i'm starting to work on planning out my grow room and know i'll be needing some carbon scrubbing for a couple of strains with some indica in them. i also have an ion generator tower that doesn't work anywhere near as well as reported back in the 80s when that was the odor control method of choice. even on full blast, you can still smell skunkier stuff, but just get a nasty metallic odor on top of it. as i'm not really growing for flavor, i thought i'd try that route for simplicy & cost. noise is a major issue with my grow and i don't want any loud whooshing fans. when i started a closet grow once a while back with just a tiny 10" box fan on low, the fucking assholes that used to live next door knew what was going on and used to slam their fucking closet doors every time i watered my plants or turn their fucking bathroom fan on & leave it howling all day while they were at work etc. i don't want to alert the replacement neighbors to my activities as they have nosy begging to be beat to death with a heavy blunt (again... no pun intended) object tendencies already too.. i also don't have an insane $200 for a box fan & motor controller. i'd like to use 4 small PC fans in DIY scrubbers in each corner of my spare room and remembering something i skimmed over a few years ago, recalled the idea of using as little as 6 volts for at least SOME PC fans to make them run at slower & quieter speeds. i worry about trying this with cheap wallwarts though because one of the grow supplies catalogues i have made a big stink (no pun intended) about using motor controllers on anything but their crazy expensive squirrel cage fans and to not use them on the still way fucking overpriced propeller style ones built like oversized PC fans. can i run a 12v PC fan with a 6v wall wart power supply without the universe imploding on itself? if not, does anyone know of an AFFORDABLE way to move air through a carbon scrubber without howling like a 747 engine? if i had the tools and some knowledge about low RPM high torque electric motors & where to get offset gears for them, i'd almost be inclined to make a coal furnace style air bellows to quietly pump air. as it stands, i'm already planning on suspending each scrubber on bungee chords to dampen direct vibrations.
I just purchased a 4-inch 170 CFM centrifugal CAN fan from dchydro.com for a good price. It is very quiet. I also got a fan speed controller, so I can make it quieter still. dchydro.com does not appear to have that fan in stock today. Their prices are rock bottom. but their inventory is very volatile. It's one of those kind of places. I also got a GrowBright Pure Flow 4 Jr. Carbon Filter. Not too expensive, but that is an east coast vendor. Shipping to your location may not be a good deal. You are right, though, it does add up, but I have seen people have problems getting pc fans to pull air through carbon filters, and that's the sort of thing you normally see in a small grow cabinet, anyway.
that's why i had planned to used 4x carbon scrubbers in each corner... 4x low flow = better flow if not optimal. i'm not liking the typical "tube design" filters, they seem like an overly complicated & messy way to make a filter when if you simply make a frame with a screen on the bottom, some of that cottonlike water heater filter with charcoal pellets resting on top of that, you have a nice simple system that's as easy as dumping used carbon out and pouring new stuff in as needed. you can make your filter as big as you want for both better air flow and also more surface area for the carbon. i just do not like the look of chicken wire scrubbers one bit. too complicated & too messy. i'll take a look at that site. there used to be a sticky here i think with a big list of shops that have the best deals on gear. i even found a few good bargains myself back when i 1st bought my grow light and was designing my 1st real indoor setup. it makes sense that a place that has killer deals also has spotty stock. he's just scooping up leftovers here and there as well as saving the rest of us a lot of time trying to find the same stuff. thanks for the heads up. one of the other reasons i wanted to go with PC fans is that i have an annoying fucking store credit that will expire in a couple of months i need to find use for and PC fans are about all they have that i want or need and i hate pissing money away for nothing. that shop's prices on grow lights doesn't look spectacular either. i think i paid something like $220 for my 430 watt ballast, bulb AND 6" reflector. i need to find the catalogue from where i bought it as i'd like to get a matching system in sodium. i tell you, those reflectors & bulbs are way heavier than they look. i really think i'm going to spring for those tensioning strings you can just pull your lights up & down with. resetting chains is a pain in the ass, literally if your light swings down and hits you. found it! my trusty discount hydro catalogue. they at least used to have really great prices and in particular cheaper shipping as they're near by. shipping can be a real deal breaker on an otherwise good bargain.
