My STEALTH rubbermaid 150w HPS + T5 grow

So I decided to try my hand at a rubbermaid grow. This is my third grow... all have been in small spaces.
Right now I have 6 clones in foxfarm ocean soil (2 gal pots).
I have had these clones for a month and a half...
Vegging under 150w HPS. temps are stable at around 88 degrees F. I have 2 4" fans for exhaust and a couple of passive intakes at the bottom.
Growth has been slow so far..I have just started to LST them. Once flowering starts I am going to add in the 24" 4 bulb T5 fixture I have for side lighting.
Let me know what you think!

current pics

temps are running a bit high. 88 degrees is getting to the point where growth will start slowling drastically.

In the second group of pics it looks like one of clones got scorched. How close is the light?

Yeah, back that light off, its gotta be gettin warm in there, I'd like to see how you have your light mounted, seems a little, OPEN to the box, try and find a glass tube like thing to see if you can cool-tube it.

-C

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Originally Posted by drudown11

temps are running a bit high. 88 degrees is getting to the point where growth will start slowling drastically.

In the second group of pics it looks like one of clones got scorched. How close is the light?

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the light is about 12" from the canopy. Was thinking of making a homemade cool tube, or just using a glass shield to help with the heat. That clone actually had a bad spider mite infestation that I have been fighting. Those little bastards are hard to kill. Going to switch the light back to my t5 until I get something resembling a cooltube made.
Thank you for the comments

dude I like the setup. I have a 150w hps that Im Im gonna set up for two plants in a similar setup. keep me updated!

I switched back to the T5. Temps are stable at 80 degrees during the day. Growth is really starting to take off now. I am continuing to the LST.. which is making them rather bushy and nice and short.

latest pics..

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Originally Posted by lray21

dude I like the setup. I have a 150w hps that Im Im gonna set up for two plants in a similar setup. keep me updated!

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right on. thanks man. Are you going to use storage bins for your setup? I think its fairly easy to make them stealthy (if thats a concern). I'll keep updating this thread throughout the grow.

yeah bro i am. I had seen some setups with the rubbermaids, but they mirrored each other. I like yours way more. I'm gonna do autoflowering strain so the height shouldnt be an issue. Im going to use one hps 150w for two plants. as soon as I get my seeds in Im gonna start. I'll keep you posted. good luck with your grow bro!:rastasmoke:

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Originally Posted by lray21

yeah bro i am. I had seen some setups with the rubbermaids, but they mirrored each other. I like yours way more. I'm gonna do autoflowering strain so the height shouldnt be an issue. Im going to use one hps 150w for two plants. as soon as I get my seeds in Im gonna start. I'll keep you posted. good luck with your grow bro!:rastasmoke:

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Glad you like it. If you have any questions about my setup let me know. Good luck! I'll keep this thread updated as my grow progresses. :rasta:

If you're still fighting spidermites, drop a hot shots no pest strip (with dichlorvos) in there.

You won't have that problem any longer.

ok, so my first question is where is your intake? I figured I'd go for the intake at the bottom and the out take at the top. only thing is I dont want any light to leak out.

next question is how do you have your bens connected? I wanna make the upper ben just house the light; maybe just lift it off? but I also have a feeling thats where light will leak out. any advice? thanks bro! :rastasmoke:

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Originally Posted by lray21

ok, so my first question is where is your intake? I figured I'd go for the intake at the bottom and the out take at the top. only thing is I dont want any light to leak out.

next question is how do you have your bens connected? I wanna make the upper ben just house the light; maybe just lift it off? but I also have a feeling thats where light will leak out. any advice? thanks bro! :rastasmoke:

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My intake is also at the bottom. Its a passive intake, so I rely on negative pressure inside the cab to draw fresh air in. It works well. I purchased a roll of flat universal activated carbon. I think its supposed to be for an air conditioner. At least thats the isle it was in at home depot. It comes in a huge roll that you can cut to size. What I did was cut a few squares and covered my exhaust ports and my intake ports. This also effectively blocks light. So really it serves a dual purpose--odor control and light control.

This is what I did to connect the bins-- The lids have an indentation on them so that you can stack them. So I just cut the indentation out of one of the lids (make sure to leave a little 'lip' for the bin to rest on). Then on the inside I used duct tape to secure them together.

Either buy lots of duct tape or get some glossy white paint to light proof the bins. Paint will be much easier if you have an area to do it. I had to go the duct tape route and used a combination of chrome and black. Worked well, it just took forever to get rid of all the leaks.

Shit this is a long post. I'm baked. :smokin:

ok sweet thanks! yeah I used foil cuz im broke as fuck. I got busted with a half pound so i gotta take care of court shit. I took the last of my cash to do this lol. I know foil doesnt reflect as well as white or mylar but itll work for now. and thats badass advice for the intake. def have to get that. as soon as i get my seeds, ill part posting pics. Thanks again bro! :rastasmoke:

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Originally Posted by lray21

I know foil doesnt reflect as well as white

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Actually foil works better than white. I'm too lazy to get out my quantum meter to prove it but white paint is horrible for reflectivity. If it was really so good, the backing of HID hoods and T5HO arrays would be white opposed to polished aluminum.

