Hey so ill be recieving everything in the mail this week. And Im just wondering what would be the best possible way to set up my ventilation with what I got. Tent Secret Jardin Dark Room Pro DR120 II Grow Tent - Secret Jardin - Grow Tents - Greners.com x2 Inline 6'' 400 CFM Inline fans Active Air In-Line Fans - Greners.com Silverstar Reflector (If anyone knows if this has 2 vent holes please let me know) http://www.stealthhydroponics.com/shopimages/products/normal/600W_Silver_Star_Light_Kit_normal.jpg Phresh Filter Phresh Filters - Greners.com So I was thinking I would run ducting from the reflector to one of the port holes up top to the exhaust and then have the phresh filter outside of the tent. And the intake I was just goin to run ducting from a fake vent on a white piece of plywood in the window as a facade and PULLING the air in. And then I was just going to build a little tube to blow the air into the bottom middle of the tent or somewhere near the center of the plants. Also where I live its very cold and I know intake has to be atleast 60 degrees. How should I go about heating this very cold intake air? Also what would be the benefit of dropping 400 bucks on a co2 generator? Is this too much ducting? Is this going to be sufficient air flow for my 4x4x7 tent? This is my first grow so please dumb down your answers for me Im just wondering if all this sounds right or if someone can teach me how to set this up the best way possible that would be great. Im also open to ideas/suggestions on upgrades and stuff for the future Thanks guys
Hey man, I have the same tent although the first version which has less vent holes. As far as I know all Silverstar Reflectors have a port on each side. I think you should run one fan for the reflector only, and one for extraction/filter and go without an intake fan. Thats how I have mine set up and I only have 4" 165cfm fans, and even it sucks the tent in pulling through a filter. Your 400cfm will have no trouble pulling air in through the intake. As for your intake air, I wouldn't heat it. I would pull cold air through your reflector and just have a passive intake pipe in the room. You could move it near the window if you find your tents a little hot, or depending on how cold the air is once it goes through your reflector, you could even pull that air back into your tent. Edit: I bought my tent and one of my fans from Greners too. I find the 4" active air way louder then my Chinese knockoff one. That 6" you have is probably going to sound like a jet lol.
How would my plants get fresh co2 when the reflector is sealed. I would need 3 inline fans then correct? 1 pulling air into the reflector, 1 pulling it out and one pulling air as an intake. And how would that exhaust the old air thats being pulled in from outside? From the silverstar picture I think it might only have 1 vent hole. Im not positive yet, but it should be here within the next day or two
Well if it does only have one vent hole thats crazy, it should look like this: http://www.oasishydroponics.co.uk/pub/files/Lighting/.thumbnails/1279981648_silverstar_w170_h170.jpg If it only has one hole your only option is to pull air out. I would still only have 2 fans though whether the reflector has one hole or two. One fan pulling air through the reflector (or out of the reflector if it only has one port), and one fan extracting the air from your tent with the carbon filter attached, on the inside or outside is your choice. The fan extracting air will create a huge vacuum in your tent and all you have to do is hook up some ducting to a vent hole and that will be your intake. Believe me with a 400CFM fan you won't need to pump air in, it be sucked in on its own. As for CO2, as long as your room isn't absolutely sealed and really small, the difference between outside and inside air CO2 content will be almost nil.
Okay, I think everything is coming in the mail except the bubbleponics today! Ill keep you posted, But im definately going to try that. So you think I should have 2 exhaust fans at the top one just sucking air out of the tent (connected to the filter) and one sucking air out of the reflector? And the ducting running to the window will be suck fresh air from outside just from having that exhaust with the filter?
I think you should use the vents on the side of the tent for the reflector, the upper ones of course, and as you said vent your filter out the top. If the air from outside isn't too cold, I like your idea of a passive intake to the outside. If you find its too cold, use that one for your reflector, and just draw air in from inside the room.
Okay thanks I was going to run the exhaust and intake into a white piece of wood with a fake vent pushing and pulling air out from outside. The only problem is the vents will have to be pretty much next to eachother, Do you think that will be a problem? If it is im just going to set up my tent exactly like yours. Does your intake just get sucked in from the fan with the filter through a pipe next to the ground?
