Help. Intake and outtake

nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Right now it's 49 degrees Fahrenheit outside with a high of 59 degrees Fahrenheit today the weather calls for. I am growing in my basement deep water culture. I chose my basement cuz its the coolest area in the house so my water and air temps stay in check. Currently I am not pulling fresh air from outside due to not having a filter to filter the air so no pollen or unwanted bugs enter my room. Plus winter is coming and it's getting cold here. Winter is impossible to pull fresh air from outside due to freezing temps would wreak havoc on my plants. Should I be pulling air from upstairs in my house into the garden? I'm using a air cooled hood and am exhausting the heat in my basement to help keep it warmer. What is the importance of fresh air in the grow room? What can I do about it since I live where it's cold as fuck? Or should I just leave it as is? Help please
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Right now it's 49 degrees Fahrenheit outside with a high of 59 degrees Fahrenheit today the weather calls for. I am growing in my basement deep water culture. I chose my basement cuz its the coolest area in the house so my water and air temps stay in check. Currently I am not pulling fresh air from outside due to not having a filter to filter the air so no pollen or unwanted bugs enter my room. Plus winter is coming and it's getting cold here. Winter is impossible to pull fresh air from outside due to freezing temps would wreak havoc on my plants. Should I be pulling air from upstairs in my house into the garden? I'm using a air cooled hood and am exhausting the heat in my basement to help keep it warmer. What is the importance of fresh air in the grow room? What can I do about it since I live where it's cold as fuck? Or should I just leave it as is? Help please
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I live close to traverse city so I feel you. As for the fresh air there should be plenty of fresh air coming into the house. So if your exhausting to outside and has a good negative pressure in the tent it will pull plenty of fresh air in. If you have some sort of central air or heat the have to have a fresh air inlet coming into the system thus providing even better fresh air coming into the home. Hopefully you don’t have a typical Michigan basement ie dark and moist.
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
Lordhooha said:
I live close to traverse city so I feel you. As for the fresh air there should be plenty of fresh air coming into the house. So if your exhausting to outside and has a good negative pressure in the tent it will pull plenty of fresh air in. If you have some sort of central air or heat the have to have a fresh air inlet coming into the system thus providing even better fresh air coming into the home. Hopefully you don’t have a typical Michigan basement ie dark and moist.
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It is dark and moist down there without dehumidifiers. But I got 3 good dehumidifiers running to control the humidity though. I'm not growing in a tent at all. I made a room with black plastic last grow, temps got too hot inside so I tore it down and just using the whole basement now, don't want temps above 80 degrees so not using a small room no more. Humidity is at 44 percent currently. Between 68 and 72 degree Fahrenheit for the air temp, 67 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit water temp. My very first grow the humidity was high as fuck until I got dehumidifiers toward the very end of the grow. This grow should be much better. So I can just pull air from my upstairs of my house instead? I'm exhausting the hot air in the basement this winter to keep it warmer down there. Not exhausting the heat outside. If I did that I would have to constantly shovel my basement window as snow would cover it every day winter time. That would draw attention . Plus I don't want to run a heater all winter down there so I will just vent the hot air in my basement to help keep temps in check
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
It is dark and moist down there without dehumidifiers. But I got 3 good dehumidifiers running to control the humidity though. I'm not growing in a tent at all. I made a room with black plastic last grow, temps got too hot inside so I tore it down and just using the whole basement now, don't want temps above 80 degrees so not using a small room no more. Humidity is at 44 percent currently. Between 68 and 72 degree Fahrenheit for the air temp, 67 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit water temp. My very first grow the humidity was high as fuck until I got dehumidifiers toward the very end of the grow. This grow should be much better. So I can just pull air from my upstairs of my house instead? I'm exhausting the hot air in the basement this winter to keep it warmer down there. Not exhausting the heat outside. If I did that I would have to constantly shovel my basement window as snow would cover it every day winter time. That would draw attention . Plus I don't want to run a heater all winter down there so I will just vent the hot air in my basement to help keep temps in check
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It should work pulling from upstairs. I framed an built my rooms in my basement luckily I have a newer house and had geothermal put in to handle the air. With my basement being heated it makes it a bit easier but it’s still a few degrees less than upstairs but no biggie. It’s why im running cmh lights to see if the temps stay up a little better versus my led builds. So far it’s staying around 77-80 compared to my 70-73. My plants seem to like the extra heat a little more. The real test is coming once the snow starts coming.
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
Lordhooha said:
It should work pulling from upstairs. I framed an built my rooms in my basement luckily I have a newer house and had geothermal put in to handle the air. With my basement being heated it makes it a bit easier but it’s still a few degrees less than upstairs but no biggie. It’s why im running cmh lights to see if the temps stay up a little better versus my led builds. So far it’s staying around 77-80 compared to my 70-73. My plants seem to like the extra heat a little more. The real test is coming once the snow starts coming.
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Awesome. Thanks for the good feedback bud. Good looking out. Glad to have someone from the same region as me answer my questions. Gonna drill a hole in my floor and set it up today. Trying to finish my work down there today so I can focus on the grow itself. Winter last year I started growing, my basement was the exact opposite of summer. In winter it's very dry in my basement, low humidity. Spring and summer came and humidity rose like crazy. Wish I had a sealed room to add co2. Eventually I want to build a good room that is sealed and add co2 to it. I'll get there eventually. It's very expensive hobby I learned fast. Especially using reverse osmosis water and 1000 watt ballast. I'm jealous of your cmh light. Heard cmh lights are the closest light to the sun. I want one bad.
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
Awesome. Thanks for the good feedback bud. Good looking out. Glad to have someone from the same region as me answer my questions. Gonna drill a hole in my floor and set it up today. Trying to finish my work down there today so I can focus on the grow itself. Winter last year I started growing, my basement was the exact opposite of summer. In winter it's very dry in my basement, low humidity. Spring and summer came and humidity rose like crazy. Wish I had a sealed room to add co2. Eventually I want to build a good room that is sealed and add co2 to it. I'll get there eventually. It's very expensive hobby I learned fast. Especially using reverse osmosis water and 1000 watt ballast. I'm jealous of your cmh light. Heard cmh lights are the closest light to the sun. I want one bad.
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It looks like the sun In there lol and I use my well water no ro water for my babies.
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
Lordhooha said:
It looks like the sun In there lol and I use my well water no ro water for my babies.
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What ppm is your well water at? My city water is at 150ppm and I wanted pure water for my girls, no chlorine or chloramine or other stuff the city adds to the water. I don't have the patience to let my buckets sit a day before I use them and chloramine don't evaporate as fast as chlorine so there would still be shit id be feeding my plants I don't want there or even know whats all there. Ro water gets filtered down to 0 ppm and then I add calimagic to replace cal Mag lost in the ro process
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
What ppm is your well water at? My city water is at 150ppm and I wanted pure water for my girls, no chlorine or chloramine or other stuff the city adds to the water. I don't have the patience to let my buckets sit a day before I use them and chloramine don't evaporate as fast as chlorine so there would still be shit id be feeding my plants I don't want there or even know whats all there. Ro water gets filtered down to 0 ppm and then I add calimagic to replace cal Mag lost in the ro process
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200ish ppm
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
Do you still use a calmag supplement or is there enough in your well water for your plants to not get deficiencies?
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No I’ve never needed it in hydro or soil. The soil I build usually has more than enough plus what’s in my well. On top of that using megacrop it seems to have plenty of everything else I need already there too. So my plants get more than enough lol.
 
