Newbie growbox diary.

Hey all, Well first off I just want to apologize about the lack of updates, everyone who's been leaving msgs and stuff have been incredibly helpful and supportive and just plain old cool. But holly shit has building this room been a trial, my main prob has been a high temperature and high noise.

For me I found that, lower temp = larger fan, and a larger fan meant one hell of a noise. I don’t know why but my fan sounded like a friken jet engine and the temp drop was only 2 degrees. It hovered around 32 degrees WITH my top gun fan running. That temp is only after 10-15 mins, imagine how high it would have been after 12 or 18hrs?

I bought a cool tube, which is awesome! but the noise was just as bad. I thought maybe the noise would be absorbed or something by the tube but that didn’t happen. I just think that my 600w HID is to powerful for my small grow room. That and my need for a quite grow crippled a lot of my choices.



I've been drilling and cutting and bend over taping shit for so long I honestly wanted to give up. I pretty much did for about 2hrs, but I couldn't quit you..... I had some White Rhinos germinating on the hot water cylinder and couldn’t bring myself to have an abortion. I had to carry on regardless how disenchanted or wasted I was, I had to do it for them..... So, keeping temp and noise in mind, I've decided to go cfl.

It’s not what I originally planned but damn it who gives a fuck.

Some pics of my current set up….

Hey Barncle Bill! Really, thanks for your help and support, you've been awsome. Hows your grows going? Excellent I hope.




Here's some stuff I've learnt over the past few weeks.....



Its 10x harder trying to build/work in a cramped environment.
Get the right tool for the right job.
Heat warps panda film, causing large ripples if not glued to surface.
Plans change.
Building for stealth makes everything harder.
A grow tent would have worked out far cheaper and far easier.
Attaching ducting to a hole used for exiting cables works as a great light trap.

But the most important thing I've learnt is this....

When I had my exhaust blowing out through the wall grill/vent it was very loud. But by first running the exhaust into a box and filling the box with cloth, which was attached to the vent the noise literally dropped around 90%, I was amazed and relieved to say the least. This is easily the best damn thing I've come across and would highly recommend to anybody looking to quite down there noise level to try out.

Whats up kiwiman, the updaates look good. WHat type of fan do you have cooling your light?

Tom

hey tom, I was using a 150mm Axial-Inline 120 LPS fan.

Hey kiwi good looking grow box!!

your cfl set-up will vegg you plants well but i'd try to find a way to eventually use that HPS that would rock your box and grow awesome plants in that area!

to maybe reduce noise you can put your box on styrofoam and get a bunch more to surround noisy external fans and have that in a box lined with eggcrate foam (or maybe try to find the kind they line recording studios with!

you could do the same for exhaust vents. have the end go to the bottom of a box maybe filled with packing peanuts, taped shut, and with many small holes at the top to let airflow thru. *note: never tried any of this but im sure you could figure out ways to reduce sound

Sorry for the long post but im really stoned and would hate to see you not use that 600W. Like i said the cfls will more than work for the veg, but in the mean time get
really high and McGuyver that shit!! Good Luck

Hey xxgmrxx, thanks for yah wise insightful stoner input. Yeah its pretty sad to shelve the 600watt, but that sounds like a good idea, using the cfl's just to veg the plants. It would buy me some time so I wouldnt end up halting my grow any further. Now yah mention it that audio foam they use to insulate recording studios might be worth a shot. Its like 30 bucks for 10 foam tiles.