Zoidberg's 85/125W CFL Full-Tower Grow

Hey guys,


long time reader here . Finally got my own case up and running and wanted to present you my finished PC-case.


Thanks for all the inspiration you all have given me, all you PC-Growers (especially trem0lo and TeriYaki) have made me really finishing this case - it has been a shitload of work.



Stealth and odor-control is a must for me, friends know the smell of weed and I absolutely dont want them to ask me for "homegrown" every day. Besides that I've gone a bit overkill and attaced a real PC-plate and glued "extension"-cables to it and connected it to the RaspberryPi (mini-ARM based PC running Debain Linux) - so yeah, u can attach USB, HDMI and sound to the case (USB on the front) and it will work. Also the power cable uses a normal PC-Power-Cord.


My Setup uses CFL bulbs, the one on the picture is a 85W 6500k bulb and I have another 125w 2700k bulb for flowering.
For Odor-Control I have built an active carbon filter which is using 2 Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850 RPM fans (push&pull like in watercooling setups).

The case has another fan (60x60 scythe mini-kaze) above the bulb to move the hot air from the bulb towards the fans of the filter and another PC-Fan blowing in air through the lighttrap.



Those fans are all powered by the Fan-Controller which is a "Scythe Kaze Master Ace", its powered by a 12V DC adapter which also supplys it with 5V for the LCD-Display (this one was a bitch). The Fan controller also has temperature control which will help me to control temps on different places in the case.


Im going to use LST and as you can see a "SCROG"-screen which is primarily a height limiter to keep the plants under control.



The strain is Dinafem - Blue Widow x3.


The seeds have sprouted yesterday morning and are looking a bit stretchy right now - temps are smthg around 85° and 89°F which is high - i know that but i have totally underestimated how much heat this damn 85W CFL already produces.



Can't do anything about it right now since its 25th and all stores are closed until 27th. I'll get a thin sheet of plexi-glass and place it above the screen to control the heat a bit that should be enough to lower the temps to an "ok" level.


now some pics

Looking forward to watching this grow

Just a quick update:
Things are going quite well I guess, its day 3 / 4 of sprout - they sprouted in the evening and this pic was taken in the early morning today so yeah - guess they lookin quite good for that



just sprayed a little water on plant 2&3, plant 1 (from left to right) didnt need any the soil was still moist

Great pics, thanks for sharing.

Looking hi tech! Good luck

nice cab man. looks way cleaner than mine...
you should check out the pll thread around here tho. I went through the same thing as you will the cfls but ive learned that plls are just very efficient cfls that need a ballast seperate than the one at the base(socket). I just ordered myself a 2 light 110w pll fixture off HTG. They claim it totals out at 10,000 lumens which obviously is a rounded number but either way, due to the designs. 110w of pll knocks 250w of cfl out of the park everday... Ill let you know how things go once my pll fixture is delivered. ill be lurking tho...

Ok guys been quite some time since my last update on the grow and I think it's just about time to report in
After hours of research about the "cooltube" glass I wanted to build I decided to wait until 7th when the glazier workshops in my area open up again (apparently every glazier shop in the next 30-40km is on vacation from 23rd to 7th...) and order a real glass for it.
There are quite a couple reasons for it like acryl/plastic glass may turn yellow-ish due to the heat over time and light transmission rates are much better for real glass (in fact in all threads I've read about it everyone was like "PLS DON'T GET ACRYL GLASS" - so I guess its safe to trust them on it lol).

The fans I've ordered for it (2 Scythe Gentle Typhoons 1850RPM again) have already been delivered. I plan on putting one on the bulb side of the glass that pulls the air and replace the 1 fan (currently using an EnerMax Silent Fan - which is ok but dosn't nearly push/pull as much air as the Gentle Typhoon) in the lighttrap/intake-box.
I figured this would be a good overall improvement to make for airflow, I plan it to be something like this.


Besides that I'm going to fill the pots with more soil and bury the stretched stems as good as possible. Maybe will transplant into a bit larger pots but space is very limited.

