Wardrobe Ventilation and Lighting

[bloodshot_eyes]

As mentioned in the building and construction thread, I'm in the process of setting up a grow in a wardrobe. Its the first time I've attempted to grow indoors and even though I've been reading shit here at ozstoners almost since the very beginning, practically I'm a total noob so I may need some help. The wardrobe is full height from floor to ceiling and full length of a bedroom wall. It will be split down the middle into too sections. So far one section is for all intensive purposes built, (Built meaning that secondary wall and door is inplace behind pre-existing wardrobe sliding door). We are going to be putting a potted plant in from outside ASAP as it will be flowered in this wardrobe as a test of the conditons, plus the yards not ideal for growing plants. I will focus just on ventilation now, once that is set (hopefully this weekend, then its onto lighting. I already have some ballasts and shades to choose from that are "hand me downs" and they fit so no need to buy) I will not be discussing the hydroponic system yet, that will be planned once this soil plant is in.

 

I have purchased a Systemair 250mm 136W centrifugal fan at the recommendation of the guy at a hydro store. He reckons for this setup, the best option would be to put this fan in the roof, Y split it to two 250mm holes in the ceiling in both sections of the wardrobe and to cut some inlet holes in the floorboards in both sections. I dont see any problems with this. The problem is stealth.

 

This fan moves a shitload of air but that air noise is quite significant. The guy at the hydro store turned it on and it was immediately apparent that some silencing measures would be required. He grabbed a length of acoustic ducting, oversize (350mm) and put the entire fan literally inside the ducting tube, and attacthed a carbon filter to the "out" end of the fan. This made it a fair bit quieter. He reckoned that I could just attach a Y split to the end of this duct, maybe reduce it back to 250mm and into the ceiling holes and hang the hole arrangement from a roof beam with cable or rope but I'm not sure. I reckon with the fan just sitting inside the ducting that it would loose efficiency cos its not really sealed. I didn't buy any ducting cos I'm not sure about all this but it got me thinking. It may work if you simply put the right size naked ducting inside the oversize acoustic ducting and attach it properly to the inlet end of the fan. This way there would be a proper seal and the fan will still be inside the acoustic ducting. The only other reservations I have about this is will it cause the fan to overheat or be a fire risk? I don't wont to burn the house down ..

 

I also purchased a simple "dimmer" speed control for the fan as it wont need to be on full bore all the time all year round I'm assuming? This is pretty much where I'm at and what I need to know for the immediate future and I'm just after some feedback. Is this silencing and mounting method ok or is it a ridiculous idea and if so, any better ideas?

 

Cheers, Bloodshot..

Edited December 18, 2008 by bloodshot_eyes

[smokinjoe]

Sounds like a very nice setup.

[bloodshot_eyes]

Tested it out in the roof and i'm impressed. During the day you cant hear a thing outside the house and inside you can just hear a slight whirring sound if you stand directly under where it was placed and the fridge and TV are turned off but nowhere else in the house can it be heard. At night if you really listen you can hear it a bit as you get near it inside the house but once again the fridge is much louder. Outside, you cannot hear a thing. Even turning it on in the middle of the night. And the thing is only sitting up there at the moment It hasn't been mounted, taped up or anything so I'm pretty shore it will be even quieter once in place and the ducting is all sealed properly. Maybe place it above master bedroom?

 

Pretty happy with that setup, bit harsh on the hip pocket but well worth it in the name of stealth and looking at how much air that thing is sucking through the 3m inlet ducting and the relatively small area it needs to clear I think/hope there's going to be some pretty nuts ventilation happening in that cupboard to top it all off.

 

I got hold a carbon filter but its bigger than the one in the shop and doesn't sit inside the ducting well. So at the moment I have the filter on the outlet of the fan free to the air (Not in the ducting, I figured would be better for airflow and the filter also seems to filter sound pretty good too) The thing is alot of stuff I've read and alot of people here says its best to suck through rather than push though. Hydro store people don't seem to think it matters either way but if I were to suck through in the system I've described in this thread, how would I best do it, considering my filter is too big for the ducting etc?

