hi, guys. I've been really thinking about this lately, and I've decided to go for it. it's not going to break the bank so, I really might as well lol so I bought a 45 gallon tote from walmart. Now, I've seen various tote grows, but none that have utilized the tote in this way. Most I have seen are stacked totes, but what I am doing is turning this tote on a side so it stands upright, and modifying it to be like a small grow tent. the tote I have in particular, is 36.5"L x 21"W x 19.5"H. I am wanting to grow only 1 plant using the Scrog method. I have technically had 2 fully successful grows. the last one I yielded around 20 grams total out of 3 plants using only cfls. Would have been more, but had some room difficulties. this tote, hopefully, will remedy any issues of that lol. I currently have a little over 300 watts (real) in my cfls, but I was thinking it may be easier to just buy a 150 hps and deal with that, instead of a bunch of small bulbs. I do have a fan set up. it is a 120 mm 75cfm computer fan. super quiet, but will it be enough to keep the tote cool? i'm looking for any kind of suggestions or constructive criticism. I am still deciding on what strain I want to try in it, but leaning towards Nirvana's Northern Lights because it has been said to be fairly neutral in smell.
Cool idea. I was thinking of doing one like this, except I will have two totes stacked for more grow space. I think you should put at least another fan in, maybe 2 more. Depends if you're sticking with CFL or doing that HPS. HPS will get really hot though, so I dont know if you will be able to pull it off.
Hey man, I have a 150w HPS in a 3'X1.5'X7' closet, I had to make a diy cool tube to keep the temps at around (higher than I would like) 82/85F. In that tote IMHO you would need a cool tube atleast with about 200cmh extraction. I might be out on fan size but you would need a cooltube or have temps of 100F I would say. Good luck man and keep us posted.
Yea I agree. You are going to need at least one more fan for CFLs and probably more for hps. Its just gonna get too hot. I would suggest putting your most powerful fan up high on the tote so that it removes all the hot air that rises.
thanks guys. i'm definitely looking into at least another fan that will be a stronger than the one I have now, and was going to put it directly on top of the tote. the one I have currently is only a 75 cfm fan at 120 mm. what cfm do you recommend?
I would suggest aborting your plans for HID lighting UNLESS you want to use LED's OR a cool tube as stated I think.
i have pretty much aborted the hope of getting any kind of HID in there. just simply not enough room even with a screen in there to keep my plant low. so I am now trying to come up with a way to make an effective, and clean looking cfl fixture. I have plenty of cfls at the moment, though most are the 23 watt lights. both in 2700k and 6500k. I have something around like 450 real watts, but I know i'm not going to be able to really use all of them. again, i'd like to thank you all for any contribution to the thread.
well I plan on standing my tote up like yours. in the pic it's on its side because it is unfinished lol
Ive been really brainstorming on how to do my cfl fixture...it has proved to be the biggest stumper so far lol i was actually thinking about just using the individual lamps i have with some y splitters. I want to cut like 1.5 inch squares in the top for he cords to go out, but have like 6 squares for the individual cords to go out so they dont get so tangled. Edit: I was really stoned when I wrote this lol, but still not positive about how to hang my cfls.
so I think I am going to use a few of those extension cord brick things and zip tie two together, back to back, for my light fixture. I think i'm going to use 4 total which should give me 12 lights. I already have quite a few of the light adapters that allow you to just plug the light into an outlet. those bricks have enough room for 3 lights each so yeah that should give me 12 lights. at the very least that'll give me 276 watts to mess with, but I plan on picking up some more 42 watt lights so that may go up a bit. i'm not quite sure how big the gap between my planter and my screen should be though. should I just veg my plant out until it's about 8-10 inches then put it in the screen and veg a little longer to fill it up a little bit, and then flower? I've read that some people do that or they start flower as soon as the plant reaches the screen.
So i have pics of my lights and stuff. I have two bagseeds germing just gonna run one to test the tote out. I connected 3 y connectors to make one 4 bulb lamp for a total of 95 watts. 3 bulbs are 5000k and one is 3000k. I also have a 17 watt tube light that is 7200k that is running. Tempts seem to be ok. I dont have a thermometer in there right now, but it is comfortable for me to put my hand under the light until i am actually touching it lol ill post my pics when i can.
Lol a lot of things would be better, but im still pretty impressed by it. Running a test run with some bag seed to work on my general growing skills and cloning. I do plan on upgrading from this and from cfls in due time. Im pumped about all of it lol
Finally got a decent thermometer. My tote got up to 102 f with two 23w cfls on. It was like 90 in the room already though...thats with the lights down near the bottom of the tote. It stayed at about 90 when i raised the lights beside my fan. The past few days have been a little cooler outside, so it has stabilized at about 83. When i only use my 18inch t8 (i think its a t8) it is only about 80. The light is 17 watts at 7200k. Works pretty awesome on seedlings. So i guess im going to get a fan to put in a bottom corner of my tote to see how that helps. If its not enough i guess i gotta get a better fan to mount on the side to replace the one i already have. The one i have is 72 cfm btw. Any other suggestions?
Lol I'm glad it's been fairly cool compared to what it was here in ohio. The room that my tote is in doesn't have any air conditioning or any fans in it either so that doesn't help lol