College Student buildout special

[SkunkPlz]

Whats up guys and gals , this is my first attempt at indoor gardening and thought it would be a good idea to document it here from start to finish so I can get feedback from all the amazing growers here.

Heres a little background before we get started....

I am a college student pretty much living on a fixed income right now and really can't afford paying $50 an 8ter for some Cali od
So my plan is to become self sustaining. Ideally I would like to be able to harvest 2 ozs a month , although one zip a month could certainly get me by.

Stealth is going to be a big factor in this grow due to me having neighbors as well as being in the midwest and not in Michigan.

Right now I will using a nice cabinet that I scored for free,its usable area dimensions are 25" wide x16" deep x41" tall and also a small tent that is 30" wide x 18" deep x 36" high ( its the same tent Buenos and Lifer25 use. I have attached a few pictures of the cabinet.

First Question, which area should I use for the flowering chamber and which one should i use for Veg/Cloning area. The dimensions of the two areas are pretty similar but the cabinet is a little taller. What do you guys think? I planned on using t5s for vegging and a 250 watt hps for flowering.

 

[SkunkPlz]

My thoughts are to use the tent for vegging/cloning and flowering in the cabinet. I plan on sticking one of those panasonic whisper exhaust fans in the upper left corner of the back and have that connected directly to a carbon filter. For the air intake there is no floor in the bottom of this cabinet so i was planning on drilling a bunch of holes in a piece of ply wood for a floor and raising the cab an inch off the ground giving room for the negative pressure from my exhaust fan to pull in fresh air. Another question, do you think that a 250 watt light can be used and still maintain a decent temp range using just the panasonic 80 cfm exhaust fan and a few computer fans strategically placed throughout the cab?

 

[vanilla moon]

whatever you do, dont get the whisperline from panasonic... first off, their not that quiet as the name would have you believe, second of all they're bigger than regular fans and would take up precious space.

i learned the hard way..

good luck man

 

[GrowBox420]

Welcome to Icmag

Welcome to Icmag

MagicChef has a nice little setup that you might be able to pull some inspiration off of, 250W HPS for flower and a side veg/clone room with a separate area for electrical shit.

Or

You could flower in the cab and do something like BcChronic with a 250W HPS cool tubed.

Overall my advice would be to remote ballast the light as it causes heat issues and to think about ventilation as this always gets lost in the mix. Also I have just found out that if you pull all through the carbon filter it works way better than pushing it.

Good luck & Stay Safe

 

[SkunkPlz]

Vanilla what do you suggest for a silent exhaust fan? I am lucky enough to live very close to WormsWay warehouse so I do have access to some good gardening supplies. I have been doing tons of research in preparation for this grow but now that things are in motion I still feel very clueless. My main concerns right now are Smell and Noise. I have very thin walls but planned on lining them all with that sound dampening foam, that should help a little


Growbox, thanks for those links I will be doing some reading for sure, Right now the plan is to have dedicated cab for flowering and a dedicated cab for veging/cloning. Keeping plants in the pipeline is going to be my main concern. I want to make sure I have ladies on deck waiting to jump in the flowering chamber immediately after harvest. Thanks again for taking the time to help a newb

 

[SkunkPlz]

Grow box, what kind of carbon filter do you use? I have my eyes on either a mountain air or phresh. I really can't afford to skimp on odor control so I need the best.

 

[SkunkPlz]

Also as for access into the cab, what do you guys think i should do?

 

[GrowBox420]

I have a DIY carbon scrubber that I made from one of the tutorials provided on here it works great with regular pet store carbon used for fish tanks. This guy in one of my chemistry classes worked at a pet store and they ordered it in bulk and I payed him $1 a pound, one day I went to class and had 5 pounds of carbon on my desk LOL. No one had a clue in the world ;P

 

[ForbiddenFruit]

I like the cabinet, it looks like its fairly sturdy and made well, should be perfect for flowering.

For access, I would start by cutting out the four middle drawer supports in the front. After that, source out a nice board and some quality hinges, so that you can fashion a completely new door for the cab. In addition, also carefully dismantle the drawers themselves, so that you can salvage the drawer "fronts". The drawer fronts can be mounted to the new door you made, creating a stealthy false door, that still looks like drawers in a dresser. This process will take some cutting, measuring, time and sanding, but will be worth it, and is what I would do.

After thinking some more, I wouldn't use hinges to create the new door. I would make it so it worked sort of like a lid, where you just pull it off in one piece, and set it back in, in one piece. With the addition of weather stripping foam, it will create a nice seal. The other option that people do is create their access doors in the back of the cab, which means you wouldn't have to stealth the door as much, but you would have to slide the cabinet in and out to gain access.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Vanilla what do you suggest for a silent exhaust fan?

No such thing. If you use a fan (and you should) there will be noise. The whisperfans have several models that come in under 1 sonne which is damn quiet.

