Quick and Dirty Citizen 1212 build

First build, first grow... currently vegging under ~250 Watts of T8's. Plants have almost outgrown the space so I need to get a new fixture for flowering.

This is going to be a work in progress in order to get the light spacing correct, while not make a complete mess/hack of it. Should be ok for first time around...

Grow footprint: ~30"x~52".

8x Citizen CLU048-1212C4
2x MeanWell HLG-185H-C1400B
8x CoolerMaster 2.5W CPU fans (lucky score on Newegg a while back.. $2 each!)
Cheapo 12V/40W Supply for fans...
Various 8020 aluminum extrusion bits I had laying around
Various aluminum pieces I had laying around

The 1212s are a nice fit on the cheapo CoolerMaster units:


A bit of testing temps to make sure the fan was up to snuff... seeing 30-35C across different units:


Heat sink and Fan on mounting plate... thought was to have some additional holes in order to allow for some adjustment. at this point f*ck it...



Frame taking shape:


Mostly completed wiring:


Another shot, a giant mess of fan wiring is gathered at the center and is somewhat tamed by bundling together with shrink tubing.

All buttoned up... fan wiring is a joke, decided just to keep the fan wires long for future builds and just wire tie everything up for now.

great looking build!

my only suggestion would be if reflectors were in your future bjbs kill 2 birds with one stone as you dont need 2 more holes

Hairiest_Stamen said:

All buttoned up... fan wiring is a joke, decided just to keep the fan wires long for future builds and just wire tie everything up for now.

View attachment 3989692

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I have some heatsinks similar to those. The problem I had using them like that was hot air blowing down on my girls - they didn't like that. My cheap COBs probably run a lot hotter than those 1212's though. My solution was a 90mm aluminum disk sandwiched between the cob and the heatsink.to deflect the fan wash.

nfhiggs said:

I have some heatsinks similar to those. The problem I had using them like that was hot air blowing down on my girls - they didn't like that. My cheap COBs probably run a lot hotter than those 1212's though. My solution was a 90mm aluminum disk sandwiched between the cob and the heatsink.to deflect the fan wash.

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Hmmm.. never thought about that. I've got a case of these same fans waiting for Cobby to get more cxm22's in stock. I wonder if the fans can be flipped over (reversing the fans would work against the blade design). Time for a little experimentation.

should have all colors tomorrow or next day. lemme guess... 3500k 90?

DrBlaze said:

Hmmm.. never thought about that. I've got a case of these same fans waiting for Cobby to get more cxm22's in stock. I wonder if the fans can be flipped over (reversing the fans would work against the blade design). Time for a little experimentation.

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Should be easily doable... probably would have to toss in a couple of washers between the sink and the fan at all 4 corners in order to provide a bit of clearance for the fan to rotate.

CobKits said:

should have all colors tomorrow or next day. lemme guess... 3500k 90?

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Actually 3000k 90cri... btw you mentioned at one point you were having better results with 90 cri...was it specifically the cxm22 you were talking about?

Hairiest_Stamen said:

Should be easily doable... probably would have to toss in a couple of washers between the sink and the fan at all 4 corners in order to provide a bit of clearance for the fan to rotate.

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Actually the fan spins freely upside down, and if you take out the springs the 4 attachment bolts are long enough to reattach the fan...just need to find some nuts for it.

Nice job man, Good to know about those fans blowing down and not up, didnt know that.

DrBlaze said:

Actually 3000k 90cri... btw you mentioned at one point you were having better results with 90 cri...was it specifically the cxm22 you were talking about?

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i use 90 cri, but i cant say ive done a controlled side by side just my feeling based on running same strains im used to under it. differences are more likely subtle and im always changing other factors

but yeah i wasnt 'out' of 3000k 90 but was down to last couple- i think i have 180 coming in

what will happen if the tent 50 in 50 santimetr (height 1 metr) used light 4 cxm22 3000k. 90 crs and 4000k. 80 crs in centre not reflector?
Thanks.

sellsell said:

what will happen if the tent 50 in 50 santimetr (height 1 metr) used light 4 cxm22 3000k. 90 crs and 4000k. 80 crs in centre not reflector?
Thanks.

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if done right you'll grow a bunch of good weed

i dont use reflectors at all in tents btw. youd get better mixing with no reflectors

Thanks Cobby.

Hairiest_Stamen said:

Should be easily doable... probably would have to toss in a couple of washers between the sink and the fan at all 4 corners in order to provide a bit of clearance for the fan to rotate.

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Yeah, mine had fans that could not be flipped.

Pretty much have moved to strips at this point. Seems to be a more affordable option.

DrBlaze said:

Actually the fan spins freely upside down, and if you take out the springs the 4 attachment bolts are long enough to reattach the fan...just need to find some nuts for it.

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Youre right.. there's a good couple of mm lip that allows it to spin. seems like there would be a negligible difference in temps? Although pulling hot air up above the fixture probably best.

I'm going to run it for a couple hours tonight in the shop just to see if anything goes chernobyl on me.

Hairiest_Stamen said:

Youre right.. there's a good couple of mm lip that allows it to spin. seems like there would be a negligible difference in temps? Although pulling hot air up above the fixture probably best.

I'm going to run it for a couple hours tonight in the shop just to see if anything goes chernobyl on me.

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Yeah its not for cooling that I'm going to flip all mine, its the air circulation that I'm after. These cpu fans actually tend to cool slightly better by pushing air (which is why they all are designed the same way), but I sure don't want 20 of them blowing all that hot air directly onto the canopy.

Was originally going to run a bunch of 1212 gen5 at around 25-30 watts , but decided to go for half as many cxm22 at 50 watts. With the additional hs costs the price was about the same, and efficiency would be about the same... and its half the work

Thats probably why Growmau and the bunch use pins. Makes sense now that I know about the downdraft of the fans, and pulling air over them probably does nearly nothing. ????

all this heat talk is the main reason im doing strips now,

InTheValley said:

Thats probably why Growmau and the bunch use pins. Makes sense now that I know about the downdraft of the fans, and pulling air over them probably does nearly nothing. ????

all this heat talk is the main reason im doing strips now,

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Pulling or pushing.. about the same amount of air volume moving by the heatsink. Pin heat sinks better long term (but $2 too cheap to pass up).. no 2-3W eff hit, no noise, no moving parts.

I may flip them over tonight if I can find some long 8-32s or M4s.. anyhow, only way I can proceed to flowering is to open up my grow box to the room due to 70+% humidity issues in my basement.... so my 2.5x4ft box is soon to become a 9x6ft room so heat issues becomes more manageable.

Flipped the fans, didn't have any 2" screws... so used the original hardware, luckily had some M3 nuts on hand.... I'm done I think, ha.