4x4x6"11' Gorilla Grow Tent Set Up

donpaul.p said:
not sure i can post the link, so just search for air cooled grow light hoods, that should find you what im on about, its basically the hood, then a piece of glass below the bulb so the bulb is slealed in the hood, then at either end of hood is the 6inch duct tube fittings, then you just rig a fan up and run some ducting so the air is either pulled through the hood from inside the tent or the other option would be to pull air from the room and back out into the room,
but would need more holes in tent to run 2 extra ducting pipes so not sure if that is something you can do, dont know the tent your using so cant say if thats something easy to do or not,
you only need 1 hole for it for sucking the air out of the tent and past the bulb then out the grow tent all together,
Click to expand...

Something like this was my original plan but I assumed it would not mitigate heat enough alone. What I would like to find out now is if there is a major difference between a closed hood and a closed tube closed hood type situation.
Anyone happen to know?

Im also still on the lookout for an AC unit set up if anyone happens to know anything.
Im also still looking for a Set with something like ballast/hood/bulb but a closed hood/closed tube hood if anyone knows anything. The apollo set in the link given earlier is great but doesnt have the closed hood/closed tube situation.

Also any info on how to set up the filter being attached to one side and the hole sucking vs pushing air thing. I was under the impression that it would work by pulling our out through the filter through the bulb and out. Correct me if I am wrong?
After that Ill set it up and see what temps look like.
 
thats what i would go with if i set one up, but i did read some info about one way been better than the other, im really not sure if it matters but maybe it does, to me the way you would set it up is exactly how i would set one up,

ill try and find the info, i might of bookmarked the link so ill check,
if i come across anyone in any of the journals im in ill link them over to here, or check one of our journals out and post a quick question asking other members if they mind coming over to help with getting set up, im pretty sure their would be many members coming over to offer advice and say what method works well,
i dont mind you asking in my journal, im sure none of the others would either, theirs got to be plenty of growers with similar set up on this site,

if you come across jandre or alaskan1 then their usually pretty knowledgable to ask, they both got journals just say i told you about them and said they may be able to help, their both decent to ask and always help me from time to time with questions, ill see if i can find someone with same set up
 
ive posted a comment in my journal, im pretty sure someone will come over and explain or help explain which type of set up would be best and where you would get the products your after, i just dont know enough about it to help as i have not needed anything like that in my room so not got ducting and cool tubes, just a normal light with no enclosed hood or carbon filter, not needed it so really not much use to you,
they should be able to show you what products work well and where you can get exactly what you need,
 
donpaul.p said:
ive posted a comment in my journal, im pretty sure someone will come over and explain or help explain which type of set up would be best and where you would get the products your after, i just dont know enough about it to help as i have not needed anything like that in my room so not got ducting and cool tubes, just a normal light with no enclosed hood or carbon filter, not needed it so really not much use to you,
they should be able to show you what products work well and where you can get exactly what you need,
Click to expand...

Thanks man I appreciate it! Its nice to bounce ideas off of people regardless. I was very eager and rushed to get this tent up and running but now Im finding joy in waiting and writing out a perfect plan b4 I set it all up.
 
yep, the more ideas you get the more options you have, plus you might find something that another grower is using want to try it yourself,
everyone is here to help, this site is by far the best of its type, you dont get arguments here or people putting others down, ve learned so much since i started, now i can start to pass some info back on to others.

so im sure members will come over and tell you what products work well and what type of ac they use or which is best,
ive picked up loads of different ideas and put them into practice,
 
Exactly!

My next question among many is about exhaust systems and stealth. For my tent I have a generally large window quite close by and a fire place( which i hope to shoot the hot air up ) is literally right next to it. Although I still need somewhere to pull the cool air from right? I have this great window as an option but with it comes some problems.

Problem 1: I live in a apartment complex on the first floor and this window faces the dog run and public sidewalk( dog run is this caged area made for us to be able to take our pets kinda like a community backyard )
- Although there are some trees that pretty much cover the window from public view unless you where playing under the trees and this dog run is not often very populated just random 1-2 people in there at a time.

Problem 2: I guess I dont really have one. Its just my concern of where I would pull the cold air from.

Can I just put some ducting over by the window and call it a day? It would still be pulling the lovely cold air flowing from the window just not directly/directly/directly ya know?
 
Does anyone happen to know where I can find a thread that talks about the equation for CFM's removing all the air and replacing it or what ever to create a good circulation and keep my temps down?

