The CannaBunker Begins

[CannaBunkerMan]

Is anyone here a StarTrek TNG fan? Working on these lights, I feel like captain Picard when he was kidnapped by the Cardassians. Best episode EVER!! "There are FOUR lights!!!". For the longest time I could only get 5 out of 6 of my lights to work. "There are SIX lights!!!".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kmG7KXxShM&feature=related

It turns out the ignitor wasn't the problem, my 3 month old Sun Argo bulb was the issue.

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

I wanted to show you guys a few more shots of my ballast/hot room, behind the AC. It gets WAAAAAY too hot in there, and it's starting to affect the efficiency of the AC. It's such a small space, and my ventilation fans are all above 600 cfm, and there are 3 of them. The area of the hot room is about 150 ft2. The two vent pipes on the right vent to the outside, one dumps the air from the hoods, and the other pulls air from the hot room through the carbon scrubber and then to the outside. Not shown is the 600 cfm fam pulling in air from the crawl space at the top of the hot room stairs. Any ideas to keep this space cooler?

 

[OvergrowingKiwi]

Thanks for sharing your build! It's 5am I've been up all night reading Been awhile since a thread captivated me like that. It's threads like these that inspire others.

Off to read your other thread now

 

[AOD2012]

CBM, you might want to try just building a box around the end of the AC, and hook up an exhaust line directly to it. i would go with 8 inch ducting at least, hopefully you can use a fan you already have.

aod

 

[PhatPhreddy420]

CBM, an over the top effort for sure.

I was jealous until I saw the propane grill.

Propane is for the ladies in the kitchen.

But seriously, a truly awesome build and a pleasure to follow along.

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

CBM, an over the top effort for sure.

I was jealous until I saw the propane grill.

Propane is for the ladies in the kitchen.

But seriously, a truly awesome build and a pleasure to follow along.

Yeah, I know. Eventually I'd like to run LP out there, the grill isn't too far from the far end of the bunker, so I could run the gas line through there. Another of the 1000's of things that need to get done. No one could bust my balls harder than I do.

Thanks for the mostly kind words, sir.

 

[Strainhunter]

...

If I had the whole thing to do over again, I'd use forms, and a concrete truck.

......

Maybe next time or if you plan on doing an expansion use a fiberglass refrigeration container. Water-/airtight and rust proof.
Or bury a 53' aluminum semi trailer w/o the undercarriage.

Dig the hole, create adequate drainage, drop in container, make connections and you're done.

Available world wide from 10' to 53' & $1,500 to $8,000 depending on age, size & your location.




Small:

Not so small:

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

Strainhunter, I never thought about a refridgerated cargo box, if I had of went in that direction I wouldn't be stressing about this heat wave that's been hitting us lately. The only problem I could see in burrying one of these iis that you'd need access to the back for maintenance. On the plus side, you could keep your concrete mixing to a minimum. It is so hard to motivate to mix concrete. Especially when it's over 100f outside.

It's 95f right now, and it's 9:30pm. Can we blame Al Gore for global warming? He must have invented global warming, since he invented the internet too. Just a note to anyone tackling this kind of a project, you'd be a fool not to buy a mini-split AC. Ducting a DIY box around a wall AC from the underground in a fool's errand. If I wasn't broke right now, I'd have a brand new one ready to install by tomorrow morning. By the time I could afford it, I won't need it anymore. I'll wait until next year.

Seriously though, the extra grand or two is nothing in the grand scheme of things, and it cures so many headaches, and possibly heat stroke too. Watching several DIYs online about installing them makes me feel silly for not going the mini-split route in the first place. Another advantage is that you don't have to worry about your heat exchanger pulling stink from your room. Great for sealed room setups like mine.

 

[Strainhunter]

Strainhunter, I never thought about a refridgerated cargo box, if I had of went in that direction I wouldn't be stressing about this heat wave that's been hitting us lately. The only problem I could see in burrying one of these iis that you'd need access to the back for maintenance.

.......

You would not need access to the back to the reefer itself because you would the same thing I did with my grow:
Use a unit with either a non functional or removed refrigeration unit and in your case use a split AC such as the ones by Mitsubishi (best) instead.
Those splits cost around 3 to 5k depending on how many tons you need. 1 Ton equals 12k BTU. Always go (much) bigger than you (think) you will need.
They are stupid simple to install and come pre-charged with refrigerant.

Another great advantage of refrigeration containers is they will easily outlast you. They are designed to withstand many years out on sea.

Anyway...good luck, maybe one day you'll get one for an expansion.

 

[Strainhunter]

Oh and PS: For those I made dreaming since using reefer trailers is so simple to do: They don't have to be burried!

Just make sure your city code allows parking of semi trailers or just storage trailers.
You will be surprised how many DO allow it as long as it is a storage trailer (and not a "come and go" unit).

 

[CascadeFarmer]

Ok, where to start with this one... I had originally planned to skip the aeration of the water in the sewer piping that feeds the plants. I thought of it as more of a NFT system, where there wasn't much standing water. There are airstones in the main reservoirs, and the plants get watered every 4 hours, and the runoff drains back into the reservoirs.

