Cooltube or no colltube ?????

ok i been usin CFL'S for my past couple a grows n i wanna move it on up to the big boy lights, top flight lights, like a 400 watt HPS/MH with and maybe a cooltube but i been wondering, is a cooltube really that benificial to a grow???? does the HPS/MH light begin closer to the buds really help that much??? will i still notice a big difference in the sizes of my buds if i choose not to go with a cooltube???? ( from CFL to HPS) and with a cooltube will the buds be even fatter??? help a fellow grower out lemme know

Cooltube will help you bring your light closer to the plants by dropping the temp. Cooltube sounds like the way to go.

id give my left arm for a cool tube,you loose a lot of lumens when you have to move your light back because of heat

I've got a cool tube there awesome
but they want to much money for them
you could make your own all you need is
a high temp plastic tube a mogol socket
a couple of straight 6" or 8" metal duct work nipples or what ever there called.
and a hot glue gun.
they probly cost 20 bucks to make it.
when i got mine I was like WTF i could of made this.
but there cool, as long as you have a decent blower hooked up to it.

I love my cool tube! even has wings... my small space would prob cook with out it.

how small? im looking @ a 150w for a 2"x2"x3"H, using 6 cfls now, works well

3 ft height? You cannot use a HPS with 3 ft of height to work with. The lamp will take up 9 inches, the pot you are growing in another 10 at least, you would be looking at less than a 1 ft tall plant. Even if you flower from seed it would exceed that. I use a 400w HPS in a 2x3x5 space. It works extremely well with only a 7 degree F rise when on.

it worked once, plants were like 23" tall, 1 oz each, but they were right on the lights, i guess dont break it if its not broken...lol

CFL / MG

400 Watt HPS in a Box
Lighting and area of:
21" L x 18" D 24" H

I just made a box for my cool tube
cut a hole in the top of my Cabinet
exhaust from the top of the Ligh Box
with a Blower. i can keep the air temp right around
84F at about 6" from the top of the plants.
400 watts in that small of a area is Bright.

i want a cooltube for my tent but i want to make sure i get maximum reflective coverage. what is the best way to do theis with a cool tube?

one of my friends has a grow tent that he put mylar
up in. it's pretty bright he's got a 8" cool tube 600 watt HPS in it.

well wat i was lookin at was 400 mh/hps watt for a 2 1/2x3x5 with a batwing or sumshit on top... how hot would it get without a cooltube?? u guys have any idea??

It would get really hot, too hot for your plant to grow comfortably. In space that confined, Cooltube for sure.

The best thing to do with a Cooltube if your growing in a tent, n im just reading about this shit now, is to use it horizontally for the first part of the grow, n then as the plants start getting close to being able to touch the light, take the reflector out of the inside of the tube, and then hang it vertically, in the middle of all your plants n rearrange them to where theyre basically surrounding the light. I didnt really know this, but were all losing lumens by hanging out lights horizontally. The light has to bounce off of the reflector, and then down into the canopy, and taking off the reflector alltogether and using it as a vertical light really cuts down this problem. Just a thought on that. N alot of people might disagree with what i just said, but im running out of room in my tent, and even with a 600w setup the light penetration into my canopy only goes down about 2 feet into my plants, leaving about a foot n a half of actual plant thats not getting sufficient lighting, and leaves are falling off. I just cant figure out how to take the aluminum out of the inside of the damn thing, lol.

But to answer your question B, hell yeah its worth it to buy a cooltube man, i can get mine literally 3-4 inches away from my tops,and with this current grow, theres even tops that are literally an inch away from touching the light man. No burn whatsoever, because its aircooled n workin great in all its awesomeness, lol. -Im actually lookin into pickin up one of those dual cooltubes, and throwing another 600w bulb into my tent to finish off my babies. Go cooltube bro

Budda_Luva said:

well wat i was lookin at was 400 mh/hps watt for a 2 1/2x3x5 with a batwing or sumshit on top... how hot would it get without a cooltube?? u guys have any idea??

Click to expand...

Without the cooltube man, your lookin at 100+ degrees easy. If your light aint aircooled and your using a tent like mine (almost the exact same tent), the light is gonna fry everything underneath it if its not aircooled. You could always try to find a cheaper air cooled hood, but the Cooltube is only 70 bucks on ebay man, thats where i found mine.

Another thing you could do is, try to contact either your local hydro shop or one online that youve ordered from a couple times, and ask them if they have any USED air cooled hoods that they could kick you down. ALOT of times they do have used shit layin around that they cant get rid of, but theres nothing wrong with the equipment at all, and its priced REALLY cheap. So its worth a shot to look for that better deal, but if you can afford to, just pick one up outright off of ebay man. Its worth it.
you NEED an aircooled hood if your gonna run a HID inside a small tent like the ones we grow in bro. Trust me

yeah i know its only that much but damn man that 70$ is hard to come by for me ya dig?? but from what u guys are sayin it sound like a must but fuk ill get it one way or a other....not sure if i told u guys but imma be growin with a close friend of mine and im pretty sure hell go half on the light so its all good

i just had to get 2 6" light pipes, same as cooltubes, had major burning and heat probs with 2x600w hps in my 5'x8'x7' flower room, now the temps are way lower and lights are back 12" over the canopy, they work like advertised, fukn awsome..
and ya, not cheap, my tubes alone were $160 cdn each, just the tubes..

Just get a bake-a-round tube of ebay

this seems to work pretty good for me

Heres an excellent example of not wasting any lumens
http://74.125.93.104/translate_c?hl=en&sl=cs&u=http://grower.cz/forum/showthread.php%3Fthreadid%3D6799&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.grower.cz%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&usg=ALkJrhgRiZQ_lf8__Ug_dT88KHNIvrQ6ng