My First Grow Box! Looking for feedback

Yeh, I checked your pic (he lied; i just did ) Looks just like my set up, which means it must be good...

(Cheers for the compliment...it likes you too!)

Updated first post with new fan and filter

Nice I like it! I have been tempted to upgrade to a 600 as well. For me that def means a larger 6" fan I mentioned my 4" fan 160 CFm is just strong enough to cool my space but I hear the 600 runs hotter. But yeah you could bump up and you may not run it 600 until you have a new space but you will have it. I also recommend a light that is hid/hps unless this is going to be flower chamber only? Some run hps all the way. I didn't see a huge difference but did notice veg under hid to grow a stockier plants. So I typically swap out my bulbs. Ok let's do this and start the fun!!!

The last concerns I have are.

1. The 600w cool tube I want to buy fits perfectly, but I heard cool tubes arent the best and have a very wide range of light. Should I go with this or something else?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251166669308?var=550187573519

2. For the passive intake (no fan), can odor leak out of this? Or will the filter pull and clean air so fast that it wont?

3. How big should the pots be? Allowing enough room for the plant to grow and enough space between them and the 600w. (Also curious how close I can get to the plants with the 600w cool tube)

Looks good....

With the same grow dimensions, LST, Scrog etc..this could be my grow. A case of "great minds think alike"...or "idiots come in pairs"?...

roesn said:

The last concerns I have are.

1. The 600w cool tube I want to buy fits perfectly, but I heard cool tubes arent the best and have a very wide range of light. Should I go with this or something else?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251166669308?var=550187573519

2. For the passive intake (no fan), can odor leak out of this? Or will the filter pull and clean air so fast that it wont?

3. How big should the pots be? Allowing enough room for the plant to grow and enough space between them and the 600w. (Also curious how close I can get to the plants with the 600w cool tube)

Click to expand...

Any info these final questions? Im going to buy my 600w soon

here is the thing I have heard about cool tubes.....and all this is going to be very debatable, I also want to note I have never used one so here it is. Cool tubes actually have less range of light and it is advisable to get one with wings that reflect the light out more. I hear the glass around the light actually decreases the reflectivity. A normal hooded light is going to give you better light and a wider angle. A lot of people will say a cooltube is more for controlling heat....and for most of us it is the biggest issue! For you with a 600 it surely would be an issue and since you are in a 2' wide and will prob utilize a 2'x4' area under the light you will be ok also take in consideration you don't have lots of verticle room. Sworth mentioned that before.....but note he is also using two to cover the length of the area. Cooltube will be less money as well. So you can't go wrong really. Remember the pot will take at least a foot, the plants will grow to 2-3 feet and you are going to need at least a foot on top, so you just used up all your height. Also you may be able to keep the light cool and be able to grow your plants right up to it but there is something called light saturation. Even if cool if you try and grow under 600W and the plants are less than 12" away you could burn them not by heat but over saturation.

I also use a passive intake setup, I actually used Panda Paper for the front of my closet behind the door. Installed with zipper so there would be no light leak and I could almost completely seal it. The negative pressure was a lot and wanted to suck in the panda paper if I had it zipped all the way down. So what i did was cut a 4" hole in it and attach some ducting so it could pull fresh air in. I ran it in and up toward the fan mounted in the cabinet, to blow fresh air and not let light in. That worked pretty well. The grow will not smell to bad until you get to the end of your grow. The filter works very well but some bud is going to be very strong smelling. Meaning anytime you open up your grow space smell will leak out. Again I am lucky because I can duct into atic which helps as well so I don't get a lot of smell. Where will you be taking the air from your cabinet and exhausting? That is going to make a difference. I had asked before where this cabinet will be located for many reasons. It will have a fan and be somewhat noisy, you need to pull fresh cooler air in and exhaust out. I am saying this again because if this was located in my bedroom (in my closet) or a room where people go in and out of it is not going to be as stealth as you had hoped. Again though getting the larger fan and running it half speed will help. I have a spare room no one occupies but if someone walked into that room they would notice the sound quite easily.

