1st post, 1st grow, goin stealth

hey everyone! im new to RIU and have recently ordered 5 feminized northern lights seeds from nirvana. theyre ready to be shipped, just waiting and making the stealth cabinet in the process. its my first frow, and ill eventually have some help from a buddy as well as the forum, but hes not here now. ive done some reading and searching and im probably going to go the soil route..and pending on the size of the cab... cfl's due to space.. a 150w HPS would be nice if i had the room. what can i expect as far as height from these bad boys? im trying to design my box. ive got a good feel for ventihilation, intake exhaust, but im struggling with space. and im assuming the space will affect which light i go with. from what i hear, patience is a virtue and id like to get a nice yeild cuz frankly i burn ALOT lol (mainly persy use). im a noob, but im willing and anxious to learn. sooo... what do you guys think?

right now im thinkin a cabinet with the dimensions (rough est) of 4ft (H) x 4ft (W) x 2ft (D). ive tried to take into consideration the height of lights from the top of the plants and being able to somewhat adjust the height.


instead of me keepin typing in circles.. what do you guys think? thanks in advance!

You dont need to worry too much about distance from lights with CFLs - they dont get too hot. Just make sure they aren't touching your plants. Make sure you dont outgrow your cabinet. Switch to flowering early, and tie them down. Good luck!

Would the 150w hps be sufficient for the area? Or will heat be a problem in that amount of space? Or is the 150w not enough? Sorry for all the questions... Just anxious lol

My goal is 3 plants btw..Probably should have mentioed that. I want these ladies bushy
as hell!! I've done some reading on training and topping.

I talked with a buddy of mine, not the one who will be helping me, and e said if I could go with the 150hps because it will greatly increase my yield. Anybody second that? Sorry this guy just tends to run his trap sometimes lol

quitbichyn said:

I talked with a buddy of mine, not the one who will be helping me, and e said if I could go with the 150hps because it will greatly increase my yield. Anybody second that? Sorry this guy just tends to run his trap sometimes lol

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I have the same size cab and run a 400 in mine.

150w hps will not be enough to support 5 plants. you should get a bigger light

I have the same size cabinet I build. I have 8 t-12 shop lights & 2 150 watt HPS. I just installed the 2 150 HPS lights on the 31st of October.

With 2 fans drawings out the air (Charcoal filters on both) it keeps the temp 85ish when the lights are all on & 67 at sleepy time.

This is my first grow with HPS so I don't have the experience but growing under the t-12's I got 3 plants of excellent smoke. The buds were lights & fluffy instead of dense & hard but its still really good smoking. It will be interesting to see how the HPS helps out.

Take a look at my thread. (I don't know how to post it) there are pictures of my cabinet & set up.

Are you trying to have a stealth cab with airtight sealed front? I have a stealth cab all sealed up with a 150w hps for an intake i use a 80 cfm duct fan, for my exhaust i use a 170 cfm inline fan. My ambient temps in the room with the box stays at 69f, the inside of my cab wont go below 81f when its all sealed up. Be prepared to have a hell of a lot of exhaust if your going to keep the cab sealed.

First, thanks for the input guys. Its awesome when youre trying to learn and ppl take their time to provide valuable help you instead of being pricks or some internet tough guy ( spent a lot of time on a mustang forum haha)Another crucial point I left out. I live in an apt. 1st floor and have had the debate of the apt grow with my gf and the conclusion was that it had to be disguised in a piece of furniture. I'm lookin forward to the build but also for power reasons I'm thinkin I shouldn't run more than a 150w hps and a few cfls at most for lights cuz I got fans to run as well and don't want my Power bill to be 200 bucks more than everyone around me lol My goal is 3 plants which I think will satisfy both the stealth and harvest goals 6 zips. (realistic for northern lights? I might only plant 3 of the 5 and save 2 or give them to a friend and let him do his thing.

taliwacker said:

Are you trying to have a stealth cab with airtight sealed front? I have a stealth cab all sealed up with a 150w hps for an intake i use a 80 cfm duct fan, for my exhaust i use a 170 cfm inline fan. My ambient temps in the room with the box stays at 69f, the inside of my cab wont go below 81f when its all sealed up. Be prepared to have a hell of a lot of exhaust if your going to keep the cab sealed.

