CO2 or no?

[Guest]

Still planning my grow..seems like this part never ends, anyways,

in a basement I want to have 3 cabs that are 3x3 (LxW). The basement has no active ventilation other than passive through cracks in the wall I guess.

The basement is 40' long, 20' wide, and 7' tall. The cabs will be in one part of it.


I think since 3 cabs is quite a bit of plants, they will use the CO2 rather quickly. So would adding a CO2 tank+regulator be a good idea?


I don't want to use a co2 burner because of the added heat.


Now since I have 3 cabs I can't just put the tank inside 1 of the cabs, so how would you successfully get CO2 to all 3 cabs?

Here's a bit from the CO2 website: "Each unit also comes with the tubing needed to disperse the CO2 evenly throughout your room in one of two ways. The Drip Ring Method utilizes a nylon "T" that allows growers to mount a ring to the ceiling of a growing environment with 15' of tubing that disperses CO2 evenly as it drops evenly down over the garden. The Fan Method is used simply by attaching the tubing to the back of an oscillating fan, slightly tilted upward, for even dispersion."

So what I was thinking is have all 3 cabs next to eachother, and just have the tubing attached to the sealing, so it puts out CO2 on top of the cabs, and since CO2 is heavier than air the CO2 will fall down and enter the cabs through the intake.

I am going to make sure there is enough CO2 for the entire basement, not just the 3 cabs.

Would this work? Any advice or other comments? Thank you

Edit: I would prefer having 3 smaller cabinets instead of 1 large cabinet (or a grow room) because I need it to be somewhat stealthy, it's a rental home.

 

[Guest]

why not just make one big space with your three lights

 

[Guest]

its a rental, need it to look somewhat stealthy, 3 small cabinets is better than 1 huge cabinet... why would someone need a cabinet that's 10 feeet long ya know? lol. 3 cabs that are 3 feet are better to me

 

[TGT]

I too fail to see how 3 cab's is going to be stealthy. I mean, if the land lord comes down your going to be screwed either way. It would be much easier to have one cab or better yet, partition off part of the room and stick your three lights in there. You could make it so it's easy to tear down in case someone needs access. You will yeild better and have far less work to do. Just a suggestion, but you know your space better than me. Good luck and let us know how things go.

TGT

 

[Guest]

yeah im considering just one big cab now.
1 large cab with 3 lights, air cooled, drawing air from outside the cab in to cool the lights and out of the cab again.

do i need intake if i have co2?
what if i get a fan for exhaust, run it once an hour, and run the co2 right after the exhaust fan? and no intake


what would happen if my landlord saw a 9 x 3 (L x W) foot cabinet in the basement? I can make it so all filters, fans, etc are hidden and off/quiet. and it'll be a sealed cabinet so no light leaks or anything.

 

[Guest]

If I were him I'd look inside.Cabinets,enclosures,"speaker grows" I don't get any of it.You have a basement,use it!Partition off an 8 sq ft section,get 3 1K fixtures and theres your "enclosure".Get a cd-6 and a cap controller and dehumidifier and thar she blows,a cannaboidal grow.Tell him your into photography and will be constructing a temporary 8 by 8 darkroom.

 

[Guest]

My vote: Regardless of grow chamber size, CO2 is always a good thing to add if possible. However, it is ONLY usefull if used with a controller and maintained at the proper 1500+ppm. Half assing co2 is never worth it....

 

[Guest]

Why would a large cab be any different than partitioning part of the room? It's an unfinished basement I can't just add walls wherever I want... it's a rental too so I can't add walls anyways.

And why would you look inside your tenant's storage cabinet? Im pretty sure that'd be a total invasion of their privacy, if not illegal.

^Those are my thoughts, anyone agree?


Well I can't really afford a CO2 controller... but I think it'd still atleast help some if I had a sealed cab, and exhausted it once an hour, and ran the CO2 right after the exhaust (once an hour). It may not be a constant 1500ppm but it would still help. Right?

 

[Guest]

Thank you nugget this was very informative and helpful.

You are right, the furnace and hot water heater are in the basement and they'll need to be serviced or inspected at some point.

It's a 2 bedroom house, one bedroom is my computer room/office though, I guess I might be able to convert it or something. I really don't want a grow room though, I think if I built a cab inside the bedroom it'd be better, even if it was a large cab.

A large humming, glowing cab, LOL! It will not glow, it'll be light proof, and if anyone was here I'd turn off as many fans as I could at that time to make it less noisy.


As a landlord would you think anything of 2 large cabinets (similar to the Mill's Pride C24 cabinets) in a bedroom? The one cabinet will be 6x3 (LxW) for veg, and the other 9x3 (LxW) for flower. They would be light proof, not loud, and locked

No, I dont agree. I worked maintenance in rentals for years and let me say that if I went into your basement because who knows lets say we have an annual city safety inspection coming up on the hot water heater and furnace in your house. I come over to check them out before the inspector comes, we send you a little note the day before. I come over go downstairs and see a massive humming glowing cabinet......I am going to open it..(illegal or not its done then and when/if I told the cops that would be enough for a warrant)...so INSTALL A LOCK, that would be your first step, at least then they dont actually SEE anything.

My personal opinion on growing in rentals (which I did) is its a terrible security nightmare. When I did it I worked for the management comapny and could control who entered my apartment (no keys etc etc) and it was still risky.

