Grow Tent Venting? Blocking light but still allow air ?

[Fattyboomba]

Hi Guys,

Ive got a Spider Farmer® 5’x5’x6.5′ 150cm x 150cm x 200cm Indoor Grow Tent and I want to
open one of the vents but still block the light.

What are you guys using to block the light/pests but still allow airflow?

Is there a circular foam insert or something I can put in the hole? Love to know what you guys
are doing on the fresh air side of your grow tents but still block light from escaping.

Fatty...

P.S I already have the spider farmer Inline Intelligent vent, ducting, carbon filter etc mounted inside
the grow tent and venting to the outside. I just need a way to deal with the fresh air side of things.

 

[KingOfUranus]

Hi Guys,

Ive got a Spider Farmer® 5’x5’x6.5′ 150cm x 150cm x 200cm Indoor Grow Tent and I want to
open one of the vents but still block the light.

What are you guys using to block the light/pests but still allow airflow?

Is there a circular foam insert or something I can put in the hole? Love to know what you guys
are doing on the fresh air side of your grow tents but still block light from escaping.

Fatty...

P.S I already have the spider farmer Inline Intelligent vent, ducting, carbon filter etc mounted inside
the grow tent and venting to the outside. I just need a way to deal with the fresh air side of things.

Get a fan for your intake, its worth it imho. You can place it outside the tent and duct air into the tent. (I place my fans in cardboard boxes filled with old clothes, to muffle the noise. It works great.) You could also get a bug filter for your intake if you're waorried about bugs etc.
If you really must stick with a passive intake, you can use couple of meters of accoustic/insulated ducting. Push it through one of the top ducting vents and let it hang down to the floor on each side (one end inside and one outside of the tent). The bend in the ducting should stop any light. You could try regular flexible ducting, but I thiink without the accoustic/insulation you may still get some light leak..

 

[Fattyboomba]

Get a fan for your intake, its worth it imho. You can place it outside the tent and duct air into the tent. (I place my fans in cardboard boxes filled with old clothes, to muffle the noise. It works great.) You could also get a bug filter for your intake if you're waorried about bugs etc.
If you really must stick with a passive intake, you can use couple of meters of accoustic/insulated ducting. Push it through one of the top ducting vents and let it hang down to the floor on each side (one end inside and one outside of the tent). The bend in the ducting should stop any light. You could try regular flexible ducting, but I thiink without the accoustic/insulation you may still get some light leak..

At the moment I just have black ducting coming out of the vent hole with a sock over the end.
I understand the idea of another inline fan on the intake. So I should purchase another spiderfarmer 6 inch inline fan? Can 2 work off the same intelligent controller?

 

[KingOfUranus]

At the moment I just have black ducting coming out of the vent hole with a sock over the end.
I understand the idea of another inline fan on the intake. So I should purchase another spiderfarmer 6 inch inline fan? Can 2 work off the same intelligent controller?

I dont know the specifics of your controller, but if it is a muti-fan controller, then yes that is what they are designed for If your controller has two sockets, one labelled "intake" and one "outake" then yes it is desgined to run intake and outtake fans. If it is a single fan controller then no.

 

[KingOfUranus]

I just had a quick look for your "intelligent" controller and it appears that it's smarter than me!! lol I think there is a way to run (daisy chain) multiple fans from that controller, but I couldnt work it out so you'll have to look into it more yourself ☺

 

[freezeland2]

At the moment I just have black ducting coming out of the vent hole with a sock over the end.
I understand the idea of another inline fan on the intake. So I should purchase another spiderfarmer 6 inch inline fan? Can 2 work off the same intelligent controller?

You can run two ac infinity fans on one controller.

 

[Zombierider]

I had the same question when I started my grow. I got a 4 inch ac infinity booster fan and 4 inch ducting, and placed it to draw air inside from the bottom premade holes in the tent. I also have a second passive intake with some 6 inch ac infinity ducting (ac infinity sells nice blacked out ducting that will prevent light leaks).
I think it’s best to have the intake enter from below so your exhaust fan can draw fresh air through your canopy from below upwards, providing oxygen to the plants and minimizing airflow blockage/temperature hotspots. You can also add a passive intake, though for passive id go with a 6 inch. And if you don’t get the blacked out ducting, it’s quite simple to block the light coming from ducting, just throw a towel or blanket over it and aim the open end away from your tent.