[Naycha]

What size is the filter and what size is the ducting?

[bloodshot_eyes]

The filter has a 250mm inlet, same as fans outlet, but the diameter is about 350mm. Same as Acoustic ducting (AKA big arse baffle). Inlet ducting (Ducting linking fan inlet to soon to be hole in roof) is 250mm. Edited December 21, 2008 by bloodshot_eyes

[Naycha]

Maybe you can use a 350 - 250mm reducer

[bloodshot_eyes]

Had a touch of bad luck. I was planning on putting the outlet hole in the centre of the ceiling space, with two inlet slots either side on the floor. Once it came time to actually getting in the roof and cutting the hole, there's a wooden beam running directly across and another beam running the other way across that beam, so right in the centre of the wardrobe, the two beams cross each other The only real solution short of cutting beams (not happening) was to put the hole off to one side and I had to cut the metal flange in half and seal it to the beam, also had to cut slits in the ducting and seal them up. There is now a smallish beam cutting through the centre of the 250mm outake but its all sealed and works fine. The fan sucks a SHIT LOAD of air, tried it out with the wardrobe door open and it sucks bong smoke all the way from the lounge room, other side of the house so I know that bit works.

What I need advice on is what to do for the inlet. Should I still just cut two inlet slots in the floor boards? cut a single bigger slot on the opposite side, both using purely the exhaust for air movement or will I need to install another fan on the opposite side in the floor? remembering that the air movement into the exhaust from this small area is very significant. Once all this is sorted, and I hope it is soon, the 600W HPS and the incresingly too large plant can go in there. I think I will be needing to do some creative tying down because that plant is fast getting out of hand outside. (already over a meter tall and only just showing flower sites.)

[bloodshot_eyes]

Ventilation is sorted, lighting is in and best of all, plant is in I ended up cutting 1 inlet hole in the floor, opposite side from the outlet and it works a treat. So much air is been drawn in that it causes the plant to move a little, so I'd say thats good enough. The temperature after an hour of the lights on was 34 degrees, only about 5 degrees warmer than outside and a couple of degrees warmer than the house temperature. That was early in the evening so It'd get cooler overnight as the outside temperature falls I hope. The main thing I must work out now is a light leak. The cupboard itself is sealed nicely but you can see the odd yellow glow under the house if you look closely in the vents around the house, this is even after putting some doubled over shade cloth over the inlet hole, any ideas on how to eliminate this light leak? Edited January 5, 2009 by bloodshot_eyes

[bloodshot_eyes]

Hello there. Thought I'd update on how things are going along, and ask a few questions..

 

That plant was harvested a while ago now, got about 4oz of pretty nice buds, nearly all up in smoke now. Had a savage spidermite infestation right at the end that pretty much destroyed all of the leaf, must have affected the yield, but the buds were unharmed and pretty nice really.

Shortly after harvest, bug bombed the wardrobe, cleaned everything with bleach cut more holes in the floor and installed a second light. There is now two 600W HPS so all up 1200W of HPS in the flowering side of the wardrobe, brand new ballasts. As far as ventilation is concerned the fan is the same but have added some extra holes in the floor as the fan was in a bit of a vacuum also added some bug mesh from the hydro shop over the inlets (Hopefully no more damned SPIDERMITES).

 

The New Grow:

I must apologise for the lack of pitures as I do not currently have access to a digital camera, thus why I'm not doing a diary but this can be sort of a literary diary. I now have two plants in the cupboard growing in Coco in 30ltr pots under a scrog net. Once again unknown strain, was cloned off an outdoor plant in flower but reverted to veg quickly under 18/6 luckily. The plant was short and bushy but with neither thick or thin leaves so I guess a hybrid of some sort. Sprouted from "bagseed" originally I believe.

The system is run-to-waste with a 90ltr Tub in the other half of the wardrobe. Fed by timer through a feeding ring and drains to large icecream containers under the pots. Pot setup are standard pot inside pot, shade cloth on bottom of inner pot. There is a layer of clay balls on the bottom for added drainage. Here is a list of everything.

