150w HPS Cabinet by Quazi

Excellent thread and great DIY work. you got me inspired!!
im gonna try and do something like this except with 2 150 watt hps in a 4 sq foot area about 3 feet tall.
how much heat does your one 150 watt hps give off? do you think that your flowering chamber would have worked without the cool tube because you have quite a bit of cfm for that small area?

Thanks for stopping by!

It's always nice to hear that I've inspired someone.

As far as the cool tube, I haven't hooked it up yet! I like having the powerful blower because it creates ample negative pressure. It might be a bit much for the space but I don't know yet.

The temps stay very reasonable in the veg chamber and that's rocking 6x23W CFLs with just air passing by the lamps into electrics. I'm guessing that the HPS will provide a similar experience.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

-Q

Awesome!
Im not planning on using a cool tube for either of my hps and decided to start building my cab this upcoming week. it will be 20"x20"x36" so i can achieve a really dense sog.
how do you think this would cool my cab

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6..._-_High_Speed_FP-108EX_S1-B.html?tl=g46#blank

its rated at 230 cfm and 51 dba. how loud is 51 dba?

51 is pretty loud. Start thinking of things to take the rap: Aquariums, computers, box fans, stereos ...

How loud is 51dba really cause on other sites it say that its like equivalent to a refrigerator and thats really quiet.

The problem with anything taking the rap is nothing is there and if i put something there itll seem out of place and might get noticed.

What about the 6" inline duct fan from home depot?

An oscillating table fan on low is louder than my cabinet.

The inline duct fans from Home Depot, which I checked out, are probably going to be quite loud. Similar to the loudness of a fan in your bathroom is what I have heard. I started a thread about them and came to the conclusion that they were not what I was looking for.

You can check it out here:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=97944

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekly pic updates tomorrow or tonight.

-Q

ok thanks.
Due to some issues i have decide to only go to 1 150 watt seeing that my space got even smaller...

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...roductId=100553101&N=10000003+503114+10145001

I decided to save time and buy a cab from home depot which greatly affected my whole original plan.
I think this will suffice as cooling http://www.buyextras.com/cacokit3one1.html
or i could add another 1 if needed.

what type of fan are you using?

I had taken a look at those cabinets but ultimately decided that it was way too shallow for my needs at less than a foot deep.

The fan that you linked to pushes 79 CFM maximum. That is without any filters, tubes, ventilation, etc. You may want to consider a bit more.

The "fan" that I use is actually a blower. You can check it out in the Lasko blower mod thread that is in my signature. It keeps temps very reasonable.

Picture update tonight! Maybe even the cool tube DIY guide as Dorothy is eager to check out the 12/12 side of my cabinet. Gemma and Wilma might even be ready too.

Also, I ditched the CO2 for now as I just cannot afford to setup a CO2 saturation system that will get the PPM high enough to make a difference. It was an interesting experiment at least. Thanks for the advice Dr. BG!

-Q

Weekly Update

Weekly Update

Hello everyone!

Well, it's that time again so I'm guessing you all are expecting updates. Or, maybe you aren't and I'm just doing this for myself.

Either way... here we go!

First I'd like to introduce a couple of babies that I'm taking care of. These belong to ambr0sia, but I'm babysitting them while he finished his cabinet. The one that sprouted first has the weirdest uneven growth. I can't figure it out. None of my other plants look like that and even the seed that came from the same batch doesn't look like it. It's been fed and taken cared for the exact same way as its sibling yet it exhibits this weird, uneven growth. Anyway, here's Good'n:




If anyone has suggestions as to what may be going on with her I'd love to hear 'em (and I'm sure ambr0sia would too). Just for comparison, here is Good'n's sister who was raised in the same environment:


Now on to my girls!

First I'm happy to say that Sprout looks like she's gonna make it after all the tough times she's been through as a clone. I don't care how slow her new growth is coming in at this point, she deserves a chance:


I'm fairly certain at this point that Gemma is from the bag seed. She stretched a bit more and just looks a little bit different from the PK that I have going. But, only time will tell for sure. She's looking great though:


Wlima, my other PK seed is growing along very nicely:


Now, for the star of the evening, Dorothy:




I am really happy with how the plants look and how things are going so far. My girls received their first dose of nutes at half strength a couple days ago and they are looking like they're loving it.



