Attic SCROG stealth Grow - LED - Bubbler (DWC)

Last night i attacked the task of creating my stealth grow space in my attic. My beautiful Wife has gently "mentioned" that there seems to be a little bitty marijuana smell in the house. What smell? I like the smell... Ok a Lotta smell and it wasn't so gentle after the 25th time. So I'll be moving my girls from their current basement stealth shelf,
the their new attic stealth space. I don't have a lot of room so the scrog itself measures only 1M x 1M. Since i didn't need to really put anything up permanently i just used White Tape, wood, a rubber floor mat for spills and some white paint and here is where i've gotten so far.

I will finish her today, run the electricity, plumbing will wait till next week (min.) and move the plants tonight before my wife gets back from her business trip. She'll be happy, I'll get to sleep in the bed again, so I'll be happy .

The door is always open to constructive criticism and idea's.. (about my grow not getting back in bed with my wife, I've got that one covered.)

I'll only have 2 plants at a time and I'll probably only use the Illuminator and probably either a flower accelerator LED or another Illuminator.

If I ever get the energy I might build a second box for my 400W HiD. Just to do some real world comparisons between LED's and HiD's... And put that Debate to bed!


Ciao,
Pure...

i tried building a growtent in my attic but it was tooo damn hott 100 + degrees the lowest i can get it was mid 90's

Yeah that might be an issue. but "Flo Grow" told me that using an external cooling chamber could be a remedy if I run into that problem. Since the temperatures are getting cooler I'm more concerned with cooler temps than Heat. Especially since I'm only using a Illuminator UFO 90W, which doesn't give off much heat.. Plus up in the attic i can do whatever the hell I want, so I can add a "Res cooler tank", or just a space heater or even aquarium heaters, and i don't have to worry about good old mother in law stumbling across my grow.

Most important task today is electrical!!


Ciao,
Pure...

but you do have to worry about leo (law enforcement officer). if your room is not insulated im sure helicopters with infa red would be able to see the hot spots in ur attic.your attic is already hott + more equipment will make it even more hott. im not trying to burst your bubble.If u check out some of my first threads i was going crazy trying to get my tent to work up there. but it was just un-realistic without me spending a chunk of change.

Yes the only advice I have is to watch the temperature, in attics it fluctuates drastically.

Rasta.... Dude L E D! Seriously low on the Heat Signature scale. 90W is equivalent to less than some light bulbs. If they bust me for that i really did something effed up in a previous life....

Hey jg,
Yes ur right and Rasta.... mentioned temps but I think I'll have to figure out a way to rig a aquarium heater inside of my res's in the winter and use an external Res cooling res in the summer. The plants will be somewhat in a semi-cocoon all side will be closed except the top and the light will be raining down from there with a little heat dissipation...

I'm more concerned with Bud flowering height control. My buddy on another thread asked me if I had enough room. Now I'm starting to ask myself the same question... Especially on the bud's closest to the plant, or the oldest ones.

Shit!!


Ciao,
Pure...

im not just talking about lights, your over here talking about aqaurium heaters and stuff which provide heat as well. not to mention fans and anything else u throw up there. ive been in ur shoes rite now man thats why im trying to help.theres no ac in attics so its just a bunch of hott air up there being pushed around. i say u build a stealth cab. 90 watts isnt worth the hassle up there, but thats ust my opinion. good luck!

Ok dude,

It's cool, I'm not trying to get your feathers all ruffled. Just some good old conversation we got vibin between us dude, thats all.. U R correct I am mentioning adding some low wattage units e.g. fan, aquarium heater. but the aquarium heater will only heat the reservoir. not the room. the fan while adding minimally to the heat will also provide air circulation far outweighing the heat it'll add.
One additional thing that i have in the attic is a air circulation pump connected to the bathrooms and the kitchen. I have one extra port which I can use to extract smells and heat out of the roof top.

Thanks RastaMonkey I probably would not have thought of it as soon had you not questioned it..