Now some pics - the last update was of Day 05 (counted right from the point I've put the seeds into the damp towel for germination)

Day 09 -
Day 12 -
Day 14 -
Day 16 (right now) -

looking good man!

Looks nice. Im not sure why people hate acrylic so much? One acrylic companies product sold at a big box store claim,

"Optical Refractive Index ASTM D-542 nD 1.49
Light Transmission -Total ASTM D-1003 % 92
Light Transmission - Haze ASTM D-1003 % 2".

I am not saying which one you should use. But you seem to have found alot of negative information on acrylic. I have used acrylic around lighting(specifically T5s and CFLs) for a few years now and have not seen any issues with yellowing. Besides that its flexible, is a better insulator than glass, and IMO safer to handle.

I would however if I wasn't concerned about workability or safety, go glass as well.

Your PC is Rockin dude. Looks nice. The heat can be an issue for sure. I couldn't produce any decent flowers in my PC.

Hey, the Raspberry Pi approach! Ultimate stealth -- you could be posting to ICMag from the growbox on your desk!

When you get a chance, show us a picture of the case put together and everything running in stealth mode. Do the fans sound realistic for that size tower?

Those babies are looking great, you can tell they love that light!

Hey guys, it has been two weeks since my last update and because I changed the cycle to 12/12 today I thought it might be the right time for another update on my PC-Grow

Still haven't installed the cooltube/plate thing, just haven't found the time to do it. The plants are coming along really really nice considering it really is my first grow ever.
Haven't done any LST as of now, I thought they were already really short and bushy so I let it go naturally for now, might reconsider if the flowering stretch is becoming a problem though.

The heat problem can be considered fixed, the changed (better) intake fan is really doing a good job, temps are around 25-27°C but I've seen the humidity is around 50% but I guess that might be because the soil is moist and the hygrometer is placed on the moist soil
Should definitly change that.

I topped the plants once and fimmed it a week after the inital topping and the results are more than good for how I expected it to turn out.
I also transplanted the ladies to a slightly larker container so they can live up to their full potential.

Had a slight nutrient-burn issue on plant 1 (the one on the left). If you look very closely you can see the small burn on the leaftips. Will water it without nutes next time I water it (guessing I will have to water tomorrow).

Overall im really happy with the plants right now, goin very well

Day 21 -

Day 25 -

Day 27 -

Day 29 -

Day 29 #2 -

The plants are looking really nice and healthy!

Are you going to flower with the 6500k bulb? or changing to the 2700k bulb?

No I will definityl change once the flowering period finally kicks in - have another 2700k bulb thats even 125W for flowering The light is really doing a great job considering its "only" 85W.

plants look nice bro! Sorry if i missed it but what kinda soil mix are you in? and i saw you mention you might want to uppot but you don't have much room...
depending on your grow style (perpetual, etc) you could start out more seeds in smaller containers, cull the runts, and then uppot to the containers you are in now. just a thought for next time. you look like you know what you're doing though.

Hey soursmoker, I have already transplanted them to larger containers (see picture of day 21 and day 25 - you should see the difference when you take a closer look).

The soil I use is Plagron Grow Mix (it already has Perlite mixed in). Purchased it on Amazon. Plagron Grow Mix 25l on Amazon Germany
I wasn't able to find it on Amazon.com, not sure if this brand is available outside Germany at all but it's definitly doing a good job!

Well I attachted the Temp-/Hygrometer to the sidewall now and the humidity readings arte at a stable 28-30% now.

sweet man, can't wait to see how this turns out!

So I think the girls already show some pistils, what do you guys think should I switch spectrum already and change to the 2700k 125W bulb or give it another few days?

The plants haven't stretched that much really, I was expecting to have it stretch much more. Has been only the 4th day since I flipped it to 12/12. Would love some advice on this.

Here are some pics:

Beautiful! You must be so proud!

It does seem surprising that there wasn't much stretch, has anything else changed? When did you transplant into the larger containers?

looks like you're working with a heavy indica. you might not experience much stretch as a sativa or a hybrid.