First grow - bag seed x8 - CFL - 4x4x4 cab or 3x3x3

i fed them HALF of the recommended dosage for every two weeks. i end up feeding/watering about twice a week. so i should alternate feeding and watering every other time? when i feed or water do i go until runoff? i am supposed to use approximately the same volume as the pot the plant is growing in for watering/feeding? or just for watering so as not to wash off any unabsorbed nutes, and feed water until runoff? lol this shit is confusing. my babies are JUST about ready for another feeding/watering. wana know what everyone thinks i should do! at this point leaning towards about a gallon of water, no nutes this time, per plant. next watering i will nute, same concentration...

sounds good man, i think you are looking deeper into this than you need to just need to be aware that your medium has no nutritional value for your plants so your going to have to make sure nutrients nutrients are available for the plants otherwise you will run into deficiency issues, your plants will tell you when they are hungry

radeonDEUS said:

haha love how u call me 'graphics'

so other than that, your saying (thegersman) that i water normally, like when dry and light, and then keep the nutes on the recommended schedule i.e. feed again in a week or so with as many JUST waterings in between as needed?

what first four words are you talking about? lol sorry I'm a lil slow this morning...

Click to expand...

Don't overdo the nutes


I know nothing about MG and don't want to...but, KISS...like posted above---let the plants tell you.

yea I have 125wtt full spectrum with hood plus 4-26wtt cfl for side light all at 6500k( kelvins)...and for flowering 125wtt full spec.. plus 2-55wtt cfl 2700k
and thats pushing it on the three I have...soon to be sexy bitches...(pics soon) But yeah you definetly need more light or cut down on the weeds. GL and Fresh Smoke an Happy Trails

redid the ceiling, wiring, etc.



what it looks like with the fifth fixture



light trapping, air directing intakes




digi timer



seriously not powerful enough for this application HVAC duct fan...




and the babies






i actually transplanted three more and watered. will take pics tomorrow after night cycle of everyone. need to figure out what to do as far as ventilation. debating scrapping the outputs, sealing them and then just mounting the vent fan through the wall near the top back middle...or keep the setup and get a much more powerful fan for like 90 bucks rated at 165 cfm. any input there? plus side could mount an activated carbon filter right to the output of the fan...let me know guys/gals!

radeonDEUS said:

redid the ceiling, wiring, etc.

what it looks like with the fifth fixture

light trapping, air directing intakes

digi timer

seriously not powerful enough for this application HVAC duct fan...

and the babies

i actually transplanted three more and watered. will take pics tomorrow after night cycle of everyone. need to figure out what to do as far as ventilation. debating scrapping the outputs, sealing them and then just mounting the vent fan through the wall near the top back middle...or keep the setup and get a much more powerful fan for like 90 bucks rated at 165 cfm. any input there? plus side could mount an activated carbon filter right to the output of the fan...let me know guys/gals!

Click to expand...

Iwould go with the fan and carbon....with the ladies I have theres no smell and the have good vent...anyway they look nice...Ill be sending pics soon GL Fresh Smoke an Happy Trails
I would

yah im debating. thanks for the input triclone head! quick request from me though, u mind not quoting the WHOLE last post so it doesn't copy all the pictures over again? lol just kinda ocd like that...want the thread to stay compact.

anyway so my question to everyone is:

will the 60cfm duct fan be enough if i mount it horizontally directly through the wall near the top? this would eliminate the compression issue that I'm having: it isn't nearly powerful enough to suck through even 2 - 1.25" tubes with bends in them (see pics) so if its basically just a hole in the wall, it might be enough. the problem is i want to maintain as much of a seal as possible because of the boxes location; it gets REALLY cold where the box is so...heat dissipation needs to be as slow as possible...if theres a 4" hole in the wall, not only will it leak light, but it will leak heat...enough to be a deal breaker? input please! seems like i have pretty much convinced myself to go with option 2...

option 2 is to buy an expensive 165cfm inline fan and mount that to the outputs. now there are options here too. first and easiest is to just get it and mount it to the existing system. don't know if the 1.25" outputs will be enough so may scrap those anyway, redrill a bigger 4" hole on top where the smaller outputs were, and connect real metal ductwork...

so either way, i guess my THIRD question is will the intakes be fine if i don't change their diameter? i feel like they will. its not like the box is airtight so...i mean i would like it to be but i built it in my basement with plywood, on a budget lol.

would LOVE TO get input on this guys and gals...

If you go with the 4in hole, U could always vent that exhaust back into your box at the bottom...Keep your heat ???

