bobblehead's 1800w coco coliseum

[bobblehead]

and Reddy1 was right... pressure compensating drippers my ass... I'm gonna have to pull the lines and run them horizontal. The good news is my radiator came, so I'm off to buy a container to mount it in, hose, and the rest of the shit I need to finish this pod.... Finally I have everything! The snowstorm delayed everything a bit...

My seeds from Reservation Labs came today. Grape Diesel and Purple Urkel IBL... I just popped my own Sour Bubble x Grape Skunk and Purp x Grape Skunk. I have Double Sour Diesel Haze coming from CSG and Blue Cindy from Chrome that I'll be test growing. Hoping to test some Sour Amnesia from Hortilab too... Rock and Roll! I'll probably have some updates tonight...

 

[AOD2012]

this is pretty amazing bro. pulling up a chair, can not wait to see this is in full swing!

 

[bobblehead]

Still keeping the positive attitude, but I'm ready to bang my head against the wall!

because I have to run the drip lines horizontally, the hose is now too short to run behind the bins... So, I'll either have to buy more hose and re-plug the drippers (not happening), or drill 2 holes on either side of each bin to run the hose through. I'm opting for the latter... This is going to take a minute...

The heat exchanger is assembled. It's going to sit right under the light column, and blow cool air up toward the lamps. I was going to mount it overhead, but electricity above water and all... It's going to get fairly heavy when it's full of water, and the frame I built isn't necessarily that sturdy...

It's a 20" x 20" radiator. That's the ID... It's huge. i have a 170cfm fan pulling air through it. I'll hook the fan up to a temperature sensor, so it blows just hard enough to cool everything down. 1/2" feed, 1" return, 500gph mag drive pump... Looking to have at least a 50g reservoir of chilled water/coolant (maybe skip the coolant, cause who wants to dispose of that later?).

 

[reddy1]

and Reddy1 was right... pressure compensating drippers my ass... I'm gonna have to pull the lines and run them horizontal. The good news is my radiator came, so I'm off to buy a container to mount it in, hose, and the rest of the shit I need to finish this pod.... Finally I have everything! The snowstorm delayed everything a bit...

i feel you on the frustrations, i had a hell of a time trying to set up before my trip. keep the lines horizontal for sure!

i'm excited to see this come along. i like that radiator thingy. i don't quite understand all of it but i'm learning bits and pieces as you go along.

im pretty jealous of that dehue. what a deal. i'm going to keep an eye out on craigslist. i need a stronger one for next summer.

have you seen those trays that are 41"x20", fits 3 5 gallon pots or 2 large plants? those might work for you say 3 stacked high, 6 sides, 36 large plants.

 

[bobblehead]

i feel you on the frustrations, i had a hell of a time trying to set up before my trip. keep the lines horizontal for sure!

i'm excited to see this come along. i like that radiator thingy. i don't quite understand all of it but i'm learning bits and pieces as you go along.

im pretty jealous of that dehue. what a deal. i'm going to keep an eye out on craigslist. i need a stronger one for next summer.

have you seen those trays that are 41"x20", fits 3 5 gallon pots or 2 large plants? those might work for you say 3 stacked high, 6 sides, 36 large plants.

The heat exchanger is easy to explain... Cold water is pumped in, air from the room is pulled through the radiator, cooling the air and warming the water, and the warm water returns to be chilled and recirculated. It's supposed to be more efficient than air cooling. I'm going to cool everything this way in the future. I'll probably convert a large freezer to chill my water in the summer, but right now, the cold winter temps are doing the job.

I won't get trays... They're just too expensive imo. 5 gal buckets are $2.50... If anything, I would get some shelving, and do a 3 tier hexagon with 18 5 gal buckets... Now wouldn't that be a sight...

 

[reddy1]

that's pretty cool. and it doesn't put off carbon dioxide or anything. how many amps all together radiator and chiller? i bet my mechanic/patient/buddy could help me fix that together.

the thing i love about trays is drainage management. so easy. but buckets? are you thinking of double stacking them and running drains out the bottom one? seems doable. no more smart pots? you're not sold?

