20cm height stealth grow

Hey everyone!

I´d like some comments on my new stealth setup plan. Specifically on ventilation and odor control. I have a 120mm exhaust fan that pulls through a homemade 12x12x3cm carbon filter. Passive intake area is 4x42cm + 2x42cm which is 252 cm^2 total. While exhaust is 144 cm^2 total. So intake is about twice as big as i have read. Does anyone know if that carbon filter is gona work. It´s filled with active carbon pellets between 2 nets. Also im a bit worried about intake and exhaust being too far from eachother.

Lighting will be 3x21W T5 fluorescent tubes.

I have 10 images made in google sketcup of my plan.

http://flickcabin.com/public/viewset/13146

I hope theres pictures of everything relevant.



Here´s one of the 10 pictures

Anyone?

Mostly I'd like to know if that 120mm fan is capable of pulling through 3cm of active carbon and also keep a slight negative pressure inside the box so that air doesnt go out from the passive intakes.

I'll probably use the Noctua NF-P12 Silent 120mm fan for it's quietness but if anyone can suggest a better one be my guest.

http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/noctua-nf-p12-1300-120mm-fan.html

Some specs

19.8dB / U.L.N.A 12.6dB/A
1300rpm / U.L.N.A 900rpm
92,3m3/h / U.L.N.A 63,4m3/h

I hope i can run it with the ULNA adapter which makes it more quiet. In that case it will move 63,4m3/h air

backgammon said:

Anyone?

Mostly I'd like to know if that 120mm fan is capable of pulling through 3cm of active carbon and also keep a slight negative pressure inside the box so that air doesnt go out from the passive intakes.

I'll probably use the Noctua NF-P12 Silent 120mm fan for it's quietness but if anyone can suggest a better one be my guest.

http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/noctua-nf-p12-1300-120mm-fan.html

Some specs

19.8dB / U.L.N.A 12.6dB/A
1300rpm / U.L.N.A 900rpm
92,3m3/h / U.L.N.A 63,4m3/h

I hope i can run it with the ULNA adapter which makes it more quiet. In that case it will move 63,4m3/h air

Click to expand...

Sorry dude but im not really following, so ur max grow height is 20cms?

Screen of Green method I presume

Even with SCROG he's gonna be hard pushed to make that height work.

Why wouldn't it work, at least spacewise? As soon as i have a seedling i would start bending it towards the fan and away from the pot. When it gets outside the pot i would start attaching it to the floor and make it cover as much as possible of it.

backgammon said:

Why wouldn't it work, at least spacewise? As soon as i have a seedling i would start bending it towards the fan and away from the pot. When it gets outside the pot i would start attaching it to the floor and make it cover as much as possible of it.

Click to expand...

Get a bigger area.

You cant bend a seedling man, youll hurt it and it will die..
you can try your idea but with with a little more space you'd be able to get something worthwhile out of it

streetlegal said:

You cant bend a seedling man, youll hurt it and it will die..
you can try your idea but with with a little more space you'd be able to get something worthwhile out of it

Click to expand...

I don't follow. From my experience the plant is most bendable as a seedling. Just a few millimeters diameter on the stalk. Obviously i would carefully apply pressure on it untill it grows the way I want. I got 1 grow experience for this strain and I'm positive I can lst it to grow like this. It's possible i make the box a little bit higher.

But anyways. Noone has commented on the cpu fan. Does anyone have any experience with theese things? Can it pull through that carbon filter and build enough negative pressure so that air doesnt leak out from my passive intakes. When the plant gets bigger it will be obstructing some of the airflow when it grows there on the floor with about 15cm between the net and floor.

backgammon said:

I don't follow. From my experience the plant is most bendable as a seedling. Just a few millimeters diameter on the stalk. Obviously i would carefully apply pressure on it untill it grows the way I want. I got 1 grow experience for this strain and I'm positive I can lst it to grow like this. It's possible i make the box a little bit higher.

But anyways. Noone has commented on the cpu fan. Does anyone have any experience with theese things? Can it pull through that carbon filter and build enough negative pressure so that air doesnt leak out from my passive intakes. When the plant gets bigger it will be obstructing some of the airflow when it grows there on the floor with about 15cm between the net and floor.

Click to expand...

I find the seedling stage to be the least forgiving when it comes to meddling and manipulating.
Sry man i cant give you solid advice when it comes to your fan question, but i know wot a pc fan is and i look at my carbon filter and i just dont see it having enough power to pull enough air thru..
But 1 thing i hate is wen i read ppl telling someone that their idea wont work wen they've never tried it themselves so GL with your plans.