If you eliminate the tubing and don't plan on pushing through a carbon filter then the fan you have is fine. Duct booster fans, like computer fans, can move a ton of air but not very far with any type of resistance as you have noticed. Personally if I was you I would start looking on craigslist for people selling hydro gear and try to pick up a legit inline 6" fan - they cost $80 new so at garage sales you can often find them for ~$20-30.

Might consider enlarging the intake holes and exit holes but placing an adjustable damper on the intake - you would be able to better control negative pressure as well as being able to adjust insulation to a degree.

first off, you have plenty of light in your cab for right now. i would bank on a 50/50 male/female ratio. it probally wont be exact but your gonna have some males in the bunch so you aren not going to need lights for 8 full grown females. that being said, you have enough light to get 4 female plants into 3-5 weeks flowering then you may want to buy more lights but i think with all of them CFL you can just re arrange them to get some decent side lighting and be fine. if you listen to most people on here about CFL's they will have 200 bulbs in your cab and you could have bought 2 HID systems by the time they think you have "adequete" lighting with CFL.

about your fan. i would invest in the expensive fan, you said you plan on growing again so its a investment and once you get that HID light your going to want a nice inline fan.

you probally want to look into a speed controller so that you can adjust the fan to a nice setting that pushes the air good but not too much, leave your intake alone it is fine, from what i saw you have 2 intakes on each side of the cab or just 1? either way it should be plenty as long as there is not anything in the PvC abstructing airflow the fan will draw that air through any size hole just fine, just make sure if the intake airflow is really powerfull it is not directed onto one of your plants.

also can turn your fans off at night to retain that heat, just set them on the same timer as your lights. they dont need it on 24/7 and if smell is an issue, they shouldnt stink with no air circulation, the smell should contain itself in the cab.

just my 2¢

also may want to check the load capabilities of that timer and compare to what you are running. i dont think you have anything to be concerned with but its always good to make sure you dont have a potential fire hazard safety first!!


looking at your pics i can see you have a oscilating fan inside the cab? this fan will do a great job at "moving" the air all you need to do with the external fan is draw fresh air in correct?

i dont know a ton about fans and air circulation but i would imagine that shutting the external fan down at night and maybe leaving the oscilating fan on will move the warm air around inside the cab and still keep the heat in as the external fan will draw the warm air out and the fresh cooler air in.

wow guys awesome! thanks SO much!

matt, yeah definitely have been experimenting with leaving the fan on at night, vent on at night, NOT on at night etc. and i found shutting BOTH fans off during night cycle is the best for this situation. JUST drilled a 4" exhaust hole in the top, sealed the other two exhaust tubes, and we will see how this does with the cab sealed. if all goes according to plan, i will end up getting a thermocube...which is a plug that turns on at 78 degrees and off at 70. plug that in to the timer and i have a thermostatically controlled exhaust fan that only runs during the day cycle. JUST TO CLARIFY the fan in the cube doesn't oscillate, but isn't pointing directly at any plants. Definitely need to look into the capacity of that timer, makes me a lil nervous. it is a "heavy duty" timer, but as far as i can tell it handles the same as the cheapest one, just with a ground wire. the outlet the whole thing is plugged into isn't grounded anyway. should probably fix that. yeah. anyway matt have a 165cfm 4" inline fan, 200cfm 4" activated carbon air scrubber, and speed controller all picked out on amazon...

enzogrowspot, totally dig the idea of recirculating the exhaust back in for heat, don't know exactly how i could make that work, but worth thinking about! +rep!

gastanker, you think i really need to enlarge the intakes as well? mattthebrute thinks i should b ok with the intakes...what u think?

LOVE the help guys as always! will take pics of the new exhaust set up and of the babies and post soon!

radeonDEUS said:

gastanker, you think i really need to enlarge the intakes as well? mattthebrute thinks i should b ok with the intakes...what u think?

Click to expand...

Gastanker is a pretty smart dude, he knows far more of the technical jabber than i do. i think what he was talking about is making the intake holes adjustable so that you can controll the amount of negative pressure in the cab at any given time, but i may have misunderstood.

and no problem on the advice. i think im having as much fun with your project as you lol, best part is i dont have to make any of the "real" decisions or do any of the actual work

Gastanker said:

Might consider enlarging the intake holes and exit holes but placing an adjustable damper on the intake - you would be able to better control negative pressure as well as being able to adjust insulation to a degree.

