Homemade Stealth Cabinet- Lots of pics!

Sup EvlMunkee, Fricking outstanding cab build man! Your journal is very discriptive and well done also. Once again I'm coming across a great thread weeks late. Now I gotta spend a couple of hours reading your journal from the beginning. I built my own cab as well this year about the same exact time you were wrenching on yours. Mine went pretty smooth but I'm going to be tearing it down after my first round to make some changes. Feel free to stop by my journal, and please give me your thoughts if you do. Best of yields to 'ya.

cannatari said:

Sup EvlMunkee, Fricking outstanding cab build man! Your journal is very discriptive and well done also. Once again I'm coming across a great thread weeks late. Now I gotta spend a couple of hours reading your journal from the beginning. I built my own cab as well this year about the same exact time you were wrenching on yours. Mine went pretty smooth but I'm going to be tearing it down after my first round to make some changes. Feel free to stop by my journal, and please give me your thoughts if you do. Best of yields to 'ya.

Click to expand...

Hi cannatari,
Thanks for the props!
I looked at your journal and I must say that I am impressed with what you have done. The clincher is, of course that your plants are doing so well. This validates all of the planning that you have put into it.
I'm a little jealous! Compared to your cab, mine is pretty cluttered. I wish I had been able to spread it out a little bit, but the goal on this first cab was to have it all self contained and from the outside to appear to be an ordinary wardrobe closet.
Glad you made it by...hope you come back again.

Hello everybody,
I haven't spent much time here lately but I'll try to make up for some of it this weekend.

First, I am very disappointed in the auto AK47 seeds. Only 3 of 5 germinated. They were supposed to be fems but 2 of the 3 turned out to be males. I don't mean herms either. They are straight up males. That leaves me with just 1 female AK. She is doing great so I think it is a good strain...the seeds just weren't good. I have saved the best male in case I want to make some seeds.
Luckily, I had some BHs ready to take their spots.

In the pics today you can see that I cut 2 more intake holes. I remade the light traps and moved them to the inside of the cab to get it closer to the wall. The holes I cut were 3 inch circles so I made light traps with 7 square inches of area so as not to restrict the flow. I also took out the 2 intake fans on the advice of Iam5toned.

Another thing I did was to add 2 90w UFOs at the sides.

Here are the pics of the plants in the cab now. The 1 AK is on the far left and the pics are labeled to identify each lady.

Pic 1 is an overall shot.
Pic 2 is the lone surviving AK47
Pic 3 is a top view of the AK
Pics 4-7 are the BHs
Pics 8-10are the 2 extra BHs. I will have to put these in the small cab.

I just noticed some new leaf spots on one of the BHs. The spots are on the middle leaves...not the top or bottom. They are looking kind of pale too.
I checked the PH in the autopot reservoir first and it is 6.35-6.45. I put 5.9 in the rez so it has climbed a little but shouldn't be a big problem.
I looked for bugs with my loupe on the bottom of the leaves and found nothing.
I checked my grow bible and it seems to indicate a deficiency of Mn or Mg....but probably Mn.
The nutes I use are currently from 800-1000 ppm. I use 67% bloom and 33& grow nutes. They both contain 0.5% of both Mn and Mg.
Does anyone know what these spots are from? I want to fix it before it is a big problem!
Please take a look at the pics and tell me what y'all think. You can also see the whole plant on pic 6 from the previous post

EvlMunkee said:

I just noticed some new leaf spots on one of the BHs. The spots are on the middle leaves...not the top or bottom. They are looking kind of pale too.
I checked the PH in the autopot reservoir first and it is 6.35-6.45. I put 5.9 in the rez so it has climbed a little but shouldn't be a big problem.
I looked for bugs with my loupe on the bottom of the leaves and found nothing.
I checked my grow bible and it seems to indicate a deficiency of Mn or Mg....but probably Mn.
The nutes I use are currently from 800-1000 ppm. I use 67% bloom and 33& grow nutes. They both contain 0.5% of both Mn and Mg.
Does anyone know what these spots are from? I want to fix it before it is a big problem!
Please take a look at the pics and tell me what y'all think. You can also see the whole plant on pic 6 from the previous post

Click to expand...

