Help pls I need a final decision for my first grow room!!

J

jusanothertoker

Active Member
Ok, I have been spending some time and trying to get the most out of my grow room...The only thing that I can't change is my room size a 2x4x5 tent. The rest I am having problems deciding on. I don't want to waste my money and I want to get the most out of this tent without problems like overheating by trying to do to much with a small space and wasting my money. So I am coming to you guys to put the pieces together.

Lights 3 choices are:
-Dual 400W air cooled (800W total)
-600W air cooled
-400W air cooled

Fan & Filter choices:
-4" LUMA inline fan (190 CFM) and 4" carbon filter
-6" inline fan (440 CFM) and 6" carbon filter
I will be hooking up both the filter and light up to just one fan. I will have a couple fans on the inside as well for air movement,but I just want to invest in one inline fan at this point. If someone thinks that I should use a intake fan, then I am open to that, but I would like to just use passive intake if possible.

I am planning on having 4-6 plants and using a DWC system. Its my first grow and DWC seems like a good 1st choice and then I can change later as I get better.

I guess I could also be open to going up to 8 plants but it seems to me like it would be to crowded to do 8. Thx all for your help. 1st grow and I can't wait!
 
E

eboostedg

Member
i was about to say the same thing, go for 600w and go with the 6" filter and fans, get a real fan not that duct fan my temps are a bit high because they dont seem to work well with hid+tent
 
J

jusanothertoker

Active Member
eboostedg said:
i was about to say the same thing, go for 600w and go with the 6" filter and fans, get a real fan not that duct fan my temps are a bit high because they dont seem to work well with hid+tent
Click to expand...
By real fan do you have a suggestion? Is it still an inline fan used for the exhaust? Thx for the reply
 
J

jusanothertoker

Active Member
reverof said:
As far as lighting goes... Go with a single 600w on a light rail, better than 2 400w.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to stay in budget, same reason I am really set on 1 inline fan but never thought about the rail though! I would def. be down to get a rail on a grow down the road tho! Thx for the suggestion.
 
dadio161

dadio161

Well-Known Member
thats what I was thinking too . lol . There is only room for one light.
I think you should check out the grow journal section for a while for pointers. Also Grow room design and set up section too.
 
D

Distiller

Active Member
definitely only one light. it's a toss up for 400 or 600. I'd go for a conversion fixture so you can switch from a metal halide in veg to hps in flower and get the best of both worlds. If you think you can vent your hot air, i'd go with 600 personally.

I think a passive intake will be just fine for your space, and dwc is an easy set and forget style of growing, just make sure you don't have any light on your water! Algae and microbial bacteria will ruin a new grower's day.
 
cowell

cowell

Well-Known Member
I'd vote for the 400 as adequate.
600 is overkill on 8 square feet @ 75 watts per square... no need for it.
For the fan.. are you talking one of those 6" inline vent booster fans?
I use them to cool my 1000 watt lights.. they work really well. but I would double check your CFM on it.. I don't think they are that powerful are they?
DWC is really easy - hard to screw it up if you don't mess wit hit too much ;)
As far as your number of plants..you sound like you have it right. Generally indoors you want at least 1 square foot of floor space per plant.
Under a 400 watt you are going to likely want to keep your plants short, so start flowering them at 8".. should finish at about 2 1/2 feet. I would say 6.. but you could get 8 in there without much over crowding.
Just my 2 cents.. but you sound like you've done some good research so far. You'll love DWC.. you'll wonder why people have problems growing pot on here.
 
zvuv

zvuv

Active Member
A 600W covers a 12 sq ft area. Your tent, if I understand the dimensions, has 8 sq ft of floor space which is better matched to a 400w bulb. I suppose the extra light is not a problem but you will have significantly more heat to deal with.

My closet is 7' high by 3'x6'. I run a 600W HPS in an air cooled hood, with 4" ducting and a 4" inline vortex fan. This cools the lamp hood to the point where it is lukewarm to the touch. In the summer I still need AC. When the ambient temp is 85deg no amount of air cooling is going to bring the temp down to 65F.

So thats 600W in 126 cu ft. You have 2x4x5=40cu ft, one third the volume of air (compared to my closet) to absorb all the excess heat. If the fan fails, a vent gets blocked or somesuch, that small vol of air will heat up very fast. You will have less time to notice it and intervene.