onionslinger

onionslinger

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
. Gonna drill a hole in my floor and set it up today. Trying to finish my work down there today so I can focus on the grow
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Just make sure you plan on running that extraction fan 24/7 with neg grow space pressure or you gonna stink up the place with holes in the floor..
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
TurboTokes said:
3 dehumidifiers for a basement? Thats up there
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Yeah before I ran them humidity was up to 80 percent. Gotta love shitty upper Michigan basements. I dried it out now with 3 big dehumidifiers but that's seriously what it took to keep it in check. Lucky I got 3 nice dehumidifiers for free after flash flooding in my area wreaked havoc on my 1st grow and whole basement. My basement was flooded with about a foot or so of water after a hard ass rain. Some lost there whole houses and had it way worse than me up here. Roads were destroyed all over. We made national news from the destruction of that storm. I had all my equipment, ballasts on the ground. Somehow all of my shit survived and didn't get ruined. Had to mess my light cycle up to dry everything. Lesson learned about keeping equipment and electricity extension cords on the ground. Bad fucking call. Don't do that no more. Everything is up off the floor now electricity wise and equipment wise. Was a close ass call. Almost lost everything
 
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nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
onionslinger said:
Just make sure you plan on running that extraction fan 24/7 with neg grow space pressure or you gonna stink up the place with holes in the floor..
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My whole house wreaked my first grow during flower. I'm fucked already on that part. No scrubber yet. Want to get one in the future. Just takes time to buy everything you know. I'm happy to be where I'm at now with it . Going to use my front porch as intake air since the window or door is usually open and lots of fresh air in there. I'm exhausting from my air cooled hood into my basement. I am not exhausting anything outside until I can get a carbon scrubber. Shits not cheap though. Already invested well over a grand on equipment to get started. When you got a wife and 6 kids and 1 on the way you have other priorities also. Lol. Probably going to have to wait until tax season to get the rest of what I want to complete my set up and room. For now I'm rolling with basics and what I got to use. Got bills and kids to raise but I will eventually buy the rest of what I need to complete my set up. And I'm not too worried about the smell since I live in a legal state for medical growing. I am legal to do what I'm doing. I'm growing my own meds.
 
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Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
Yeah before I ran them humidity was up to 80 percent. Gotta love shitty upper Michigan basements. I dried it out now with 3 big dehumidifiers but that's seriously what it took to keep it in check. Lucky I got 3 nice dehumidifiers for free after flash flooding in my area wreaked havoc on my 1st grow and whole basement. My basement was flooded with about a foot or so of water after a hard ass rain. Some lost there whole houses and had it way worse than me up here. Roads were destroyed all over. We made national news from the destruction of that storm. I had all my equipment, ballasts on the ground. Somehow all of my shit survived and didn't get ruined. Had to mess my light cycle up to dry everything. Lesson learned about keeping equipment and electricity extension cords on the ground. Bad fucking call. Don't do that no more. Everything is up off the floor now electricity wise and equipment wise. Was a close ass call. Almost lost everything
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I remember seeing that on 9&10 news
 
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