Dual PC Stealth Grow -- Aurora Indica & Mazar x Afgan

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

Welcome back everyone. Got a few updates with pictures after all the bad news and realignment of plans. Basically I just gotta say, "Rollin down the street smoking indigo sipping on gin and juice..."is about how I feel after seeing the how far I came over the past few months.

I am going to start off with the pictures:

Pic 1: A picture of the rivetts and the correct side to drill them out.

Pic 2: lol, A picture of how I put the front panel on upside down

Pic 3: Skeleton of the pc case. Before I put the front panel on. Good clean cuts, though, I will say the 2nd tower looks much better than the 1st.

Pic 4: Another skeleton pic of the pc case.

Pic 5: Finished product of both cases lol

Pic 6: "" "" ""

Pic 7: Picture of the placement of the fans. One is 100-120mm (exhaust) the other is a 80mm (intake). This leads me to a question. How do you know which way the air flow goes?

Pic 8: "" "" ""

Pic 9: Place of lights. I was unable to get 4 lights on these cheap power cords. I will be upgrading asap, but till then.

Pic 10: Placement of power cord for fans and if I can find a way the timer, but the timer plug-in is on the right side. When plugged in to the 2nd power strip the side where I plug in the power cord with the lights for the timer is against the wall. One of the fans limits my space on that side.

Also, for the best update of all I have started my first Aurora Indica germination. I hope by tomorrow night I can plant her As typing I am hand selecting her

Questions and Comments:

1. I have decided to go with ph test strips for now. However, on my nutes what type of tester do I need? I know there are a few abrevs like TDS and EC I think. Can someone explain this to me or show me a ideal meter, please.

2. Are all purpose ferts/nutes good? Like 5-5-5 or something near that?

3. If I use an all purpose nute pack would I have to have a nute meter?

LT, hope you like these pics. Not the best, but I think I can upgrade it to produce some nice results. What's your set up?

DCN, Thank you for the drill suggestion! I take my pics with my phone so I might suggest that just to get some up. However, if you become the Bill Gates of weed I want in

As for the ballast suggestion, it sounds great. I read though it, but like I said I am very ignorant with this type of stuff. I did understand the summary and how it positivity effects a small grow like this. I would have to have a very *4 dummies type tutorial though so if you make one link me! Even if I don't do it soon (money's a bit tit till the end of the month), I could definitely grow into it just to upgrade. I was going to upgrade my power strips, so this would just save me money as I spent it How much would this roughly cost also?

I think that pretty much updates me for now. I have to glue everything into place. Order my Mylar and Nute pack, grab some ph test strips, and finally get my fans working or atleast one unit. I hope the pictures interested everyone and were well described. Well see where we're at tomorrow

-X

Hey Xander
Great pics. Should help a lot of of people.
You can prolly get by with a 5N-5P-5K but plants do use much more N in veg and P/K in flower so if you can buy stuff biased for the diff growing stages you will get better results.
TDS is total dissolved solids and EC is electrical conductivity. Both are ways of measuring the amount of goodies in the water. Water quality varies greatly too and the meters will identify if your water already has a lot of chemicals in it, something that you cannot adjust for if you just use the standard 1 spoon per gall printed on the side of the nutes.
Good luck with the seeds.

Really appreciate your efforts dcn. Thank you.
There's a couple of options that your knowledge opens up. A single ballast from a 125w light could be moved outside and used to power 10 x 12w bulbs in a much smaller and cooler space. Also, the 125 watters often pop when being tested at the shop but my guess is that it's the bllast that has gone, so maybe we can pick up broken 125's for a pittance and wire them up to working ballasts for a big cash saving.

Mmmm I wouldnt see it costing much to do. You can get buy with super high gauge (small diameter) wire. Regular phone line has 4 wires (and conveniently color coded!), you can use that to go between the ballast and the bulb. Then the cheapest 2-wire cable, usually "lamp cord" will go from your ballast to power. Knife, glue gun, maybe soldering iron for clean connections. A small strip of wood to mount it to. That's it.

I'll definitely get a camera soon and post up a DIY and give you all the link.

Hey Xander
Forgot to answer one of your q's. To tell which way the air flows on a pc fan just look at the sticker with the model info on it. If you are looking at the sticker then the air will be blowing towards you, so you need the sticker facing out of the case for the exhaust and facing into the case for the intake.

Yeah about your fans, with exhaust on top of intake, the air's going to take the path of least resistance and loop in thru intake and right out again thru the exhaust. I would honestly run both those fans exhaust and have passive intake at the bottom somewhere. You kinda want the intake to be coming in at the bottom anyway.

Day 1, June 8th, 2009

Hello everyone, good to see you.

