My Super Intelligent C24 Grow Cab

**Editted to add more good info**

Ok, So I've been working on building this system for quite some time. I've spent maybe about $3000 in total on this including nutrients and mistakes I've made.

My cabinet features the Growtronix computer controlled grow system. I've got Growtronix controlling everything including light cycles, ph levels, temperature, humidity and music.



To start, before I put the cabinet together I used spray on adhesive to line all my boards with 2 mil mylar. I used 3/8" sanded plywood for the back and mylared that also.


I picked up some 5/8" wide rolls of felt at my local dollar store (BigLots) and I glued and tacked it on at any place that needed it to block the light from leaking out. It was the perfect width for the edge of the boards.



I bought an AOpen MiniPC to run my Growtronix system because it is so small and fits perfectly out of the way inside my cabinet. Sensors that I have connected to my Growtronix network are temp, humidity, door sensor, ph/tds/temp reservoir sensor. I purchased 3 relay control outlets. I used one for my light and fan, another for my ph up and down controller, and another one that I haven't fully decided its best use yet.


I had bought some of those rubber strips for hiding wires and stuff, and I was able to cut off a 2" long piece, cut out the inner rubber lips on it and push it onto the strips I have mounted inside my cab. By doing this I was able to attach my temp and humidity sensors to the 2" piece and make it so I could slide them up and down and still conceal my wires. I did this because I wanted to be able to keep my sensors up high while my plant is in vegetative growth and then to be able to slide them down below the canopy when my plant gets bigger.




I am doing a recirculating DWC. I currently only have 2 buckets inside my cabinet for my first trial grow, but I built this cabinet to be expanded to 3 buckets or 1 bucket and 1 rubbermaid tub for growing other things. I am using the Micro Pore Air Diffusers found at Worms Way. They are perfect.
http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=MPAD510

I also built a ph controller with 2 peristaltic pumps for dosing ph up an down when need. As stated above, I used one of my relay outlets for the ph controller. I took out the relay board and hardwired it inside the project box that houses the peristaltic pumps. I also added 2 momentary push buttons to be able to manually turn a pump on if ph is out of whack after a water change and to adjust it more quickly that what the computer is programmed to do. Tygon LFL tubing is used to feed from the peristaltic pumps into my reservoir for mixing.
http://www.iprocessmart.com/images/APT/SP100FOPS-2DDd.pdf




The light that I am using is a 400 watt digital ballast that can use both MH and HPS without having to flick any switches. I bought this off a person on ebay for almost $400 including shipping. This light came with an air cooled hood. I bought a 6" vortex fan to cool my light and for air circulation and venting. I have it venting right out the back so it wouldn't draw as much visible attention.


My reservoir consists of an 18 gallon rubbermaid tub, a float valve for auto top offs, and a 275 gph submersible pump. I did swamp cooling to lower my nutrient solution temps. I had the exhaust for the swamp cooling going into the air intake of my C24 to also help raise humidity levels. I used a 80mm Master Cooler computer fan and a fan filter to lower the amount of dust into my res and to lower light leak into the res. My 6" Vortex fan pulls enough air from the res by itself, but I use the computer fan for at night when my Vortex turns off.






As I was mylaring everything, I came across a great idea. I decided to make some "ground boards" to bring ground reflection closer to the plants and to help prevent my HID from heating up my nutes as much. I spent a lot of time making each board carefully applying the mylar and then cutting my felt strips in half and lining the edge of my ground boards with it hos I wouldn't ding up my mylar as I put them in and take them out. I made it as 2 separate pieces so I could remove them while there are plants in there if I need to work on something or for whatever reason I may have.




I had many troubles figuring out my tubing for feed and drain. I tried a few things that didn't work, and I tried some others. I am currently using 3/4" tubing for feed and 1" for drain/return. Unfortunately with a 275 gph pro pump and only 2 buckets, the pump fills my buckets almost faster than they can drain. This wil create problems once the roots start drifting into my drain lines. I will add a valve into the feedline so I constrict flate rates if needed. I'm also using a GH daul diaphram air pump.

I currently plan to use the Flora Nova series of nutrients, plus flouralicious additives, superthrive, and Hygrozyme. I'm trying to keep this close to organic for the time being. I just dont want to use chemical nutes at this point anymore.

As I mentioned above, I am playing music to my plants. I have a very strong theory and approach I am taking to this due to lots of research that I have done.

