Project MK Ultra - I'm a newbie and would welcome some support please

[Alpha]

Firstly just want to say hi to all who use this forum. It's a great resource and have already learned a hell of a lot from reading through.

OK, so I've been toying with the idea of setting up a grow for some time, and now I've finally taken the step and purchased two tents and three lights.

Two 400w lights in the main grow and one 600w in the vegging tent. Please see below an array of pictures:

Ok so they were all vegging together in the smaller of the two tents under the one light, they were doing really well, very healthy color and growth. As soon as I switched the big tent on, a major problem with ventilation and heat occured. A lot of the plants went very brown and the room was around 40 degrees C.

To temporarily resolve the matter, I have opened the door to the room, turned one of the two 400w lights off in the main tent and chopped most of the burnt brown leaves off.

Now I am currently toying with the idea of buying some extra fans etc to ventilate, however I am absolutely skint and don't want to waste any money.. I have about £100 t spare, and was thinking about purchasing:

20m of Alum Duct
2 x Y pieces
One 100/125mm extractor
Carbon filter
Air Filter

I've hastily created an aerial view of the room and my plans to solve this issue with heat and ventilation. The idea was to construct something like

Some of the things I would like to know are...

- Is this approach the most effective?
- If not, what alternatives are there?
- If yes:
* How does the design principle stand up?
* Are the components in the right places
* Would the fans be powerful enough to ventilate two tents?
* Are the filters in the correct places?
* How effective are carbon filters?
* Would you consider putting the fans on timers and adding some kind of C02 system?

And please any other advice you may have specific to this set up.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Alpha]

Anyone want to lend some advice on this?

 

[Alpha]

Well I've done exactly what I have described in the diagram but with extra fans to blow extra air through. The tent still massively overheats! What can I do to fix?

 

[BioStub]

Well I've done exactly what I have described in the diagram but with extra fans to blow extra air through. The tent still massively overheats! What can I do to fix?

Put an a/c unit in the window? Draw air directly from room with an a/c unit or rig some lines to the a/c outlet for your intake.

Also, what cfm is that draw fan? More cfm could help.

Or buy some enclosed reflector hoods for your lights and pull the air though the lights for more effective heat removal.

I installed a small a/c unit and built a little box with a 3 inch duct connector attached to a flexible hose. Then I built a wierd LOL planter bucket with 50 cfm bathroom fan blowing directly into my box. Check my journal for pics.

Good luck.

 

[BioStub]

oh.. Also. don't forget. Straight lines in your ducting are best. Any corners can really cut down on air movement. Also distance plays a factor in it. If you can move the 2 tents together and shorten the distance from the air intake at the window it would improve your air flow.

 

[BioStub]

I keep forgetting things. Where do you live? If the temps outside are high your gonna have trouble with heating anyway. Cooler air is coming soon to most of the USA so I would take this into consideration also.

 

[Alpha]

Easy bio, thanks for taking time to respond.

Ok so I need to take some pictures and upload to give you a better feel, but ive installed much of what I've described..

Basically, I very quickly realised that trying to blow cold air in to both tents on one 5 inch rvk fan (can't tell you the cfm tho) wasn't working, or at least with an air filter attached to the intake (my girlfriends tights!). I decided to take it off completely, Obviously posing a risk to bugs etc being sucked from outside but increasing air flow by about x20. The tent was getting so hot still, so I suspended a fan underneath the lights to cool the down which helped considerably. I won a humidifier on eBay for £1 and put that in the tent as I've been reading you need a high humidity for vegging, the problem now was that although the temp was good, air flow good, the humidifiers output was being channeled by the added light coolingnfan directly into the lights and bulbs, cooling down and reducing the humidifiers effects, so ive now raised the lights to combat this.

I will upload pics as I'm sure they will help a lot, but I've got the humidifier on full blast, it's showing that humidity is averaging 80-90%, 75-80 F... Is that humidity too high? Can you recommend to me any hoods that I can buy to fix onto my lights that may not radiate so much heat, tha are a big issue... Gonna check out ur journal now to see ur set up.. Ps I'm in the uk.. Air is defo getting cooler

 

[Alpha]

Also I have a question regarding UV lights, a friend of mine iaaid to add one to the set up when flowering, apparently the plants secrete loads of resin to protect themselves which thus turns into thc.. He seemed to think yo virtually double the thc output of the plants! I've searched the forums and can't find anything in detail, just peole saying u can't grow in uv.. Which isn't the same as what am interested in, don't want the uv to make them grow, just add thc.. Anyway have u or anyone else ever heard of this if so please divulge and advise or direct me t some in depth detail around wha type of uv, how long for, wattage etc etc... Sonds like a good trick that could be worth investing in to...

 

[BioStub]

Well i'd be careful running your humidity that high. I'm thinking a bit lower would be better. Thats alot of water going into the air. Could cause a mold problem. I've read you want it to be at about 75% for veg and much lower for flower.

Those temps are good if they are constant. I'd be careful sucking in outside air as it gonna get cold. Reasonably you only want about a 10 degree drop between the day and night temps. I'd also get like some nylon. cheap nylon and cover that intake. I'm thinking the tights where to tightly woven.

Also that fan you have for the intake. Is it a basic duct booster fan. If it is and you have it right at the intake your loosing alot of its capacity. Its designed to help flow already in movement and your using it to try and push air in several ways and a longer way then it was designed for. Consider putting it just before the Y to maximize its effectiveness,

Also hanging a flexible drop duct right down by the lights from the removal fan could help as you would be pulling air closer to the source of the heat instead of letting it radiate out into the tent.

You can buy round pyrex bread tubes on ebay all day long that could be used to cover your lights and hook an air draw duct to. But they go for like 20 US dollars a piece. Theres plently tutorials on how to make custom cool tubes from them on the interwebs. Just google homemade cool tube.

I don't know anything about UV lighting. I've read a bit about it but not enough to give an opinion.

Some pictures of your current set up would help. detailed as possible.

Good luck.. Bio.