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Old 06-04-2009, 11:04 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
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Originally Posted by Liketogrow21 View Post
Hey all. I have done all the research I possibly could. I think I found the best grow box available online. Has anyone used this system?
Hydroponics Grow Box

I see it has won many awards and the guy on the phone told me its their best selling system.

Also, this file cabinet thing looks freaking awesome, I just can't use it since I need at least 24 plants. I'm thinking of buying it for personal use.

Cabinet Grow Box

Any input would be appreciated. I'm going to take the plunge on Friday and would appreciate feedback.
I would say at $2,400 for the "Cabinet Grow Box" and $1,500 for the "Hydroponics Grow Box" they are a waist of money, even if they work just fine. I can't think of a reason you would need to conceal what you are growing unless you are growing pot. If that is what you wanted it for, they are still a waist of money at those prices. You can build a very similar system's for less than half the price. Also from years ago when I grew pot (not hydroponically), I know to get much bud out of the plant you will need more growing space, unless your goal is a bonsai pot plant. I used a 5 gallon bucket's with potting soil and Miracle-Gro. I had plants that were 5 foot tall and 5 foot wide. The bud had so many crystals that it was so sticky you needed manicuring scissors to break it up. The secret is in the seeds you start with and how you manicure the plant (but that's another story.)

You can get just about everything you need from Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart to build the system. A few things from the hydro store and and then just some time and effort to put it together.

Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart
Cabinet........................................... ............$200
2 exhaust fan's............................................. .$40
exhaust ducting........................................... ..$20
plastic growing containers and nutrient tank........$50
vinyl tubing............................................ .......$15
pump.............................................. .............$40
Pump timer............................................. .......$15
Light timer............................................. ........$15
Various conecters, through holes, o rings,
tubing connectors and things............................$80

Hydro store
grow lights............................................ .......$300
Nutradip Tri-Meter (TDS/pH/temp)....................$200
pH up................................................ ..........$8
pH down.............................................. ........$8
.................................................. ...............Total.......$991

nutrients. ......(price depends on the ones you choose)
growing medium....(price Depends on what you choose)


That's about a $1,400 savings, not to mention the cost of shipping something that size and weight. These prices are just approximate but a good representation of the cost's involved in building your own Cabinet system (depending on how you customize it). You will probably be able to find grow lights for that small of an area much cheaper. The "Tri-Meter" is not completely necessary but a good idea to have to be able to keep track of your nutrient's with, and again you can probably find cheaper on sale. You can probably find a thin metal storage cabinet like the one in the picture for around $100 or less at Wal-mart also. The system for the file cabinet would be built similar, but would require smaller lights, growing containers and nutrient tank because of the size of the file cabinet. Also you can get a new file cabinet from Wal-Mart that you can modify for about $50 to $80. So you could probably build the file cabinet one for about $500-$700. I have a weather station with a remote senor (made by "ACU-RITE") that I got at Wal-Mart for $30 that gives me temp and humidity for both indoor and outdoor. You can put the remote senor in the cabinet to keep track of the Air temp and humidity in the cabinet, some models have a warning that goes off if the readings go past a pre set level.

Witch ever you choose to do build your own or buy a pre built cabinet system, you should keep in mind the size of the plants that you want to grow (as if we didn't know) and the size of the actual growing space you will have within the cabinet to grow it. I am sure you would hate to spend the money just to find out that it is too small for your plants.

Last edited by GpsFrontier; 06-06-2009 at 04:55 PM.
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