I started worrying about things like power-outages, or the accidental un-plugged pump, and I decided to increase the standing water inside of the sewer pipes by moving the drain fitting up. This left me with more leway to spot a problem before it became an issue. Now, I'm worrying that the dissolved oxygen might be used up before fresh water from the airated reservoirs replenishes the DO. Then I remembered how much roots like to grow around the airstones, and I wondered if I was making a mistake.

Do you think that I should add an airline to each plant site, or am I over thinking it here? The root growth is healthy, and they don't seem to mind not having an airstone. All things equal, I would like to keep the setup as simple as possible.

Ha ha...nice job bro . With your setup and feeding every 4 hours the flood/drain type scenario will provide enough DO to the root area. A more important issue IME is keeping the res solution cold with your setup especially considering you've got suspended pipes in a room that's probably higher 70's...plants will still thrive with res temps of 65F and the regular cycling will help keep the root zone temp in check. Your res looked like it was bubbling good but easy way to check DO is get a kit from Chemetrics. Works just fine if running salt based formulas. If running organic based, with some salts, the organics will cloud the solution to the point where taking readings on the ampules will be difficult. You'd really like to see 9 PPM DO in the res but with the flood and drain scenario not as important but still would help. The same pump without the stones will increase DO levels more than the same pump with stones.

 

[CascadeFarmer]

I'd eliminate the increased standing water and go more towards a total drain with a backup generator at least hooked into maintaining a cool res and regular feed cycles through the pumps. You can't account for everything and an accidental unplugged pump...accidents happen. You can only have so much redundancy. If you wanna look at increased air input to your root zone maybe go with some of the silicone diffuser tubing from Alita which you could run the length of the pipes. If power goes out that standing water will only hold that DO for so long then will become counter productive and probably cause more problems.

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

If you wanna look at increased air input to your root zone maybe go with some of the silicone diffuser tubing from Alita which you could run the length of the pipes.

I just checked this stuff out, and it looks awesome! I couldn't find a distributor, where can I get it?

Edit - Okay, found some. Damn, it's expensive. A 250' roll is $765, or $3.40 a foot. I'd need about 100', so I'm looking at $340 for some bubbles... I'll have to think this one over a little. It is the PERFECT solotion for my setup, though.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Cascade grower? I'm just wondering if it will clog at all. I'd assume not, since they use it in ponds and waterways, but you never know. I'm kind of tired of replacing airstones.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2827/Weighted-Diffuser-Tubing

 

[DKMillo]

CannaBunkerMan i read every bit of your thread and im deeply impressed I know you heard it before but here it is again, you did an amazing job there!! i cant believe it!! Every growers dream im sure
Now im of to your other thread...

# Dkmillo

 

[megayields]

Nice work......time for some Bunker luvin McBunker loving!

Oh Yeah!

 

[extreegrowerrr]

this is shipping containers burried in flroida...cubans stealing power. no where near as nice as a job as yours. figured you would enjoy though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqStVRSt8P4

 

[extreegrowerrr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcr3D4nPkPY

one more even bigger

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcr3D4nPkPY

one more even bigger

Thanks for the link. I always try to learn from others mistakes. Seems he went a little too big, and he was stealing power. I'd say that 90% of indoor busts come from diverted power, the rest from ape shit crazy ex-girlfriends.

I tried counting the ballasts (or ballance as mr super cop says), and it looks like he was running 35,000 watts. The first one was 20k.

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

It's time for another update. Not too much to show for this time, since I've been spending a lot of my time working elsewhere to make ends meet until I can harvest again. Those electric bills are staggering, and tough to handle without cashflow. I topped $1000 for this month, I knew I was bound to break the four figure barrier eventually, especially with the costs of energy going through the roof.

The first two pictures are of the slow progress I've been making with my patio/planter paridise. I'm able to mix an 80lb. bag of mortar mix, and lay 10-12 blocks at every go without burning myself out. That takes me about an hour and a half, and it's ball busting work. The concrete mixer from hell finally shit the bed. I was trying to clean the left-over concrete from it wit a metal bar, and I cracked the drum. I guess my contract with the devil was up, since my bunker is technically finished. I got close to 750 batches out of it, and it was already ancient by the time I got it, so I'm proud of the old dog. It's time for him to get some rest.

The 3rd - 8th pictures show how I redesigned my drip manifolds. The 4th shot is of the old "side feed" method. The 5th is of the problem that I had with it, the roots would grow inside and clog up the works, and there was no way to fix it on the fly. I decided to use rubber grommets so that I could pull out the clogged lines to clean them, or replace them if need be.

Using 2 90 degree elbows allowed me to get a straight shot into the net pots, without any over shooting. I hate it in top feed systems when you overshoot, and you drain onto the floor. Also, this allows me access to remove the plants without changing the flow pattern over the roots. I had that problem earlier, and part of the root masses would dry out, causing stress to the plants. Another plus of doing it this way is I can adjust the aim of each drip emitter to best suit each plant. I'm really happy how this turned out. No more leaks!

The last two shots are of my new drain setup. I originally used window screening over the drain spouts, but they'd inevitablly get clogged with something or another. I used rolled up gutter guard mesh to act as a kind of flood and drain screen. If part gets clogged, there's always more that isn't. Hydroton can't make it through to clog the drain hoses. I think this will work, no more clogs and overflows. That happened several times, and it started to cost me in lost fertilizer.

 

[dgr]

Thanks for the update. those don't look like top hat grommets. Are they grommets used in electronic panels?