New Grower 15' x 11'x8' room help needed

[hello]

I have been struggling with this grow room 15'x11'x8' . This is a sealed insulated room inside a larger building.

-- I have well water with six different inline water filters and a 3 stage RO filter going into reservoir tank feeding a humidifier. But I still can't stop the white dry residue coating my plants and room with the minerals from water.
If I turn off humidifier the room gets real dry. I have to keep humidifier on and spray the white residue off plants with garden hose. The fans and everything needs a lot of cleaning or the white residue keeps blowing on things.

-- My fan system and air flow in and out needs improved. I think I need a single large fan in and out set up.
I currently have 6" fan pulling air in from outside, and I have a doubled up two inline fans pulling air into room. so three 6" fans pulling air into room. But these are not pulling air from open outside air. one is pulling air from open space of outer building which has open air flow and the other two pull air from inside shop space. I thought this would help me control seasonal temperature of air.

-- I have two 6" holes in upper wall that the air pressure flows out of, as if a fan was pushing it out.

Can you help correct all the issues with this set up ?

I think room temp. control air flow and humidity need fixed.

Should I use a air conditioner to control heat and humidity ?

Are there better fan in and out air options for this set up ?

I did pretty good through winter but lost control through summer weather.

I buy the best AF seeds I can find but I still can't get consistent germination. I thought I mastered it one day with the most amazing results but I have not been able to duplicate those results. So I am convinced it is the seeds not me. I have two seeds that won't crack currently been working with them over month trying to germinate.

I think I will need to clean my cob lights, Can you tell me how to safely clean these cob lights ? The white water residue is coating everything and I noticed the lights seem less bright.



Thank you for your help.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I have been struggling with this grow room 15'x11'x8' . This is a sealed insulated room inside a larger building.

-- I have well water with six different inline water filters and a 3 stage RO filter going into reservoir tank feeding a humidifier. But I still can't stop the white dry residue coating my plants and room with the minerals from water.
If I turn off humidifier the room gets real dry. I have to keep humidifier on and spray the white residue off plants with garden hose. The fans and everything needs a lot of cleaning or the white residue keeps blowing on things.

-- My fan system and air flow in and out needs improved. I think I need a single large fan in and out set up.
I currently have 6" fan pulling air in from outside, and I have a doubled up two inline fans pulling air into room. so three 6" fans pulling air into room. But these are not pulling air from open outside air. one is pulling air from open space of outer building which has open air flow and the other two pull air from inside shop space. I thought this would help me control seasonal temperature of air.

-- I have two 6" holes in upper wall that the air pressure flows out of, as if a fan was pushing it out.

Can you help correct all the issues with this set up ?

I think room temp. control air flow and humidity need fixed.

Should I use a air conditioner to control heat and humidity ?

Are there better fan in and out air options for this set up ?

I did pretty good through winter but lost control through summer weather.

I buy the best AF seeds I can find but I still can't get consistent germination. I thought I mastered it one day with the most amazing results but I have not been able to duplicate those results. So I am convinced it is the seeds not me. I have two seeds that won't crack currently been working with them over month trying to germinate.

I think I will need to clean my cob lights, Can you tell me how to safely clean these cob lights ? The white water residue is coating everything and I noticed the lights seem less bright.



Thank you for your help.

1) You need a whole room evaporative humidifier from a company like AIRCARE. That will stop the powdery residue

2) You need a much large exhaust fan even if you decide to go with an intake fan. The other issue I see, going back to your humidity issue, is that pulling air from a separate room that isn't environmental controlled is going to create a struggle. Let's say the outer room is 84f/20% - you're constantly bringing in dry DRY air where cannabis will do best around 53%+ humidity, you'll have a time of maintaining vapor pressure deficit https://www.dimluxlighting.com/knowledge/vapor-pressure-deficit-vpd-calculator/

Having your intake air treated to the right humidity before it gets in the grow room will give you space but also be less of hassle.

