Attic Grow Room Light Question

We are doing a small attic grow. The over all area is 10'X7' which is nice, but the height is only 3' tall at the tallest point (which is 52" long). The space between the rafters is 22" and this is where the lights will be going.

Now the question is what kind of lights to go with. Original idea is the Sun System 150w HPS lamp system. The ballast and reflector are built in one and the entire setup is $90. Output is 16,000 lumens for the lamps. The next idea is just pay the extra money and get the 400w HPS system which would cost a total of $250 and outputs 50,000 lumens.

We would either do 4 of the 150w systems or 2 of the 400w systems to start. Lumens/dollar is better for the 400w (198.41) compared to the 150w system (177.7. But how much more heat would the 400w put out? Having the ability to put the 150w a little farther apart and closer to the plant more beneficial? We would like some input before we get underway with the build. Thanks...

Some pictures (the floor is going to be redone and the sides and end will be walled off)

Forgot to mention that each section would hold either one 400w lamp or two 150w lamps. Both on chains so they can be raised and lowered.

Doing a SOG hydro system (pvc piping similiar to stinkbud system) Going to keep the plants short to fit them all in. 27 plants per table, with two tables (perpetual harvest)

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This is our first 'attic' grow so any and all advice is greatly appreciated

I would get some light rails in there for sure, check mine out the results are good I think

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/309013-enough-light-rep-3.html

Don't have room for light rails. The bottom of the rafters is three feet from the floor. The plants will be sitting on top of a 15" reservoir. The lights will be placed inbetween each rafter so the bottom of the light (cause the reflectors are about 7" tall) will be even with the bottom of the rafters. Giving us 21" of room for the plants to grow.

The plan is: clones cut from mothers, put in a homemade cloner. Leave them in there for three weeks to make sure they all get big enough roots. Then transplate them into the NFT system and veg them for one week then flower for 7 weeks (fast flowering strain). Most likely top them to keep the height down to about 18" when said and done.

We've done larger rooms with a bit more plants, then what we're trying now. Had a veg/mother room with a couple of 400w MH systems. (Electricty bills were killing us though). We are trying this attic grow in another house now and need some advice on the smaller lights.

If your going with the 400 watt gig, think about buying a son agro 430 watt hps bulb..Much better than an ordinary 400.

Good luck to ya all!

waterboy8083 said:

The plan is: clones cut from mothers, put in a homemade cloner. Leave them in there for three weeks to make sure they all get big enough roots. Then transplate them into the NFT system and veg them for one week then flower for 7 weeks (fast flowering strain). Most likely top them to keep the height down to about 18" when said and done.

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hm, i wouldn't recommend topping plants in a SOG setup, take out the veg week if you want to have shorter plants. this will also give you more flowering space. if you want 18" plants, just take bigger clones, around say 6-8 inches then put em straight to flower after they get decent roots.

just my opinion

so your going to try to grow almost 60 plants under one 400 watt bulb? thats way to many man even 10 is too many but i think you could manage 10 if you keep them really small but 60 is crazy. you would need at least 4 400 watters for 60 pllants. 6 would be better though.

oh sorry i just noticed you said 2 400 watt lights my bad. if it were me i would only put a max of 10 plants under each light. but to each their own i guess.

ideit said:

hm, i wouldn't recommend topping plants in a SOG setup, take out the veg week if you want to have shorter plants. this will also give you more flowering space. if you want 18" plants, just take bigger clones, around say 6-8 inches then put em straight to flower after they get decent roots.

just my opinion

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. The setup we use to use, we didn't have to do any LSTing or topping, etc. We just let them do their thing cause we had plenty of space.

So take large clones, wait about 2-4 weeks til they all get decent size roots. Then place them in the flowering tables. The tables will be 4" thinwall PVC piping with a 30 gallon reservoir. Each pipe will be 5' with 9 plants giving 7" from stem to stem (2" neoprene inserts so 5" between inserts). For now it will be an NFT system so the water will just flow from one side to the other. After saving some more money up, sprayers will be installed next to each site.

We'll be sure to make a journal when it gets started.

sk8disgruntled said:

oh sorry i just noticed you said 2 400 watt lights my bad. if it were me i would only put a max of 10 plants under each light. but to each their own i guess.

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Right now we veg under 400w MH lamps... got 15 plants that are 2 feet tall each under one lamp. Since the attic grow will have a lot smaller plants I'm thinking we can fit 27 of them under one lamp.

