I have a 9x12 space and $1200

Room is in a basement with a small window for exhaust

I was thinking of doing 2 tents inside of the space....not sure how big to go.
one 1000 watt MH for vegging and clones
two 600 watt HPS for flowering
air cooled hoods with fan and carbon filter

Would you do things differently? is the 1000 MH overkill?
This is my first grow and I was thinking the 1000 watt would grow with me better if I ever start to upgrade/expand.

I am a firm believer in mh during veg. I would use a t5 for your clones. Lumatek ballasts are the way to go. They can run both types of bulbs, plus are switchable for the watts.
You can never have enough light.

I was hoping that the 1000 watt MH would be enough for vegging and clones.
You would recommend another light set up separate for clones? How important would that be? is it something I could upgrade to after the first grow or is it necessary off the bat?

what size tents would you go with for this light setup?

Thanks for the replies!

U can put the clones off to the side, out of the main footprint. The 2 600's will fit great in 4x8 tent. It will save you $600-900 if instead of tents you buy some panda film and some 2x4's and just put you up a dividing wall. Tents are great, but will dent your budget pretty bad. I would do like 12x5 for flower and 12x4 for veg with the light more towards 1 end and clones at the other. 2 600's will fill the 12x5 nicely. Thats just my 2 cents.

I got a 4x8 tent (MTN Gearsmith, 600d fabric for $200 and a 4x4 for $120).
I use the 4x8 for flower (2x 600w) and the 4x4 for veg. (600w). I think 1000w for veg is overkill. Some may disagree, but you do not need a large space and most of the time the plants are small anyway. It would be hard to keep a 1000w cool in a small space too. I run my 600w veg tent at 400w anyway (dimable ballast), it can get hot at 600w even though the light is air cooled. I'm in a basement too, similar dimensions and have been running this veg and flower tent as a perpetual grow and been doing well. I've been getting 24oz out of 1200w flower tent 3x in a row on different strains.

Flower under 2 thousands. Veg under 1 600 mh and a t5 for the clones. Instead of asking if that would work, tell us what your trying to get out of it? How much nug are you looking to yield? Are you looking to pay that 1400 back or is it a medicine investment

tillygrower said:

Room is in a basement with a small window for exhaust

I was thinking of doing 2 tents inside of the space....not sure how big to go.
one 1000 watt MH for vegging and clones
two 600 watt HPS for flowering
air cooled hoods with fan and carbon filter

Would you do things differently? is the 1000 MH overkill?
This is my first grow and I was thinking the 1000 watt would grow with me better if I ever start to upgrade/expand.

Click to expand...

Use the entire 9 X12 for flower. You'll loose a bit of that because you have to make little paths in there to walk through.

suggestion: buy a solis tech ballast, you can either run 1KW bulb or buy the splitter, and run 2 600's. Its a bit cheaper that way. I'd run the 2 600s. and you could either run MH or HPS.

Get a CFL for your mom, and do that outside the room CFLs works great and is cheap, when My mom gets going I can literally pull one cut a day from her from CFL's. You dont even need a tent. The vegging is up to you, I dont know if your gonna run SOG or Trees, etc. so that is up to you. You dont need a ton of power in veg, a 12 inch tall plant will triple in size in bloom so the veggies dont have to get too big.

Thanks for the replies. I was afraid that the 1000 watt MH might be overkill. if I used a 600 watt MH (with conversion bulb) instead, would that have a large impact of final yield?
I am just looking to harvest the most bud I can with that investment. was thinking of running perpetual sog style.
I was looking at two 8x4 tents for $110 each, and with a tent I could easily at CO2 in the future.

Someone suggested using the entire 9x12 space for flowering with just two 600 watt bulbs? Does that make sense?

tillygrower said:

T

I was looking at two 8x4 tents for $110 each, and with a tent I could easily at CO2 in the future.

Click to expand...

You sure about that? $110?

If its damp, I would buy a 65-70 pint dehumidifier first.

- Jiji

jijiandfarmgang said:

You sure about that? $110?

If its damp, I would buy a 65-70 pint dehumidifier first.

- Jiji

Click to expand...

yes....well I guess its more with shipping
http://www.amazon.com/Reflective-Mylar-Hydroponics-Hydro-Cabinet/dp/B003VW6IN2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407254490&sr=8-1&keywords=4x8+grow+tent

two of those are already ordered.
Just deciding on what lights to fill them with.
pretty set on two 600 HPS for flowering

Ok so my goal is to harvest as much per year with the setup as possible, and use some sort of perpetual system eventually in place.

so I bought the tents
Flowering tent will be two 600 watt hps.

What kind of lighting should I use for vegging, clones, moms? to be able to fill the 4x8 flowering tent. mix of MH bulb and T5? Just MH?

how do I ventilate/cool/filter?
should i run a cooling circuit just for the lights?
I am a bit lost of how to filter and run piping.

thanks for all the help so far

tillygrower said:

Room is in a basement with a small window for exhaust

I was thinking of doing 2 tents inside of the space....not sure how big to go.
one 1000 watt MH for vegging and clones
two 600 watt HPS for flowering
air cooled hoods with fan and carbon filter

Would you do things differently? is the 1000 MH overkill?
This is my first grow and I was thinking the 1000 watt would grow with me better if I ever start to upgrade/expand.

Click to expand...

My plants veg perfectly under t5's. I see absolutely no need to pay the energy for a 1000w HID for vegging. Plus your veg area doesnt need 1000w's. Id slam 3 600w's in a single flowering tent and get a big t5 and put the veg plants under it in a corner. No need for a tent for veg plants, they barely smell and don't need darkness, also t5's need no ventilation. For venting the flower tent you will need an 8" centrifugal fan, i recommend vortex. Depending on your intake temps you may also need a smaller fan to blow air into the tent. Basements are generally cool, u may be able to get away with just passive air intake and no AC, depending on your environment.