The Skunklab - DWC Stealth Cabinet and 4X4 Tent

I hope all stoner bands record this way... I always wondered if they ever recorded in a grow room.... now we know. When you hooking it up with a demo bro? I'm interested.

I love the nursery set up, very nice, I think I'm going to copy it actually. Very clean. And it's sort of a slap together job, but it's just as good as you would see in any commercial nursery, all it needs is some zipties to make it pretty. But that drip set up seems like a great way to get a huge nursery in a small space.

theres the sorta finished thing. big pink floydesque loop is because i had only Ts, no Ls. Could also use this to add a separate circuit on the lower half of the loop. add valves and you're set. need to be careful though. the lower the dripper, the more fluid you will deliver after the pump is shut off. this counts for hooking drippers up on the lower portion of this loop (notice i have nothing attached there, my connections are crowded up top), and also counts for running a longer length of tubing down to cups on the ground. for instance, my cups on the ground there get an extra 12" or so X 1/4" tubing capacity after the pump shuts off, so must account for this by placing only more mature and hopefully hungrier plants down on the bottom.

hoping this makes sense. kind of a bitch to describe but it's extremely important when rigging drippers with a vertical manifold like this.

the cool way to do it would be to have neat 1/2" Us and Ls under the ledge there so the whole loop could run under the ledge. no real reason it needs to be all big like that.

i really dislike this area. it's really no more than basic quarters and life support for clones and teens. too small for moms, can't really power veg .. i'd like to replace it with a better nursery/teen/mom area and use this as a small dwc pre-flower veg area. a place to get roots dangling from the net pots before the go into the big chambers.

my replacement for this veg area is currently in R&D. latest design is based on a lateral file cabinet and as many T5s or whatevers i can cram in there. maybe using tent wall zip stuff for a front after removing the drawers.

and man the springtails are back in force 72 hours after removing the DE. will re-lay it down after i'm done dicking with the drippers.

so far 24-30ml per day is looking good for the party cups.

The Floydesque ring is fine by me, use what you have, waste not what not, etc. And like you said, you could use that for another row of babies or to hook up to your moms/teens. Before I can give you an answer for the problems with the overflow you have already written them out. haha, I feel like a parrot over here.

If you want to do some serious vegging, I would recommend MH. T5's will never do for you what MH can, and I guarantee better clones from moms that are grown under MH. What type of light are you using in your cab right now? I forgot. Because I see great opportunity for a vertical 200w CFL. in your space if you keep all the plants small like you have there and put the larger vegging plants in your new veg chamber. Me and my old grow partner designed a few real simple cabs before with minimal supplies and got maximum output, they were all pretty clever actually, and so simple it almost pisses you off that you can get away with it. I can post up some pics if you'd like.... if I can find any.

Very cool lil coliseum room ya got there

when something moves from this cab into the cabinet flower chamber it's starting on MH for a week or two, then the flip, MH for a week or so after that, then change to HPS about the same time as the switch to bloom sauce.

i don't own a 1000w MH bulb for the tent. planned on getting one to do as above with the cabinet, but it's been working out so well in there that i just haven't bothered. especially now with the led in there. maybe the MH would cut down on the stretch some, depending on who you ask. either way, still pretty damn good.

i've actually been pleasantly surprised at how well that T5 in there does. it's not the fastest growth in the world but it's very consistent, and fits perfectly (4x 2' T5 bulbs in the thing). this is great for me since i don't really want fast growth in there anyway. clones aren't going anywhere but to be traded or experimented with. of the 30 or so clones in there now, i'll actually use maybe 6? something like that. i don't need all those plants growing quickly when i don't really have a use for them other than trading for other strains. generally, the slower things grow in there the better. the replacement veg chamber will be more for plants that i actually want to veg, help me cut down on veg time in the flower chambers, etc. even then, i'm leaning away from HID lighting for either led or flouros of some sort. i want a very simple setup, without much worry over heat. i don't need to worry about vegging quickly, and if i do, i'll just put the flower chamber in MH mode and spend a week on it.

