Hey guys, noob here needs help!

[irishboiii]

Hi again everybody, dont know if you remember me from a while back but I finally got the money together to get all the equipment to start my grow.

My problem is, Im VERY confused regarding what equipment to get! Im from Ireland and a hydro shop called www.bloomandgrow.ie is my only option to shop from. Here are my questions:

1. Il be getting a 120x120x200 tent (either a "blackbox" or a "coolbox", perhaps some of you are familiar with these brands and if so Id like your opinions on them please).

2. Il be running a 600w and am thinking of going for the "bolt digital 600w ballast". If any of you have any knowledge on that it would be great too.

3. Il also be getting a cooltube reflector but dont know what size to get or anything.

4. My biggest confusion however is what kind of carbon filter, intake/outtake fans to get, what kind of ducting to get etc. Everything is different sizes and have technical terms that Im not familiar with at all.

Now for the details of the grow I intend:

Im planning growing 1-2 Sensi Seeds Northern Lights from seed using DWC & SCROG, with topping & LST'ing.

Hope you guys can shed some light on what to get as Im very confused. Its mainly everything to do with ventillation & maintaining correct temperature that confuses me.

Thanks in advance guys :-)

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

Its gonna take more than one reply to help ya get goin but let's slowly start? I can tell ya that in a 120" x 120" you are gonna want at least 4 lights. A 400 watt will cover about 3'x3' A 600 watt will cover about a 4'x4' area and a 1000 will do about 5'x5'. You can definitely light a bigger area than specified but these number are for maximum light output. It sounds like you will only be doing a couple plants so one light will do for now. For a Single light if you get a 250 C.F.M. centrifugal fan with a small filter itll be fine for cooling your tent.

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

5x5 tent
Centrifugal inline fan 250 cfm 6" (ventilation)
6" duct fan 100 cfm (intake)
Cool tube reflector 6"
Carbon filter 6"
6" ducting
600 watt HPS bulb
600 watt ballast

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

A couple absolute basics. And I know there will be other people on here that will tell you otherwise. But listen people, these are very vague numbers just to give my new friend an idea of where he should be standing.
Temperature should range from 75 - 85 with lights on. 60 - 70 with lights off.
Humidity should be around 40 - 60
When you set up your tent your going to want to intake fan through the bottom, and you want to exhaust through the top. You generally want the intake strength 1/3 of you exhaust. You want the exhaust strength strong enough to evacuate your area within five minutes. So just for example if you had 500ft of volume to evacuate you would need a 100 cfm fan to keep the air fresh. And if your trying to cool hoods you want about 250 cfm for each 1000 watt light. If you have 4 1000 watt lights you need about 1000cfm fan to keep em cool. I'll keep thinking and keep posting. I want to see you grow some great sticky stanky ;)

 

[irishboiii]

Thanks for the in depth, detailed reply man. I REALLY appriciate it!

Iv been watching HygroHybrid on youtube and will be trying to do my grow like his. A single, monster plant in DWC & using SCROG method.

I was going to go with a 100x100x200 until I read about others doing grows like the one I intend and most say that a 120x120x200 is needed for a 600w SCROG grow due to the amount of space needed for the SCROG net.

Do you still think Id be better with a smaller tent?

 

[irishboiii]

I should also mention I cant go over a 600w light so theres no way Il be able to do a 1000w light.

I have to stick with a 600w and limit the number of plants so thats another reason Im choosing a single plant SCROG grow.

I just realised the info you gave was for a 5x5 tent, so what kind of fans etc should I use in a 120x120x200?

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

Just multiply any number I gave you by 4 to get the number for the bigger tent since its exactly 4 times as big. If your following hygro hybrid then you'll be fine. I've been following him for a while and someday plan on scrogging out a pound plant. He has some skills. If your only gonna do one light I would suggest just doing one plant like hygro. If your looking for similar results. If you cant do a 1000 watt, can you do two 400 watts? You'd get 200 extra watts of lighting and more even space coverage. In a 10'x10' tent if you were using 2 400 watts I'm confidant you wouldnt have to vent the hoods, but only vent the room through your carbon filter and use adjacent fans to keep good airflow directly beneath the lights.

