Stealth wardrobe

[LEDDWCRigger]

So jealous, god job getting them going so quickly. I dropped my seeds in water, waited about two days for them to crack and pop roots and transplanted them, and they're still below the surface level of the rockwool cubes. Well I haven't looked as of YET for today, but I'll go do that in a minute after my smoke.

[ledbud]

looking good teetee bro.
you have some nice buds for Christmas

[LEDDWCRigger]

I made you a 4 minute video, teetee, showing you a fixed silver pump.

[teetee]

Thank you very much for that LEDWCRigger mate!
Goes to show what a little knowledge and patience can do. I'm thinking of taking the portable aircon unit apart to see if I can make that any quieter as well.
I'll let you know how it goes!

[LEDDWCRigger]

Thank you very much for that LEDWCRigger mate!
Goes to show what a little knowledge and patience can do. I'm thinking of taking the portable aircon unit apart to see if I can make that any quieter as well.
I'll let you know how it goes!

O-rings and rubber gaskets everywhere. Every screw gets an o-ring on both sides, all the fittings around the compressor get rubber gaskets that make the thing hold still and is braced against the frame/body of the aircon. As long as fan, compressor, and radiator are secure, the only other things that should really make noise are the vent grates and the actual casing itself.

[godzilla]

its turning into a study on acoustic coupling! excellent stuff.. very nice work with the vid DWCRigger!!

[ledbud]

very cool. that what forum is for, to learn and share info.
good work everyone.

[teetee]

Now that the grow is on the go,I thought it was best to document a few changes I made to the set up inside the wardrobe.

In the bottom left on the floor, I placed a 9" fan to help disperse any CO2. I did have a black 'Ram' 6" clip fan, but when the wardrobe doors were closed, I could hear a sound resonating from the unit, I had the 9" Honeywell sitting around, and it's much faster and quieter so I binned the Ram. I got a different brand of 6" clipfan (Growth Technology) for the right side higher up to again disperse CO2 and also to get the seedlings to jiggle a little - no resonance this time.

You will notice the DWC sitting on a thick chunk of foam. I got this 3" thick acoustic foam from The London Cut Foam Co in Clapton (and had it shipped to me, here in Rotterdam), plus a couple more bits for the air pumps and the nutrient chiller. These worked great to eliminate vibrational hum.

I fund that the Ecotechnics fan controller was making the fans run almost non stop. The controller was running the extractor fan between 25 and 100%. I noticed the fan was noisier when running at anything less than 100%, plus the CO2 would have been affected as the system is supposed to stop extracting during CO2 injection. There is a setting in the controller that allows you to make the fan speed variable (as I had originally set it), or you could put it in 'Contactor mode' where the fan either runs at 100% or not at all. This resulted in a quieter fan, being used less frequently, thus utilising and conserving my precious CO2 more effectively.

I noticed the bottom shelf had flexed due to the weight of 60 Litres of water sitting on top of it. Then it occurred to me that I had been kneeling on the shelf as well, one day it's gonna go: RRRIIIPPPPPPP!!!!! (then SPLAAAAASSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!)

During my last nutrient drain and replenish, I took the opportunity to place some bricks under the wardrobe to take the weight.

I lowered the CO2 dispersion loop to seedling level. It seemed pointless having it 36" above the plants. I also raised the CO2 sensor, so that it gives me more of an ambient reading inside the chamber.

One of the T5's wasn't working properly, and was getting in the way of the clip fan on the right side. Plus, even though I could have linked all the T5's together on one plug, in practice I had to split the set up into 2 . Now that I removed the offending T5, I can connect the remaining ones together and re-route the cable to a different socket, effectively freeing up some useful sockets as well.

To increase local humidity for the seedlings, I rolled up some facecloths, and soaked them in water, then arranged them around the seedlings. I replace these twice a day.

Finally, I put a couple of sticky insect traps around to see if there's any bugs lurking.

Thanks for following this thread, as Ledbud pointed out, you're always gonna make changes and fine tune your set up. I hope my wardrobe gives you some pointers to get our own one.

[godzilla]

Looking very nice teetee!
With the base have you supported it underneath at all? wonder if you could wedge a wooden block under there to carry the weight to the floor. dunno if there is room to get your jack under it and take the weight to slide the block under there or something similar.... plank of wood and a beans can see saw to push it up into flat position.. splashy water on that powerblock probably wouldn't be so fun

[teetee]

Hi Godzilla, thanks for the input.
It was the base that was freaking me out more than anything. Usual clearance off 14cm went down to 10cm in the middle!!!
I've got some house bricks under there now, much more stable and the perfect size!!! (didnt need a jack as I did it during a water change)

That power block was a worry, I had the whole thing full at one point, now I have rerouted a lot of the wires etc, everytime I do a change I cover it with a towel, but ultimately I want this in a little tray or on the outside and to the side. Problem is the cables for the water pumps are tiny. This block just serves my Bluelab and the 2 DWC pumps.

Haave a great day mate!