150W HPS Cabinet LST Grow.

how much space do you have behind the box where the fans are pushing and pulling air from? it looks like very little which could leave that warm stuffy air back there lingering. you may be able to drop temps by pulling your unit away from the wall as much as possible and allowing more cool air to get to the back.

i might recommend ducting the vents up, but not yet because it may afford you some stealth with noise, as well as drop air flow.

Hey again Gumball. Thanks for the advise. Your set up looks awesome. interesting way you have grown your plants to suit your space. I had the same task of running tape around all the seams to seal out any light leaks from the inside.
The perspex idea could be a go with the HPS then. I can hold my hand a couple of inches from the bulb for ages and not burn. So with cool air flowing through a perspex tube I could be away laughing. And I have access to acrylic cement which I have used to make perspex fishtanks so it should be easy. I have everything ready. There is very little space behind the shelfs. About 20cm.
I have a box covering my intake hole to stop the light escaping behind the shelfs. The box is open at the bottom so not restrictive at all. Just serves as a light lock. It actually has a shet of carbon scrubber across the open end of the box, is that necessary on the intake? My exhaust runs into a home made carbon filter using a car pod filter. I will throw a pic up.
I have changed the set up since then though and my exhaust now runs through 1 meter length flexible ducting to the remote carbon filter. It helped with cooling so the fan was not pushing air straight into the filter.

Very interesting use of a small closet space. I really enjoyed see'n your LST methods. I just topped mine once and hoped for the best haha Luckily your girls stayed very healthy which looks to be very helpful in yields. Those little nugs remind me of mine haha I think your cooltube idea is great and truly believe that all hps bulbs should be cooltubed. I personally, have a $20 parking light that I ordered. If I took it apart and self ballasted it with a cool tube I would have 0 heat problems and could get the hps very close! I read that a 150w hps bulb loses a lot of lumens after 6'' so keeping it close is essential to penetrate the canopies.

My current grow will probably have very low yields, but there are soo many trichomes on these top colas, I still enjoy watching it bud I am also going to fully cure if before I smoke any of it to ensure it being truly enjoyed hehe

My next grow I am looking into grabbing a cheap tent off of ebay (2'x2'x5') and buy a 90w ufo led (said to cover 4 sq ft for heavy yields) then keep the parking light as supplemental side lighting. I see myself having no heat issues with the led and since the hps will only be side lighting it will not be a problem either. I am very excited for my next project! but thanks for stopping by my current grow and I figured I'd check out your grow journal. Props to the 150w hps!!

MJ Crescendo said:

Very interesting use of a small closet space. I really enjoyed see'n your LST methods. I just topped mine once and hoped for the best haha Luckily your girls stayed very healthy which looks to be very helpful in yields. Those little nugs remind me of mine haha I think your cooltube idea is great and truly believe that all hps bulbs should be cooltubed. I personally, have a $20 parking light that I ordered. If I took it apart and self ballasted it with a cool tube I would have 0 heat problems and could get the hps very close! I read that a 150w hps bulb loses a lot of lumens after 6'' so keeping it close is essential to penetrate the canopies.

My current grow will probably have very low yields, but there are soo many trichomes on these top colas, I still enjoy watching it bud I am also going to fully cure if before I smoke any of it to ensure it being truly enjoyed hehe

My next grow I am looking into grabbing a cheap tent off of ebay (2'x2'x5') and buy a 90w ufo led (said to cover 4 sq ft for heavy yields) then keep the parking light as supplemental side lighting. I see myself having no heat issues with the led and since the hps will only be side lighting it will not be a problem either. I am very excited for my next project! but thanks for stopping by my current grow and I figured I'd check out your grow journal. Props to the 150w hps!!

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Welcome to my journal MJ Crescendo. It is good to get people with similar set ups involved here. Yeah I think I will go ahead with the acrylic cooltube idea. It sounds like it will work a treat with my setup and stop a lot of problems. I have all the materials to make it, just need a couple of fans. I am all about doing things on the cheap.
I took apart my HPS lamp and made my own remote self ballast. I had to with the small space in there and the heat issue. It is not that hard, you just have to take note of which wires went where and I tested mine with a fuse breaker in case shit went wrong. I have had no problems at all with mine. If you look closely at the pics of my wardrobe on page 1 you can see a small alloy box on the right hand side of the top shelf. That's the ballast. So yeah, I have the same idea. A remote ballast and cooltube could be the way of the future.
I am going to take your advise on the 6" HPS rule. and move my plants a bit closer to the light. I don't think they will burn because it is also moving them closer to the fans. Could be a win win situation. I will try it and see how it goes.
The plants have stopped growing up now which is good, but funny enough I still have 6" of grow space left for the shelfs to be lowered. So they could have been taller. Good excersice in keeping them short though and I would rather have space left than not enough. They are really starting to bud up now which is magic. I noticed you are very interested in the LED UFO's. Could be a cool experiment. I will be sure to keep an eye on your posts.
Stick with the 150w HPS. You can't go wrong.

So I think I'll be fine for my current grow, but next time around, I'm going searching at home depot and see if I can find a small piece of this perplex sheeting (or something similar) I see your ballast in the first picture and I think I will be doing the same thing. I've taken this thing apart before, but without extra wire I was not able to separate it out. I need some wires and plastic sheeting then I can cool tube and self ballast it. I imagine that I would keep the light within 4'' if it was cool tubed. That would really help achieve some dense nugs. I guess I must find some computer fans as well hmm

I also will be taking thorough notes of the best lst and pruning methods. The next girlie's I have will be bushy as I can possibly get them. Yes! I am very interested in LED's and I see it being the future of lighting. I finally found the one legitimate company that sells led's that actually do produce dense buds. I think they are called Grow LED Hydro and I want there smallest LED which still runs a high cost of $350. I will have to work my ass off this summer to afford it, but I believe with proper light spectrum's that my girls will truly flourish. The biggest skeptics I have seen compare yields to HID lighting, but guess what, I will be using my HPS, so I see no problem there hehehe

Honestly, I do still want to grow in my closet, but I think that a grow tent will make ventilation much better (carbon filter) which I see difficulties using one in my closet without building something like yourself. Hopefully after $500 and some time I can get it all together and look forward to sharing it with the RIU community.

