Newbie with a Rough Situation but a Hopeful Plan. Please Help!

ok. so this is my first time growing and ive done a TON of research but i am doubtful about my plan.

I live in an apartment so odor care and security is a must. i ordered five seeds and i plan on having no more then five plants max at one time. most likely three and i will just work off clones.

my plan is i have a rubber maid 22 gal. box, dimentions are 24 1/4 x 18 5/8 x 17 5/8.

I want to place a 80mm computer fan on the side of one long end blowing air in and another on the oposite side blowing air out. on the out air side, i will have a air filter purifying the odors. along with burning insense and having those glade oil plug ins.

on the top of the bin i will install a light that will sit flush with the lid. (i thought i had picked a great light only to read some forums that it wont work, then talked to a dude at a hydro store, told him i was growing tomato plants along with some cooking herbs and needed a light and asked if my plan would work with an HPS 150 watt light. now granted he didnt know i was growing weed but he said it would kill the plants because its so intense.)

Just an inch below the lid i planned on have some sort of chicken wire or whatever for sea of green.

oh and i will also line the entire inside with mylar reflective material.

I will be doing these in soil and the box will be kept in my kitchen. I dont know how much odor i will get from plants since i have never been around any but my kitchen does have a door that closes along with a window for fresh air and i do a lot of cooking.

so my questions are, does this plan sound like a safe, (for both me and the plants) and working plan or am i kidding myself?

what kind of light should I have for this plan, should it work?

and with what i said earlier, will i be succsessfull in eliminating most if not all of the odors?

I also ordered five feminized white widow seeds from nirvana.

please help!!

im looking to put this thing together tomorrow so any advice would be helpful!!!

should I go CFL for the lights? Where can i get plug in fixtures for those?

This was originally the light i was going to use for my three future plants.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UV6P9I/ref=s9_simh_gw_p86_d0_i4?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0VX78SSB5J5CY4YMF21W&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

is it worth it? or should i do multiple CFL lights around the top of the bin?

that light looks good but i think you might need more
you will need to get a scrubber for five widows
but you got the right idea

Sorry for my noobness but thank you for the reply. I'm desperate for help.

Well I could do two of those lights. Do you think that would be fine if I did two of those lights from the amazon link?

Also, will it be too hot for my bin even with my ventilation?

And will those lights make my energy bill spike? I dont want to tip anyone off.

What is a scrubber? Sorry for all the questions!

Thanks for the help bro.

a scubber cleans the air of odors you can search "DIY scrubber"
those lights wont spike your bill
and i believe that folks on here acomplish this with PC fans...i use a larger type fan

i use a 80mm case fan myself, it does vent a 78w grow chamber nicely
so that may work for you, but a thermometer inside will be gold, walmart has a $4 job that works well
but odor may be an issue, a case fan will not have enough pressure to push through a scrubber/filter
removing odor can be better than masking, if you have suspicious neighbors, any strong odor may lead to questions(innocent or otherwise)

So just to be clear, the hps light will be too bright and harsh for my size box, right?

So what would be the best way to remove odors? The scrubber with a 120 mm fan?

i may be able to think of a perfect setup in your price range to help you out. i first started off with a 400 hps as a noob and it was easy as hell. a 400mh/400cmh will be perfect for 5 plants.

Robweed said:

So just to be clear, the hps light will be too bright and harsh for my size box, right?

So what would be the best way to remove odors? The scrubber with a 120 mm fan?

Click to expand...

from your dimensions, i read about 3 sq ft., one simple calculation is to have 50 watts per square foot, so a 150 could work well there
computer fans probably won't cut it for a scrubber setup, they just don't have that kind of pressure
i haven't used used them, but the fans that are typically used with scrubbers are one's that mount inside a ventilation pipe, used for heating or air conditioning
i have seen them at lowes/home depot, those kind of stores, they might be a bit of overkill for a grow chamber of this size

growone said:

from your dimensions, i read about 3 sq ft., one simple calculation is to have 50 watts per square foot, so a 150 could work well there
computer fans probably won't cut it for a scrubber setup, they just don't have that kind of pressure
i haven't used used them, but the fans that are typically used with scrubbers are one's that mount inside a ventilation pipe, used for heating or air conditioning
i have seen them at lowes/home depot, those kind of stores, they might be a bit of overkill for a grow chamber of this size

