couple of questions on my new grow box

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felony06

Active Member
my grow box is 2'x4'x5', doin a soil grow.
i have a 1000 sun sytems mh/hps switchable ballast and 1000w mh for veg and 1000w hps for flowering.

how many plants can i grow before the 1000w isnt enough?

for ventilation i have a 500cfm fan for the box exhaust and a 80cfm fo the light cooltube. is that adequate?
 
S

sirbudmaster

Well-Known Member
felony06 said:
my grow box is 2'x4'x5', doin a soil grow.
i have a 1000 sun sytems mh/hps switchable ballast and 1000w mh for veg and 1000w hps for flowering.

how many plants can i grow before the 1000w isnt enough?

for ventilation i have a 500cfm fan for the box exhaust and a 80cfm fo the light cooltube. is that adequate?
Click to expand...
in that size box with thousand watter, you can grow as many as you can fit :hump:


peace
 
cph

cph

Well-Known Member
with 1000wa you could probably triple your space and be ok. Good luck keeping it cool in there.
 
Trunk5

Trunk5

Well-Known Member
heat will be your main concern. i would use the 80cfm fan for an intake, and exhaust the whole room thru your light hood useing the 500cfm fan. and in that space i could see 6 comfy 2 gal pots or 8 cramped.
 
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felony06

Active Member
right now i have 1 gallon pots, would i have to use 2 gallons pots to get the plants the full height of the box??? if so at what height should i switch my plants from the 1 gallon pots to 2 gallon pots?

and with my solution should i make it fresh daily or have it premade in the gallon jug?
 
Hairy Bob

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
Trunk5 said:
heat will be your main concern. i would use the 80cfm fan for an intake, and exhaust the whole room thru your light hood useing the 500cfm fan. and in that space i could see 6 comfy 2 gal pots or 8 cramped.
Click to expand...
There is no need for an intake fan, as long as there is a way for air to get into the growspace it will come in as the stale air is extracted. It really is amazing just how many people don't realize this simple fact.
If you have a 500cfm exhaust, then putting an 80cfm fan as an intake is going to restrict the intake, as if it was allowed to flow freely, it would be moving 400cfm more!
Temperature control will be much easier if the cooltube is run as a separate, sealed system ie: it has it's own intake, ducting, fan and exhaust, and the air running through the cooltube never actually gets into the growroom. I'm not sure 80cfm is enough to cool a kw light, it would depend on the ambient temperatures, and the type of fan (if it's an axial, it almost certainly won't be enough since they can't deal with static pressure like sucking/blowing through ductwork)
That said, the fan you have is more than enough to keep that size room in acceptable range, and could well be used to cool the bulb. I would try a 'dry run' without any plants in there, try a couple of setups and monitor the temps (ambient as well as in the room, ideally you should be able to keep it less than 5 degrees above the outside temp)
I'd start by running the big fan pulling air across the bulb through the cooltube, and blowing it out of the room, leave it shut up for a few hours, then come back and see how warm it is. It should be ok, to my mind, but will depend on the temperature of your intake.
Sorry for the long post, hope it helped.
 
Hairy Bob

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
felony06 said:
right now i have 1 gallon pots, would i have to use 2 gallons pots to get the plants the full height of the box??? if so at what height should i switch my plants from the 1 gallon pots to 2 gallon pots?

and with my solution should i make it fresh daily or have it premade in the gallon jug?
Click to expand...
I've grown plants almost four feet tall in gallon pots, then i started to run out of headroom. The main reason i see for people using big pots is that it lets you water less often, and because they think that plants will get root bound if they keep them in smaller containers.
As long as the plants are getting the nutrients they need, when they need them, the size of the pot will not inhibit growth.
If you're in any doubt, check out some of fdd2blk's threads, he grows monsters https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/24703-its-all-bullsh-t-3.html#post256195
 
F

felony06

Active Member
Hairy Bob said:
There is no need for an intake fan, as long as there is a way for air to get into the growspace it will come in as the stale air is extracted. It really is amazing just how many people don't realize this simple fact.
If you have a 500cfm exhaust, then putting an 80cfm fan as an intake is going to restrict the intake, as if it was allowed to flow freely, it would be moving 400cfm more!
Temperature control will be much easier if the cooltube is run as a separate, sealed system ie: it has it's own intake, ducting, fan and exhaust, and the air running through the cooltube never actually gets into the growroom. I'm not sure 80cfm is enough to cool a kw light, it would depend on the ambient temperatures, and the type of fan (if it's an axial, it almost certainly won't be enough since they can't deal with static pressure like sucking/blowing through ductwork)
That said, the fan you have is more than enough to keep that size room in acceptable range, and could well be used to cool the bulb. I would try a 'dry run' without any plants in there, try a couple of setups and monitor the temps (ambient as well as in the room, ideally you should be able to keep it less than 5 degrees above the outside temp)
I'd start by running the big fan pulling air across the bulb through the cooltube, and blowing it out of the room, leave it shut up for a few hours, then come back and see how warm it is. It should be ok, to my mind, but will depend on the temperature of your intake.
Sorry for the long post, hope it helped.
Click to expand...
yes the lighting ventilation and cooling is its own sealed system. i just realized i dont have a intake hole....so should i jus cut an intake hole around the same size as my exhaust hole. it should be as low as possible to bring int he coolest air right?


and i think im going to return the smaller fan and get the medium sized one the moves 250cfm if the lighting doesnt stay cool enough.

i was also wanting to add a small ozone generator to deal with the odor. now for the questions. do i put the ozone generator inside the box or outside of it. is there any beneficial or non beneficial side effects of O3 (ozone) on the plants
 
S

sirbudmaster

Well-Known Member
felony06 said:
yes the lighting ventilation and cooling is its own sealed system. i just realized i dont have a intake hole....so should i jus cut an intake hole around the same size as my exhaust hole. it should be as low as possible to bring int he coolest air right?


and i think im going to return the smaller fan and get the medium sized one the moves 250cfm if the lighting doesnt stay cool enough.
Click to expand...
at least same size yeah, or many smaller sizes.. I went with 1 1/2 PVC 90els...painted them all black, cut out holes, put the twp units together...I used plumbers putty to put around them to fill in any gaps from my cut...works great...i have same system as you. sorta

Peace
 
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