For my daily updates, I have glued everything into place on both units. Rearranged my plans for 2 power cords insider the tower to only one. This one will power the lights and connect to a cheap extension cord *not grounded* and it into the timer *not grounded* on a surge protector. From there I will have 2 more plug-in filled by cellphone chargers to the fans.

As I am sure you guys know I found the fans thank god. They were inside the 2nd unit which I didn't open till I had them for half a week. Anyways you seen in the last post that I got them hooked up and placed.

I have taped everything up. I will then add a layer of mylar and cross my fingers and hope that both units are at least 90% light proof.

I think I might have found a nute meter I can afford. I was looking on amazon.com and I can afford the top three on this page. Please let me know what you think and if they would serve their purpose well.

As for the nutes I think I have decided to start off on an all purpose pack. It is a 3-8-8 and is fairly cheap on the pocket and I think I will still be able to use even if I don't have a nute meter.

However, for the most exciting news of all. I have saved the best for last. I have checked on my baby at 12 hrs and nothing. But when I checked on her at 24 hrs I could see a tip of root This baby should be in soil by tomorrow afternoon. This gives me just enough time to run and get the extension cords I need for the lights. Perfect timing

Questions and Comments:

V12, is your name be biased on a jaguar car? Back on topic, since you suggested more PK I found a 3-8-8 feeding package. My question is now, can I run this nute pack after two weeks since I will always be in a 12.12?

Also, I will probably be using bottled water for watering and feeding. I will be able to get ph test strips and hopefully a nute/water tester from the amazon links above. I am looking forward to which one you suggest. All the meters are in my price range, just hope they are good enough to do the job.

Thank you for the luck. I am going to take that luck and put it towards my baby being a lady of great stature. Also, thanks for the air flow info! Appreciate it!

DCN, I can't wait to see your post on this. It doesn't sound like to much work and seems to have several benefits.

As for my fans, when I think back most of the PCs are built with the intake at the bottom. I just didn't want to have to cut anything out. If I start seeing a problem I will adjust them. I am putting a carbon filter over the exhaust so I am hoping that will slow it down a little bit and allow some air in. We'll just have to see though.


Other Misc Note I Forgot:

To who ever said they were growing g13xhaze and purple lady, please keep me updated on how that is going. I was really looking into those strains

PICTURES:

Pics 1-2: Finished products after hot gluing the power strip to the top.

Pic 3: My baby, hopefully a lady of great stature

Well guys, that wraps me up for tonight. Hope everyone has a good week!

-X

is that a root tap? IF so...its ready for soil now ! plant it just 1/3 of an inch under soil at most!

gratz ! you got nuggage on the way! o and im drunk as fuck! HI OHHHH

Hey Xander
Good call on my handle. I love my cars and the Jag was an awesome beast with impeccable manners

Had a look at the meters. I prolly wouldn't choose the top one as it doesn't allow recalibration so you will never know quite how accurate it is. For the money, the 2nd one looks like great value, can be recalibrated and should be pretty accurate from the off. I would be happy to use this one.
The last one is the best of the lot and will last a lifetime. It reads either TDS or EC and this is prolly the most accurate of them all. The temp function will prove useful if you ever go hydro, so it covers all the bases. If I could afford it, this is the one I would buy.
Your nutes sound pretty well suited to the 12/12 system. Personally I would wait until you see the first preflowers before you begin feeding, as the plant and the soil should have enough starter nutes.

In my experience the bottom intakes are a bit of a waste of time when used with pc fans. I think I would use the 2 apertures above the lower fan in pic 1. The central one would provide some cooling and airflow for the canopy and the upper one would put cool air directly on to the lights. This will make a big difference in temps compared to the current plan.

So pissed, I had a post all typed out. Here we go again...
Right now I'm growing G13 Labs Purple Lady and White Widow. Got lazy/concerned about noise of more powerful exhaust/heat from HPS and finishing under 200w of 2700k CFLs.
I should get off my butt tonight and start germinating some of my next genetics, DNA Genetics Kushberry and Barney's Farm G13 Haze.
I dug out my old Canon PowerShit A75 and after some editing I'll be posting up some pix.

Edit: Here ya go guys, pictures of my ladies.

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

So we are on the first day of being in soil. To be completely honest, though, I might have messed up a bit. After getting my pea cup ready I forgot to water before I planted the seed and I am paranoid that when I watered that it might have jarred the seed some how. I don't know if I am just being paranoid because I have not seen any growth yet, or should actually worry. I understand that I should not expect anything until at least 24 hours, but literally as soon as I poured that water I seen in my head the seed getting jarred around.

Anyways, I am a little high so I might ramble a bit. I will say that it is a bit awkward to not really have any updates or some new plan development. Although, it is a peaceful serenity to know that soon I will be smoking an amazing quality of blue (never smoked anything blue before) bud.