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Yea I'm thinking I want it sealed. I've spent some time looking at fans but left it open ended cuz dont know the size of the box. I plan on using a combination of an ona bucket and carbon filter(s) cuz odor must be as close to nothin as possible. What are the dimensions of your cab? I know I haven't decided on exact purchases for fans yet but what's your noise level like? I was thinkin of constantly playin an alarm clock radio to cover up humming if necessary

The dimensions are pretty much the same as yours. The fan is loud but since I run a ac in the room its in you can't hear it. I also use an alarm clock radio to block out sound. If you live in the states htgsupply is a good place to pick up an inline/filter combo. Mine cost 120 and was a must for me. Also if you want to filter out smell effectivly your going to have to create negative air pressure in the box to make sure all air exits through your filter, hence having a air tight box. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Just started my grow and have a single happy seedling growing away in 81-82f.

Beans just shipped from nirvana today. Let's see how long they take to get here

taliwacker said:

The dimensions are pretty much the same as yours. The fan is loud but since I run a ac in the room its in you can't hear it. I also use an alarm clock radio to block out sound. If you live in the states htgsupply is a good place to pick up an inline/filter combo. Mine cost 120 and was a must for me. Also if you want to filter out smell effectivly your going to have to create negative air pressure in the box to make sure all air exits through your filter, hence having a air tight box. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Just started my grow and have a single happy seedling growing away in 81-82f.

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any chance you can post some pics? lol

and i just saw that my neighbor is selling a dresser.. 54'' tall 30'' wide 20" deep. you guys think that's cutting it close with 3 northern lights plants sealed in the box with a 150w hps? im not too concerned about moving heat.. mainly size of the plants and them having room to branch out and bush. impulsive i know, but i could stealth it out mad easy and she wants ten bucks for it!! lol real sturdy too

**considering doing SOG in this dresser*** (or even period for that matter)

I had pics, but then deleted them off the riu server when I found out its in the USA. Pretty shady on RIUs part if you ask me. I'm sure some call me paranoid, maybe even stupid. But it is what it is. Dude get the dresser, sounds perfect, use a mix of scrog and lst for a nice yield. Its also bigger than what you have now, you cant go wrong.

thats cool man. i feel ya on the paranoia haha so i left the neighbor a message, damn near positive the dresser is mine! i also had another brilliant idea (my room mate says greedy) is to make this my flowering box. and have a seperate and similar box for vegging. clones i have a hiding place for no worries there. two inconspicuous pieces of furniture for a setup. need another dresser tho.. thoughts?

the reason i meantion two diff boxes is because i want a perpetual system goin cuz i burn like a mofo lol would harvest slightly lesss than scrog but id do it more often.. still playin with both ideas

Hey Bichyn. You can check out my design if you like. I have put ALOT of thought into it and went with what I felt I was going to need. With my design, you could always change up the lights to what ever you wanted and add what ever size fan also. If you have any questions about it, let me know and I will do my best to answer. Sorry I cannot get into any details about my grow but I am just putting the final touched on the Cabinet so I have not tried it yet. I will be very soon(within a couple of weeks) and then I can certainly let you know what results I am getting.
Sorry.......Each chamber is 36" tall X 34" wide and 18" deep. I plan on 2 plants in each using 6 - 42W CFL's each and LSTing. I also plan on hanging two CFL's down the outside walls once the plants start to take off to suppliment light from above.
Peace

nice cab bro

yo wannasmoke, firstly, nice effing cab bro. this is very similar to the first of 4561534384 ideas i had about a perpetual setup but i also included the clones in there too. now, i have a completely seperate place for clones which would enable me to do something like you have here. with your permission id like to jack your design and play with it lol and since youre offering lol i do have a few questions. one thing is i might consider putting 3 plants instead of 2. if possible. i too will be LST-ing.
1. i had a damn near impossible time finding a cabinet the size of yours. what brand and where did you pick it up and how much did it cost? this was the biggest detternt for me to do somethin different cuz i coul;dnt find the actual cabinet!!
2. the lights. how are you hanging them and is it adjustable? i cant really tell but it almost looks like bunjee cords. and the panel holding the lights... is it cardobard, particle board, wood?
3.looking at the (assuming) back of your cab... i see the PC fans..how loud are they? also.. what are the little boxes surrounded by red tape?
4. what are you using for odor control? ill be using a combination of carbon filters and home made ona buckets.
5. slight confusion here.. lookin at pic#2 the doors are open but theres a wall of wood lol is this a front view? then what are pic#3 and pic#7 views of? just trying to figure out how you access the plants and if its airtight you know?

sorry for picking your design apart bro lol i think its great, hence why id like to somehwat replicate it. looks stealth as a mofo! just what im aiming for

i forgot another question or few..i know you havent started the grow.. but do you have any goals or expectations from it? as in how much your harvests will yield?