Im now experimenting with ideas to not use an AC in the 4x4 if I can regulate temperatures with just fans using a hood that is either tubed or tubed and glass covered after the tube.
 
you should be fine just having the vent near the window, worse case i guess you could build something to sit on the window sill so it looks like a window ornament, then wouldnt be noticed as a vent as much,

as for cfm info use this link, that should be exactly what your looking for, if not let me know and ill try and find some more
How Much Ventilation Do I Need in My Grow Room?
the link above is for this site

also here is some info i copy n paste from another source

Dan's Method
Calculating By Room Volume
You will find many calculations on the web for sizing a fan for ventilating indoor gardens; however, what many of these calculations fail to take into consideration is the friction loss on carbon filters and increased temperatures from HID lights. So here's my calculation method which you can use as a guide for sizing an exhaust fan for a growing area (keep in mind that this calculation will give you the lowest required CFM (Cubic feet of air per minute) required to ventilate the indoor garden.)

Step 1: Room Volume
First the volume of the room needs to be calculated. To calculate multiply length x width x height of growing area e.g. A room that is 8' x 8' x 8' will have a volume of 512 cubic feet.

Step 2: CFM Required
Your extraction fan should be able to adequately exchange the air in an indoor garden once every three minutes. Therefore, 512 cubic feet / 3 minutes = 171 CFM. This will be the absolute minimum CFM for exchanging the air in an indoor garden.

Step 3: Additional factors
Unfortunately, the minimum CFM needed to ventilate a indoor garden is never quite that simple. Once the grower has calculated the minimum CFM required for their indoor garden the following additional factors need to be considered:

Number of HID lights — add 5% per air cooled light or 10-15% per non-air cooled light.

CO2: add 5% for rooms with CO2 enrichment

Filters: if a carbon filter is to be used with the exhaust system then add 20%

Ambient temperature: for hot climates (such as Southern California) add 25%, for hot and humid climates (such as Florida) add up to 40%.

An Example
In our 8' x 8' room we have 2 x 1000w air cooled lights, and we plan to use a carbon filter. We also plan to use CO2 in this room. The ambient temperature is 90 °F (32°C), however, we will be using air from another room that is air-conditioned. Here's the minimum required CFM to ventilate room:

1) Calculate the CFM required for room (see above.)

2) Add 10% (for 2 air cooled lights.)

3) Add 5% of original CFM calculation (For CO2.)

4) Add 20% of original CFM calculation for Carbon Filter.

5) Air is coming from air-conditioned room so no need to add any other percentages.

6) CFM = (171 CFM) + (171CFM x 10%) + (171 CFM x 5%) + (171CFM x 20%) + ( 0 )= 231 CFM.

This is the absolute minimum CFM required to ventilate your room.

The next step might seem to match the closest fan to this CFM. However, for this example I'd choose a six inch fan with a CFM of around 400 or more, and a 6 inch carbon filter to match. The extra CFMs may seem a bit excessive (calculations on most indoor gardening websites would recommend a 4" fan and a 4" carbon filter) but it's always better to over-spec since we need to compensate for air resistance in ducting too.

Also, as we are using a carbon filter we will need to match the fan with the filter so that the fan that will neatly fit onto the filter.

If all the variables are kept the same and we changed the room size from 8' x 8' to a 12' x 12' then the minimum required CFM would be 519 CFM.

The All-Important Inflow!

An intake port can be anything from a gap under the door to an open window - even a hole in the wall. The best place for an intake port is diagonally opposite from your exhaust fan; that way, air has to pass across the entire room - very efficient. You can put a piece of screen over the opening to keep insects and animals out, a piece of A/C filter to keep dust out, or a louvered shutter or backdraft damper that opens when the fan turns on and closes when it turns off. You can also use a motorized damper. This gets installed in-line with your ducting and is plugged into whatever device controls your exhaust fan. When your fan turns on, it allows air to pass. When your fan shuts off, it seals completely, preventing CO2, air, etc. from passing. You can get creative with these devices and use one fan to control two rooms, etc.

One additional note about intake ports - you will see much better results from your exhaust system if you install a second fan to create an active (as opposed to passive) intake system. Normally, when your exhaust fan sucks air out of your room, air is passively going to get sucked back into the room. By installing a second fan on the intake side, you will reduce the amount of negative pressure created in the indoor garden, thereby cutting down greatly on the amount of work the exhaust fan has to do and allowing much more air to pass through. If you're not sure or you don't want to spend the money, start out with just an exhaust fan. If it's not performing as well as you thought it would, try adding an intake fan - you'll smile when you see the difference!



Fred's Method
Calculating By Wattage
Hello there. First off, I'm used to working with Celsius, not Fahrenheit, but I've done my best to provide formulas for both. My method for calculating fan requirements does not cover active cooling with air conditioning systems or cool-tube designs. We're talking about everyday grow chambers here, totally enclosed for airflow control, with no large amounts of radiant heat into or out of the box. Your mileage may vary some for these reasons.