Are you growing to sell or just for personal use? If it's just for you and perhaps some people very close to you, do you really need to extract the maximum possible yield from your setup? Perhaps ease of maintenance and a more relaxed setup is worth something too? It takes months to grow a crop. Do you want to be under a lot of pressure the whole time? Perhaps you do. Everyone has his own style and his own goals. Just something to think about.

There is a lot of emphasis on yield in the mj growing forum. For the sellers this makes sense, but for the guys who are growing with 400+W lamps just for personal use I suggest it's not the most important thing. Variety of strains, quality of high and enjoying the grow rather than being on a treadmill all count for something too. Of course, if you feel competitive and you want to bust gram per watt records, then that's what you want to do. Otherwise, there's a balance of factors to consider.
 
J

jusanothertoker

Active Member
cowell said:
I'd vote for the 400 as adequate.
600 is overkill on 8 square feet @ 75 watts per square... no need for it.
For the fan.. are you talking one of those 6" inline vent booster fans?
I use them to cool my 1000 watt lights.. they work really well. but I would double check your CFM on it.. I don't think they are that powerful are they?
DWC is really easy - hard to screw it up if you don't mess wit hit too much ;)
As far as your number of plants..you sound like you have it right. Generally indoors you want at least 1 square foot of floor space per plant.
Under a 400 watt you are going to likely want to keep your plants short, so start flowering them at 8".. should finish at about 2 1/2 feet. I would say 6.. but you could get 8 in there without much over crowding.
Just my 2 cents.. but you sound like you've done some good research so far. You'll love DWC.. you'll wonder why people have problems growing pot on here.
Click to expand...
Thx for the help! Not sure if I'm looking at a booster fan. It didn't say it was so I am assuming not. Its just an inline fan off of ebay coming with the filter and the CFM said in the first quote is what it says on ebay (lol doesn't mean thats right but thats what it says)
 
cowell

cowell

Well-Known Member
jusanothertoker said:
Thx for the help! Not sure if I'm looking at a booster fan. It didn't say it was so I am assuming not. Its just an inline fan off of ebay coming with the filter and the CFM said in the first quote is what it says on ebay (lol doesn't mean thats right but thats what it says)
Click to expand...
Ok, then.. inline fans are inline fans, but I hear lots of people say "in-line fans" and mean "inline vent booster fans"... I use a 4" vortex inline on my scrubber. If you are cooling your light too, it never hurts to have a bigger fan.. stay with the 6".. you'll get better air exchanges, and heat shouldn't be that much of an issue for you either. If the CFM is right.. it's a good fan.
 
J

jusanothertoker

Active Member
zvuv said:
A 600W covers a 12 sq ft area. Your tent, if I understand the dimensions, has 8 sq ft of floor space which is better matched to a 400w bulb. I suppose the extra light is not a problem but you will have significantly more heat to deal with.

My closet is 7' high by 3'x6'. I run a 600W HPS in an air cooled hood, with 4" ducting and a 4" inline vortex fan. This cools the lamp hood to the point where it is lukewarm to the touch. In the summer I still need AC. When the ambient temp is 85deg no amount of air cooling is going to bring the temp down to 65F.

So thats 600W in 126 cu ft. You have 2x4x5=40cu ft, one third the volume of air (compared to my closet) to absorb all the excess heat. If the fan fails, a vent gets blocked or somesuch, that small vol of air will heat up very fast. You will have less time to notice it and intervene.

Are you growing to sell or just for personal use? If it's just for you and perhaps some people very close to you, do you really need to extract the maximum possible yield from your setup? Perhaps ease of maintenance and a more relaxed setup is worth something too? It takes months to grow a crop. Do you want to be under a lot of pressure the whole time? Perhaps you do. Everyone has his own style and his own goals. Just something to think about.

There is a lot of emphasis on yield in the mj growing forum. For the sellers this makes sense, but for the guys who are growing with 400+W lamps just for personal use I suggest it's not the most important thing. Variety of strains, quality of high and enjoying the grow rather than being on a treadmill all count for something too. Of course, if you feel competitive and you want to bust gram
per watt records, then that's what you want to do. Otherwise, there's a balance of factors to consider.
Click to expand...
Wow thx! this is why I love this sight...started off knowing very little except how to smoke :) and everyone here has been so helpful. I don't feel as lost anymore tyvm for the time to help a newbie!

