Hey all, after doing lots of reading I decided to start my own grow. I'm on a tight budget and for my own comfort/safety I went with something stealth that I can hide away in my closet. Growbox: I bought 2 30gal tubs from Wal-mart and a smaller tub for the power supply and fans from Lowes. I used 3 black spray cans to paint the insides of the 2 larger tubs, then painted over that with 2 flat white spray cans. However, this wasn't enough to keep my growbox from being a glowbox, so I went out and purchased an emergency blanket from Wal-mart. I ended up having to use 2 layers of the emergency blanket in order to keep all of the light inside. Oh and btw, this emergency blanket is a reaaaaal pain in the ass to work with and impossible to keep wrinkle free on the insides of the uneven/curved tubs. Needless to say, I got the damn thing lined with lots of wrinkles and duct tape. To keep cost at a minimum, I'm using old PC fans and a PC Power supply that I have lying around to vent this thing. I modified the power supply to turn on when plugged in and I removed the extra wires that I won't be using. Lighting: I'll be using 6 23w 6500k CFL's for veg and 6 23w GE Reveal CFL's for flower. I don't have a picture of the inside of the lightbox that I made out of cardboard and emergency blanket, but basically I have power strips mounted on the side with the bulbs attached to a Y splitter. I started with just 1 80mm PC fan that I had lying around for the top of the lightbox, but the temperature was hanging around 82 so I cut out 2 more holes for 2 more 80mm fans. One of the wires on my 3rd fan came off so I'll have to solder that wire back on when I go to work where I have access to a soldering iron. Ventilation: I have 2 120mm 63CFM fans attached to 2 homemade carbon scrubbers venting from the large tubs into the smaller tub on top. Inside the smaller tub I have 3 120mm (I think they're around 50CFM) exhausting air. Seeds/soil: I bought 2 feminized seeds from Attitude (White Widow and Northern Lights) and they sent me 1 free feminized Green House - The Church seed which is what I'll be growing first. Unfortunately due to my budget, I will be starting out with Miracle Grow Organic Potting Soil. When I transplant, I will be using either Fox Farms Ocean Forest or Sunshine #4. Originally I was gonna go with FFOF, but recently sparked an interest in Sunshine #4. I'll look into that more later. I'll add more pictures of the box later.
Seed sprouted after 5 days of germination via paper towel method. Planted into a plastic party cup with MG Organic Potting Soil. Placed the cup under 1 23w CFL until it broke the surface of the soil. I added 1 more 23w CFL until the first set of true leaves appeared and she is now under 4 23w CFL's. I'll add the other 2 bulbs in about a week. Here's what she looks like. Sorry for the blur, using a camera phone.
this is a really cool setup. I myself have a similar set up but with just 1 box. I'm definitely interested in some more details if you don't mind sharing. any way you could post more pics of the insides of the box and some more info on the carbon scrubber? any help would be appreciated!
I used the carbon scrubber design by Bohbo. Link is here http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yours...ter-sleek-easy-clean-15-each.html#post7034882 I have a little bit of a light leak between the 2 bigger tubs that I still need to fix. I have a passive intake that I made out of cardboard and the emergency blanket that you can see in the picture. On the outside of the passive intake I taped a piece of panty hose to use as a filter for the intake. As for the pictures:
Update: A few days ago I was being clumsy and knocked over the cup which was sitting on top of a 1 gallon pot. Nothing spilled, plant seemed OK. I did notice about 2 days ago that there was a "break" in the main stem. It looks more like a bend and it kinda lops over. I can get it to stand up on its own. It definitely stunted growth, but the leaves are still green so I'm assuming it's going to turn out OK.