Here are the environmental factors that you need to monitor and control in your grow room:

Indoor Grow Lighting

With indoor hydroponics, it’s very important that you strictly control the lighting. To achieve this, you can isolate your grow room using a commercial grow box. Or, you can locate your grow room in an interior space that has no windows and cover it with mylar to enhance the distribution of your lighting.

During the growing stage of your plants, you should generally provide 16-18 hours of light per day. If you want to induce flowering, reduce the hours to 12 per day, simulating the shorter days of late summer. Hydroponics suppliers offer different kinds of timers to automate these lighting cycles. 

Air Movement 

Ventilation is another crucial element of a successful hydroponics system. For growing areas that are small or naturally well ventilated, you may not need any supplemental ventilation. You could simply place a regular fan in the room to circulate air, and this will be sufficient for most hobby growers. However, for larger operations, a better option is to install an extractor fan to remove stale air, along with a ventilator to bring in fresh air from outside.

Plants use carbon dioxide in the air for photosynthesis, which gives them the energy to grow, and more serious hydroponics growers often employ CO2 generators to accelerate growth. But good air circulation will ensure plenty of CO2 and also help regulate the heat and humidity of the space.

It’s also important to monitor the temperature in your hydroponics grow room, where temperatures should be around 68 F (20 C) at night and about 74 F (23 C) during the daytime.

While any type of thermometer will do for monitoring temperatures, a thermometer that records the minimum and maximum temperatures reached during a given period will alert you to any harmful out-of-range temperatures that have occurred.

Room fans, extraction fans, and ventilators will help with cooling. Or, you could use air conditioning. On the other hand, if temperatures are too low in your grow room, introduce an electric heater.

Humidity

You should maintain a humidity level in your grow room of 40-60 percent to enhance plant growth and prevent mold from developing. Humidity is measured with a hygrometer. There are many monitors that will measure both temperature and humidity and they are very inexpensive to purchase.

Here again, an extraction fan will function well to remove excess humidity, or a dehumidifier, while a humidifier will increase moisture in the air if your grow room is too dry.