Building a new Grow Cabinet....

Hello again,

At the moment I am waiting patiently for some pin heatsinks to arrive from our friends in China. To keep myself occupied I decided to build a new grow cabinet. Of course a new cabinet means I will be in need of a new fixture.

So after a quick rifle through my odds and ends I have the following to play with.

8 x CXB3590s
1 x HLG-185-C700A
6 x Osram SSL 150 hyper red
1 x 21w T5 fitting with Solar Raptor 10% UV lamp
2 x 1000mm x 150mm finned heatsinks
4 x 140mm 12v fans
1x 12v power supply
Some aluminium sheet, angle, rectangle. blah blah usual bits and bobs.

The fixture measures 100cm x 40cm. The driver and 12v power supply are remote. It will only be used for flowering.


I will kit out the cabinet tomorrow and hang the fixture and do some testing. The grow space will not be far off the dimensions of the light so probably a bit of overkill. I am really interested in exploring smaller grow spaces at the moment.

Cheers,
Will

You keep this up and you're going to give Amare a run for their money

So will the T5 run whenever the light is on or did you wire it in a way that it can be on or off independent of the other lights?

Evil-Mobo said:

So will the T5 run whenever the light is on or did you wire it in a way that it can be on or off independent of the other lights?

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Yes the T5 is wired independently to a separate timer. I would like to have a play with exposure to UV at different times. The first run with be just a couple hours per 12 hours of light. Maybe mimic the midday sun and switch the UV on from 12:00-15:00. The only thing that niggles me is it 21 watts. That is nearly enough for another CXB3590 @700ma. I hope it proves beneficial if not I will throw some more hyper reds in the centre or something. I have heard others rave about UV but it is new to me. I am very energy conscious these days and if the results are not up to par (shameless pun) I would rather not spend the watts.

Cheers,
Will

I also thought it best to recess the T5 in the centre so it does not affect the COBs in any way. I do not know if that would be the case but UV degrades things and CXB3590 are still a bit pricey. Just a hunch not a fact that I can substantiate.

Cheers,
Will

Busy this morning. Installed the light fixture in the cabinet and tested with Apogee SQ420. It should have a PPFD of 820 without the UV lamp on.
I feel a need to emphasize "should" because I am still not sure if I am using the sensor correctly.
The cabinet is two units one on top of the other. The exhaust is a 6" hyper fan with Rhino Pro carbon filter. Fresh air from outside is provided by two dark room vents and pumped from the lower grow space via flat ducting and exhaust out of the top grow space.



Cheers,
Will

Will Thayer said:

Yes the T5 is wired independently to a separate timer. I would like to have a play with exposure to UV at different times. The first run with be just a couple hours per 12 hours of light. Maybe mimic the midday sun and switch the UV on from 12:00-15:00. The only thing that niggles me is it 21 watts. That is nearly enough for another CXB3590 @700ma. I hope it proves beneficial if not I will throw some more hyper reds in the centre or something. I have heard others rave about UV but it is new to me. I am very energy conscious these days and if the results are not up to par (shameless pun) I would rather not spend the watts.

Cheers,
Will

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That lamp is puss. If you want UV results, PLEASE buy an Agromax PURE UV bulb from HTG supply.

http://www.htgsupply.com/products/agromax-4-foot-t5-pure-uv-bulb

I would absolutely LOVE to see what kind of results that bad MoFo gives you.

Airwalker16 said:

That lamp is puss. If you want UV results, PLEASE buy an Agromax PURE UV bulb from HTG supply.

http://www.htgsupply.com/products/agromax-4-foot-t5-pure-uv-bulb

I would absolutely LOVE to see what kind of results that bad MoFo gives you.

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Does the lamp you linked to bend? The grow space is 3 foot wide by 2 foot. The fixture itself is 100 cm. Are you using the Agromax? What is your experience with it? I would need it to be shorter than 1200mm (4'). To be honest I am on the fence about UV. I will see how it goes with this run. I will run the bottom of this cabinet at the same time but without UV for a comparison.

Cheers,
Will

Will Thayer said:

Does the lamp you linked to bend? The grow space is 3 foot wide by 2 foot. The fixture itself is 100 cm. Are you using the Agromax? What is your experience with it? I would need it to be shorter than 1200mm (4'). To be honest I am on the fence about UV. I will see how it goes with this run. I will run the bottom of this cabinet at the same time but without UV for a comparison.

Cheers,
Will

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Don't know I'd it'd bend or not. But tthey have 2' ones, though!!! $$

Will Thayer said:

Does the lamp you linked to bend? The grow space is 3 foot wide by 2 foot. The fixture itself is 100 cm. Are you using the Agromax? What is your experience with it? I would need it to be shorter than 1200mm (4'). To be honest I am on the fence about UV. I will see how it goes with this run. I will run the bottom of this cabinet at the same time but without UV for a comparison.

Cheers,
Will

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Please do not buy this bulb for your space it is too small. This particular bulb runs hot and will burn your plants if too close take a look at my thread and the Sativa in the flower tent.