Hmm not sure about your vent setup, if that would cause a problem or not. I think your saying you are venting out and pulling in from almost the same spot right? I don't know how much of a problem that would cause. Your right about my setup, the fan that runs my filter and exhausts the tent creates negative pressure, and I just have a piece of ducting on one of my lower vents. If you do go that way, it would be a good idea to use flexible ducting and give yourself a few feet to play with. For one thing you can make a couple bends in it to prevent light leaks, but also you can move around where you are getting air from. Sometimes I like to crack my window a little, and I can suck in some fresh air.
Yeah im most likely going with your set up. Cuz im gonig to have ducting just running from the hole to the window with the fake vent. Do you think that would be enough negative pressure to suck fresh air thru a few feet of flexible ducting?
Oh ya for sure with your 400cfm fan. Also I hear those Phresh filters flow better then most filters so that will help as well. Just make sure all the ports you aren't using are sealed well.
K cool, Tomorow first thing in the morning i'm setting it up so ill post pictures. The bubbleponics might not be here til monday tho
Okay this is what i got goin on so far from everything I got in the mail so far. Sorry about the shitty quality pic, it was from my cell cuz i didnt have my digital camera with. I saw a cheap 30 dollar intake fan at the hardware store and its a 6 inch. Would this be too much air flow if I hook that one up too? And I figured out what Im going to do about ppl being able to see the ducting in the window. Im going to get a broken window air conditioner and just gut it and have my ducting sitting inside the empty air conditioner with pretty much just the box and the face plate.
Nice, I like the air conditioner idea. I don't think you can have too much airflow unless its literally blasting your plants around, for $30 why not. The one issue I had was that humidity is low here and with too much airflow my humidifier couldn't keep up so I got a speed controller and turned down my fan a bit. Thats only an issue if you use a humidifier though.
Yeah I got a speed controller you can see in the pic for the light exhaust. Do you think if i hooked up 2 way splitter I could hook both fans up to it? And you were right about the fans theyre quite noisy. I was thinking about just getting some insulation or just wrapping kid sized sleeping bags around them to drownd out the noise, but its not the biggest of my worries at this point.
Oh ya I can see your controller there now that you mention it. I'm not sure if they can control two fans, as far as I know all they are is an electronic rheostat that regulates the power going to the fans so it may work for two. I think I would call the manufacturer before trying that though haha. Worse comes to worse, you can just hook the controller up to the filter/exhaust fan because thats the one that will be moving air in and out of your tent.
Yup thats what I did, I just got to set up the bubbleponics now and the facade for the intake/exhaust in the window sill now. I got a question about the bubbleponics set up though idk if you know much about it but do I keep the water pump on the same timer as the lights and fans? The little tube running up into the rockwool cubes feeding the seedlings nutrient solution until the roots get big enough to dangle in the nutrient solution. Also I got Ultra-fine Mycorrhizae and granular plus mycorrhizae for free in a one of my shipments today. Do I just add these tea bags to the nutrient solution? I already have grow and bloom nutrients plus the micro. I was just wondering if adding these would counter react at all with these. They sound really good though if I can add them to my set up Heres the video for my setup so far, I still need to do the ducting for the intake. I ran a little short. Do you think theres going to be any problems from the fan going to the reflector light sucking in air just from the room? Its pretty dusty in that old house. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn-OJ5imRhQ[/ame] Thanks for all the help
Hey it says your video is private so I can't view it. I've never run hydro so I can't answer those questions, the indoor growing forum would be the place to ask.
Sorry heres the new link for the non private video. Tell me what you think Do you think theres going to be any problems from the fan going to the reflector light sucking in air just from the room? Its pretty dusty in that old house. Also, if you can see in the video the humidity is about 40% in the tent right now. Will that raise once I get water running in the bubbleponics? In my grow guide it says to have the humidity between 60-65 for vegetative and 50 for flowering. Otherwise I can get a humidifier but Im not sure how to get it to stay at a constant humidity. Have the humidifier on a timer? but im not sure how long to have it running [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn-OJ5imRhQ]YouTube - setup[/ame]
nice build... the air where its coming from should be fine..... i'd install a screen of some sort to keep out bugs... maybe some ducting with panty hose over it and wait till the system is running to check humidity levels... guessing is just a waste of time.. consider running your bubble tote a week or two to check things out... make sure to wash it really good before use as well