AK-47 1000W Closet Cooler Grow

Still have some more training of wayward branches to do. I might try with a net next time. Using technaflora lineup of nutes.

those are some pretty serious fucking roots bro, looking good. am i looking at two girls there? they are gonna put off some massive buds with that much light and root systems like that.

Thanks, two girls indeed. I ran the same strain last time, but with a different setup in smaller containers (5gal). Changed over to 10 gal coolers for the summer months. They were getting root bound in 5gal buckets with much smaller plants last time, and my air pump was putting out so much with stones that there was a doughnut whole in the centre of the roots. (45W air pump).

This time I switched to using garden soaker hose, which makes much smaller bubbles, and I laid it around the edge of the cooler, so the roots can grow into the bubbles as far as they dare, instead of being pummelled by turbulence. The combination seems to have helped a lot.

Going for 1lb per plant this time.

Forgot to mention, they are 2 weeks into flower right now.

Nice looking grow! I was wondering if you would be so kind to explain what the tubes are doing and how the water works through the system, as I am setting up a similar recirculating undercurrent system. Thanks!

Thanks FriSki. I responded about your system in the cooler club thread earlier.

The largest tube you see is the 1/2" tube from the pump. I stabbed 1/4" barbs through the 1/2" tube and attached 4 1/4" tubes to feed the coolers, one into the front, and one into the back on each cooler.

The two smaller 3/8" lines going back from the grow coolers to the res cooler are the recirculating drain lines. I drill these holes at the level I want my water to stay at, so with a constant feed from the res cooler, the grow coolers never drop level, only the res cooler does. You get auto top off feature without having to screw around with a float valve.

The line coming from the right side and into the T is the air line. 45W pump splits into each cooler and runs into a piece of 1/2" soaker hose that's laid around the outside edge of the inside of the cooler.

The bulkhead fitting on the bottom of the coolers are for draining the system. I plug a hose onto the barb and run it outside.

Nice work on those ladiez I love that cooler setup you got going on and that canopy is prettyful for 2 ladiez. +Rep to you sir

Shafto said:

Thanks, two girls indeed. I ran the same strain last time, but with a different setup in smaller containers (5gal). Changed over to 10 gal coolers for the summer months. They were getting root bound in 5gal buckets with much smaller plants last time, and my air pump was putting out so much with stones that there was a doughnut whole in the centre of the roots. (45W air pump).

This time I switched to using garden soaker hose, which makes much smaller bubbles, and I laid it around the edge of the cooler, so the roots can grow into the bubbles as far as they dare, instead of being pummelled by turbulence. The combination seems to have helped a lot.

Going for 1lb per plant this time.

Forgot to mention, they are 2 weeks into flower right now.

Click to expand...

Awsome looking set up. Have you considered 9 inch micro pore air disk diffusers? Look them up, the ceramic ones would be what I would use.

So just to confirm, 1 x 1000w and how many plants?

subscribed in

how long did u veg?

I like the soaker hose idea, nice one!

The 45w air pump, is it one of those silver ones with the fins? How are you keeping that thing quiet?

Thanks guys! Appreciate the kind words.

1000W and 2 girls in that closet.

Also have a 250W for my moms, clones, and vegging girls. But there's nothing vegging right now, about to start some rooted clones vegging in a week or so to get ready for the next crop. Going serious seeds bubblegum next time.

I wanted to go with only 2, because I'm planning to get my cultivation licence soon, and I want to start to get the most I can from each plant. I also just prefer keeping my plant count down in general.

If you have a perpetual grow setup, you don't really save anything by going with 4 or even 8 smaller plants with less veg time, because I've got to wait 60 days for my bud room to free up anyway, I've got lots of time to veg two big girls to go in there.

I vegged them for about 6 weeks before I put them to bud.

The 45W air pump I have is one of those cheap finned ones. I was disgusted with how loud it was, and how much vibration it sent through the stones and into the buckets. I deduced that this vibration and noise was mostly due to the sharp pressure pulses being sent down the air line at 60hz. What I did to fix it worked so well, I was astounded, I can't even hear the thing now over my inline fan.

What I did was make an accumulator for it, to absorb the pressure pulses, like a capacitor in an electronics circuit. I used an empty 1 litre plastic nute bottle, cylindrical in shape. I put a hole in the lid, and a hole in the bottom, and glued in hoses. When I first turned it on again with the accumulator, it was much better, all the vibration in the floor was gone, but it was still making noise, which was coming from the walls of the nute bottle vibrating with the pulses. Then.. I very tightly wrapped the bottle in cardboard and tape to absorb the vibration from the walls. And that's where I'm at now.. I'll take a picture of this device at lights on tonight, it really makes a world of difference, and without it I would have ditched this air pump for sure.

