cool. yeh it reduces efficiency if you match both the cfm of the fan and filter exactly...as long as your go a little over the cfm with the filter you get better flow = less restriction. Overkill is under rated! lol Are you planning on sucking through the filter? It works better that way...and make sure to have the white filter sock in place when you run it....always. A white prefilter 'sock' comes with each filter. You'd be surprised how much dust is in the air. Without that prefilter in place the dust goes into the carbon and will ruin it. I change my oversized filter about once a year in my big grow, and clean the sock every few months. IME filters last 6 months to a year..
If you mean sucking instead of forcing it through then yes.( I believe lol). I will have the filter above the lights with the fan attached to that which is for on air out through the exhaust...all coming though the filter to start off...opposed to having the filter at the end of that sequence outside of the grow box.
Now that I have exhaust and filter figured. What would the rest of the goods I will need? Ph tester, thermometer with humidity (digital). I was thinking #2 smart pot (the cloth ones) FFOF if I can find locally. How much should I be spending on ph and thermometer for room?
hmm.. probably a powerstrip/surge protector, timer. ...were you gonna get some pc fans for circulation with a molex adapter? I think you might not need em since you'll have good airflow with the S&P. They could still be helpful though. I actually just ordered a few cheapo ph meters off ebay for like $9 each. search digital ph meter..I use the yellow ones. $8 from china, about $9 from the U.S. They've worked well for me. Just take care of them and keep them calibrated with 7.0 ph solution. I use these little digital temp/humidity gauges from walmart..they're like $7. I also like the remote sensor ones if you can find one with a humidity gauge for around 15-20. Those small humidity gauges work great for curing weed too until you get the hang of it. smart pots are nice...might need to figure a drain tray too. I'm not too good with soil nutes and stuff btw.... lol
I may just get a 4" desk fan cheap for circulation. Any standard timer work for the lights? I will buy a drain tray as well to keep things tidy in there.
..make sure it says cfl ready or something to that effect if it's digital. I got an inwall timer once that didn't work with cfls once. I think most timers are all cfl ready now. I personally prefer digital timers, cuz if the power goes out for an hour, your lights stay on the same schedule...with a manual one(little clicky tabs) your plants will fall behind an hour. not a huge deal though...digitals are definitely harder to program.
Bongsauce, I found a timer! Cfl compatible too. Today I will be cutting the intake and exhaust holes. I will be going with 4" ducting for exhaust to hook up to a s&p td100x inline. For the passive intake, I've read 2-3 times the size of the exhaust? So, would two 3" intakes suffice or should I do two 4" intakes. I will be making PVC light traps for each intake hole. I decide to also go the route of hempy bucket with perlite and verm for my medium for ease of use for first grow.
damn somehow I missed this post sorry man. What's new? definitely go with the 2 x 4" for intake..there's a big surface area difference between a 3" hole and a 4"
Nice! Haha no worries, I miss stuff all the time too. I needed some help with the wiring. I've read to go 14-2 wire or bigger for the lights. I was thinking of going with 6 sockets with y adapters making 12 bulbs (312 watts total). Is this too much for this wire/plug combo? Was going to buy the plug and wire and also buy wire nuts to fit this wire. I was also going to screw these to a plywood panel and cut holes in the wood to wire the sockets (above the plywood board will be the wires). Buy wiring this way I just will have to wire nut all wires above. Ill draw a diagram shortly and let me know if it will be wired correctly.
14-2 wire should be plenty...14 gauge can handle over 1100 watts continuous load. k, I'll check it out.
The two wire nuts will have 4 wires running into each one. One socket will have two wires running into it. All will be done with 14-2 wire and will be on the timer. Is this wired correctly? And what size wire nuts should I use or does it matter?
yep dude that looks right. I'm no electrician!...but that's about how I did mine. On hte wirenuts...all I know is you'll need some big ones to fit 4 strands of 14 in it. Check the packages for info maybe. I'd guess they need to be like the size of the end of your thumb...since you only need a few you could grab a variety pack...also you can always re-configure it to use 3 wires in a single nut if that ends up being easier. An alternative to the wirenuts is a small busbar or wiring block..actually a pair of them. I think they can be found for just a couple bucks at homedepot or lowes. anything 15amp or greater would be fine.
I found the wire nuts and got this light mount all figured out now. Just waiting on more funds to get this up and going now. I decided to go hempy and gh flora series nutes. Seems the most foolproof for my first indoor grow. I also bought my PVC pipe for the light trap...those 4" are huge! I'll have to get them put on the back as inside takes up too much space. I'll try and get pics up shortly.
Bongsauce, been a while. So I cut the intake holes but unfortunately they are a bit too large for the PVC pipe. Any ideas on how I could secure the two PVC light traps to the box? I was thinking shimming them in place with Popsicle sticks then using gorilla glue to hold them in place. Or any other ideas? Found my camera, pics of progress will be up today
lol gorilla glue, I love that stuff. Gorilla glue should work well..like you said just shim it or w/e...I sometimes use a few pieces of tape to hold something in place while the glue dries....then just remove the tape when it's dry. I also like to check back on the glue in like and hour and squoosh down all the swollen areas to get a tighter seal.
As promised, a few pics of progress so far...I wil try the gorilla glue and then post pics when intakes are installed.
So my little dilemma. I have the one intake installed (shimmed into place and gorilla glued to hold). I have about a 1/4" gap around the intake that is open still. I'm deciding should I gorilla glue a seal around or just use caulking now that the intake is held solidly. Either way, I will be painting over the caulk to ensure no light leaks.
Bongsauce...been a while man!! Quick question for you...what size of box do you keep your mothers in and and watts etc...I plan on doing bonsai mums and would like to keep them under cfl to limit growth and keep it low key still...enough to keep my flowering needs filled
What's up homie!? I keep my mothers and clones in my dual speaker box thing. It has 2 x 36 w cfls. Grow areas are about 8"dx 18"w x 10"h . I used to keep 4 mothers under a single 24w cfl thoguh too...they don't need much light at all as long as you keep close and keep em short. Here's a recent pic/post in my thread of how it looks and stuff.
Thanks bro!! I was looking at 1.5'x1.5'x1.5' to keep two mothers (thc bomb and northern light blue) and to get clones rooted in. One level, small box. Maybe 50-100 watts of cfl? Would that be feasable with a setup like that? Possible do sog style putting a clone in every week or two for ample supply? Solid clone box too btw!!!