Click to expand...

ok well im going to post some pictures today of my set up to see what you dudes think

but since i live in an apartment i cannot have my energy bill shoot up otherwise ill have people snooping around. will running that single 150 hps light for all that time to grow my white widow shoot up the bill?

if i run two of those 125 CFL lights instead, would that be better for the bill and for my situation?

i need to decide today so a frickin awesome answer would be frickin SA weeeeet!

and also, what should i do for my vent situation? odor control is a must, im in an apartment so there must be almost ZERO smells!

pictures soon, but an answer about the light would be amazing!

for the most part, a watt is a watt, 150w of hps or cfl's is 150 watts
you're going to get similar heat from either
electric price is based on your local rates, but 150 shouldn't be too bad
i run 78w, i think it runs less than $10 a month, maybe a bit less
cfl's can be easier to setup, they are good for new growers, it's how i started and i like the results, so i've stuck with them
odor is a big deal, good security focus, you might get lucky with the strain being low odor, might not, it's a crap shoot
i haven't used them, but there might be a modest priced self contained odor fan setup from walmart
i think it has an intake, a carbon pad/filter inside,and an outflow
that could work, vent your grow chamber outflow to this self contained odor trap
good odor control isn't all that easy, a pre-built system could save a lot of headaches
my one plant grows haven't smelled too bad, so i've gotten by without odor control(for the moment)

ok so given my bin, if i did SCROG with say three white widow plants in my bin with one 150w HPS, would that be a solid idea?

i wont burn the plants will i? even if the plants mature to be two inches below the light? the bin is only roughly 18 inches tall and the light will be attached to the top of the inside of the lid so it will restrict space a bit.

what do you think is best?

im not worried about the energy price so much as i am worried about the energy people being suspect to the sudden rise in usage.

do you think the pre-built carbon filter would be better at odor control then a DIY one?

thanks for all your help bro!!!

i haven't used hps, so this is all second info, 2 inches i would think would be as close as you would want it, it might burn, you'd have to find some better sources
a cfl can be very close, it has to touch to burn a bud, this makes it easier for new growers
18 inches is a low ceiling, that could be tough, i've done LST with 28 inches
there are DIY plans here for carbon filters, it's tough to give you good advice on which way to go, so much depends on your setup

Your plan is flawed for one main reason....apartment growing. And you're worried about energy consumption of a 150 HPS? Guess your next question will be about yeild.............

im not too worried about my yield, what i get is what i get.

this is just something i wanted to try my hand at. if it doesnt work, then it doesnt work. but at least im on here asking questions on how i can improve and if i need to change my ideas. as long as i keep the odor under control, the only thing that would screw me would be energy consumption so yes i am worried about that a little bit.

why would my next question be about yield? i just want to do one to three small plants and thats it.

If you can afford it... a switchable digital ballast that would allow you to run HPS and MH... lumatek has a great one you could veg under 400 MH and bloom under 600 hps....

if things go reasonably well, you should to be able to get 1/3 of a gram per watt for a small setup, maybe more
but many factors affect that of course, strain is big determiner
i was able to get an oz from an LST with 78w of cfl's with a nl#5

as for ventilation go to lowes/home depot look at the nutone bathroom exhaust fans they have a 50 cfm exhaust fan for $14 get one to push air in and maybe another to pull air out. Are you on the first floor apartment or higher if you are higher opening a window with a fan can help with odor as it will be above most peoples heads also with the incense and other forms of masking agents I wouldn't think it would be too obvious. You can also look at getting a Carbon Sock they are like $30 at the hydro stores that with an inline fan would probably be your best bet.

By rdkindle at 2010-12-31[/IMG]


By rdkindle at 2010-12-31[/IMG]


By rdkindle at 2010-12-31


By rdkindle at 2010-12-31


By rdkindle at 2010-12-31

Here are pictures of my wanna soon be set up

the tripod in one of the pictures is meant to represent an extra air purifier right outside the carbon filter. this is me being extra careful.

also that bottom shelf that the bin sits on will be kept covered with a blanket most likely.

i am on the middle floor. there is a floor above me and a floor below me.