again just mind the gravity when creating a drip system like this. i quickly had 3 clones completely drowning before i figured this out. duh. would be best to run the loop around the floor of the chamber but i was worried about trying to push .25" line up 18" to the ledge with a very small pump. if i redo this i'll give it a shot, i didn't even try.

next job is a safety net of sorts. ready for hempy cups on the ledge, need some basins down below and we'll do the same there. then get slick and run some drainage out of the cab. 4gal of sauce should last 5ish weeks, a little less. if no worries about drainage then the only maintenance issue becomes twirling the cups around now and then so the clones don't all grow crooked.

so glad i found those perfect sized drawer organizer things at the $1 store. the unused extras are great for storing little bits like micro sprinkler parts and tubing connectors. the ledge cups are nice and stable now. this would have been a mess of tipped cups without em.

i love t5s personally use em for veg and flower with great results. obviously gotta grow the plants shorter so the light can work to its full potential but they sure do put out some fat bud!

MH is a great light for veg but overkill in most applications as veggers just dont need that amount of light unless they gettin vegged to a large size.

that's exactly right man, and why i just t5's in that little cab. when these girls are ready to veg up larger then they get the MH in the cab or, what so far is working out really damn well, LED + HPS in the tent. 2 weeks veg in there grows a plant over twice as large as that whole clone/whatever section.

the colosseum is a good word for it. maybe start using that, thanks!

notes and considerations on drip system installation:

Lowe's is the preferred spot around here to find drippers and related bits. Excellent selection, prices fine. Mine was missing only .25in elbows. They have drippers ranging from .5 - 3gal per hour. Hydro stores typically only carry 2gal/hr, and the guy at my local shop claimed the way to reduce the flow was use a 2gal/hour pressure compensating dripper ahead of the regular 2gal/hr dripper, to lower the flow. wtf?
Fuck home depot, but we already know that.
Use the actual tool to punch the holes. Don't take the hydro shop guy's advice and just use your scissors to poke a hole dude. Guaranteed to leak if you do. Not a single leak using the tool, well worth a couple of bucks.
Gravity, as mentioned before. Drippers with tubing running down from the source to the pot will act as drains when the pump is turned off.
No problem popping elbows into the .5in tubing just half an inch apart, with 30 crammed together. Works fine.
$15 hydrofucked submersible pump works fine with about 8 feet between bucket and dripper loop.
7-day digital dual-outlet timers are $5-10 cheaper at Lowe's, and don't need to be switched on manually for the program to kick in. Stupid detail i guess, but it really comes in handy.
Always use black silicone .25in tubing. Don't get this at wal-mart. It's always kinked and crimped there. I've had no problems with the stuff from Petco for like $6/25ft. This project uses about 35 feet of it.
It would be a good idea to tie together "trunks" of the dripper lines going to each basin or area on the floor. Would look much nicer and block less light, but would be best run through holes behind the basins so as not to pull the clones from the shelf. I don't have room to run the lines from holes behind the basins to it's rolling as is.

Watching your drippers come to life for just one minute on the timer, precisely delivering nutrients where once i was blasting some random amount = awesome fun.
Yes, I am easily amused.

I was using a super soaker from the $1 store to draw sauce from the tent res for daily waterings. Still a great idea, can't suggest this highly enough if you're manually watering pots, but it's just too messy and imprecise for what I'm working with here.

Okay, that does it, I'm getting to work on my nursery right now. I'm making phone calls.

Lol I am going to get a huge super soaker to water my plants, hilarious

I actually got pretty far on the nursery, I was sure I was going to slack all day again. Hahaha.

this was cut about 14 days ago. not bad! It's sfv.


pretty much finished. i've since put two more small HS outside and placed two more into 5" netpots in those 6" red pots there. two HS in pots for next cabinet cycle, HS and SFV (the one from the above pic, because it looks 10x as awesome as any SFV clone ever has here. It's mutated, i swear ..) in pots to be kept as moms. I will pot a BD like this once they are a bit more mature.

Note the empty white cup there in the back. I don't have any goof plugs, but when I get some they'll be used in place of drippers to stop up individual, unused lines. In the meantime, and for temporary stuff, that cup is a great place to dangle unused lines to avoid spillage in the village.

All three "rotten rockwool" plants are now garbage. First two never recovered, last one developed stem rot. More evidence that this problem was pathogenic rather than directly due to overwatering. This was definitely the work of tea poured directly onto rockwool.

So new rule: Don't pour tea onto rockwool. Ever. If you must apply tea from above, do it around the perimeter of the net pot, away from the rockwool.

Next question, would using something like a peroxide type dunk have saved the affected clones? Maybe not the stem rot one, as that probably took hold and caused fatal damage weeks before i saw any of this, but if i had concentrated on killing microbes rather than letting it dry out, perhaps better results?

Looking at that pic I already see a potential problem.

Where the hose comes in through the hole, it should ideally loop or otherwise have something to divert a leak before connecting to the T. Otherwise, a leak at the T or above will run down the hose in close proximity to electrical. No bueno.

Just like running a cable down an exterior wall to a low penetration through the wall. We want any moisture, leaks or condensation, whatever, we want the bulk of it dripping off before it runs into the wall, or in this case out of the cabinet.

For the short term I will probably slice open a sponge like a hotdog bun, then slide it over the hose near the hole. Something like that. I bet there's some really good ideas to handle this that I'm not thinking of yet.

Beautiful SFV clone, looks great! I don't have any ideas for the leak, but getting electrocuted in your grow room sounds shitty at a funeral. You're a clever bastard though, you always figure this shit out an hour before I think of something to post. I'll think it over tomorrow though, it's getting late and I need to get up early.

im sure there is a simple product sold for this. i know ive seen it, just cant place it.

could be as simple as a cone of some sort around the tubing, so potential leaks drip down the cone onto the floor or cup or whatever before making it out of the cab. simple.

drip system is doing awesome. clones immediately started growing faster than i've ever seen. feeding them just the right amount twice a day really does the trick. was hoping for nice steady, slow growth. it's going to be faster growth than i wanted. gonna have to get a home for some of these clones soon.

In the past I used neoprene inserts for my cloner for stopping such water flows down a line. There are softer neoprene disks and more solid ones, I used the softer as it molded to the line snuggly. prob not the BEST option but it works like a charm for situation.

glad to hear the clones are responding to the new drippers

yeah there you go, simple and easy. anything to get potential leakage off the tube before it exits.

and let me give a quick shout out to the fucking weather.
90f in the room right now with hours of heat up left today.

over here on the East coast its been mid 60s last few days the room is loving it hovering at bout 80 an the intake fan is off more than on which is great

killin me ... i'm two feet from the AC in here and I can't feel it.
Just sat down, feels like my chair has had a fat lady sitting in it all day.
oh man am i looking forward to cooler temps and less worries growing. tent should be fine through all this but the cabinet really could have used some better dice rolls weather-wise for the last week or two of flower.

dont think you will get any pitty... I've seen the cali beaches and they are fuckin sweet!

just fuckin wit ya haha.

hah no need to pity the fool! especially the fool who put his grow room into a very thermally exposed room. luckily this only lasts a month or two usually, and even then there are only a handful of days like this per year.

i have an ac wall unit that i've thrown into my living room's back door, sealed with staple gunned blankets. full on somalia styling, but man that unit kicks 10x the ass this little ac in here does. if i had that in here .. it's a frigidaire unit, big one maybe 5 years old? once it cools down some i may try the same thing in this room, see what a difference it makes. if substantial i will be on the lookout for a good used wall unit to replace this freestanding 12a thing i've been using.