[MEGA] 2010-2011 Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences

[Artificial Emotion]

480 cfm
Im not saying that Im not going to accept your ideas or anything closely related to that.
I am very confused on what your trying to tell me,

So I'd need to buy two 6-8inch high power inline fans?

Does intake go up high on the wall? or was it the out take?

im confused in which way this air is supposed to be blowing, what I thought was, I need air from a fan being vented into the room up high, and one extracting air down low? or was it the other way around? I thought hot air rises and cool air goes to the ground, you see, you can tell me different parts I need all day long, I dont know what to do with them if I get them,

Im not trying to argue with you, Im trying to understand what your saying so I can actually take advice from someone on this board thats trying to help me get this shit together because I dont know what Im doing.
It doesnt bother me if its going to take time to get all of this stuff to work, I was running the room last night with the light on about 350watts, and kept the temps down to about 89-92. Thats with a fan blowing at the plant, one at the light, one fan blowing out of the closet to remove stale air and one fan pumping air into the closet from my room, what I want to be doing is having all of those INSIDE my closet so I dont have to crack my Closet door 8 inches and let TONS of light out when its pitch black in my room. , If I were able to close the closet doors, completely, and not let light leak out into my room, I would be happy, thats all Im trying to do. If its not possible, fine, Ill do it how ever it needs to be done...

Guess Ill just go read up on ducting and hope I find some info...blah, what a day today has been.

Extraction should be at the top. The extraction is necessary, the intake (at the bottom) is optional and should be smaller than the extraction (1" smaller for example).

You need proper extraction else your plants won't be healthy for the reasons I have stated. This is important just as much as keeping the temps right.

Extracting air from the room means air is being blown outside the room. The intake is te opposite, taking air into the room. This can be passive (i.e. just a grille on the door to let air be sucked into the room through negative pressure being created in the grow room).

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Okay, thank you , that makes much more sense, sorry for seeming irritated, Im just seemingly going in circles, but I guess Im making progress otherwise I'd still be with my CFLS...

So, I plan on buying both an extraction fan, and one for intake, my question now is, do I need to be extracting/venting my hood or would having a fan just blow upwards towards the extractor work?

(I understand plants put off gasses that need to be removed )

 

[Artificial Emotion]

No worries.

Well I suggest you sort out your main ventilation in the grow room first as a priority. Then put a thermometer inside and test the temperature. You must cover the thermometer so the light isn't directly on it. Then, if it is over 29C and the light is at the right height I would use the air cooled hood (set up the lights ventilation/ducting). After this is sorted your temps should be fine and you won't need an AC, unless you live somewhere that's rediculously hot it's stupid.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, what is 29c in Farenheit?
Ive been running at 89, which I know is too much with that light, especially for flowering.

I live in Cali, its a desert, lol, the particular area I live in, Its not odd to see temps hit 110 during summer, we've had about 103-105 as of late. Been keeping the house itself down to 78.(I consider this ridiculously hot to the point of stupidity, lol)

But yeah, Ill get started looking for those fans,

Are they just called Inline Extraction , intake fans?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

They're called inline fans. Even though it's hot where you live I bet an air cooled hood would sort it (if it's a decent air cooled hood that's sealed).

C is for celsius or centigrade, not fahrenheit.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

lolol, I know its celcius, I just didnt know what that equates to.
google here I come.

Also, I didnt know I shouldnt have the light on the thermometer I have, maybe thats messing with the temp readings a bit?

Ill move it to the other side of the wall, damn I had a question but forgot ! oh , short term memory I need you back right now. lol

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Kinda curious, I was thinking about what you said, about cutting a vent hole in my closet door... If I created a vent, and hooked it up to a small ammount of duct (6-12 inches) and a intake fan, Light wouldn't escape through the vent holes would it?

(Basically my whole reason for keeping the venting behind those doors is because the light the seeps through the doors when I have them cracked open is a massive ammount and its obvious im growing in my closer, just hoping to be able to have it sealed )

 

[w01fg4ng]

Hey man, you can put a vent in your door without light penetrating through, but you are still going to have vents seen on the outside of the door.


example:

NSFW:

^ So a bathroom fan is installed on the bottom vent, inside of the door, as intake air and the top vent is the outtake air.
This closet door was built completely from scratch, everything from home depot, all for under $100.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Kinda curious, I was thinking about what you said, about cutting a vent hole in my closet door... If I created a vent, and hooked it up to a small ammount of duct (6-12 inches) and a intake fan, Light wouldn't escape through the vent holes would it?

