Home made 250W HPS grow box

Hello everybody,

I managed to find 2 days out of my busy schedule and "migrated" my setup to a more stealth and easy to maintain grow box. Bear in mind this is my first grow and the first grow box I made ever. Some things might not be very professional (and some really aren't), but 2 major issues have been addressed and I'm happy with it. These 2 things would be security and cooling.

I started this grow with CFLs, but ended up with about 8 of them, alot of cables and improvised fans. No exhaust, just a PC cooling fan. That was too messy for me and required alot of maintainance, moving constantly lights and rotating plants. Plus, the Big Bud of mine would have eventually stunk the whole freakin' house, it's just almost 6 weeks into flowering now, sativa dominant, and already started to smell especially in the morning, before lights on, and at night, after lights off.

So I took matter into my own hands and went and made plans, picked the best stuff that would fit my budget and my needs and ordered it. First I need to mention the strains: Nirvana Bubblelicious (the one just flowering for 1 week now, indica dominant I guess) and Big Bud (sativa dominant, the funny looking one with the infinitely growing buds lol; this is 5.5 weeks into flower now). Just gonna list all the materials used here (units are metric):
- plywood: 2 pieces each 1.5m x 0.32m; 2 pieces each 1.5m x 0.8m; 2 pieces each 0.8m x 0.32m;
- standard reflector
- 250W Philips Son-T Plus - found a really good deal and got it instantly, as I see it was recommended; came with everything I need: ballast & igniter (already connected), and the bulb;
- DYI carbon filter
- bathroom exhaust fan @ 107 m3/h - cubic meters (or 3778.66934 cubic feet / CFM) - 10cm diameter
- aluminum string tubing (white) - 10 cm diameter
- panda film (black/white plastic foil)
- easy rolls for hanging the reflector
- duct tape
- PC fan as intake
- little wooden knobs for the door
- screws and nails of various sizes
- analog pH/lumens/humidity meter
- digital programmable plug; got an analogic one and broke after 2 weeks lol
- some sort of chicken wire (very little holes, like 4-5 mm big) (for the carbon filter)
- active carbon, about 4 kg, used just 2 and got 2 left for a refill in about half a year to a year, depends how long this lasts
- one pair of lady nylons, also for the carbon filter and the usual sillyness.

Hope I didn't leave anything out and I hope this post isn't getting too long or boring.

The carbon filter looks weird, I know, but believe me I spent half a day on the filter only and this is the second version, the first one was about 100 times worse. I was very unsure at first about whether the air extractor was powerful enough, because when I turned it on and put my hand on it, it wasn't doing very much air sucking. But after I put the inline fan and closed the whole box, the vacuum effect came into play and now it exhausts heat enough so I would be able to mount a 400W in there if I wanted to. Doors must be closed for that to happen, of course. Smell is not coming out either and light stays out of the box during lights out because of the panda film. Heat stays at the top, as it should, and the intake is bringing in enough air for the extractor so the heat is not building, the air is consistently refreshed. At plant level, I think I have 28 degrees (C), if even. Suspecting around 22 on the fan areas, and 26 for others farther from the intake. Really need to buy a thermometer.

All in all, I can say this was a complete success. Let me know what your opinions are, I look forward to hearing them. I'll be finishing my current grow and then use the box for other indoor gardening until the next grow (dunno maybe some tomatoes and other stuff just for a hobby, it helps me relax a lot).

Happy growing everybody and enjoy the pics!

wow, 60 views and no replies...is it that bad? :-s

nah.. it's actually so good that we don't need to comment on it. we would love some updates though

That looks like it's working well ! I have no idea why nobody posts/replies ! Perhaps because you don't need any help ~

One thing that strikes me is that your title says 250 watt HPS - and yet you switched to a 400 ! Gave me the ol' "psych!"
It's notable to me as I have only a 250 Watt myself, and recently added a 42 Watt CFL really low in my "box" to add some supplemental light to the lower areas of my plants. . .

So keep the info coming. I am interested for sure. And nice job again !

Nope nope, it's a 250W. Check the materials list: 250W Philips Son-T Plus I made an analogy saying the exhaust could handle a 400W as well.

