Recently ordered 4x qb132 and LRS-350-36 based on your other thread @Tbone Shuffle I'm going to be getting a single 3x3 tent. Do you think I need something fancy like a Can-Fan or Vortex to exhaust my tent? Or should I go with a cheaper fan? Also, would you use 5G or 7G fabric pots in a 3x3 tent? Thanks in advance
6" fan but it doesn't have to be anything that special. Make sure it's variable speed and you can slow it down to where it maintains temps for you at lights on. I use an Apollo for $69 on amazon. I think it's identical to the vivosun or some others. Rated at 440cfm. In your tent with your lights you'll probably run it on low speed but when the heat of summer comes you'll probably be happy to have that extra capacity to turn it up. If you need it to be quiet then you might want to spend more for a nicer fan. Mine is pretty darn quiet but some people are more sensitive to noise. In a 3x3 it would depend on how many plants you grew what pot size. If you can squeeze 4 7 gallon in the bottom I've got 50% more harvest from going up to 7 gallon fabric pots over 5. They aren't any taller either. Just wider so they don't impact light distance. In fact a 7 gallon fabric pot is shorter then a 5 gallon bucket by like 4" or more.
I was considering 4x4 too. You think I'll be alright growing start to finish with 4x qb132? I was thinking 3x3 since I don't plan on going over the 4 plant legal limit..
Inline fans don't work that well with carbon filters as an exhaust. It needs to be a centrifuge fan. A 6 inch can fan is reliable. Acoustic ducting will help with noise too.
Given only 4 plants max, with 4x qb132 in a single tent, would you rather grow 4 plants in a 4x4 with plenty of extra space, or in a 3x3 with better light coverage?
If you have room for a 4x4 then you have room for two 2x4's. That will give you a flower and a veg area. It could double your production over just a single 3x3 and it's not that much smaller. 8 square feet compared to 9. You can have two in flower and two in veg at all times and just swap them every 2 months. The 4 qb132' is capable of flowering a whole 3x3 or 2x4 no problem. I would hate to veg and flower in the same area. It takes a painful long time to finish a crop. 4 months is average from seed, could even be longer. That's a long as time to wait for bud. Better be a large harvest to last you 1/3rd of a year. Two 3x3's would be better. I'd rather use a square shaped tent then a 2x4. You have to keep plants pretty small to fit 4 in a 3x3 but it can be done comfortably. I like doing 4 in my 4x4 but lately I've been doing one and it works out fine. Way easier to take care of.
Headroom can be important running that light kit with that driver. It's very intense for young plants. The voltage pot on the driver will offer you a little bit of dimming but not much. You'll have to use distance. 3x3's typically come in 6' tall. One cool thing about 4x4's and larger tents is they have more headroom. My tent is 80" tall and I use about all of it. Headroom is nice to not have to limit the size of your plants and to be able to keep your light distance even when the plant is over 4 feet tall.
Great, thanks for all the info. So what I'm thinking is to grab a 3x3 tent for my current light setup, try growing in the one tent for at least one batch, then decide if I want to grab a 2x2 or 2x4 tent for veg at some point. What about growing on a table in a 3x3 or 4x4 with another set of lights mounted under the table for veg?
most tents r too short without a table in them, dividing the vertical height would be challenging, anything is possible, but do u want to fight height every grow or be comfortable every grow.?????
True. Guess I'm still leaning towards a 3x3 for now... Do you think a 2x2 with an HLG65 with zero ventilation and just a regular fan would be okay for a veg tent?
if the 2x2 is in a room at 55f, lol, no, the tent will need fresh/cooler air coming in, this might can be done with passive venting, a vent open on the bottom and one at the top, a couple circulating fans and u might be good, especially if one of them fans was positioned near the intake.!!
That would work fine for a veg tent as far as light and space but realize that you're vegging to fill a 3x3. In my experience it's pretty optimal in small scale to have the same size veg area as flower so you can train the canopy to fit in the flower area. Otherwise you'll never be able to fill the 3x3 all the way for flower vegging in just a 2x2. Most times you not only need room for vegging the next crop of plants for flower but you also need a little room in the veg area for popping new seeds or cloning.
So.... a little roadblock... the original 3x3 tent I had ordered is out of stock for at least another month or so. I'm contemplating a 4x4 tent since I do have the room for it. Will I run into issues if I put the 4x QB 132s and plants in the middle the of tent and use distance to adjust the footprint to approx. 3x3? Or should I wait a month for the 3x3 tent. Like you said, the 4x4 will give me more headroom too...
I like my 4x4 but most people don't realize it's very close to double the amount of space compared to a 3x3. 3x3 is 9 square feet. 4x4 is 16. It would only take 2 more square feet to be exactly double the size. Because of that the 4 qb132 setup that would have rocked in the 3x3 and been plenty of power suddenly isn't nearly enough. It takes 8 qb132's to properly fill a 4x4. You could get a 4x4 and split it in half into two 2x4 areas. One for veg and one for bloom. You could put the 4 qb132's in one side and get some new lights for the veg side. It only takes half the amount of power for veg. You could pick up some light strips and a power supply. 4 of these strips would veg a 2x4 just fine. https://www.arrow.com/en/products/bxeb-tl-2750g-3000-a-13/bridgelux This is 30 volts so you'll have to turn it down a little with the voltage pot but the rated on those strips is 24.9 anyway so they're very close. It will have a built in current dimmer. https://www.arrow.com/en/products/hlg-185h-30a/mean-well-enterprises
Thats the issue im having now.. its almost near impossible to keep a perpetual grow with just one tent unless its giving a super amount to last till next harvest.. The wait in between harvest with just one tent, is too long of a wait.. 2 tents will much better suit the space.. i agree 100%.. OP take notes of this advice given by @Tbone Shuffle