250w HPS users....

[ARTofMAKINGfire]

Hey Art,
Your C-13 must be sort of flimsy without the middle support it came with. Your setup was just like mine, except yours is not stealthy. I'm about to buy a tent (DR-40), this way i can completely break it down and bring it with me or even hide it if necessary.

Well, my flimsy un-stealthy cabinet seems to serve my purpose fine...
I have built MANY of these cabinets and have found this is the cheapest, most effect, and easiest way to do things.

Good luck with your tent.

 

[AinSophAur]

I want to build a 250W cooltube design but none of the local shops carry them. Most of the kits I've found on ebay don't ship to canada which is where I am. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Hawk]

First grow. 250w MH and HPS (Lumatek ballast) in a Super Sun 2 hood. Here's where I'm at so far....

~40 days of veg under the MH (they're actually each a few days apart in age but the oldest got 40 days) and just 3 days since 12/12 under the HPS.

(edit: current thru 6-19-08)

 

[trem0lo]

I want to build a 250W cooltube design but none of the local shops carry them. Most of the kits I've found on ebay don't ship to canada which is where I am. Anyone have any ideas?

You can definitely make your own. Arts and craft stores will carry the glass tube you need and home improvement stores will carry the correct sized ducting. Check out some of the DIY threads on the subject.

I made a DIY cooltube for my 250 and it wasn't that hard. Clipping the light to the glass tube was the hardest part--I made it work with some curtain clips, pliers and heavy duty duct tape. Of course you'll need a remote ballast for best results if you're worried about the heat.

I flowered for about 10 days under flouros then switched over to HPS and noticed the difference right away. Faster, more aggressive growth, more penetration to lower budsites.

Check it out, SDxOG early in flower under my 250:

 

[ARTofMAKINGfire]

Let's see how well it penetrates...

 

[messn'n'gommin']

You can definitely make your own. Arts and craft stores will carry the glass tube you need and home improvement stores will carry the correct sized ducting. Check out some of the DIY threads on the subject.

I made a DIY cooltube for my 250 and it wasn't that hard. Clipping the light to the glass tube was the hardest part--I made it work with some curtain clips, pliers and heavy duty duct tape. Of course you'll need a remote ballast for best results if you're worried about the heat.

I flowered for about 10 days under flouros then switched over to HPS and noticed the difference right away. Faster, more aggressive growth, more penetration to lower budsites.

Check it out, SDxOG early in flower under my 250:

You might find this useful. It is a bit vague as to how it is attached to the tube, but that shouldn't be that big a deal to overcome.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=25131

This place never ceases to amaze me as to the ingenuity of active minds.

Namaste, mess

 

[AdmiralRed]

Does this count to be a member? This is my 250w mom, seedling, clone space. Member of the 600w club for flower.

AR

 

[fumero]

Hi growers, beautiful buds. It's my first grow, Narkush. What would you do? Its my first grow, narkush seeds(primary intent to help sleep, later i mind grow a sativa like thai-lst), in a closet(wall dresser) 17"x 54"x 90", it,s bit narrow but in the door area it add some pols for a bigger plant ,I wanna some opnion of a experienced grower for optimize yield.I'm vegging for 3 weeks and 3 days with mh250w(14h period) and will flower with a hps250w. Are 6 plants, one is 1 week delayed, the small,and the taller is 20" .I think in flowering 3 females,but would 4-5 plants more tightly overdo 3(I'm considering it's well light insullated)? Or if I vegg longer 3 plant?The pots are 4.6 liters, its not time to transplant to 12 liters pot? But how to know what is female now and avoid the extra working and money of transplant all the six? See pics in my gallery.

 

[dimebagdk]

i've just purchased my hps 250w what's the max space i can light with this? i'm used to the 400w..

 

[CDM]

about 3 x 3 or 4 x 4

 

[joesmoe]

250w users Im thinking of building a cab thats 27"wx23"dx58.5"h. Will be using a 250w digital lumatek sytem and most likely a cooltube. I was thinking of getting a 4" vortex fan for pulling air through the cab into the cooltube and out a scrubber. I see many people using cabs similar but smaller. Will my space be to big? I want to maximize my space. I was thinking of flowering clones at around 5-6 inches. And would 12 1 gallon pots or 20 2 liter pots be best?