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Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

Actually foil works better than white. I'm too lazy to get out my quantum meter to prove it but white paint is horrible for reflectivity. If it was really so good, the backing of HID hoods and T5HO arrays would be white opposed to polished aluminum.

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Foil has the tendency to create hot spots, though it is pretty reflective. Glossy white paint is actually very good at reflecting light. Think of walking around in the snow, with the sun out... bright as hell... Polished aluminum is probably ideal though.

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Originally Posted by gromulan

Foil has the tendency to create hot spots, though it is pretty reflective. Glossy white paint is actually very good at reflecting light. Think of walking around in the snow, with the sun out... bright as hell... Polished aluminum is probably ideal though.

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Snow is different, it's just frozen water and that acts as a prism. Paint, on the other hand, causes EXTREME amounts of diffusion and that causes an immense loss of actual power. Any photography incident light meter will show you this in a reflective test.

I keep hearing warnings about hot spots, but I rarely see it happen with any foil-lined setup. Why? Due to how lenses and mirrors work and how light reflects off of a surface, unless you've got one excellent perfect parabolic curve, there's going to be almost nil focus - this is also why many metal-backed HIDs use hammered metal. You're more likely to get hotspots caused by water droplets on the leaves forming a lens than your walls being sloppily lined with foil or mylar.

Paint is rarely as smooth as any metal so the light gets scattered in many directions you don't want. Due to the Inverse square law, you want at most ONE bounce and direct to the plant with as little scattering as possible to maintain intensity.

Any mirrored surface is preferable to white paint in almost any situation.

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Originally Posted by khyberkitsune

Snow is different, it's just frozen water and that acts as a prism. Paint, on the other hand, causes EXTREME amounts of diffusion and that causes an immense loss of actual power. Any photography incident light meter will show you this in a reflective test.

I keep hearing warnings about hot spots, but I rarely see it happen with any foil-lined setup. Why? Due to how lenses and mirrors work and how light reflects off of a surface, unless you've got one excellent perfect parabolic curve, there's going to be almost nil focus - this is also why many metal-backed HIDs use hammered metal. You're more likely to get hotspots caused by water droplets on the leaves forming a lens than your walls being sloppily lined with foil or mylar.

Paint is rarely as smooth as any metal so the light gets scattered in many directions you don't want. Due to the Inverse square law, you want at most ONE bounce and direct to the plant with as little scattering as possible to maintain intensity.

Any mirrored surface is preferable to white paint in almost any situation.

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Interesting stuff! Good point about snow acting as a prism. Maybe the burn issue with the foil is caused by the fact that it is a metal and holds in heat?
Thanks for the explanation :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by gromulan

Interesting stuff! Good point about snow acting as a prism. Maybe the burn issue with the foil is caused by the fact that it is a metal and holds in heat?
Thanks for the explanation :thumbsup:

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I've heard about poorly-laid foil trapping heat by making an air layer. Airspace is one of the best insulators known, so an improperly-laid foil job would likely cause temperature issues, yes. :)

ok, well I just learned a ton. thanks khyberkitsune for your two cents! that makes me feel a lot better about my setup. also, has anyone ordered from the single seed centre? I ordered last friday, and was wondering how much longer i could expect to wait.(sry gromulan to fill your thread with questions unrelated to YOUR grow)

gromulan, put up some more pics! im interested to see the grow! :rastasmoke:

Here are some updated pics. They are all doing well with the exception of the shiskaberry. She got the brunt of the attack from the damn spider mites so she is a bit stunted.

new pics... growth is starting to pick up. Took a few clones yesterday. Going to take a few more in the next couple of days. I plan on starting flowering in about a week and a half.

Updated pics...

Looking nice. How tall can the plants get in there?

And also, can you tell me a little more of the lighting setup, or better yet, a picture says 1000 words ;)

Thanks

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Originally Posted by Phant0m

Looking nice. How tall can the plants get in there?

And also, can you tell me a little more of the lighting setup, or better yet, a picture says 1000 words ;)

Thanks

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I have about 1.5 feet of vertical space. I have been doing some LST to keep the size manageable. I know they are going to blow up when I start flowering in a week... so that will be interesting. haha.
As far as lighting goes, I have a 24" 4 bulb T5 6400K fixture I drop in there. The reason it isn't included in the pics is that it barley fits in the rubbermaids. But it works nicely. I'll get some more pics up today. Thanks for stopping by!

Two weeks into flowering. Temps are stable at 85 degrees F with the 150W hps.

Plants look fantastic, I agree with bringing the temp down, I keep my grow room roughly 76-78 degrees. Jus food for thought :) And the shiskaberry, try trimming off the foilage that dosent look so good and it should fill out. Great set up tho, very nice

im new to this but whats lst?