Man it's so hard to give good accurate nute advise. My guess is to use more grow and less bloom nutes. Humidity and root temp can also affect nute uptake.

cannatari said:

Man it's so hard to give good accurate nute advise. My guess is to use more grow and less bloom nutes. Humidity and root temp can also affect nute uptake.

Click to expand...

Hey Munkee ,

long time no speak

What are the EC levels in your reservior? you may have a salt buildup which can also cause yellowing leaves.

Soon as i can find the camera iv got some pics too

SensiStan said:

Hey Munkee ,

long time no speak

What are the EC levels in your reservior? you may have a salt buildup which can also cause yellowing leaves.

Soon as i can find the camera iv got some pics too

Click to expand...

Hi SS,
Good to hear from you.
The water coming out of the main rez is 1150 ppm and PH is 6.4.
The water going into the Autopot rez is 950 ppm and PH is 6.4.
The water inside the Autopot Rez is 650 ppm and PH is 6.5.
It seems that as the water goes down the line, the ppm decreases and the PH stays much the same.
The water I put in the main rez is always about 5.9 PH. I did lighten up on the nutes a couple of days ago which may explain the decreasing ppm. Maybe that was the mistake. Still however, nothing seems to be way out of whack. BTW, RH stays around 40% in the day and 50%-60% at night. Temps are from 70 at night to around 80 in the daytime but occasionally reaches 82.
I suppose the next step should be to flush the container and check the runoff.
One fear that has entered my mind is the possibility of Tobacco Mosaic Virus. God!! I hope it's not that! I have researched the symptoms and TMV has many symptoms which my plant does not exhibit.....yet. According to what I have learned, a plant may not show all or even any of the most common signs.
Like my old countrified buddy used to say...." hard to say, not knowing as I do."
I will flush the container today and look for anything out of line. Hopefully it's just a Mn deficiency.

cannatari said:

Man it's so hard to give good accurate nute advise. My guess is to use more grow and less bloom nutes. Humidity and root temp can also affect nute uptake.

Click to expand...

Hey there cannatari,
I started to use bloom nutes about 10 days ago when they showed their sex. I know it seems early for bloom but these are autoflowers so their life is on a fast track. Maybe I will have to go back to a higher level of grow nutes for a while.
I first went 50/50 grow /bloom and then started using 100% bloom after about a week. When the leaves started to fade a little I started using a little more grow nutes and it helped the yellowing. The nute changes are delayed by about a day or two because I usually put them in the main rez.
The RH is at decent levels and the temps, although not in the ideal range, are not too bad.
Thanks for your input ....it gives me something else to think about.

EvlMunkee said:

Hi SS,
Good to hear from you.
The water coming out of the main rez is 1150 ppm and PH is 6.4.
The water going into the Autopot rez is 950 ppm and PH is 6.4.
The water inside the Autopot Rez is 650 ppm and PH is 6.5.
It seems that as the water goes down the line, the ppm decreases and the PH stays much the same.
The water I put in the main rez is always about 5.9 PH. I did lighten up on the nutes a couple of days ago which may explain the decreasing ppm. Maybe that was the mistake. Still however, nothing seems to be way out of whack. BTW, RH stays around 40% in the day and 50%-60% at night. Temps are from 70 at night to around 80 in the daytime but occasionally reaches 82.
I suppose the next step should be to flush the container and check the runoff.
One fear that has entered my mind is the possibility of Tobacco Mosaic Virus. God!! I hope it's not that! I have researched the symptoms and TMV has many symptoms which my plant does not exhibit.....yet. According to what I have learned, a plant may not show all or even any of the most common signs.
Like my old countrified buddy used to say...." hard to say, not knowing as I do."
I will flush the container today and look for anything out of line. Hopefully it's just a Mn deficiency.

Click to expand...

OK, im no hydro grower but i know a thing or 2, the ppm is the nutrient saturation in the water, the EC (Electronic Conductivity) reads the amount of mineral salts building up in the water as a result of nutrients being absorbed by the plants. The more salt in the water, the more conductive it it. Mineral salts are bad as they stop nutrients being absorbed by the plants thats why most hydro growers i know completely change the water in their systems once every 2 weeks or so. Im sorry if you already knew this but as far as i could see you didnt. EC meters are relatively cheap and every hydro grower should have one.

