White Trash Astronaut's PC build/grow.

[WTA]

Tonight I finished the last big things that needed to be done to my PC case. All that is left is to do the final bit of light sealing around the part of the case that slides off.
I have some earlier pics that I will post, and will get updated one tomorrow.

This grow will be my first grow indoors, and will be done in soil. I have Short Rider, and Bubblicious that are coming hopefully next week. I will be growing the Short Rider in this case, and will start the other in another case that I am working on, as soon as it is finished.

This is the light panel. It is 1/2" OSB that I have glued safety blanket to. The rest of the shiney stuff is cardboard that is covered in the same stuff. I used a spray on adhesive to stick it to the wood/cardboard.

As you see, I have six sockets mounted, however, With the exhaust fan installed, I only have room for five bulbs. Oh, well.

More pics to come.

 

[StealthDragon]

Wow, looking great so far...that's looks like alot of watts, do you plan on using a glass partition between the lights and plants?

I'll definitely be following along.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Why did you go with Short Rider instead of a true AF, they would have done a hell of a lot better. Also you would be better off if you could fit some 42w's in there too. Maybe take out that last socket and move it in a position so you could add a 42 or 65w in there/ I was thinking if you have the room putting it vertically in the middle right in front of the rest of the bulbs.

BTW what spectrum are those bulbs?

 

[fish83]

looks nice

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Wow, looking great so far...that's looks like alot of watts, do you plan on using a glass partition between the lights and plants?

I'll definitely be following along.

its actually not that much, and heat isn't going to be a huge issue so the glass wouldn't be necessary (plus it would eat up lumens). Still I am looking forward to this grow.

 

[seany]

Hey WTA! PC Case is looking good. Mines just finished (apart from carbon filter but that's to come later). Good to see some active pc case threads. How many watts are you working with? I've got 3 bulbs in my case, 60-70 watts total depending on bulbs I have in there.

Anyway good luck bro!

Seany

 

[Strainbrain]

5 23W bulbs (if that's the size you're using) will give you about 8000 lumens... in a space the size of a PC case, that's a lot of light. You should have some happy plants.

-s

 

[TheGreenBastard]

It doesn't always work like that, a lot of small lights won't always equal the combined lumen output of each one. Still, upon reconsideration they should do fine in your setup due to it being so small, and I imagine that you won't be growing too many plants. So it should be fine, though in my experince bigger CFL's are always better than more.

You are using 23w 27k (Warm) lights correct?

 

[silent_lemon]

man, when that was a real PC, how many videocards did you have? 8?

who needs a PC that BIG anyways? but that's besides the point that your PC case looks awesome and looks super roomy. gj dood.

ps. im with thegreenbastard, im a big fan of 42watters too, CRYING Fing shame theyre hard to come by around here, lots of 23w cool, but no 42w cool, only 42w warm. Next place i find 42w cool, im buying 10 of them, even at 9 bucks a pop.

i have a 23w and a 42w both cool above my veg shelf, and it seems the plants below the 42w grow muuuucho faster than the other half with the 23w, just so effing bright; small difference in watts, big difference in growth. personal experience. back to you

ninjaedit - check out the post above me. lmao this guy here, TGB....

 

[Strainbrain]

The 23w bulbs are not as good as the 42s, I agree. But it may be hard to fit them across the width of that case. If they'll fit, though, I'd for sure rather have 3 of those than 5 23s.

WTA, I was able to find some pretty short 42w bulbs online. It took a little digging, but they're out there. I ordered and use a pair in my CFL/T5 box, they shine as brightly as my HD 42s and really are compact.

lemon, I also find 42W 6500k bulbs with ease at any number of online retailers, about $10 like the Home Despot warms. $10 for shipping sucks, but order a spare and call it a year.

-s

 

[TheGreenBastard]

I was gonna say earlier, and I'm sure lemon will agree, that 65k CFL's are a lot more efficient when it comes to CFL's. Infact I'll post a few charts showing why...

The reason this is important is, as you know CFL's lack the lumens of HID's. So you have to make sure none are going to waste, you do this by using a spectrum that green plant life can use more efficiently. That spectrum is blue, thus your plants benefit a lot more from bulbs of that spectrum (65k).

 

[TheGreenBastard]

man, when that was a real PC, how many videocards did you have? 8?

who needs a PC that BIG anyways? but that's besides the point that your PC case looks awesome and looks super roomy. gj dood.

That case is nothing, the one I'm using in my current build is 22"x23"x8".

I have literally piles of old cases the size that he is using. it is pretty standard, I'm guessing it was from an old dell.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Remote ballasting the bigger CFLs would let you fit them in no problem, but be warned, not all bulbs allow it and it's a lot more wiring and chance you will fry yourself.

Case looks great dude. Keep it up.

 

[WTA]

Why did you go with Short Rider instead of a true AF, ...BTW what spectrum are those bulbs?

According to Nirvana's website, it is a true AF.

The bulbs are GE soft white, 2700K. They are 26 watts each. I will try to borrow a par meter, and check the par at the bottom of the case. In most cases par is more important than lumens, it's an actual measurement of the amount of light reaching the bottom. If this were a reef aquarium, I would not have second thoughts about placing high light requiring coral at the bottom.

My next light source is probably going to be a HID head light. It produces something over 1,000,000 lumens, on 35Watts.

The computer is an OLD DTK computer. Never heard of them before this one. It had a 8x CD-Rom, 3.5" floppy, and a 5.25" floppy. Sporting a Pentium 133Mhz processor, and 16Mb of RAM.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Nirvana has pulled them because the aren't AF's , I was interested in them and had posted a thread about it. Turned out to be just a 12/12 plant, not that it is a bad plant just not AF.

Still I think that you should have good results with it, though remember to switch to 12/12.

Oh and a million lumens is impossible, not to mention on such a low wattage. Probably meant 1000

 

[WTA]

Nirvana has pulled them because the aren't AF's

You need to post some proof, I can't just take your word on it. I checked there website today, and they still have it for sale, and it sure sounds like an AF from there description.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Nirvana himself said he was pulling them when I was talking about this very strain... (Besides when have you ever heard of nirvana breeding AF's, they don't he didn't breed them himself, got form another grower)

This first link is to the first thread I had every posted...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=124367

On the last page Gyps Nirvana himself says he is pulling the seeds...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=121374&page=4

If you still don't believe me keep the lights on 24/0 and see if you get bud, or what till S_a_H does his test grow.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Next time go with someone a little more credible when it comes to AF's, I suggest Mdanzig.
Pick up his Bluestreak and Sour60 when it comes out. (I personally LOVE bluestreak)

 

[WTA]

That sucks.

Update:
As you can see, I added a plexiglass barrier between the lights and growing area. It is vented by the 120mm fan. It seems to work well. The thermometer that I have is the cheapest one that I was ale to find at Ace, and I don't think it very accurate. The plexi is held in by two pieces of aluminium channel stock.

Intake is passive through the front fan mount, and the PCI slots in the front.

 

[S-V-K]

How is plexiglass behaving ??? i had thread somewhere here abot plexi as aheat shield and i got answer to not use it.Becasue melting point is so low...Did you think to drill some holes in that shield to allow more light to come through ???