Preview of my pl-l micro closet.

superpedro · Nov 3, 2009

Hps grower gone micro - Love building that stuff!
My new grow closets are soon finished. Thought I'd throw in a few pictures from the early testrun I'm currently doing.

It's a closed closet system, meaning no air pulled from the outside and CO2 is injekted instead.
I have only got one closet up and running yet, it runs with 6 x 55w pl-l tubes, a special iron free glass plate (like the glass used in a solar panel with almost no loss of light) is at the top of the closet, working like a cooltube.
I use 5 fans to pull the air out from the tubes. Keeping them cool means higher light output and longer lifetimes, and allows me to use co2 = I don't care if about a little loss of light anyway.

All 3+1 closets:

The airchannel above the closets:

Inside the tech/future water reservoir location for the hydro system. There is a small cooler it the top of the closet, a heat exchange i pulled from a cooler, but it can only lower the temp about 1-1,5 degrees C

This is also where I'm building the frame for my carbon filter.

I'm a hydro grower, but to get something started while Im still building the closets, the testrun is done in soil.

Without using my cooler i run with a max temp below 25 degrees C.

Let me know what you think.

grow1620 · Nov 3, 2009

wow looking great. very nice job, i look forward to updates.

ScrubNinja · Nov 3, 2009

Daaaamn Pedro, I was expecting a couple of lights chucked in a box, but not this

Pretty impressive. Can we get some door open shots from a distance? Does the air flow down through the carbon layer? Otherwise how do you get the air down, so you can push it up?

superpedro · Nov 3, 2009

Thanks guys!

Under the shelf 4 fans are placed, they pull the air through the (yet to be installed)carbon layer.
The tube exit through the bottem of the closet leads to the closet on the far right, and 3 fans more between the grow closets help move the air throug the system.

The dehumidifier is from my hps growroom, it will be replaced with a much smaller one

theratings · Nov 3, 2009

does the glass plate benefit you a lot with your temps? or is it more for a barrier if the plants grow into the lights too quickly?

#1cheesebuds · Nov 3, 2009

wow wow that setup looks very nice.

superpedro · Nov 3, 2009

theratings said:
does the glass plate benefit you a lot with your temps? or is it more for a barrier if the plants grow into the lights too quickly?

I keep the temp. down in my closet by having all hot devices on the outside.

I wan't to keep re-using the same air without heating it up, in order to keep my raised co2 level inside.

Thanks

TokeSolo · Nov 3, 2009

Looking really good superpedro, very stealth from the outside! And your avatar is cool!

coconaut · Nov 3, 2009

It looks as though you only have about 4 or 5 inches before you run out of vertical space.
Those large square pots are taking up half of your total vertical space. Are you going to have enough room for stretch?

superpedro · Nov 3, 2009

Thanks

coconaut said:
It looks as though you only have about 4 or 5 inches before you run out of vertical space.
Those large square pots are taking up half of your total vertical space. Are you going to have enough room for stretch?

I usually don't take up to much space above the screen, I like it dense and low

I have thought of making a hole I could fit a tub into, in order to get ekstra space, but i don't think it will be needed

The shelf the pots are standing on, can be lowered to the bottom of the closet. The screen stands on the shelf as well.
I will use hydro later on, something that can be raised as well, that will give me much more space to play with.
Top of the plants will be raised to the top when flowering.

coconaut · Nov 3, 2009

If you're open to suggestions; some things to consider maybe in the future.
Have you ever looked into coco coir as a medium? It may be easier to manage in a small space. Also, if you were to consider coir as a medium, I invision a rubbermaid tote replacing your pots. Something maybe half the height of the square pots but something that takes up most of the floorspace. As it is now, you have lots of unused space between pots.
A tote bin filled with coco coir can be used like coco slabs, supporting multiple plants, and the roots wont need to compete with each other in coco.

superpedro · Nov 3, 2009

coconaut said:
If you're open to suggestions; some things to consider maybe in the future.
Have you ever looked into coco coir as a medium? It may be easier to manage in a small space. Also, if you were to consider coir as a medium, I invision a rubbermaid tote replacing your pots. Something maybe half the height of the square pots but something that takes up most of the floorspace. As it is now, you have lots of unused space between pots.
A tote bin filled with coco coir can be used like coco slabs, supporting multiple plants, and the roots wont need to compete with each other in coco.