Well thanks guys! From the next grow on I will keep the girls shorter, that's for sure. And I'm gonna go with Uncle Ben's topping technique and a scrog style grow. But I have to work my way around this chicken wire I need to scrog...they only sell it in 10 meters rolls lol. I will also have to mount some CFL's as well, because I'm also going to veg in there. But after this harvest, of course. Need to go creative once more

For now it's steady, I've got a digital programmable plug at half the price I expected, so I'm happy of course Need to find one of these mercury thermometers...seems like they're not making them anymore...hmm

oh... See, there's the psych !

"enough so I CAN mount a 400 in there. . ." but you still haven't and you have those results. Nice ~

Also - I really enjoy my remote-transmitting thermometer. I can relax watching a movie (or whatever) and a quick glance over at the base-station tells me my box's temp. I can never get enough it seems...

they were under cfls up to today, so that's from what i switched. lol sorry for the confusion

huh, thanks for the thermometer idea, but I'm afraid I will not be able to share your joy Don't have any of these in my area, as I'm sure of it. Would have been cool.

You have to be able to order them off the internet Bro
Here in the states Radioshack has a great one !

And here's another sweet thermometer idea for you: the kitchen probe-style thermometers. I have about 4 scattered about in my box giving me the temps everywhere/anywhere I am interested. I used to check them WAY TOO OFTEN, but since I solved my heat issue the temps are so regular that I can leave for days at a time with absolutely no worries.

Tell me a couple of those wont solve your thermometer needs

JoeDudeGuy said:

View attachment 1631958

Tell me a couple of those wont solve your thermometer needs

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Oh yeah those def should do it! +rep I gotta admit, never crossed my mind Thanks!

ValiD said:

Oh yeah those def should do it! +rep I gotta admit, never crossed my mind Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hell yeah my friend, that's what I really enjoy: the sharing ! Now I am, of course, going to smirk a little when we look in on your updated pics and see the thermometers showing all of us the temps in your set-up. And, like you said, the temp really is only accurate when the doors are closed & all is as we leave it 90% of the time. My temp GOES UP pretty quickly on my thermometers when I start checking in because I kill the passive intake with the fan set-up I have in use. You can see that fan in the thermometer pic. Once I open the door though, air is grabbed from the door way easier than from the intake, so the temp spikes quickly by 5 - 10 degrees ! Since that pic here I have learned that if I want a "true pic", I don't open the door without my camera turned on & ready to shoot

And now you see the real beauty of my remote-transmitting thermometer. After getting used to it, I do not even NEED to open the box anymore to know the internal temp. It's just a glance away,or a button push to see THAT temp verses the great outdoors, since my sweetie couldn't care less about my "project". lol. I have a more than just the one scattered about. (I think this whole thing has been right up my alley so far ahead of my actual doing it)

you should try a ScrOG of you gonna use a 250. It'll increase your yeild.

JoeDudeGuy said:

Hell yeah my friend, that's what I really enjoy: the sharing ! Now I am, of course, going to smirk a little when we look in on your updated pics and see the thermometers showing all of us the temps in your set-up. And, like you said, the temp really is only accurate when the doors are closed & all is as we leave it 90% of the time. My temp GOES UP pretty quickly on my thermometers when I start checking in because I kill the passive intake with the fan set-up I have in use. You can see that fan in the thermometer pic. Once I open the door though, air is grabbed from the door way easier than from the intake, so the temp spikes quickly by 5 - 10 degrees ! Since that pic here I have learned that if I want a "true pic", I don't open the door without my camera turned on & ready to shoot

And now you see the real beauty of my remote-transmitting thermometer. After getting used to it, I do not even NEED to open the box anymore to know the internal temp. It's just a glance away,or a button push to see THAT temp verses the great outdoors, since my sweetie couldn't care less about my "project". lol. I have a more than just the one scattered about. (I think this whole thing has been right up my alley so far ahead of my actual doing it)

Click to expand...

Remote temp sensors are nice. The unit I have has a base and 3 sensors, which enables me to put one into my flowering cabinet, one in the veg cabinet, one outside, and then the main unit does the ambient temp in my grow space. So all I have to do is look at the base and I have a ton of data at a glance. Oh, I should mention that mine also does humidity. I want to say I picked it up for 40$ off the internet but can't recall the exact price. Also it is upgradable to use two more sensors if you need them.

