New Cab! 150W hps, dwc and scrog

Hey all, heres my new cab ive been working on. it will supplement my pc grow box.

Specs -
Cab size 66cm (26") w x 76cm (30") d x 82cm (32") h
Light - 150w HPS in my own custom cool hood thingo, height adjustable by chains
Ventilation - 6" inline extraction fan, 250cfm. 2 x 6" passive intakes with light traps. Hood is cooled by a 92mm pc type fan.
DWC - ~4L bucket with scrog screen attached to lid for easy res changes once screen fills out. round aquarium airstone and adjustable airpump. Netcup is homemade from a pretty pink plastic drinking cup, i chose the pink with the hopes it will promote girls
Nutrients - Ag Grow Grow and Ag Grow Bloom

I came up with a control box which controls my light and both the cooling fans.
What happens is when the light comes on, the extraction fan comes on full speed and the hood fan comes on also.
When the light goes of, the hood fan continues to run for 5 min to aid in cooling the lamp but the extraction fan shuts off during that 5 min. After that 5 min, the hood fan shuts off and the extraction fan comes back on but via a fan speed controller set to a lower almost inaudible speed while still maintaining sufficient airflow through the cab.
Took me a while to get the control circuit to perform how i wanted it, is handy being an electrician sometimes
The custom cool hood was an old 1500w Halogen floodlight that i replaced at work as the halogen side of it burnt out. Perfect cool hood i thought!
i gutted it and bored a hole in one end and mounted an old metal lamp shade thing to it and fitted the 92 mm fan inside for extraction then drilled 4 decent holes at the other end for the inlet. the picture explains it better.

I'll be using bagseed as i have dozens of them, all different strains ive collected over the years. im too paranoid to order from seedbanks lol
I plan to veg long enough to fill as much of the screen as i can then flip to 12/12

heres tha pics!

feel free to comment, criticise or query

Nice setup can't wait to see your progress. Might consider clones as it takes some worry about males especially when working with only a few plants at a time.

I have a stealth grow box I am looking to mod. It's 3'x20"x16" enclosed cabinet with locks and already wired and being used for a grow. I would like to cut out the top and add a sun systems 150w hps over a piece of cut to fit tempered glass and sealed to the top with it semi permanently mounted to the top. I just want to use it when I switch to flowering while keeping the cfl setup intact for vegging. Would this work as it wont be height adjustable or should I go with a 250w hps in the same config. As with any hps my main concern is heat. Above and outside will make it easier to cool while maximizing my flowering space.

Sorry to bug but your setup is close to my mod idea I just want to see if it's feasible.

Hey noneed. Yeah I should go with a clone, I may reveg the dwc girl in my PC case grow once shes done flowering and take a clone from her. But I want to get a different strain going for this cab.
Your fixed light idea would work, you would then just raise the plant to the height you need with blocks of wood, bricks or whatever will work. And as u say, that would help with temp issues.
I run my lights at night when its cooler ambient, means the warmer daytime temps aren't as much of an issue for me.

Haha nah I'm stickin with the one bucket and 150w hps, any bigger lamp will probably give me temp issues.
I am considering poppin a bean soon and gettin the dwc crankin, but I also have a soil plant in there at the moment that I transplanted from my PC box.
I'm trying to wait to see what it does as it seems to have copped a bit of transplant shock and dumped half its leaves....

Well the plant in soil went male so it got ditched.
So ill be poppin a bean and getting this cab up n running proper!

Looks good! keep it up, your cab is about the same size as mine, personally I would have gone with a 250w in there like I did in my cab also looks like you could get 2 girls in there.

one thing though, hows the spread on that security light's reflector, looks like you could mock up a more efficient version.