Also, I hang the air pump itself from a rubber bungee cord. It has a PC fan on either side to keep it cool, and I have a good 15 feet of hose before the air makes it to the coolers. This all helps with not raising my water temps by pumping in hot air.

Here's a pic of the canopy from last night, after some more training, still some more to do! Going for the bowl effect, higher on the sides than the middle, same distance from the bulb kinda deal.

Shafto said:

The 45W air pump I have is one of those cheap finned ones. I was disgusted with how loud it was, and how much vibration it sent through the stones and into the buckets. I deduced that this vibration and noise was mostly due to the sharp pressure pulses being sent down the air line at 60hz. What I did to fix it worked so well, I was astounded, I can't even hear the thing now over my inline fan.

What I did was make an accumulator for it, to absorb the pressure pulses, like a capacitor in an electronics circuit. I used an empty 1 litre plastic nute bottle, cylindrical in shape. I put a hole in the lid, and a hole in the bottom, and glued in hoses. When I first turned it on again with the accumulator, it was much better, all the vibration in the floor was gone, but it was still making noise, which was coming from the walls of the nute bottle vibrating with the pulses. Then.. I very tightly wrapped the bottle in cardboard and tape to absorb the vibration from the walls. And that's where I'm at now.. I'll take a picture of this device at lights on tonight, it really makes a world of difference, and without it I would have ditched this air pump for sure.

Also, I hang the air pump itself from a rubber bungee cord. It has a PC fan on either side to keep it cool, and I have a good 15 feet of hose before the air makes it to the coolers. This all helps with not raising my water temps by pumping in hot air.

Click to expand...

You're a smart monkey! Nice one, +rep. I had made a double nested noise reduction box for one and was completed frustrated that it did not reduce the noise to an acceptable level. I ditched it and decided on multiple whisperlites.

I'm gonna give this a go.


Ever consider going vertical? You'd get more yield with the space you have to work with. Vscrog those girls to the wall and drop that bulb down into that sweet spot.

Vertical would be interesting to try. I'd have to rig up some type of cool tube on the bulb to keep things at an acceptable temp in there. The only issue I think is I'd have to veg and grow in the same space, because I think I'd have to be training all through veg?

Something to look into for sure though. This is just my fourth crop, two other in DWC, and my first one was in dirt. 7 ounces, 14 ounces, 22 ounces, and now I want 32!

Training is easier. The plant squashes better and easier vertically than horizontally. You would not have to veg and bloom in the same space. It's also possible to get away without a cooltube. My air quality actually became better by running a bare bulb.

In researching potency, I discovered that glass blocks the transmission of uvb.

I pulled 22 oz with 6 plants flipped at 10". About to load up my room again but with bigger plants, I'll post a journal for the new run.

I suppose if I made a system where I could start training the plant to the screen in veg, and then move the plant and screen out of it's veg container, and into the bud room in a cooler. It would be pretty tricky though. Or do you just not do any training until you put it to bud? My plants would be pretty big and hard to squish by then I'd think.

Looking forward to seeing your journal.

Day 21 in the bud room, the bowl of love in full effect. Definitely going to use a screen next time to make training the canopy easier.

First pic of my PC fan air cooled pump with nute bottle silencer, if you try it, you'll love it.

nice looking chronic

looking good in there

Lots good info in this thread already. I'm def subbed. Looks real pro man, good fucking job. I working in a space thats abouthalf the size of yours I think, except I'm scrogging. Have you seen what one guy did with Serious Seeds Chronic, 400 watts and a scrog?
Check this out ---------->http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=12653&page=1&pp=15
Nice setup too man.

Thanks fellas.

That's a nice 400W scrog from 2005!

I'm definitely doing a scrog with a net next time, I think it'll be a lot easier to train the canopy, and I'll probably be able to do a better job. Also probably the last time I'll do this AK47, though I will keep it around in case I want to run it again. It's a very leafy pheno (I only ordered 1 fem seed when I started up, not knowing about phenos at the time). It has a very nice blueberry/blackberry sweet flavour to it, very nice and potent too, but such a bitch to trim, and I think I'll yield more with a less leafy, more chunky type of bud structure, like the Bubblegum that I'll be running next, barely grows any leaves.

I should take some pics soon of my stealthy closet. It's right upstairs in a room beside my kitchen. A bookshelf and a fake wall close over the bud closet, with a veg cab to the side. All weatherstripped and holds together with magnets.