New budget grow / SCROG / Setup / Questions / Comments

Hello all, I mentioned previously that I was beginning a new grow as soon as me and my wife return from Washington DC. (Yes, I saw people get maced at the demonstration over at the Air and Space Museum today, no I was not one of them LOL Oh and for the record, they were minding their own P's and Q's. Fuck America man. *ahem* Anyway, I digress...) I'm going to be posting my setup and equipment here for you guys to review since I've been a bit out of the loop for 2 years on growing. Moving forth...

I ordered my light the other day, and got confirmation from a family member it arrived, now just waiting on my seeds (AK-48 and Chrystal) Upon my return Monday morning I need to get plywood, brackets, and the rest of my supplies from a number of places so sometime in the evening on Tuesday I should have everything set up! (Or mostly anyway) I will post pics step-by-step of how I do this, so no worries guys, just be patient with me as I have a lot going on between travel, work, play, growing, and my wife.

My little clandestine budget setup (Only about $300!) is going to be a 2' x 5.5' x 7' (LxWxH) closet grow with 4 plants in a SCROG set up, DWC 5 gallon buckets, and a 250w HPS/MH setup. It's going to be inside a sliding door closet so the shallow length is why I decided SCROG over anything else.

What I plan to do is build a plywood box of appropriate dimensions to fit into the closet, line it with IR/UV padding, then line it with mylar, hang my light, and then cut out dual 120mm intakes, and then two 120mm exhausts with a home-built DIY carbon scrubber, using PC fans I have on hand, a spare power supply for them, then activated charcoal and a little bit of ingenuity! Then the thing just slides into the closet and presto! Modular, cheap, easy, and creative. Cooling will likely be resolved by a small 5,000 BTU window a/c unit, or maybe even more passive cooling measures such as extra fans since this particular HPS I have doesn't seem to generate much heat. After it's all built I will put some 2" poultry screen inside for the SCROG to be complete! Muahahahaha!

Sounds good, cant wait to see some pics of your set up.... Subbed

Thank you sir, I'm boarding my plane in 10 mins, will be home this evening. Pics up tomorrow!

How do you plan to change water.....and a 5 foot length you might need 2 lights....but good luck with your grow......

Good luck with the grow! I am putting the final touches on a new room my self. The carbon filter I made is a shop-vac filter filled with aquarium activated charcoal, then sealed it in the filter with pre-filter material. Works great so far!

DSB65 said:

How do you plan to change water.....and a 5 foot length you might need 2 lights....but good luck with your grow......

Click to expand...

Just open the door and remove the ones that needed for water change? LOL I did my homework and with a 250w I'm good for a standard grow up to 9 square feet w/ 4 plants, but ScrOG needs less light so I've got plenty for my setup (which is roughly 11 square feet with 4 plants) unless I've missed something here. A 25,000 lumen bulb should put out plenty at just a couple feet over the plants.

PSF said:

Good luck with the grow! I am putting the final touches on a new room my self. The carbon filter I made is a shop-vac filter filled with aquarium activated charcoal, then sealed it in the filter with pre-filter material. Works great so far!

Click to expand...

Thank you, good gentlesir! I wanna see what all you're doing. My carbon scrubber will be a PC fan with some hardware cloth covered in something of the same medium and rolled into a tube. Cheap, easy, effective.

I think DSB65 is asking how do you plan to change the water in your DWC once your plant has grown into your scrog... I'm curious as well, been wanting to do a dwc/scrog combo for a while but don't see how you would clean the res without making a complete mess.

Ohhhhh well then thats a whole different story. it'll be easy actually, I have two spare sets of hands so while my wife and her brother hold the tops of the plants in the buckets/root cups, I'll just dump them in the tub and refill. Or I can use this old nute pump or aquarium siphon to do it too.

So I had a long day shopping with the lovely wife today! Attached are a couple images of my basic equipment. Some items are not shown, I will take more pics tomorrow as I finish the setup which I have scaled back to 3 plants to maximize the yield with my 250W lamp.

-MH conversion bulb
-ballast/lamp
-peat moss starter plugs
-aquarium pump w/ air stones and misc equipment
-clay pellets
-sterilite bins, 3 gallon
-General Hydroponics FloraNova "Bloom" and "Grow"
-timer and other misc equipment
-activated carbon for my air scrubber

Tomorrow I will pick up a power supply for the pc fans, the pc fans themselves (come to find out my spares are way too noisy and probably fixing to die since they're 5 years old) and some duct for the home built carbon scrubber. Finally, I've decided to make a "tent" out of PVC pipe and mylar. So here's the breakdown...

I'm going to use a piece of hardware cloth, cover it in a prefilter of sorts (likely just standard terry cloth or the like) and fill the tube with activated carbon, attach a PC fan on one end to draw/push air, and put it into one side of the tent to suck in the air and blow it out. If I haven't described it well enough I'll show you guys when I build it so you can critique Then all thats left is to get my seeds and start growing!

Sorry it took so long, its a crazy day. I'll take a few shots of Bushmill's for you guys and smoke some hookah. (Got blueberry flavor, jasmine, and opium flavors!)

Take it easy RIU'ers

-the Kye

kymeragr7 said:

ohhhhh well then thats a whole different story. It'll be easy actually, i have two spare sets of hands so while my wife and her brother hold the tops of the plants in the buckets/root cups, i'll just dump them in the tub and refill. :d or i can use this old nute pump or aquarium siphon to do it too.

Click to expand...

well it sounds like you got it figured out......hope it works as planed..............

Hey BTW man I didn't mean to be a dick or anything, just FYI. I'm blunt and sarcastic at times. But thank you sir. +rep :]

kymeragr7 said:

hey btw man i didn't mean to be a dick or anything, just fyi. I'm blunt and sarcastic at times. But thank you sir. +rep :]

Click to expand...

thats cool....ill be watching to see your results................

alrighty then im going to hit the store for the last of my supplies today then this evening (probably late tonight) I shall have more pics for you guys!

UPDATE: I have all the PVC but was unable to have time to cut it to fully assemble the tent. I had just finished starting the pre-grow 1 week cycle to oxygenate the water, but tripped and rolled my ankle over a stack of granite tiles and its all cut up so I'm stayin' off it. I'm going to germ my beans in the morning after the swelling goes down then finish everything over the course of 3 hours. Oh, pic of the last of the gear is up. Nothing special but figured I'd include it for the hell of it.

BTW: Anyone have a good idea for a good DIY reflector? my bulb hangs verticle (its a strange kinda light) that has a hook with a built in ballast. Big blocky thing about 18" long. There's nothing to really attach to. Pic included! I was thinking of a mail box or maybe a piece of flashing for a duct riveted in the shape of a cone around the light's base... (The plastic flashing of the socket)

Okay so I ghetto rigged up a reflector for the light. It's clandestine (just like everything else) but it works I have everything set up and ready to go, I'm just waiting on the seeds from Nirvana to get here. I checked the order and they received payment yesterday, and product was packed/shipped today. I estimate 1 week to takeoff Here's a pic of the reflector I built! Also if I'm feeling extra motivated tonight I'll go head and hang the light and take a pic of that as well. Again I apologise for how slow this has been going, I just have a lot to juggle. I do what I can with what I got

So the setup is finalized I'm just waiting on my AK-48 seeds to come in! (From Nirvana-Shop) I estimate in the next couple weeks I'll start having babygirls comin up to show off for you, so stick around. I'll update this thread every few days or so after I get the seeds. Til that time, I'll catch you guys later!