This is what my music schedule is for vegitative growth using an 18/6 cycle starting at 6 am and turning off at midnight:

5:30 am - 7:30 am, nature sounds, to help stimualte the plant for the start of the day
7:30 am - 11 am, Bach
11 am - 6 pm, Aphex Twin, I have a strong feeling about this music especially that it hits more frequencies than most other music.
6 pm - 10 pm, Pink Floyd, hey why not.
10 pm - Midnight, Yanni, because its smooth and soothing and my wife wont complain about it considering my cab is in my bedroom




**FUTURE THOUGHTS AND PLANS**

Ok, so I am not nearly done building, but I couldn't wait to post this up any longer. Here's a list of current things brewing in my head, and what I definitely have planned for future improvements.

1. LED's. They are a must. I cannot live without going into that with as much technology as I've already got in this. Plus who can argue with less heat and better use of light spectrum.

2. CO2. Yes this will be computer controlled also. But I will only do this after I do the LED's so I can have a sealed cabinet and not have to vent.

3. Aquaponics. Yep, you heard me. Aquaponics is the way to go.. or at least I think so. But that would be great.

4. Aeroponics. I can't do it with aquaponics, but those are both future options.

5. Fire Control. I plan to purchase a fireboy automatic extinguisher and I good smoke detector that I can integrate with Growtronix. No grow room should do without. http://shopping.rexmar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=fireboyauto

6. Solenoid Valves. I could add a few of these and control it with Growtronix and completely automate my whole grow system including water changes when needed.

7. Motorized light raiser. Geez, this light and fan are damn heavy. Too much of a pain to do by myself as currently setup. (I also just had shoulder surgery)

8. Nutrient doser. I plan to make one soon with some more peristaltic pumps. I want to be able to add superthrive, nutes, and other additives. I still need to think this through more as to my plan of attack on it.

9. Integrate a bio-bucket type system with lava rocks. I wont have an official bio-bucket because I'm using airstones. But the beneficial bacteria is where the growth comes from.


Well, here's the kicker that everyone is going to be depressed about, I'm only growing vegetables. I'm not growing pot because I dont have an interest in taking any chances of going to jail over my hobby of growing. I'm doing another batch of cherry tomatoes. My last one was only one bucket and nearly filled up my cab. But I chose to do vegetables because its legal and because it provides me just as much fun. I love the art of growing and I spent many hours on here and many more on overgrow just researching and learning as much as I can. Unfortunately there aren't any good vegetable hydroponic gardening forums online. They all just suck.

I hope you all are impressed with what I have made. I spent MANY hours building this and trying to perfect it. Here's some more pics for u guys to look at. These are from my last grow with cherry tomatoes.

dude, is that tomatoes?

*edited to add
lmao, i had to reserve a spot. i saw this thread and had a booty call, shoulda stayed here. lol great job man, this is probably the cleanest cab ive ever seen in my life! i like the use of the computer, have you had any problems with the ph dosing? i was lookin into that but unsure of the results. my ph is constantly needin down adjustment. anyway im glad to see some veggies and even more to see tomatoes. i would kill two of my kushes to grow tomatoes in their place, if i knew how.

again great job, i will be watchin this....

yesiree it is. Damn they were good too.

I gotta give you props man. That's a real clean cab you got going on, I just can't believe all of that is for tomatoes. Either way, good luck on your next harvest.

Probably doing a run with tomatoes to help get things dialed in correctly. Either way great job! Those tomatoes look mighty tasty.

Yeah, my wife keeps freaking out on me about it. She doesn't understand hobbies. I love the science of growing and I plan on going to school for it and possibly finding ways for third world countries to be able to produce vegitables and fruits where water and soil is scarse.

Future grows will consist of strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, and eventually grapes for making wine. I have many more things I want to grow. It's just so much fun. You dont need to grow pot to enjoy horticulture.

I will eventually turn all this knowledge that I have gathered from here and OG to open my own hydroponic farm.

real nice cab bro....nice tomatoes too!

too bad theres no bud...thats ok tho, as long as your enjoying yourself.

i think i might be doing some cherry tomatoes also...to compliment my bud of course.
might have to wait till i get a good harvest tho so i have enough bud to last.

i hope you keep posting somewhere so i can keep checking in..and maybe talk about growing tomatoes.

later

When I start doing LED's I am going to post a grow diary and show everyone my results. I'l even try som comparison grows if I can to see the difference between LED's and HID's. I want to be able to add my $0.02 to the community and help people to have something to compare things too.

No matter what I grow (almost) I'll always be able to add my research and findings to help everyone learn a little more.

Are you gonna use LED's as grow lights?

Wow that is quite an amazing cab! Super clean and everything is perfectly setup. I saw you asking a bunch of questions about the equipment over the last few months and was wondering when the cab was coming. Now that it's built, or mostly built, it looks great! I agree with Dopest, cleanest cab I've ever seen.

