Led grow tent help!

Hey guys I plan on getting a 36"x20"x60" (http://www.virtualsunhydroponics.com/Agricultural/products/VS3600-20.asp?rt=2) and I have 100w blackstar led and plan on getting a 240bs or an led under $300 if you guys recommend any led let me know. You guys think I can grow 2 good sized indica plants? I plan on doing 2x DNA genetics- La Confidential

Nobody fucks with blackstar??

chicanoindo said:

Hey guys I plan on getting a 36"x20"x60" (http://www.virtualsunhydroponics.com/Agricultural/products/VS3600-20.asp?rt=2) and I have 100w blackstar led and plan on getting a 240bs or an led under $300 if you guys recommend any led let me know. You guys think I can grow 2 good sized indica plants? I plan on doing 2x DNA genetics- La Confidential

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If you want a random opinion on the BSs you could buy the 240, sell the 100, and then buy some Neutral or Warm White spots. Far Red spotlights would be great too. Or call up Gotham Hydroponics and see if you can get a deal on a 240 and another 100 which would be really great for even coverage with your width I think. I own 2 BS240s, they're OK but the technology behind them is getting old and they can be prone to trouble. Good Luck And Happy Growing!

I don't have any experience with blackstar, but I have a relatively small tent and even growing 2 - 3 plants in there is a problem. Everything gets tangled and theres no room to work. A better size tent would be a 3x3 or 4x4, you can hang the lights to cover just the plants, and it provides room to upgrade your grow setup later on

I agree get a 3x3 or 4x4 and sell ur 100 buy a Good led for about 500. Stay away from bs. Look into fero or apache magnum black dog. A good light ranges from 500-1000 don't skimp out
Ventilation is key

the tent seems pretty high for the led light. i have a pg-180 in a 2'x1.5'x3' tent it could be a little taller. but it works good with the tent. i dont grow monster plants or anything. will be doing smaller 12/12 from seed plants starting soon after my bigger plant is done flowering

My tent is 5'11" but once you add in the height of pots or the hydroponic system it goes down at least a foot. Then The lights need to hang a little from the top to vent the hot air out of the led unit, so that takes some more vertical space. I don't grow monster plants either, but having more room for the 2-3 that i'm growing is necessary. Right now theyre growing into each other because there wasnt enough room to space out the 3 gal pots. My next grow will be with a 3x3 tent or 1 plant scrog due to space

I just started my grow, but i have the same exact tent and i have (2) Blackstar 240w HO Veg models in it right now. I have a 6" inline fan in there that creates some big negative pressure but if i leave the tent zipped up it still will hit 90 degrees or better which is no bueno. For now i'm leaving one of the doors partly open

6'' fan and you have to keep the door open? I run 600W (FERO+Kessil) in a 3x3 tent with 4'' fan and I didnt look at the temps since introducing the new light but it feels fine in the tent, your BSs are creating more heat than HIDs or what?

Perhaps, in my opinion something might be wrong with your set up. I know for me I had to cover one intake hole at the top of my tent (there was 2..? ) so that the fresh air comes in at the bottom through negative pressure and the air goes out at the top. when you flower, you will want that door 100% shut if u dont want hermi.

My biggest issue is the ambient room temp. I live in the southwest and i just moved into an older home with single pane windows and an old AC unit. Also, the closet is in my home office so i have multiple computers, 5 monitors, a receiver and stereo equipment, routers, etc going in there. Plus I'm in here all day. It's just warm in here and there's not too much i can do about it besides by a window AC unit for this room which i'm probably going to need to do here shortly. In the cooler months this won't be an issue and i'll be able to zip her up. Thanks for the tip during flowering though, i will keep that in mind.

Endur0xX said:

6'' fan and you have to keep the door open? I run 600W (FERO+Kessil) in a 3x3 tent with 4'' fan and I didnt look at the temps since introducing the new light but it feels fine in the tent, your BSs are creating more heat than HIDs or what?

Perhaps, in my opinion something might be wrong with your set up. I know for me I had to cover one intake hole at the top of my tent (there was 2..? ) so that the fresh air comes in at the bottom through negative pressure and the air goes out at the top. when you flower, you will want that door 100% shut if u dont want hermi.

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Maybe it is only certain models but my Blackstar 240w runs hot as fuck. So much so that I believe I could run my HID, with a cooltube & 6" inline at lower temps. As a matter of fact I'll more than likely be doing this soon so I'll let ya's know.

IMO, I think the vents on the blackstar disrupt the airflow in a tent causing higher temperatures. The hot air vents out on both long ends of the panel with some force.

That was my first impression as well, that it runs way hotter than i thought it would. I think those vents on the sides are a huge problem too. From the pictures i saw of them i didn't expect that much air to be coming out of the sides, especially with the 3 fans on the back/top of it. Kinda weird.

I also had the same thought about HID with a cooltube but i would hate to have to do that because I really wanted to go all LED. I'm going to change the lights for flowering regardless and haven't bought the flowering models yet so i'm stll up in the air about it

ottomatik said:

That was my first impression as well, that it runs way hotter than i thought it would. I think those vents on the sides are a huge problem too. From the pictures i saw of them i didn't expect that much air to be coming out of the sides, especially with the 3 fans on the back/top of it. Kinda weird.

I also had the same thought about HID with a cooltube but i would hate to have to do that because I really wanted to go all LED. I'm going to change the lights for flowering regardless and haven't bought the flowering models yet so i'm stll up in the air about it

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That was kind of my impression too. Those fans really blow with a lot of force down into the panel and eventually the air blowing out the sides is hot as shit. So what you end up with is a panel that is 10 inches wide blowing hot air out on both sides, with force. My tent in 24 inches deep/wide so that 14 inches left, 7 inches on each side of the panel. The hot air blows out, hits my tent walls, on both sides, and then cascades up/down/whatever and completely disrupts proper airflow. Hell, it has been hotter on the bottom of my tent recently as opposed to the top where it vents out. Figure that shit out.

I mean I got into leds in the first place for heat issues mainly. If I cannot control heat with a led panel then there simply is no point in having it.

That being said my BS180 which runs in a smaller tent has no problem being vented with a pc fan! BS240 is from 2011 and the BS180 is 2012, If that makes a difference.

otto - If you can keep your temps down the BS's are great for vegging.

We are on the same exact page my friend. I went LED for heat issues as well and now i'm concerned about dropping another thousand bucks on flowering LEDs VS a few hundred or less for an HID setup with cool tube if the LEDs aren't going to run that much cooler. Hell, I already have the inline fan going. Time to do some more research on which LEDs run coolest and perform best. When i bought the Blackstars, i just assumed they would run cool, and everything else checked out as far as price and reputation. oh well.

Just checked and with my (2) 240w HO models, one door partly open at the bottom of the 3 x 1.75 x 5 tent, i was at about 84-85 degrees which is a few degrees above ambient temp. Mind you this is with one door partly open. I put a big block of ice in front of the door and a small fan blowing over it and i'm now at 80 degrees.