My grow tent is 48x48x80 or 4ft x 4ft x 6ft 6in tall, below is what I am considering building in it. Not sure if its a good Idea or bad Idea.
I am considering Building a basically Giant self watering planter. 3ft by 3ft by either 2ft or 3 ft deep, that i can Install in my Grow tent, and simply reuse the soil in it since I use a “soiless dirty hydro” anyway with peat moss.
Just to be clear, I run full synthetic nutes with some organic inputs like Mycos and bacteria. The closest thing to organic I get is my home made Cal Mag which is crushed egg shells and epsom salts dissolved in Distilled White Vinegar.
I have some Ideas, for the water tank, building it outta wood and using a pond liner to hold the water. But im a bit unsure how to go for the Soil bed part of it, because I want to be able to have about a 30-60 gallon Reservoir for water under the soil. The Goal here, is to spend the least amount of time on the tedious stuff like watering as possible.
Any Ideas on what to or how to build the soil bed part? I am kinda leary about making it out of wood, as the water will make the wood rot sooner or later, and I would really prefer to avoid rebuilding the planter part every few years because the wood rotted out. Kinda stumped on this part of it if im being honest. Maybe a Plexiglass Bottom with Burlap over it as the base and the burlap as the wicking material?
Also to make matters more complicated, I am trying to build this with MOSTLY stuff I have on hand, as i really cant afford to buy any big ticket items, Basically I have to keep the amount I spend getting stuff for this to under 50 a month, and it will take a few months at least to gather the required materials.
Filling Wick Tub with soil and fertilizer Ep 20A (youtube.com) not sure if your in or near cattle country but i use all kinds of things pop bottle’s and 5 gallon pails have use those blue ones he talked about instead of jugs i have used big O drainage tile the hole in the side is for over flow when it rains maybe don’t drill it for inside as well in the fill pipe i use a red and white bobber with a small flag to let me know who much water is in the bottom res
Howdy @Ace71975, my first thought was to recommend an aluminum frame or some type of metal frame paired with an agricultural style thick plastic container/reservoir that you could use. I was sort of envisioning a typical flood and drain set-up that was changed to wick instead of pump at timed increments.
I’m pretty novice as it relates to using pond liners so can’t relate as easily to that aspect. I’ve seen designs for aquaculture fish raceways that are built with wood frames and lined with pond liner so so using that along with your confidence in building a reservoir tank with a wood frame and pond liner I feel comfortable sort of hypothesizing here:
What if you built another duplicate wood frame and pond lined box for the soil bed and made holes with whatever diameter PVC tubing you feel adequate for wicking material to pass through down into the reservoir below? Essentially two pond lined wood framed type things, one above with PVC tubes providing movement from one to the other. Could probably seal them up well and such with a keen technique with the pond liner and/or other available waterproofing products. Hope that helps. Many blessings and much love
Thinking about it again, in that hypothetical example, it would probably need to have both sides of the wood for the planter box lined somehow if it’s hovering above a humid wet reservoir. Possibly doable? Of that I’m unsure. Just trying to keep it within the parameters of budget friendly and availability of materials as per your request. Many blessings and much love
You could build a box from wood, then either use paintable truck bed liner.
OR, simply line the planter with a heavy duty plastic sheet, pull it up over the edges, then staple it to the outer side to the planter/box thing. After you drill holes for weeping, use Tool Dip, plastic to coat those holes.
Well that is what I’d try out anyway.
What I was thinking is build the Wood Box 3x3x3ft and then put a Pond liner in the bottom, Build a Frame Out of PVC pipe to set down inside the wood frame that is like 2ft 10in x 2ft 10in x 6in to 12 in tall and On top of that frame lay a sheet of Plexi-glass that I sand down JUST enough for it to pressure fit inside the frame and on top of the PVC Scaffold. Drill Holes in it, put cotton Wicks all the way to the bottom of the water Reservoir,and lay Burlap on top of the wicks and up the sides, then fill with soiless media.
You could put 6 in of course sand at the bottom and it’ll naturally wick you don’t need burlap or a divider… If you want to get fancy maybe somehow you could rig up one of those Auto pot valves or blumatt …
Well, I have a faucet with a hose on it in my grow room, so filling the 67 or so gallons of water it would hold wouldnt be too bad, just run the hose to the fill pipe and go lol. Honestly, If I could afford the upfront money to buy a Reservoir auto pot system, I likely would, or enough octopots to fill the tent but sadly it would be cheaper to Build this 3 x 3 x 3 SIP than to buy systems on the market considering I have most of the wood on hand already.
True but I want to keep the reservoir as clean as possible and I want to be able to put a float in so I know how much water is left in the reservoir at a glance, I cant do that if I fill the bottom with sand.
For the frame/support with another sitting on top lined with burlap…etc and wicks. Fill with soil. Easy to move for cleaning and removing males and rearranging. Just spitballing here. Seems you have a good idea if you can keep res fairly clean. Hydrogaurd is nice but spendy.
Check around convenient stores. If you have a milk company close you’re in business! sometimes these places will let you have a couple if you ask nice.
Sand is a pain in the butt media to work with but happens to be my favorite … You could check the water level just the same as any other wicking bed by putting a PVC pipe in and using a wooden dowel. Sand approximately 30% air space so the dowel would float at saturation. Even though I suggested sand don’t use it it’s so heavy and messy. I’ve got some 400 gallon bags and plan on making a sip bed like I’m describing. I’ll post on here whenever I get around to putting it together.
Are you in a legal area?
You might as well ditch the tent if so.
Unless smell is an issue.
Tents are Way overrated, they make heat an issue
They work your back
They don’t allow for good air flow unless you
Buy expensive fans, duct it etc.
Your grow is large, but anyway good luck
The reflection value is way way overrated
See the inverse Sq rule on light.
But good luck either way.
If your in a non legal state I get it
But I don’t use them and my state is not legal.
I am in a newly legal state. Smell isnt an issue.But I already have the money invested in the tent,vent fans,duct work to pipe the out vent straight outside through my dryer duct,etc so im commited to the tent at this point lol
sometimes these places will let you have a couple if you ask nice. 
… You could check the water level just the same as any other wicking bed by putting a PVC pipe in and using a wooden dowel. Sand approximately 30% air space so the dowel would float at saturation. Even though I suggested sand don’t use it it’s so heavy and messy. I’ve got some 400 gallon bags and plan on making a sip bed like I’m describing. I’ll post on here whenever I get around to putting it together.