When I bought my 400 I was told it would do a great job for my space and could cover a 3'x3' area quite well. I was told 4 plants in my 2'x3' would work great each plant would receive 100 watts of light....you can get by with 50 per plant and still get a good yield. I would allow a square foot per plant....meaning every foot have a plant. In your setup I could see having 4-6 plants at most if you grew then normal, if you did a SOG even more. If you start topping and LST-ing and make them bushier even less. You can control how to utilize the area and thats a whole new topic. I recommend following Sworth on the SCROG method 2 or 3 plants will fill the entire screen in that space. I know you want multiple strains in there but l would take a trail run first. And if this is your first grow stick to the basics and see how they grow, fill the area, see how the heat rises and air circulation decreases as they get bigger etc. Once you get that down and have a predictable situation then start in with more plants, different strains etc.

I have been growing by clones and once they root they go strait into a 3 gallon smartpot from Veg to Flower. I usually veg for 4-5 weeks and get my plants anywhere from 12 to 15 inches and then flower ending up with 24 to 36 inch plants. They will grow 2 to 3 times in size when you go from Veg to flower. You really can't go above 24 inches in your box in my opinion and you may have to stick with Indica dominate strains (Sative like to grow and grow). I assume your starting with soil? Your close just have to think about all the little things that aren't so obvious. Room for fans, to work on plants for trimming, watering etc. I try not to move things around once in flowering just lock them in and let them go from there...

Your tube's cool...(no pun intended, but help yourself!)

Your passive intake won't leak smells as long as your fan's running.

Pots at least 3 gallons


(A high grade post from rwbrock)

I was told I should go with the 200 CFM 4x16 Phresh Filter. This is half of what I originally planned to get... Odor is my main concern, so do I really need the 400 CFM, or will the 200 CFM be already more than enough?

I just want to feel confident in my filter/fan purchase. Now Im being told I would be better off having the cool tube inline fan/exhaust separate from the carbon filter (2nd) inline fan and exhaust vent. Should I do this?

So I would have 2 fans now and I dont know how much CFM the filter and fan should have. The fan for the filter is 190 CFM and the filter is 200 so I thought that would be a good fit. I also dont know how much CFM the fan for the light should have..... Do I need to get more CFM and will my fan be strong enough to even run at medium and keep the odor? I just worry about the odor that will come up in flower..... The grow box will be air tight but I dont want to get to the flowering stage and find out that my fans and filter were not strong enough. Im going to for sure make my purchases today. If someone could help me with these questions it would be greatly appreciated. I
Intake Filter --> Ducting -> Cool Tube -> Ducting -> Inline Fan -> Ducting -> Exhaust

Carbon Filter (Internal, no extra intake vent) --> ducting -> Inline Fan -> Ducting -> Exhaust

I'd stick with your plan imho....get a separate fan for the filter later on in the grow..if you need it...which I don't think you will.
Never got near to even thinking about it with my grow.

The best thing now is to crack on and do it, adjusting your plans/methods as you go along....

Alright so spending another 60$ on an extra 200 CFM on the filter isnt over kill? Excited to make my purchases tomorrow. Im sick of asking all these questions. lol. That should be the last one, 18 hours until I make my purchase.

Be sure and show us when it all arrives!

Shit, I'd pop my seeds as soon as it's in the mail lol But then I always want things done five minutes ago...

Oh, and have some +rep for all your questions and research....

Actually I dont have seeds. The clones are looking great though

sworth said:

Be sure and show us when it all arrives!

Shit, I'd pop my seeds as soon as it's in the mail lol But then I always want things done five minutes ago...

Oh, and have some +rep for all your questions and research....

Click to expand...

Everything is ordered! Sitting here impatiently as I wait for it. I ended up going with the 400 CFM filter and the 440 CFM fan because I know theres a good possibility of expanding my grow box in the future and I can always run the fan on low/medium.

Ordered the 600w with both HPS and MH bulbs.

damn, wanted to suggest the super sun2 reflector since your grow box is about the same as mine.

I have received everything except for the light. That should arrive in a day or two. My only concern right now is mounting the carbon filter in my box. Unlike my fan, the filter didn't come with a mounting bracket. It also doesn't have instructions so I have no idea how to put this in my box other than just setting it in there... unsecured.

Replied to your other thread about the filter. Be nice to see it when you have everything set up.

U pull the trigger yet? If so..whatcha get?

Somehow I missed the last few posts about ur order lol

^^^yeh, me too^^^


Whatcha got? pics?...