2 x 4 Lighting for Flowering with QB Elite v2

[Rocket Soul]

Do you have any particular advice on autos? I hear that you should not transplant or top, but I have also heard the opposite.




Nice choices!

Depends on your grow style. I indoor seedling under a fair bit of light till they are growing healthy and strong, then put them outdoor cause we got a nice climate. I plant in a big pot and dont do transplants, watering very carefully on the plant and around the edges, drink from the bottom. That was way the plant has a little bit to drink but have to grow big roots to find water in the extremes of the pot.
No topping and minimal trainings as i get sunlight and dont need an even cannopy.
Usually i do soil with some kind of aereation, some worm casting and a bit supersoil or similar amended soil in the bottom. I find it key to mess the minimum with autos, especially in the beginning, try to do any change gradually as when you stunt them they either stop growing or just jump into flower while theyre still small. Im not a great grower, fucked up more plants than i liked to.
Indoors is another game, not sure what to say other than lower light levels for longer hours, autos seem to like extra red and blue quite a lot. And allways, for any grow: get the environmental right.

 

[trojanvirus]

V2s gonna get hot in a tent.

I got four of em covering ~4x4 footprint, but I placed a filter on my HV fan yesterday (trying to scrub some air), and woke up to a 35C (95F) room today and a heat stressed plant. Ripped that filter off and aired out the room again, won't be doing that anytime ever again. I also backed the lights a bit. Noted the other plant under my 800 board was not affected.
Anyhow, my room is ~12x10, has exhaust, had another running fan. Just saying the V2s get hot.
Then again, maybe its not heat stress and just N-def from me pumping boosters too early

 

[pulpoinspace]

Hi,

I am at the beginning stages of my first grow. I have a 4x8 t5ho, which I bought a few years go for starting vegetable seeds indoors, and have used that the past month. I had to buy a 2x4 tent, because the lights were keeping me awake. I initially intended on growing with minimal tent space and planned on using a 2x2. Therefore, I ordered a QB elite v2 for flowering. If I were to flower in the 2x4 instead, what supplemental led lighting would you recommend in addition the QB elite v2 with an hlg 185 54b?

pick up a 2nd elite v2 and a 320h-54b and wire them in parallel for flowering in the 2x4.
use the 185h-54b to build a veg light later on

i run v2s at 40w/sqft in a tent with a carbon filter and have no problems with heat. in fact i'm gonna move my driver into the tent for the winter.

 

[MattockMycol]

Depends on your grow style. I indoor seedling under a fair bit of light till they are growing healthy and strong, then put them outdoor cause we got a nice climate. I plant in a big pot and dont do transplants, watering very carefully on the plant and around the edges, drink from the bottom. That was way the plant has a little bit to drink but have to grow big roots to find water in the extremes of the pot.
No topping and minimal trainings as i get sunlight and dont need an even cannopy.
Usually i do soil with some kind of aereation, some worm casting and a bit supersoil or similar amended soil in the bottom. I find it key to mess the minimum with autos, especially in the beginning, try to do any change gradually as when you stunt them they either stop growing or just jump into flower while theyre still small. Im not a great grower, fucked up more plants than i liked to.
Indoors is another game, not sure what to say other than lower light levels for longer hours, autos seem to like extra red and blue quite a lot. And allways, for any grow: get the environmental right.

I appreciate the information. This first grow has been a learning curve, but hopefully eventually I gain proficiency. At some point I would like to grow Blue Amnesia Haze Auto outdoors. Where I am, the cold climate climate prevents me from having many months for outdoor growing and that eliminates a lot of sativa strains. Auto versions of sativa dominant strains would prevent the climate from killing the crop before maturity

 

[MattockMycol]

V2s gonna get hot in a tent.

I got four of em covering ~4x4 footprint, but I placed a filter on my HV fan yesterday (trying to scrub some air), and woke up to a 35C (95F) room today and a heat stressed plant. Ripped that filter off and aired out the room again, won't be doing that anytime ever again. I also backed the lights a bit. Noted the other plant under my 800 board was not affected.
Anyhow, my room is ~12x10, has exhaust, had another running fan. Just saying the V2s get hot.
Then again, maybe its not heat stress and just N-def from me pumping boosters too early

What kind of temps do you get without the filter usually?

pick up a 2nd elite v2 and a 320h-54b and wire them in parallel for flowering in the 2x4.
use the 185h-54b to build a veg light later on

i run v2s at 40w/sqft in a tent with a carbon filter and have no problems with heat. in fact i'm gonna move my driver into the tent for the winter.

I checked out your blog entries, nice job!
2 v2's is what I am going to do. Do you use the 320h?

