A little help from fellow growers please?

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone, ive always been an outdoor grower but its not practical anymore for several reasons. I have done indoor grows in soil but nothing like what I have now.

I have a 4'x4'x6.5' Mylar Grow Tent. I have an 8" 420cfm exhaust fan mounted directly to a 6" cooling tube which means my fan is inside my tent for now. I have a 6"x20" Australian Virgin Carbon Filer coming which I will hook up the night before I start flower stage. I am going to hook it up different and im looking for advice on how to do so because the way it is now im maintaining a temp of 85f. I would like to get it lower. My exhaust comes out of my cooling tube and out the top and into my attic. I can lay my hand on the top side of my tube but my temp is still 85f. I have only the 3 vents at the bottom open which should be sufficeint and I run an ac in the room and keep it very cool. My light by the way is 1000w MH/HPS and theres only about 3/4" around the bulb between the bulb and glass for air flow. If I dont run the AC in the room my tent temp will be 95f and the cord gets hot. It slightly melted one cord at one of the prongs after only 3hrs operation. My cord has never gotten even warm until I put that 1000w MH bulb in that 6" cooling tube. As long as I keep that room cool and my ambient temp 85f the cord doesnt even get warm. My light cycle is 18/6 and im begining of week one. Im hoping when I hook up the carbon filter and route everything different it will keep cooler. Right now the fan is inside pushing air through and I just wonder if the exhaust fan should be outside the tent pulling air through everything? I see people using 170cfm fans with the same tent I have and having no problems so I figured one 8" 420cfm would pull the filter and cool the light? I really can run another exhaust fan and I really dont want to go down to 600w because ill lose yield. Im only doing one plant(Indica Hybrid Mr. Burns 67 day flwr) because I see people with one plant taking up near the entire 4'x4' of width. The plant is topped twice, recovered and put in a 5gal DWC Bubble Bucket with a EcoPlus2 air pump and is now back to growing. Im using a 4" stone and no top feed. Each night when the light kicks off I use the nutrient solution from the bucket and top water the Hydroton. My solution temp is 83f which is to warm. My air pump is inside the tent but im affraid if I add 3-4f of tubing to put it outside the tent ill lose pressure. If I put it outside the tent where it can pump the cooled air into the solution it might reduce my temp by a few degrees but right now im getting so much air that my water looks like its boiling and I can see bubbles coming up through the hydroton and id hate to hinder that by adding length. I have one 6" circulating fan but I think I may need one more. I use a hydro fogger to keep my humidity at 60% and when I start flower ill drop it to 40%. Im going to put reflective tape on the top of the basket to hopefully help with nutrient temp. My house is 95 years old and is poorly insulated and the only place I have for my tent is upstairs. This is why I have to run AC, the weather outside affects my tent greatly if I dont. I hope I havent forgotton anything, i would like as much advice on my set up as anyone is willing to give. I also need to add my starting water ph is 7.0 and then I add the GH Flora Series plus additives it drops to a perfect 6.0 BUT by day 2 my ph was right back to 7.0. I washed my hydroton in a bucket of water several times until the water was clear. I also noticed by the next day the water was cloudy. The clone was in a Jiffy Peat Pellet and I washed most of the peat from the roots but not evert bit. Is the peat causing my ph to go back up and the water to get cloudy when I top water? Peat is acidic, one would think it would drop the ph if anything not raise it. I plan to change my solution every 7 days and use a ppm meter to know whether to add just ph adjusted water or water with nutes. If the ppm goes up ill add water, if the ppm goes down ill add nutes mixed appropriately to balance ppm's. I go by the ppm's on the GH recirculating chart. Ill thank in advance for anyone that would like to chime in on my set up and methods. Oh, one last thing. My 8" exhaust fan seems to be cooling ok the way its hooked up but it seems as if its blowing back a good deal too. If I close the vents it wont suck the tent in much. Is it because theres only about 3/4" of air space around the bulb and because I have a 6" reducer on the exhaust side of the fan and its blowing through the tube and 15-20ft of aluminum ducting? Should it be pulling? I dont know why its blowing back some, that size of fan should shrivel my tent like a raisin. Thanks again!
 

gogogogogogo

Well-Known Member
Hey man, it might help if you break that wall of text up into some paragraphs! I know it may sound silly, but seeing a nicely outlined group of paragraphs is much easier on the eyes and leaves people more inclined to read all of it. Break down your questions so we can answer them individually. When asking for (free) help it makes all the difference in the world when you present it in the easiest and most direct way possible!

Please don't take my comment as incendiary, I really am only trying to help!
 