Oh as for the 90W, Since it's an Illuminator I'm gonna give it a chance. It's supposed to be rated for 1 Sq Mtr grows. Why do you feel it's not enough? What are u suggesting in place of that? I can throw on my 400W HiD, but I think that's a bit much for a 1 Sq Meter scrog. i could also throw in my x2 15W Flora Glo lamps but I'm not sure they'll do much either... I'm open to small budgeted suggestion dude..

Ciao,
Pure...

your rite, just some convo back n forth. i aint trying to knock you down. shit if you can get sucess out of that attic grow i will try a similar setup lol. ive tried growing in the attic and it wasnt good at all. + i only had 80 watts of fluro tubing at the time for testing and it got up way past 100+ degrees.Even in the night time where its cooler outside it was too hot up there.+ i had a 2500 cfm fan in the tent + exhuast and 2 other fans blowing air.it sounded like a airplane up there and was hotter then the dessert.I live in florida it gets hott.

what are your res tanks made of? i understand the res dont get boiling hott but it probablly does throw off some heat.thats just more heat in a hott area.for example when u pour hott coffee into a coffee-mug the mug gets warm to the touch cuz the coffee warmed it up.

whats a air circulation pump? are you talking about exhaust fans in the bathroom's and kitchen? everyone has those.unless you have air conditioning vents in the attic there is not going to be cool air up there.i havent really seen house's with a/c in the attic.
fans only push around air,your just pushing around hot air. they dont provide air conditioning.

what about water source? your gonna have to be carrying alot of water up to the attic. + hoping you dont spill any up there that will cause leaks and rot threw the ceiling.
its not going to be cheap to grow in the attic. i had to bring all my shit down and setup in my bedroom. i know your having security issues with ur mother in law but you should plan this out better b4 ur plants die on you up there.

Pure said:

Ok dude,

It's cool, I'm not trying to get your feathers all ruffled. Just some good old conversation we got vibin between us dude, thats all.. U R correct I am mentioning adding some low wattage units e.g. fan, aquarium heater. but the aquarium heater will only heat the reservoir. not the room. the fan while adding minimally to the heat will also provide air circulation far outweighing the heat it'll add.
One additional thing that i have in the attic is a air circulation pump connected to the bathrooms and the kitchen. I have one extra port which I can use to extract smells and heat out of the roof top.

Thanks RastaMonkey I probably would not have thought of it as soon had you not questioned it..

Oh as for the 90W, Since it's an Illuminator I'm gonna give it a chance. It's supposed to be rated for 1 Sq Mtr grows. Why do you feel it's not enough? What are u suggesting in place of that? I can throw on my 400W HiD, but I think that's a bit much for a 1 Sq Meter scrog. i could also throw in my x2 15W Flora Glo lamps but I'm not sure they'll do much either... I'm open to small budgeted suggestion dude..

Ciao,
Pure...

Click to expand...

thats not good. that will be toooo easy of a target for infa-red helicopters.your supposed to insulate the attic so you cant see heat source from the outside from helicopters n stuff.

i have a tent up in my attic too. i was thinkin of ideas and ways to avoid expelling the hot air straight out of the attic cause i have pleanty of extraction vents and what not. would it be feasible to build a little box chamber maybe where we can dump the hot air of the tent into and have another intake drawing in the cool air from outside and have them mix together before releasing it? or am i just blowing smoke outta my ass?

i live in the midwest where winters are cold so i can have a constant supply of freezing cool air so this may wont work for someone down south.

Nice Mango Tango,

necessity is the mother of creation. And you are so totally in the DIY home growers ingenuousness spirit. +Rep for thinking out the box. I personally wont have heat problems in the winter. Since I'm only running a LED. If temps get too out of control I'll throw in a space heater! As for a heat signature though don't forget that there is always going to be some type of sig coming off the house. And sf they're targeting you then it's too late to try to hide!
For your grow even if you can dissipate the heat through some type of exchanger you still have the primary heat sourcewshich will shine like the sun under a scope. SO the best in my opinion would be to make the entire surface area of the roof appear hot so that the high heat source doesn't seem so out of place.

