feck feck feck!
when i ordered the budbox 100cm x 100cm x 180cm- i did so because i looked at the measurements wrong. (click pics in link) 424 dimensions
Ok maybe im an idiot and i should have looked closer but how stupid is it to advertise the length of the bottom of the tank i mean c'mon why wouldnt you state the longest part of the tank (the top end) as the length dimension?

Anyway my real problem now is that i have a 100cm x 100cm x 180cm tent on the way....... and (at the longest point) a 112cm Nft 424 growtank.

So my question is..... has anyone here managed to get one of these particular tanks in a 100cm square tent? or am i fecked?

Hello,

Give Greens a call in the morning dude, There pretty cool ...

Mrm

Should have ordered a T.A.R.D.I.S.

Greens will swap it for you if its still pakaged up and that, its same as anything you can always return it.

I am truly fecked then. the reason i got that tent was due to the height restriction in the loft - 1.8m tall was perfect

No one does a 1.2m Squared tent at 1.8m tall.

what have i done i hate myself, no amount of smoke will ease this pain.......ever

Could i get a 1.2m x 1.2m x 2m tall one and cut it to 1.8m tall?

Will it fit diagonally?

Are you high? ....or am i?

EDIT: Can the resident math genius work out the dimensions for me? do we have a resident math genius on 420?

You will have a saggy roofed tent but it can be done but it will look UGLY

Maybe i will do that then?
anyone ever done it before that you know of?

Why not just send back the hydro set and change it for a smaller one???

No one I know has ever done it but I have a 1.2 budbox and it could deffo be done by just cutting the 4 x 2 mtr poles down, but it will look like Nora Battys tights .

There's a DR120W that measures 120w x 65d x 160h

Greens don't list them but they can get them

Im Greedy i like the sound of cutting a 1.2m down in height, feck what it looks like as long as it works eh?

My 1 metre square tray only just fits in... no chance of getting anything bigger in.. well I wouldnt want to try anyway



Why not just send it back and get a square garland tray, some square pots, some nice muck and some organic feeds and just jack in all that hydro lark?

don't panic mate, most suppliers will sort out any returns you want to make and greens are particularly ace. Just don't do anything rash with tent poles and hacksaws until you have had a think about it

I was always kinda turned on by Nora Batty
I think this is what has to be done - in my heart it feels right.

(spam removed) £145 hmmm.....but i can get the budbox 200cm for about £105 same as the 180cm one.
Thanks for the info dood but its a no brainer for me really

@ Mr Sparkle
Im pretty handy with a hacksaw and i can cut it at "roughly" 188cm tall as the height restriction is actually 192cm to the rafters
as long as it wont affect the grow then whats the harm? or will it affect the grow/intake/filter?

If you are in the attic then you can make a room using that silvered bubble wrap insulation, foil tape, a staple gun and a craft knife. You staple the end of the roll to a rafter and pull tight to the floor and staple in place, then you overlap the next sheet and carry on until you have 3 walls where you want them. You then tape up the overlaps on both sides. The door can be as basic as the same stuff overlapped with some sticky back velcro but I used a couple of old wardrobe doors trimmed to fit with draft excluder for light leaks on 2x2 nailed floor to rafter...... cut your venting in later.... insulated, very reflective grow room in an hour or 2

Even with the budbox 1.8 theres no way you will get 5" (150mm) duct to extract out the top you would have to go out of the side like I had to (acoustic ducting is even fatter due to the insulation).

With the budbox 200 cut to 188cm you will have even less clearance ( though you can extract out of the side (cooltube type) vents still...

...However you'll have the bagginess to take into account and that might make getting at those side ports more difficult, I don't know


Theres no way I would spend that kind of money and then hack it up

Why has it got to be that particular hydro unit? Are there no other options to maximise the potential your grow space?

like:

Build a custom box/drobe...

downsize the hydro unit to fit the 1.8 tent (can you fit more than one tent up there eventually?)...

Insulate the loft, it'll save you money in the long run and be better for security and your plants...