I'd start with a fan that size to begin with for your exhaust

CLOUDLINE PRO T12, Quiet Inline Duct Fan System with Temperature Humidity VPD Controller, 12-Inch

Your source to create smart growing systems with components including advance grow tents, inline fans, clip-on fans, LED grow lights, and UIS™ controllers.

www.acinfinity.com

There are guides for this but in general, I size exhaust systems by

15 x 11 x 8= 1320sqft then add around 50% for ducting/carbon filters puts you around 2000cfm. I'd break that up into three or four smaller fans though. If one goes out it doesn't hurt as bad with 3-4 as having ONLY one fan and it goes out. Then you can run them at lower power - your setup is reversed imo and would do better with passive intake.

3) A mini split or two wouldn't hurt if you're having control issues in the winter. That would be my preference.

4) are the diodes exposed on the cobs? If they are, I would use a micro fiber to clean them otherwise if there is a lens covering I would just use some warm water.

5) What is your germination method? I like a heat mat with root riot cubes and a dome personally.

 

[hello]

I struggle to understand all this. I will try to learn.
I wasn't sure if my fans should be pulling in or pushing out. I think your saying the fans should push air out and the intake air is passive. Is that right ?
I have the ideal air commercial grade gsh200 humidifier. Are you saying to put that outside room space and let the passive air bring humidity in that way ?
My best germination results was using a small seed starter dome with grow pods watered and paper towel with seeds on top inside dome placed on top of lights for heat. I had incredibly perfect results one time, just amazing spouting best ever. I usually get weak small sprouting. I don't understand the sterile clean suggestions contamination might be part of problem. But I know there are great seeds and then the rest of them. I rarely get the great seeds. great seeds practically grow on there own it seems.

My old cob lights are exposed no lens cover.

I don't understand how you can control air temp if a large amount of air is flowing in and out.

Thanks

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I struggle to understand all this. I will try to learn.
I wasn't sure if my fans should be pulling in or pushing out. I think your saying the fans should push air out and the intake air is passive. Is that right ?
I have the ideal air commercial grade gsh200 humidifier. Are you saying to put that outside room space and let the passive air bring humidity in that way ?
My best germination results was using a small seed starter dome with grow pods watered and paper towel with seeds on top inside dome placed on top of lights for heat. I had incredibly perfect results one time, just amazing spouting best ever. I usually get weak small sprouting. I don't understand the sterile clean suggestions contamination might be part of problem. But I know there are great seeds and then the rest of them. I rarely get the great seeds. great seeds practically grow on there own it seems.

My old cob lights are exposed no lens cover.

I don't understand how you can control air temp if a large amount of air is flowing in and out.

Thanks

They should be pulling air out from inside the grow room. Passive intake, yes.

Are you sure your RO system is working? I find it strange that you're still seeing the powder(minerals).

If you can control the temperature/humidity inside the sealed building - all your passive air going into the grow will be pre treated, minimizing fluctuations.

Air is exchanged every 1-5 minutes ideally in a grow room so it is unreasonable to expect your appliances to control those aspects in that small amount of time.

I don't know how large the building is overall but treating it versus treating the grow from would work best unless you're willing to invest in c02 and completely seal your grow - that's Whole different conversation. Constantly trying to maintain environmental parameters in an unsealed space that receives it's fresh air from a space that has fluctuations in temperature and humidity is difficult.

Seeds do best in 80% humidity remaining moist but not soaking with warmer temps around 73-78f but not higher.

 

[hello]

Thank you for your help.

I am confused on my water . I must be missing something. I noticed when I added the three stage RO filters, it has a brine drain line and it seems to be dumping five gallon or more of brine water through the night. So my first thought was that's a lot of water being dumped into drain. I originally placed the brine drain tube into a 5 gallon bucket but it was over flowing through the night, so I had to run that outside. no actual drain available.

My humidifier has a top cap that is like a 90* direction to aim the flow out of humidifier, this seems to cause the white dry film problem. Because if I take the cap off the humidify blows straight up and will wet the room space to 80-100% RH. I see good results this way but this causes other issues like water puddling and damaging electrical items with too much humidity, so I need a controller to monitor this into a correct range. But this way does not create any white residue. Maybe the air mix fogging of the humidifier is creating the white residue. I ran it through the night blowing straight up out of top and the room was in better condition than the day before when I turned it off.

