Dave's Area 51/Inda-gro combination grow

That's the layout of my expanded grow closet, 70" wide x 24" deep, with my 2 lights and air filter where they'll be during most of the grow.

I'll give more details later. I'm still removing the old cabinet. But I got a used Inda-gro Pro-420-PAR coming in the mail tomorrow. Got it for $500. They're supposed to be about as good as a 750 watt MH. We'll see. Should be cool enough that I won't need any special ventilation, though. Looking forward to seeing what it can do. Got enough room to put the Area 51 next to it. The overlap between the 2 lights should be interesting.

Welcome back from the dead, RIU!

Glad to have you back, Dave! Get that construction MOVING! That butter isn't going to last you forever! The improvements have become an addiction, haven't they?

Hey, GB. Yeah, I got a little extra unexpected cash for Christmas, so I was planning to buy a second light for a while. Checked Area 51, but EH didn't offer me much of a discount this time. I want to see how these 2 different types of lights compliment each other. Their PAR distributions are different, because their methods of producing light are. I'm hoping for something good out of the area where they overlap.

That cabinet was too restrictive to grow a decent sized plant, too, so I've been wanting to expand it for a long time. I'll nail up some paneling between the "pot growing" side of the closet and the clothes hanging side, with a little air intake near the bottom. Then I'll just hang a long piece of metal conduit pipe across the grow area and hang my lights and air filter on it.

The Inda-gro is coming tomorrow! I'm hoping that it survives the trip.

Inda-gro Light Arrived!

My Inda-gro light arrived in the mail today! This thing is huge. It's about 4 feet long. Opened the box and fired it up to make sure that it does that at least. OK. Noticed one defect that concerned me at first. There appears to be some kind of sediment stuck to the bottom side of the light at one end, on the inside of the bulb:



It's close to a small protrusion from the main body of the bulb. That little protrusion appears to be full of more dark particles. So I wonder if vibration during shipping might have shaken it out and spread the crud around. I'll try to find out what that is.
(Edit: Remember, this is a used light.)

Here are some more pics of the light:






Here it is turned on:






Grow Room:
Still in the process of taking my old cabinet apart. Should be able to yank it out of the closet by tomorrow and then I'll start working on the wall that will close off half of my big closet to use for growing. Grow space will be about 6 feet wide by 2 feet deep.

What can happen with any electrodeless lamp is that there can be a bit of mercury oxidation where a small amount mercury seeps into the phosphor and won't revaporize. It's not ununsua; to see a bit of that as lamps age and it won't affect PPF output unless you see it occurring in over 25% of the surface area. BTW when it does occur it tends to be at the glass cross over pieces and at the glass amalgam spur.

chazbolin said:

What can happen with any electrodeless lamp is that there can be a bit of mercury oxidation where a small amount mercury seeps into the phosphor and won't revaporize. It's not ununsua; to see a bit of that as lamps age and it won't affect PPF output unless you see it occurring in over 25% of the surface area. BTW when it does occur it tends to be at the glass cross over pieces and at the glass amalgam spur.

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Chaz, thanks a lot for explaining what that is! I got this on eBay, so I need to really check this thing out to make sure I got the real deal. So far so good.

Just out of curiosity, do you happen to know what that little protrusion is on the end of the main bulb? It looks to me like some kind of crud catcher. That's just a wild guess, though.

Turned the Inda-gro on for about a half hour or so to see how hot it gets. It's a lot hotter than I thought it would be. The bulb is too hot to touch for more than a split second, like a cup of really hot coffee. So I'll definitely have to place some fans to blow across it. That's a little disappointing, but I can deal with it.

Welcome to the no changing bulbs for 10 years club

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hyroot said:

Welcome to the no changing bulbs for 10 years club

subbed

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Welcome hyroot! Glad to have someone following who's had experience with this type of light (you among others).

