First Time Soil 3x3 Tent Grow

[Local Grown]

Hey Kburn

It looks like you got presents, nice job. I run two 400watt cool tubes myself, and I still keep the lights at least 12" to 14" from the plants. A 1000watt light 15" or more from the plants would be fine.
Keep up the fine work.

 

[Kburn]

Heres a few updated pictures.

From left to right: Louie 13th, Skywalker OG, Bubba OG, Master OG, Bubba OG

Skywalker

King Louie

Bubba OG

Master OG

 

[Icemud]

You got some killer strains, and there all looking damn good Amazing so far!!! Careful with bringing your ladies outside though, and back into your grow area, good way to pick up pesties... but the ladies look like there loving the natural light

Excellent job so far, and nice purchases on the cool tubes and new lights, I have 1 cool tube and wish I had another, there really nice, and much lighter than the huge metal reflectors.

 

[Kburn]

Yah i think their doing pretty well. Can you believe these plants are like 3 months old? When I first got these they hardly grew for the first month. Had them really far away from lights and bugs etc. I didnt know what i was really doing at the time. Does anyone think they might come out a little different since their more aged?

 

[Kburn]

I've come up with a better temporary setup and I need some input on this. I don't plan to use any of my new equipment until I move to another house with more room. So I've got 3 hoods and 3 ballasts to make the best 3x3 tent setup. What ive been thinking about doing is putting one hood overhead with 800w from one JD ballast and one cool tube hanging vertically with 400w. I would arrange the plants in a circle around the tube. Would this setup be beneficial at all compared to just putting a full 1000w over head? I would think that the vertical light would help but I'm not sure if it would just be overkill.

 

[nibec]

as long as you can handle the heat, there is no overkill...

as far as how you want to set it up, i cant really give you any input, i'v never hung hid vertically. but i cant see it hurting in any way.

its of large scale growers will put their hps up, and vertically hang some 400 watt metal halides for the extra spectrum. seems to work good.

 

[Kburn]

Yah I now understand the limits due to heat. I tried taking out the two 150w's I had in there and switched the 400w to 1000w. I can't even run it, the temperature goes to 95F all closed up. I have the cool tube vented with my 195cfm fan and its still not enough. Right now I have it on 1k but with the front of the tent opened so I can keep it down to 85F. I need to figure out a way to keep that light cool or just go back to the 400/150/150 set up

 

[nibec]

just have to get a big fan on your 1000 watt cool tube. i'v seen people run anywhere from 400-1000 cfm on them.

whatever your budget can handle i guess... otherwise, yeah.. the 700 watts you had before should do it.

 

[Kburn]

How would that work with a 6" opening? I have a 6" duct fan and an inline fan. Their 175 & 205 cfms. Would I need to get a larger diameter fan for that opening? I haven't seen any 6" ones that can push that much air.

I have my setup going carbon filter -> 6" inline -> cool tube -> then out. Would it be better to have the cool tube running on its own fan? I was thinking that air directly from outside would be cooler than the air coming from the inline drawing it from inside.

 

[CronicHempHog]

i dont have any of that high tech hid light but it would seem if its hot in there and your pulling air from inside where its hot, how well would it cool?

 

[nibec]

i have a 6" 435cfm kickin around somewhere... so they make them bigger for sure.

if you run the cooltube on a 6"435, going from outside to outside, and then run your other one(s) exchanging your air.. i think you should be alright... you could always try pulling from the tent through the tube, but, i dont think it'll work as well. try both ways and see what keeps it cooler.

of course try to exhaust everything into a different room, or outside..

 

[Kburn]

I'll have to look around for a higher cfm fan then. I have it set up right now drawing air from the inside and it's not enough. I think I definitely need air from outside. I'll see what I can rig up to get these temperatures down. Right now I have a 6" axial fan blowing air thru ducting thats going through the front door of the tent. I have it unzipped about 10" to fit that ducting but it's ok since the plants arent smelling too bad yet. That's keeping my temp at 88F for now.

 

[nibec]

still pretty high for temp.. but, its better than 95!

 

[Kburn]

Im going to see if I can rig up a separate venting system just for the light. Im thinking that should solve my problem. Got it down to 85F by pointing all my fans at the tube though. If I cant get it to go down ill have to switch to 50% on the ballast which is still 564watts. When i went down from 1k watts to 75% (808 watts) It only lowered the temperature 3-4F.

 

[nibec]

yeah ... those HID throw some massive heat.

i run CFL, (used to run HID, and want to again soon) and i find cfl easier to manage heat... 400 watts of cfl may put out more overall heat than a 400 watt hps, however, i find the HPS "throws" the heat down, where, cfl, as long as i have a fan blowing at my lights, it cools them fast , and keeps the glass on them cool. that coupled with a 160cfm exhaust fan, and my cab temp is kept perfect.

i can feel some decent heat coming out of my exhaust port, but the way i have it setup, the air coming out of the cab, is hotter than the ambient temp. I have the exhaust fan sucking the air right off the bulbs.

i used the basic principle that heat rises, and when i built my CFL relfector, made it so all the lights are contained in a rectangle box, thats coated in white reflective poly, then has a funnel system that the exhaust sucks the air from. so its sucking most of the heat from them and out, while passively drawing through the bottom of my cab with cool new air. works really well.

if i wanted to do it a bit more hardcore, i could add a piece of thin glass below the lights, to create a sealed air cooled hood effect... but, i dont want to loose the lumens.

so.. really.. experiement as much as you can.. and figure out what works for you

 

[Kburn]

Interesting...ill have to see what I can come up with to get the temperature down. It was showing 93F today and I really don't feel like its that hot in there. I have my thermometer probe on the end of a stick that's as tall as my canopy and it sits right in the middle of the plants. I feel like its not getting an accurate reading because the metal probe is heating up. Where should I place it to get the most accurate reading?

 

[nibec]

top of the canopy.. it'll be pretty accurate.

 

[Kburn]

Alright I got it all worked out. Right now I have the ballast at 110% so around 1150w and the hood is 12" from the canopy. Temp is a constant 84-85F and RH is 35-39%. I have a 24" square fan held by hangers pointed at the light along with a small 6" fan. Then another 6" fan pointed at the canopy and a 6" duct fan in the front of the tent bringing in cool air. I'm kind of pushing the limit here but I want as much light as possible. I'll have to re route the duct fan so I can close the front when they really start smelling. The only problem is the openings for the ducts in my tent are only 4".

 

[Local Grown]

You might be a little too close to the plants, look at this chart:

 

[Kburn]

So should I move my light farther away? I tested it with the back of my hand and it wasnt uncomfortably hot, it feels just fine. Should I only be going for 100%? I can easily have it closer and actually get more light, I didnt think that was a bad thing.