Another issue is I want to keep RH in a range safe for all grow stages, because I have plants starting and finishing at the same time in same space. I don't have consistent results so I can't keep plants uniform in there start and finish. I get what the seed gives me on it's time and I try to keep replanting to keep full use of everything. So it is difficult to provide specific humidity when some plants are starting and others finishing. I try to use humidity domes over my starting plants . so my finishing plants don't have too much humidity.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Thank you for your help.

I am confused on my water . I must be missing something. I noticed when I added the three stage RO filters, it has a brine drain line and it seems to be dumping five gallon or more of brine water through the night. So my first thought was that's a lot of water being dumped into drain. I originally placed the brine drain tube into a 5 gallon bucket but it was over flowing through the night, so I had to run that outside. no actual drain available.

My humidifier has a top cap that is like a 90* direction to aim the flow out of humidifier, this seems to cause the white dry film problem. Because if I take the cap off the humidify blows straight up and will wet the room space to 80-100% RH. I see good results this way but this causes other issues like water puddling and damaging electrical items with too much humidity, so I need a controller to monitor this into a correct range. But this way does not create any white residue. Maybe the air mix fogging of the humidifier is creating the white residue. I ran it through the night blowing straight up out of top and the room was in better condition than the day before when I turned it off.

Another issue is I want to keep RH in a range safe for all grow stages, because I have plants starting and finishing at the same time in same space. I don't have consistent results so I can't keep plants uniform in there start and finish. I get what the seed gives me on it's time and I try to keep replanting to keep full use of everything. So it is difficult to provide specific humidity when some plants are starting and others finishing. I try to use humidity domes over my starting plants . so my finishing plants don't have too much humidity.

Purchase an InkBird humidity controller. Plug in your humidifier to it then set the parameters. Since you are running a perpetual grow, I would aim for around 77f and 56% humidity. You will need to use domes on starter plants but that is around where you could be for veg through harvest.

When it would get hot in the summer, I would push my humidity to 64% and temps were around 84f but with an effort to remain within VPD parameters. I had clones and two tents going 5 weeks apart with mother plants as well. It still works fine, there's a 15% difference in humidity from seed to harvest so I would try and sit right in the middle of that.

Link your RO system. I have a 5 stage commercial system that is a 3:1 so I get 3 gallons of treated water and 1 gallon of waste.

 

[logangrowgan2020]

have you considered treating your grow room as a lung room and popping a couple tents in? use AC and humidifier to get a baseline in the lung room then use simple small inline fans to control specifics within the tents? also keep in mind many people see great results when they flip their light schedule so grow lights happen on earth nights and plant nighttime is during the hottest part of earth day. AC doesn't need to fight the light's heat output.

Just spitballin here, will be following along. Good luck!

 

[hello]

Thanks for helping.

 

[hello]

I was thinking about a large 4x8 tent to tighten up control area.
I tell myself I can get the open space right, but not sure. some good days.
I have no experience with tents never seen one. Is that the normal now days ?

 

[hello]

Thank you all for helping.
I feel things have improved a lot, but I still have a lot to overcome.
I changed my room thanks to all the helpful advice.
I now have two 6" fans pulling air out of room plugged into a temperature inkbird controller.
I plan on drilling more air flow holes in room. I still have a third fan pulling air in and one more 6" hole letting passive airflow in.
I now have a inkbird controller turning on and off my humidifier, huge help there.
I am still dealing with the white dry water humidifier residue on plants. I am confused because I thought washing the plants with water was removing the humidifier white dry residue but it kind of seems like it won't remove, it just looks cleaned off when I wash them but when I check next day it's still there. I don't know if it is reoccurring or past never cleaned.
I really need to fix this water humidifier residue issue. I guess I will have to keep buying filter system filters or maybe softener or something to fix water.