You sound like a man with a plan MJ. Hope it all works out for you. A tent would be ideal but highly conspicuous. Just depends on where you are and what you have to work with I guess.
I live in a flat with 5 other people so I have to keep my grow real low key. Hense the stealth precautions. Just the temperature is doing my head in! We actually have flat inspection in 4 days time so I will have to take the whole set up apart temporarily. It won't be a drama though. It should be quick and easy to pack up and re setup. The benefit of such a small operation.
And like I said, I have done this on a super tight budget. It will be good to see what you achieve MJ when you are prepared to throw some cash at a setup that suits you.

Decided to snap a few more pics after I gave them a water. So here is an update for you all. Still loving plants 2 and 3. They are pure lst magic. Plant 4 is the runt of the bunch. I will keep her around for shits and giggles though.
So here you are. Day 47 flowering. 10 points to anyone who can guess their strain?

looking great bagz, so your about a week behind me in flower cause thursday will be 8 weeks for me. i bout go that cooltube done. i have the bottom three pieces together, and I will leave the top so I can take it off and work on stuff if need be. i will get some pics as soon as it takes a little more shape.

i do think though with your setup, if you had a piece of plexi that would fit into you box just right, you could do like v12 and just pop 2 more holes on the top left and top right, and add another carbon filter to exhaust for any lingering odors. it would be a lot simpler to just mount one flat piece rather than build a square cool tube. i couldn't do it because I could not cut holes in the sides of my box without compromising stealth.

It is a good idea and would be a lot easier. Problem is all the perspex I have is to small to separate the top section. The pieces I have will make a cool box tube perfectly and I will just mount it to the roof. It will be about 400mm long x 150mm deep. and 200mm tall. I too will leave the top part off so it just fits around the hps and mounts to the roof. The ends will be blocked off with a round hole cut out both ends for ducting.
Do you need both inlet and exhaust fans or will just inlet do? and how close do ya think acrylic can get to the hps bulb? I have 4 sheets of acrylic, each 210mm x 400mm. If i leave it uncut there will only be just under 100mm either side of the bulb?

That sounds about like mine. I have a 7" (177mm) square by 18" (457mm) long tube. it will be totally enclosed and sealed. But the top will be removable if needed. I think the pdf I linked in a past post said the perspex could withstand up 100 degree celsius, but I just found something which said it would begin to soften at temps above 80 celsius. Check out this document www.gcip.co.uk/pdf/perspexmanual.pdf. It has some more specs. I think u will be good for temps, just put a thermometer about an inch or two from your bulb and and see what the temp is after a few hours.
Hope this helps

Good idea with the thermometer. I will try that tomorrow and see how it goes. Another option is to try and get some reflective allow and make a cooltube reflector. Seeing as I dont have a reflector at all at the moment. I am sure I can craft up something!

Maybe the panel insulation with reflective backin. That's what's on the walls of my box, and I want to use it for my cool tube reflectors as well. it don't absorb and retain heat like metal either. Just a thought. My insulation is like 3/8th's of an inch thick and very reflective

Plants look awsome and you asked a while back what day Im on of flower today is 42. I love that lst it looks awsome

yours's not lst man, it's surgery!!!

great work, this is exactly the kind of hps OP I would switch to if cfls won't yeld me enough
(& I'm subbed if I haven't pointed out it yet lol)

I like the results with cfl's, but I am gonna go to cmh just to deal less bulbs. I got tired of moving all the cfl's to get optimum coverage. Now I'm gonna do 2 42watt cfl, and a 100watt cmh. Hope to have that setup in about 2-3 months.

trifase said:

yours's not lst man, it's surgery!!!

great work, this is exactly the kind of hps OP I would switch to if cfls won't yeld me enough
(& I'm subbed if I haven't pointed out it yet lol)

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Haha, awesome comment trifase. Thanks for that. Good to see the interest here. It took a bit of patience during veg to train them down and around like that. Then it was just a case of keeping the canopy even. I have said earlier it is my first time training plants and I am more than happy with the result. It's not difficult and you certainly don't have to be a surgeon lol.
I did a fluro grow last year and was real disappointing, but fun and I learned a lot. The HPS is definitely a welcome addition.

Just had another look through your page quickrip. That is an incredible setup. I like the idea of a perpetual system going like yours, I just don't have the time. With my set up I can now water them once every two days and forget about them. Very low maintenance once they were trained.
Looks like Quickrip, Gumball and myself will be harvesting within a couple of weeks of each other. Good work team.

Bagz said:

Just had another look through your page quickrip. That is an incredible setup. I like the idea of a perpetual system going like yours, I just don't have the time. With my set up I can now water them once every two days and forget about them. Very low maintenance once they were trained.
Looks like Quickrip, Gumball and myself will be harvesting within a couple of weeks of each other. Good work team.

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Thanks buddy Its a work in progress but its coming along nicely. Happy harvest time in a few weeks yaaaahoooo!!!!

im also doing a 150HPS grow, but only one plant, yours look nice,subscribed, a little late, but better then never

kylen said:

im also doing a 150HPS grow, but only one plant, yours look nice,subscribed, a little late, but better then never

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Cheers for subscribing.Welcome aboard kylen, you are just in time for the fun part. I will check out your grow, it's interesting to see what other people can do with the 150W Hps.