RIGHT THEN, LET'S GET STARTED:

1) Start at the beginning and design this right! Before you even buy or cut anything for your new project, determine the highest temperature that your intake air will ever be when lights run. Call this T (inlet).

2) Use these formulas to determine difference in temperature you can tolerate. 80°F (27°C) is just about the optimal for growing most plants. You can go up to 76°F (30°C) if you have to, but aim for 80°F (27°C).

Tdiff = 27 °C – T (temperature of inlet air)

3) Add up wattage for all power sources in your indoor garden. Lights, pumps, heaters, humidifier, radio, coffee maker, whatever! Add it ALL up and call it Watts. If it is on for more than three minutes and uses more than a watt, add it up. This will make your number worst-case and therefore a conservative value.

4) Compute the absolute minimum fan power you will need using the following formulas. Fan power is measured in the amount of air (cubic feet) shifted per minute. The formula below is the minimum fan rating you must have to achieve your temperature goals. You will have to increase fan power to compensate for duct constriction, small inlets, carbon scrubbers, screens, or other items that block airflow.

CFM = 1.75 x Watts /Tdiff (in Celsius)

If you prefer to work in Fahrenheit, try this formula:

CFM = 3 x Watts / Tdiff (in Fahrenheit)

5) Get at least this fan power or don't come and ask questions! If you are going to have more than one fan, they should be mounted side-by-side rather than inline if you want to add their different CFM ratings. For inline fans, use the lowest airflow rating of all fans in the path. A fan on the inlet and a fan on the exhaust of the box are considered inline fans. Fans just circulating air inside the indoor garden should not be counted for airflow but must be included in your initial wattage calculations.

OK, TO SEE THESE FORMULAS IN ACTION WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO A LITTLE NUMBER CRUNCHING:

An Example
Ok, let's say you have 2000 watts in a 8 foot by 8 foot room with an 8 foot ceiling height.

So what amount of air do I need to move to keep the room at 82°F (28°C)? My incoming air temperatures are 68°F (20°C) during the lights on period.

Tdiff = 28 – 20 = 8°C

For Celsius the formula comes out at:
CFM = 1.75 x 2000 / 8 = 438 CFM

For Fahrenheit we get the following:
Tdiff = 82 – 68 = 14°F CFM=3x2000/14=429 CFM

Remember, Tdiff shows how much your temperatures will rise above your inflow air temperature for a given wattage and air movement.

If you are adding any carbon scrubbers or extensive ductwork, this is where you add to the fan size to account for air pressure losses. You have to move this many CFM, or the numbers don't come out right. Exactly how much these items diminish your airflow depends on your exact configuration and is beyond the scope of this introductory article!

What to do when your outside temperatures are higher than your maximum allowed indoor garden temperatures!

YOU HAVE A FEW CHOICES:

1) Stop growing for a while till things cool off or try running your grow lamps at night when inlet air will be cooler.

2) Reduce your lighting to drop the heat load. Not good if the incoming air is already over critical when it arrives in the box. Might be possible if the inlet air temperature is lower but you are running too many lights to keep up with the cooling.

3) Use active air conditioning.
 
your the man... Went to another hydro store nearby today and found my place.

Final set up will look something like this

4x4x7'11 gorilla grow tent
1000w ballast dimmed down to 75% ( unless temps are fine then this mofo is going right up to full lumens )
1000w bulb dimmed obviously
Hood= Hood reflector/cool tube system ( Dont have the name yet its on backorder will have it friday )
Carbon Filter

Venting
- 6" fan dedicated to cooling the light alone
- 4" fan exhausting and pulling through carbon filter
- 6" inline fan for cool air coming in the bottom

Grow Medium
60/40 coco/foxfarm ocean mix

Hopefully this will be enough to keep temps in control paired with running at night ( tent is light sealed and with hopes that 3 fans arent to loud of a white noise.

Cant wait to get it together and get some plants in there!
 
sounds like your all good then now, you will get amazing results with the 1000watt, hopefully temps will be ok and you can go 100% with it, but even 75% will still give amazing results,

cant wait to see how this grow plays out, i see big buds in your future,
 
Thanks guys! I had planned on getting everything set up friday but the guy I had dealt with earlier in the week wasnt working and was replaced by someone who seemed to be a bit of a mess. Oh well other guy had alot more options to offfer then this kid so tomorrow is the day. In other news I got some seeds in the other day and will be getting those set up outside soon. Its suppose to be the super 60 day autoflower feminized any amount of light plant so we will see how they do outdoors. Hopefully ill get some pics of that and the complete tent tomorrow!
 
