1000w 4x4 Grow Tent......NEED ADVICE

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by Footclan, Dec 25, 2009.

  1. #1 Footclan, Dec 25, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 25, 2009
    Hey all this is my first post here and was hoping to get some feedback.....Im starting a new grow with an aircooled 1000w hps set up with a 4x4 Grow tent.....Im wondering how difficault it would be to grow 1lb of dry buds?? I figured i would cool my light with one 8" inline fan sucking air from outside tent > duct> hood> duct> fan> outside tent.... and then i figured id need an exhaust fan and that would go inside tent >carbon filter>fan>outside tent and last i would have another inline fan at bottom intaking fresh air into tent......thats 3 inline fans and one 1000w light........with this set up what are my chances of yielding 1lb??? i figured i can fit 3 rows of 3 gallon pots thats 9 plants?? is it even possible to yield a pound with 9 plants in 3 gallon pots with a soilless sunshine mix#4??


    anyone have a similar set up and have yeilded at least one pound?? also is this the best and most effecient way to cool my tent and light?? i heard u want more CFM for intake rather than exhaust becaue u want possitive pressure not negative pressure is this also correct???????
     
  2. They will be crowded if they bush out alot. And it will be hot with 1000 watt light in a 4 x 4. I have a 600 watt in a 4 1/2 X 4 1/2 area and I am struggling with heat! The problem is to get 2 oz from each plant they need to be big and bushy which takes up alot of space. Just my thoughts anyway. My friend used a 1000 watt in a 4ft x 3ft area once and he had some very dense buds and he did get like 3oz from a plant but he could only fit like 4 bushy plants in the closet. You will just have to try it and see what happens its very hard to estimate yeilds and nobody wants to guess when you ask! Good luck and keep us posted!
     
  3. Ya i was thinking space and heat would be my biggest probs....did u aircool your hood when you where having those heat issues with ur 600w in 4 1/2 space? how tall ? mines 6 "8 tall........what size pots was ur friend using with those 4 plants? do u rember how much total weight he got from that?
     
  4. Im not sure about total weight but I remember the one plant was a little over 3 oz and it was only like 4ft but the buds were so dense. I remember thinking that is was probably due to the brightness of the lamp in the small area. His pots were 5 gal at least, he used small plastic bathroom trashcans that were rectangle and deaper than they were wide which helped with space and gave the plants more room for root growth. He had very good ventilation using fresh air from outside. This was 10 years ago and he was using the old style HPS light which if I remember right was only 125,000 lumens. My new digital 600 watt high output HPS is a 100,000 lumens so I was hoping to get close to the same results as his very dense harvest but I dont know? At any rate it will be alot better than my 400 watt HPS that only had 55,000 lumens. I wish I could use the 1000 watt lights but I cant have that much going at one time, I live in a very small Apartment. I had to run new electric to my space just to handle what I have now. All of my lighting and plug-ins was on two 15 amp breakers which would have been a fire hazard. Keep me posted!
     
  5. If you can fit 9 plants in your area and get them good size you should be able to reach your goal because thats less than 2oz each plant. Trim the very small branches on the bottom of the plants these small branches wont produce anything anyway and will help keep air moving thru the plants and maximize the light getting to your plants. Just a thought!
     
  6. Dude you are are way overdoing it. Check out these two journals:
    http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-g...ite-skunk-blue-mystic-400w-hps-soil-grow.html
    http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/439130-400-watt-hps-dr60-papaya-home-strain.html

    These show how you want to hook up the venting for your lights. running from tent>hood>duct>fan>duct>filter is the most effecient way to cool your tent. You can intake air passively and this keeps your box air tight(except for the negatively pressurized vents). This will keep the smell in as well and thats very important. You only need one fan and one filter for this system and it really does work. As the fan sucks air out through the reflector it exhausts your box and cools the bulb at the same time. As the air is sucked out, fresh air is taken in through the passive vents to replace the exhausted air. As long as you keep the ambients in your room below 77*, you should find it very easy to cool your tent. The one journal shows a 400w being cooled in a 2x2 box. Youre going to need a fan that pushes about 560 cfm and an appropriately sized filter. Also buy a filter that is slightly larger so that there is more contact time between the carbon and air. As far as how many plants you can grow, definately more than 9, i would do atleast 16. Get 16 plants, veg 30-35 days(approximately 12" depending on strain), and then flower. That first link i posted is my old grow and i did 7 plants in a 2x4 tent and most of them were sativas. With 16 plants you should be looking at getting closer to 2lbs than 1. Hope ive explained this all clearly cause your talking about spending hundreds of dollars you dont have to. Hope ive been able to help and let me know if you need anything else. Genetics is the most important thing in tent growing so picking your strains wisely is the real key to success.
     