 

[trojanvirus]

What kind of temps do you get without the filter usually?

27C/81F

 

[pulpoinspace]

What kind of temps do you get without the filter usually?



I checked out your blog entries, nice job!
2 v2's is what I am going to do. Do you use the 320h?

i use a 600h-54b because i grow in a 4x4 and a 3x3 so i can use it at 640w or 400w depending on my application

thank you!

 

[Old Thcool]

Do you have any particular advice on autos? I hear that you should not transplant or top, but I have also heard the opposite.




Nice choices!

I was Leery at first buying cross border but the reviews were all positive so may as well. They got the seeds to the shippers fast! Within two days I got a tracking number.
I really like the fact they don’t sell feminized seed. I like to be able to pollinate my plants and Pheno Hunt. I respect them for letting go of their genetic material for us to play with. In return I will most likely keep buying their seed.

 

[Randomblame]

V2s gonna get hot in a tent.

I got four of em covering ~4x4 footprint, but I placed a filter on my HV fan yesterday (trying to scrub some air), and woke up to a 35C (95F) room today and a heat stressed plant. Ripped that filter off and aired out the room again, won't be doing that anytime ever again. I also backed the lights a bit. Noted the other plant under my 800 board was not affected.
Anyhow, my room is ~12x10, has exhaust, had another running fan. Just saying the V2s get hot.
Then again, maybe its not heat stress and just N-def from me pumping boosters too early

Sorry, brother! But they don't get hot, lol! At least not hotter like other LED's...
Lets say you use 500w inside a tent LED efficiency doesn't matters, at least not much, 500w are 500w. With 50% LED efficiency you have 250w pure heat you need to remove via heat sinks and the other half is light which is also converted into heat at some point (besides the few percent the plants use to drive photosynthesis).
Direct heat you can remove if you use something like a cooltube but the radiant heat you get from the light is not removable.
If your room gets hot you either use too much light or there is not enough air exchange. Often it helps a lot to add small 60 or 80ft³ fan for fresh air intake. Just an exaust fan isn't enough..

So in the end 500w LED would heat up the room to the same degrees like 500w HPS. Your exaust fan in simply not strong enough or you use too much wattage/ light. With around 30-35w/sft you should be able to keep your ambient temps easily around 30°C/84°F ... without AC! If you use more lets say 40-45w/sft you should invest in a small intake fan and with 50w/sft you are forced to use AC. These boards are pretty efficient so 640w is already a lot above a 4x 4' area.

 

[gwheels]

I like the adjustability. 2 of those lights have a nice spread in a 2 x 4 and you can turn them down a bit if heat starts becoming a problem. I use a killawatt meter with my quantum strip light with a veriac controller for fan speed. A tiny phillips screwdriver like in a glasses kit adjusts the light.

It makes it perfectly adjustable.

 

[MattockMycol]

I like the adjustability. 2 of those lights have a nice spread in a 2 x 4 and you can turn them down a bit if heat starts becoming a problem. I use a killawatt meter with my quantum strip light with a veriac controller for fan speed. A tiny phillips screwdriver like in a glasses kit adjusts the light.

It makes it perfectly adjustable.

You adjust the veriac with a screwdriver?

 

[gwheels]

You adjust the veriac with a screwdriver?

The light. It has 2 rubber plugs on it you can adjust with a screwdriver.

Veriac has an awesome giant dial. 0 to 120v by the watt.

 

[Old Thcool]

Sorry, brother! But they don't get hot, lol! At least not hotter like other LED's...
Lets say you use 500w inside a tent LED efficiency doesn't matters, at least not much, 500w are 500w. With 50% LED efficiency you have 250w pure heat you need to remove via heat sinks and the other half is light which is also converted into heat at some point (besides the few percent the plants use to drive photosynthesis).
Direct heat you can remove if you use something like a cooltube but the radiant heat you get from the light is not removable.
If your room gets hot you either use too much light or there is not enough air exchange. Often it helps a lot to add small 60 or 80ft³ fan for fresh air intake. Just an exaust fan isn't enough..

So in the end 500w LED would heat up the room to the same degrees like 500w HPS. Your exaust fan in simply not strong enough or you use too much wattage/ light. With around 30-35w/sft you should be able to keep your ambient temps easily around 30°C/84°F ... without AC! If you use more lets say 40-45w/sft you should invest in a small intake fan and with 50w/sft you are forced to use AC. These boards are pretty efficient so 640w is already a lot above a 4x 4' area.

