iApathy's Stealth Closet [Build & Grow]

Hello all, let's get this started. I have attempted growing in a custom-built PC box a couple times previously as I was in an apartment at the time that just didn't have room for anything else, but did not have much luck with it due to a lack of enough light. I have recently moved into a new house, which is unfortunately still somewhat small, however I did manage to get an extra closet in the deal, so at least it's a step up from a PC box.

My goals for this project are to have 4-6 plants and at some point in the near future I will convert part of the closet into a veg box as well for a perpetual system. After that I would like to look more into hydroponics but lets take this one step at a time.

To date, I have ordered the following items for the closet, they should be in sometime next week:

400w MH/HPS Dimmable Digital Ballast + Cooltube + Hangers + Bulbs + Timer - $155
6" Inline Fan with Carbon Filter - $160
6" Duct Booster Fan - $30
25' of 6" Ducting - $8
6x 6" Clamps - $5
Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil - $15
Fox Farm Big Bloom - $18
Running Total: $391

I know 600w HPS' are the most efficient, however I was worried about heat in such a small space (around 2' x 3'), so I went with 400w which should be plenty for a personal grow. I will be drawing air in from the crawlspace under the house using the booster fan, and pushing air out across the cooltube and through the carbon filter into the crawlspace above the ceiling using the inline fan.


So far I have the following seeds from Attitude. I will be starting with a couple of AK-48's and maybe one Darkstar but I haven't completely decided yet:

4x AK-48
1x Pineapple Express
1x Blue Hash
1x Critical+
1x White Russian
2x Darkstar
1x Burmese Kush
1x S.A.G.E.
2x Heavy Duty Fruity
1x Kushage

Pictures to come when everything arrives. Questions, comments, and suggestions are more than welcome!

Here are a few "before" pictures to show what to expect.

Hopefully when everything's done it will still look and sound like this.
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Note the panel on the right side of the closet. On the other side of it is the shower, beneath which is a pre-cut hole for pipes. This hole is big enough to run ducting through as well for the intake fan, which saves me from cutting up the hardwood.
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My duct fan and ducting came in already so here is a picture of them as well. I'm still waiting on the rest of the items.
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My light package arrived first thing this morning. The rest of the packages should be here later today.
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I went ahead and connected everything and hung it up to test heat. So far I have been pleasantly surprised. The heat is less than I expected and the two fans I ordered should be more than enough to take care of it. The light/ballast is also completely silent which is a definite plus since the closet is in my bedroom.
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Here's a quick picture of the rest of the supplies (fan, carbon filter, soil, and nutes). I just need to pick up a few tools and I'll be ready to get everything going.

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Close-up of the fan.

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Sorry for the lack of updates. Grandfather passed away among other setbacks. Mounted the carbon filter, surge protector, and power supply the other day but didn't feel like it deserved a post on it's own. Finally got some real work done today though. I mounted the inline fan, cut a hole in the ceiling, and ran the ducting to the light and from the light to the carbon filter.

My problem now is that no matter which way I mount the fan, when it gets to full blast the triangular "tail" or maybe "rudder", I'm not sure what to call it, starts shaking back and forth and hitting the sides of the fan causing a repetitive clanging sound. This is pretty loud even in the house below. For the fan noise itself I am considering getting a duct muffler, but I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this issue. (It's not the entire fan that's shaking, it is braced well, it's just the tail making the noise.) If you have experienced it, was there an easy fix, or did a duct muffler at least mostly get rid of the noise?

EDIT: Ordered a fan speed controller to give that a try first, if it's still too loud I'll either get the muffler or make an insulated box to put the fan in. On the bright side, I left the whole system running for an hour today and the temperature was fine, so it's working at least!

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Aye I have the same size closet I want to use (top floor apartment) think I could pull off something similar??

marleyofthebob said:

Aye I have the same size closet I want to use (top floor apartment) think I could pull off something similar??

Click to expand...

As long as you can limit the noise and smell you should be fine. Keep in mind that you'll have to cut holes in the walls/ceiling of your apartment. If you have a spare room you can keep locked, it would probably be easier to set up a small grow tent. I needed the stealth of the closet though.

Sorry for the slow updates but things haven't been progressing as I had hoped. I finally got my fan controller in after over 2 weeks (seller had a problem with the post office), but unfortunately it didn't solve the sound issue. I did, however, find out that part of my noise problem is coming from a piece of the fan being loose. The "tail" I mentioned previously had come unattached on one side.

I completely removed this tail earlier today as I did not have anything to remove the remaining rivets with to try to reattach it. Could anyone tell me what the purpose of this tail is? Would it impact the performance of the fan to leave it off?

EDIT: After some more research it seems most people suggest hanging the fan with bungee cords instead of screwing it into the frame in order to greatly reduce vibration noise. I didn't feel like this would be secure enough but I am going to give it a try since so many people seem to suggest it. This seems like it may fix my problem except for the issue with the detached tail.

I had planned on remounting the fan tomorrow but my curiosity got the best of me, and I'm glad it did! Mounting the fan on bungee cables completely cut out the loud vibrations. It has gone from sounding like a lawnmower outside the window of 3 rooms of my house to just sounding like a ceiling fan on high inside the closet of one room. I feel like with acoustic ducting I could cut out almost all the noise but I am happy with it for the time being. Now I just need to pick up a thermometer and test my temperatures and hopefully be good to go after that.

My question from earlier still stands though, will removing the tail from my inline fan cause any negative effects? It still seems to be pulling air through my carbon filter at almost the same rate.

I cut the intake hole and covered it with two layers of pantyhose, which completed all the necessary components, but theres still quite a bit to add as I go. Four seeds went into the soil at 7:30 tonight. Our final seed choice for this round is AK-48, Pineapple Express, White Russian, and Kushage.