 

[bobblehead]

that's pretty cool. and it doesn't put off carbon dioxide or anything. how many amps all together radiator and chiller? i bet my mechanic/patient/buddy could help me fix that together.

the thing i love about trays is drainage management. so easy. but buckets? are you thinking of double stacking them and running drains out the bottom one? seems doable. no more smart pots? you're not sold?

Right now I'm not running a chiller for it... I'm using the cold temps. pumping the water into reservoirs that are kept in an un-warmed un-insulated area...
I think the fan is less than an amp... the water pump doesn't draw much either...
If that's not enough, on the way I have an Aqua Logic 1/4hp chiller and a dual stage controller coming...

it's an $800 chiller I found on ebay used for $180... I figured even in the event it needs repair, it's a steal.. These things are made to last though, so I'm betting it's fine. I had to buy the controller separately, for $180... I'm going all out and getting the right tools to do the job. No cutting corners.

Like I was saying though, for the heat exchangers, I'll mod a freezer, by putting a copper coil in a bucket with coolant, put the bucket in the freezer, and run the water through that... I might need more than one coil for what I'm talking about, but I'll figure that out later... I don't need the temperature to be exact, just cold. The fans pulling the air through the radiators will be on temperature controllers, so that's where they'll be controlled.

Shortly I want to run some 5gal RDWC buckets. I'm going to go half and half. I'm totally sold on the smart pots, but I'm also seeing what PoopTeaBags, PureKnowledge, and BlazeOneUp have done with buckets.. The growth is extreme. The thing is that things can go bad real fast too... So I'm not going to put all my eggs in one basket. I'll keep 1/2 my plants in coco/perlite smartpots....

 

[bobblehead]

Finally... it's done. I pulled the lines, drilled 2 holes in each bin, ran the lines horizontal...

This is the heat exchanger... I explained it above, but if there are any questions, ask away... The radiator is 3" above the bottom of that tub, so air can come up underneath it. It's plugged into a temperature controller, so as soon as the lights come on and raise the temps, the fan will kick on...

The inside of most of the bins...

And the end bins...

Now just give me 2 days and I'll start loading up plants... 1 level at a time I suppose... I happen to have a few girls hanging around... I should be able to fill up 1 row, veg some plants for 2 weeks, fill another row, veg 2 weeks fill another row and so on... Each level will get it's own reservoir.

Is there a vacation in my future? possibly...

 

[csedge]

Nice. Where we going on vacation? lol Hit me up dude we got a big smoke out ahead of us.

 

[bobblehead]

Nice. Where we going on vacation? lol Hit me up dude we got a big smoke out ahead of us.

Shit, I'm ready to leave tomorrow! lol... but for real, maybe next week. I'm leaning toward Cartagena, Colombia... I'll hit you up.

 

[Scrogerman]

Crazy Rig man, cant wait to see this baby roll! best of luck!

Im not sure on the Rad Air Cooler(dont quite get it), very interested to see it in action. How are you draining your pots/2 in each draw i believe, or is there no DTW at all?. All in all, looks mental & very clever, i hope you yield what your after. I may even adopt a few ideas so cheers bro!

What Lamps are you running(brand type) sorry if you mentioned it!

Wishing you all the Best of Luck! Have a great holiday mate!

 

[bobblehead]

Crazy Rig man, cant wait to see this baby roll! best of luck!

Im not sure on the Rad Air Cooler(dont quite get it), very interested to see it in action. How are you draining your pots/2 in each draw i believe, or is there no DTW at all?. All in all, looks mental & very clever, i hope you yield what your after. I may even adopt a few ideas so cheers bro!

What Lamps are you running(brand type) sorry if you mentioned it!