SensiStan said:

OK, im no hydro grower but i know a thing or 2, the ppm is the nutrient saturation in the water, the EC (Electronic Conductivity) reads the amount of mineral salts building up in the water as a result of nutrients being absorbed by the plants. The more salt in the water, the more conductive it it. Mineral salts are bad as they stop nutrients being absorbed by the plants thats why most hydro growers i know completely change the water in their systems once every 2 weeks or so. Im sorry if you already knew this but as far as i could see you didnt. EC meters are relatively cheap and every hydro grower should have one.

Click to expand...

My bad. I thought there was a direct relationship between TDS (ppm) and EC.
The EC is 1950-2300 @ .500 conversion, depending on where you measure....Autopot rez to main rez.
Is this what you mean?
As you may notice, the levels are changing as I take samples. This is due to the stronger nutes making their way down the tubes and to the Autopots. Now the main rez is empty so I can start over.

EvlMunkee said:

My bad. I thought there was a direct relationship between TDS (ppm) and EC.
The EC is 1950-2300 @ .500 conversion, depending on where you measure....Autopot rez to main rez.
Is this what you mean?
As you may notice, the levels are changing as I take samples. This is due to the stronger nutes making their way down the tubes and to the Autopots. Now the main rez is empty so I can start over.

Click to expand...

OK. Now I am confused. I found an online ppm (US) to EC (Imperial) converter that says my EC is 1.28 - 1.57. Does that make any sense? Seems like the more I learn, the less I know.
I guess I will have to study this to figure out exactly what the hell I'm talking about.

Are you using GH nutrients flora series by chance? I have an excel document that GH made which lists EC and PPM.
what stage of growth are you in? and one last question what size res?

PPM x 500 which is based of of NaCL will give you large numbers, EC gives you low numbers such as 2. Now how to convert the two, is beyond me.

justparanoid said:

Are you using GH nutrients flora series by chance? I have an excel document that GH made which lists EC and PPM.
what stage of growth are you in? and one last question what size res?

PPM x 500 which is based of of NaCL will give you large numbers, EC gives you low numbers such as 2. Now how to convert the two, is beyond me.

Click to expand...

Hey there JP,
I'm using Botanicare CNS17 Coco and Soil formula. The grow mix is 3-1-2 and the bloom is 2-2-3.
Will that spreadsheet work with any nute?
Since they all have showed their sex, I consider them in the late transition phase. Actually the AK is 30 days from seed and the BHs are 22 days from seed. Kind of young, I know, but I have been watching for signs of nute burn as I slowly increased the nutes and haven't seen any problems.
The main rez is several burp tanks totalling about 3.6 gallons. The Autopots also have a small tray on the bottom and I would guess they hold a quart or so.
I use a Hanna Dist5 EC/TDS meter which gives me the high numbers using a US conversion factor of .500. There is an online converter that will convert them to the low EC. http://www.4hydroponics.com/convertPPM.htm
Here is what they say:
"When your reference material shows a nutrient measurement method you do not normally use, this PPM (US) / EC (Imperial) conversion script should help you keep things accurate.
Enter a measurement - choose the method (PPM / EC) used - click Convert button to see conversion."

I am hoping this problem is due to the fact that coco is an inert medium and so you have to be sure to keep a good nute level in the system. That would be the best news I could get. I'll have to try and search the coco forums some more I guess.
Any ideas?

I will attach a zip file with the excel doc inside it for you. Maybe it will help.

I have grown jalapenos,bell peppers,tomatoes, herbs and lettuce with this document in a dwc setup.

justparanoid said:

I will attach a zip file with the excel doc inside it for you. Maybe it will help.

I have grown jalapenos,bell peppers,tomatoes, herbs and lettuce with this document in a dwc setup.

Click to expand...

Cool deal! I love spreadsheets.
Thanks JP

Sorry if i caused more confusion instead of helping il make up for it later with sum cool pics

SensiStan said:

Sorry if i caused more confusion instead of helping il make up for it later with sum cool pics

Click to expand...

Hey no prob SS,
I live in the State of Confusion.
Lookin forward to your pics!

where did you get your cab. what are the dimensions and where did you get it? any links???

adquirk said:

where did you get your cab. what are the dimensions and where did you get it? any links???

Click to expand...

read the journal