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
I knew it was long and I wanted to separate the material but I was honestly just trying to make sure I got everything in there and my damn phone doesnt do paragraphs very well because once the article gets so long if I made a mistake I cant go back and fix it, I have to delete everthing back to the mistake and retype it all. If I try to go back it wont let me go back to the bottom where I left off. Its a royal pain in my ass! Maybe I should just delete it and try with one question at a time but if I do that ill have to explain my set up bit by bit. Either way its a pain in the ass for me or other members. I don't take your comments any certain way, it makes sense. I appreciate it.
 

bravedave

Well-Known Member
Gogogo is right, btw.

I assume your fan/light is at the ceiling of your tent. You mention running the AC but do you mention what the temp is outside the tent? I think most put the filter on one side of the cool tube and the fan on the opposite side...thus pulling, not pushing although tbat would mot affect the heat. Where in your tent are you placing the thermometer? Just seems that you should be doing better.
 

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
My fan/light is adjustable up and down and it right now is about 18-20" from the canopy of my plants which means its a little lower than half way down the tent. I have 2 digital thermometers, one is inside the tent sitting on the floor at the base of my buckets. Its monitors temp/humidity. The other is on the outside and it monitors general tent temp with the sensor half way down the tent and also monitors room temp(outside the tent). The room temp at the floor where cool air is pulled in is 67-69f, fluctuates a little durring the day. Since I posted this I closed the 3rd vent in the back against the wall it brought my ambient temp down to 79f and when my fogger kicks on the temp comes down to 74f. It now averages 75f-76f most of the day but my nutes are still 79f-80f but I cannot plug anymore electronics in. I am going to wrap the buckets with insulated mylar and see what happens. I use Hydroguard since my nutes are above optimum but I doubt im getiing sufficent nute uptake even though im protected against root rot. The hydroguard does however break down the nutes even more making it even easier for the roots to absorb. That's what I read anyway. My roots are now hanging out of the bucket and are growing about 2-3" a day now and are bright white so I dont think im as far off as I thought I was. What do you think?

I know Gogogo is correct on the composition of my thread and I appologize for the long winded thread.
 
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bravedave

Well-Known Member
I was more asking about where you were getting your canopy temps Hmmm...can your plant buckets be raised? Unless a fan is moving top air around your air circulation may be leaving alot of warm air above the light that continues to get warmer. Might try moving light/exhaust to ceiling and raise your bucket to it to achieve the distance you want. Or leave light and unhook exhaust and put it at ceiling.
 

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
I know that heat rises but what is weird is the top half of my tent is cool, its only where the light shines on my buckets and the floor of the tent is where its too warm. Just where the light shines directly is where the high temps are. I can lay my hand on the top of the tube and leave it there and theres no real heat on the bottom until my hand gets within 8"-10" of the bulb. I could put the light 12" from my plants and it wouldnt burn them and its a 1000w mh!

I put reflective tape on the top of the buckets and now the top doesnt get warm but the rest of the bucket does.

If I dont run the AC the entire time the light is on my tent will get 95f and the power cord will get hot. And this is with a 8" 420cfm exhaust fan!

Someone said a 1000w system is a bit high for a 4'x4'x6.5' tent but I want as much yield as possible and I cant plug in anymore lights. This house is 95 years old and if I plug in anymore my breakers will blow. I have an AC, 1000w HID, 420 cfm fan, 6" circulation fan, fogger, and an air pump on 3 seperate breakers.
 

VegasWinner

Well-Known Member
The heat is coming from the lumens. at 1000w, your are at 62 watts per SF in your tent. High. Normal is about 50w psf which is 800w for a 4x4 space. So either go to a 600w and a 200w supplemental or a 600w and a LED 200w light with lower heat gain. At he wattage you are pushing, your plants cannot absorb any more light. extra light is being discarded as heat. Moe cooling wil not help, lower watts by 200 will be better and still get excellent yield. Higher temps reduces yield, as well. peace.
 

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
The heat is coming from the lumens. at 1000w, your are at 62 watts per SF in your tent. High. Normal is about 50w psf which is 800w for a 4x4 space. So either go to a 600w and a 200w supplemental or a 600w and a LED 200w light with lower heat gain. At he wattage you are pushing, your plants cannot absorb any more light. extra light is being discarded as heat. Moe cooling wil not help, lower watts by 200 will be better and still get excellent yield. Higher temps reduces yield, as well. peace.
Thank you, that is excellent advice! I have this question, as my plants get larger will they absorb more light and balance out the heat? I dont think my cheap HydroKraken tent will hold two fixtures plus my carbon filter. It has plastic corners and the bar is slightly bending now. Dont they make a 750w system? Would a 600w still get me good yield? From my understanding its one gram per watt, so 1000w/1000g? IF everything is optimal I suppose. I am not running Co2, however durring flower if I can do something about heat I may ferment some whiskey mash in my tent for about 4 weeks. Mid flower would be best wouldnt it? Sorry for all the questions, thanks again for real! I don't know a whole lot about lumins and things, im an outdoor grower forced inside but I seem to like it more except for power use. Probably because its fairly new to me. I may set up a 2 phase and make my power free, lol. Or solar eventually.
 

