ASSISTANCE needed greatly in 400 watt hps grow cabinet RIU please help

i purchased a cabinet from lowes with the dimension of 36 inches wide, 2 feet deep, and about 79 inches tall, although there is a built in shelf so my usable heighth is about 4.5 feet....

my current venting is 2- 85cfm computer fans down low on the right bringing fresh air inin a home made light trap box that lets air freely in/out but no light as u can see in the pic and two of the same light traps up high on the left with the same 2- 85 cfm pc fans exhausting air out...

at first i was running some home made 6500k cfl lights under a home made hood and i was at a steady 79 degrees with good humidity for the clones (skywalker OG,blue venom,diablo OG,and grape romulon) the hood was right up on them and they were vegging slow but healthy, i ordered a 400 watt hps ballast combo kit from HTG supply (awesome company) and when it arrived and i hooked it up the humidty plummeted to 16% ish and the temps skyrocketed to 96-100degrees Farenheit.... i had a small fan in there at first blowing up toward the open hood (no glass plate or cool tube) but it seemed to just be blowing hot air around in circles and making it worse...so i took out the fan and put in a relion cool mist humidifier since the plants already flutter in the wind with the two small PC fans blowing on them, thinking this would cool temp and add humidity but it seems like the heat off that bulb is a monster that eats humidity like its goin out of style and raises temps even faster, the humidifier didnt really help and the ballast is located OUTSIDE the cabinet


now the plants have seemed to slow down growth and stall out a little bit, the only stress the plants are showing are super slight curling of just a couple fan leaves due to heat stress i would imagine...right now im vegging 24/7...i also have a MH conversion bulb that will be here in 2 days and ill switch out the HPS bulb when it gets here...


so my next plan of attack is purchasing a 6" 160 CFM in-line duct fan from home depot.com and cutting a 6" hole out of the middle of the permanent shelf inside the cabinet itself and securing the in line fan in the hole drawing straight up and out and running duct to another 6" in hole im gonna cut out at the top to just exhaust it out back into the garage which stays relatively cool all the time....

so will this finally solve my problem?????...what am i missing here???????so will i need to run additional ducting to bring the duct in closer proximity to the hood itself to draw the heat out more or will the heat rise on its own???????


money is sort of an issue or else i would have just purchased the cool tube from the beginning... can u experienced growers PLEASE help me out....


legal personal medical grow

your plants will curl if u run a fan directly on them ,you want to aim them above the plants..also you have to pull in fresh cool air in and out..from another room,attic or outside ..when it gets warm enuf outside use an A/C..incomming air thru the bottom/out going thru the top..

thanks kepitgrn, i already kinda have that part figured out tho my man, the two light trap boxes are pulling in cold fresh air in down low in the cabinet 24/7 and the two light trap boxes are taking out used hot air out 24/7...i just dont think im moving enuff, but im not sure...

You just need a decent fan to pull the hot air out from the top near your bulb if your thinking of pulling it out from the shelf up their it won't work, it need's do be fairly close to the bulb and not have the shelf blocking it. Also you shouldn't waste your time with the MH just keep that hps in and when your temps are dialed in they will explode.

dude i had basicaly the same cabinet and ill tell u my biggest problem was heat. i got so sick of it i took the door off and had 2 fans 6 inch blowin air out and 2 6 inch fans blowing in good luck

i though about using some kinda thin fabric so air could come in (if u deside to take the doors off)

man, its real cool that all u guys are all down to help, cool people man, i tell ya...dnkfrmthesoil- im not gonna pull air from the shelf, im gonna cut a circle hole IN the shelf, mount the 160 cfm exhause fan in the hole and duct it completely out the cabinet, furthermore, im gonna run an addition foot or two of duct in the actual grow area that will go from the intake of the exhaust fan to somewhere near the hood to draw in the hot air...
lillap[elle,- i cant take the door off big homie, its in the garage and it looks like world war 3 in the cabinet with lights on, lol...