Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have finally made enough room in my basement to transfer my AP system from the side porch. (where I heat the FT to 68* during the winter months and shut down the water to the GB's)

I want to grow year round and this is the only way I could see to do that.

Without trying, the basement is generally between 62*-64* during the winter and 68*-70* during the summer. I have a lot of firearms, ammunition and ammo components down there so the dehumidifiers are always set to 50.

I have a layout of where everything will be in the basement is but I did it in word and this forum won't except a docx file. I'll take a pic of it tonight and try to get it posted here.

THE IMPORTANT STUFF:

It is a WALL system. I'm using 2'x3' cement mix tubs for GB's. There will be 2 of them for a length of 6' assembled against the wall at an approx. height of 40" and another single GB off to the right. I am limited on the height for installation so I'm interested in grow lights that have a nice, wide coverage area.

THE BUDGET: I'd like to get away with 1 larger light for the 6' of GB and another smaller light for the separate GB off to the right. I'd like to stay at the $200 shipped for all of the lighting required but can stretch to $250 if necessary.

WHAT BULBS:Red or Blue? High Kelvin or Low Kelvin? I'm growing Cukes, Lettuce, Tom's, chives, basil and strawberries

How much space is above the plant grow bed?

Peronsally, I would get LED versions for the power savings and lack of heat. If you need extra heat you can get the regular bulb kind.

I think you are going to have to REALLY reassess your budget.

Good quality LED's will do the job, but aren't cheap. The cheap eBay LED's etc out of China aren't worth a pinch of goat sh!t. Plus LED's don't have the penetration to enable the growing of tall plants such as Tom's and low plants such as Strawb's successfully under the same light.

My preference would be 2x 400 HPS or MH lights over the 6ft bed (each is good for an area up to about 3ft square) and a single unit over the single GB. They won't be cheap to buy, you won't do it for anywhere near your $250 limit, and they won't be cheap to run either... but with good quality LED's to do the same area effectively you will use about 50% of the power draw... but buying them will hurt even more.

I would look to Craigslist and used market, you might find some inexpensive HID lighting. If you go this route, you need space above the plants because these get pretty hot. You can get a lot closer with LED lights. If you decided to only grow green leafy vegetables then fluorescent lights will work for many of these and you might actually stay within your budget with these.

Well, there are 2 areas...directly above the GB's and against the wall above the GB's. Directly above them and up to the heat duct is about 3'. Above the GB's but against/near the wall there is more space, approx. another 14" or so (pics to follow in a separate post).

Here is a rough idea of what is going where...The sump tank will be under one of the GB's. Also, I hope to make some PVC vertical towers in some of the void space. I tried making one last night but the PVC I used must have been too thick! (just over 1/4" thick)
EDIT: please disregard the red rectangle and the grow bed shown lower right. That is nothing but block wall over there

Here's the main wall I'm working with.

Here's a shot looking up along the wall. You can see that there is some space hang chains from...that the lights will hang from.

What about his light? http://www.lampsplus.com/products/tesle ... w2233.html

I preferred to use Led instead of regular lights to save the energy and also to avoid extra heat in my room.

Depends on what you're growing. If you're growing Fruiting plants with high light requirements like tomatoes beans corn squash etc then what helped me size my light setup was basically following what the medical cannabis crowd does - 50watts a square foot for bloom/fruit phase.

With your grow beds effectively being 6' x 2' you have 12 square feet to cover * 50w a square foot so you need 600w to grow anything. However it's not that simple - especially if you're doing polyculture where your plant height is far less controllable.

How much height do you have to work with? The reason I ask is height will determine what lights you can even run. Reason being even LEDs will burn your plants if not spaced far enough - and with a polyculture some plants are going to stretch and some wont - but you need to be able to penetrate down to whatever your shortest plant is.

Can you grow vertically in this space?

I would recommend you buy two of these kits for that space

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L40VX5G/ref ... DHRCKTMOS9

I have one of those mars 600s along side a 450w handling about 35 seedlings of various veggies - the corn especially appears to absolutely LOVE the two LEDs I'm using.