VegasWinner

Well-Known Member
@chronicals77 the plants will remain the same with regards to light absorption . check out this ballast ->https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/110780/GROW-XTEDW1000.html?utm_source=SmartFeedGoogleBase&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_term=GROW-XTEDW1000&utm_content=Digital%252FElectronic+Ballasts&utm_campaign=SmartFeedGoogleBaseShopping&gclid=Cj0KEQjwmKG5BRDv4YaE5t6oqf0BEiQAwqDNfL4iRCF6-SSN7Btn0J5SU4qBkCpxSxsaMzDc_z9frucaAhLy8P8HAQ dimmable multiple wattages, 1000/600/400w. may be your solution. During bloom you will need better control over temps as CO2 needs a range of temps as well for best absorption 50w a SF is a standard no matter the plant size.. peace
 
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chronicals77

Well-Known Member
@chronicals77 the plants will remain the same with regards to light absorption . check out this ballast ->https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/110780/GROW-XTEDW1000.html?utm_source=SmartFeedGoogleBase&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_term=GROW-XTEDW1000&utm_content=Digital%252FElectronic+Ballasts&utm_campaign=SmartFeedGoogleBaseShopping&gclid=Cj0KEQjwmKG5BRDv4YaE5t6oqf0BEiQAwqDNfL4iRCF6-SSN7Btn0J5SU4qBkCpxSxsaMzDc_z9frucaAhLy8P8HAQ dimmable multiple wattages, 1000/600/400w. may be your solution. During bloom you will need better control over temps as CO2 needs a range of temps as well for best absorption 50w a SF is a standard no matter the plant size.. peace
Thanks for that. I read somewhere optimal temperature for elevated Co2 absorption is 80f, is that not correct?
 

Olive Drab Green

Well-Known Member
I'd say fuck the tent and use a closet. Especially with HID. Just my opinion, not necessarily the right answer. I just wouldn't want the hassle that containing the heat would cause.
 

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
It is a pain but apparently im 200w over what I should be for this size of a tent. Maybe that will make all the difference. I would love to use a closet but this old house has two closets and one has a furnace in it. Lol. That leaves one closet for our crap. We have to use wardrobes for our clothing. This house was built in 1920 and had no running water or electric for years. Theres 8 rooms and a garage and all is on 3 breakers! The fucked up part? The power company approved it 15 years ago. I have to run heavy duty extention cords just to be able to cool the house without blowing a breaker everytime the microwave is used. Its fuct!
 

bravedave

Well-Known Member
It is a pain but apparently im 200w over what I should be for this size of a tent. Maybe that will make all the difference. I would love to use a closet but this old house has two closets and one has a furnace in it. Lol. That leaves one closet for our crap. We have to use wardrobes for our clothing. This house was built in 1920 and had no running water or electric for years. Theres 8 rooms and a garage and all is on 3 breakers! The fucked up part? The power company approved it 15 years ago. I have to run heavy duty extention cords just to be able to cool the house without blowing a breaker everytime the microwave is used. Its fuct!
Ok wait....what are those beakers rated? What is the total coming in?
 

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
Ok wait....what are those beakers rated? What is the total coming in?
Standard 20A breakers. I ran my 1000w MH for 3 years and never even had a warm plug until I put it in a 6" cooling tube and a 4'x4'x6.5' tent. As long as I keep my tent in the 70's the cord stays cold, my tent hit 95f once and it just started to melt the cord around one prong. I probably need to go down to one 600w HID and sup with my two 125w hydrofarm clf hood fixtures. I use my cfl's for clones though. Damnit!
 

bravedave

Well-Known Member
Standard 20A breakers. I ran my 1000w MH for 3 years and never even had a warm plug until I put it in a 6" cooling tube and a 4'x4'x6.5' tent. As long as I keep my tent in the 70's the cord stays cold, my tent hit 95f once and it just started to melt the cord around one prong. I probably need to go down to one 600w HID and sup with my two 125w hydrofarm clf hood fixtures. I use my cfl's for clones though. Damnit!
Just saying that I would bet you have more power than 60 amps coming in. Check that out and add a couple more circuits if possible. Give yourself some breathing room. Oh and your circuit should trip before your cord melts.
 

chronicals77

Well-Known Member
It didnt. Its also on a very heavy duty surge protector with a built in breaker and it didnt trip either. I don't know the gauge but the cord is 3 times as thick as one of those heavy duty orange outdoor extension cords. All cords and timers are 15 and 20A.
 
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