Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[seanmac75]

Good evening all...(depending where on the globe you are)...I'm a fairly new grower. Ive been playing around with it for awhile, and recently decided to get serious about making it through a full grow. Ive tried several times and was never completely satisfied with the end result. My room is a sealed 10 by 6 closet...ventilated with a 4" inline fan with carbon filter. (moved from a small growbox I used to use). I have 2 MARSHYDRO 300W LED LIGHTS. I recently got some really good beans from "a site" and I want to maximize my yield potential. I am in the process of buying 2 600w led lights to add to what I have, so that way I can grow 6-8 plants a time. Am I already on the wrong path? Soil medium in 10gal grow bags. ANY advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

What specific questions do u have
Light is very important,so more is usually better. Check the recommended foot print of each light and then overlap them a bit to be sure of coverage

 

[seanmac75]

Sorry for being vague...I guess my exact questions are...
1. With the size of my room is a 4" inline fan with carbon filter enough to ventilate the space?
2. Is there a difference in the led lights advertised at 1200w for $200 as opposed to a 1000w led light that retails around $900? Someone is telling me that the distance from the plants is all that matters and they are all the same...
3. If I went with 4 led lights (2 300w, and 2 600w) is that enough light to get massive yields from 6 plants?

Again please bare with me if my questions seem elementary...im a newbie with the science. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[KeithVi]

Sorry for being vague...I guess my exact questions are...
1. With the size of my room is a 4" inline fan with carbon filter enough to ventilate the space?
2. Is there a difference in the led lights advertised at 1200w for $200 as opposed to a 1000w led light that retails around $900? Someone is telling me that the distance from the plants is all that matters and they are all the same...
3. If I went with 4 led lights (2 300w, and 2 600w) is that enough light to get massive yields from 6 plants?

Again please bare with me if my questions seem elementary...im a newbie with the science. Thanks in advance!!!

I run a small tent with two plants in a room about the size of your room. My 6 inch 420 CFM fan and filter can barely control the odor in late flowering. I truly think you should consider a larger fan and filter.

 

[Walter melon]

As for the fan question, you would need to know the cfm it pulls. The size of the fan would denote the size of the filter you use. With 6 plants in full bloom, you obviously can't run a coffee can sized filter. You'll want to exchange the entire volume of air (from what I remember) 3 times an hour? Correct me if I'm wrong. I run very small tents with a lot of watts (2 3x3x5 tents 1 600w MH 1 with 2 300w actual draw) I run a 6" fan and a 4' tall carbon filter. I figured I'd not have to upgrade for a few years and left nothing to chance.
As far as led lights go, there's a lot of confusion around what it takes and doesn't take to get great results. Seems most of the advice on the forum seems to be 500-1000 ppfd or mmols meter squared. I try to run as close to 1500 as I can get, because that's what all the scientific study done at government funded University's has shown is optimal without co2.
The spectrum of the lights, most manufacturers have that down pretty well. Reds and blues we all know the plant needs, some use different combinations of those. My viparspectra has a more blue spectrum, and the bloomspect runs a lot redder. Which ones better? Who knows.
Im currently running my tents with 12 plants vegged for 6 weeks in each tent and I couldn't be happier.

 

[seanmac75]

Thank you for the input...I was afraid that I needed to step up my ventilation, but hoping that I wouldn't have to spend any more money on equipment that I already had. I guess its time to upgrade. I'm thinking an 8" fan and filter should do the trick. Thanks again.

 

[seanmac75]

Ventilating the air out of the room may be a problem for me... Heres my set up in a nutshell. I'm using a room in the basement of my home to grow.The walls are brick. There is a recording booth (insulated) that I am using to grow in. I have my fans setup with carbon filter (one 4" fan and one 8" fan) but cant cut through the brick to ventilate out of the house. I can ventilate outside of the recording booth into the open room, but then my entire home smells like BUDS...HEEEEELP lol.

 

[Weaselcracker]

If your recording booth room is sealed, then the carbon filter should take care of any smells going out. There will just be smell escaping when you open the booth door. Presumably the basement has ventilation somewhere? If necessary you can access that ventilation direction by running ducting to it. Otherwise just draw air from the basement if that works.

 

[seanmac75]

If your recording booth room is sealed, then the carbon filter should take care of any smells going out. There will just be smell escaping when you open the booth door. Presumably the basement has ventilation somewhere? If necessary you can access that ventilation direction by running ducting to it. Otherwise just draw air from the basement if that works.

Thank you. The guy at the local hydro store said that I could "scrub" the room. Meaning just sit the Fan and filter inside the room with no air going out...have you heard of this method? And if so will effect my girls much? I'm hoping to get a decent yield and want my setup to be ideal, not bootleg lol.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Well it's not my area of expertise as I draw and vent my air directly from/to the outside.
But I suspect that many if not most people on this forum have situations more like yours- where they are using closets, grow tents, basements, etc- small rooms contained within houses and apartments without direct access to the outside world.
When all is said and done you do need fresh air from somewhere.
Where does the air in your basement come from? There will usually be vents.
As long as you can comfortably breath in there I'm sure your plants will too.
The other factor is cooling. Air exchange is normally what people use to cool their grow room down with. Depending what you are using for grow lights, you usually want some cool fresh air coming in to the grow room. Outside air usually fits that description, at least in winter. Or if your basement is kept fairly cool it should
work to just draw/recirculate from it.

 

[Oldbear]

Ventilating the air out of the room may be a problem for me... Heres my set up in a nutshell. I'm using a room in the basement of my home to grow.The walls are brick. There is a recording booth (insulated) that I am using to grow in. I have my fans setup with carbon filter (one 4" fan and one 8" fan) but cant cut through the brick to ventilate out of the house. I can ventilate outside of the recording booth into the open room, but then my entire home smells like BUDS...HEEEEELP lol.

Three limitations in that approach: heat discussed above, humidity control, and oxygen C02 levels in the room are not being managed.

Its easy to drill a 4 inch (or bigger) hole through brick - you can rent the drill and a coring bit.