trying to put 4, 400watt mh inside a 5' x 5' x 6' 8'' grow tent.. any ideas?

I'm getting a Secret Jardin 5' x 5' x 6' 8'' and I have 4 400watt mh ballasts. 2 of which I'm putting 360 watt Plantmaxx mh conversion to hps bulbs and running the other two mh. From what I've been told, there can never be too much light. (So long as your heat is properly vented!) It would kill me to just have these other two just sitting by the side when I could get creative and get them in there! I was either considering just running the sockets with no hood or picking up 4 reflective wings. The tent is obviously lined 100% with the reflective mylar and I'm growing some shrubs. I've trained them to be nice and small. Should I just let the sockets hang or rig something up with the wings? Maybe attaching them all to some sort of a frame to be raised and lowered all together as needed? I'm at a loss. I've stumbled through 4 or 5 bag seed grows with sub-standard equipment but I'm trying to do it right this time.

Get some cinder blocks and 1x8's, cpl floor fans n make a 2-3 tier stadium. Or like u mentioned get the wing reflectors and pack the tent.. .02

There is most definitely a thing as too much light.IME going past 10000 lumens per square foot ends up bleaching buds closest to the light.That being said,you won't even be that high in a 5x5 with 4x 400w HID's.In fact with 4x 400w HID's you'd be supplying 1600w and 200000 lumens.That breaks down to 64w per square foot and 8000 lumens per square foot and that's right in the optimal zone of 50w to 75w per square foot and 7000 lumens to 10000 lumens per square foot.The other plus is four different sources of light overlapping eachother so no one branch/growth site in the canopy is getting more/less than the others.

You can do horizontal or vertical...depending on how much room each hood for each bulb takes up in the tent (gotta make sure theres enough left for ducting,fan(s),etc.) you might be better off vertical running an octagon shaped colliseum made of racks,each rack having 4 or so shelves with the for bulbs stacked vertically down the center of the octagon within the tent.I can tell you with thay much wattage you'll want some serious ventilation....2x bare minimum.If you can run a/c in the room the tent sits in and will draw intake air from to keep that room around 65° to 70°F and with proper sized fan and filter for proper/adequate ventilation your tent should run on average 10°F warmer than the room the tent draws it's intake air from during lights on.Lights off temps in the tent will be the same as in the room the tent draes it's intake air from,or slightly warmer the first few hours after lights off.


If going vert,your tent shouldn't run higher than 10°F to 12°F above the temp of the room the tent draes it's intake air from if you use an 8" 720cfm to 1000cfm + inline centrifugal exhaust fan.

According to this handy chart/graph a light in a room where the light pattern is equal to the walls (ie; a1000w in a 4x4) 300cfm to 325cfm of airflow will keep the 4x4 10°F warmer than the ambient temperature (temp of intake air).



You'll want to be sure to have a passive intake at least twice as big (if not bigger) as your active exhaust.An 8" diameter circle had an area of 50.26 square inches and a 10" diameter circle has an area of 78.54 square inches.So if you use an 8" exhaust fan you'll want a passive intake that at the very least has 100.52 square inches of area,and if you use a 10" exhaust fan you want a passive intake that at the very least has 157 square inches of area.

Thanks for the guidence. I do think that vertically is going to be my best best. It's going to give me much more control and without having to drop the extra cash on reflective hoods. The thought of mounting them is just one more thing I don't even want to think about doing at this point. I'm planning to run a perpetual harvest so this is a new wrinkle in my ever changing plans to work out!

As far as ventilation, I do have the luxury of central air with the added bonus of being in my basement. Ambient air temperature on a chilly night has been 69. Average is 70. That can also be adjusted if the inline exhaust fans aren't pulling what I initially expect. You can plan and plan and do the math, but until you're actually set up and going, you never truly know what you're going to have on your hands. They say experience is life's best teacher right? I'll keep you posted as my setup won't be complete until the first. I always limp to the end of every month financially. When I was in the Army and before, I ran a tidy budget with bi weekly pay. Since I've been disabled.. These checks only come once a month. But mind my words... I'm kicking this things ass as soon as my check hits!