  7. I'm not sure what all the criticism is about, your setup sounds well thought-out to me.

    A pound is 448 grams. Rule of thumb is experienced growers with a good setup can get 1 gram per watt if not more, your goal is less than half that so yes, very doable. In fact, if you fill out that space with more than 9 plants I hope you won't be disappointed if you get 2 pounds ;)
     
  8. P.S. on your question about positive vs. negative pressure, it depends on what your goal is. For the life of the fan you want positive pressure, you have air actually moving to the exhaust even without the fan, helping it and easing strain on the motor. For odor control you want negative pressure, so that any little cracks and crevices are having air drawn in through them as well.

    That's the trade-off -- with positive pressure you could be pushing odor out the cracks and crevices, and with negative pressure you are straining your fan (by definition -- if the fan was stronger then it could pull more air and there wouldn't be negative pressure).

    Footclan, I also want to add that you did not say that you are a newbie grower, just that this was your first post, but I still get the sense you are a newbie based on your asking about yield and such. If you are, then I really want to congratulate you and point you out as an example of how a newbie should approach their grow: think it out thoroughly ahead of time, we all have budgets to adhere to but still need to recognize that a good grow op requires proper investment in proper equipment and setup, testing your system and asking key questions before starting -- with that approach you are well on your way to many successful grows.
     

  9. ok so ur saying to use the air already in the tent to cool the hood right?? ok sounds great but why do u suggest the filter at the END of the set up after the hood?? everyone else has been suggesting to put the filter before the hood? does it matter? and will this ONE fan set up keep my room as cool as two fans?? also for me to put 16 plants in there id have to use 2 gallons pots.....and i though the rule of thumb was 1 gallon for every month the plant is alive?
     
  10. hey toasty thanks for the responce.......ya im not even going to buy my clones tell i have everything set up how i want it.......ok so i guess i want negative pressure cause id rather have no smell then longer fan life so negative i suppose is the way to go......thanks for all ur help any other suggestions would be great...... still not sure if i should go ONE 8" fan or two fans one for hood one for exhaust i keep gettin so many diff opinions......
     



  11. also what do u mean by use a bigger filter than i need.....i was just planning on using the size that fit my inline fan so i didnt have to use a reductor in the duct??
     

  12. p.s this is my SECOND grow so ya id say im still newbie.....my ffirst was with 400w hps with air cooled hood and 11 plants but i wasnt happy with the yield......
     
  13. Here is a perfect example of what hes talking about disregard the veg side and ranco heating and cooling controllers, the reason for having the filter on the end is its better to push air threw the filter than suck threw it. As far as the smaller planters go hes referring you to a sog technique which can be more efficient than growing trees, with this much light you should yield at absolute min a pound but could yield a lot more.

    [​IMG]


    For better info on ventilation check my post in this thread http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/518984-designing-first-grow-room.html

    He just means a filter rated to filter more than what you need to filter so that it filters very well.
     