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

Well get ya through this brotha! :)

 

[SonOfDaMourning]

I agrre with mmmdankbuds on everything but the blower fan. Get yourself a 6" as he stated but get it at 400cfm and get a speed controller. Run then in chain with the lights and filter and this will cool the lights and filter the air at whatever rate you set your speed controller! Too fast and your tent will begin to cave a biton the walls from negative pressure. Just open the bottom flaps to counter this.
If you can only burn 600w then get a 4x4 or 5x5, a 5x5 wil give you a better spacing away from the tent walls for light to reflect and penetrate. If your not gonna have a veg area id say get a 4' 4or6 bulb t5ho fixture to save $$$ during vegging! Eventually if you wanna upgrade to a 1000w and/or add a 2x4 veg tent later you can with little more $$$.

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

The negative pressure is key to preventing stink leaks and will ensure that any and all air evacuated from the tent will be scrubbed through the carbon filter. With an intake fan 1/3 the power of the exhaust fan it will prevent the walls from sucking in, but still guarantees you the negative pressure that is needed to keep any smell from escaping.

Its definitely never a bad idea to go bigger and use a speed controller. Cause what happens when you expand? you need another fan if yours isnt powerful enough. And using T5's for veg is an excellent idea. Get at least 4 or 6 bulb for good coverage.

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

One little piece of advice about your filter too. You hook your centrifugal fan directly to your filter. And you want to suck through the filter, not blow through it. Just though about it and had to spare it. Lol

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

Give me the exact dimensions of the tent your for sure gonna get and I'll figure out all the numbers for ya brotha.

 

[Drifting13]

I think we have a USA to EU snafu. The "120x120x200 tent" irishboiii commented on, if it's in cm works out to roughly 48"X48"X80"
Which would work with a 600 HPS light setup.
I was just looking at tents and noticed some are listed in inch & some are in centimeter.

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

Haha I think your right on that! Irishboii, are your measurements in centimeters or inches?
120cm or 120inches. I forgot I live in a country That hasnt been smart enough to make the leap to the metric system yet. We'll get ya through this one problem at a time my friend. Lol

 

[irishboiii]

Thanks for all this help guys, you have no idea how much I appriciate it!

Yes my measurements are in cm, 120cm x 120cm x 200cm.

Sorry, I was not aware that the US use different measurements lol

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

Haha no problemo. Well with that information I can say that the first list I wrote down is what you need for that size of tent. Unless anybody has any objections id say buy your gear and then get back to us when your done setting it up or when your ready to set it up.

 

[Bannacis]

lololol...I just came upon this thread...too funny. I seen the 120x120x200 and was thinking metric, or was hoping...
So with your 5'x5'x80" tent info was spot on...it could of ended there. good thing it didn't
Everybody got some good info in the process and a chuckle........ with some Luck of the Irish....:)

 

[irishboiii]

Ok Dankbuds, will do. Im just in the process of finding a suitable apartment or house to do it in. Cant wait to get everything up and running!

Lol Bannacis, luck of the Irish indeed!

I shall pop back to this thread if I have any more questions, and also to let you guys know whats going on with my grow.

Il do a grow journal too, so Il also let you know when I get that started too.

Thanks so much for the help guys!

 

[irishboiii]

@ Dankbud, so just to clarify this is what I should go with:

5x5 tent
Centrifugal inline fan 250 cfm 6" (ventilation)
6" duct fan 100 cfm (intake)
Cool tube reflector 6"
Carbon filter 6"
6" ducting
600 watt HPS bulb
600 watt ballast

Also, what length ducting should I go with (as in how long a piece)

Theres also lots of different ducting on the website. Theres aliminium ducting, carbon ducting etc as well as the standard type ducting (not sure what its called).

 

[mmmdankbuds420]

@ Dankbud, so just to clarify this is what I should go with:

5x5 tent
Centrifugal inline fan 250 cfm 6" (ventilation)
6" duct fan 100 cfm (intake)
Cool tube reflector 6"
Carbon filter 6"
6" ducting
600 watt HPS bulb
600 watt ballast

Also, what length ducting should I go with (as in how long a piece)

Theres also lots of different ducting on the website. Theres aliminium ducting, carbon ducting etc as well as the standard type ducting (not sure what its called).

Ya that list. If I were you id just get a 25 foot length of ducting. It doesn't have to be fancy, just make sure its not transparent. Get the foil kind. Use just enough ducting to run your fan to your light and then use the leftover length to go from the other side of your hood out the tent and then you'll have at least 10-15 feet of tubing left that you can hook to a window or even just out the doorway. And with the intake fan you dont have to use any ducting on it.