Setting up my first indoor grow in a long time. I have one plant going now as more of an experiment and to get back into the swing of growing. Here is my current list of equipment:

Milliard 36x36x73 grow tent
CLW SolarStorm 400w
GrowBright 4" fan (170cfm) and tall boy filter with fan speed controller
Holmes 6" clip on oscillating fan
2x2 Scrog screen

The seeds I am going with for my 1st grow is Barneys Farm Critical Kush (feminized). Thanks Attitude Seedbank
I do have one plant growing in an aerogarden ultra at the moment, in its second week of flower. This grow is to keep me busy until my grow tent is completed.
My initial observations of my equipment are all positive. I purchased the tent from Amazon for $88.00 and am very happy with the quality. It does seem a little unstable due to being so top heavy now thanks to the light, fan, and filter. The zippers are very smooth and close completely, and it has plenty of air intake and exhaust options.
I had two plants in the aerogarden and about 6 weeks into veg they really started to stink. One turned out to be male. The fan and filter combo wiped the smell right out. The fan is 170cfm and it is running on the lowest setting. With the fan on 50% it was getting too cool in the tent. I have it in the basement with an ambient temp of about 62. The highest my temps go now is 72 with the light on.
Now, to the light. I am amazed at how little heat it produces. My plant has really responded well to the increase in light it has received. I am very impressed with the quality of this light. I learned right away to have sunglasses on when my head is in the tent.
The last decision is soil or hydro(DWC). I am planning on 2-3 plants using a 2x2 scrog setup. I am leaning towards soil at this point. When growing DWC I prefer single site bucket with a top feed setup. I would love to go that route, but I'm not really sure the best way to do water changes. I'm guessing installing a drain? Every time I try something like that it always leaks.
If I go with soil I'm thinking Fox Farm Ocean Forrest and using an Air Pruning pot. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forums!


If your basement doesn't get hot in the summer you might get away with a 4" fan, I prefer to go larger than what I need, just in case and to leave room for expansion if needed.

Be sure to check that tent for light leaks from the inside, some cheap tents aren't as light proof as they should be.

DWC is harder in scrog unless you have a controller bucket and the trick to making them leak proof is not drilling the holes too big for the grommets or you can silicone the crap out of them with aquarium silicone.



SME

I had the same question of DWC or soil. I actually tried both. The growth in the DWC system has been spectacular. I am using a simple air stone system to aerate the water in the bucket. I simply change the plant from one bucket to another to change out the nutrients.

I had to buy a meter to measure ph. I need to adjust it each day. It goes up as the plant seems to use up the fertilizer (ppm goes down).

You can check out my blog called My Three Plants for pictures. I'm one month into flowering.

Thanks for the replies I still have about five - six more weeks of my current grow in the aerogarden, so I still have a little more time to figure out my final setup. I'm leaning towards hydro, but I want to set up a RO system first. I am using distilled water with the aerogarden, but that will be a pain in the you know what with 3 buckets. Here are a few pics. I turned the lights 12/12 about 4 weeks ago, buds have been growing about 10 days.





Luckily my basement stays in the 60-70 degree range most of the year. I am off to pick up the parts to build my Scrog, and will post pics when completed.