(Basically my whole reason for keeping the venting behind those doors is because the light the seeps through the doors when I have them cracked open is a massive ammount and its obvious im growing in my closer, just hoping to be able to have it sealed )

Hi Prelude. Hope you've had a good weekend!

This is another problem that many growers face (it pops up again and again). You can have a curved duct (not the normal aluminium type) that curves 90 degrees downwards. Or you can cover the vent from the inside with an opening at the bottom so that the amount of light is reduced.

I'll see if I can get a photo of what one person did. AFAIK there aren't any ready-made solutions sold in grow shops.

Edit:

This is called a 'light baffle' and is used to block light from coming out and being seen.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Kinda curious, I was thinking about what you said, about cutting a vent hole in my closet door... If I created a vent, and hooked it up to a small ammount of duct (6-12 inches) and a intake fan, Light wouldn't escape through the vent holes would it?

(Basically my whole reason for keeping the venting behind those doors is because the light the seeps through the doors when I have them cracked open is a massive ammount and its obvious im growing in my closer, just hoping to be able to have it sealed )

Prelude2TragedyII, what type of carbon filter are you going to be using?

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, to be honest, I was going to see how one plant smells, because , I smoke weed inside everyday., and no one ever smells it, or they are used to it, I always have weed in my room, But I also have some scented airwick plugs.


Would a carbon filter be necessary for healthy plants or is it just for smell?
And I dont think those vents would be too noticible on my door, as my closet door is painted white, as long as no light comes through it'd work just fine :D

As for carbon filters, I really dont know any name brands or anything or even types, Im still shopping around for inline fans, supprised they dont have em at home-depot or lowes.


Btw....3rd day of flowering 12/12, 2 days before I flushed with a little more than a half gallon.

I started blooming nutes 2 days ago, plant seems to be doing alright, though the leaf production looks alot different then it has been going, idk if its the light causing them to want to stretch or something, but its much different than growing with CFLS, Ill try to post a pic of it with my g/fs phone tonight, (nice camera on it , high quality pics)

 

[Artificial Emotion]

With one plant flowering and even sometimes in late veg (not all the time) there is a very high chance or even certainty you will get caught by someone. Smoking weed in the house is NOT the same. Don't get caught out, you WILL pay for it. I'm not using scare tactics - literally countless people have gotten caught doing the same mistake you're going to make. Remember you get used to the smell so by the time you're actually aware of it it may be too late.

I've grown a single plant before and it stunk the fuck out of my place by late veg!

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Also if you do get a CF (you'd be silly not to), get a non-budget version. The cheaper versions don't work well enough (I and others know from experience).

A carbon filter does add to the cost but growing indoors costs a lot of money unfortunately. People who cut corners get bit in the ass in the end.

Oh and by the way, unfortunately it is impossible to mask the smell of even a single flowering plant. Trying to mask the smell with airwick etc will jut make it much worse unfortunately. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news you probably didn't want to hear! I'm not kidding though. Also the smell will be evident outside your premises.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, I almost got caught up 2 days ago, so , someone came in my room at 4 am, the lights were on., my room was hot, so they walked in, and tried to unplug it, and saw the light in the closet. so, when they went back to their room, I took out the hood, and I put the plant in the attic, and showed them the closet with a little morning glory in it, hahahah...anyways...

I got everything back to normal. Plants doing fine, Kinda pissed off, my 2 clones I had in the garden (and spend 180$ on fencing to keep my god damn dogs out) , they dug under the fence, got in, and tore up my two clones, my big plant is still left, thank god.. I think it may be hermie, as it still has no pistils, (no signs of male either) so, idk....

What about the ozone smell things? I hear they work pretty well in smaller areas.

Find it kind of odd I can smoke week and have weed out in my room, and my family can come in and not even notice it (within 30 min of smoking).
Idk where to get filers, let alone the intake fans, so, w/e. Guess Ill just wait for my next check and buy shit online again unfortunately


And as for getting caught, well, I get my card next week, so as long as its not in the next week, It'll be fine & legal

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Are you growing cannabis in your parents' house without them knowing it?! That's madness if you are, lol. I personally think you will probably get caught anyway! If I were you I'd either wait until you leave home or do a guerilla grow if you can't ever live alone. Growing in an a house with anyone else that doesn't know about your grow is VERY unwise. You should never tell anyone about your grow and make sure nobody ever finds out. If you're growing in the same house as them they're bound to find out! If you want to grow without getting caught you have to make certain lifestyle changes to prevent getting caught. However, anyway, it's your decision and I don't mean to pass judgement.