hi,

this is what i have found with autos, i had 10 kc45 auto seeds, 6 where fem so far and got another 2 growing now, now i was always told to grow autos under the most light as possible, so i went with 20-4 as my other plants where in veg, all my autos where small, flowered at week 2 and gave me very little yield,
now when my regular plants where under 12-12 i grew another kc45 auto, it was 12-12 from day 1 to harvest, the plant didnt start flowering to week 3, it took 3 weeks longer to reach harvest date, but the plant was 3ft high, gave me 5 buds over 1ft in length and pretty fat,

so from my experience i have found that autos grow better under 12-12 than they do under 20-4, another grower has also found this to be true with his autos as well,

now this is just what i think and not to be taken as solid proof of why autos behave like this,
autos flower due to age, they dont use light schedules so they will flower under 24-0 and all the way down to 12-12 and possibly lower but i was on 12-12 when i found they grew bigger,

now my theory is this, this is just an example,
so lets say an auto needs 240 hours of light to reach harvest, under 24-0 that would be 10 days, its just an example we know their 8 to 11 week plants so im just making it a bit easier to understand,
so 240 hours to reach harvest under 24-0 means its 10 days in total,
under 12-12 it would take twice as long to reach 240 hours of total light,
plants grow in the dark as well as light, in the light they grow, when the lighst grow off the plant stretches to find the light again, this gives a taller plant, more nodes along branches and its why plants stretch so much when we flip them 12-12, the light goes down and the plants stretch to find the light again, so during lights off the plants use the energy they stored in the daytime to grow and find the light during the dark, plus roots grow more in the dark meaning the plant can take in more nutes and water,

so im growing kc45 again under veg schedule as my regular plants are in early veg, so if they perform poor under veg schedule then ill grow some more under 12-12 and double check if i get better results under 12-12, so far it looks like they do better under 12-12, every auto ive grown ive grown them under 20-4 or something similar, ive always had poor results with autos, but when i grew them under 12-12 i was shocked with the growth, shocked with the yield, so ill be running tests with different autos to see if 12-12 really is the best schedule for autos,

i know many growers say autos need the most light, but by giving them to much light their reaching maturity quicker and flowering early, so giving them the dark period means their getting less light, this gives them a longer grow time and will grow bigger plants,

so far its what i have found to be true, i could be totally wrong but another grower has also had the same results using 12-12, so their might be something in this, until we do more testing we will never be 100% sure, so maybe its something you could also try, you could try autos under veg light cycle then try them again under 12-12 and compare the results, if enough of us try this and the results are similar then we might find that 12-12 really is the best option for autos, at least thats the results im getting at the moment, ill know more after this grow as i got another 2 kc45 growing under veg schedule, so if these perform poor then ill grow more under 12-12 giving more more plants to get results from, then i can say for sure which method works best
 
Hey donpaul sorry for the delayed response! I actually havent even started the auto seeds yet so I think I may give your post a re read and see if we can extend this research a bit. Although I intended on growing these plants outdoors I may actually have space to go ahead and do a mixture of indoor and outdoor light. More on this to follow!
 
UPDATE FOR EVERYONE


Sorry it has been a few days everyone! I have now purchased everything to have enough to support a clone/seed dome *single bulb and fixture design to sit ontop of dome* / Veg station *UltraGrow 4bulb T5 fixture* / 4x4 tent at 750-1000w for flowering!

I have a picture of the entire purchase all laid out but I will have to work on getting those off my phone and on to the site! I also have pictures of where I am at right now. Although I have everything Im taking my time setting up making sure everything is the way I like it b4 I move on. Right now I have my hood hanging but will be changing out the hooks and straps up ready for the filter.

As far as venting goes as of right now I have 2 6" fans and one 4". Initially I was going to have a fan just to cool the light, a fan just to suck out air and smell through the filter AND a fan just for cool air intake. Now I have decided to try and get by with just 2 fans. I will be getting everything set up testing both fan sizes along with temps and making a decision from there.

I also will soon be either starting a DIY project to create a light tight space for my veg station in this sink area I have right next to my 4x4 tent or I will be getting a tent that fits the area. Regardless pictures of this project will be coming in time.

Finally, I have pictures of my poor extremely dwarfed outdoor plant I got for free on 420. Very little yield but it was my first plant and first outdoor experience so I took some plants and learned some lessons. Although I recently found some seeds in the shitty low end weed I have been getting to practice extractions*destroyingmaterielafterwardsofcourse;-)*. Regardless 1 of 5 I planted has decided to seed and is doing quite well so pictures of that will come also!

TO END THIS LONG POST

Within the next few days I should get the post up with all these pictures. HOWEVER I do believe I will be transfering over to a grow journal for this SO EVERYTHING I TALKED ABOUT HERE SHOULD BE IN THAT POST. I havent started it yet but I will forsure come back in here to let everyone know! Hopefully by that time I will have it in my signature too.

Thanks everyone!
 

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