Dorothy will be heading into flower very soon. Which brings me to my next update: I figured out my cool tube and reflector design. I got all of the parts and it looks stellar. I'll have the DIY up shortly. I was able to get pretty much everything I needed in one trip. I also finished up the caulking and sealing on the flower side to prep it for go time. In addition, I purchased 4 additional PVC elbows so that I could add %50 more intake to both rooms. I have a feeling that I'm choking the blower a bit too much as the suction on the doors is pretty heavy.

Anyway, that's it for now. More pics tomorrow (or the next) of Dorothy making her debut under the big lights! Also, look for the DIY on the cool tube with reflector to be hitting the forums soon.

Yes I am aware of the purple petioles. I waited a bit longer than I probably should have to start feeding and they are not in very good soil. It's odd though because it appears more prevalent on the PK seedlings than Gemma or the two from ambr0sia. Could be genetics, could be a water issue, could be a soil issue. Either way: I'm keeping a close watch. I hope I'm not overwatering as I've waited 3, or 4 days sometimes, between depending on how the pots feel and the pots just aren't that big. Of course, the fact that it's taking a while to drain could be an issue too. Anyway: I'm open to any possibilities.

-Q

lookin good bro, keep on keepin' on

OahuGrown said:

ok thanks.
Due to some issues i have decide to only go to 1 150 watt seeing that my space got even smaller...

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...roductId=100553101&N=10000003+503114+10145001

Click to expand...

Have you seen this one in person? Quazi made a good point regarding the dimensions of this cabinet but I'll make another - it is REAL flimsy, and in order to make it light-tight you're going to have to make it REAL ugly. IMO you're better off using one of the 2-Rubbermaid solutions you see lots of around here.

I don't see a problem with light proofing that cab.
What would have to be ugly about it?

hoosierdaddy said:

I don't see a problem with light proofing that cab.
What would have to be ugly about it?

Click to expand...

I built out a whole walk-in closet out of that stuff (for putting clothes in ) and I can say from experience that it's made like shit. They're made of 1/2" or 9/16" melamine-on-particleboard. The gaps in the doors alone are probably going to be almost 1/8th all the way around, and you'll have to work to make them square. How do you light-proof that, and make for a solid door latch, without making it scream "grow box"?

Not saying it can't happen, but I do say there are better options out there...

Keep it up man i love the low wattage grows!

ropolopy said:

I built out a whole walk-in closet out of that stuff (for putting clothes in ) and I can say from experience that it's made like shit. They're made of 1/2" or 9/16" melamine-on-particleboard. The gaps in the doors alone are probably going to be almost 1/8th all the way around, and you'll have to work to make them square. How do you light-proof that, and make for a solid door latch, without making it scream "grow box"?

Not saying it can't happen, but I do say there are better options out there...

Click to expand...

And two rubbermaids on top of another does not scream growbox? lol...
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=95220

Quazi said:

First I'd like to introduce a couple of babies that I'm taking care of. These belong to ambr0sia, but I'm babysitting them while he finished his cabinet. The one that sprouted first has the weirdest uneven growth. I can't figure it out. None of my other plants look like that and even the seed that came from the same batch doesn't look like it. It's been fed and taken cared for the exact same way as its sibling yet it exhibits this weird, uneven growth.

Click to expand...

Actually, I wasn't entirely honest when I'd said that they were both brought up in the *exact* same environment; #1, being the first to sprout, was put under a single CFL in a lamp base. Thinking that temperature was the only consideration, I kept the bulb itself a little over 2" away from the top of the freshy sproutling, which over the course of a couple days caused yellowing of the cotyledon. Since this is my first grow, I thought that was normal until I looked at a few more pictures of sproutlings and realized something was not right at'all. About the time #2 popped its head out of the dirt, I'd adjust the light up to a more reasonable 5-6" above the tops.

