CFL pc grow box

hi all. thought i would share my little pc case grow box im playing with. this is my second pc box, the first one had a 70w metal halide and seemed to run a little hot and leaked light like a sieve. This one is fully light sealed and has 4 24w 2700k cfls which i hope will be enough light (each one is 1550 Lumens) It doesnt look much like a pc case anymore as i replaced the sides, front and back with 1/8" ply panel.
It has 2 120mm fans on the front hidden behind a false front which acts as the light trap for them and the air enters from underneath the case as i have it up about 1" as u can see in the pics. on the back i have a squirrel cage fan and a homemade tin light trap and on top i also have another squirrel cage fan to pull more heat out from the cfls. havent finished the light trap for the top one yet. i pinched the missus sun shade from her car and cut that up for the reflective bits, she didnt mind too much haha i'll be growing some random bagseed in it and scrog and lst with a screen i made up for the first case. this is just a little fun project and not overly concerned about quantity, just something to play with

i ran it for about an hour with a thermometer inside, temps stayed around the same as ambient.
but currently our ambient temps have been like 42c during the day (about 107f i think) and night hasnt been much better at around 35c (about 95f) so i think i will wait until these friggin hot days n nights are over before i put the case into use. i have 2 plants outdoors at the moment and they are getting fried by the heat, a lot of leaves getting burnt and falling off but they are still healthy with plenty of happy new growth.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions are more than welcome

I like it

cheers smokey!
heres a pic of the little one i started in the other case (with the 70w MH) as u might see the ends of some of the leaves have gone very pale, nearly white. i feed it with a weak mix of charlie carp and seasol and its been on 12/12 since transplant.
the top sits about 6" from the MH and i have a piece of glass in front of it. (pic attached)
could it still be light burn or maybe a deficiency?
i have looked around the forums at deficiency pics and all i could think is maybe a N deficiency?
the charlie carp is N: 1.6 P: 0.47 K: 0.45 with added micronutrients
(http://www.charliecarp.com/products_organic.htm)
what do you guys reckon?
forgot to add, its in a mix of composted chook poo, cheap potting mix and vermiculite. this mix is what i generally use for all my other herbs, veg and fruit and they do great.

r u doing 12/12 light schedule from seed?

Yup, well it sprouted in my veggie garden and its been 12/12 since I transplanted.
I've come to the conclusion that its just too frigging hot to grow anything, so im gunna see how this goes and if it dies then oh well wait til cooler weather an try again.

In the mean time, I have been messing around with a mini dwc setup for this case.
It so far consists of a plastic tub that holds about 1L which I painted the outside black and covered with reflective tape.
I had to paint it as the reflective tape I have actually lets light thru.
I already had an airpump kickin around and hose, just need to pick up an airstone.
I made a mini netpot from a seedling tube just need some expanded clay.
Already have all me nutes I can use.
but will be waiting for cooler weather as I don't want to feed algae in the Res due to excessive temps.
something else for me to play with
will post pics soon

Looks really clean! I'm subbed!

Subd! check out my pc grow

i think ive read every pc grow i can find now!
and with everyones great expanse of knowledge and experience i have absorbed a lot of information.

So... having said that, i am going to experiment a little here.
Temps are finally getting more reasonable as summer is starting to subside and since the last little plant finally just gave up and shrivelled up, i have started a clone from one of my other healthy plants.
The clone was more of an accident as i broke a small branch off while moving it so i thought i would try and get it to root.
I thoroughly rinsed a rockwool cube and then soaked it in a water/ plant starter mix. then cut the clone candidate on an angle and dipped it in clonex and shoved er in. well 7 days later it is still alive but no roots out the cube yet.
the lower leaves have yellowed slightly but the top leaves have doubled in size so im hoping it is doing its thing.

so while it is "rooting" i made up a micro DWC tub.
it consists of a baby wipes tub, 4" airstone and air pump and hose.
painted tub black and covered in silver tape.
i made the "netpot" from a seedling tube, i might get something a bit bigger but this will do for now as it fits the rockwool cube nicely.
the little filter just after the airpump has a piece of cloth in it to muffle the pulses from the pump as it made a fair bit of noise thru the airstone, actually worked well, not totally silent but quieter.

one thing i would like to know as i have read varied responses, what level should i have the water in the res?
in the pic i have it level with the bottom of the netpot.
I gather that would be ok until roots start really growing out of the cube after which i would have to lower the level a bit?

Here's me little "accidental " clone, I didn't actually expect it to root but this morning I looked and lo and behold, there's a root poking out the bottom of the rockwool cube!
I assume the lower leaf that went yellow was from the cutting taking nutrients from it to form roots, correct me if I'm wrong
so now I will get the micro dwc all cleaned up and set it up in the case.
I also have a seed in the blue pot which I had in a shotglass of water overnight which popped a nub out so I'm gunna see which one performs the best.
I played it safe with the soil this time, just seed starter mix and a handful of vermiculite mixed in. I didn't have any perlite.
they will be competing with each other I guess

I like your idea for using bottle bottoms for humi-tents, I've been using sandwich baggies but I am replacing them as soon as I hit post +rep

Hmm something strange has happened to my profile and couple of me threads, this one included.
The new thread I started for my cfls PC case withe the micro dwc and soil has been deleted, along with a number of my pics and thread comments ...
Anyone got an idea why this happened? Bit annoying cos now I will have to start that thread and upload pics again

Love this, nice little setup haha. Do you have any airstones in there? Also one thing I can really say you need to do is make your lights lower-able. CFL's only put off light yo babies need two inches below em, donno if the reflective surface you're using will improve that but it's highly recommended! Nice grow keep it up

ihavealotofquestions said:

Love this, nice little setup haha. Do you have any airstones in there? Also one thing I can really say you need to do is make your lights lower-able. CFL's only put off light yo babies need two inches below em, donno if the reflective surface you're using will improve that but it's highly recommended! Nice grow keep it up

Click to expand...

Thanks dude!
I have a 4" airstone in the tub. The lights are bolted to the top of the case but I have the plants sitting on blocks of wood to bring em within a few inches of the cfls
I'm gunna restart this thread when I get home, been working out of town for coupla days and my phone sucks for posting photos n stuff.

Looks good dude!

here we go guys! new thread for those who would like to follow.
comments, suggestions more than welcome!
https://www.rollitup.org/stealth-micro-cab-growing/514310-cfl-micro-dwc-pc-grow.html