Hey guys some quick updates and a few more pics of the tent along with thoughts and questions. I'll work my way up from the bottom....
I had 16 square feet of "anti-fatigue foam flooring" that I bought at a tag sale. The autopots literature specifically warns against keeping the pots on a cold concrete floor, I'm hoping this foam provides enough insulation to keep the plants warm and happy. I'm planning on adding some shims to the back to make the floor tilt toward the front a little per
@BigSm0's drainage suggestion.
The tent comes equipped with a "removable Mylar floor tray" seen in this picture. It is tied up to the stakes similar to the "bathtub floors" that are common in camping tents (though the idea in camping tents is to keep the water out lol). It is made out of a single sheet of mylar with no seems, so it should be extremely waterproof. The volume of it would be theoretically sufficient to hold the entire 12 gallon reservoir in a flood situation, though in practice I might like to see it reinforced before I trusted it to hold more than a few gallons. This will definitely be a component in my drip tray/flood protection system. Here I've pulled it away so you can see it tied to one of the corner poles.
A snap connector on one of the poles. You just snap the poles together according the diagram and stretch the tent over the frame. The stretching is the tricky part. Just do one corner at a time and be patient, you have to work it for a few minutes.
Here's one of the ducting ports. It can be pulled tight with draw strings to close it. Some of the duct holes are max 6" like this one and a few are 4". I'm not sure why they did this because it limits your exhaust options if you have 6" ducting like I have.
One of the air vents that are along the bottom of the tent. The vents have little flap which can be velcroed shut or rolled open. I've rolled it open for improved air intake and to show that the vent lets light in/out through a mesh window when it is opened. I'm thinking of tacking up some black felt on the inside of the window to block the light but allow ventilation. Has anyone else fabricated a better solution to this problem?
The bars for hanging equipment and how they hook to the top of the frame. There is one beefier bar for hanging the fan/filter and two slightly slimmer bars for hanging lights. They slide around up there pretty easily. One convenient design element is that the fan bar and the light bars can be hung perpendicular without conflicting with each other as shown in this pic, because the fan bar hangs a little lower.
So there's a grow tent, bottom to top!