Can’t you just exchange air faster? I don’t have a heat problem now because it’s winter but in the summer that will change. My buddy has a 10” exhaust fan that sucks fresh air in from outside and in the winter he diverts some of the exhaust indoors and some out. In the summer he blows it all outdoors. He is in the woods so no carbon filter is used.

 

[Randomblame]

Can’t you just exchange air faster? I don’t have a heat problem now because it’s winter but in the summer that will change. My buddy has a 10” exhaust fan that sucks fresh air in from outside and in the winter he diverts some of the exhaust indoors and some out. In the summer he blows it all outdoors. He is in the woods so no carbon filter is used.

IMO it makes more sense to use a small intake and a bigger exaust fan instead of just one really big exaust. You need also a filter for insects and spores to avoid issues with spidermites, thripse or fungual infects. Also every curve with the exaust tube reduce the pressure and at the end you can lose more than 50% of its airflow even without carbon filter. Proper gas exchange is really important to have success and a small Ø4 or 5inch tube fan you can get for ~12-15$ from walmart and you can run both on the same variac and these fans fits inside the lower tent holes in the most cases.

 

[KonopCh]

@Randomblame do you have any trick how to mask open intake holes on the tent? I have light on 20/4 and when it's dark outside, my tent really shines if I open 10-15cm intake hole for airflow. I don't want blankets on my windows, it's even more suspicious.

 

[coreywebster]

Look into light traps @KonopCh , just a simple box black inside with a few light baffles to ensure light is reflected back on itself while air can flow freely.

 

[Randomblame]

@Randomblame do you have any trick how to mask open intake holes on the tent? I have light on 20/4 and when it's dark outside, my tent really shines if I open 10-15cm intake hole for airflow. I don't want blankets on my windows, it's even more suspicious.

Yeah! Google "light-trap", bro. You can easily make a light-trap from flat black painted cardboard and they work awesome. The time I've used a room in the basement I've used a few different light-traps for the tent openings and also my new stealthbox has 2 of them. The inside has to be matte black and in the most cases you need only one black "chamber" to catch all the light. And this traps work in both directions.

This two light traps are to make sure there is no light going into my 9sft bloom area when I open the door of my little 3sft veg area. I've used a spray bottle of matte black silencer paint cuz it was the cheapest option I've found.

 

[Old Thcool]

Yeah! Google "light-trap", bro. You can easily make a light-trap from flat black painted cardboard and they work awesome. The time I've used a room in the basement I've used a few different light-traps for the tent openings and also my new stealthbox has 2 of them. The inside has to be matte black and in the most cases you need only one black "chamber" to catch all the light. And this traps work in both directions.

This two light traps are to make sure there is no light going into my 9sft bloom area when I open the door of my little 3sft veg area. I've used a spray bottle of matte black silencer paint cuz it was the cheapest option I've found.

View attachment 4257448

Velcro on panda poly. Works great!

 

[Old Thcool]

IMO it makes more sense to use a small intake and a bigger exaust fan instead of just one really big exaust. You need also a filter for insects and spores to avoid issues with spidermites, thripse or fungual infects. Also every curve with the exaust tube reduce the pressure and at the end you can lose more than 50% of its airflow even without carbon filter. Proper gas exchange is really important to have success and a small Ø4 or 5inch tube fan you can get for ~12-15$ from walmart and you can run both on the same variac and these fans fits inside the lower tent holes in the most cases.
View attachment 4257444

Oh yeah a 10” fan is way over kill for my little show lol. I have 4x5 foot and at present I just use a bathroom fan mounted on the exterior wall, it’s only purpose is to exchange air. On the bottom of the wall is a hole with a slot to fit a hepa filter for a vacuum. I was told that will work? I have a 6 inch stationary fan inside the room which indirectly blows air around. Cheap but appears to be effective.

 

[Randomblame]

Oh yeah a 10” fan is way over kill for my little show lol. I have 4x5 foot and at present I just use a bathroom fan mounted on the exterior wall, it’s only purpose is to exchange air. On the bottom of the wall is a hole with a slot to fit a hepa filter for a vacuum. I was told that will work? I have a 6 inch stationary fan inside the room which indirectly blows air around. Cheap but appears to be effective.

You need a bigger one for a 4x 5' area (at least in summer) even if you use no bath fan with hepa filter in the bottom hole. You need very little underpressure but in no case a vacuum, lol! And you only need underpressure inside the tent if its important to eliminate the smell. If its not important you don't need underpressure. But for a 4x 4' you need at least a 230ft³/5-6" exaust and 80-100ft³/4" on the bottom. Believe me, it makes sense and as long as you use a bigger exaust you still get a little underpressure which you can see on the tent walls. They should be slightly curved inwards but not too much.