Wow, how flipping cool to find something so unique and interesting and then actually find the guy who designed it over 18yrs ago! Anyways, you just touched on some of the points that I had floating around in my head for my specific needs. Sometimes the best way to hide something is in plain sight. Other than being inconspicuous and looking like it belongs in the room in the first place my thought logic was to design something functional that servers it's apparent function to the casual observer without drawing scrutiny past it's apparent function. As you mentioned friends and family but I'm also trying to be proactive and consider the times I'm not home and can't control the situation such as someone decided to enter my home without me being there. Correct me if I'm wrong but my line of thought is such that most situations like this the person is interested in stealing items that are easy such as electronics, I'd assume they go through the usual things like closets and drawers etc; I don't think most burglars are interested in trying to steal a fish tank and as such wouldn't consider it worthy of investigation as oppose to a cabinet per say. I also figured the sound of the fish pump/s would help since they are expected to be noisy and as such it's considered normal to hear sounds from a fish tank setup. Can you touch a little more on the setup as to what the dimensions were overall and that of the grow chamber? How much air flow did you find adequate for both ventilation and smell control via a carbon filter. I to had the idea of putting the growing camber platform on slide out rails so I can tend to the plants. I was thinking of having the front door hidden as in no handles and all trimmed out like in wainscoting. I'm not sure about how to attach the doors yet..perhaps on sliding rails or sunken hinges. If you had to do it again today what would you do different? I plan on using bridgelux led strips @ about 200W total and want the entire thing self contained as in the filter, fan etc all in the cab. Thanks for your time!
the cabinet started out as a 6 foot tall, 4 foot wide wardrobe with 2 doors. i cut off the top 2 feet of the cabinet and lowered the top of it. i then framed the inside of it with 2x4's for the needed support of the tank. then i created the air scrubber chamber on the left. it was the depth of the cabinet, 20" x 12"w x 36" tall. on the wall splitting the air scrubbing chamber i used 2 4" DC powered fans. they sucked air up through a hole in the floor between the two plant totes. if i remember correctly the fans were rated for 100-150 cfm. on the floor of the air scrubbing chamber i cut a 10"x16" hole, placed an air conditioner return air filter over it. built up cardboard sides on the edges of the filter and poured an 1" thick layer of activated carbon over it. there was also a small ozone generator hanging inside the air scrubbing chamber.
both the intakes and exhaust were open on the back side. i had framed channels underneath (for exhaust and intakes) to prevent light leaks.
as i stated, i started off with so much shit crammed in there. i found in the end, things rain cooler and better with just 2 bare 150 bulbs. 200 watts of LEDS will do you right. you can see in the pictures i scrogged, so i built some 1/2" pvc frames and chicken wire to support the plants.
getting the light leaks on the front doors was the trickiest, but some marine weatherstripping did the trick.
i too wanted to have a bare, natural looking cabinet, but that plan i had in my head did not work out. since i did have a key lock exposed on my doors, i had the ex wife sew up fitted cloth that just laid over the whole cabinet.
the plant totes were small 10 gallon sterlite brand, i believe. actual grow chamber 20"D x 36"W x 48"H.
i had to scrog everynight if i didn't want a mess. if i skipped two night, it would take an hour to scrog all the stretch back down.
btw, i started with 2 plants per tote. that was also too much and unnecessary...
couple more pics.
hope that helps, if you have other questions, fire away...
