Hello all, I am relatively new to the forums, but wanted to give a little background, and then get thoughts from those with more experience. I am 44 year old and live in the Midwest, unfortunately we live in a non legal state. I battIe depression and insomnia. I am not a heavy smoker, mainly just at night since meds don't work. My sources have dried up and I also am frustrated when I get strains that exacerbate the condition. So I have decided on a stealth grow. I also have three kids, 15, 13, and 11. The youngest two are boys. The reason I have included that is that they are indoctrinated by the DARE program, and while there are many fallacies I am okay with it as I believe in the medicinal uses and not so much at least for me in recreational use. I am not here to debate my beliefs but just get help with my grow. While I am not broke, expenses are limited. I resigned my position due to my overwhelming depression, and start a new one but @ a 40% pay cut. Reading different grow journals, especially Psychedelic Sam's, has inspired me to begin this new journey of growing. I have tried a few times in past and got to the seedling stage but got nervous and gave up. That was before there were places like GC. As mentioned above I need to keep it stealth, and looking around at old PC's I had decided not to go that route as they are all small towers. Our room is in the basement and the kids and my mother who we take care of live on the main floor. Looking through my stuff I realized I think I have a viable solution. We have a 29 gallon fish tank and it sits on handmade enclosed wood stand. Now I need advice the base is 30"H x 30"W x 12"D. It is a 2x4 frame. I will include pictures at the end of this post. 1. I know Mylar works best, but I also know white paint works too. I am concerned about the 2x4 frame creating shadows. I am a bit of a perfectionist so everything worries me. Which way would be the best. 2. My plan is too take fans out of the old CPU's and have two at the bottom rear of the cabinet, and then one at top as exhaust. Going to hardware all three together. Will use a handmade carbon fibre filter made out of PVC. Will this be enough? 3. Currently there is no top I will be putting a thin top and build a ballast with the lights. My plans is to us 4 CFL 2 in the 2700k and 2 in 6500. What size wattage for each? 4. I will be ordering feminized auto flowering Nirvana Northern Lights. Mainly since it is my first grow and from my research it fits what I need medicinally. How many plants should I grow in the space I am trying to grow? I know they are smaller plants, would I need to Scrog them? 5. On the lighting I am thinking I build the permanent ballast and just raise the plants on something. Thoughts? 6. I have seen where people put the soft side of Velcro around the door to prevent light leaks. The aquarium on top will cover the noise, and help with warmth too I think? I will set the aquarium lights on the same timer, so the light from the fans on the back will be on same as cfl's inside. And the bubbling of the aquarium pump will cover the sound. 7. Last question for now at least. Currently there is no bottom in the grow box, other than the 2 x 4s should I put a bottom so I don't lose heat against the concrete ground? Again I am looking for input on all subjects. Does anyone see any major problems with my plan with the aquarium on top? Once the grow box is done and I have ordered my seeds, I will start a grow journal. And the reason I am ordering instead of using bag seed is that I am looking for plants that specifically meet my medicinal seeds. I go through about a half ounce a month so I can continue to grow as I harvest the first plants. Thanks in advance for the help and here are the pictures.
This is the setup with the aquarium on top. It wont let me upload it since it was already a pic on another thread. Here is the link. http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1166306-but-what-do-i-know-5.html
Ahh I see it now Should work= But key word being Good Ventilation, you need to be able to hold mid 70's-80 in the box you could always just use black weather stripping around the door frame it will squish down and seal out the light, also most of it comes in rolls of self adhering tape type weather seal, The autos will stay pretty small so no height problem ,hopefully. Looks like a plan man.
