Big Perm's Grow Box

hotrodharley said:

If you haven't gone to college for engineering you should consider it . I don't care how old you are.

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I retired a Navy Seabee. That might have a little to do with it.

Big Perm said:

I retired a Navy Seabee. That might have a little to do with it.

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Something works. Seabees rock. Semper Fi, engineer.

I got my aero cloner done. It's nothing special. Ran it for a few hours in the garage to make sure everything works, and no leaks.
I'm using the wifi outlets to control the pumps. There are a lot of options in the app, so I'm easily able to run 1 minute on, 5 minutes off. I already know I'm going to play around with the times later.
I am going to go remote reservoir on the other 4 systems so the water temps stay where I want them, 65f. I was going to do it with this one, but since it's a cloner, the clones would go slow with that water temp. So, the cloner is done!

I also got my veg unit done. It's aero as well. I went with 2 chambers to keep the roots in the top one. I am running remote reservoir so I can have full control of water temps.
Once again, I ran it for a few hours in the garage to test everything out. The pump in the bottom is on all the time. It's a pump rated at 48 hours dry running. It only has to wait 5 minutes for cold water, so no problems there. An added bonus is that since it pumps more than the sprayers put out, it is always skimming the water, so the return line looks like carbonated water...aerating the water on the way to the reservoir. An airstone would have been overkill.
These pics are just of the setup for tests. When they go in the box, the reservoir will be in a separate room, and pvc pipe (cheaper than hose) ran to and from to protect against light.

I got the boat anchor out of there and got the hood in. I have the ventilation about half done. I had to change directions with it, and also decided to vent the ac and hood into my attic. As I was doing that I decided to put a vent in my garage I can open and close. This allows me to dump the heat into my garage during the cold months, and into the attic during the summer.
I was hoping to be done with hvac tonight, but the garage idea side tracked me.
So, the ac and ventilation for that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Big Perm said:

I got the boat anchor out of there and got the hood in. I have the ventilation about half done. I had to change directions with it, and also decided to vent the ac and hood into my attic. As I was doing that I decided to put a vent in my garage I can open and close. This allows me to dump the heat into my garage during the cold months, and into the attic during the summer.
I was hoping to be done with hvac tonight, but the garage idea side tracked me.
So, the ac and ventilation for that will have to wait until tomorrow.
View attachment 4185433 View attachment 4185432

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Wish you and Mr. Rogers were my neighbors. Laying out a template for building a budget laminar flow hood for mycological studies.

hotrodharley said:

Wish you and Mr. Rogers were my neighbors. Laying out a template for building a budget laminar flow hood for mycological studies.

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That'd be sweet. I'll follow that for sure.
I have this one neighbor. New him for a few years before I found out he's a huge smoker. We used to wave when we mowed. Now he's over 3-4 times a week. I finally got to where I could trust him enough to show him my project. He was blown away.
The house across the street is for sale. Just an fyi.

Big Perm said:

That'd be sweet. I'll follow that for sure.
I have this one neighbor. New him for a few years before I found out he's a huge smoker. We used to wave when we mowed. Now he's over 3-4 times a week. I finally got to where I could trust him enough to show him my project. He was blown away.
The house across the street is for sale. Just an fyi.

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Met a guy on RIU. Finally find out he was in Alaska too. This was back a few years . Started to get transferred and had to sell my equipment. He danced around like i was maybe a cop or something before he finally agrees to meet and look. He lived up the road. Literally. Cool guy and we had never met.

I forgot to show you guys my vegging and clone light. It's a Durolux T5 HO. I really like it.

The only thing I don't like is that the holes for the hooks are way too close together. If they were more spread out (like they are in the picture when I ordered it), it would be a lot more stable.
Oh well, all it does is hang there I guess, but when you bump it, it goes crazy.