Their prices are pretty good, though. $15 for a GE 600 watt HPS bulb. $65 for a 6-inch cool tube. The fan and HPS ballast I purchased were cheaper there than anywhere else, perhaps with the exception of ebay. The dchydro.com web site looks horrible, but these guys don't put on airs; they move product. I think I selected "gypsy caravan" as the shipping option and my stuff arrived three days later. Actually, the ballast manufacturer has an ebay storefront and their price was higher. But as you say, shipping charges often dictate the outcome and dchydro.com, otherwise known as Maryland Hydroponics, is located in the home state of Spiro T. Agnew, 39th Vice President of the United States, which is in my neck of the woods, not yours.
i just checked, i have a 400 watt lumatek driving a halide in a lumencool 6 reflector, but have seen a few bad reviews for their 600w units and think i'll get a nextgen ballast with the sodium i want. if my sativas are going to be light hungry, then get more fucking lights! i'm also happy to see that light movers aren't as expensive as the insane shop i last saw them in that wanted $550 for a light rail! you gotta be out of your fucking mind! it's looking like the plan will be to get a 6 foot light rail to start moving my halide and then when i get into flowering, add a 400w sodium. i already have some of that aluminized mylar bubble wrap insulation and am planning to build a cardboard frame for it to mount over my window. i had to use something like 200 or more thumb tacks to hold it up last time i used it because the shit doesn't like to bend and will rip off your wall if you try to just tape it. i'll make a cardboard frame that i can force the mylar to conform to by wrapping the tape around the back side as opposed to flush to a wall. then, i'll just prop it up with some wooden supports and tape it to the wall. it will be a lot easier to tear down if needed that way too. from the outside, it will just look like any other window to both the eye in the sky and anyone trying to peep in. i like the idea of running lights at night to keep nosy utilities guys etc. from watching my meters spin in the daytime. once light proofed, a grow room is pitch black in the daytime. now to get back to carbon scrubbers, soil & SCROG nets
if you haven't grown sativas yet, i bet everyone you smoke out will go nuts when they experience the buzz that they can't get anywhere else. heck, even here, i haven't come across any real sativas yet, but have toked a few strains better than skunk #1 which is at least tolerable. i'm not excited about all the money i'm going to have to spend on top of all the seeds i'm getting, but i really want to do this right so i don't want to skimp on lighting with so many plants. i just did a test on the last of the bagseed i have and a couple beans popped. i'll grow that out too, but am sure i'll hate it, but bet it's potent. even in semi brick schwag form, that shit was more stony than a lot of indoor bud i've smoked. i wouldn't be surprised if it's extra skunky & sticky when treated right. THAT will be my garden's "afghani".
Reflectix? I love that stuff. I made some neat little reflectors for my CFLs with Reflectix, some solid wire and duct tape. Stoner arts and crafts. I haven't, but I'm about to give it a try. That would be nice. We'll have to see how it goes. The grow is the thing. You could just go with the one 400 and start with a couple of plants. That Cali Hash Plant for one. A short veg, a quick flower. Dried buds in 80 days. If you already have the beans, you can do that right now without spending any more money at all. Buy some decent weed instead. Growing is more fun when your stoned. Actually, I don't know that for sure. I haven't tried it any other way.
that's just it, i CAN'T buy decent weed, at least not from anyone i know. i can only stumble across it but never acquire it seems. a couple years ago i ran into some hazey shit i think that actually did have some trippiness going on. i took too big a bonghit (can't stand carbs!) and got the dizzies and puked a little and had to leave because i just couldn't take anymore of one of the 3 new acquaintances just had to keep playing guitar hero and as a guest i couldn't say "would you mind turning that annoying fucking heavy metal shit off?!" and didn't like the idea of leaving an expensive bike outside his door unlocked. when i went back a couple days later to ask the other dude (roomate?) whose apartment it was if i could buy some bud or hook up with his dealer i got the gas face. as to reporting, i don't think i'll be here long enough. a couple trolls just double teamed me about my contempt for indicas, just like at overgrow, and i pretty much know how that's gonna end. you'll see pokernaut on your radar one second, then *blip*... buh bye. i am just not one who has any ability to keep his mouth shut when people start talking trash to me or try to bully me. when i was living in the hood dealing with instigating assholes daily, i used to wish one of them had the courage to finish what they started so i could leave this world taking one or two assholes with me. i don't start shit, but when it hits the fan, i play all or nothing style. i don't really want to do a journal as i've said in another thread because all of those other journals that talk about nutes, pH levels, & temps & that are all about taking a bunch of pics that are a nightmare to anyone on dialup (been there, done that) without ever delivering an actual smoke report (known as a "happy ending" in the "massage" trade LOL) just annoy the shit out of me so my refusal to do a journal is a form of protest to make all of my former teasers know what it's like to be taunted. my goal is (was?) to just get down to smoke reporting and maybe some bud shots at the end of the grow with direct comparisons. my peeps are the smoke report believers. (and FEW true sativa lovers). if i end up getting banned here (i swear i can smell it coming!) i'll probably pop up at ICmag until i get banned there too for telling it like it is to one (or 2 butt buddy) indica lovers and/or dealers that don't want to hear it. it's all good. getting banned here won't stop me from trying to grow bud again or at least using seedbanks as my leaf trim "dealer". LOL i'd kind of rather waste money on a pack of beans i destroy as soon as leaves appear for a superior up buzz for a while than waste the same money on indicrap. being pokernaut means maybe 1 thing in life... you're going to piss almost everyone you meet off and the feeling is mutual. LOL