Hi 420! I have a 4'' inline 175 cfm carbon filter combo. My grow tent is 32''x32''x62''. I have the fan sitting on top of the tent with ducting inside attached to my filter. There is a question in here, I have it set up to vent smelly air out of the grow room so, the fan is set up to suck air thru the filter thru the ducting and out the top of the tent, is this correct? I have two vents at the bottom of the tent as passive intakes. Is this enough? My temps are staying between 84-88 degrees with humidity between 45-50%. I would like to get my temps down, should I place a oscillating fan inside to help with cool air circulation? Or place a fan on the outside of the tent to force air into the room? Any suggestions are much appreciated. I am growing bagseed, 2-5gal buckets and I have three soil grows in 1qt containers. The Hydro grows are 10 and 7 days old and the soils are 7 days old. Pics are poor quality.
Ventilation help
- Thread starter voltron
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SnowBender
New Member
when temps in tent are in the high 80's what is the temp at the intake?
are you drawing your air through your light? proper order should be filter, then light, then fan - to exhaust. raise your filter as hi as possible to draw the hot air. those hi temps raise chances of bug infestation big time. oscilating fan will make strong stems, not really cool plants to any extent. hi temps usually mean more airflow required.
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Snowbender, the temp gauge is near the intake now and it is reading the 84+temps. I failed to mention guys that I am using cfl's with reflectors. I have 2-27 watt that put out 100 watts each of light over each grow, so 200 watts per plant. I have the filter at the top of the tent and it has about 4-6'' of ducting that I have inside a sleeve that's attached to the roof of the tent, the fan is sitting in a hole on the roof that leads to the sleeve and duct work. The sleeve cannot be removed unless I cut it and run duct work directly to my fan. I believe this will at least give me a more secure connection with filter and fan. I say all of this in case that is my primary problem with my temps, especially since I am using cfl's. My pictures of the fan set up shows up well, I will try to upload them so you can get a better idea. Thanks for the help guys!! ++ rep for helping.
Im going to do a similar setup snd was wondering how big your passive holes were
you've got it set up right.
you want the filter inside the tent and you want to pull air through it and out the top.
If you don't have all the vents open at the bottom of the tent, open them all up and see what happens to the temps.
What's the ambient temp in the room that the tent is in?
you want the filter inside the tent and you want to pull air through it and out the top.
If you don't have all the vents open at the bottom of the tent, open them all up and see what happens to the temps.
What's the ambient temp in the room that the tent is in?
SnowBender
New Member
I should have worded it like SS did...
We all would all love it if a 2x27 watt cfl put out as much light as a 200 watt hps...but unfortunately it doesn't work that way.
4-5000 lumen per square foot, minimum is a good place to start.
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- #8
Thanks everyone. Pot2010, my passive holes are 12''wx6'' tall, they came this way with the tent.
SS & SB, the ambient temps range between 75-77 degrees sometimes higher when I cut the ac off in here when toting.
I realized as of last night that I need to keep the temps in the room down to help maintain ideal temps in the g.room. This morning temp in the g.room was at 82 degrees with 44% humidity. I'm thinking the room that the grow is in may need more circulating air, I have it like a dungeon in there, window closed and blocked off from light, door closed and sealed off from light so it only gets air in there when the ac is on. I think I will open a window during the day to help with fresh recirc. air.
SB, I was hoping I could do ok to vege with these lights with the reflectors on them. They put out 1750 lumens per bulb hovering only 2-3" above the plants. I thought that would decrease the footage area of the distance the light traveled and with so much concentrated right onto the plants that it would be sufficient enough. I'm taking I was wrong with that also lol. If I can place maybe 2 more bulbs above them this may be adequate enough. They are about 2'' tall with the fourth set of leaves on the day 10 one and three sets on day 7 grow. I would love to throw a 150-200 watt hps/mh bulb in there to have for both stages of growth. But with me having temp problems with cfl's I think I need to fix that first. Let me know what you think.
SS & SB, the ambient temps range between 75-77 degrees sometimes higher when I cut the ac off in here when toting.
I realized as of last night that I need to keep the temps in the room down to help maintain ideal temps in the g.room. This morning temp in the g.room was at 82 degrees with 44% humidity. I'm thinking the room that the grow is in may need more circulating air, I have it like a dungeon in there, window closed and blocked off from light, door closed and sealed off from light so it only gets air in there when the ac is on. I think I will open a window during the day to help with fresh recirc. air. SB, I was hoping I could do ok to vege with these lights with the reflectors on them. They put out 1750 lumens per bulb hovering only 2-3" above the plants. I thought that would decrease the footage area of the distance the light traveled and with so much concentrated right onto the plants that it would be sufficient enough. I'm taking I was wrong with that also lol. If I can place maybe 2 more bulbs above them this may be adequate enough. They are about 2'' tall with the fourth set of leaves on the day 10 one and three sets on day 7 grow. I would love to throw a 150-200 watt hps/mh bulb in there to have for both stages of growth. But with me having temp problems with cfl's I think I need to fix that first. Let me know what you think.