Click to expand...

this way you can leave the intake at 4' or move it up to 6' but you would need a 6' hole and adjust the damper to 4' ....i think

like this http://www.thebbqguru.com/products/Silicone-Adjustable-Damper-Regulator.html

this will give you the option to have your intake on full open 1/2 open or 1/4 open, depending on your temps.

so say your temps were getting a bit high, just open that sucker a bit to let more cool air in, if they are getting too low close it off a bit.

at least i think this is what he meant lol.

sorry to keep posting but here is a website that has PvC ones http://www.harrisonplastic.com/pvcbutterflydamper.html

i think they sell manual and automatic so you could set it up on your thermostat if you want to get all crazy techy with it

radeonDEUS said:

gastanker, you think i really need to enlarge the intakes as well? mattthebrute thinks i should b ok with the intakes...what u think?

Click to expand...

It really depends on what fan you go with. If you get a 6" fan ~440 cfm and say dim it to 50%, 220 cfm that is quite a bit of flow. When considering air flow you need to consider the entire system as a single unit. If you have a 6" fan, 3x3 or whatever cab, 6" ducting up top, and then 1 1/2" tubing down below the air can all flow at a rate of 6" except at the intake. Air can only flow as fast as the slowest bottle neck so the intakes till dictate your total possible airflow.

Normally smaller intake is fine as it creates negative pressure which is great when using a filter but take into consideration the extreme change in volume created by small differences in diameter. 6" round is an area of 28", 4" round is an area of 13" (half as much), 1 1/2 inches round is an area of 1.7" (only 6% the total airflow of the 6"). If you have two that is still only 12% total airflow which provides a ton of resistance on your fan which isn't great for it - it will also diminish your airflow considerably.

If you stick with a smaller fan it isn't as much of a problem but it is still providing resistance.

Matt hit what I was trying to convey on the dot and the link he provides are super helpful - same type of thing I had in mind. Chances are you could make your own blockage for a bit cheaper. ANd keep in in mind you can use cheap 4" or 6" flexible ducting to light proof the inlets.

Gastanker said:

It really depends on what fan you go with. If you get a 6" fan ~440 cfm and say dim it to 50%, 220 cfm that is quite a bit of flow.

Click to expand...

Don't do this. You're better getting a fan that is suited for your room/tent/cab. When you put your fan on a dimmer it makes an annoying buzz/hum. It's because fans run at a specific Hz rate and when you dim them they aren't running at the rate they are designed for. I have never had a fan fail on me, even after years of use, but I was told dimmers shorten the lifespan of your fans.

I use a 4" Can Fan HO for my 4'x4'x6'7" tent and it is plenty of airflow. Keeps the tent 70-75. I also have a dedicated 6" Vortex fan for my light hood though so that takes nearly all the heat out of the room. If you aren't cooling the hood separately you want more airflow to expel the hot air from the light. The Can Fan HO series are great fans. They are really quiet for the amount of air the move. The quietest fans I have ever used are Panasonic Whisper Line fans. They are about as quiet as a computer fan. The downside is that they're on they have large enclosures.

no prob Radeon!! by the way whats your ratio on cfl's and how many watts??? And thanks again for the heads up...

matt, lol i love that you're enjoying this as much as i am. LOVE these diy projects. thanks for the links, def may look into a damper on the intakes...

gastanker, dude awesome info. what you wrote really makes sense and is kinda along the lines that i was thinking so its good to hear! are there other advantages to having negative pressure? why is it better to have negative pressure when using a filter? i ask cause i am definitely thinking about the more powerful fan, sticking with 4" for the output at the moment, will post pics soon. its CURRENT INTAKE size is 2.5" total diameter and output is 4" diameter. no filter at the moment, but definitely thinking about one when upgrading the fan. now debating whether or not to increase the intake size to 2" per side 4" total to match...what you think?

noman, thanks for keeping up man i really appreciate it! i had heard about the fans creating a buzz, and checked into the reviews of the speed controllers and fans and found that the hydrofarm 4 and 6 inch fans work fine with a speed controller, although i am also looking at the vortex and whisperline fans as well. i don't have a HID system, at least yet, so no need for individual exhaust for lights and room. yet. this IS my first grow lol. anyway i probably won't use a speed controller anyway cause i don't necessarily need to worry about sound or anything so...no worries there.

lol hey triclone! no prob dude! I've got 18 - 23watt cfls. they are a 1 to 4 ratio of daylight 5000k to soft white 2700k (could be 3000k i forget) with two extra daylights...lol

about to go down and check on the babies and take pics!

so heres the output from inside...it isnt sealed yet but will be soon.



heres all of them, middle row is all the newbies



newbie close ups





and the rest of the crew, no particular order