If you use a photo sharing site like PhotoBucket or Tumblr or others, you can then load the same picture as many time as you want by inserting the image link. Much easier than the attachments and you can get whichever size picture you want to load instead of thumbnails. Now, about your grow box. It sounds like you've got it pretty well thought out. First, put a bottom on it to keep out the pests and caulk it and line it with a bathtub mat or something that won't absorb any water that spills, and you will get spills. For the mylar, I use white kitchen trashcan liners, 13 gallon size. Works really well. As for the size, I measured my plants. I have 2 plants that were topped once after the third set of true leaves. 1 developed 2 branches and the other 4. My tallest bud is 31" tall. The 2 together take up 24" deep and wide. I expect now to harvest about an ounce, maybe more. One bud is almost a foot long. I think in order to use that space, you'll have to top it a couple of times and train the branches. I don't know if you could get more than one plant since it will take all your space once it grows. The 12" depth is a disadvantage but not insurmountable. So, are you going to have a working aquarium?
You may want to arrange a small cfl, 26W, on each side of your cabinet in order to provide light for the lower branches and increase growth in your lower levels, both veg and flower. I started using one when the veg started to show solid growth and it has made a huge difference in my plants. After I started to flower I interchanged the cfl with a low watt halogen and switched off. The halogens were always above but I would put the cfl lower to develop those popcorn buds. Now those popcorn buds are part of 8-12 inch colas instead of a separate immature bud. I suggest a spiral instead of a tube for the sides because it can give a more intense light and then you can place it to keep pace with the growth. I bought these sockets at Home Depot for about $2.50. The top has a hook and it unscrews to expose a pin contact that penetrates the insulation to make the connection. The wires run through the channels and when the top is screwed on you can hang them where you want. You can add as many as you want to the line as long as the circuit can handle the load. We used to use them in new construction before fixtures were installed and just made them as long as needed. And the cfl is only 26W, very little energy and heat but big benefit. When you've got such a small grow, you have to take advantage of everything you can to get as big a yield as possible.
Yeah, gonna have it running, once I get it done ill post a pic. If this works out I have a much larger tank that is a lot deeper, but don't have the stand for. I don't want to spend the money to build one right now, especially since I am a total noob. Thanks for the input. I am excited and reading about everyone else's grows. I am going with the Northern lights auto flower because I have read that they are easy to grow, and they don't get to tall. This is just from reading so I guess I'll find out.
Good Morning, Old Man. Someone visited my grow thread and he is using a custom (homemade) cabinet similar to yours and I thought maybe you could use some of the ideas. Its by Tragidy, http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1161848-white-widow-auto-cfl-custom-cabinet.html
Thanks guys. On a side note I came across a 100w and a 40w 6500 spectrum bulbs in some old photography equipment downstairs. That ought to save me a bit of money. I always have bright ideas and never follow through for some reason or other. That is part of the reason I am going to document a grow journal, so I will have a reason besides the bud, to follow through. It is a good thing my wife is a pack rat.
Those will be great, especially when flowering. I bought some natural daylight cfl's at WalMart that are 5700K which is better for flowering than the halogens or the soft white, so I'm going to add them. Also, aquarium lites have a broad spectrum and acts like LEDs. I found a grow journal where someone uses those and gets great results. Sticks them in his t8 or t-something. I'll have that link over on my grow thread a little later if you want to check it out. I have just redesigned my space with little additional expense but greatly increased efficiency. If I ever get time to do it.
Wouldn't you want to go with the 2700k soft white for flowering since its a different light spectrum?
I thought it was the other way around. 2700K is in the red spectrum and 6500 is blue and blue was needed but I guess I'm wrong. I just searched and found that you are right basically but that blue can be used in up to 1/3 of the light. It is supposed to increase resin/trichome production, but not yield. I occasionally will use low wattage halogens in my budding stage and it is multi-spectrum with some of both and whenever I use them I see an amazing difference in my buds as far as the sugar and coloring. I put them in this morning again for the day and I can watch my trics pop out almost. So I guess a little blue doesn't hurt.
Going with the auto-flowering I read you can use a mix and leave them on a 20/4 cycle. I am going to get 2 23 watt on the 2700 spectrum and run it with all 4. It is supposed to work, but we shall see. You have shown anything is possible, and I have read about grows where people did everything right and failed.