Forget the ozone deodorizers etc. The most cost effective and professional way to get rid of smells is with a carbon filter. They come in all different sizes to fit different ducting diameters. My carbon filter is so effective there is no smell whatsoever even with a tent full of plants (I use a grow tent - these are excellent prefabricated grow rooms that you should look into trying as again, they come in all different sizes). They are used in hospitals to remove odor from the air so you can see how effective they are. They literally strip the air of pretty much all offensive odor molecules with the active carbon that is made by treating carbon with oxygen to give it a massive surface area (I think 200-300 square meters per gramme of carbon!). Activated carbon is widely used throughout the industrial and scientific fields to purify substances very effectively.

edit: Also, by the way, I would recommend lining the walls of your grow room with mylar, which will make the grow room more efficient as it reflects lights off the walls. At the very lease paint the walls with flat/matt white if they're glossy white, although this is a lot less effective than mylar which should really be used in the long term IMO.

One more thing - in future don't bring plants inside from the outdoors. You will introduce pests into the grow room which may be VERY difficult to eradicate.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

They aren't my parents, but they are family(One would throw a fit, the other would probably sit there and smoke it with me). Any when you have a family in which everyone has been completely addicted and has gone to rehab for somereason, I really dont think they'd flip out that much, Im sure they'd much rather have me grow weed legally then be shooting up black tar in the bathroom like I was doing last year around this time.

Some of my family knows Im growing , some doesnt, two people in the house already know that outback I have weed, they didn't flip, so, If they find it in the house Im sure Ill just be told to put it outside, because after all its just 'medicine'. And yes, I know not to tell anybody, my g/f knows, due to the fact that she has to order shit online and have it sent to her house, and one memeber in my family knows(my sister) , and she lives down the street, and has her cannabis card and grows as well.

The walls are flat white, I had mylar in my grow room when I started with CFLS, raised my temps to 96 degrees, dont really think thats an option for me...
Maybe with proper vented room it'd work, but, Ill try that out when winter rolls around.

It was a small plant I had been keeping right by the window sill, I checked the tops and bottoms of all the leaves to make sure before hand that it didnt have any bugs, There were none. Now, my morning glories outside in the corner in my garden is a different story, seems everything in that garden has bugs, but yeah, I chose the plant to bring in wisely, I know how annoying pests can be, its a daily problem in my outdoor garden, but I always make sure to take a shower , and put on new clothes before dealing with my plant to reduce the whole pest thing.

And Id rather take my chances growing legally and maybe getting in trouble where I live rather than to go do a guerilla grow and get thrown in jail, Pretty easy choice for me to make. Slap on the wrist or jail...hmmmm

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, bought 2 inline fans today, 8 inch, 475 cfm each.
Bought the ducting material and what not today as well, along with the vent for the door (still have no clue how to cut a hole in a thick ass wooden door.)

Should that work for intake and exhaust(outtake?), Thought, I still have to find carbon filters....Where can I find them? the place I bought the fan was a Gardening place, but they had no carbon filters, just 8 inch inline fans, which I bought...(I kinda wanna buy a ruck for the exhaust/outtake, but dont know where to find them or how they work, and what not)

Anyone have any ideas?

-edit-
Wolf, I want to cut a square in my door, and put a vent on it, but, I dont know how , how did you end up doing that to yours?

AE, where do I get carbon filters or a Ruck Inline fans?

Will a 475 CFM inline work for intake or outake for now? I only bought one, as its going to be for taking air out of the room right now, would buying another to bring air in circulate the small closet well enough or would I need more power than that


-edit again-

Question, If I hooked up my light / fans to a thermostat, and say I set the temp to 90F, and when it hits 90, It would all shut down, If the light were to go off for say, 15 minutes 3-4 times a day, would that stress the plant out?

 

[Arobskittle]

fuck paying for filters. i made my own you can too. this cost me about 12 plus like 20 in carbon

NSFW:

this is the simple scrubber by Haps, slightly modified,on the Icmag DIY link o ramma, which you should scope hard if you plan on saving any money at all.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=39506

this is how i saved money on a fan

NSFW:

stanley blower MOD from the Link o ramma as well.
this cools my 4x4 with a 400.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Nice Skittle,
I knew those fans pushed enough air...
They are pretty powerful (but loud aswell)
I believee I might take that same example and use it for my intake fan, I see the area that the fan pulls air in has a peice of duct work on it , would that work to stick in the wall and suck out air?

