First time closet grow

[EmoRebellion]

I finally have the funds in place to get the ball rolling on my closet grow. I am ready to start purchasing in about 2 weeks, I just need to nail down some final details.

My room is about 5' x 3' with an 8' ceiling and a shelf at about 5.5'. I plan to hang the light from the shelf, and use the top side for the inline fan, ballast, etc. I was originally looking at a digital ballast 400 watt hps system, but I think I have decided on the 600 watt just because of the low difference in price. I plan to order as much as possible from htgsupply just for simplicity.

For the fan, I was looking at the Tjernlund M-6. The manufacturer is claiming 530 CFM w/ 0" static pressure. Can I get by with one fan to cool the light and run the carbon scrubber? I would think so, because 500 CFM is alot of air to be moving. I dont want to put too much strain on the blower though..

In any case, here is my basic rundown of parts so far:

Digital 600watt grow light - $263 with hangers, timer, and euro reflector. High Tech Garden Supply

6" in-line duct fan - $120 New 6" Inch Inline Exhaust Cooling Duct Fan Vent Blower - eBay (item 280278994464 end time Jun-18-09 12:00:00 PDT)

Temp/Humidity Controller - $155. My plan was to use this to keep the fan running on an as-needed basis. Should I save the $150 and just let the fan run when the light is on? High Tech Garden Supply

Carbon Scrubber - $90. Can I use this with the in-line duct fan I am using to cool my light? High Tech Garden Supply

Mylar for the walls and white poly for the floor - about $55.

Electronic soil tester - $25

Digital thermometer/hygrometer - $15.

And of course the misc ducting, soil, nutes, and wiring.

All in all I hope to spend under $1000. Is there anything I am missing?

EmoRebellion Reviewed by EmoRebellion on 06-01-2009. First time closet grow I finally have the funds in place to get the ball rolling on my closet grow. I am ready to start purchasing in about 2 weeks, I just need to nail down some final details. My room is about 5' x 3' with an 8' ceiling and a shelf at about 5.5'. I plan to hang the light from the shelf, and use the top side for the inline fan, ballast, etc. I was originally looking at a digital ballast 400 watt hps system, but I think I have decided on the 600 watt just because of the low difference in price. I Rating: 5

[EmoRebellion]

Hm, since I cant edit my post, I guess I will just make another. From what I understand, one should ideally exchange the air in the closet/cab 3 times a minute. With my room size, this would require 270cfm without accounting for ducting or anything of that nature. My idea is to hook it up like this: carbon scrubber>----->euro reflector>----->inline fan>-----
>outside vent. I am pretty sure that will take care of the heat from the light, but will there be enough air excahge? Should I add an inlet and outlet vent?

What about air movement inside of the cab? I would ideally like to have some sort of oscilating fan to create "wind", but I dont see room for that.. Should I mount some sort of large fan above and in front of the plants?

[bigtopsfinn]

Hey Emo!

I think your list looks pretty good... I wanted to make a couple of comments.

First, I think you can skip out on the climate controller, mylar, and soil tester. Instead just run the fans when the light is on, use flat white paint, and with the money you save you can get a nice ph/ec/tds/ppm meter. That would come in handy for checking your water, and if you ever want to do a hydro project. Soil testers are also notorious for being inaccurate.

You might be able to get away with one fan. The way you described it is exactly how I had mine setup: cf, cooltube, then inline fan. The temps were a little hot, but my closet was very small for a 400w. Also my fan was only 129cfms.

And the oscillating fan is pretty important too. Maybe you can fit a couple of smaller fans, like 6 inch or so, up in the corners... like those clip-on fans.

[frostedwonder]

Hey Bigtopsfinn has great ideas and from the cooling setup he mentioned I was able to basically drop my heat issues and run one inline duct fan that cools the light and removes the heat and then utilizes the carbon filter. I spent about 1k on my setup give or take a few bucks and you will no doubt change things as you progress. I figured I wouldn't need to spend more money, but you begin down the road to want to spend not need, gotta love expensive hobbies.