 

[FreezerBoy]

My space is 22x29x54 in which I run a 250 CMH in an open reflector. I had a 4" Elicent that I ditched for a 76 cfm axial for noise reasons. Size wise, you're fine. The only question will be living with the noise of the Vortex. Look into speed controls, mufflers, sound box for the fan and insulated ducting (Someone recently posted the idea of running 4" ducting through 6" ducting for additional muffling) These will allow you to cover the remaining sound (there's no such thing as a silent Vortex) with radio or aquarium. Better yet, put the fan behind locked doors: the back of the basement or the attic, and keep people out.

 

[joesmoe]

Freezerboy
I forgot to mention that I would have the vortex turned as low as I can with a speed control. Do you think it will still be loud pushing air through a scrubber and on low? Sound is no big deal but If I could get it as quiet as possible that would be nice.

 

[ARTofMAKINGfire]

Done in Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil
Fox Farm Grow Big/Tiger Bloom
250 watts flowered under Metal Halide.
This was right before the chop.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Freezerboy
I forgot to mention that I would have the vortex turned as low as I can with a speed control. Do you think it will still be loud pushing air through a scrubber and on low? Sound is no big deal but If I could get it as quiet as possible that would be nice.

Using all 4 methods above in concert, except double ducting, my Elicent (5-10 dB quieter than the Vortex) was still audible from the back of my garage to my neighbor's door across the street. With quadruple silencing, closing the doors to the garage contained the sound therein.

Only one person locally knows about my grow and he was the only one allowed in the garage at that time. It took him less than 10 seconds to scrunch his face and ask what the hell the noise was.

It's not so much the noise level, which is considerable, it's the innappropriateness of the sound. It simply has no reason to exsist in a residential setting. A lion roars at the zoo, you may not even notice. A lion roars in your bedroom and you'll notice real quick.

As long as you can lock people out of the fan room, you're OK. Some people were talking up Panasonic Whisperline fans. Seems now they may not be suited to long term 24/7 operation. The S&P Mixed Vent fans have shown up in some positive reviews but, I haven't tried them.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=90678

 

[CDM]

Why not get another fan? mine is pretty quiet and you cant hear it in the next room...

 

[joesmoe]

Well now you have me worried. I live in a small studio apartment and my nearest neighbor is about a thousand yards away and dont have many guests like never, but would hate to have a unexpected guest and have a hurricane bottled up in my house.
My cab would be in a closet but there is no door. Do you think having a fan running would cover the noise If that unexpected guest shows up, maybe a radio too? Sorry for all the questions but would hate to invest in something thats not possible. Also how do you have yours set up with the axial fan? Do you have a scrubber?

 

[FreezerBoy]

Just realise there's no such thing as a silent fan. Best way to deal with noise is to move it behind locked doors. If you can't, find something to take the rap; My axial is audible but, it sounds just like an old freezer and thus becomes "invisible." Aquariums or server racks may work as well. If you can't do that, then masking becomes the next option. Box fans, radios, TV, washing machine.

I'm not running a scrubber at the moment. The garage is full of conflicting smells: oil, sawdust, stains and solvents. My girl doesn't smell like "weed" as much as musty laundry left wet too long. Once cut, the whole place stunk of cat piss so save harvesting for late night.

 

[otherwhitemeat]

It's not so much the noise level, which is considerable, it's the innappropriateness of the sound. It simply has no reason to exsist in a residential setting. A lion roars at the zoo, you may not even notice. A lion roars in your bedroom and you'll notice real quick.

In my case, I also collect and breed tropical lizard species (mostly geckos)...I currently have several gecko breeding colonies in large vivaria in my house. My cab is in a locked basement room, but with no radio, fan, tv, etc on outside of the room, you can hear the two Can Fan from outside the room. A few visitors at my housewarming have asked about it....I tell them that that room contains my incubator and that it is very sensitive so cannot be shown or disturbed...this explanation also seemed to satisfy an HVAC guy working a few feet from my cab with the fans going nuts...I threw an old Uhaul shipping blanket over the exhaust/filters, then a few layers of old carpet and some rags....you can hear the noise, but the stealthy design of the cab belies it's contents.

The baby lizards? I just incubate them on some vermiculite in my clone room!

Just a thought as far as a reasonable excuse that one can use. So go out and start breeding some lizards.

For kicks, here's a momma Phelsuma Comorensis (comoros day gecko) 'birthing' two eggs....


And here's a hatchling from the last brood hanging out on a chopstick...




BTW--these guys are day length specific too, give them 12/12 and they breed like crazies. During the winter, I allow the environments to get cooler and shorten the day length to 8 hours, they stop breeding and get all fat.

 

[Deft]

I've always wanted a day gecko.