Indoor Advice wanted on my 'to be' CFL CAB grow

Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11
Reputation
0
Reaction score
11
Points
0
Hi Ladies and Gents,
Must admit, seems hard to find a place to start. Forums like this one are absolutely fantastic don't get me wrong, but the amount of information out there is overwhelming and has downright scrambled my already clouded mind!
This isn't exactly my first grow, grew some bag seeds at my last apartment where a 5'h x 3' w x 3'd tent was appropriate. Love growing all sorts of plants, and love smoking, so seemed rather silly to not start up an indoor grow. With the basic nutes I had from Bunnings (im based in Australia), which there seems to be no blooming options, I managed to grew 3 sickly sativas which yielded me a surprising 5oz in total. Such a great feeling to smoke some of your homegrown!! Ive been hooked ever since!! Yet it hasn't quite materialised yet since I moved apartment.
Unfortunately, I am a little on the paranoid side, and having a grow tent in my study just doesn't seem like an option, theres no way im taking it up and down everytime I have a house visit from the estate agents. Luckily for me, im rather crafty, in the creative sense :) and love building things. So I set to work on building myself a grow cabinet which would blend into my study furniture (to a degree). After doing plenty of research, scrog seemed like the best route for me, so I built my cabinet to the dimensions of 40" w x 24"d x 42" h hoping to be able to grow two plants.

With regard to my gear....
CFL Lights 130 watt... 2 x 6400k + 14000k for veg
2 x dual spectrum + 24000k for flower
plus two led panels I got with the lamps

Soil grow with CANNA BIO nutes

Ventilation 2 x 120mm Sunon and two small desktop fans

3 packs of NL auto fems on their way.... 00 seeds, Vision seeds, Royal queen.

Ive been running the whole system with a couple of small plants from bag seeds to see what temps it would be running at and wow, its hot, pushing over 86F. Turning off one of the lamps brings it down to between 77-82 which is great. Only thing is we're about to go into summer here in Sydney, and its only gonna get hotter.... much hotter, and I would love to be able to use all three lamps.
I played around with the fan setup so many times. As I said before, stealth is of importance to me, and even though these are only 'computer' fans, dang they make some noise. Would not be happy if my pc sounded half as loud as these guys. Originally had one as an intake working half speed and the other as output. Only problem was light, poured out into the room lighting it up all night long (as I run my lights during the night and off during the day to try and keep it as cool as possible). Also figured out that mounting them directly to the wall of the cabinet made some incredible vibrational noise. So cut the holes a little bigger and suspended the fans with the ducting running loose through the whole with a bit of tape to seal her up. Seemed to help.
Did some more reading, and saw some interesting ways to dampen the sound of your fans. Building double insualted external housing looked like a good idea (as I still have my 4' inline fan from the tent setup and would love to use it as it really MOVES air), so I built one, but jesus... the inline fan sounds like a flippin helicopter landed in my study.
So I put one of the sunon fans in the boxing and one in the cab both working to pull air out on the same length of ducting (hope that makes sense). Its still noisy though, and anyone coming into the room is immediately drawn to the noise without hesitation. Seen fan silencers (foamed ducting) which looks like my next best bet. Just more money to spend :(

I guess that's my major concern... heat coupled with noise from fans. Seems like theres no answer.. its either or.

Secondly.... As I said before... the range of nutes available at garden stores is totally dismal here. And as importing nutes from overseas is more expensive then the actual nutes seems crazy. So after shopping around I bought Canna Bio Vega, Flores and boost. Wanted to go for something relatively organic so this seemed like a good choice. Just haven't been able to find many reviews on it. Would love some feedback if anyone has used em.

With regards to the photos..
1. The CAB
2.The external fan housing (box inside a box with insulation)
3.4.5.6 Inside cab pics
IMG_3503Portfolio.JPG

IMG_3496Portfolio.JPG IMG_3498Portfolio.JPG IMG_3503Portfolio.JPG IMG_3504Portfolio.JPG IMG_3505Portfolio.JPG IMG_3506Portfolio.JPG

Any advice you guys can give is massively appreciated!!
Thanks for taking the time to have a look
 
So thought Id put up a photo of the little girls I sprouted from some bag seeds....
They've been through quite some heat stress, and the organic fert ive been giving them was (I think) way too low in potassium. They've all lost a couple of set of leafs from this, and two of them have started growing three sets of leafs, which im guessing is due to stress.
IMG_3508.JPG
IMG_3507.JPG
 
Three NLs!!! I've keen eye on that for NL will be in my future grows.

I'm somewhat in the same boat with you. I have a tent inside a cabinet, 200W cfl, on the verge of too much heat. Fan is off if any visitors, same goes with lights. They are on at nights, though, so if no sleep over all ok. To your heat situation I'd replace those 2 bulbs with one 200W. I use Canna coco without the boost. So A+B only and one week of P/K. They grow and frost fine. And no odor control except ONA. If a single fan is too loud then the filtering couldn't be on either. Gently scented strains, then :D
 
Three NLs!!! I've keen eye on that for NL will be in my future grows.

I'm somewhat in the same boat with you. I have a tent inside a cabinet, 200W cfl, on the verge of too much heat. Fan is off if any visitors, same goes with lights. They are on at nights, though, so if no sleep over all ok. To your heat situation I'd replace those 2 bulbs with one 200W. I use Canna coco without the boost. So A+B only and one week of P/K. They grow and frost fine. And no odor control except ONA. If a single fan is too loud then the filtering couldn't be on either. Gently scented strains, then :D

Hey there.
Right now the heat is not so bad, was put to the test as we had our first hot day here, was nearly 90f outside but plants stayed at a lovely 78/80. The problem arises when I turn on the third lamp.. but to be perfectly honest... think 3 130watt cfls might be overkill. Only thing with replacing the two lamps with one is that the two lamps are different spectrums... 6400k and 14000k. I know of dual spectrum (6400+2700) cfls, but they don't include the 14000k or 24000k.
Ive heard of this ONA... was pretty paranoid about smells as im venting back into the room... rather that than blow it up into the grannys window upstairs! That's why ive opted for the northern lights... from what ive read they don't stink the place up with that sweet ganja smell (bit of a shame as that smell, wow, brings a tear of excitement to my eye!). The little girls ive got in there now (the random seeds from some bush weed I bought) growing are already giving off that tell tale smell! Cant help but enjoy though! Back to the ona though... im guessing your not venting outside and it does the job to suck out all the smell. Do you place it just next to the exhaust vent? And what strains you growing?
Thanks for the reply dude!
 
No vent or exhaust in any direction just a fan blowing the canopy. But winter is coming and air is dry here. Ona sits on the shelf above where the tent corner is open. And sucks all the smell. Although plants (DP Masterkush and my own MKxBetty Boo cross) don't smell at all @day 49 12/12. When compared my previous, heat stress, grow where MKxBB was too close to bulb and had much stronger aroma (signature contains both of these grows).
 
Wow, seems amazing how some plants stink up the place and others not in the slightest. But saying that, like you say having the lights a little too close, many factors can come into play. Whatever the case, northern lights or not, will definitely invest in some ONA, thanks for the advice man, really appreciate it.
Have read up a little on these silent inline fans... Soler & Palau TD-150S In-line Exhaust Fan... from what ive read they sound incredible... or rather don't sound of anything ;) If I can mount one of these guys in my external sound proof boxing I might be laughing... at least be able to hear myself laughing!! Just another investment the misses might not be so please by :D
 
Back
Top