  14. Yes you want to use the air in the tent. what your doing when you air cool a bulb is sucking the heat away as it arises. The 80* heat in your tent wont affect the cooling of the bulb. As for why the filter is at the end? Good lucking mounting one to the hood lol. Youd have to have some big strap or a rig of some sort to support it and its not really worth the effort. Its much easier to just run some duct to the top of your box and place the filter on the roof. The reason people tell you to put it at the beginning is because its easier. You can buy a slightly smaller filter and the systems are usually much simpler. Exhaust systems work just as well but usually are a little bigger and require a little more ducting. Intake filters have become the norm but i think for tent growing, placing it at the end is more effectivce. It saves a little space and you can really maximize the strenght of your fan by placing it in the middle of your system and cutting down on some of the lag caused by long duct systems. And as far as one fan versus two, your trading one larger sized fan for 2 smaller ones. As for pots im about to give you real gold here lol. Tent gardening is all about finding the smallest containers with the largest volume and it takes some digging. Grow bags are the cheapest route. Single use and they occupy about 2" less space than regular pots allowing for alot more plants. However if your willing to really invest this is what you really want. Botanicare Pot 9'' x 9'' White Square Plastic Pot Large: J from Kalyx.com - Hydroponics & Gardening - Pots & Inserts . Quality large square pots and you can find em lots of places for like $2.50. IMO SOG is the way to go in a tent. Ive tried scrogs, hydro, LST huge plants etc. and i find its the best for yield and quality of buds. just my two cents though.

    When your exhausting through a filter, the contact times are figured differently. Your forcing air through it alot faster than you would pull it in through an intake system, so you need to compensate. Filters work through contact time, if the air is going out to quick its not being deodorized. As for reducers, id get to use them cause odds are your hood, fan, and filter are not all the same size lol. I agree they totally suck cause they dont exactly fit neatly into any system but its what you get lol.

    Hope ive been a help or atleast answered your questions. I know i ramble but i got some super skunk thats keepin my fingers typin lol. Any more questions let me know and if you need help finding equipment for your vent setup let me know, ive got a lot of product knowledge and i know a ton of web sites. good luck when you get it up though and youll have to link us your
     

  15. that diagram is pretty wasteful. it's not worth it to have a dedicated space like that in the tent for mom and clones if you're only doing two bubble buckets at a time under a 400 watt hps. just use the whole space to grow and do a scrog so all the buds are level with each other and nothing is getting shielded. two clones is really easy to come across, and if you clone your plants that are in the bubble buckets before you flip to 12/12 or right after, then you can just use those to start the next one. no need to keep a separate mom AND a separate cloning area.
     
  16. As i said..... " disregard the veg side" and the pic has nothing to do with my grow or his i was simply using it as an example of ventilation.
     




  17. I Dont know alot about SOG grows and im not sure how it works.....if i use small pots for a SOG grow like 2 gallon pots wont i have to get them harvested soon becasue of the small pots i dont want then to get root bound right?? also if i do sog grow in 4x4 how will i water them so packed in there?? also that means Spending alot more money on clones too........im also still totaly confused about which is best set up for my exhuast i get that everyone is saying use ONE fan and exhuast air up through the hood then here is where EVERYONE is saying something different do i put the fan and filter on OUTSIDE of tent or just put the fan and filter both in tent?? then i hear its better to suck air through the filter, then i hear its better to push air throuh the filter......this is wat i was thinking for set up hood>duct>fan>filter>outside tent?????????? will this work??
     

  18. 9x9 square pot how many gallons is that?? How many months will a plant stay healthy in a 2gallon pot verse a 3 gallon? my last grow was 2gallons with 4 month plant life time ......so is 4 months too long for a 2 gallon pot??
     
  19. take a breath bro lol. youre stressing way too much. the reality is everyone has their own opinion and is going to tell you the other guy is wrong and theyre right. welcome to mj forums lol. your plan looks good though. thats basically what i do and it works... some say its not the best way but its always worked for me.

    The 9x9 is a 3 gallon container. Stop worrying about months though. Plants create different amount of roots during veg/flower so the number of months its alive is irrelevant. Most people go 1 gallon per 1' of plant. little more accurate since plants root in relation to size not age. Anyways i veg my plants for 30-35 days and then flower for 8-9 weeks. Usually i keep my plants in 2.25 gallon containers but im doing a test run with some white widows in 1.6 gallons. Its totally strain dependant though. Certain strains like blueberry need lots of root space or they do poorly. others can flower in 6" pots. it just depends. you just gotta get growing bro and get some experience. find out what ya like and then get better at it. you seem smart so after 1-2 grows of seeing how it works i bet youll have it down but youre worrying alot about the little things that are really more about grow preference really.
     

  20. lol its 453 grams
     

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