Think this may have caused the weird growth?

Either way, thanks again for hosting my girls, Quazi - We'll get them moved into their new home tonight and get some photos taken so I can start my own grow diary.

By the by, your show is looking great, man! Can't wait to see it in person this evening!

hoosierdaddy said:

And two rubbermaids on top of another does not scream growbox? lol...
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=95220

Click to expand...

LOL, yeah they both scream grow box but at least you're not making any worthless compromises anymore.

My whole point was that unless you have a real compelling reason to start with a shallow pre-made cabinet, there are better options out there. And this is off-topic now and I don't want to dirty up what's otherwise an outstanding thread, so let's move on...

Well everyone, the time has finally come.

I finished the DIY cool tube and reflector.

Honestly, I'm really pleased with how it turned out:


Here it is installed and being awesome. I had to trim it just a bit to fit everything in perfectly:


Don't worry, I'll be making the DIY thread for it. You'll definitely want to check it out to avoid making the mistake that I did which caused me to have to replace the cool tube before it even got installed. Do'h!

Of course this means, Dorothy got flipped to 12/12 today. I got a chance to call the water company and talk to someone who knew something. I was happy to find out there was no chloramine in the water supply so I don't have to worry about that. In addition, the purple petioles are genetic. I got to ask the person I received the seeds from. So that's a bit of a relief. Dorothy is certainly a special one. I am really hoping she is a girl. She is of a different phenotype than what was harvested from the Purple Kush before. The most noticeable differences being the vigor of growth and 7-spiked leaves instead of 5.

I'm also going completely organic for the whole process so I'm stoked about that. I'm not going to post my mix yet because I'm not sure if it works yet. If it fails miserably, I don't want people to try and replicate what I did.

Anyway, here's Dorothy basking under the glory of the 150W HPS:




Now for the classic double-colored shot of the cabinet with veg and flower. Also, you can see the additional ventilation that was installed:


Well, that's it for now. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to complete the DIY for the cool tube and reflector. I've been missing out on sleep and time with the lady getting all of this going so we'll see.

Anyway, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the IC mag chat room, everyone from the 150W HPS club, everyone who's participated in this thread and everyone who has contributed anything helpful to the IC mag forums.


-Q

That's a cool looking reflector but, you may want to re-angle it. Hard to tell here but, the wing bottoms look parallel to each other. The idea is to bounce the light down to the garden. It the sides are parallel then light is just going to bounce back and forth between them instead of down.

I did this for another fellow who wanted to grow reflector free so, it doesn't apply completely but, it gives a good idea.

Thanks for saying that.

I think that everyone should make a reflector that is suitable for their needs. It is important to understand why you want a reflector in the first place before you go making one.

Mine was made for a specific reason otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. The entire inside of the flowering side is painted with very white paint so a reflector was not entirely needed. However, because I added a height extension on my cabinet, there was a lip around the flowering chamber that I didn't want light to get trapped in.

It's hard to see in the picture, but the wings are actually almost sitting on the lip that I was worried about so it looks like there are just flush, vertical walls there. The wings are actually at an angle (albeit a shallow one) with the edge of the wings sitting in the corner of the lip and the wall. So, the light is getting bounced downwards out of the top of the flowering chamber far more than it would be without it.

I'll try to take more pictures of it inside the chamber so you can get a better idea if you want but I'd rather not 'cause it's a bit of a tight squeeze up in there to get pictures and I am not a small person.

I'm not trying to say that my design is the best or that it would be ideal for other situations. I'll make sure to stress that in the DIY I make. Thanks again for pointing that out or I may have missed that point completely.

EDIT: I actually looked at the pictures you are talking about and you're completely right: those are parallel. They were taken right when the construction was completed on the cool tube (for the second time). I spent most of the Biden-Palin debates widening out the angle of the wings by carefully bending them back outwards and I just wrote that entire reply without remembering until I looked at the pictures again. Bedtime.

-Q