Well a lot of money later I went out and bought my setup... I put it in a cabinet I had and set everything up.. Right now I'm trying to get better venting to bring the temps down so I don't have to leave a door open... So far the sliding mirrors work good as ducting as you can see in the pictures.. I'm using a 400hps btw The pictures are pretty much self explanatory What do you guys think? Also I will be growing 2 White rhino plants and 2 bubblegum
How's your heat treating you? I've always made it a practice to store my chemicals away from heat sources... but that's my choice. The next grower might not think it makes any difference. One more thing to watch is over heating your ballast... if you have it in an inclosed area it can cause it to burn out a lot faster. (Just something to be cautious of).
The heat was a little warm but I made some modifications to the venting and it seems to have helped.... I also moved the ballast outside of the enclosure which helped (as recommended).. I also moved the chemicals to somewhere cool... rather be safe.. Now my rock wool is soaking and I have 2 seeds that have a little root sticking out (after about 12 hours)
That is a nice piece of furniture...almost a shame that it got converted...mighty nice conversion though.
Ya after I was finished I kinda thought to myself I wish I got a different cabinet.. However I don't have room for another cabinet and I have had this one for years and have never used it.. Anyways I was still having some heat problems and had no money left for this project.. I started looking around my apartment and remembered this fan that I had... I disassembled the fan and added it to the enclosure.. I also relocated the other fan, made some ducts from folders, and other small changes How does it look? (use I like being resourceful)
Wow, too bad. I saw someone with that same cabinet on Antiques Road Show, the appraiser said it was worth $38,000. Just kidding. Set-up looks good. You should make a way to lower that light closer to the plants, chains and eyehooks would do the trick. And get rid of that foil, mylar or even plain flat bright white paint reflects more light.
Ya I know about the mylar.. I plan to get some mylar when I have extra money and figured foil was better than nothing at the moment.. I will also lower the light some.
Keep the light well off when the plants are just seedlings and lower a couple of inches each day or two until they are getting full strength at about two weeks.
Do I need to do anything for lighting until then? Also I have a little bit of a green leaf sticking out of one of the rockwools (barely and not noticeable in the pic) with the light where it is at.. I'm thinking I will just leave the light on and where it is at until all plants appear above the surface than move the light closer and continue with the light being on.. Is that ok to do?
What is the distance now from the light to the top of your pots? Appears in the pics to be about 3 feet, that's OK for a 400w, I'd probably start a little closer if possible, not closer than 2 feet.
Awesome thanks for the info.... I made it so it has like a quick change at 2 feet.. so I can move it from 2-3 feet with ease.. I also removed the tin foil and the temps dropped to ambient, before they where slightly above ambient. I plan to get some mylar soon.
a 400 watt hps is "ambient" temp? Are you sure your temps arent like 80-85. I know with my setup i have alittle bigger room with a 400 watt hps and it gets hot.