I got the ac in and ventilation all done. That took pretty much all day.
This was after I called it quits for the night. I'll straighten everything up tomorrow.
Remember my fan box?
Well I got super lucky and it fit the ac unit perfectly, score! The fan had to go into another room anyway.
So, I modified the ac, opened it up some so it could breathe better, sealed it up nice and tight from the front and made two chambers in the box. I just closed off the exhaust side, and closed looped the ac side.
This is the only pic I snapped of the build about half way through. I put in the ac and basically built around it for the exhaust venting to work. I lined the inside of the box with that rubberized paint and put in a drain. I siliconed the shit out of the inside of that ac unit. It's crazy how many gaps are in there.
It now intakes and exhausts from the outdoors into my attic during the summer, and through the vent in my garage in the winter. I was able to do that by running the exhaust up the studs of the garage and into the attic. Now I simply open and close the dampener, it looks like it has always been there.I didn't put a thermometer on the exhaust temps because they only feel warm, not hot. I'd guess in the 90's.
An added bonus is that I used to run a 1500w heater in the garage all winter, now I don't have to.
Oh, the whole reason for me doing it this way is that my res tanks are going to sit out here, 4 of them. A temp probe in a tank controls my ac and keeps the water between 65 and 68f.
I have the vented hood, so there isn't a whole lot of cooling needed. I have veg and flower exhaust in a closed loop with the ac room. These fans are also on thermal controllers, so they sip on the ac room air, which is about 60f.
Since that gives me a lot of control over temps, it's going to be fun to experiment on some strains late flower with cool temps to pull out some color.

Big Perm said:

I got the ac in and ventilation all done. That took pretty much all day.
This was after I called it quits for the night. I'll straighten everything up tomorrow.
Remember my fan box?
Well I got super lucky and it fit the ac unit perfectly, score! The fan had to go into another room anyway.
So, I modified the ac, opened it up some so it could breathe better, sealed it up nice and tight from the front and made two chambers in the box. I just closed off the exhaust side, and closed looped the ac side.
This is the only pic I snapped of the build about half way through. I put in the ac and basically built around it for the exhaust venting to work. I lined the inside of the box with that rubberized paint and put in a drain. I siliconed the shit out of the inside of that ac unit. It's crazy how many gaps are in there.
View attachment 4186025 It now intakes and exhausts from the outdoors into my attic during the summer, and through the vent in my garage in the winter. I was able to do that by running the exhaust up the studs of the garage and into the attic. Now I simply open and close the dampener, it looks like it has always been there.I didn't put a thermometer on the exhaust temps because they only feel warm, not hot. I'd guess in the 90's.
An added bonus is that I used to run a 1500w heater in the garage all winter, now I don't have to.View attachment 4186022
Oh, the whole reason for me doing it this way is that my res tanks are going to sit out here, 4 of them. A temp probe in a tank controls my ac and keeps the water between 65 and 68f.
I have the vented hood, so there isn't a whole lot of cooling needed. I have veg and flower exhaust in a closed loop with the ac room. These fans are also on thermal controllers, so they sip on the ac room air, which is about 60f.
Since that gives me a lot of control over temps, it's going to be fun to experiment on some strains late flower with cool temps to pull out some color.

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Navy engineering at its finest. All the stuff they beat into us really comes in handy especially when it comes to growing lol. I always suspected my CMC was a smoker he was goofy like that lol.

I have to say, and I really don't like saying this, but I'm impressed myself.
Every op I've ever had in the past was something I MacGyver'ed together. I've grown in closets, showers, campers, sheds, and I can't think back that far.
One time when I lived out in the sticks of Northern Ca., Hoopa actually (like 20 years ago), I didn't have a pot to piss in, or to smoke. I rigged up a hydroponics unit out of stuff from people's yards...no shit. I took the windshield washer pump, and the headlight light switch out of an abandoned Ford Explorer, it was that crappy maroon color anyway. I took two huge juice bottles and cut the bottom out of one of them. I found a wall charger to something that had 12V out at like 3 amps (36w), so I wired that up to the headlight switch, and then to the pump.and plugged that into a plain 15min on off timer. The pump fit into the other bottle, just like it fits in your windshield washer tank (think about how you would change it out) . The purpose of the headlight switch was it also had a potentiometer to be able to dim your dash lights. I used it to control the output of the pump. Then I taped the bottles together neck to neck so I kind of had a big hour-glass shape. I filled rocks from the driveway in the top one. I filled the bottom with tap water. I had a few bag seed, all bag seed is killer if you live in Humboldt county. I took a greenie weenie (green scotch pad), dipped in water and rolled a seed up in it then stuck the pad in the rocks so that the roll was vertical. I took the rubber hose from the washer pump that would usually go to your washer nozzles, and clipped it to the edge of the top bottle so that it poured water out in the center. I found a 4ft T12 in a friend's closet that he didn't know was there, and got another cheap timer. I rigged this thing up in my closet.
I talked a buddy of mine into taking me over to Fox Farms over in Arcata so that I could buy 1 bottle of Grow Big. It was all I could afford. I grew the whole thing out with that setup, and that one bottle of nutes. I was so proud of that weed, man. I don't even remember how much it grew, not much.
That's the list of equipment for my first grow ever. It was also my entry into hydroponics.