 

Hardware:

Son-T plus 600W in veg (times 2)

Osram Nav T 600W Flower (Times 2)

JBL timer (lights)

Nakajima Timer (pump)

Aqua 104 water pump

Twin Air pump, 2 air balls.

Secondary water pump on Secondary timer to mix nutrient's half hour before and during feeds. (Found PH differed wildly top to bottom)

 

Consumables:

Canna bagged Coco (Medium, 100% coco)

Canna Aqua Pebbles (bottom pots, drainage)

GT Coco Grow

GT Coco Bloom

Canna Rhizotonic (Used full strength first week, backed off to weak strength, now using at half recommended weak strength for rest of grow at recommendation of local Hydro shop)

Canna BioBoost

Hammerhead PK 9/18

Beneficial Bacteria (A cheap powdered one but works just as well as any of them according to Hydro shop)

 

This is my first Hydroponic grow so feel free to chuck me advice, the grow however is going very well, the growth is impressing the shit out of me so I must be doing something right. There is a ruler in the tub and I measure the run-off daily and am always striving for around 10-20% run-off, I find though that the plant seems to take more in spurts so when I adjust I over-compensate a little, seems to be the best way. Adjusting is easy, I have taps before each feeder ring, both pots can be adjusted individually, touchy though. Feed is for 1 minute 3 times daily while lights on, no feed during dark period. Fresh water flush one a week, PH adjusted of course.

 

The plant has been as of today flowering for about a week, two weeks since I switched to 12/12. The plant was under 18/6 for veg for nearly 4 weeks. Was some set backs at the beginning with slow growth and up-curling leaves but I assume this was something to to with been under 1200W of HPS. I kept raising the lights until it looked happier then gradually lowered them. Growth did pick up and then exploded, now all is good and lights are kept between 40-50cm from canopy. Still some slight upcurling on some leaves but I stress slight. I dont have any fans to move air around within the grow space at the moment, maybe this would sort that out? Temperature with lights on has been about 18C under the canopy and around 30 at the cannopy recently, water temperature is 21C in Tub.

 

I filled the scrog out then switched to 12/12, growth upwards has been phenomenal over the last 2 weeks, I'm hoping the stretch will slow now or it may be a bit of a tall scrog, but will wait and see. Pre flowers emerged within days of switching and pistils are now clearly forming. Started the BioBoost as soon as I saw a pistil and will add the Hammerhead PK for a week or two probably at about half what the bottle recomends once buds seem to be fattening. The BioBoost is not actually a nutrient but rather a tonic that helps the plant use other nutrients, thats why I'm adding the PK. Forgot to mention, I've been using the GT Coco at 3/4 strength as I don't have any meters, just a simple PH test kit. I used the Rhizotonic at full strength in the beginning and seemed to help once I got the light position right, dropped right back now to a small dose, there are literally roots popping out of the mdium and they are brilliant white and fury, thought they were mold at first but nah, just really healthy roots thought a little of the Rhizo would help keep them healthy.

 

Now you've heard the update on whats currently happening with this stealth wardrobe, I though I might get a bit of advice on whats planned next. I want a mother setup in the other half of the wardrobe. Genetics is the next thing I want to invest in and I want to be able to keep good genetics going.

Originally I was going to do a veg room separate to flower but now that I've decided to do scrog's its hard to move them when your talking wardrobes. I will now always veg, then flower from clone in the same spot and in the other half of the wardrobe I was thinking of including a mother clone setup, low growth environment sharing the space with the tub. I'm assuming fluro's would be good for this? What I really want is a slow growing, low maintance mother plant, maybe even two of different strains that I can take clones from, to be vegged under a scrog net and flowered in the other half of the wardrobe. Anyone any advice on this, good system for it. The key for me is simplicity and low maintenance when it comes to this part, I want to focus my attention of the bud plants..

 

That took along time to write, damned cones

 

Bloodshot_eyes