Pfft thats my .02 cents


Ciao,
Pure...

very true. if i get real hardcore about it i may put some insulation in my roof above the tent with some of the flir proof material. its just one of those secred jardin tents

in my attic i have 2 chimneys..one where the old addition of the house was and one where a new one was put in...and the thing is they both cap off at the end and dont even make it up to the roof and out. what i may do is drill a hole into the chimney and conceal the heat into there.

ive read up a little bit on flir use and how it works, and from what i read they cant detect signatures that arent coming out of the building, so, what if i just run a continuous loop, if not continuous at least like 50ft, of heavily insulated ducting so the heat will be contained within the ducting and have a slightly heated length of ducting, eliminating the need to actually "dump" the heat somewhere. that way if for some reason the heat does show off, it will at the very least look like a heating source for the house. and possibly add some cool air intake to the loop to cool it.

now i live in small town u.s. where I KNOW that our county doesnt have the funding to have a chopper cover x amount of miles for maybe 5 houses a square mile, but still people seem to have this ongoing problem that would be bad ass to solve.

and sorry for butting in on your thread to discuss my issues and how to solve them, maybe itll all come in handy soon. ...maybe led is the way to go, i dont know dick about the nature of them though.

Pure said:

Nice Mango Tango,

necessity is the mother of creation. And you are so totally in the DIY home growers ingenuousness spirit. +Rep for thinking out the box. I personally wont have heat problems in the winter. Since I'm only running a LED. If temps get too out of control I'll throw in a space heater! As for a heat signature though don't forget that there is always going to be some type of sig coming off the house. And sf they're targeting you then it's too late to try to hide!
For your grow even if you can dissipate the heat through some type of exchanger you still have the primary heat sourcewshich will shine like the sun under a scope. SO the best in my opinion would be to make the entire surface area of the roof appear hot so that the high heat source doesn't seem so out of place.

Pfft thats my .02 cents


Ciao,
Pure...

Click to expand...

how many of your neighbors have their whole roofs on fire or all that heat in their attics?If you arent on the radar already you will definatlly pop up with a fly by over your house.if u havent noticed by now im trying to help.you should see my first thread on growing in the attic, they cut my head off.thats why no one is in here trying to help other then me.realisticlly its not easy without dumping alot of $$ into it. check the temps up there for a couple of days and u will see what im talking about.thats all i gotta say

look at this video so you can see how infa red works
http://www.youtube.com/user/nevergetbusted#p/u/24/sudf5xDIhmM

Things are coming along. Still stocking up on small things here and there. Plants reacting well to scrog. Waiting for pre-flowers then flowering. hopefully i can get the pre-flowers soon so that I can flower at my own convenience...


Ciao,
Pure...

starting your crop this late should do heat well in the attic but rasta man is right the heat up there will dramatically change the density of your buds you want to keep it around 78 i grow in a garage that is insulated and i still have temp problems.. attics are one of the worst places to grow

Dudes,

Heat in my attic will be so far from my issue starting probably this month. I might need to flower with my HiD just to keep it from freezing up there. Nah seriously dude. Heat is not a problem. Cold wont be a problem either. I've pretty much scoped out what needs to be done in order to keep the temps at a agreeable level. Only because I've decided to make this a permanent grow space for me so...I'm gonna try to do it properly to some degree...
But seriously thanks for the feedback. I will have those heat issues come next Feb. And I'll need to start planning an upgrade in advance.


Ciao,
Pure...

Rasta thanks for that vid! i always wondered(guessed right mostly) about what they could see/looked for. Personally im medical, so its state safe, but always curious


Also, if ambient temps are around 80-90 the attic can get up to 150 degrees. So definitely think about how your going to cool it, and im not talking about your heat, just the attics really.

RastaMonsta said:

look at this video so you can see how infa red works
http://www.youtube.com/user/nevergetbusted#p/u/24/sudf5xDIhmM

Click to expand...

+Rep dude good looking out on the video though!!!

For me however the amount of heat i'm producing I do't even need to vent it. 90W LED! The temps in the attic are controllable via a space heater or portable AC! Do I'm good.


Ciao,
Pure...