This time around I wanted to be able to Set It and Forget It*. Holy shit......I'm going to name my box Sifi. Anyway, (sorry) I'm getting older and I'm realizing I'm not as good as I used to be, but I'm smarter than I used to be, just ask. I forget where I was going with this...that was a walk down memory lane.

sifi.....right on....clean build.

Slowly getting there. I have to build the hydro for the flower room still. I started some autos to push something through while I wait on the photos, so I don't have much time.
I had some scrap flooring, it's waterproof so win/win again.

The ladies are looking decent.

I've decided that I'm going to finish out the ac room also. Kind of a hangout I guess. I'll put a floor in there and do the walls. Canned lighting would be a breeze, and I have a lot of them. I can trim in there with a scrubber.
I'm working on the equipment for the flower room in the garage right now. Once I see that everything stabilizes, I'll start on the room.

I got the plumbing for my veg unit put in.


A simple delivery and return line.

Everything stays nice and dry.


I ran it through my flower box. I didn't want to but had to.


Into the AC room where the reservoirs are. This is one of four tubs. The other three will be the same tubs but a different system. This tub holds 25 gallons with the system on.


During my tests in the garage on this system, I found out my return water was a little too warm, making it harder to keep the water temps down. My quick fix has turned into my permanent solution. The water now runs into this tiny catch tub, all of it.
The pump will pump down to about an inch, then it sucks air. That would leave about 3 gallons in there until the delivery pumps kicks back on every 5 min. Then cool water would mix with the warm water, so I had a constant warm water return. The return water would warm up just enough to throw my res temps off. Ideally I want my water temps between 65-68f. I couldn't get them below 73, and my ceiling is 72.
After the little tub idea, holding between 65-68f isn't a problem.

I'm super relieved that it works and I have temps under control. I wasn't 100% it was going to!

Minor update. (who doesn't like more pics)

Light blockage on the veg unit. This was actually my base coat, and I was going to flat white on top of this, but I thought this looked cool. It looks brown in the pics, but it's hammered steel. -some hobby paint I found in the garage. It's pretty much the exact color as the tub. It has a texture with it, too....ooooh, aaaahhh. I can still flat white over this, it would reflect more light obviously, but I doubt I would even be able to tell a difference so that's why I left it dark. It's not soaking up heat from that T5, either.
Looking at it now I should have painted those hoses while I had it apart, oh and I was going to put neoprene inserts around the hoses to block light.....well now I'll have to do that.

I was going to paint the cloner too, but I change the water in that once a week anyway, it's only 5 gal water with 5ml of light nutes in it. The other tanks should last me three weeks on a change. Truthfully, I sanded the veg lid for an hour so that the paint would stick, my hand cramped up and the cloner ended up being good the way it is.
Speaking of that T5...

(I do have a fan behind the tub, it's the white one from the other pics, just out of the way.)