As for keeping pests out, just get some mosquito netting on Amazon for like 10$ and tape it to the end of the ducting, you don’t want too thick of a covering over the ducting because it will stress the motor in your intake fan. And if it’s passive, too thick of a bug filter will severely minimize the cubic feet of air per second entering the tent. Hope this helps!

 

[Blastfact]

All this make up, fresh air supply BS is a left over from the old days when we ran LPS, HPS and MH lights. All you need is a good exhaust fan, bigger is better and controls. AC Infinity does a really good job of this now days. I set mine up to blow into the carbon filter and sew one end of the prefilter close and line the inside of the carbon filter with it. This induces head on the fan and keeps it on the fan curve. Set the fan up to run off temp and high humidity. Open the mesh vent panel in the tent and let it go. Plants only need fresh air to control temp. They don't breathe O2 like we do. They make O2. If your worried about light polluting your grow during lights out time use pool noodles to help control light getting into the grow area on the backside of your tent where the mesh panel is if you chose a good tent design. Pool noodles also help with blocking light from being visible from mesh panels if for some reason your trying to be super stealth during lights on. In my smaller tents,,, no big enclosures here anymore I use three 6" fans. Two in the grow area below the light and one above the light. One above the light and one in the grow area cycle with the lights and the other is on 24/7 to help with light off humidity spikes that the exhaust fan also monitors and catches. Good Luck!

 

[Zombierider]

All this make up, fresh air supply BS is a left over from the old days when we ran LPS, HPS and MH lights. All you need is a good exhaust fan, bigger is better and controls. AC Infinity does a really good job of this now days. I set mine up to blow into the carbon filter and sew one end of the prefilter close and line the inside of the carbon filter with it. This induces head on the fan and keeps it on the fan curve. Set the fan up to run off temp and high humidity. Open the mesh vent panel in the tent and let it go. Plants only need fresh air to control temp. They don't breathe O2 like we do. They make O2. If your worried about light polluting your grow during lights out time use pool noodles to help control light getting into the grow area on the backside of your tent where the mesh panel is if you chose a good tent design. Pool noodles also help with blocking light from being visible from mesh panels if for some reason your trying to be super stealth during lights on. In my smaller tents,,, no big enclosures here anymore I use three 6" fans. Two in the grow area below the light and one above the light. One above the light and one in the grow area cycle with the lights and the other is on 24/7 to help with light off humidity spikes that the exhaust fan also monitors and catches. Good Luck!

So what I said is made up? Me thinks your misinformed friend. Fresh air is doing a lot more than just cooling the plants, it gives them more CO2, yes plants don’t breathe oxygen I misspoke there.

 

[Zombierider]

Check out 14:00

 

[freezeland2]

All this make up, fresh air supply BS is a left over from the old days when we ran LPS, HPS and MH lights. All you need is a good exhaust fan, bigger is better and controls. AC Infinity does a really good job of this now days. I set mine up to blow into the carbon filter and sew one end of the prefilter close and line the inside of the carbon filter with it. This induces head on the fan and keeps it on the fan curve. Set the fan up to run off temp and high humidity. Open the mesh vent panel in the tent and let it go. Plants only need fresh air to control temp. They don't breathe O2 like we do. They make O2. If your worried about light polluting your grow during lights out time use pool noodles to help control light getting into the grow area on the backside of your tent where the mesh panel is if you chose a good tent design. Pool noodles also help with blocking light from being visible from mesh panels if for some reason your trying to be super stealth during lights on. In my smaller tents,,, no big enclosures here anymore I use three 6" fans. Two in the grow area below the light and one above the light. One above the light and one in the grow area cycle with the lights and the other is on 24/7 to help with light off humidity spikes that the exhaust fan also monitors and catches. Good Luck!