I will be using just for me and my wife we have been smokin for some yrs so we go through about .5oz/week but thats crappy weed, but its in the budget right now, hence wanting to grow some good bud of my own a lot cheaper with much better smoke. So I figure in a 4mo grow if I could get a half pound I would be happy! So I'm not trying to go crazy, but I figured since I'm doing it I want to do my grow most efficient as possible with a nice smooth (as possible) grow.

I just am trying get this going right the first time without making the newbie mistakes. So I want to make sure to learn first and grow next, but I think I'm ready to take the adventure on I can't wait!

A more eased and relax set-up for sure. With the 400W you think I can get away with the 4" fan and filter? Still air cool the light?
 
zvuv

zvuv

Active Member
I use a 4" inline 200cfm vortex fan (yes this is more than than a duct booster fan) with a 600W in an aircooled hood. I find it enough, could be a bit better. I am switching to a cool tube which are said to be much more efficient.

IMO a 4" duct would be a very good match for a 400W in a cool tube. You got to think about the environment the tent is in. If it is in a airconditioned room then you just need to pull in the cool room air. My closet is in an uncooled room. Temps can rise to 90+F in the summer. AC is the only solution for me.

Portable AC units are very easy to set up BUT. They are about 4x as expensive as window units. From what I read here they don't work very well at all. And finally, you dont have much floor space as it is. Modifiying a $99 window AC unit to work in an enclosed area is not very difficult if you are into that kind of thing. It's a bit of work but not a challenge.

If you have a veg cab (dont need much space) and use your tent only for flowering, you can get a harvest every two months or less if you start with clones. A 400W metal halide typicaly makes 8oz -16oz of kickass weed. You can almost bank on 6 oz even if things go a bit wrong.

Do some searches on RIU threads for 400W tent grows to see how people handle it. RIU search is a PITA. use google and put 'rollitup' in front of your search terms.

If you are in a hurry check out autoflower strains. Some finish in 60days from seed! I just harvested a Greenomatic autoflower. It came in at 60vdays from seed and made some terrific dope.

Good luck man.
 
J

jusanothertoker

Active Member
I'm not in a big hurry, but if I can get some bubblelicious smoke in 60 days then that sounds good to me! I just the feminized auto flowering out and think I will give those a try. Am I missing something? Are the autoflowers not as good or what? If I can harvest in 60 days, why would i wait 4 mo?

I think I'm gonna go with the 400W kit...upgrade to the air cooled hood....order some autoflowers and then start my journal! Also, yeah its just in my closet so I have AC outside the tent. Thx for the help bro!
 
zvuv

zvuv

Active Member
Autos are an evolving strain of mj. The ancestor auto was Lowryder. It grew low, very fast and flowered automaticaly - doesn't need 12/12 to trigger flowering. It was considered crappy dope. HS kids grew it under their beds because it was small fast and easy. Since then there's been a lot of breeding and autos have come a long way. They still don't have the same respect as photoperiod plants but that's changing. I was amazed at the Greenomatic I just cut. I will grow that again.

There isn't as much variety with auto strains as with photos . Some of the strains are very flaky. You can't clone them. They tend to give modest yields. Some autos are not fast finishers.

I like to grow two or three strains at the same time. A couple of each. Nice thing about autos is you can put them in the cab with other plants whether those plants are vegging or flowering. The auto will just do its thing
 
J

jusanothertoker

Active Member
what kind of nutes and schedule do you use? One thing I haven't done to much research on yet

Do the autos do 1mo under the veg light and 1mo under flowering light?
 
zvuv

zvuv

Active Member
The GMatics showed sex at two weeks and were seriously setting buds at 4 weeks, finished in 9 or ten. Autos use regular veg and flower nutes. Autos decide when they start flowering. You have no control. Typically they are run 20/4 or 18/6 light/dark from seed to harvest. Yes you can swap lamps for veg and flowering or you can run the whole grow under a 400WMH..
 
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