These pictures were from 2 weeks ago so they were smaller then:

waterboy8083 said:

Right now we veg under 400w MH lamps... got 15 plants that are 2 feet tall each under one lamp. Since the attic grow will have a lot smaller plants I'm thinking we can fit 27 of them under one lamp.

These pictures were from 2 weeks ago so they were smaller then:

Click to expand...

Hi there, as you said you have very limited height but a long space do you mean 52inches?

my light is 12 inches away from the plants on a light rail, but the intake air is cold atm when it heats up I will need to keep the light about 18 inches. my space is 8ftx3ft but height aint a problem

to me it sounds like a light rail is just what you need or air cooled lights, take a look at my grow i'll also leave a link about lst

http://www.indoormarijuanaseeds.com/advanced-indoor-cannabis-growing-techniqes/low-stress-training-lst-growing-marijuana.html

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/309013-enough-light-rep-3.html

The space is 10' long, 7' wide, and only 3' tall. Having the plants sitting 15" from the ground and having the bottom of the light 36" from the ground means I can only grow about 18" tall plants (don't wanna touch the lights). If I install a light rail/mover and hang the reflector from that then I'm looking at having only about 5-6" tall plants. And that is something i definitely wouldn't like...

If you look at the pictures of the top of the attic, the rafters sit 22" apart so each light would sit up inbetween the rafters so the bottom of the light would be even with the bottom of the rafters. Almost like you'd have flush mount lights in a kitchen or something.

The 150w HPS systems would fit nicely inbetween the rafters. Having two inbetween each section. Or having one 400w system inbetween each section. Just wondering if having the two 150s would be better or worse than one 400... more or less covered space? more or less heat?

id go with the 400s in cool tubes actually if it were me id go with a couple 600s in cool tubes up there. are you planning on insulating it up there? because even if the lights are cooled down temperatures are gonna fluctuate like crazy without insulation. i have my grow in an insulated attic room right now but even with insulation i cant grow during the summer, so i had to cut my veg time short. i live in the northeast and it doesnt even get that hot during the summer compared to other parts of the country, but still way too hot to grow plants up there

600s will work a lot better for the number of plants you want to grow. I personally wont put more than 9 plants under my 600

Yah the attic will be insulated and walled off. Also will have one of the window a/c units put in one of the walls to deal with the summer heat. Don't have much room to run air cooled lights (no room for the ducting) so we're having to pump in nice cold air to the entire room...

Hi waterboy I was totaly baked when I wrote that last reply, because of your lack of height I think you should go with 150w, the plants from what you say are gonna get very close so you dont want to burn them, your gonna need a few fans blowing all that hot air away to

J.cun.Shallow said:

Hi waterboy I was totaly baked when I wrote that last reply, because of your lack of height I think you should go with 150w, the plants from what you say are gonna get very close so you dont want to burn them, your gonna need a few fans blowing all that hot air away to

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lol it happens man... yah i'm thinking of just putting the 150's in there. the tables are going to be long but narrow so i can have the 150's in a row... at $90 a pop I can always add more in if I want/need to go bigger...

waterboy8083 said:

Thanks for the advice. The setup we use to use, we didn't have to do any LSTing or topping, etc. We just let them do their thing cause we had plenty of space.

So take large clones, wait about 2-4 weeks til they all get decent size roots. Then place them in the flowering tables. The tables will be 4" thinwall PVC piping with a 30 gallon reservoir. Each pipe will be 5' with 9 plants giving 7" from stem to stem (2" neoprene inserts so 5" between inserts). For now it will be an NFT system so the water will just flow from one side to the other. After saving some more money up, sprayers will be installed next to each site.

We'll be sure to make a journal when it gets started.

Click to expand...

I actually have a similar setup, but they're stacked vertical in a square shape around the lights.

Something I found, quick moving water in those pipes wont hit the bottom of the netpot, so make sure the roots are long enough to reach. My roots tend to explode in tons of short roots all around the stem from my aero cloner, so they don't always reach. I actually use a 4" to 2" pvc connector at the ends of my pipes that act as a dam and floods the tubes to the nets so I don't have to worry about it. Was also worried the round pipes with shallow water at the bottom wouldn't support a large root base, so that fixed both things.

Your spacing sounds good. Misters could be added, but I think they'd be more trouble than they're worth. Keep the water moving quick and your O2 should be fine. I threw an air pump into my res just to be sure though.

Oh! and be sure to seal all pipes, cause they WILL leak! Must've spent 2 weeks in there plugging all the leaks with caulk haha

Keep us updated on the progress!

hey waterboy what lights did you chose