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Full Tower PC Case Grow Box

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Killkingkong

Active member
Hey guys, so I made a pc grow box like 2 years ago but that was a half assed attempt and all of my plants died from high temps. Well that was 2 years ago and I've have much more experience building things since then, so I decided to give making a grow box another shot.

I'm a computer/technology entrepreneur, so people tend to give me old computers. A few years back someone gave me this huge desktop that was way too big and slow to even consider using nowadays, so I decided to gut it and turn it into a grow box eventually.

I have bag seeds germinating right now and plan to plant the first 3 that sprout. I was thinking about doing a sog grow, but not having done a full grow yet I'm gonna focus on just getting 1 female done this time. I'm mostly done with the box, all i need to buy now is some perlite, fertilizer and activated carbon. Does anybody have any suggestions for building a carbon filter that can easily be attached to my exhaust?

Vegetation Setup:
2n8bfp0.jpg


Planned Fowering Setup (I plan having 2 85w bulb set up like this during flowering)
260amc5.jpg
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
Oh yeah, aside from me using tools to rip the IO (the places where you would plug an ethernet cable or usb wire into) Pretty much everything in my case was done with zip ties, industrial strength duct tape and industrial strength velcro
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
Ready To Start

Ready To Start

Okay, so I think I have everything done and ready to go. I finished up my air filter today. I bought a more powerful PC fan for the exhaust and a pc fan filter from a computer store. I then went to home depot and bought a replacement activated carbon filter sheet and used that to build a carbon scrubber.

Airflow:




 
D

Dr 4 four

Member
I would have to agree in that placing the lights horizontally would be the better route to go. You can always move the cups closer to the light then back away as the plants grow. Also I would place the fan blowing on the lights on the right side/by the front instead. That way your blowing heat towards the exhaust, instead of circulating it around the case. Maybe look in to picking up an emergency blanket for reflective lining inside the case. Good luck, can't wait to see more. :good:
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
That's the plan once I get my hands on 2 85w cfls that I saw on amazon. I originally tried to put these lights horizontally, but with the the power strip I can't close the case. If I were to use extension cords instead of the power strip I could probably fit them horizontally, but I'm broke after buying the stuff to build my filter and xmas shopping today. I'll probably order the new lights the day after xmas and change the layout then.
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
I bought a huge carbon sheet but only used about 4 inches on my case scrubber. So i took some of the excess and decided to make a fan filter so my room won't always smell like smoke. After assembling I realized that the fan I used is a little weak, because when I blow smoke into it a good amount bounces back at me. This might still work as more of a passive filter but I haven't tested it enough to find out.



I also took some of the left over plastic grid that came with the filter and made a screen to use in a SCROG setup for later down the line.
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
New Design

New Design

Okay, I finally got my 85W light. I didn't expect this light to be so big, so the first design I have to hold the light in place quickly failed. The light ended up falling on the only seedling I have at the time, but it might make it. A 2nd one sprouted today, so hopefully i get a female out of the 2 of them.

Fail lol


New Design


Seedlings:
 
quinoa64

quinoa64

Member
Howdy, I'm an IT guy too. It's getting hard to find those full tower cases these days. I was looking around at work and all we've got is a bunch of medium sized desktops.

There are some gigantic servers that I would *almost* consider, but they weigh a freekin' ton. Plus it would be kind of hard to explain, stealth-wise. They are roomy, tho... :thinking:

Good luck with the grow, and let us know how it's going!
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
quinoa64 said:
Howdy, I'm an IT guy too. It's getting hard to find those full tower cases these days. I was looking around at work and all we've got is a bunch of medium sized desktops.

There are some gigantic servers that I would *almost* consider, but they weigh a freekin' ton. Plus it would be kind of hard to explain, stealth-wise. They are roomy, tho... :thinking:

Good luck with the grow, and let us know how it's going!
Click to expand...

Yeah, i lucked into this case. A family friend wanted to get rid of all the old computers in her house, so she gave me a call. Right away I knew there was no point in rebuilding this beast of a computer, so I gutted it 2 years ago in anticipation for turning it into a grow box. I doubt they sell regular desktops this big anymore, but maybe try checking craigslist. I find the majority of the computers there are either outdated or stolen, so you might strike it lucky

I honestly didn't think anyone was following my thread so I wasn't planning on updating. But since I sparked someone's interest here's an update....

So the 85watt bulb that i bought turned out to be a bust. I wasn't expecting a light so big when I ordered it online. I also wasn't expecting the massive amount of heat that this things gives off in a very concentrated area. The first 3 seeds that i planted ended up dying due to a combination of heat and overwatering. So I changed my design again, this time I'm using 4 23watt 2300k bulbs. This allows me to spread the heat from the bulbs out more. Plus computer fans seem to be much more effective in cooling lower watt bulbs.

I went to home depot to buy another socket splitter last week but they were all out. That doesn't matter right now because I only have 1 bulb going to cut back on the heat for the seedlings.

I also upgraded my exhaust/carbon scrubber fan with the most powerful pc fan I could find. It's working like a charm, the only problem is that it's loud as hell. I'm not too concerned about the noise though since I have so many computers in my room people will assume that's what's making the noise.

Seedlings:
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
Update - All 3 of the seeds that sprouted are now seedlings. I put 3 lights in and the temps seem to be fine since changing the ventilation system. Next week I'll go and buy another light splitter to get the 4th light in. I might add an extra fan when I add the 4th light, depending on the temps. This way actually works out better than my 85watt bulb because this setup would give me 92 watts that's spread throughout my case instead of 85watts in 1 small space.

 
TexMex McDirt

TexMex McDirt

Active member
Coming along nicely man. I tried a PC a few years ago and just couldn't get the damn temps right. It was always like 100 degrees plus in the damn thing. Seems like ventilation is one of the hardest things to nail in a stealth micro set up. Keep on keepin on man!

Cheers!
Tex
 
P

purplez

New member
I am about to start a micro grow so am real keen to see how you get on, great find on the case, I agree - they are all tiny nowadays, mine is small so will be fun getting it to work lol
 
K

Killkingkong

Active member
Update: Everything seems to be going well. All 3 plants are still alive, but 1 of them seems to be a mutant. This plant is the oldest, but it's also the shortest of the 3. It seems to be growing more outward than upward, so maybe it's just LSTing itself.

I put my Scrog in place with zip ties with holes that were already in the case, so that's taken care of now. I just ordered some maxibloom, but I won't be feeding it for another 2-3 weeks (when I switch to flower) since the soil has some nutes in it already.

I also ordered another carbon filter sheet that had great reviews on amazon. Hopefully this stuff works well. My exhaust fan is very powerful and it definitely creates a negative pressure zone. The negative pressure was even moreso after I took down the filter that i have tapes onto the intake vent.

Lastly I rearranged my fans inside the case. I now have at least 1 fan blowing directly on every light. The temps in the case are really good now. I'm going to push the envelope a bit and get a 42watt bulb from the home depot and put it on the far right, since that area gets the least amount of light. That will bring me from 92watts to 111watts total. Hopefully this doesn't ruin the temps for me though. I have 2 amps worth of pc fans running for a total of 5 fans. The exhaust fan is about half of that at .9 amps and the rest vary in amps, but add up to about 1.1amps.
 
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