First Grow - PC Case!

Hi everyone! Long time reader, first time grower/poster. Can't do anything too big in my current living situation so I decided to go the route of PC Case. I don't need it to be super stealthy, other than maybe odor masking.

The case is from an old PC I no longer use. I used 2 fans that were previously in the computer and got another fan from a friend and rigged it so its in the drive bay and exhausting out the front. Don't laugh at the fact that it's basically mounted to cardboard, haha. I'll improve the case over time, or just make a whole new case after I get a grow or two under my belt. This first attempt is basically to get some experience and to become more familiar with growing - I've read a lot, but no amount of reading can compare to actually growing.

Anywho, I have an 80mm fan exhausting on the top of the front side, an 80mm intake on the bottom of the front side & a 120mm on the middle of the back side. I have the 2 80mm fans hooked up to a 9v phone charger and the 120 hooked up to its own 9v phone charger.

I plan on using 3 26w 6500K CFLs for Veg & 3 26w 2700K for Flowering. The power strip for the lights has 6 magnets hot-glued to the back so I can move the strip between the side panel and the top of the case as necessary.

The case is completely set up, which was step 1 for me. I'll be getting plants sometime this week. Will be getting clones from either a friend or a dispensary, haven't decided on strains yet - something I'm looking for help with on here. I'm also looking for whether people think I'll have enough room for 2 plants or if I should just do 1 for now. The drive bay area is large and I'm either too stupid to figure out how to remove it, or it's just not possible.

Anything I left out, or any questions/advice, please let me know! Thanks beforehand for everything.

Now for some pics!

dude first off good job on everything beside that foil get rid of not good for your plant get that reflective shit for windshields only like 6 bucks at walmart bro works way better, 98% of the light reflects so its pretty good check my pc grow case out an let me know if you need more help.

o yea idk about 2 plants im only doing one and to get that drive holder out u gotta break it so yea lol

i used a dremel tool to get the drive holder out of my box or you could just drill through the rivets

merkgrows said:

dude first off good job on everything beside that foil get rid of not good for your plant get that reflective shit for windshields only like 6 bucks at walmart bro works way better, 98% of the light reflects so its pretty good check my pc grow case out an let me know if you need more help.

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I'll probably go pick one of those up and take out the foil and re-line the case tomorrow. Thanks man.

bk310773 said:

i used a dremel tool to get the drive holder out of my box or you could just drill through the rivets

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I'll give that a shot! Thanks.

nice set up

I was able to mangle and rip out the drive bay, and at the same time I took out all the foil. I'll probably go pick up a windshield visor or some mylar today and line the case with that. Thanks for the help thus far everyone!

Got the case lined with windshield visor, got that nasty drive bay outta there, so it's looking much better in there now.

ohsnapwnt said:

Got the case lined with windshield visor, got that nasty drive bay outta there, so it's looking much better in there now.

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WOW!!! good job bro looks alot like mine hehehe but yeah good shit let me know if you need help!

Just got home from picking up two "Purple Romulan" clones. Transplanted them into pots with Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil. If anyone has any experience with Purple Romulan, your advice is very much so welcome and appreciated!

The closeup pictures are a tad blurry as my digital camera isn't the greatest. But from what you can see, please let me know what you think.

They're under 3 26w 6500K CFLs at an 18/6 light schedule. I've also got Fox Farms Grow Big & Big Bloom nutrients that I will be using.

If I missed any pertinent information that will help you help me, please let me know!

What are your temps? Most of the PC grows that I have read all had temp issues. Better to start thinking about temps now while ur girls are little

Lights just came back on this morning around 8am PST. At that time the temp was about 68. I'll check back in a few hours to get an accurate reading of a Lights On temp.

Took 3 pictures. Nothing different than last night, but I rotated them a abit. Few Questions:

I was planning on doing the paper clip method of LST, when should I start?

