My 3rd grow room setup.

After deliberation, I decided to convert a 2x8 closet into an all in 1 stealth grow rather than build a room in the garage.

I framed in half the closet and made a separate room and put a door. I tried to take some pictures, but unfortunately its a closet and I cant get far enough away to show you the setup, so I made a paint of it.



The long black things are doors. I started out wanting a better grow room, so I was aiming for a big one, then I realized that wasn't really my need, I just wanted a better one. Originally the closet had a 5 foot opening, so I framed 2 1/2 foot of it in and added a door inside of it. Now you walk into the closet and there is a door on the left to the flowering chamber. I am putting another door where you walk into the grow.

My goal was to create an entirely contained grow area, and I did.

I have started putting together a rDWC. The remote res is going to be at the bottom of the veg/clone chamber. This is so I can control heat better, and not have to bother the flowers to change/check the res.

It will be 3 10 gallon totes, heres an example of one, and pictures of the drains I installed.



Here are the parts I used to make the drains:



These are electrical conduit connectors. They are just regular pvc but grey to signify its an electrical line. They glue to regular pvc pipe and all. Im using 1/2" and 3/4" lines. 3/4 for all but the one going from my waterpump into the first DWC tub. Thats to restrict the flow so I (hopefully) dont get an overflow on my first tote.

I cut the holes with an exacto knife, I can actually screw the plastic pieces down tight on the tote without the nut. I seriously doubt they will leak since they wont have that much pressure on them in a 10 gallon tote. However, if they do leak during the test run I will just add some silicone to them. I used O Ring and more of a flat gasket, not sure which will be better, well see during the test run.

The pictures dont make much sense. First one is the wall from the inside(I only put the outside up so far. The second is the right hand side of the closet, the 3rd is the door already hung, the 4th is the wall from the outside, not painted yet The last one is the same as the second.

This is my current veg chamber, its not going to change a lot in the chamber, Im just going to hang the lights differently. Clones on top, veg in middle, and the remote res for the flowering on the bottom.


I once again used my trusty stanley blowers. This time I am using both of them, one to run a carbon filter and one to cool the light. I am exhausting into the attic this time. I can't see 600ws increasing the temp in the attic that much, if I am wrong, please, let me know so I can adjust my idea. Ill take pictures of the stanley blowers and the hood soon.



I have the stanley blowers hooked up to 6" duct, I upgraded to a 600w hps magnetic during the last week of the previous grow. Im running a Can Filter 33 carbon filter. There is no carpet in the closet and I painted the floor so it wont suck up moisture. I also have 4 mil black plastic sheeting that Im going to put down in case of leaks. I have an air cooled euro hood from HTGsupply.

I theorize that splitting my light and smell exhaust will do a few things.
1) decrease temperatures by increasing air flow to the hood and having 2 exhausts. I didn't have temp problems before though. 70s.
2) prepare me for using CO2 since I can just turn the scent exhaust off
3) make my carbon filter last longer - the less air that runs through it the longer it will last OR the better it will scrub. Either way its a plus.

Circulation I took a stand fan and flipped it upside down, Im going to hang it from chains on the roof. This way it doesnt take up much space in my grow and I get the left to right motion. The fan is something like this:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Optimus-30-Tall-Tower-Fan/11250082

It takes up all of like a 6 inch circle instead of how much room a big fan would take up, and it puts out a lot of air. Hanging it from chains makes it adjustable height too.

I have a 24/7 PH meter, milwaukee sms 120 I believe it was. I need to get a EC meter now, though its not absolutely necessary.

I also bought the pumps, one is a 66 gph pump that will be used to circulate the rdwc. If this is too strong Ill just add a 1/2" pvc valve and adjust it til it is the right flow.

The second is this one:




"Holy shit, what are you using that for??!!" you might ask.

The answer is this, Im lazy. The pump was 35 dollars. It does 350 gallons of water per hour. 30 gallon rdwc is like 5 minutes. I decided that I would probably only dump the res properly if I had it automated. I think dumping the res not quite frequently enough is the major thing that keeps me from maxing out my grow at this junction. So I got what is essentially a well pump, Im going to put a 1" bulkhead in the bottom of the remote res, mount this pump to the floor, and drill a hole in the wall to squirt it outside. I may also run PVC water lines to the grow. Flushing will be as easy as turning the pump on, then when its empty shutting it off and refilling it with water.

So I finally got around to setting up my ventilation. Here is a paintshop I made of it. Since the grow spans 3 small areas and door/the roof, it would be really hard to actually show it without it.

The intake comes from the soffit vent on the side of my house, and sucks it into the house and pushes it through the lines and out into the attic. If my exhaust into the attic only gets 100 degrees when its 80 outside, the air going into the attic can only get 100 degrees. In the daytime my attic is near that anyway, so there is no net gain in heat in the attic. Im just adding 100 degree air to 100 degree air so it stays 100 degrees. Im assuming that regardless of what the temperature outside is that the exhaust will stay about the same ratio, about 20 degrees higher than external temps? ie: 80 at 60 degrees outside, 60 at 40 degrees outside. Does cold/dry air carry heat less effectively enough than moist hot air to make a swing in my numbers in any significant way?