I was about to bash it and say you need more height, but then I saw you are using T5's.

Here's some photos of my experiment to see how small and simple I can grow. I used ONLY: one 4 bulb T5 fixture with two red and two blue bulbs, one tiny clip-on desk fan, one file box divided with a piece of scrap wood, wood and twine for scrog netting, and a large black plastic box that I used for dark time. I just cut it and it looks like about a half ounce or so. I think that is close to max. If I vegged in smaller containers and transplanted I'd have gotten more for sure. Build the scrog net exactly the size of the lighting fixture to maximize the lummens by bringing the light as close to everything as possible.

You CAN grow in a tiny space with floros, but yeilds are low. Good luck, have fun.

It's under a desk. I thought I had a clear photo of that but I don't.

Hey thx for the support.

I don´t really care about how much yield i get, as long as it´s something it´s a success.

I´ve been thinking about an inline fan instead of the computer fan because i suspect that the cpu fan cant pull through carbon. I´ve been thinking about S&P TD-100 inspired by this thread. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=90678

The CFM is a bit overkill for my little room but that´s at least capable to create some decent static pressure to pull through carbon and all that plant matter when the plant fills the box. But I still doubt this will be silent enough for my needs. It shouldnt be heard when i have it under my bed and i have someone visiting. The only ambient noise that i can blame on is my laptop fan which is turned on 24/7.

In case this is too noisy i have the possibility to neglect the carbon filter and grow untill it starts to smell. Since it´s one plant in such a small space it might get pretty far. My previous grow in a garage without AC in the box didnt smell noticably at any point and I´m using the same strain now.

Another possibility is to turn the lights and fan off when i have guests (and risk it becomming a hermie). But would start leaking out when the fan is off (if there is smell) and if for some reason my landlord would visit without my knowledge the fan would be making noise.

So I will list the possibilities i can think of:

1. Use inline fan with carbon filter. Excelent cooling and odor control but would probably make suspicious noise.

2. Use CPU fan with carbon filter. This fan probably wont make so much noise and it´s easier to mask with a laptop running. But I´m a bit suspicious about if it can pull through the carbon.

3. Use CPU fan without filter and grow untill it starts smelling. I like this idea but it will be a problem if I´m away a few days and it suddenly starts to smell.

4. Grow with inline fan and filter. Turn off whole system when someone visits. Cons: plant might freak, odor leak when fan is off (could be fixed by blocking passive intakes) and if i have to leave with guests somewhere it might take a day before i can turn the system on.

This thread is pretty much brainstorming for me with the added benefit of your opinions.
Any comments?

In my experience CPU fans are not built to move the type of air you need to move, and that's before putting a load on them like the carbon filter will be. They are also very loud, and I noticed that sound is an issue for you so I would recommend going with something else.

What are you growing in, a file cabinet? I looked at your pics (which by the way are very well done! Too bad they're too ambiguous to tell what they are supposed to be illustrating) and all I got out of em was a file cabinet.

And on this side of the pond we use cubic feet per minute or CFM for comparisons, so try to equate everything to that.

What is a ULNA? Sounds like it just cuts the voltage down so it runs slower which basically equals quieter, due to less RPM. Get a fan speed controller, also known as a router speed control.

Some folks in the US here might not know that your comma denotes a decimal point either...

Coincidentally enough, I use 2 Solar & Palau fans myself, one 6" and one 8". They're cheap, easy, and durable. They're also light off-white, as if they know what they're to be used for!

I would say you picked your fan out with the TD-100.

Oh, and go with #1 but buy a large stand-up air filter (you don't need HEPA) from whatever your version of Wal Mart is. Put it in your room on low and it'll mask the noise of your fan. Of course still utilize the fan speed controller, as this will allow you to adjust the speed of the fan so that the noise is optimally low. At some point the fan blade will cycle at just the right speed and simply make less noise. If you get a filter with an ionizer built in it'll also kill any smells that might be a dead givaway. Just let this filter run whenever your exhaust fan is on.

Something like this... http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4857818

haha! sorry backgammon, i know this thread is really old but i wondered how far you got with it? i re-read your post on my thread about my under bed grow but only this moment thought i'd check it out! sadly my own project is on the sidelines due to lack of funds, but if i can help you with yours then maybe you'll give me some inspiration!

assuming its still going?

highandmighty

Yeah, CPU fans arnt the best idea, they wernt designed for this purpose. You can find all sorts of great little fans on ebay for cheap.