Good luck with growing in it and any of the future additions you might add in. LEDs are a good idea but they are a little before their time right now. Intensity is not high enough, you would need tons to equal a 600w. As additional lights though they would probably work well.

The only downside is that for $3k you could have probably built a simpler 2kw+ setup. However I think you are going for stealth so again awesome job on the whole thing.

dude great job with this cab... u got the mylar on those boards perfectly... its like a fucking mirror!!!



LoL... ScroGin tomatoes!!!

Yeah really sweet cab man, if things ever change, or you happen to move out in the middle of nowhere...that cab would produce some wonderfull herb.

I saw something on the food network one time about hydroponic farms, some guy came up with a way to stack containers and produce like 3x as much produce w/ half the space and half the water of traditional farms....I can't remember where exactly I saw or read it but it was really cool. Helping out 3rd world countries using hydroponics would be awesome, sorta using today's technology to help the lesser developed countries, hopefully one day we'll all prosper equally and there won't be so much seperation between the rich and the poor.. (oh dear I sound like a commy h:

Let me be the first to say that is the smoothest application of mylar I have ever seen! Lol. That shit can be tricky. [edit: too slow!]

As for not growing pot in it, Im not depressed about it. And I doubt anyone will gripe about it. I'm sure you know your situation well and made a smart decision.

Stay safe.

holy fuckin ocd, thats soooooo tight, gorgeous fruit you got there. the mylar is so smooth,,looks like a ballet center,,,,,,,,,,woww! bd

Yes, LED's. Soon to be. I figure about 400 watts of LED's would out perform my 400 watt hps. I've spent MANY hours on researching LED's so I have a pretty darn good idea of what I'm talking about. If i were to sell my digital ballst and hood and my 6" vortex fan than I'll have more than enough to create a 400 watt LED setup.

the LED's I plan on using are http://www.luxeonstar.com/ and their highest ones use 5 watts. Damn thats a lot. Those are intense and that light will penetrate the canopy more than those smaller LED's that I see others using.

http://www.lumileds.com/products/ This is actually a cheaper place to buy the same LED's but they're online ordering is kinda messed up at this point.

Oh god, mylar and tacking that felt was the things I hated the most. As far as the spraying application went, it took a long time. When first applied it left kinda a surface like the dimpled aluminum, but after it was together for a bit the mylar would have a tendancy to not be so "glued" to the boards and smooth out after a bit. Since I have the mylar going into the corners, once I put it all together it made it so nothing will ever happen.

On my previous grow before I got a fan for venting, if the doors closed then it woulg get REALY hot in there. I saw it at about 110*f and at that point the mylar would expand and cause a whole bunch of wrinkles and I kinda almost freaked out, but once it cooled down it would shrink and go back into place perfectly and smoothed out to that mirror finish. It was accidental but perfect at the same time. The mylar has never peeled off of the boards and I think it would take a little effort to peel it off. So I'm never concerned that it would ever fall apart on me.

The Dopest said:

i like the use of the computer, have you had any problems with the ph dosing? i was lookin into that but unsure of the results. my ph is constantly needin down adjustment. anyway im glad to see some veggies and even more to see tomatoes. i would kill two of my kushes to grow tomatoes in their place, if i knew how.

again great job, i will be watchin this....

Click to expand...

I haven't actually been able to put my system into effect because I'm still waiting on my ph/tds/temp reservior sensor to come in the mail. I am sure that my ph dosing will go very smoothly.

As far as tomatoes, they are very simple since you already know how to grow pot. I read back on OG that if ur unsure of ur growing skills to grow a tomato plant next to ur pot plant, and everything you do to ur pot do to the other..

Based on everythin I've learned from here and OG, I've pretty much learned how to be a master of growing many different plants. The basics and theory are all the same. If you can grow pot, you can grow tomatoes.

well thanx for the invitation to your thread, i'm way impressed with your beautiful quality work. also its apparent that you've done research. OG had a lot of learned people, a good place to learn advanced stuff. was. Let me suggest Liquid Karma, its great stuff. I also use GH and they go togther well. Sounds like you've invested a lot, and wisely. Best wishes to you, from another grower.

Thanx man. I appreciate it. at the time being I've got FloraNova, Flouralicious, 3 part flora nutes, super thrive, hygrozyme. I've heard great things about liquid karma, but it'll be a few months before I take my trip down to the hydro store again cause its in another state. (in US).

I had bought my gh 3 part flora nutes by mistake. oops. but I can still use it

Thats really beautiful man,I almost shit a ton when you first mentioned you were only using a 400 watter with all that great equip.,until you said you werent growing erb lol.