Finished taking the cabinet apart and the wife dragged the pieces out to the garage. This will be my new, expanded growing area:



Here's a view of the inside looking toward the "clothes" half of the closet:



I'll nail up a 2x4 vertically on each side and use those to attach the new wall. The wall will just be a thin piece of paneling. That should do.

Here's where the exhaust duct connects to the attic:



I'll leave it where it is. But it's kind of in the middle, so will make it hard to install a crossbar across the middle of the ceiling. I'm already planning to put up 2 crossbars, one on each side of the ducting running the long way across the room. Two will make it easier to hang the Area 51 panel at the end of the room. That might be good enough.

I'm Back!!!

Got back to working on my closet. For the past month or so, I was helping to start a new chapter of NORML in my town with about 20 other folks. Did the same thing with Move to Amend. Coincidentally, both groups started up in my town at the same time. So that’s why I've been away for quite a while. Now I want to finish this and get my next grow started.

=>
Finally got studs screwed in place on both sides of my big bedroom closet, so that I can make a wall between the “clothes side” and the “garden side”.



Here’s the first piece of paneling that I prepared for the bottom half of the wall:



After screwing it in place (I’ll finish tomorrow):



I'll put a 2nd piece of paneling above the first:

Looks like a good design for your new grow room, Dave.
Glad that you're doing another grow journal for us, I'm interested to see the results.
Good luck, sir.

Bad Karma said:

Looks like a good design for your new grow room, Dave.
Glad that you're doing another grow journal for us, I'm interested to see the results.
Good luck, sir.

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Good to see you, Karma. I want to see what I can do with what I learned about nutes in my last grow and the addition of this Inda-gro light. I'll have to grow at least a couple of plants this with that big light next to the Area 51. I'm thinking of the LSD strain this time, since I have so many of those seeds at home already.

daveroller said:

I'm thinking of the LSD strain this time, since I have so many of those seeds at home already.

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I've heard good things about Barney's LSD strain, but I've never had a chance to try it, myself.
It should do a decent job helping with any pain, and "supposedly" give you a really interesting visual high, too.

Great to see you back, Dave! I look forward to seeing the finished room!

Bad Karma said:

I've heard good things about Barney's LSD strain, but I've never had a chance to try it, myself.
It should do a decent job helping with any pain, and "supposedly" give you a really interesting visual high, too.

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LSD was the first strain that I successfully grew and it turned out AWESOME! I never got a visual high from it, but it sure made me feel weird, kind of like I was on another planet. Everyone I turned on to it said it was awesome and they mention it from time to time. Somehow I haven't been able to achieve the same result in several attempts at growing it again, but I have high hopes this time around.

greatbranch said:

Great to see you back, Dave! I look forward to seeing the finished room!

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Progress has been slow, but I plan to work on the wall some more tomorrow and hopefully get that done. I have to cut some holes through the paneling and reinforce it with sheet metal to slide 3 crossbars through. The crossbars will hold up my lights and fan&filter. Then I have to coach the wife while she screws the upper piece of paneling in place. That's a challenge, because you KNOW how much women love to be told what to do by a man.

Hey, I'm getting to like this new RIU interface a little.

Finished putting up the wall now, including supports for 3 crossbars.




I bolted a piece of sheet metal on both sides of the wall up there to strengthen it where the 3 crossbars will go through the holes.




Here’s the crossbar support on the other side of the grow room:



Only 2 holes here, because the middle crossbar can’t go through the exhaust duct. I’ll make the middle bar a “T” shape with 2 legs resting on top of the outer 2 crossbars, before reaching the ducting.




Here’s the ceiling with one crossbar installed:

Ok, put up the other 2 crossbars.




I’ll have to clamp something onto each of the bars where they go into the new wall, so that they don’t accidentally pull out of the other support on the opposite end of the room.



That middle bar should be long enough to hold the Inda-Gro light. The other 2 bars are going to hold up the Area 51 panel and possibly the Green Gator filter and fan as well.

Looks like a cool set up. Im interested to see how this looks all done.