setting up first grow :D

Pretty much everything burndt said it what i would say...you are going out on a whim doing hydro for a first grow but let me tell you if you succeed you will get an unbelievable first harvest. Hydro plants grow much bigger and faster....so at the same time your plants might actually need MORE care than a soil grow.

If you are like me though....you'll sit down with your plants for at least an hour a day and just bask in their beauty. I will be quite depressed once this last plant i have is harvested...i think my days of indoor growing are over the electric bill is too damn expensive..and i want a real yield..i wanna grow outdoor.

I wish you the best my friend...start a grow journal when your beans have sprouted!

I don't have much of a choice buy use LEDs as my power consumption will be too suspicious otherwise once i get big. To include a good variety of wavelengths using exclusively LED in veg, I chose a custom LED configuration for each ligth. 38 blue 460nm: 8pcs white 14000k (these emit mostly, similar light to t5s), and threw in 2 orange 610nma and 2 red 630nm for a bit of variety. Those who believe all you need is red/blue will argue all these extra led's are being wasted, but I'm willing to experiment by dedicating that 24% to other wavelengths I think could be beneficial as the lamps are cheap anyway and use way less than HPS anyway. For the first tent I'm getting, the 2 LED veg lamps will probably be overkill.

I will be purchasing more lights as the grow gets bigger, these sure won't be my only lights For ventillation in veg I'm just putting some computer fans on the grow tent and opening the window, till i gets too stinky and ill get the full carbon filter and ducting set up. And yeh I've got 2xthermo/hygrometers , ph and a tds meter.

Thanks for the support man, like I just cbf waiting for soil haha. I know hydro is more risky especially for a new grower but I think I've done my research and I have decent chances of a good harvest here. Hopefully the 10gal reservoirs will buffer the ph and nuts levels well.

I would probably stare at them all day long, move my comp to the room LOL.

Got my lights today, I almost blinded myself checking them out, they are so fucking bright (50x3w each). They look freakin awesome and I love the smell the casing has, I'm going to leave it in the packaging till when i start growing so my veg room will smell like a new computer

Cool lookin lights..im sure they were pricey but to tell you the truth..for a first grow..not a bad idea. They put off very little heat so thats just one less problem.

They were 100 each plus 80 shipping, and its nothing compared to the $285 flowering lights I'm getting later from another company, two lights with 144 3W LEDs each

The Chinese company that makes the veg lights is http://www.twilightgroups.com/, not gona attempt to review the company's lights till I use them for a good few months first though. They have a 3 year warranty, only issue i have with them is they only accept PayPal up to $600, I only ever deal with Chinese sellers on paypal.

I'm much more concerned about low temps in winter than high temps in summer.

Gona germ tomorrow hopefully, the damn ph meter hasn't arrived yet so I'm just waiting on that. I'll be using tap water to germ, so I will add a little vinegar if the ph it too high. I've read I need a ph of 5-6.5. I could use distilled water, or is tap water better because it has some dissolved solids?

How long should i turn the lights on when I'm germinating? I want as many females as I can get and I only got 6 seeds per strain.
http://buymarijuanaseeds.com/community/threads/ideal-photoperiod-for-max-female-seedlings.150763/

Had some good fun today adding drainage valves to my drip trays, drilled two 1" holes on each side and screwed them in and sealed them up with some silicone, hopefully i won't get any leaks. They connect to 1/2" hose which drains back to reservoir. I won't have all the bits and pieces for the automatic watering for another two weeks, I'll be watering the seedlings manually and watching them closely. It basically has a pump in the res which pumps it through a 1/2" hose into a manifold which splits it into 8 1/4" hoses, which have drip nozzles on the end that I'll be sticking in the rockwool.

I've got water heaters and a space heater so temps should be good, I will probably run them at around 70F/20C, but my humidity is only 30% in the room, is this too low? Will spraying mist in the tent raise it much?

If it wasn't my first grow I would probably agree, but without the ph meter I could be growing blind, would just give me a lot more peace of mind if I knew my tap water wasn't like ph 8, you know.

If it doesn't arrive soon I'm just gona go get a cheap ph meter from the hardware store, cbf waiting much longer.

yeah i just got one from the hardware store was too damn excited to wait any longer, germinating now

Journal:
http://buymarijuanaseeds.com/community/threads/ambitious-first-grow-with-leds.150773/