SnowBender
New Member
is the AC central? if so, part of the problem is if the room the tent is in is 'like a dungeon', the AC cant work right... as the air coming out of the vent has nowhere to go. sounds like the room has an intake (the AC vent) but no exhaust.
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- #10
SB, you are so right. No exhaust in the room. The temps are cooler in the tent with a few ice bottles, and the temp around the house is stable at 75. I only keep the dungeon door closed at night because I am so paranoid about light getting in there and some penetrating my tent like where the zippers are and some stitching around the exhaust/intake holes are. I even make sure no light gets thru the door seal LOL. It really wouldn't be a significant amount of light (if any at all) but this is my first time so I really don't know. I am aware that no more than moonlight strength light should reach your plants during the dark hours. I may just be an over protective grower! LOL. I may have to leave the door open at all times to help with the circulation. Let me know what you think. And I appreciate the responses.
SnowBender
New Member
if have the room, hang some panda (or similar) inside the door a few inches from the ceiling so it makes a light barrier that air can get over. leave space so the door can open without hitting the plastic wall. fresh air will come in under the door and go over the panda wall near the ceiling.
you could also make a hole in the ceiling and duct it to another vent in another room as an intake.
you could also make a hole in the ceiling and duct it to another vent in another room as an intake.
Stormycirca65
New Member
When you achieve no vacuum at the door, you achieve maximum air flow. Make all fans exhaust and drill passive holes at the bottom of the cabinet until no smoke is sucked in at the door. Intake from the room, exhaust outside if possible.
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- #13
I would love to go to that type of system GE. I've been looking at them to see what would fit inside my tent with the filter. I'll check the measurements of the filter when its time for the lights in there, but I'm sure that it is 12'' long. I would like one that is interchangeable with MH & HPS bulbs. They all appear to be kinda large for what I'm envisioning. I think I am going to place the fan in for the stem strength. Thanks for the tip again.
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- #14
Stormy, I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you mean.? I see what your saying I will achieve by doing this, but I may be missing something. Is this a method used for grow tents? I still thank you for your response!
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- #15
SS, I've left the vents open at the bottom along with cooled the temps around the house, and over the last two days temps have maintained at 80 with lights and 72-74 just after six hours of dark. I also threw 4-frozen water bottles inside the tent. So one if not all of this helped thanks again.
I also checked out one of your journals and it was impressive, I learned some things that I will need to do more reading on to understand like bending your girl to keep length down and increase bud sites, crazy but sweet. But I'm a ways from that, so thanks again for some great grows and invaluable information!
Sounds like you've got your temps under control.
Another thing you can do, if you're not doing it already, is to run your lights at night when it's cooler. I don't run A/C and couldn't grow for a good part of the year if I didn't do that.
thanks for your kind words and best wishes for your grow
Another thing you can do, if you're not doing it already, is to run your lights at night when it's cooler. I don't run A/C and couldn't grow for a good part of the year if I didn't do that.
thanks for your kind words and best wishes for your grow
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- #17
Sounds like you've got your temps under control.
Another thing you can do, if you're not doing it already, is to run your lights at night when it's cooler. I don't run A/C and couldn't grow for a good part of the year if I didn't do that.
thanks for your kind words and best wishes for your grow
SS, I wish I had thought of that sooner, I was and am way too anxious
lol. I will be sure to start my next grow at a more optimal time. And thank you for your help as always. Oh yeah, I did add a small fan, its strong even on the first setting. I have it sitting outside the tent for now blowing in the intake hole. I may put it inside to see how that works. But the temps have been under control, and I've had an increase in humidity, up to a stable 50%.WeedandTittys
New Member
Hey everyone, I have some similar concerns, I did rather extensive research before building my growbox, basically by combing through forums and looking for any help online and the aspect I am still the most unsure of is ventilation. My box is not too big-just for one plant- about 40x24x24 (inches)and my light is a 40 watt 5000k CFL. I built a passive intake system(cutting matching holes parallel to each other on two sides) however it seemed like a lot of light was escaping so I built a hood for the holes, just an angle piece of cardboard to redirect the light, the openings are still there. I was concerned about ventilation still so I put a fan in the box, it is just a bit too big for me to put it anywhere but it does fit. I have angled it upward in hopes that with the passive intake and air flow from the fan would be adequate ventilation. Does anyone have any good advice for me? Am I doing anything terribly wrong or will my setup work for the entire lifespan of my plant?
You might get away with not having a dedicated exhaust fan to blow out stale air and bring in fresh, but your plant will do lots better if you use one.
For your size box, it doesn't have to be anything special. A 120mm 12v pc fan would work fiine.
Since hot air rises, you would want to install it up high in your box and have an intake hole for cool air down below.
For your size box, it doesn't have to be anything special. A 120mm 12v pc fan would work fiine.
Since hot air rises, you would want to install it up high in your box and have an intake hole for cool air down below.
WeedandTittys
New Member
thanks a lot. I'm a visual sort of learner so just to be clear the fan at the top would be blowing out so sucking air out right? And its fine to leave just a hole in the bottom and can I leave the fan I have in there in now in place? Ok so I was gonna upload pictures corresponding to what I was talking about but I can't figure out how to upload pictures from my documents or desktop, ha ha, Any help for the technically challenged?