If you get two of those kits it allows you to start with one and get about 520w of the 600 you need. This first kit will easily handle both those grow beds from seedling to harvest however I would still buy the other kit and position them as spot/supplemental lights. Main reason for this is in a polyculture with varying plant heights and requirements and LED's relatively poor penetration taller leafy plants will block shorter plants.

Position the second kit vertically even and light from the top and the sides. Or if your space permits - sandwich the grow beds with a light on each side.

These LEDs need about - depending somewhat on airflow and ambient temp - I wouldn't go less than 12". We've all read about people running closer, try it for yourself, 18" and no less than 12" would be my recommendation.

Another option would be just a single kit and use SMD ropes for supplemental. This really allows some creativity with you lighting.

Examples -
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XHRYX2O/ref ... KLV42QFOZV
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014SJ5OHM/ref ... 499E&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BPIWY28/ref ... TTVN&psc=1

Now I can also Highly recommend the Philips CMH bulbs. I have this one

http://www.amazon.com/Sun-System-LEC315 ... ystems+lec

It's phenomenal. Get the less expensive one though with the better ballast

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0184I80VU/ref ... GR6MM18E5Q

These lights are better than LED hands down. If you can only afford to buy one light, make it this light. it's that good. I use this as my 'main' light and put one of those marshydro kits on each flank for side lighting and more output. The combined spectrums and the incredible penetration of the CMH bulbs has produced really great results for a very reasonable power draw.

CMH has to be run no less than 18" and preferably in the 22-24" range from the plants. This limits what you can grow indoors unless you get real silly with selective light training (unless you're stadium growing but that has other trade offs). blasting the main stem with blue light as an example will keep the plant shorter. search for superangryguy on redit. his lighting guides are incredible - do note much of his content contains NSFW pictures as he talks about cannabis primarily but does have examples of other plants. very interesting guy.

To keep it real simple, 3 or 4 of those marshydro 600 lights will handle anything your space can throw at them. the CMH lights are very good though.

I should have read further and checked out your pictures more. IMO, you don't have the height for the CMH bulbs unless you went stadium style without a reflector but that's not really doable in your space.

You don't specify if you're going to drywall or not. I wouldn't unless I had some other reason. Keep it simple/inexpensive and line the walls with panda film.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UR67NO/ref ... A4X9&psc=1

Use duct tape squares for each staple or a thin stip for each stud else the staples tear the film.

Now that you're nice and reflective everywhere I would make heavy use of those strip LEDs on the back walls. Maybe configure them in a switchable configuration so you can turn them on/off to match plant height.

The Marshaydro lights I linked in my previous post would work however you may also consider spending more on mid range lights.

http://www.amazon.com/MarsHydro-Reflect ... lector+192

Those plus the strip LEDs would easily grow lots of plants in each bed. Those reflector series lights also have a veg/bloom switch which saves on power if one of your grow beds is ever in a state with mostly seedlings and younger plants (lettuces are fine in this low setting all the time). Flip to the lower power veg state and wattage decreases as I recall close to 50%.

Something else to consider and another vote for the cheaper LEDs from my previous post. The rate of change in the LED market is high. In a few months better LEDs will be on the market. The low end combo i linked before just hit the market a few weeks ago and a 450W LED made by yet another chinese knock off company that i bought 4 months ago I can't even find on amazon anymore.

There is logic then in buying inexpensive yet otherwise adequate low end lights as soon as the new fancy comes out - in this case 5W LEDs. Buy two now and buy the new best low end in 6 months.

LEDs have become really fantastic - however they still lack compared directly to the Philips CMH series. If you ever consider another indoor space in the future, do look into CMH - too. My opinion is CMH to pick up all the UV/IR you need as well as excellent penetration and CRI - then use low end LEDs for supplemental. However spaces such as yours are likely best served using all LED for the infinitely more manageable physical as well as thermal footprint. If you require UV/IR (the science isn't entirely resolved here IMO) then you're going to need to buy a few mid range LEDs as they're the only ones with those LEDs in them.

Awesome info!! Thank you!