2nd box for perpeutal grow

Hey all, I have been growing in the dealzer grow box for a few weeks and see it's not going to be big enough to provide anything worthwhile. Check out my grow here,,, http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-grow-journals/1202834-1st-time-hydro-grow-journal.html

I have a second box built already, but would like some assistance on cooling and lighting. The new box dimensions are 18"X24"x48". I want to put this light in there ... iPower Grow Light 400W HPS Dimmable Basic Wing Reflector Set - 400 Watt Grow Light Sets - iPower Grow Light Systems
with the ballast set down to about 200W, that way if I expand later I'll have the 400W capability.

Can I feasably keep this space cool with a 200W HPS, and if so, how many CFM's do I have to look at exhausting? I looked at doing fluorescents but for about $100 this HPS puts out up to 55,000 lumens. $100 of fluoros looks like it can only offer 10-12000 lumens.

Thanks for the assistance.

Oh, and I plan on lining the inside with mylar so don't let that black paint throw you off, just wanted to clean it up a little bit.

 

So yesterday I went down to my local grow shop to talk to the guys there about lighting. I told them the space I had to work with and I was talked into getting a 600w HPS. These guys hooked me up with a used ballast, super sun 2 hood and bulb for only a C-note. They assured me that even with the space I have I can keep the heat out with my setup. The negative is the hood is slightly larger than my box. I drilled out a couple holes for the hood vents, slid it inside, screwed the cabinet back up and it fits like a glove. This means I'll have to have a system to raise/lower the plant since the hood cannot move. Another step closer, hopefully be able to get this thing all set up before my white widow is ready to flower.

Oh, and on a side not. Dinner I made last night looked so good I had to take a picture before I dug in. Black beans, Jasmine rice, seared salmon, and a mango/avocado salsa.

 

Made some progress in the box. Got a 4in centrifugal fan hooked up to the hood exhausting out of the closet. Lined the inside with panda film and got my bucket, air pump, stone, timer etc all ready for the plant to switch over from veg to flower. I have a 4in air inlet at the bottom of the box with a 5in and 6 in desk fan inside to circulate air. Out of the top of the box I have a PC fan for now, going to have to get something better when I figure out my filter situation to account for the added pressure. So in a 3sf space I managed a 600w HPS and am holding steady at 79.5 degrees with an ambient room temperature of 76 degrees. When I finally kick the AC on in the place that temp will come down.

Edit: Photos will come soon

 

I have the ballast outside the room, the cord is long as hell so figured why not and save the space. I'm doing a little training, I have my journal linked up top, some LST and just Fimmed last week. Figure give it another few days and switch it into the new cabinet. Its a sativa and I've heard they grow quite a bit more after flowering than indicas so want to put it in there soon as I can.

Thanks

 

So I'm at 95% now. Only thing I have left to do is figure out a carbon filter for the exhaust vent. Since I'll have a couple weeks before the smell starts to really permeate I went ahead and moved the plant to the new cabinet and got a new seed germinating in the old box. So here are the details

-24" wide x 18" deep x 4' tall box.
-600W HPS with ballast set up outside the grow room to help keep heat down.
-Super Sun 2 air cooled hood, pulling in clean air and exhausting via a 4", 150 CFM fan and duct to outside. Hood is to wide for the box and hangs out slightly on either side so there will be no chance of raising or lowering.
-4" diamater passive intake
-120mm PC fan exhausting straight out the top

I'm running the light cycle through the night right now when temps are lower. When I start the lights up in the evening temps in the box are about 80, in the morning when I wake its at 74. I think the plant might be a little small for the space, but not sure how much its going to grow during flower yet.

 

I just switched to 12/12 yesterday.

 

I was researching cost/benefit of the lights. I only had space for 2' bulbs which put out about half that. And a setup with (4) 2' T-5 bulbs I found to cost $90-110 from a lot of the sites I could find. Whereas for that same $100 I could get an HPS which would put out more light. I went to a local grow shop and asked a bunch of questions and they said they wouldn't even bother with fluoros and wouldn't recommend any HPS under 600W. After researching a lot through this site I found that as long as I can keep heat down there is no such thing as to much light. So I did what I could to try and keep the heat tolerable and think topping out at 81 when the ambient room is 75 is pretty good. That being said I will be keeping an eye out on them to make sure I won't have to consider dropping down to a 400W.

 

I can't post pics in more than one thread, check out my journal thread linked up top, theres a few more of the plant in there.

I am super pumped, it is my first grow though so I also have a lot of caution and worry that everything will work out OK so I'm trying not to get to far ahead of myself.

I'm thinking of buying another, more powerful PC fan to stack on the one I have now. I saw a thread where someone hollowed out a PC fan, put a coverplate with tiny holes on one side, fill with activated carbon, another coverplate, then the working fan to pull air out. With only 1 plant, maybe 2 at a time I don't think I will need a much bigger filter

 

I'm a little worried about whats been going on since I switched over to flower. On one hand the plant itself is growing great and gotten noticeably bigger in the last week. However the leaves continue to curl under, I'm not quite sure what that means. It almost looks overwatered, but is that possiible in a hydro system? I've got a 6in airstone splitting a 100gal air pump with my veg bucket.
 
Does anyone know how to post photos on this forum now from my computer?

 

See that the photo attachements are back working again. I think I'm going to take my 4" fan back and get a 6", its just not doing the job, especially after I was testing a filter, airflow went down to nothing and temps starting spiking. Aside from that, growth has been phenomenal, I'm pretty sure you can see in the photos it grew noticeably from this morning to this evening.  Still haven't seen a clear sign of sex yet, only been in flower a little over a week though.

 

Well the roots are submerged in water all the time so I don't see how they could be underwatered. I'm pretty sure I had a nute lock-out for a few days. When I swapped it into its new bucket I messed up on getting the pH right, it was sitting over 7 for a couple days and the leaves starting curling bad. You can tell even in the 4th and 5th pics from my last post how much it perked up over a day. I'm going to give it another day to straighten itself out before  I try anything else.

 

Went out and got the bigger fan and upgraded the ducting from 4" to 6". I got the fan with a variable speed controller which is nice, but even better is how much quieter the bigger fan is. I can sleep comfortably through the night without waking up to this loud whooshing noise like with the 4". I've got the fan speed set to med and am keeping temps within 1/2 degree of ambient. 76.5 degrees currently. I don't know if you can see in the pics or not but I hung some of my panda film across the box, below the light. I spoke to a guy at the grow store and he said too much heat, leaves will curl up, and too much light, leaves will curl down, exactly like i was seeing. After some reading on here I thought too much light was impossible, but he told me no way, if the leaves have all the light they can use to photosynthesize, the leaves will curl down in order to reflect more light away. I'm 2 weeks into flower and still haven't seen any clear sign of sex, but I can't believe how much its grown in that time.
 
I threw in a photo of day 1 of flower and today, 13 days time.