Brace yourselves for a major list of home improvement that I think you'd all be VERY impressed with.
List of Fixes TLDR:
-Fixed the exhaust and, using parts from the local Casa Depote, made a carbon air filter with no air leaks. (I'll thank myself for this later)
-Brought new socket adapters to change and re-position the lighting (so fans can blow on them to keep them cool)
-Added more fans for air circulation (to cool down the lights, Blow around the Co2, and to breeze the beautiful young lady)
-Added a DIY Co2 generator (at 8 bucks and with readily made materials, why not? It's no work for me to change it every two weeks and it helps any high temperature issues).
-Undid most of the LST on the plant (Keyword is MOST. I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, and the plant is still extremely low, meaning I'll end up with adult leaves at a very low height.)
-Fixed a feeding issue (the leaves were starting to neute burn slightly. Adjusted feeding schedule to compensate).
Overall, she's looking mighty beautiful, green, and happy! I don't plan on adjusting anything in the box for now, nor do I plan on doing anything else that is strenuous to the plant, until I begin to see adult leaves forming.
With this being said, time to provide everyone with what they really want to see:
PICTURES.
The first thing I decided to fix was the exhaust. SupChaka was correct with the potential of the exhaust fan being wasted. So while I began to fix it... I had an epiphany... I'll let the pictures do the talking.
I adjusted the hole to be in line with the size of the exhaust fan.
This is something I found at Home Depot. I figured it would work perfectly for what I needed it for. It fit into the piece that's displayed below:
The above piece is a drain plug and some kind of pvc pipe attachment superglued together to make a perfect seam. I decided to make the carbon air filter using these, some screws, some tape, some superglue, and a stocking.
Covered with a stocking. You see where I'm going with this...
THE CARBON FILTER SANDWICH. There's nowhere for the air to go but into the filter, where it has to touch the carbon before exiting through the back. With the way it's screwed into place, no air can escape between any seams. Also, because of the way I have the fan installed and have this "screwed in," I can easily change the activated carbon whenever I want!
The fan, with the help of screws drilled in all the wrong places (if you know what I mean...) provide a support for the fan to blow air out of the filter. Note that half of this entire filter sticks out of the box and the part that is inside of the box is BIGGER which prevents any air from blowing out of the actual hole made to house it. Don't worry... I though this through.
Just in case. Duct tape is so useful...
Remember that it's mounted to the back with outdoor mounting tape to secure it. The tape is really... really strong. I attempted to pull something that was mounted with it out of the box... took a while.
ANYWAYS
I figured "I'm here adjusting the exhaust, might as well get everything over with." Because of this, I added many more fans and made a DIY Co2 system. Sure, I know that I won't be able to "gauge the pressure" and that people think it's a "waste of time in veg" and that some of the Co2 will be "exhausted out of the cab..."
Fuck if I care lol. All forms of Co2 help plant photosynthesis and it cost me literally 8 bucks, aside from material that I already had lying around. I only have to change it every two weeks and that requires 5 minutes of me mixing. Worst case scenario is it doesn't help (unlikely), best case is the plant growth skyrockets. Remember that I added this because of the natural "heat" issue that comes with a grow box. Rather than investing in expensive LED's to attempt to reduce heat, I decided to turn the heat into an asset. It's sitting at 84f at the moment (keep in mind that it's not a dry or stagnant heat. There are fans everywhere and the root zone always feels cool to the touch).
It's on a "one bubble per second" drip, running to a second bottle to make sure no yeast/fermentation/alcohol gets spewed into the box. The final tube is connected to the upper right fan, which is blowing directly at the green.
To keep temperatures from dropping to retarded levels during the dark cycle, the
extra fans are ran on the same timer as the lights. Multi purpose!
So there you have it. The updates to the cab. It's been rough, but Pepper (I nicknamed her Pepper because of Peppermint Kush... get it? No? ... ok moving on...) is looking a bit greener, and her new growth looks waaaaaay healthier than the original growth.
TO DO LIST:
-Make the Co2 generator STEALTH
-[DONE] Elevate the plant using a prop and some wood to be relatively close to the light and Co2 fan.
-Double Stack the exhaust with another PC fan to get more power out of it
-[DONE] add a bright white bulb to even out the light spectrum a bit (yes I know they need only blue, but a tad bit of red never hurt anything)
-[DONE] make use of the pot and bury the stem since soil likes to play jokes and compact itself when it gets watered.
Small edit: I wish there were a way to edit original posts... I'd like to add a "go to this page for updates" link or something