Ventilation Help Please!!!

seemeat420

seemeat420

Active Member
I am building my grow box this week. It will probably be a little over 5 ft wide and close to 2 ft deep and 5 ft 10 inches tall. I ordered two 400 watt lumatek ballasts and two super sun 2 air cooled reflectors. I also bought one 6 inch vortex inline fan. I was first planning on building a big box holding both lights and one fan. Now I think I will do a dual chamber grow with rooms side by side. I will also have a small veg/clone box built separated from the main big box and probably in a different room also. I plan on harvesting every month so each grow will be 4 weeks apart starting at the veg/clone box. This is where I hit my dilemma. Can one 6inch vortex fan ventilate both lights when both lights are separated by a wall? They will be really close so the ducting won't travel far. We are talking about a board thats like 1/2 an inch or 3/4 inches wide making the wall between the two. I was first thinking of running a scrubber on the end of one light and then cutting a hole in the wall that separates the chambers. Running the duct through the hole into a pvc fitting with 3 ends one for duct one for scrubber and one to light. And then on the other side of the 2nd light having the fan sucking the air through both lights and scrubbers and out of the box. My next option is to have the fan in the middle of the chambers with a 3 end pvc pipe fitting connect by duct to both lights with scrubber on the other sides sucking air up and out of the top of the box. My last option is to only ventilate the lights with ducting running from end to end and connect the scrubbers to squirrel cage fans and exhaust that out of the box separately. Does this sound right? Are there any other better solutions. Can I even ventilate two lights separated by a wall and constantly moving up and down at different times throughout the grow. Also with my veg box I will be using floros and using pc fans to ventilate that and the clone room on top. What I probably should have asked is do I have to buy another vortex fan. If I do that will probably set me back a week because I spent a lot of money on these things I already have and rent is due soon so I will have to wait to get paid again. I would like to go ahead and start so if there is a way I have the will.
 
Crystal550

Crystal550

Member
is the smell going to be an issue for you? If you do 2 separate rooms, you're going to need 2 filters. You should just forget the wall in the middle and make it one big flowering room.
 
statik

statik

Well-Known Member
Start with one room in the box, then expand when you can? That's what I would do. Build the frame, but only enclose one half at first. Then get another fan when you are able to. Finish the box and then you will have your two rooms. Bonus here is you do not have to wait to get going.

I would build the rooms back to back so to speak. So the ends are opened two expose the rooms. Ventilation would run from the front to the back of box, or vice versa..but you get my point. That way you don't have to share ducting or anything else for that matter when the time comes to build the 2nd room.

Look into DIY carbon filters. It will save you a lot of $$.
 
seemeat420

seemeat420

Active Member
So you think I should go with one big room with two lights and get one big harvest and then when I get some money later buying another fan and doing what I originally planned with an additional fan for venting. That sounds like a decent enough plan. This is only my second grow and my first with hid lighting so I think my eyes were bigger than what I could really do. But after vegging and flowering I should get a pretty big yield. I was planning on using 3 gallon square pots and putting 12 to 16 in there. If I do it this way I will probably want to use the same plants, right? I have seeds for NL # 5, White Russian, Super Lemon Haze, White Widow, Cheese, Diesel, Train Wreck, and Thai Super Skunk. I think I might go with the northern lights because I am planning on doing an outdoor grow this summer with NL and this would give me the opportunity to clone a shit ton for the spring setup. Does anyone think I should grow one of the others.
 
seemeat420

seemeat420

Active Member
smell will be somewhat of an issue, but not a huge one because I live alone and no one will be there without me knowing. I don't want my entire house smelling like weed though because if people or police were to come by I don't need them smelling and getting curious. I am not telling anyone I am growing and i prefer no one finding out by smelling the air
 
statik

statik

Well-Known Member
seemeat420 said:
So you think I should go with one big room with two lights and get one big harvest and then when I get some money later buying another fan and doing what I originally planned with an additional fan for venting. That sounds like a decent enough plan. This is only my second grow and my first with hid lighting so I think my eyes were bigger than what I could really do. But after vegging and flowering I should get a pretty big yield. I was planning on using 3 gallon square pots and putting 12 to 16 in there. If I do it this way I will probably want to use the same plants, right? I have seeds for NL # 5, White Russian, Super Lemon Haze, White Widow, Cheese, Diesel, Train Wreck, and Thai Super Skunk. I think I might go with the northern lights because I am planning on doing an outdoor grow this summer with NL and this would give me the opportunity to clone a shit ton for the spring setup. Does anyone think I should grow one of the others.
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Not what I meant. I meant 1 light in the one side of the box. Your grow so if you want to try to fit both then go for it. Just keep in mind that heat may be an issue.

I believe you plan on using a passive intake?

As far as strain goes, pick something that isn't going to get tall..or at least responds well to training IMHO.

seemeat420 said:
smell will be somewhat of an issue, but not a huge one because I live alone and no one will be there without me knowing. I don't want my entire house smelling like weed though because if people or police were to come by I don't need them smelling and getting curious. I am not telling anyone I am growing and i prefer no one finding out by smelling the air
Click to expand...
This is a good rule of thumb..dont tell anyone. bongsmilie

seemeat420 said:
can the one fan vent the two lights in the same room?
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You can try it. Build the box, add in the lights etc (all except the plants) and let it run for a couple hours. This should give you an idea of how hot your grow box is going to get.

If it's too hot, upgrade to a larger fan...or get a second one.
 
seemeat420

seemeat420

Active Member
thanks for the reply statik. so I am going to try what you said and build a big box but only finish one side. I will probably buy some cardboard or poster board and finish the other side with that so it is cheap. That way I can test the box out with both lights and if it works great and if it doesn't I will not have wasted money on more wood. What I think I will test is if the fan can vent both lights without scrubbers. I will take ducting from one side of the box bringing fresh air from outside into the first light and then out and into the second light and then into the 6 inch vortex and out the other side of the box. If that works then I will just buy some squirrel cage blowers or a bathroom exhaust thing and hook that up to the scrubber and exhaust the room that way. Yes I was planning on using passive intake because I really want to try and limit the amount of power I am feeding to the box. Another thing I just realized earlier is that I don't think I would even need two rooms anyways because both sides would be for flowering and the lights would be on the same schedule so I could just have one side with plants tall because of being older and one side with shorter plants because of being younger. Does that sound right? I think I have been over complicating this. I will probably do NL and SLH. I think I will start the Thai Super Skunks in my veg box and just clone the crap out of them for an outdoor grow.
 
Crystal550

Crystal550

Member
It can definitely vent 2 lights. But if you already have your seperate veg room, I wouldn't even build a wall to split it into 2. Id just have one big flowering room. Fan on one side of the lights and just run the ducting through
 
seemeat420

seemeat420

Active Member
Hey thanks for the replies toma and Crystal. Yeah I was thinking I would have one big flower room with one half for older plants and the other half with younger plants and no wall between. It would probably be good to have both lights anyways because maybe it will give more lights to the whole grow. My vortex should be here within a few hours and I am freaking pumped. I bought two super sun 2 air cooled hoods but the place I bought my fan from (plantlighting) has the same thing for about 50 dollars cheaper than I paid and thats with shipping and handling included. I may take mine back and get theres. Let me ask you this. Is it easy to hook the fan up. Do I just suspend it in the air or should I connect it to the wall of the grow.
 
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