When I purchased mine it was on sale but they have a similar upgraded model now for 60$ w/solar panel so no need for batteries.
Oregon Scientific Store <---here is a link to the thermo/humidity sensors. Happy hunting!

Beansly said:

you should try a ScrOG of you gonna use a 250. It'll increase your yeild.

Click to expand...

That was actually the setup I had in mind for the next grow...Uncle Ben's 4 tops technique + scrog. This grow is already too late to train. Already got my hands on some white widows to play with tho It should get freakin awesome. Already the HPS difference is clear after only 3 days of use...surely this cannot be beaten by anything else for flowering.

Thanks Joe, I noticed the temp spike when opening the doors, as well. Good thing I keep my ballast out of the grow box, otherwise it could get quite nasty in there. Will go scavenging for those kitchen thermometers tomorrow (this is what I want to currently stick with) and will post pics. I like the analog watches better and seem to trust'em more. dunno why...

Thanks everybody for the input, keep'em coming

Howdy guys,

Just dropping an update. After a few days of HPS activity and cool up/down I've collected a few stats. So, temps are around 36 (C) with the grow room open, otherwise they stay at about 32-33 and that is for the top of the plants. I've placed my thermometer in the HPS lighting area, just about 1 or 2 inches below the HPS max activity area to collect the max values, instead of the mins. At the pot level I have about 27-28. Humidity around 35-40%. This is a bit high, as opposed to what I expected (no more than 25%)... But as long as I don't have mold issues, I guess I should be fine.

Now I'm watering every 1.5-2 days instead of the usual 3-4, but it's all good, since the plants make good use of it and they don't seem bothered by the heat at all. The Bubblelicious will be a good looking gal when she'll be done. She's already looking hot. Attached some more pics. The Big Bud also doubled its buds in weight, one of the big ones even snapped because of the weight lol. Just left it there, it didn't break the whole way through, luckily

So did you smoke it all up already ?

Where have you been ?

a link to your exaust fan would be great bro

Haha yeah Joe that's kind of the case. I've been involved with a series of projects at work during the last 2 months, but it's been good. Mostly. My bublelicious yielded about 40g dry, no topping and no nothing applied. About 5g were discarded because they caught mold during the jarring process. Good thing I dried the bud progressively, otherwise everything would have gone to trash. Still a good smoke for a couple of weeks, tho.

The sativa, that was a nightmare. It turned out to be full of seeds. And I lost a lot of time growing it. I noticed the seeds about 2 weeks before cutting it, but I thought it wouldn't make much of a difference in those last 2 weeks (they weren't even forming in sacks, they just popped out of what seemed to be at the time just bud growth). Not going to buy seeds from anyone else from now on, except the well known seed banks. The pollen must have also gotten to my bubblelicious, but I only found about 5-6 seeds on the whole bubblelicious, where as the sativa was JUST seeds and no high (and a bad, hay taste, even after proper drying/curing).

A new grow is on the way, so look out for a new journal. I germed 2 ww seeds from the original batch (same guy who I got the sativa seeds from), and 3 bubblelicious. But by the looks of it, the ww strain is simply shit. Looks pretty strange as it's growing, deformed leaves and such, showing lack of nitrogen at just 3 sets of leaves, maybe they're just some unstable double-triple-home-made-cross. I'll toss those out, when the transplant time comes and keep the bubbleliciouses for now, until I order some more seeds for the next grow. These at least I know for sure what will become. But in the mean time, I have to replace that panda film either with smaller strips (because they started to come down after the last grow, and I think it was a major heat maker as well), or replace the panda film altogether.

Good to be back around here Takes your mind off of work.

PS: mister632: the exhaust fan is this one: http://www.ventilation-system.com/item/5092/Vents_100_VKOk/ . I'd recommend this fan if you don't have a carbon scrubber (or if you afford getting 2 and mounting them one after the other). I have one and I feel the need of adding another exhaust, but in my case it's the HPS bulb generating a lot of heat.

And the new grow, in the same setup, but different techniques: https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/456321-bubblelicious-white-widow.html

Let's continue the chat there. Cheers.