Questions and Comments:

LT, yeah it was a root tap, but it was still really small. I usually wait till it is .25 in long before I plant. I believe I read some where that it helps stem growth and cracks open the shell more making it easier for the plant to shed later on. Don't know if that is true or not, but I did plant it before it got to long.

Thanks for the congrats, and I'll smoke some of that nuggage if you drink a few for me

V12, Thank you. I have been looking at an 05 X or S-Type for the past few months. I wish I could afford a xj series though. The 2009 XJ8s are breath taking.

Thank you for taking the time to checking out those meters for me. You sold me on the third one because eventually I do want to go hydro weather its 6 months from now or 6 years. I don't know how these things work so I might be pm'ing you in the near future Also, thanks for commenting on the nutes and feeding schedule.

As for the fan issue, are you suggesting that I use 2x fans in the large apertures above the large fan? If so I think that should be fairly easy. To be honest I don't really foresee a problem with just 3 lights in there, however, I do value the information since I will be adding more lights later on.

DCN, pleeeease tell me that you had a huge post typed out and it log-ed you out? That shit happens to me alllllllll the time.

Anyways, sorry I couldn't remember that you said you had the purple lady and g13xhaze. I had it in the back of my mind for the past few nights, but when I went to post I never remembered to ask about it. I have commented in your journal and if you still have some time left to go I would def subscribe. I seriously can't wait to see the g13xhaze, but the kushberry sounds absolutely delicious.

Btw, did you have a 70w or 150w hps? I think you have said before, just can't remember.

Anyways, keep up the good work man. Your swagga looks straight poisonous. Can't wait for the smoke report!

Got a quick question before I hit the hay. Does anyone know of any natural way to raise and lower ph. I think I may have read (i get hy alot ) that maybe lemon juice raises and vinegar lowers it? Anything like this true?

That pretty much wraps it up for me and my growing family In less serious news my 'lucky bamboo' plant that was recently looking ill has sprung back. Now looking lush, green, and healthy. I trimmed off the dead leaves (lvl 2 Trimmer now ) and took it out of the direct sun light.

Good Nite Everyone,
-X

Yeah I thought kushberry sounded yummy too. I have a Lumatek 250w e-ballast (autosensing mh/hps). Not hooked up - partially laziness, partially worried about heat and extra noise made to cool it.

In my current living situation, I may just keep running CFL's (200w right now) as they're retarded easy to work with. Pretty sure I'm going to have a place to my own next year, then I'll run the HPS.

Grats on hitting soil. Don't worry about jostling the seed, it'll find it's way out to the "sun." I think my Purple Lady had a problem shedding its seed casing - I carefully pulled it off a couple days after it popped through the soil.

I think that vinegar and lemon juice is right. Lemon juice is acidic, that's PH down right? For the most part you shouldn't need to PH up. Oh checked the internet - Vinegar isn't what you want, it's also acidic - Lemon Juice 2.2, Vinegar 2.4. Ammonia is basic (PH up) at 11.9.

Hey Xander

You got it right. I was talking about using the 2 spaces you created above the main fan. That setup is the best I've found for cooling a case.
Good luck with the Jag purchase. You'll love any of them, but the S Type is fab and the XJ is just a joy to drive.

Hey guys,

So no important updates yet. I figure that I'll see some greenage peaking through tomorrow. I still haven't got my lights fully functional yet, but I thought it was best to keep them in dark until they break the surface? Been wondering about that, because I hope I am not ceasing progress by not having some light it yet. I will be ordering my mylar, nutes, and nute meter tomorrow. As well, I will be picking up my scotch brite towels, ph test strips, and extension cords for the lights. I am extremely glad that I decided to only put one power strip in each unit because since they are under my desk in order for me to removed them from under my desk I have to have a extension cord. This, also, allows me to put my fan cords on the extension cords, however, this will put my fans on the timer, too. Does anyone see a problem with this? Smell is a concern for me.

DCN, Understand the need for stealth bro. Good luck finding a place, I too, will be looking next year. If things are still stable and I can sustain myself on growing mj . Glad to hear you have such a nice hps system. They will do you wonders in the future. I think it is very beneficial to small and medium grows, sad to hear that is not the same for micros.

Thanks, the soil really is a milestone. It really 'hit' me when I was like, "oh shit, I dont know what day it is....when does the next one hit soil?". Shortly after I knew it was 7-8 days and then I got really excited. If you dont mind me asking how does your purple lady do? I was really interested with her, but them I was just showing my girlfriend her and I guess they updated their site and now it has tall *or maybe always had tall, but don't think so*. Just wondering about that, because yours look amazing! Also, how many times did you top her?