Wishing you all the Best of Luck! Have a great holiday mate!

ok, have you seen houses that have radiant heat instead of forced air? Same concept. Instead of passing hot water through the radiator to heat the cold air, I'm passing cold water to cool the hot air. That radiator is going to be around 60F, and when the room temperature reaches 75F, air with a temperature of 75F will pass through the radiator, the water in the radiator will take the heat out of the air,and cool it down to 60F, and push the air up toward the lamps. The hot water will then leave the room, to be cooled, and recirculated... I can't really be much more clear than that.

There is no drain. I will feed the plants until they get just a little run-off, which will be captured in the bins to be absorbed later, when the coco has the capacity to hold more water. I feed low ppms/EC, and I'm going to give Drip Clean a go, as Reddy1 and a few other growers have recommended it...

My lamps are USHIO driven by Lumatek 600w digitals. Very nice lamps. I highly recommend them.

 

[SexInTheCity]

wow, nice rig at the bottom those are gonna be touchable! Wow wow wow this is going to be a BIG harvest!

 

[ambertrich]

Bobblehead, it looks like all is coming together nicely, my friend.

Really nice lab quality look to the set up, and clearly has been well thought out. Its also evident that you are doing it right and not cutting corners.

Just started using smart pot style containers and really liking them so far.

I think I understand the radiator perfectly, and it is a great idea.

For those not quite sure, it is essentially acting just as it would in your car. Only the water temp is reversed. So you have cold water running throught the coils in the radiator, and the fan is pulling air across the cold water filled tubing thus cooling the air that the fan then blows up toward the bulbs, keeping the bulbs cooled and overall temps under control.
The water is circulating through the radiator by leaving the reservoir of cold water, pumped into the radiator inlet, through the coils where the fan is pulling cool air through the radiator and then blows this cold air over the lights. The water then leaves the radiator outlet and back to the cold water reservoir to be cooled and then pumped back to the radiator to do it all over again.
Just a closed loop heat exchanger.

Really an ingeniuos idea, bro. Very uncomplicated, effecient approach to the problem of bulb heat.

Can't wait to see some greenery in those bins. Definately will be following this with much interest.

You will deserve a vaca after getting this sleek setup up and running. Hope you have a good time, learn a bit, and maybe bring back some hidden gems/long lost favorites if the opportunity presents itself.

Good luck and all the best to you, buddy.

 

[Scrogerman]

ok, have you seen houses that have radiant heat instead of forced air? Same concept. Instead of passing hot water through the radiator to heat the cold air, I'm passing cold water to cool the hot air. That radiator is going to be around 60F, and when the room temperature reaches 75F, air with a temperature of 75F will pass through the radiator, the water in the radiator will take the heat out of the air,and cool it down to 60F, and push the air up toward the lamps. The hot water will then leave the room, to be cooled, and recirculated... I can't really be much more clear than that.

There is no drain. I will feed the plants until they get just a little run-off, which will be captured in the bins to be absorbed later, when the coco has the capacity to hold more water. I feed low ppms/EC, and I'm going to give Drip Clean a go, as Reddy1 and a few other growers have recommended it...

My lamps are USHIO driven by Lumatek 600w digitals. Very nice lamps. I highly recommend them.

Very interesting bro, Thanks for the info. I see its getting sucked in under that 3" gap-through the RAD & then the fan directs the cool air up passed the lights. mmmm, cool, litterally! Me i always try to duct out of the nearest cavity wall if i can, but i dont think the air would be quite that cool.

 

[bobblehead]

THUNKx (thunk x ?)

 

[mrktwiz]

drool................

 

[bobblehead]

yeah, Csedge brought over some LVPK, and between the THUNKx strong sativa smoke, and the LVPK indica smoke, I was floating around for a good part of my afternoon... lol

The coli is half full... I'll finish filling it tomorrow, and snap some pics.. I'm so happy to be wrapping up this project. now I can focus on the growing.

 

[csedge]

I was super stoned. Good job on that.

 

[woolybear]

Pretty cool! This has the means to become an excellent adventure, thanks for posting the pics!