If you are having a problem with tent temp a supply of fresh air rather than passive intake helps lot. I run a 6” ac infinity for exhaust and a 4” ac infinity for supply. Both are running on my t6 67 controller. Both fan speeds run at 8 on high and 3 when off. They are set to trigger by high temp or high humidity. Works very well. No bro science BS here.

 

[Zombierider]

If you are having a problem with tent temp a supply of fresh air rather than passive intake helps lot. I run a 6” ac infinity for exhaust and a 4” ac infinity for supply. Both are running on my t6 67 controller. Both fan speeds run at 8 on high and 3 when off. They are set to trigger by high temp or high humidity. Works very well. No bro science BS here.

Yeah dude to each their own, more than 1 way to skin a cat (poor cat ). And of course people live in different environments so maybe blastfact is lucky and doesn’t need active intake, but without my active intake my tent definitely runs hotter.

 

[Heath61]

Hi Guys,

Ive got a Spider Farmer® 5’x5’x6.5′ 150cm x 150cm x 200cm Indoor Grow Tent and I want to
open one of the vents but still block the light.

What are you guys using to block the light/pests but still allow airflow?

Is there a circular foam insert or something I can put in the hole? Love to know what you guys
are doing on the fresh air side of your grow tents but still block light from escaping.

Fatty...

P.S I already have the spider farmer Inline Intelligent vent, ducting, carbon filter etc mounted inside
the grow tent and venting to the outside. I just need a way to deal with the fresh air side of things.

use a inline 4 inch fan outside and 4 inch duct inserted at the floor level of the tent it will circulate the air without the wind storm effect. Use a pores filter over the inlet of the fan with a dryer sheet also. then use the exhaust fan to slow down the airflow and use a CO2 bag hung high and the the air below the DWC bucket will raise the carbon into the atmosphere to help the plant growth. You can tell what speed the fan needs bt the walls of the tent. should be inverted a lil. Not too much and if you slow it down a lil more then the CO2 will have more effect on the plant. The carbon filter and the fan for such with the ducting material should come with the tent. Vent that to the dryer vent and use backflow preventers for the dryer and the tent fan. If ant smell it will go outside

 

[Sod]

I use metal flexible 6 inch ducting. That and a can of flat black spray paint to paint inside of ducting. Never had a problem. Check to make sure your fan with a passive intake is not pulling a vacuum on your tent, which indicates your intake is not letting in enough air to match the cfm of your fan. It's easy to see. The sides will move inward if there is a vacuum. I'm changing to a bigger intake today from what I had set up after seeing the vacuum on my tent. That happened due to not thinking when I added some 4 inch flex to add some distance to my intake duct. Go bigger, not smaller on passive. Any way, flex duct and flat black paint works for me.

SOD

 

[Blastfact]

Yeah dude to each their own, more than 1 way to skin a cat (poor cat ). And of course people live in different environments so maybe blastfact is lucky and doesn’t need active intake, but without my active intake my tent definitely runs hotter.

It's been 99F to 106f here for the last couple of weeks and it's getting ready to really start boiling this week. Dog days of summer are setting in and my AC Infinity 6" exhaust fans that vent into the lung room still won't need to be over speed number 6 with a photo and auto grow in a 2x4 and 3x3 in the same room. Being way over lit like I am with my lighting and being able to keep the dimmer settings low thus helping with lighting heat really helps also. Even HLG lights put out heat. Also keeping my HVAC system in top working order helps a lot. My unit runs a 20 to 21 degree differential. And having 30 years or better time in the HVAC world and the last 20 years being a manufactures rep also helps me balance out the system and subsystems. And regardless of the grow, outdoor or indoor conditions I come first. I will be comphy after years of fighting heat stress and heat stroke from working in boiler rooms, roof tops, attics and other hellish hot and cold environments. Whats good for me is good for my plants. I do pay a high electric bill as some would see it. But I've been on a averaging program with my electric utility for over 30 years. Just checked this months bill,,, $184 is nothing...