Go compost at least for first run, it'll be cheaper and more forgiving while you improve the growing area...


none of my business really, sorry but I would hate to read that your res tank had frozen solid over winter or your nora batty tent had fallen on your light and burned a hole in your roof

Personally I'm not satisfied with 6 plants in a tent and a keter garden tidy converted into a veg box. I want a Leepy'esque bunker, but that's way down the road. For now I'll have to settle for (hopefully) growing enough good organic weed to keep me from the dealer

hope you find a way

When I started I used a budbox tent.I had too cut the frame down a bit as I had a rsj beam running thru the room the tent was not a taught as it should have been but worked fine dude.420

Pheew i was starting to think it wasnt such a good idea. i can do this

i would not cut the tent if i were you, you might get a whole load of problems.

ask for an exchange, if ya cant get one, sell the tent and buy the right size

Thats the thing logik there is no right size mate

out of these which should i get?
Visit My Website

example 2

id imagine the top one?

Hmm, got the skills to build a room ?

Tbh i do have the skills yes but not the tools im afraid....and i already have a 5" rhino pro filter that i got for the tent. i just dunno anymore tbh

any advice for the insulation links ? which one?

If you can't exchange the hydro tank or tent, you could probably cut away a couple of inches of plastic standing out and trim it with a file, not to have sharp edges or cover the cut edges with tape. then try to make it fit into tent. It will make your walls stick out, but it might fit.

AT

well its 112 in length and i could cut off the edges of the tank completley flush.... but the res tray still needs to hang over that so i could cut that down to half an inch each side which would leave me with a total length of..............?........ answers on a postcard pleeeasse.............its still way too wide - 109cm? the tents dont have that much give do they?

Nonsense

A hammer
A hand saw
A ruler
A pen
Some Paper
Some nails
Some tape

maybe some more.

dont know if this will be any help drew it just now dont know if my idea allows zips though i would try this if i was in that possition





Click to view attachment


ollie

Because you said you will only have 4-12cm clearance above the tent depending on if you get 1.8 m or chop one down to 1.88m. you have 15cm dia duct (more if you chose acoustic duct) so you will have to crush it to get it in and it will reduce airflow, but to be honest I don't think it will fit, certainly not in a 4cm gap
The side ports are meant for aircooled lamp setups I think but I use one of them as the extract in mine as I have the same headroom issue as you.




You can still send it back if it's not used, and if it doesn't fit it's useless to you



Good move your plants will thank you and it'll save you a fortune in res and air heating



that sounds wank to me. My tent is tight as it can be and has extra base support from the snug fitting garland tray (highly recommend one anyway just for floor protection, spills etc) and I would still rather it was more stable, and I don't even have a fan or filter mounted in the top which a lot of people do



Well I sincerely hope it doesnt all 'feck up' but I do reckon you should measure up your area again, maybe smoke a bifta and have a bit of a planning session. I spent a couple of months planning up and pricing various designs before I set up. Even with a bit of previous experience I still managed to overlook some things and therefore I'm still hemorrhaging money into my hobby to smooth out problems and iron out creases. I would hate to see you fork out all this money then spend the next few months chasing developing problems

ok ok... if it works ill get the dr120w tent - please tell me that will be ok with a 5" 125 A1 RVK fan and rhino pro filter? head space of 192cm... please... i really dont wanna build a box up there

At 200cm tall that tent is still way too tall mate. Unless your determined to cut it down to size If you have the skills, and the transport to get the materials/tools and a big enough loft access to get stuff up there.... I would build a box. You can probably save money and make something much better for your space

Oh yeah one thing that concerns me about cutting them down to size... the tent relies to some degree on the taughtness of the tent to hold the frame tightly in place. Is there perhaps a risk of it working loose if the fabric isn't tight? I have heard of horror stories where they have collapsed (not from cutting to size, but for e.g. if a corner piece breaks)

Personally I would be going for the budbox 180 or building a nice sturdy custom box up there and I would be looking to make the actual growing as uncomplicated as possible. Are you a confident hydro grower? If yes then no problem, but if this is your first grow maybe you should think about not having all your eggs in one basket? If something goes wrong in this hydro unit you risk damaging all your plants If though, you bought say 2 smaller hydro units (maybe they would fit better in the tents have you looked into it? I had a quick peek at greens, surely 2 x GT205i tanks would fit in a budbox180?) or put say 6-12 plants (depending on tent and pot size) in compost then you have a bit of insurance. If you have problems you are less likely to lose the whole crop.