I love it but it's about to drive me nuts.
The hanger holes are way too close together. The cord hangs off the left, so it's constantly off balance. The plugin to daisy chain off of it, which I do, is also on the left so that's more weight over there. In the pic this is minor, about 1ft high and it hangs 6" on the left. I mess with the cord but I'm tired of it, I'm going to have to modify this new light and drill holes in the corners to use four rope hangers. After that I don't see any problems with it.
Here is the light. It's a Durolux T5 HO. As you can see it's the light I got, but hangs differently. I wish I had the light I thought I was buying. Too late to do anything now. I bought it a while ago.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075LQFSHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Big Perm said:

Minor update. (who doesn't like more pics)

Light blockage on the veg unit. This was actually my base coat, and I was going to flat white on top of this, but I thought this looked cool. It looks brown in the pics, but it's hammered steel. -some hobby paint I found in the garage. It's pretty much the exact color as the tub. It has a texture with it, too....ooooh, aaaahhh. I can still flat white over this, it would reflect more light obviously, but I doubt I would even be able to tell a difference so that's why I left it dark. It's not soaking up heat from that T5, either.
View attachment 4194372 Looking at it now I should have painted those hoses while I had it apart, oh and I was going to put neoprene inserts around the hoses to block light.....well now I'll have to do that.View attachment 4194375

I was going to paint the cloner too, but I change the water in that once a week anyway, it's only 5 gal water with 5ml of light nutes in it. The other tanks should last me three weeks on a change. Truthfully, I sanded the veg lid for an hour so that the paint would stick, my hand cramped up and the cloner ended up being good the way it is.
Speaking of that T5...
View attachment 4194374
(I do have a fan behind the tub, it's the white one from the other pics, just out of the way.)
View attachment 4194377

I love it but it's about to drive me nuts.
The hanger holes are way too close together. The cord hangs off the left, so it's constantly off balance. The plugin to daisy chain off of it, which I do, is also on the left so that's more weight over there. In the pic this is minor, about 1ft high and it hangs 6" on the left. I mess with the cord but I'm tired of it, I'm going to have to modify this new light and drill holes in the corners to use four rope hangers. After that I don't see any problems with it.
Here is the light. It's a Durolux T5 HO. As you can see it's the light I got, but hangs differently. I wish I had the light I thought I was buying. Too late to do anything now. I bought it a while ago.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075LQFSHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Click to expand...

All in all it’s looking awesome.

Waay to much work just to grow a couple little plants, but each there own

Big Perm said:

Minor update. (who doesn't like more pics)

Light blockage on the veg unit. This was actually my base coat, and I was going to flat white on top of this, but I thought this looked cool. It looks brown in the pics, but it's hammered steel. -some hobby paint I found in the garage. It's pretty much the exact color as the tub. It has a texture with it, too....ooooh, aaaahhh. I can still flat white over this, it would reflect more light obviously, but I doubt I would even be able to tell a difference so that's why I left it dark. It's not soaking up heat from that T5, either.
View attachment 4194372 Looking at it now I should have painted those hoses while I had it apart, oh and I was going to put neoprene inserts around the hoses to block light.....well now I'll have to do that.View attachment 4194375

I was going to paint the cloner too, but I change the water in that once a week anyway, it's only 5 gal water with 5ml of light nutes in it. The other tanks should last me three weeks on a change. Truthfully, I sanded the veg lid for an hour so that the paint would stick, my hand cramped up and the cloner ended up being good the way it is.
Speaking of that T5...
View attachment 4194374
(I do have a fan behind the tub, it's the white one from the other pics, just out of the way.)
View attachment 4194377

I love it but it's about to drive me nuts.
The hanger holes are way too close together. The cord hangs off the left, so it's constantly off balance. The plugin to daisy chain off of it, which I do, is also on the left so that's more weight over there. In the pic this is minor, about 1ft high and it hangs 6" on the left. I mess with the cord but I'm tired of it, I'm going to have to modify this new light and drill holes in the corners to use four rope hangers. After that I don't see any problems with it.
Here is the light. It's a Durolux T5 HO. As you can see it's the light I got, but hangs differently. I wish I had the light I thought I was buying. Too late to do anything now. I bought it a while ago.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075LQFSHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Click to expand...

Hey I wanted to warn you I put pergo xp in my rooms mainly because I was insulating the concrete floors ( already had the foam and shit on the back). However apparently either from the higher humidity during veg or the occasional droplets of water I found black mold in the joints. I only found it due to pulling the flooring out because my cmh light was able to heat the floor. I’m a clean freak too I always clean up any spills an run the shop vac either everyday or every other day. So just a friendly warning.