Once again DCN, thanks for helping me with the natural ph adjusters. It gives me a more organic feel and will save me money in up and down solution.

V12, Yes I see what your saying. Very nice option and later down will more than likely be a requirement. Good news is I have 4+ 80mm fans sitting here. To be honest I way over ordered everything. To many fans, power cords, lights, and others surely will come to mind when I come down. I'll keep you in mind and let you know if I do end up getting a jaguar.


I got a quick idea to ponder. I was thinking if I used velcro placed every inch or so on one side of the unit that I could have less limited lighting adjustments. Don't know if I will do it or not, but I could understand why someone would.

Talk to you guys tomorrow!

-X

velcro doesnt hold surgers well i tried it.....fall off on your plants would suck...


I would suggust stealing dopewears idea, Shelf bracket's in the back and rig your lights on hooks for the bracket

Ya that would be devastating to the plants. I will probably go with v12's idea for now. I have alot of extra dvd cases floating around.

yah dvd cases would help you in your perpetual grow....when some need to be raised and others dont.
keep on truckin bro

Hey Xander
Try to give the seedling a little light even though it's under soil. They seem to use the light to work out which way is up. I've often seen the root break through the soil instead of the top. It's no big deal but it does delay things a few days as the plant rights itself.

I vegged my WW and Purple Lady for maybe 2 weeks, never topped. If you LST, the lower nodes grow up to become new colas.. I had them tied down, the main cola on both plants that's sticking up was actually level with the rest of the canopy. I untied them once I saw that the lower part of the main cola could use more light. Both plants' vertical growth was very slow in veg, they were way too compact for my liking. It probably had to do with me keeping the CFL's too close, maybe some overwatering - hard to say. If they had never been LST'ed they would be about...12-15 inches tall. You could easily run Purple Lady in a case, and I would recommend giving it some veg time to do it justice.

I second the raise plants instead of move lights suggestions. Much easier, and if whatever is propping up your plants fails, they just get less light for a bit until you check on them. If the mechanism you rig to move your lights fails, goodbye plants! In more than a few grows I've seen people have redundant suspension systems on their HIDs just in case of failure.

I don't know if you want to wait for green to pop before you light up - I don't know how it affects the seedling before they break surface, but after they do, if they have no and/or faint light they will stretch like crazy. Using the lights before the plant sprouts will not harm it.

Wow, God damn do I love forums that log you out after keying a real long fucking message.

Anyways, like I was saying in my last fucking post that didn't take. I have had a rough past few days. I am sorry for the lack of updates, but Wednesday night I felt ill and last night the forum was down.

Anyways, my 1st unit *I am going to call A* is made of a reflective metal inside and I have been having major heat problems. Without the fans it was 112F and after the fans were installed dropped to 100F.

Also, I have been having trouble with both units and their lights staying super glued. Both units lights fell once, and after re super gluing them last night the 1st unit, A (B will the the 2nd unit), never fell again after I installed the fans. However, since I was having such a heat problem with A, I decided to shut it down and see what temps B got.

B, without the fans stabled off at 88F. I decided to run it for a few hours to give my plant some nice needed light. However, when I awoke today I found that my lights had fallen, landed, and killed my 1st plant. I think this is because I did not have the fans going on unit B.

My current conclusions are: A will hopefully have a more stable temp once I get the mylar installed. I think that the metal is taking the light and transferring it to heat. As for the lights staying up. I think they will be fine once I get both units fans installed.

I would really like to hear everyone's thoughts on this. I am really getting stressed and with the death of my 1st plant that already puts me behind schedule. I do have my mylar, nutes, ph test strips, and nute meter on their way. They should be here by the end of next week. Please help me.

If the site is up tonight, I will have a more detailed update. I am stuck at work right now and just really stressing over what I should do or what is wrong.

-X

yah i typed a ...message that long yesterday and BAM site was down for 12 hours the second i click post


alright so...are you Fans set up like....2 exaust int he back top and a passive intake some where on the bottom?..

or do you have a exuast and intake next to each other on the back top?

Superglue is iffy...you plants gotta live for 3-5 months in those homes...i'd invest into industiral double sided tape...with the help of some super glue on the side...Safe is WAYYYY better then dead plants after 4 weeks of vegging...

picture of your complete towers maybe would help? EDIT: I didnt notice your fans were in your old pictures.... it looks like you have an intake right under your exaust...whent heya re that close it makes it almost pointless to even have fans i had to put a greater distance between my exaust and intake and i make my intake passive and 2 exaust fans ....lowered my mini fridge temp from 98 and raising... to 78-82. hope this helps/

Keep on truckin man it's a bitch to get it right but once you get your own methods youll be good.