Plus you need to be able to tend to your plants. It sounds to me like I have a tiny bit more space but I still wouldn't consider a 1 pot or hydro unit as I like to be able to get my plants out and train them, prune them, spray them etc.

Sorry I'm being really opinionated of course you must do what you think is best for you. I just want to save you making the same mistakes I made

hope you get it sorted soon, I can tell your keen to get growing

@mr sparkle

the DR120W measures 120w x 65d x 160h that will fit my tank and in the loft no probs - What say you

dont be silly and get the kingspan out much better than any tent there not ment for lofts !

ooo it's 160cm high? how much is that badboy? I reckon I could fit one of them, but I think I ruled out the 65cm deep tents because of me being OCD about trays and pots fitting nicely

anyway sounds much better, you will be able to extract out of the top of that dunno if your extraction requirement changes though, davii is the man to ask



Yeah I still think thats the best idea, if you have the skills. It'll probably work out cheaper, better security and you can make a custom solution for your loft I am only chuffed with my tent because I am useless at DIY and don't have transport to get all the timber, boards and insulation I'd require (didn't have the capital to lay out on a proper job at the time either). The tent was a compromise, one day I want solid concrete

right im gonna get the hammer and nails out and build a box up there.

obviously ill have to build it so that the filter does its job properly, what kind of dimensions would i be looking at?
1.5m long x 1m wide x 1.7m high will that be ok for the fan? (RVK 125 E2-A1 with a rhino pro filter)


Thanks people of 420 im sorry for being a pain in the arse

You need to think about Fans, space and light all at the same time.

You've got a 400watter is that right?

Rule of thumb for HPS light is that good coverage is about 50w per square foot (although peeps get away with a range of 37.5 - 70ish). So a 400w HPS should provide good coverage for about 8ft² of grow space. To make the maths a bit easier we'll round that up to 9ft². So ideally your growing area wants to be around 3' x 3' or 90cm x 90xm and as tall as you can go.

If you make it much bigger and fill it all with plants a lot of those plants will not be getting enough light. But you could build it bigger and only fill part of it with plants and think about a lighting upgrade at a later date. You are gonna need to make it big enough to get your hydro gear in anyway. For future reference a 600w can cover upto 1.2m x 1.2m comfortably.

Fan wise for the size spaces we are talking about we are concerned with having enough airflow to keep the plants supplied with CO², but also enough to deal with the heat gain from the lights. In general a fan that gives enough flow to deal with the heatgain will be giving more than enough flow to give plenty of CO², so it's heatgain we are worried about.

This is were it gets complicated because the flow rate you need depends on your intake temps, and the flow rate you get is not what is on the fan specs but is affected by resistance from the ducting, the carbon filter etc. So your fan connected to a carbon filter and a metre of duct may provide twice as much airflow as the same fan attached to a filter and 4 metres of ducting with 2 90^o bends.

So again we can only give you rules of thumb that generally provide for a little too much ventilation as too much is better than not enough.

In general for a 400w light a 125mm High Power extract fan should suffice winter and summer. You've got the low power version so are a bit undervented in my opinion and may struggle in warmer weather or if intake temps are high. You'll also struggle if you are planning on miles of ducting. It will work though.

You'd be better with the 125mm L1 model, or if you are thinking about a 600w light at any point a 150mm L1.

Your current fan would make a good active intake coupled with a 150mm L1 extract. Have you decided whether you need active intake or not yet?

Good luck with the build - it is worth taking a step back and getting this right from the start otherwise you'll be spending money like water on future upgrades.

Right i had a measure up today and the biggest i can do is..... 130cm Long x 120cm wide x 180cm tall...and thats what im going to do
now..what do i need im guessing some.....
2x2 for the frame?
kingspan? (where do i get this stuff from)
silicone?
How much would a box that size cost with these materials?