The carbon filter and second stanley blower are just for smell. Can 33 and a stanley blower. Its overkill even using it to vent the entire grow area (2x9). This is done on purpose, I want to not know the grow is there scent wise. I also have ozium autosprayers throughout the house. Im going to turn the blower on low to try to get closer to the minimum cfm rating on the filter and possibly hook it to a router controller from harbor freight to slow it down more. Does it make any difference on which speed I put the blower on if I put a controller on it? Im going on the assumption that the slower I pull the air through the cleaner it will be. Anyone have a guess as to how this correlates to the life of the filter?


INSTALLING ATTIC VENTS WITHOUT GETTING IN THE ATTIC:

I did not get in the attic for any of this. I simply cut a circle for the duct to fit into the roof where I wanted it to go.

For the exhaust, I cut the hole so it would barely fit the pipe. I cut it smaller then did it by eye til I could just squeeze the pipe in. I took the 3 foot metal pipe (10 bucks at lowes or so) and I pushed it into the hole til it was a foot and a half or so past the insulation. Then I siliconed it and put metal foil in tape around it.

For the intake, I took the 6" duct, cut a hole that was slightly smaller than the 6" duct. I reached up and pushed the insulation out of the way (using a plastic bag on my hand. There was only a piece of carboard in the way of the soffit vent, so I took it out and I put the 6" duct on my arm, grabbing it from the inside about a foot from the top of it, then I pushed it up into the hole and bent it over to the soffit vent. It held its shape, and since the hole was smaller than the duct, it held the duct without tape. So I taped it with metal foil tape anyway and was happy with it.

Heres a photoshop of it:

Heres some real pictures:

Heres some pictures of my rdwc setup. Its 2 10 gallon sterlite totes, covered in metal foil, and then with the PVC installed.



This is the bottom of the tote, with all 3 supports in place.

If you look at the corner, you can see the pvc being routed through the wall and around the door frame.

This is the bottom of the totes, with just the one support in place. I had to install it and nail it together like this, I couldnt get the the support in if I put it together due to it looping around the pvc

One of my stanley blowers, this is a temp until I decide where Im routing the output from the carbon filter.

This is a picture of the totes right side up.

So my tanks are set up, I still haven't installed the res yet, but I did run the lines and I have plants in it already. I have some finishing to do but its all in working order.

The first picture shows the lines coming out of the all around the door of the flowering chamber, the second is the plants obviously and you can see that there is 2 10 gallon totes hooked together with DIY bulkheads and pcv, then the last picture shows where my res will be as soon as I hook it up. Thats only about 20 minutes of work, mostly taping the res up with foil tape. Then Ill get my air pump hung from rubber mounts and get my veg/clone chamber set up on shelves above the res.

Ive been pulling 10-14 from a 400w hps,now I have a 600 with a better bulb, better tanks, and a res that is easier to change. If I get 1 gram a watt, Ill be happy.

The 2 plants in the pictures have been vegging for 3 months and I have been trimming them back, so they are fairly bushy. I took clones from them and the clones are now rooting. Ill probably flower 2 clones and use the other 2 as mothers. Thats given that all of them root properly, though I haven't lost a clone yet, even ones I completely ignored.

I set my res up and hooked it up. Adjusted the flow using the valves so it was recirculating without the water level getting too high in the first tote.

I also took some pictures of it, and some pictures of my super easy clone setup. You wont find an easier one, its just a clear tote turned upside down with a little water poured around the outside, with the clones in rockwool with rubber band holding them closed. It doesn't get any easier than that.

The pictures with the bars on them are inside the flowering chamber. The red box is my 600w magnetic hps ballast. Note the dual stanley blowers. The two connections are going into the room above the door. The one with the green box is my fuse box I ran to my room (12 gauge wire) That should do me even if I need to add another 600w, maybe even 2 more. Though I doubt I ever will. The green box ph meter.

Awesome! Hows things going now?

I harvested right over a pound on the 600 with the white widow. Doing wonder woman this time.

how many plants did you have?

I had 4 plants.

thats a nice harvest. also very good looking. im trying to set up a grow room and i hope i can do that good. keep up the good work.

Do you have lots of room for it and does it need to be hidden?

I'm just starting out but I have a nice mother and I recently got some clones to LIVE!! I am using cabinets but framing out a room soon...real soon.

its going to be in my basement and nobody goes in the basement. ill just have to cover the smell which shouldnt be to hard or atleast i hope not. lol

ill be using about a 6x6 area. only wanting 6-10 plants

I'm not sure yet about the size. I hope to frame it out in the next couple of weeks. It's looking like 12 x 12 but that could change.