I'm doing my first Scrog, can't wait to watch yours develop. I have a smaller space and CFL's, but will upgrade to 150W HPS when finances allow. Good luck. I can see lots of thought and planning went into this, I think you will do very well! +Rep

noneed4me2 said:

I would like to cut out the top and add a sun systems 150w hps over a piece of cut to fit tempered glass and sealed to the top with it semi permanently mounted to the top. I just want to use it when I switch to flowering while keeping the cfl setup intact for vegging. Would this work as it wont be height adjustable or should I go with a 250w hps in the same config. As with any hps my main concern is heat. Above and outside will make it easier to cool while maximizing my flowering space.

Click to expand...

Be very careful with moisture buildup if you do the above. Watch for condensation under the glass, which will happen during dark periods. I had a friend who shorted out his light due to this condensation, he removed the glass, no condensation. Just my two cents, but what I have learned is experience is still the best teacher there is. And there is a boatload of experience on this forum. I have learned so much and now like to share!

Matchbox said:

Looks good! keep it up, your cab is about the same size as mine, personally I would have gone with a 250w in there like I did in my cab also looks like you could get 2 girls in there.

one thing though, hows the spread on that security light's reflector, looks like you could mock up a more efficient version.

Click to expand...

Hey man cheers!
I'm going the 150w hps cos that's what I have plus I got it for free I also have a bunch of 250w mh lamps which I could use for veg...
the spread from the hood is OK for what I'm doing, the scrog screen gets full light from it. I am designing a better cool hood with a wider reflector, just haven't got around to finishing it.

Waiting for some clones to be ready, hoping next weekend.
In the meantime I got bored and made a cfl hood Im gunna use for veg.
it can have up to 8 cfls in it and has 2 x 120mm PC fans mounted to the top to draw away the cfls heat..
haven't quite finished yet as I ran out of the ceramic lamp bases.
with all 8 cfls running it will produce around 12000 lumens depending on the mix of colour temps.

Sweet light

Man you come up with some macgyver type growing ideas. I will have you grow when the apocalypse comes and we have to scavenge for grow materials (been playing to much Fallout). After reading about cfl breakage I will just invest in another 150w hps as soon ask can afford it.

Thanks guys!
I love making shit out of recycled materials, the cheaper the better I reckon! I tend to horde a lot of materials with the thought "oh I could use that for something one day! "
I also just hate spending money when I don't have to haha.

Evening peeps! Been a good day today.
finally got me a couple of clones!
planted one in the new bubble bucket in this cab and another I've planted in a pot with some good potting mix in the PC case.
the pc case plant I am going to grow it to be a bonsai mother plant. Been doing a lot of reading about growing and maintaining a bonsai mother, looks pretty cool so imma give it a go
This one in the cab will get vegged long enough to fill the scrog screen to where I'm happy the 12/12 she goes!
I've got the cfl hood over it for now with 3 x 24w cfls (2x 6500k & 1x 2700k) gunna use the hood for veg and add cfls as needed (up to
Using the same Ag Grow grow and bloom nutrients I used before in the PC dwc grow.
so as of now she's in the bubble bucket with 5.8ph water.
feel free to comment, criticize or offer valuable advise

last 2 pics are the pc case bonsai mum experiment

did you make that hood?thats pretty cool dude,does it keep the lights cool?

Got any updates?? Haven't heard from you in a min

Thefat, yeah the whole light hood I made. Its made from an old recycled Perspex shop sign, I bent it using a blow torch. Then I collected a bunch of ceramic lamp bases from old security floodlights. The 2 x 120 mm PC fans keep the light well cool enough, I have a speed control so I can slow the fans down to keep warmth at the plant (getting damn cold overnight lately)

Lady.j, did first Res change last night, roots poppin out of the cup already! Will update with pics soon.

ok its a bit late but heres the new pics at 1 week form transplant.
only 2 pics cos im lazy, that and not much to see
she has suffered a bit of phosphorous deficiency due to cold weather but has only affected some of the lower leaves, the new growth doesnt seem to be affected. i was still trying to dial in the right exhaust fan speed setting while the lights were on to keep it warm but not too warm or cold for that matter, with the exhaust running flat out, temps during the night (even tho i run my lights overnight) would drop to around 9C, now i can keep the temps overnight at around 20C.