I'm working on it

The soil is only because I couldn't wait getting started. I'm really a hydrohead

Right now I'm thinking something about something like an ebb/flow system made something like this, with hoses connecting the system to the res. so it can be raised:

But I'm not sure about it. Haven't tried coco yet.

ScrubNinja · Nov 4, 2009

Coco would have been good - it's hydro, just hand watered, so when you got the system hooked up you could just slide em in place and let the system take over. But soil is good too.

Thanks for the pics and explanations. I like that you've done what is neccesary to insure that the little space you have for growing is perfect and pumping out great buds.

superpedro · Nov 4, 2009

ScrubNinja said:
Coco would have been good - it's hydro, just hand watered, so when you got the system hooked up you could just slide em in place and let the system take over. But soil is good too. Thanks for the pics and explanations. I like that you've done what is neccesary to insure that the little space you have for growing is perfect and pumping out great buds.

I have nothing against coco, and I'd like to try it one day. The results I see here on ICmag are really impressive!

The closets (caps, cupboards better words?? English isn't my first language :1help:

) are to become all of my experience so far put into one single system.
I have alot of hydro gear, ph controllers, pumps, homebuild biofilter, homebuild cooler etc., I'd like to put into use.

I like how a well run filter makes hydro ph-rock-steady and delivers the enzymes some growers like to pay a fortune to buy, and the neutral medium allows me to make an pretty exact uptake analysis(macro elements) on what i grow, and correct my nute formula.

I may even need more reservoirs, since the other cupboards are to be used to some of my other plants(I collect all kinds of plants, especially aquarium plants), and with setups using running nutrient rich water in one way or another.

My wife would love for all of my floor buckets and tubbs to get out of the way :noway:

I have buckets in entire apartment

ScrubNinja · Nov 4, 2009

Heheh good to see. Yes I noticed you had a biofilter in the diagram... wow. So how does that work? You breed the goodies in there and they flow into your system? I take it you're doing some kind of organic hydro then?

superpedro · Nov 4, 2009

It's not an organic grow. I use GHE micro and mix my own macro from nutrient salts.

The bio filter basics.

The breakdown of protein begins outside the bacteria's cell by a release of enzymes.
You can by stuff like cannazym to break down dead organic matter, or use H2O2 to keep it biology free altogether. But that is only half a solution IMO.
The enzyme itself is a protein, and I think of it as a paradox if the very thing you use to protect the plants, could cause root rot if kept to warm or water change is neglected. In a bio filter the enzymes is in a constant reproduction.
Furthermore the bacteria then transforms the NO2 (the remains, dangerous for the roots) into NO3.

The bacteria needs a surface to grow, and there is no way near enough compared to the water volume in a normal hydro setup.
Basically my bio filter will just be a bucket filled with a filter material that has a large surface area to a small volume. That gets sprinkled with the water from the reservoir. The bacteria we want to grow in a bio filter demands oxygen, and a dry filter (much like aero for roots) performs better than a filter with constant submerged material.

A bio filter takes about 3 weeks to get started, and needs to be kept alive between grows. You should never replace more than 2/3 when you change your water.

Fuzz420 · Nov 4, 2009

Damn pretty bad as.Very nice setup.

superpedro · Nov 6, 2009

Thanks man

I'm rather impressed by my triton bulbs. The plants are looking very dense compared to when I used 860/865 for vegging. Now I plan to use two tritons with the 827's in flower.

Plants after two more days, and a little bit of LST

with light

I think I'll put them under 12/12 from tonight.

My carbon should arrive any day now, can't wait!

and I'm about to start with the hydrosystem build as well

.

The mess on the outside of the cabs has been turned in to our biolab.

Cheers, and thanks for watching

superpedro · Nov 6, 2009

A little fun with a microscope and some dried old native danish outdoor

Just found out my cam can take pictures through the eyepices, not the best quality though.

ScrubNinja · Nov 6, 2009

Hehe...this just gets better and better. That microscope looks like crazy fun

I looked into a mic but it was too far out of my budget sadly. So I guess you use that one to check how active your system is?

Preview of my pl-l micro closet.

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