Well...it's been awhile...so...
Here's a
HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!
The work and time I am having to invest in this dream project is staggering...I've spent almost 4 days up there this week and I'm beat...but much has been accomplished. Let me share.
Finishing the wiring required another visit by another electrician to re-do the shabby work of the first one...yes, the simple assignment of installing a 50-amp breaker and installing a 240v outlet was totally fucked up by these first two guys. I couldn't figure out what the problem was for some time because when you have a professional come in and do a simple job you assume it's done right, but they tied the outlet into only one side of the bus so it wasn't working. Now it is and that's all I need.
So then I hung the remaining lights and finally turned them on!
As I walked down the hallway I saw an amazing amount of LIGHT...
Then I entered the tent and WOW!! It was as bright as the freaking sun!
Now obviously a phone camera can't reproduce the incredible brightness of these three lights but trust me, I've NEVER seen anything even close! Then I realized I had them all set on 50%...they have a built-in dimmer switch! I slowly turned one up to full...oh my God...I had to leave the room to get sunglasses it was that intense!
They do put off some heat but compared to a 1000 watt MH not that much...I believe these will do the trick quite nicely! The spread is good, and even though I had a center pole to deal with and thus had to sort of arrange the three lights in a horseshoe, I feel we are getting plenty of light everywhere. I imagined three months from now, when this entire tent will be filled with 2-foot donkey dicks...glorious!
But turning back to the job at hand, next I installed a mega Vortex fan and ducted the tent into a void in an enclosed space in the attic. The exhaust will simply flow into there and up and out the roof vents. Nice. Even if it creates a humid attic space any mold or such won't affect the interior space of the house at all so we're good.
Now for the carbon filter...I decided to go big. This is a 75-pound unit!
Yes, I believe the smell issue will be okay with this baby on the job.
So now, the building of the ebb-and-flow system. This wasn't rocket science but it WAS a very long and tedious job building this thing correctly. Push fittings aren't my favorite thing so I used a metal hose clamp on every fitting. Other than that I didn't have to do any mods, the system is heavy-duty, easy to assemble and I was able to customize the arrangement of the pots to my liking. Three hours later I was filling the 55-gallon reservoir drum and preparing to test everything...
The Achilles heel of all this is there is no direct connection between the "fill" and "drain" pumps...both rely on timers, period. You have to kind of figure out how long it takes to fill and then drain, then set the timers to those increments. So when it's operational one timer comes on and fills until the float valve in the control bucket stops the inflow...but that doesn't stop the pump so it will be important to actually time the cycles after everything is in place to accurately set the timers. Then the drain pump works the same way, and because it's only about 1/3 the size of the fill pump it has to run the drain cycle for more than twice as long. I'm fine with all of it but it will require me to be there for probably a day just to make sure I'm setting these timers right. Getting them wrong would be a disaster and ruin everything so no pressure, right?
And so this morning I am heading back up AGAIN...only this time I am bringing some friends!
Yes, the girls are BUSTING out with roots everywhere, I'm almost in a panic to get them to their new home before they die. So today I'll be buying some sort of big tray that will hold 12 plants in 1-gallon containers and run them up to their new digs. As this gets going I'll be a little better at the timing of all this but for now I am just in get 'er done now mode.
But I wanted to pen an update in the minutes I had before leaving. It's getting exciting!
I dream of a forest of weed...
If only that evil monkey would quit stealing my stash! Got to talk to him.
Peace, Hyena
Nothing but love, man.