Oh and I really dig the digital ballast by galaxy if you haven't bought one yet. I went with the 400w and mine was switchable mh/hps. And have you thought to just make a carbon scrubber?:thumbsup:

[EmoRebellion]

Thanks guys!

I will skip the climate controller for now, and will concentrate on just getting everything up and running. I think I found a cool little fan to create air movement in the room: Amazon.com: Honeywell HFT114B Oscillating Super-Turbo High-Performance 3-Speed Fan: Home Improvement. I should be able to mount this above and in front of the plants and set it to oscillate slowly. It looks like it should create a fair amount of air movement for a small unit.

I am having trouble imagining how all the ducting is going to hook up. Right now I see everything connected like this:

  Outside Vent
       /\
       |
       /\
       |
       /\
Inline duct fan
       /\
      /  \
     /    \
    /      \
   /        \
  /\        /\
Hood    Scrubber

In this situation, is the carbon scurbber going to do anything if the majority of the air is being pulled from around the lamp? It seems like at least 50% of the air being pulled from the room is going to stink up my attic (which may or may not be a problem)

Is it fair to assume a 50% loss in cfm when using a carbon scrubber? If so, I can expect to move about 250 cubic feet of air from the cab every minute. It seems like that should be enough air exchange, assuming I allow an inlet to push cool air in.

For soil I plan to start simple and go with foxfarm ocean forest, if I can find it locally. For nutes I will use to foxfarm 3-pack (tiger bloom, big bloom, and grow big). Is this a good way to start? I am looking to start simple for my first grow.

[bigtopsfinn]

Have you seen the formula in here--> http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-gr...-progress.html

That says 30% restriction for the carbon filter. You could have the duct run from outside the growroom to the cooltube, that way no stinky air gets blown out the exhaust. Or, I just put them all on the same line, with the cf being where the air goes in, the cooltube after it, and my fan was actually outside of my closet, pulling all the scrubbed air out the growroom. (I'd post attachments but they aren't working??)
You can see it here:
http://i363.photobucket.com/albums/o...w/Day36002.jpg
http://i363.photobucket.com/albums/o...w/Day36002.jpg

You might be able to see the earlier pics of how I set it up, fearing that the heat from the cooltube would be too much for the fan. In the end the fan could take the heat, and the closet was a few degrees cooler.

[EmoRebellion]

That makes sense for the cool tube, but I dont think it will work for the "euro" reflector.



It looks to me like you attach the vent to one side of the hood, and it pulls air from above the plants, over the light, and out the side (as opposed to directly across the lamp from the other side). Does anyone have any experience with this reflector?

[bigtopsfinn]

It does say in the description that there is tempered glass there. I think it's the same as a cooltube, just bigger :jointsmile:

"Air passes efficiently through both 6" flanged ends of the reflector directly over the lamp for maximum inline cooling eliminating excess heat. Of particular interest to growers using supplemental CO2. The reflector is a self-contained unit which includes built in 6" flanges and a tempered glass safety lens."

[EmoRebellion]

Oh, nice! I must have missed that. So I dont need to split up my air flow at all, I can just run a single length of duct:

   Outside
      /\
      |
      |
      |
      /\
  inline fan
      /\
      |
      |
      |
      /\
  reflector
      /\
      |
      |
      |
      /\
   filter

[EmoRebellion]

Hm, well I was reading through stinky's thread, and I noticed this little note:

Also avoid starting seedlings in pre-fertilized bagged grow media such as Fox Farms Ocean Forest. It has a lot of fertilizer in it and is better for later, when the plants are big and strong.

I plan on starting with clones that are approx 3-5" tall, and dropping them directly into the 3-gallon buckets. I was hoping to avoid having to transplant them at all. Maybe she wants to grace this thread with her presence.. :rastasmoke: