PC Case grow - Stealth + Perpetual + LST

[v12xjs]

Well I've spent the afternoon trying to cool down the growbox.

I've not had much success despite my best efforts but I'm thinking now that it isn't a problem with the basic design, which has been running without temp problems for around 3 years in it's present form.

The shared accomodation I'm in just now is inhabited by people who like to live in a sauna. The heating is off in my room but it still never falls below 65F, and it often rises above 72F so I expected to need a bit more fan power, but not like this.
I usually run around 8 - 12F above ambient room temps.
What I have found is that the source of the heat is the glass bulb in the envirolite itself. I can't touch it once it's been on for 5 minutes and I'm sure it never used to be like that. Anybody else had similar issues?

I don't know how hot it will get exactly but during testing I measured a 93.2 and it was still rising. I'm going to mail the manufacturer to see if they know anything, but it's looking like a new lamp is in order.
That may take a couple of weeks to sort out.

I run thelights from 10pm to 10am so I should be able to vent the case without giving the game away to the rest of the house, but in cooling the case I'll be bypassing my odour control.

I have a plan though

 

[v12xjs]

Got a couple of pics from last night for you guys.
These temps gave SketzoH Junior a rough first day and she needed to go to intensive care but the prognosis is good and here's the first pic of the new baby.
There's also 2 side views just to dispel any notions of popcorn buds. With over 3 weeks left it's safe to say those are gonna be some nice little nugs

Enjoy the show

 

[SketzoH]

Got a couple of pics from last night for you guys.
These temps gave SketzoH Junior a rough first day and she needed to go to intensive care but the prognosis is good and here's the first pic of the new baby.
There's also 2 side views just to dispel any notions of popcorn buds. With over 3 weeks left it's safe to say those are gonna be some nice little nugs

Enjoy the show

:O looking real nice dude!!

sorry to hear about the heat issues have you got them sorted now and how u going about it?

Im filing for parental custody haha

 

[v12xjs]

Hey m8. Junior is looking tubby huh?

No. The heat is still a prob. I'll need to open up the case a bit for now and get a bulb asap.
Removing the carbon filter would do the trick but Granita wears a strong perfume.

 

[kinghash]

very nice buds, bud

 

[v12xjs]

SketzoH Junior is from a large family. She's the 2nd oldest. Luckily they will all be girls

I was just showing off Granita in this journal but like I said at the off, it's a perpetual system so there's always something going on and here's a pic of SketzoH's eldest sister from last night. She's around 3 weeks and hasn't shown sex yet but she's looking good.

 

[v12xjs]

Thanks Kinghash. Glad you like 'em.

 

[v12xjs]

Been at the case again for a while.
I let it run for a while before the changes and it hit 97F before I turned it off. I've fitted a little fan in the front blowing over the canopy and it's been stable at 86.3F since the girls went back in an hour ago. Still not great but better.
I'm still on 7.5v for the fans though so I can cool it down some more at the expense of a little noise, but I'm gonna try a plastic shield between the light and the canopy.
I have one ready that I'll try to fit in a little while. I'll get a couple of pics & report back.

I've been thinking about changing the light setup for a little while now anyway and I'd rather save up for that than get another envirolite.
Granita was the first plant I've used 6500K light with in 12/12 and it's worked really well, so I want a more permanent fixture than a dangling bulb. Also the envirolite is a single point of failure. If the lamp goes and I'm not around for a bit or I'm broke then things will go downhill fast, so I think I'd like to fit a couple of banks of smaller cfl's. I can perfect a nice blend of blue orange light and get some insurance that it will be ok if 1 or even 2 bulbs go.
Anyone else using 6500K in a 12/12?

 

[v12xjs]

Got a pic when I put them back in earlier. It's a bit shabby so sorry for that.

It looks like the main cola and you can see it's just solid bud. Flowers are sprouting heavily still too, so that's gonna be a bigger than average bud

 

[SeANi0]

Got a pic when I put them back in earlier. It's a bit shabby so sorry for that.

It looks like the main cola and you can see it's just solid bud. Flowers are sprouting heavily still too, so that's gonna be a bigger than average bud

Granita is looking suberb, and more so seens as she is growing in a pc case. Had some ice cream at christmas and it lovely.

I was looking to start off some autoflowering strains (fem low ryder2, lowlife-whitemoscow) in a similar setup to yours in the next couple of months. I wanted to start this earlier (as you mentioned , summer is coming!) but I am going on holiday so wouldnt have been able to attend to the plants.

I have never grown before so this journal has been great for me.

Have a look at the list of my setup (to be), let me know what you think?:-

pc growcase dimensions: 24" H x 8" W x 17" L
Lighting - 4 27w CFL bulbs (7000lumens) Thanks, SeANi0.

 

[faceplate27]

Hey, man.. I love your grow. It's truly inspiring. I've had my boxes built for a while - server tower for flower and tall workstation for bonsai mommies is the plan - and ALMOST ready to go, but I have a holdup.. fans. Maybe this is more of an electronics question than a grow question, but.. can I wire up 3 ac fans to one ac extension cor or do I need 3 extension cords? The server case has 1 big intake fan and 2 big exhaust fans, but it would make life much easier if i could wire all 3 to one extension cord.

Also, you doing full nutes? I've read that, if you use a decent organic soil, you can go with simple clean water and molasses in a CC grow and was considering it.

I ordered my seeds tonight to give myself some impetus to get this thing finished - Citraal and Top 44.

Thanks again and great work!!

 

[budbuster3000]

im trying the samee thing in 18 inch pc case and using well placed lights (45watt cfl and a 29 watt cfl) and 3 lowryder 1's should produce about a ounce and a half just a little project tho

 

[floridasucks]

yooo v12xjs ive been out for a while. the girls are lookin amazing!! sorry to hear u got light and heat issues. the only thing i can think of is cutting a hole in the side of the case and putting a 120mm fan in there. bikeskill has a fan setup like that on his pcgrow and it works good, but you need a dremel tool or somethin like it to cut a hole in the case. hope you get the issues worked out, lookin forward to see the finished product. one other thing ive had 2 120mm fans running on 12v and they were silent, maybe you just have some crappy fans?

 

[Dr.Blunt]

great gro ur the pc grow king i never thought u could grow such nice plants in such a small area. i had a pc box myself but sold it thinking it would produce little. What kind of odor contol do you use im very interested in what would fit in there and still kill the smell.

 

[v12xjs]

Wow. Didn't realise there was quite so much interest in this thing.

Hey SeANi0
Thanks for the comments. I've not tried any Ice Cream yet so I appreciate the smoke report too.
There's a thread by BTK3ill in the cfl forum and he has a similar setup to yours by the sounds of things. Your case is a bit taller than mine so you can be a bit less savage than I am with your girls. I reckon 100w plus is what you need even in such a small space so you tick that box too.
I'm convinced now that flowering is improved by a bit of 6500K light so my tip for you is to use one along with 3 2700K bulbs during flowering. Good luck with the grow and feel free to ask me anything if you think I can help.

Greets Faceplate
Glad you found some help and inspiration here. Your setup sounds awesome. What's with almost? Get growing!
I use 1 adjustable power supply into the case and onto a pc fan splitter I got from Maplins in the UK. You need to match the output of the psu to the total draw of your fans. My psu can cope with 5 amps at 12 volts which means I can run up to 60w (12v x 5amp) of fan power at 12v. You'll get some trailing wires but if you buy enough fan extension cords you will be able to run them so they are out of the way.
I use full nutes but I can't be bothered mixing so many different strengths each time I mix up, so I use 150ppm veg on the babies, and 250, 500 and 750ppm bloom for the different stages of flowring.
Good luck with it and get some pics up as I'd love to see a mom / clone rig in a pc case.

Thanks for stopping by budbuster3000
Those original LR are amazing plants. 8 weeks from seed to flower has to be seen to be believed. Good luck with them and let the world see what you do. There's obviously plenty of interest in pc grows now. Quite right too!

Good to see you again floridasucks
Appreciate the advice. My case only has venting for 80mm fans and there's not many silent fans at this size. I have some 120mm Noctua fans that are extremely silent but I can't fit the buggers in there!

Thanks for stopping by Dr.Blunt
I don't know about pc grow king but you've made my day for sure by saying it
I'll take a pic of the exhaust tonight for you. Basically I use a strip of active carbon designed for use in cooker extractor hoods. I got a 1 metre sheet for about £10 and I only need 80mm a month so it will last me years.
You've seen how it's done so go buy that case back! And post pics of your porn!

And to any other pc growers lurking out there, I'm always interested in trying out new ideas so let me know what works for you.

But wait. I have some wicked news......

 

[v12xjs]

Finally got it all sorted and temps are back within 10F of ambient even at 6volts. Here's some snaps of the new fan and heatshield setup.

 

[v12xjs]

So here's a gorgeous snap of Granita and one to show SketzoH that I am a fit and proper parent.
You will lose the custody battle Sketzoh!

 

[SketzoH]

granitas looking fantastic fella! bet shes gonna be one hell of a smoke.. any idea on yield?
haha i think ill drop the custody seems like u are a great daddy! plus my familys big enuff as it is

Im interested in how your using a psu with the fans, dont suppose you have a link to a guide or something..i got loads of psu's and fans sitting around would be very helpful as i dont have any 12v adaptors!

 

[v12xjs]

Hey there SketzoH

Thanks m8. It's always hard to tell what the yield will be but I think this Granita could be a personal best for me. I got 27g from a lowryder 2 a while back but it's possible I'll hit the magic 28 this time out.
I know it doesn't sound like much in comparison to a scrog but the perpetual nature of this system actually yields more in the long run with less effort.
Granita has 21 days left, the Amstel Gold will be ready 14 days later and Pandora will be ready 3 weeks after that, so over a gram a day without any problem.

Here's a link for a psu conversion:
http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-a-Computer-ATX-Power-Supply-to-a-Lab-Power-Supply



Just tumbled that I misread your post faceplate27. I'm a bit scared to advise on mains connectivity. If I tell you something wrong you could get hurt, so better to speak to an electrician if you can.
For what it's worth I have used 240v ac fans but took them out for a couple of reasons. They are much more noisy than 12v pc fans (even mine) and they are just too powerful for my growspace.
They worked fine on the timer but I tried to use a dimmer switch to tone down the noise and the hurricane Katrina effect, but they went pop as soon as the voltage dropped.

 

[v12xjs]

Here's those pics Dr.Blunt

There's a 92mm fan shoehorned into the inside of the case pushing air out. The blue thing is a plastic food container. The blue keeps the light out (or in) and the outer fan is sucking air through as well. Inside the blue container is a folded strip of cooker extractor hood filter.
I used to have the top of the container bonded to the case so I could just snap it off to replace the filter, but the top was clear and let light in so the blutack acts as a temporary fixitive and light seal until I can work out a better system.
That outer fan is the noisy one in my system. With that unplugged there is no noise at 6v, but it helps keep the exhaust efficient so it stays.

Here's the pics: