VIRGIN HERE, ANY ADVICE?

So I have a few things for my first tent and I'm after ANY advice or feedback/tips etc.

Lighting: I am happy with my light and will likely stay within the viparspectra range. Although 450w seems a little too conservative for someone like me. I also want to allow for future expansion. Is increasing the wattage worthwhile? PAR at nominal height seems the same? Confusing shit tbh. Anyone have comparison yeild pics on different output vipars?

Already purchased:
1 x Greenfingers 6 inch Hydroponics Grow Tent Ventilation Kit Vent Fan Carbon Filter Duct Ducting.

1 x VIPARSPECTRA 450W LED Grow Light.

1 x Greenfingers 2.4m x 1.2m x 2m Hydroponics Grow Tent Kits Hydroponic Grow System

1 x soil pH testing rod.

What else do I need? Area I'm growing gets to 5°c in winter and 40°c in summer.
Any other useful Instrumentation etc? Anyone had success in AU with online seed banks?

This newb will appreciate and consider all sound advice I can get.

Legends.

Welcome.

Check out the Aussie thread for seed bank advice.

Your going to need a lot more of those vipars to cover a 2.4x1.2m tent mate.
They are 200w lights and recommended to cover 2ftx2ft so you would need 8 of them.
Better ways to light up a tent, when you add up all that wattage and cost of buying enough of them your not getting a good deal by any stretch of the imagination.

You could light that space with 2x 600w hps for very little.
You could use 2x 630 cmh for really good results.
Or you could buy a couple of good LEDs from cutter.com.au

https://www.cutter.com.au/product/ssk-550-kit/
Two of these for example.

I don't know how much your paying for those vipars.
Over here they are advertised at £109-£119 each.
Thinking on your whole space that 8x say £109 = £ 872 for what is essentially one of the poorest quality LEDs you can get.
Compared to (for me) £547 x 2 = £1094 for lights designed and built in your own country with a good reputation and considerably less wattage to light your space due to been far superior efficiency.

However you probably didn't expect you would need 8 of those vipars and probably didn't expect this was going to cost you so much money.

That is the best option outside building your own light as far as LED goes.

But if that's way out of your budget look at 630 cmh lights, I can pick one of those up for £300 if I don't buy the top brand.

Then again if that's too much look at a couple of 600w or 1000w hps which is the cheapest way to light up your space and give good results and will piss all over those vipar spectra lights and cost a massive amount less to do the same thing.


Of course there's nothing to stop you using your current light and growing to its limitations of 2x2ft in your space and getting a few grows done.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

• Temp/Humidity meters with hi/lo for inside and outside the tent.
• oscillating circulation fans
• EC meter
• the light has been mentioned as limited coverage

That 6inch fan/filter looks suck-ass also. It's only a 18 watt blower (on sticker), not the 36 watt on the advert bubble.
That is not going to work for odor or cooling that size tent, not with that style fan or size filter, unless the Vipara light is the only light you get.

is this what you were looking at for fan and filter? Zoom in and read the sticker...

Wow, ok. Yeah, 8 is a lot. Perhaps I could purchase a smaller.. 600x600x2000 tent to utilise the 450 vipar? I really wanted led, didn't really consider other lights as much as I could have due to LEDs long lifespan, heat output and efficiency. Will look into the others..

$180 AUD for my vipar, unfortunately I bought it before choosing the tent.

I could get around making my own led's, if the labour time/money works out favorable. Will also check this out.

Great help, cheers!

The vipar will make a great light for veg. I'd buy 2 600w hps lights for flowering.

Gumekidmadcity said:

Wow, ok. Yeah, 8 is a lot. Perhaps I could purchase a smaller.. 600x600x2000 tent to utilise the 450 vipar? I really wanted led, didn't really consider other lights as much as I could have due to LEDs long lifespan, heat output and efficiency. Will look into the others..

$180 AUD for my vipar, unfortunately I bought it before choosing the tent.

I could get around making my own led's, if the labour time/money works out favorable. Will also check this out.

Great help, cheers!

Click to expand...

It happens to more people than you could imagine mate. Usually a few a week come on here with a similar situation.

Yes a small tent would probably suit your light and ventilation that you already have. Though you can just use your big tent, just stick to the proper lighting coverage.

If you would like to look into DIY , its very common, then check out LEDgardener and look for strip builds.
Again your lucky in the fact you have one of the best LED companies, cutter in your country and they are very competitive.
You can look at some of their strips using cree diodes which are very good for DIY and you would cut a huge chunk off lighting costs with those.
@diggs99 just built a set up using those I think so perhaps he can link his thread for you to look at.

Its a very simple project if your willing to do the basics.

Roger. Small filter and fan is now to be used in smaller tent. Should I size the tent according to vipars bloom size recommendation? 2ftx2ft? Thanks lads

Gumekidmadcity said:

Roger. Small filter and fan is now to be used in smaller tent. Should I size the tent according to vipars bloom size recommendation? 2ftx2ft? Thanks lads

Click to expand...

Yeah but no harm in it been a little bigger either, just size your plant canopy to the lights flower footprint.

You could even go with a 3x3 or 4x4 tent and ultimately turn it into a veg tent using the same vipar light you have after a few grows.
You can veg a fair bit more space than you can flower and they do give great results in veg.

Always nice to have a bit more room and not fill it than too little.