Make sure you get feedback from folks who have actually used the product and not just people who want you to test it to see how it works before they buy it.

FYI they make a 2 foot bulb and fixture which I am testing in my veg tent at the moment.

Yeah, I remember your issues from your thread. To be honest I will just stick with what I have. I know how tempting it can be to buy all the gear folks mention. It is part of the hobby and always has been. This little cabinet is just something to play around with. With both top and bottom spaces combined it is only around 12sqft. I just fancied another little area to grow in. (sound familiar @Evil-Mobo) Reading your thread and watching you set up tent after tent got me itching to create a new space myself. I really want to see how many grams per sqft I can push from a small space with the least amount of watts possible.

Cheers,
Will

Will Thayer said:

Yeah, I remember your issues from your thread. To be honest I will just stick with what I have. I know how tempting it can be to buy all the gear folks mention. It is part of the hobby and always has been. This little cabinet is just something to play around with. With both top and bottom spaces combined it is only around 12sqft. I just fancied another little area to grow in. (sound familiar @Evil-Mobo) Reading your thread and watching you set up tent after tent got me itching to create a new space myself. I really want to see how many grams per sqft I can push from a small space with the least amount of watts possible.

Cheers,
Will

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The expansion on my end was in the works from the get go, as this was the agreement with the boss (wife) vs not building out a room in the garage. I will eventually have (3) tents, a veg tent and two flower tents. That has been the goal from the beginning. But I will expand as needed not go buy stuff all at once for no reason. I have acquired a good amount of beans and most specifically for the various medical issues I have going on, but the nerve pain being number 1. So when I pop these packs of regular seeds I need to select the best pheno's take clones and keep mothers so I can have a continuous supply of meds. So while this is part hobby for me, it's also very serious for it's intended purpose and this is the reason why the main focu for me is quality of the buds, the quantity in yields will come as I learn more, get better at growing, and get my specific areas dialed in.

Cheers

I think you are making an excellent start and should be harvesting top shelf medication very soon. If you do not mind my asking what particular strains are best for you? Is this something yet to be determined? I am always interested in learning more from medical patients like yourself. If you are comfortable speaking about of course. If not I completely understand.

Cheers,
Will

Will Thayer said:

I think you are making an excellent start and should be harvesting top shelf medication very soon. If you do not mind my asking what particular strains are best for you? Is this something yet to be determined? I am always interested in learning more from medical patients like yourself. If you are comfortable speaking about of course. If not I completely understand.

Cheers,
Will

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To go into detail about this I would very much rather via PM my friend. When you have some time to kill shoot me a PM and we will discuss.

Another busy morning and the cabinet is finished and proceedings have commenced. Couple of photos if anyone is interested.
First couple are just darkroom vents and flat duct that pushes air from bottom area to the top. There is a tube heater in there for the colder months. The last two are the money shot.


Cheers,
Will

Sweet!!!! $$$ now just throw some lenses on that panel $

Airwalker16 said:

Sweet!!!! $$$ now just throw some lenses on that panel $

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Yeah, I am not going to use lenses. The fixture is raised for the photo but it will actually hang 20cm above the canopy. 8 x CXB3590 @ 700ma right up close and personal to 6 ft² canopy will do nicely. I think lenses are better suited to fixtures hung higher and driven harder. 700ma is as soft as a baby's bottom. Both chambers will only be use for flowering so there will be no spraying or any other danger to the COBs. I do give COBs the occasional wipe down with isopropyl alcohol and lint free cloths.

Cheers,
Will

This little double decker grow cabinet is where I am experimenting with strains and using different lights. On the top shelf I am exposing the plants to 4 hours of UV from a 21w solar raptor t5 in the middle of the "day" cycle. The fixture is an older design using active cooling and finned extruded heatsinks. I have just received some far red diodes that I will add soon and give them a little infrared tickle for 15 minutes after lights out.

The bottom shelf is illuminated by a carbon copy of a fitting I made for a friend.(10x CXA2530 with some deep reds) More details can be found here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/a-little-project-to-pass-the-time.909832/#post-12625928
I have that on 24/7 with some little autos on the go. The fixture is a bad fit for this grow space and will be replaced. The COBs could do with being spread out more. Best to swap out the fitting with another one I have built when these autos have finished up.

Please excuse the uneven canopy and general untidiness. This is my small tinkering space. There is 5 different strains all with their own ideas on how to grow.I have pulled a few duds and added some others it is a never ending cycle. all have different start times and flowering lengths. I must admit it gets neglected a bit and needs a good tidy.
There are no stand outs thus far. None of the strains have been super impressive really. All part of the fun, you wade through a lot of average to find the rare quality specimen.


Cheers,
Will

Pulling up a chair, looks great!

Evil-Mobo said:

You keep this up and you're going to give Amare a run for their money

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I would much rather have your light than a Amare anytime! Just got caught up Will. Everything looks fantastic. Thank you for sharing and good luck.