Need some advice setting up a new grow room, how many 600w cool tubes can I put in a 2400 x 1200?

greengoblin2014

Well-Known Member
Ok, so I'm trying to set up a grow room under the house. My friend is a builder and I'm wanting to build a shed under the house purposely to put a 1200 x 2400 inside.
If I explain a bit about what kind of set up I'm aiming for and what parts I'm planning on getting then some people might be able to tell me if they think I'm making any mistakes or could be doing things better.
Ok here goes,
So my thinking was that I will have 8 plants in 6 gallon smart pots with growing space of 600 x 600 for each plant. I was thinking of having 4 600w cool tubes directly inline, the cool tubes would be 150mm wide with an adjustable centrifugal fan at 580m3/h. Then for every 2 plants I would have 1 x 600w light centred over the top of them. I'm wondering if 4 x 600's in a 1200 x 2400 is too much as it recommends 2?
I'm planning on doing a grow 6 months from start to finish and mainlining each plant to 8 tops. I'm planning on vegging for 3.5 months flower 2 months then 1-2 weeks to dry and clean up. Basically the land lady does an inspection every 6 months so I have a 6 month period to try to grow some buds.

Materials:
4 x 600w cultiv8 digital, dimmable ballasts and bulbs
150mm centrifugal fan adjustable 580 m3/h
4 x 150mm cool tubes (considering paying a bit more for cool reflectors)
200mm x 500mm mountain air carbon filter (rated at 3000 watts of light)
200mm centrifugal fan adjustable 1224 m3/h


So I plan to have all 4 lights in line running long ways through the middle of the tent. The tent will be inside a shed and the shed will have purposely built holes with grills at both ends so the cool air will be sucked from outside in a straight line and go straight back out the other side of the shed. The carbon filter will be separate and will be hung inside the tent and have the air sucked through it and guided straight out of another purposely built vent hole with grill. I may get a small week 100mm fan to pull cool air into the tent but not sure if it's necessary?

Is there anything else worth considering or some things I could improve on? What are your thoughts on 4 600w lights in this size tent?
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
metrics are messing me up.....1200 x 2400 what? mm = about 4 by 8 feet?
if so, 2 600s would do, 3 would give you great overlap....i'm running a 4 x 7 area with two, and not really having any issues, i just turn things a half turn every 3 or 4 days...
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
In a 4x8 foot area I would run two 1000 watters ideally. You can run two 600's but you won't get max yield for that area. With the 1000 watters you would be able to pull up to 40 percent more yield provided you achieve the same grams per watt.
 

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Thing about the standard cool tubes is the light spread from the tin hat reflectors are a bit shit, especially the width of spread when you have them long ways on so 3-4 of them in a row (which is great for zero resistance airflow) still tends to be crap light levels in the edges of the walls but will have massive amount of light from end to end in the middle.
But there are hybrid cooltubes these days and they don't cost much more, they are like a wide square hood with the tube running through it so you still have the benefit of a straight run for airflow but also a better light spread.

Personally I would much rather go with 2x 1000w HPS with dimmable ballasts, dimming to 600 and using MH bulb for veg then swapping out the MH for HPS and ramping up to 1000 for flower.

a 6" fan doesn't seem like enough for 4x600s or 2x 1000s either but obviously that depends on your climate.
I had to have a 8" Isomax/airforce2 fan for 3x 600s in a 1.2x2.4m (4x8) Though I could run it on speed 1 half the year, in summer I needed it on speed 3 which was 870m3/hr , speed 1 was 570m3/hr. That's with a typical UK climate.

BTW these are the type of cool tube im suggesting you look at. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunstream-Inch-Reflector-Light-System/dp/B07FJM7ND3/ref=asc_df_B07FJM7ND3/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309904185356&hvpos=1o5&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15863858372355336858&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-589590919356&psc=1

2x 1000w HPS in two of those will not only offer more consistent light spread but it will be easier to manage the heat since its around 400w less , cheaper to run for the same reason. If you use 6" dryer hose to connect the two hoods then you can easily disconnect it when you want to change bulbs.

Also having a straight line means you can push your air though rather than pull it, which prolongs the life of the fan and means if there are any slight leaks your losing a tiny amount of air back into your tent rather than the opposite, when you suck and have a leak your pulling uncleaned air into your hoods and pushing it outside possibly giving away your situation to your neighbours by stinking out the area.
 
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