstones in the res but I really like the idea of just giving the water a hard stir occasionally and this feature is simple to add into the program so I did. The water supply to the res is coming from the fish tanks as a decoupled system. That means we can always add nutrients to the water going to the plants as necessary since that water will not be returned to the fish.
Other equipment that has to factor into this are the two 8000 btu wall mounted AC units. Day temp is set for 85 degrees and night temps are set to 72. There is also a ventilator carbon filter that pulls in fresh air from the outside if it's lights out and the exterior temps are below 75 F.
It took about 7 weeks to get everything in running order and the plants were put into flower. I only have enough plants to do the top shelve but to anyone considering a setup like this I believe a reasonably modest projection of 1 oz per 1 gal plant puts that 84 plants @ 5.25 lb's per 32 sq-ft shelve. Running 3 ea., IG 420/Pontoon combo's @ 460 watts each combines the total shelve load @ 1380 watts which would put us in the 1.7 g/w region.
In addition to the 1 gal vertical shelves there is a more traditional layout which consists of a 3' x 3' and 4' x 8' trays that are single level which allowed the use of 2 gal pots for those taller and bushier plants. The flower room is cordoned off from the veg/mother area with a demising wall/door and two curtains to prevent light trespass. Worth noting here is that this happens to be a standard 40' x 8' x 8' Conex box. There are also High Cube boxes that you could buy which add another 1.5' to the height which in the case of the vertical shelves would most definitely come in handy. We're starting showing day 17 of flower. I'll do regular updates and any comments or suggestions are always welcome.
As you'll see the 4' x 8' industrial shelving acts as a good foundation to lay out the tubs that were built out of OSB plywood on the base with 2 x 6 sides that let me lay in pond liner material to make the bed water tight. There are two plumbing lines that go from a 300 gal reservoir outside the conex to each tub. Water height is determined by how high the standpipe is in each tub. When the pump is running, once a day for 15 minutes, all the beds will be recirculating that res water. Since the coco likes to wick the water up the water level in the bed is set for 2". When the plants are young I'll top water but as they get bigger that should not be necessary.
Power is limited to a 120/240v 40 amp circuit. So I need to keep my equipment loads within that. I have been using a sentinel controller to handle temp/humidity/CO2 levels but I'm finishing up an environmental controller that will handle those tasks as well as allow me to program photoperiod and a pump control and jog which basically runs the pump for 10 seconds every hour to churn the reservoir. There are airstones in the res but I really like the idea of just giving the water a hard stir occasionally and this feature is simple to add into the program so I did. The water supply to the res is coming from the fish tanks as a decoupled system. That means we can always add nutrients to the water going to the plants as necessary since that water will not be returned to the fish.
Other equipment that has to factor into this are the two 8000 btu wall mounted AC units. Day temp is set for 85 degrees and night temps are set to 72. There is also a ventilator carbon filter that pulls in fresh air from the outside if it's lights out and the exterior temps are below 75 F.
It took about 7 weeks to get everything in running order and the plants were put into flower. I only have enough plants to do the top shelve but to anyone considering a setup like this I believe a reasonably modest projection of 1 oz per 1 gal plant puts that 84 plants @ 5.25 lb's per 32 sq-ft shelve. Running 3 ea., IG 420/Pontoon combo's @ 460 watts each combines the total shelve load @ 1380 watts which would put us in the 1.7 g/w region.
In addition to the 1 gal vertical shelves there is a more traditional layout which consists of a 3' x 3' and 4' x 8' trays that are single level which allowed the use of 2 gal pots for those taller and bushier plants. The flower room is cordoned off from the veg/mother area with a demising wall/door and two curtains to prevent light trespass. Worth noting here is that this happens to be a standard 40' x 8' x 8' Conex box. There are also High Cube boxes that you could buy which add another 1.5' to the height which in the case of the vertical shelves would most definitely come in handy. We're starting showing day 17 of flower. I'll do regular updates and any comments or suggestions are always welcome.
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