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what size lights

  • Thread starter Thread starter chroniccandyny
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what size lights

chroniccandyny 26 Replies 9,930 Views
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chroniccandyny

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Jan 24, 2012
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#1
i am getting a grow tent that is a 4x4x6 and i was wounder'n if any one knows what size light and what kind thanks :)
 
#2
600 would do good and 1000 great but if heat or lack of amps is a concern 400 will do. I have done well with 600w.

Also think on height of system for growing and the lighting. tent is 6', pots 1' to a table at 2'plus, now lights take 1' or so. max 4 feet depth of plant.
 
#4
Go for the 600. you will be wishing you did about 6 months after you buy a 400.
 
#5
600w seems to be the right amt for the majority though its possible to be successful with 400w as well. But from what I've experienced 600w works the best.
 
#6
i agree with everyone above

depends on your budget

in that size tent i think small budget would be 400w with 4 or 5" extractor
or ideally get 600w air cooled hood or cooltube with 6" extractor

get a switchable digital ballast and if 600 proves a tad hot then you can switch to 400,

air flow is key here!!!!
 
#7
Sparky's on point- managing temps is going to be the limiting factor in how much light to put in there. Your tent is 4x4=16 square feet, right? The standard for high performance indoor gardens is at least 55-60 watts per square foot of high intensity lighting. By that measure, 1000 watt bulb seems to fit the bill, at 1000/16=62.5 watts per square foot. A 600w bulb only does 37.5 watts per square foot.

However, you're in a tent, with reflective walls and an enclosed air and heat environment. I think these factors all point toward the 600w approach being the better one here, or you'll spend too much time fighting heat and its effects. Also, the reflective walls serve to conserve light and direct it to the plants at the edges where they need it most. The less you turn over the air in your tent, the easier it will be to stabilize humidity, so I would recommend a sealed and vented hood.

For my two cents, I'd go with a wide hood like a Raptor or a Magnum xxxl 6". I know it sounds weird and it will look huge in that tent, but I see no reason why a smaller, inferior performing hood would be preferable. Keep the glass clean as you would with any sealed hood and you will bask in the light it makes, knowing it's supporting your 600 with the most efficient reflector available in a sealed hood. :cool:

This hood will also prove easy to keep cool; just mount your fan downstream of the hood and suck the air through it. Duct outside air - that is, not tent air- into and through the hood, and put the fan either outside the hood or at least at the exit inside it. You may not need much additional cooling at all in your tent. In this environment, humidity will be a breeze to control, and believe me, you'll want to!

Alternatively, you could try an open bat-wing or adjust-a-wing style hood, and these are more efficient (no glass and all), but you'll need to run some kind of active AC to cool your tent enough, or blow a lot of air through it- which means you can't control your humidity very well. Tradeoffs.
 
#8
I'm running a growzilla with 1200w total(600mh 600hps) in a 4x4. I suck air through the hood with a 6" active air exhaust fan and have another exhaust fan on top of the tent sucking air through a carbon filter inside the tent. I have a whole house humidifier outside the tent below the air intake. The ambient temp is a steady 76F and the RH fluctuates between 50 and 60. The hood is cool to the touch, radiant temps a foot below the light are about 80F.

outwest
 
#9
A 1000 watt light will light up a 4X4 tent perfect..
 
#10
Like my rig, Baba? Id love run some of your genetics in there one day! :)

outwest
 
#11
outwest said:
I'm running a growzilla with 1200w total(600mh 600hps) in a 4x4. I suck air through the hood with a 6" active air exhaust fan and have another exhaust fan on top of the tent sucking air through a carbon filter inside the tent. I have a whole house humidifier outside the tent below the air intake. The ambient temp is a steady 76F and the RH fluctuates between 50 and 60. The hood is cool to the touch, radiant temps a foot below the light are about 80F.

outwest
Click to expand...

Cooling is key- that's huge power in an itty bitty growing space- love it! Is that the hood you started with in that space, or did you work your way up to it?
 
#12
if ya got the doe to lay out nothing beats this imo, its fully adjustable and just a great all round product



hb
 
#13
ttystikk said:
Cooling is key- that's huge power in an itty bitty growing space- love it! Is that the hood you started with in that space, or did you work your way up to it?
Click to expand...

Definitely worked up to it. I never start plans at full power. Using digital ballasts, I crank it over a few days!

outwest
 
#14
half baked said:
if ya got the doe to lay out nothing beats this imo, its fully adjustable and just a great all round product



hb
Click to expand...

...and that's not even the coolest thing in the Gavita catalog; somewhere here on the Farm, Theherbalizor is running test grows with Gavita's new plasma light, and getting some amazing results! So sure, if money is no object, the Ferrari dealership is waiting...
 
#15
outwest said:
Definitely worked up to it. I never start plans at full power. Using digital ballasts, I crank it over a few days!

outwest
Click to expand...

What I was referring to was when you got the tent originally, did you put a 1000w setup in it right away, or did you work your way up to it?
 
#16
ttystikk said:
...and that's not even the coolest thing in the Gavita catalog; somewhere here on the Farm, Theherbalizor is running test grows with Gavita's new plasma light, and getting some amazing results! So sure, if money is no object, the Ferrari dealership is waiting...
Click to expand...

haha yh but you dont see my point with the pro1000, it goes from 600 to 1150, helps to adjust temps in the room (i know, i got 1 lol) and your right about the plasma, really good but only as supplement lighting, u cant flower with it alone so you would have to have a hps like theherbalizor does, which wouldnt work in this case, plus the pro1000 is less than half the price as the plasma and only £120 more than a normal 1000hps unit, to me its a no brainer
 
#17
ttystikk said:
What I was referring to was when you got the tent originally, did you put a 1000w setup in it right away, or did you work your way up to it?
Click to expand...

I started with just a single 600, then lumen envy set in.

outwest
 
#18
half baked said:
haha yh but you dont see my point with the pro1000, it goes from 600 to 1150, helps to adjust temps in the room (i know, i got 1 lol) and your right about the plasma, really good but only as supplement lighting, u cant flower with it alone so you would have to have a hps like theherbalizor does, which wouldnt work in this case, plus the pro1000 is less than half the price as the plasma and only £120 more than a normal 1000hps unit, to me its a no brainer
Click to expand...

I got your point, don't worry! With Gavita you know you're paying more, and yet you also know you're getting what you pay for. Nothing wrong with that. I think the single best thing about the Gavita Pro is that they guarantee the bulb will still be 95% or more of its original lumen output after a whole year or 4500 hours. I find that very impressive, and definitely makes the system worth the additional cost if you can replace bulbs less often.
 
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