Also, since I'm using Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, that has nutes in it to last it a few weeks, right? Should I just water without nutes for a bit until the plant starts to show signs of needing nutes and then start using FF Grow Big and Big Bloom?

Thanks everyone!

Temperatures get pretty high while the lights are on. It's about 88 degrees in there right now. Any suggestions on lowering that?

I've currently got 1 intake and 2 exhaust fans. The intake is 80mm, one exhaust is 80mm & the other is 120mm. They're all 12v but they're on 2 separate 9v wall plugs.

Should I go get 12v wall plugs and put them on those instead? Will that make a big difference?

Should I swap an exhaust to an intake? Or is it better to have more exhaust than intake?

I have the plants on CD's to get them closer to the lights & my intake fan is on the bottom of the case - since the fan is just blowing the air directly at the CD's, is it not helping much?

I think that's it for questions, any and all help is appreciated guys. Thanks!

I also found my better camera & took a few pics when I checked the temps... And either the improved quality of the pictures is playing tricks on me, or there's some noticeable growth in both plants in these pictures compared to the ones from earlier today!

And here they are!

Pics 1 & 2 are of the plant on the left, Pics 3 & 4 are of the one on the right.

Did some slight remodeling. Moved the power strip with the lights to the side panel, as I've read that CFLs give off most of their light from the sides of the bulbs, not the tips. Makes sense. Also added some more CD's underneath to get the plants closer to the bulbs.

The lights are about an inch away from both plants, should I remove a CD or two to lower them so they don't get burnt or should I be fine as is for a day or two?

Took some pictures, let me know what you guys think.

Thanks guys!

well 9V mean the fans are only running at 75% max RPM so you would defenatly get more air flow with 12V power adapters, also where are your fans? intake rear right, and have about the exhaust ones is that a fan I saw at the bottom of the case? is that an 80mm or a 120mm?

boomdiddly said:

well 9V mean the fans are only running at 75% max RPM so you would defenatly get more air flow with 12V power adapters, also where are your fans? intake rear right, and have about the exhaust ones is that a fan I saw at the bottom of the case? is that an 80mm or a 120mm?

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The intake is an 80mm at the bottom right hand side. There is also an 80mm exhaust on the top right hand side and a 120mm exhaust at the middle of the left hand side.

I took out some CD's to lower them a bit for now, and I'll probably go pick up some 12v wall plugs next week.

ohsnapwnt said:

The intake is an 80mm at the bottom right hand side. There is also an 80mm exhaust on the top right hand side and a 120mm exhaust at the middle of the left hand side.

I took out some CD's to lower them a bit for now, and I'll probably go pick up some 12v wall plugs next week.

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In an ideal world you would have your inake on one side at the bottom and the exhaust on the other side as high as you canthis allows better airflow to cool the plant, there's no probs with the exhaust fan being bigger that the intake fan, but in your current setup you have 2 exhaust fans so say for example as I don't know the CFM rating of your fans but:

if the 80mm moves 20cfm and the 120mm moves say 35cmm the exhaust fans in your setup are trying to shift 55cfm of air while your intake fan is only giving the box 20cfm.

If you feel daring move your 120mm to the top left and cover the other exhaust fan and see what the temps are like the improved airflow may cool it better

Reposting pictures from the fallen lights incident since the posts from earlier disappeared with whatever server issues were going on.

Gonna just keep em going and see if they both recuperate, as you suggested Gumball.

I have resituated the lights into hopefully a more secure setup, and when I get a chance I think I'll goto Lowe's and pickup 2 u-bolts to see if I can use those to support the power strip.

Yeah, so did my post about letting them both grow, better to try, worse case the one dies! I think you will be alright, nice grow to by the way!

gumball said:

Yeah, so did my post about letting them both grow, better to try, worse case the one dies! I think you will be alright, nice grow to by the way!

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Thanks for the advice as well as the kind words gum. I checked out your grow and am subscribed.