Tools wise i have
a jigsaw
a hammer
a handsaw
a drill.

is it better to build a wooden box and then line it with kingspan? or is kingspan satisfactory?

As you can imagine the loft roof is slanted (like most) the measurement of 180cm tall i gave you was for the top corners/sides of the box (hitting the rafters at 192cm) but if i wanted i could slant the roof of the box (like the loft roof) which would give me maybe another 60/70cm meaning the light could go a little higher in the box maybe?

If you look back up your thread I posted a simple way using the flexible sheeting in a roll you can get from B&Q. This stuff is bubble wrap with a reflective coating on both sides and it's piss easy to build a room with you will need a stapler but their budget one is less than a fiver. You just staple to the roof rafters, stretch to the floor & staple, cut the sheet and staple up the next one

There are pics of mine Here

im going to use that stuff only £20 a roll and its a bogof deal in b&q at the moment

will certainly be cheaper than ply or kingspan....

thanks 4 the idea billious

@Billiuos
I looked at the pics of your grow but mines not going to be quite the same as yours mate, my one would have walls of equal height and a slanted/peaked roof parralel to the peaked rafters
sorry bout the paint skills but thats what i have in mind (and i'd rather have kingspan and a solid wooden frame)Click to view attachment

Cool, good luck with the grow....... the shape of mine is just because of limited space but the shape of the space above the reflector doesn't really matter

Looking good Shamo nearly same dimensions as my previous mother/veg area except I didn't slope the 'front' down I kept it going up following the roof line so I had a bit more space in it.. gave me somewhere to hang the CF but my loft wasn't as tall as yours.

What you planned looks good though. personally I would want it as solid as possible, if I could afford it it would be timber framed, covered in board and insulated too. I swear one day I'll lose my balance and fall against my tent and destroy everything .

don't forget to plan what you will do with the internal space too mate and make sure you think about intake and extract holes, cable ports and where you electrics etc will go. It'll be a bit of an arse assembling it up there so you don't want to forget the duct holes


cant wait to see it all up and running

right chaps im off up the loft today to get some floor down on the joists in and around where the box will be built if i can find some 2 x 2 up there ill knock up the bottom of the frame too - wish me luck

Cheers mate, yeah ill deffo be making a timber framed wooden box and insulating the inside with some kingspan, i was thinking something like this with the filter and building the rest around it (intakes/where the plugs etc will go)
if i could just pick your brains as to what /where i would place these vital parts?

just so you know the dimensions are for the outside of the box (i will lose some space after lining in with kingspan) what is the thinnest kingspan i can get that will still fully insulate the box?
ta fella....Shamo

Click to view attachment

Right I'm no expert, total DIY numpty in fact but make sure the floor up there is load-bearing. That res tank full of water + plants is going to be heavy. My mate wouldn't let me start my last loft grow till we had reinforced the floor so it wasnt resting on the ceiling above didn't want it all coming through the ceiling into the bedroom below


Now the fun part, and again I'm no expert I'm just regurgitating (hopefully accurately ) what I've read on the forums myself.

I take it you are going with the passive intake idea at least at first as theres no intake fan in your design. So... you want the extraction duct hole somewhere in the upper part of the box like in your plan. Your passives ideally want to be in the lower part of the box (round the sides/back) so incoming air can pass the plants before being heated, rising up and being extracted.

I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm not going to even try the maths as I'm a total dunce at that sort of thing but for passives to be effective I think they need to be 5-7 times the area of the extract So for a 5" extract I think you need to calculate the surface area of the duct and multiply that by at least 5 and that's the size your passives need to be

The budbox tents have two large rectangular passives at the lower sides.

You also need to figure in things like particle/pest filter on the passives so beasts cant get in and how that will reduce airflow, and depending on light pollution outside the box you might need to design in light baffles

Maybe someone has a few of the links to relevant posts/topics to hand? I've got to go out but I'll try sort out a few links later if noone else does

happy building

ive read i can use stockings/tights on my passive intakes to stop pests getting in? and its completley dark in the loft - no windows so no worries with light

about the floor....i have some pond lining that i was going to water proof the box with...would i build the box then line it with this? or do it another way?
how do you mean reinforce the floor?
at the moment there is no floor as such... just joists and lots of flat boards i was gonna cut to size and screw down to the joists? this will be fine im sure?

i will deffo need some help doing the math with the size of my intakes...maybe ill build the box and then work that out.....my head hurts

cheers mate

Passive intakes - The Maths.........

