Chanzon Chinese Cob 500w Cheap budget Diy light grow

So this is a light Slim built a year or so ago on a super cheap budget. Slim opted for the £3.86 chanzon 50w 3000K cob. Slim used the £4.89 alpine gt64 cpu cooler as his cooling method for the chips. The chips are powered by two hlg mean well drivers, these were the parts of the build Slim struggled to find a cheaper alternative of, Slim could have attempted to build his own driver but slim is not quite confident enough yet. Considering slim would not allways be around to keep an eye on his diy wiring. Slim powered the cpu cooler fans by using a 1.5a 12v dc power supply and wired the fans up in series. Slim cable tied the cpu coolers to an aluminium rail frame, tied and taped the cables out of the way and hung it up. The cpu coolers and chips have never got more than warm to the touch, has done an adequate job for cooling the chips at full whack, considering the coolers are rated for upto 70w processors. Room temp lights on is a consistent 25-26 degrees Celsius. Slim is currently on his 3rd grow with this light. 1st grow was Red diesel and amnesia lemon, only two plants scrogged in a 4x4 Pulled 0.96g per Watt. Second grow was alittle dissapointing, had a feeding mistake as had 6 different strains and over fed two early in flower. Managed to pull 0.9g per Watt. Currently on the third grow with 8 clones of northen lights x bigbud in a Sog style grow. 2 clones per pot. Using Advanced Nutrients connoisseur in coco, currently switched brand to a UK brand Demon nutrients after a friend introduced me, only using the super Pk for this grow as still have lots of the advanced left. He has had good results so far, Slim is hoping for some good results. Will try to update as much as poss, been on here a while but not posted much. Just flipped to 12/12 4-5 days ago, hopefully will fill out slightly more, lst to come.

And yes, that is tin foil on the walls

slim?

sethimus said:

slim?

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The friendly grower

that's quite the fast flowerer if it started flowering 4 days ago

eyderbuddy said:

that's quite the fast flowerer if it started flowering 4 days ago

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The clones have been itching to flower, very mature clones so have burst out of the gate, maybe a few days out but it's surprised slim too, The mother is also flowering under some blurple lights and that didn't even stretch after the 12/12 switch, just spat out pistills and started forming buds. Not much of a stretcher, hopefully the buds will be nice and fat

Are those the base and pot of an autopot xl without the tubing and aqua valve?

coreywebster said:

Are those the base and pot of an autopot xl without the tubing and aqua valve?

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They are indeed! Decided not to use them this time round, slim missed the daily interaction with the plants haha its slims final grow in this location, so enjoy it while it lasts. Growing future is uncertain but slim is adamant to continue after the move. Auto pots work well, not had any root issues however you must use the air stone in the res and ideally the air dome in the roots

StradaSam95 said:

They are indeed! Decided not to use them this time round, slim missed the daily interaction with the plants haha its slims final grow in this location, so enjoy it while it lasts. Growing future is uncertain but slim is adamant to continue after the move. Auto pots work well, not had any root issues however you must use the air stone in the res and ideally the air dome in the roots

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Yeah I used to run them myself and stopped for the same reason, plus I missed a hermie because I never had to get amongst the plants. I don't rate them tbh , they are ok if you cant get to your grow often.
I never used air stones, just a water pump to create a waterfall.

coreywebster said:

Yeah I used to run them myself and stopped for the same reason, plus I missed a hermie because I never had to get amongst the plants. I don't rate them tbh , they are ok if you cant get to your grow often.
I never used air stones, just a water pump to create a waterfall.

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The air dome in the roots can give similar results to hydro due to the intense amount of air at the roots, however I do agree with you, unless you're away for a few days. Slim left his for a week while on holiday, life saver. No asking a friend to water. Slim would love to progress onto hydro or airoponics.

Slim is u lol

Some young nugs.
Slim is pretty impressed with the recent growth spurt and slight upping of the super Pk. Still seem to be suffering with a slight cal mag deficiency, more needed next feed. Light lowered and full power.

I've seen Chinese cob lights that people removed the chips & replaced them with citizen chips & new thermal paste between the chip & heatsink retaining the Chinese heatsink , fan & individual drivers in their original housing , this is a bit different but seems to be working

horribleherk said:

I've seen Chinese cob lights that people removed the chips & replaced them with citizen chips & new thermal paste between the chip & heatsink retaining the Chinese heatsink , fan & individual drivers in their original housing , this is a bit different but seems to be working

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I get that the higher quality chips are more efficient and higher PAR levels but this was more of a test of the cheapo cob chips themselves, seem to have done OK. I'd like to move onto combining these with some Chinese quantum boards

So here's how the ladies are looking today



Here's a shot of the rather neglected and light burnt mother, allowed to grow up into the light. Since been scrogged hard and flipped. Few weeks down the line, slim really should be more organised with keeping track of things... slim is bumping all the nutrients and Pk up at this point as noticing slight deficiency as the buds begin to form.