What size of water pump?

SkyHigh420Time

Active Member
Hello,
I am a first time indoor grower and my setup is almost complete.
I constructed a 5x5x7 grow tent with a 4x4 grow tray and a 40 gallon res. I am using a 1000w Hortilux HPS EN bulb.

What gallon per hour pump should I use. Is 210 gph okay?

Thanks for the help.


 

shenagen

Well-Known Member
If the tray isn't too far up in the air it will be fine,oh wait its in that cab so you can't go up far....it'll be fine(is it adjustable?) I use a 250gph for a 2x3 tray..and I still have to turn it down a bit.
 

grandpabear3

New Member
very nice set up for the first go-round...396gph cant be beat imo!!!you'll only have to run the pump for about 4 minutes or so to flood the table! have fun
 

SkyHigh420Time

Active Member
thanks for the info. I think I'll go with minimum 300gph pump.

One more question,

On my light hood, the air inlets are 4". should I use a 4" inline fan and ducting? Will this be adequate to vent the thoueee / grow space?
 
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shenagen

Well-Known Member
It depends how long you want to water for too. I water 15 min. at a time, so I don't want my pump to fill in two seconds...more of a gradual increase, so it better pushes the stale air out of the hydroton...plus I have 2 air ropes in the tray under the pots. If you are wanting to do a bunch of quick waterings you may want the 300.
 

shenagen

Well-Known Member
I'd get the smaller pump or get a 3-way valve to put in-line on a bigger pump....unless they are adjustable. An air rope is basically a 4 foot tube that you hook up to an air pump. I have 2 ropes in my ebb n flow tray run off a dual outlet air pump. I water 4 times a day 15 min. at a time. I also have 2 air stone things in my res. All the o2 works great for me(gota keep water temps lowish too).
 

grandpabear3

New Member
thanks for the info. I think I'll go with minimum 300gph pump.

One more question,

On my light hood, the air inlets are 4". should I use a 4" inline fan and ducting? Will this be adequate to vent the thoueee / grow space?
yes use the 4'' fan and ducting and it will be adequate e-nuff as long as you use as powerful of a 4''-er as you can get. usually 6'' for the 1000 but a 4'' centrifigal fan would do the trick.:mrgreen:
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
I have doubts about a 4" blower shifting enough air to cool a 1000 as well as ventilate the space adequately. Around 200CFM is needed for cooling the 1000, not too many 4" blowers can do that rate. If you find one that does, I bet it's noisy, owing to having to move a fairly large volume of air though a rather small diameter. Listen to one you're interested in before you buy if you can. A 4" centrif blower will likely be a bunch more exxy than a 6" axial- shop & compare.

Cooling fans for lighting must run at all times when the light is on. If the light's cooling fan is used to ventilate the room, the room temp can't be controlled with a thermostat. Stopping the airflow with a thermostat during lights-on may cause the hood to overheat. The room will have poor temp stability if the exhaust blower runs all the time. A fan for cooling lighting should run on its own timer, set to run the fan during lights on plus about 15 mins after lights-off.

A separate blower, running on a thermostat, should be used to exhaust the room.
 

SkyHigh420Time

Active Member
So it sounds like I should either run a 6" hooked up to the hood which would take care of the space or run two separate fans for each purpose. I am leaning towards a single six incher for everthing due to my budget.
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
With only one fan, you won't be able to control the temp of the room with a thermostat. It'll have to run all the time to cool the lamp.
 

SkyHigh420Time

Active Member
My space is setup right next to a window and I have an a/c unit that has a thermostat. I am considering cutting a window in the tent for it to poke in or just using it to control the entire room's temp. I plan on having the fan running all the time. Is there a downside to this besides reduced fan life?
Al B your the man
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
My space is setup right next to a window and I have an a/c unit that has a thermostat. I am considering cutting a window in the tent for it to poke in or just using it to control the entire room's temp. I plan on having the fan running all the time. Is there a downside to this besides reduced fan life?
Al B your the man
If you have a window aircon unit mounted through the wall of the tent, it will handle temp control by itself. However, it will dump waste heat out its other end into the room where your grow tent is located. You'll have to consider how you will remove that warm air from the room, be that via an open window or via the central aircon system in the house, if it has one.

You can make any aircon work much less hard by sourcing the cooling air for the air-cooled light fixture from outside the tent and dumping it outside as well.




While this bit of kindergarten art describes a basic cooltube installation, it applies to your setup as well. Most of the heat from the lamp tubes is picked up by the air forced through the cooltubes and dumped outside the room's airmass. This means that the intake/exhaust fans are not solely responsible for removing heat from the room air. Has the same benefit for aircon-equipped ops; prevents the a/c unit from having to shift the heat.

If you added an aircon unit to this, the ventilation blowers should run on a timer for 5 mins per hour to draw in fresh CO2 laden air, instead of running on a thermostat. The aircon unit will handle the room air temp. Your air cooled hood will have to have an inlet and an exhaust duct as well as a sheet of glass over the lamp to keep air wholly within the ducting and not remove any conditioned air from the room's airmass.​
 
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