5 inch round extract hole - 5xsurface area = 5x_piR² = 5x3.14x2.5x2.5 = 98inch²

Can be achieved by:

one 10inch x 10inch square vent or;
two 7inch x 7inch square vents or;
four 5inch x 5inch square vents.

My preference on floor splash proofing is to use garland trays as they are heavy duty, and I do a lot of pot shuffling

Though I have made a timber square before, laid it down and 'lined' it, and also lined rooms before. Never used pondliner but it's pretty good stuff. the heavier duty the better, I used that thick blue stuff you get on building sites and then covered that in white plastic sheet. Seeing as your hydro you wont be moving stuff around so much so it doesnt have to be as rip proof I wouldnt think


As for the strength of the floor, resting on joists of the ceiling below isn't good practice, but your roof might be strong enough. Mine wasnt it was cheap and nasty, plus I wanted to spend a lot of time in there comfortaby (failed like... ow my back ) Also I had a dozen in 11 litre pots, half a dozen in big 15 litre pots for an experiment... the up coming dozen in 6 litre pots in veg and then my mother/clone cab plus a couple of water 'bins' for all the water I had standing.. was a lot of weight

for intakes: on my veg box I used a circle cutter to cut a 5" extract then just went round the base of the sides and back and cut to holes in each so my passive is 6 times the extract and I got some cooker hood filter stuff from the pound shop

Today ive laid down enough "boards" (various bits of old wardrobe/some MDF) to walk around up there and i now have enough floorspace to measure the bottom of my growroom frame...
Click to view attachment

Tomorrow i will lay a few more boards down and then crack on with getting some framework screwed down to the floor
as i said before.. i have some nice thick pond lining handy and will use it to waterproof my box to about a foot deep...

but i have a few questions before i can do any of that..

Waterproofing the box -
Do i line the box with the pond lining after i have completley made and insulated the box or before/during the making of the box?

Timber -
Should i use 2x2 or 2x4 for the framework of the box?
What type of timber should i use for the box walls? How thick should it be?

Kingspan -
How is it Attatched/Lined to the inside of the timber box i am making? Glue/Screws/Nails?
Whats the minimum thickness i need to keep it 100% Heatproof/Stealth?
Is Kingspan completley lightproof? with timber covering it aswell?

After the box is made
Will i still need to use mylar to cover the walls and roof?
Will the box be 100% light and heatproof? even without an insulated loft? with a 400w? ie Choppers Coppers?

I could a with a list of silicone and silver tapes and whatever else i need because as soon as i know what i need ill be down the shops

Cheers 420 for all the advice so far....now i am finally happy that what im going to do is both safe for the family and stealthy at the same time.

Hi m8,
I built a big ish (1.5m deep x 3m wide apex at about 8ft) room 2 ft from the gable end of my loft and then built a simple frame tent inside using mylar to house the grow, my advice is:

Build an outer room as big as poss first and seal it up (I used fiberboard, gaffer tape, silicone sealer and expanding foam ) - this will keep the room clean and bug free. Then build an inner frame to hang the lights, filter and mylar.

I only used loft insulation between the roof and the fibreboards I screwed up to the rafters make the grow room, didn't bother anywhere else.

I made the floor with loftboards and the centre of the room is over a wall.

I lined the room floor with heavy pondliner and the inner frame tent has some also, crucial for when you spill water, acid and nutes and easy to clean out between grows.

Hang filter and fans using bungee from B+Q it really helps reduce vibration noise

I have a thick bathroom towel between the grow tank and the floor which helps absorb vibration from pumps in the nute tank.

Use sonoduct where possible that helps keep noise down.

A cool tube and rvk fan for the summer

A small oil filled radiator for winter

Have fun dude, a DIY loftspace is better and cheaper than a tent imho as it's easier to controll the heat using a room with a simple inner tent.

Loftmonkey