What you want is a patsy to take the fall. An aquarium, window fan, white noise generator, computer servers.... something. First thing visitors to my garage do is scrunch their face at the noise. When they determine it comes from a beat up old freezer, they forget all about it. It's supposed to make noise. At that point the freezer becomes 100% invisible and silent. "Show" them the noise and the noise disappears. Sure fooled the Sheriffs, EMTs and coroner when they came for my roommates body.

 

[electronug]

I happen to have my old, noisy computer beside my cabinet

When I come down in the morning I can't tell the difference, and I have 6 80mm fans running.

Computer is usually hibernating

 

[McGuyver'sDick]

I recently got a 4" valuline and got a speed controller that I thought would quiet the fan by slowing it down. However, it also produces a hum when I throttle back the fan. I hear that a variac style speed controller will not do this. I haven't looked for one yet though.

 

[SkunkPlz]

Growbox, I have looked a lot at those dyi scrubbers, i am just worried that once things really start rockin in the cab the smell will start leaking out, this is one of my major concerns about getting everything straight before i get a cycle going because I do not want to have to scrap my plants because the smell is too overpowering. I am a big skunk lover, but to be honest i think this first grow I am gonna stay away from the really loud smelling flavors and stick with something a little less pungent. I am not happy about this, but my safety is more important.


Thanks for stopping by forbidden fruit, you are spot on about the cab being very sturdy, it has some bracing in the back of the cab ( picture attached) which at first I thought might end up in the way for my exhaust and scrubber because I wanted to maximize all the space, but what i think i am gonna do is actually pull the back off of the cab and flip it around, so the back is now the front. I really like the plug idea that u suggested and have given it some thought before. The main thing I want to avoid is the light leaks obv I am hoping I am able to fashion something that works adequately. I have seen a few designs like that and I really like it, one thought i had was possibly making two separate plugs , but that just seems like a lot of work too me. I am probably gonna try to fashion a plug that fits right into that bracing because it has it on all four backside corners. Once again you can refer to the pictures.

Freezer Boy- I see where your going with the noise thing, worst case i could just run a stereo all the time, lol. It just sucks because my walls are paper thin and me and my neighbor have joked about how we both can hear each other when we are going to pound town.

Electronug- thanks for visiting, on the topic of computer fans, one design I was looking about would be running a cool tube straight across the top of the cab, i have taken a picture to show what I am thinking. My question would be if i have four computer fans, two outside the cab and two inside pushing air all in the same direction thru the cool tube do you think that would be enough airflow to cool it. It would go fan>>>wall>>>>Fan>>>>Ducting/Cooltube/Ducting>>>>Fan>>>>Wall>>>Fan. I am sure there is a better way to describe what I am thinking but I am a little baked sorry.

 

[SkunkPlz]

Lol forgot the pics...

Lol forgot the pics...

I think its time for me to smoke another....

First pic shows the bracing that is in the back corners.


Second is a mock up of my cool tube idea. Really just need to figure out how to push that air as quietly and efficiently as possible.


for all the help and suggestions guys, I can't wait to have this thing bolted up so I can start a run the first of the year.

What do you guys think about running hydro in there? I am torn between super soil or just pumpin some hydro to get harvest faster.

 

[electronug]

I'm vegging my first round in my new cabinet in dirt and wishing I had gone DWC...

 

[SkunkPlz]

FreezerBoy- I was thinking an awesome design would be stick one of those panasonic whispers right in the back wall, flush like you would do in a ceiling of a bathroom or whatever and just have that hooked directly to a scrubber. I would have to keep the dresser off the wall a little but that wouldn't raise any suspicions if someone happen to see it.

 

[SkunkPlz]

I'm vegging my first round in my new cabinet in dirt and wishing I had gone DWC...

I think two plants in a hydro tub scrogged could do some nice things


time to get at the dyi section....

 

[Buju09]

My ventilation currently goes, Fan in taking from bottom into the grow area,then a pc fan exhausting into the upper cab which is sealed from the lower, where it is scrubbed and then exhausted out of the cab into to the room. It hasn't gone up against full flowering smells but give my basement the freshest smell, no more musky odors. Want to make one for the smokers in my family lol

 

[SkunkPlz]

My ventilation currently goes, Fan in taking from bottom into the grow area,then a pc fan exhausting into the upper cab which is sealed from the lower, where it is scrubbed and then exhausted out of the cab into to the room. It hasn't gone up against full flowering smells but give my basement the freshest smell, no more musky odors. Want to make one for the smokers in my family lol

hey buju , glad to hear you have no odor issues at this point, keep me posted as to how to goes when the jungle is on full tilt.

I have seen setups kinda like ur describing, if i end up going with a cool tube I think that will really save space as I am trying to maximize mine as much as possible, I really want to keep as much of the vertical height as I can. I plan on scrogging but i don't really want to have to fight light burn. Do you have pictures of your set up that I can look at?

 

[weedss]

looking forward to see it bro