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Well, bought 2 inline fans today, 8 inch, 475 cfm each.
Bought the ducting material and what not today as well, along with the vent for the door (still have no clue how to cut a hole in a thick ass wooden door.)

Should that work for intake and exhaust(outtake?), Thought, I still have to find carbon filters....Where can I find them? the place I bought the fan was a Gardening place, but they had no carbon filters, just 8 inch inline fans, which I bought...(I kinda wanna buy a ruck for the exhaust/outtake, but dont know where to find them or how they work, and what not)

Anyone have any ideas?

-edit-
Wolf, I want to cut a square in my door, and put a vent on it, but, I dont know how , how did you end up doing that to yours?

AE, where do I get carbon filters or a Ruck Inline fans?

Will a 475 CFM inline work for intake or outake for now? I only bought one, as its going to be for taking air out of the room right now, would buying another to bring air in circulate the small closet well enough or would I need more power than that


-edit again-

Question, If I hooked up my light / fans to a thermostat, and say I set the temp to 90F, and when it hits 90, It would all shut down, If the light were to go off for say, 15 minutes 3-4 times a day, would that stress the plant out?

That's good that you're not telling people. I hope your girfriend isn't the vindictive type. A lot of girlfriends go and rat on their boyfriends when they get dumped or if there's even a mutal breakup.

Read this:

When holding a secret we believe that little harm is done by telling just a few people, since the number of people that know the secret has only increased by a small number. The problem, of course, is that everyone thinks like this, and everyone tells a few people. The number of people who learn of the secret, therefore, grows very quickly, at a exponential rate.

Anyway. You can't use a normal thermostat on a fan. You need to buy a fan speed controller and change the speed until the temperature is correct (slowing it down will also make it quieter). You can get devices that have temperature probes and change the fan speed automatically as temperatures change. I have one of these (it's called an SMS COM speed controller) and it uses special software to control the temperature and even the pressure inside the tent (you need negative presure within the grow area - mine is so low the sides of the tent are sucked in). Get a thermometer/hygrometer and check maximum/minimum temperatures to get a snapshot of the temps throughout the day. Don't mess about turning lights off and on. Try and control the temps using a fan. In fact, if you start messing about with the lights you can in fact stress the plant and cause it to become a hermaphrodite (have you sexed your plant yet by the way, or is it a cut from a female?)

As for building your own CF, this is possible but I personally have tried it and it wasn't effective as the shop-bought one. This is not to say DIY filters can't work though.

You could get a circular vent and just use a hole saw to cut the hole. I'm not sure how to cut a square hole though!! I suppose you could cut a circular hole using a hole saw and then put the square vent over the circular hole.

I'm not sure where to buy carbon filters in the US. Just find a reputable grow shop online. Just don't buy from ebay, as it's not secure at all (people have been caught buying from ebay)!

If you can, definitely buy a Ruck fan! I have Ruck fans and they're excellent. Rucks are very good quality! You only need a fan to extract the air. An intake fan is optional. You can have a passive intake.

Also, if you find your fan is too noisey you can make it quiet by using things like silencers, boxing the fan and filling with foam to baffle the sound, and the easiest method, using acoustic ducting which contains rockwool surrrounding a normal ducting.

 

[w01fg4ng]

Wolf, I want to cut a square in my door, and put a vent on it, but, I dont know how , how did you end up doing that to yours?

First of all, the door is a hollow core door, so it isn't terribly difficult to cut through. I used a table saw and a hand saw, but you could get away with just using a hand saw if you have some strength. After the hole is cut, 1-2" (thickness of the hollow core) blocks of wood are nailed to the inside in order to do two things:
1. Stop the air from flowing inside of the door
2. Have something sturdy to nail the fan into on the inside of the door.

If a fan is not to be installed directly onto the inside of the door, you can simply cut two squares that do NOT overlap each other. So one square is cut on one side of the door, and another on the other side is cut just above or below where the one of the front is cut. Here, caulk was used to fill the sides from leaking air into the whole inside of the door. The reason the squares are cut above/below each other is to create a natural curved duct (as in AE's picture displayed above) that is built on the door itself. So the door itself is a curved duct vent for the top vent (in my example).

Unfortunately I can't get pictures of the process, as I would have to either tear down the door I have or build a new one, so let me know if this isn't enough info for you to move forward with it.


edit: photobucket is being retarded at the moment, let me know if you need to see the original pic again.