It sounds like you need to do some more research on your situation, decide if you think you can really pull it off in a rental. Also a bedroom could be a better alternative than the basement. The basement contains most of the things an employee is going to be after, they would be there to do something legitimate so if you just had bedroom door locked and closed, light sealed and a radio goin inside, they wouldnt give it a second glance.......you need to think from the perspective of a curious landlord.


As far as not being able to afford a co2 controller, check out the DIY thread on controllers, I just got a used gen3 green air generator and I bought a telaire8001 for 125$ converted it like the link I put in the DIY thread, and for 250$ I have co2 supplied and controlled at 1500 PPM.


just my .02

good luck

Bignugget

PORN!

 

[Guest]

Scratch that, I really don't like the idea of such large cabinets in my bedroom, anyone I have over could potentially see it.

The basement is really the only possible place.

As a landlord or maintenance person, would you think anything of a large cabinet if it wasn't making noise, and wasn't glowing or leaking light?

I can construct it from wood, and have a lock on it.


If they don't see light, hear fans, or smell pot, can they legally have me unlock it and open the cabinet? Or can they call the police?

 

[MID TOWN]

Growing in a rental ISN'T smart unless you know that the landlords are VERY chill and wont want to be looking arround.

When I rent a place the main factor is a landlord who wont be coming by to look at the house and who seems very laid back. Trust me, they know all the excuses you could think of and won't by it.

The "my roommate is sleeping right now" trick, wont work.

 

[Guest]

Well here's my situation... my landlord has about 4 or 5 people working for him, they don't all have keys. They have never come over without me knowing first, and have never come over other than when I've called them about a problem.

I have even changed the locks and they havn't said anything to me for 2 months about it.

Ive been here 3 months and no surprise visits or nothing.

I even have a small scale camera system so I know they havn't been here when I'm gone.


I think the basement could work, if I did it in one of the bedrooms, basically the entire bedroom would be full of cabs, lol. It'd look a little weird imo if they did look inside. Where as a huge basement just having a few cabs looks a little more normal. And the basement is a great place to have storage cabinets since it's usually used for storage. (unfinished basements like mine atleast)

I can make it so the lights are off during the times of the day they would be here. And as far as odor goes, I could potentially run my exhaust and scrub the air with my landlord here. I have had a dehumidifier running in my basement, and a oscilating fan, when my landlord was here. I wasn't growing at the time, the reason I had them was there was a water leak and it was very humid down there. But anyways, these 2 devices are fairly loud and would probably mask my exhaust fan.

I won't be doing hydro so it doesn't matter about the pumps losing power, etc.

The ballast noise is a buzzing for me, not too loud, but it'd be off during the hours the land lord would most likely come by, which is between 8 am and 5 pm.

And also, I can't fit the mill's pride cabinets in my basement due to height restrictions so building one is my only option. But can't I just paint the plywood to make it look better?

We're talking 1 9x3 (LxW) cabinet for flower, and 1 6x3 (LxW) cabinet for veg. Pretty big cabinets but I honestly don't see why the landlord would need to see what's inside ever. And as long as they don't smell anything they really can't do anything?

They cant make you do anything. I would say that 2 mills pride or similar cabinets are less suspicious looking than 2 homemade ones from plywood, and that if you had 2 cabinets down there that looked like any other person storage cabinets and they made NO noise and were locked you would be ok.....how do you plan on controlling that if they come over when you are not there? I dont know about your setup, but my ballast is a loud defining sound, you wouldnt not notice it....Also if you just kill the power for a half a day or whatever because they might be coming over....then your carbon scrubber isnt scrubbing....meaning potential for odor (BIG problem) no hydro running, if hydro.....etc etc.

Personally I like the office idea, I would use a cabinet in the room, and keep the room locked, if guests come over its either your "roomates" room, or if they know you better than that, its your office thats locked b/c of the landlord or storage or whatever.....

I would rather have a friend raise an eyebrow at my response than a landlord anywhere in proximity to my cabinets full of pot.

Also perhaps think about scaling it down a little, I am not sure of your intentions for your grow and its not my business, but it sounds like your situation is such that a larger grow carries a much larger amount of risk, one cab is much easier to hide than 3, but you know your situation better than anyone.

I would do what I did when I was in your situation, I researched and planned for months and I had better security than you will ever have just due to my employment at the time. I locked a bedroom and put a c13 with a 600W in the walk in closet in the BR, I kept my computer in that room but kept it locked and the c13 took the whole closet up.

good luck

bignugget

MID TOWN:

The landlord is very chill, they aren't some small landlord who's at your doorstep every week to do work... they own a LOT of rentals and apartments in the area. The actual owner doesn't even do any work, he has a small team of employees who do the work. I had people here drilling holes through the floor when I moved in, they didn't care, didn't even come by to give the person permission or give me written permission. They havn't come by once in 3 months without me calling them about a problem. I even have the locks changed and they havn't said anything.

I agree using an entire room to grow in isn't smart in a rental. But honestly I think a cab can work just fine. Legally the cab is YOUR personally property. The room it's in may be their property but the cab is yours. They can enter the room and look around, but I really don't think they can open the cab or make you open the cab. Now if they smell pot that's another story, obviously. But I don't think they can go through your stuff, like opening a dresser, or a storage cabinet.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, you are correct, keeping my grow in a place they'd never need to enter would be better... hmmm.

I mean I could potentially use 1 of the bedrooms but I'd have to wire some electrical outlets.

Would a giant 9x3 cabinet and a 6x3 cabinet in a bedroom look too obvious? LOL