New Grow Set-up. just in design

Ok here is my plan i want to build a cabinet that measuers 5' x 3' x 5' mght be wider if i got the room. planning on doing 8-10 plants in a perpetual cycle.

Would 8-10 flowerin plts fit in this room?

lighting: This is where im kind or torn i know i want remote ballasts to keep as much heat out s posible and i want to use a 6" air cooled refloctor but im not sure if one 600 watt hps or two 400 watt hps. i want to use a 250 cfm inline booster fan for the cooling. only fo the lighting, i want to get a sealed lighting system either a euro reflector or a cool tube.

what would be beter the 1 x 600 watt hps or the 2 x 400 watt for thiss room?
would 250 cfm keep 2 400 watt hps cool?

Air Flow: i want to use a 6" H.V. inline fan (424 cfm) conected to a tallboy carbon filter ( 28 " long one ) for the exhoust system and a 4 inch 170 cfm inline fan for intake. roughly air is circulated through the room 2-4 times a minute.

Is this too much air flow for my space or good or do i need more?

going to be growig predominatley indicas so giving each plant 1.5'x 1.5' i should be able to fit roughly 8 plants in this room. what do you guys think? any input will help my desogning. most likely going to be doing soil grows till i get more comfortable manging my ph and tds

I have a setup that is about that same size. I have 8 BF LSDs flowering right now, and they are starting to look almost crowded, but they give a nice carpet of green- I took them as clones and began flowering with 12-16 inches tall, so 6-8 plants should be about as dense as you go. As far as fans go, I would say to use the 170 as the exhaust fan and have a passive intake (ie- no fan, just the suction of air created by the exhausting of the "old" air)- you only need to cycle the air once every 1-5 minutes, and you are looking at a total volume of 75 cubic feet, so a 170 fan with a filter on it should cycle the air about 1 and a half times per minute. The biggest deciding factor for air flow would be the number of lights you are using. You will get better photosythesis with the 2 400 watt lights, but you will need more circulation to prevent heat build-up (keep in mind that unless you have the light's cooling fan venting outside the grow area, it will not factor into the air volume displacement, it will simply circulate the air within the grow room; the grow room air will still need to be exhausted and replaced.) Using a 600 watt light would probably be better to avoid overheating, but if you make the grow room a little bigger, the 2 400s would be better. You probably already have this worked out, but you will need two "grow rooms" for a perpetual grow, one for veg and one for flower. Work on the veg one first, and consider a "dry run" to make sure you have temps under control before putting the plants in. And last, but not least, best of luck!

i am planing on using either a euro syle reflector which is sealed with 6" vent openings.or a 6"cool tube reflector so the lighting would have its own seperate fan and vent set up intake and exhaust from outside the grow room using a 160-250cfm ( depends on what website you look at.) inline duct booster fan. my main question about the lighting is with mylar or similar on all surfaces would a 600 watt cover a 5x3 garden or would i need more?

im leaning towards the 600 beacuse i dont know if i could vent two 400 watter with one of those booster fans?

would venting more than 1 every 1 to 5 minutes be any more benificial

Low humidity is the biggest result of over-venting, and it is a double-edged sword. With low humidity mold and fungus find it difficult to grow, but you also have the possibility (with higher temps) that the plant will lose more water (transpiration) that it takes up (absorbtion). It has been said that keeping it too low can affect taste and yield, but with over-venting you are going to have a difficult time increasing the humidity if you need to (since the air is being replaced pretty quickly.) As far as the lights go, 600 will cover your area without issue and will be cheaper in the long run since you only have one buld to replace and you are saving 200 watts in power.

ok, that saves me some headaches on venting two lights. so use the smaller fan ( 4" inline fan at 170cfm ) with no intake fan just a vent(to block light). with the carbon filter and the 90 the bend up and out the box i should be venting between 90-115cfm? corect me if im wrong but the filter and the 90 will cut some air flow. then use a sealed lighting system with seperate intake and exhaust. and i shouldnt have any heat issues.

The 600 is a more efficient light than the 400s as well. But with either choice you should be fine.

Personally, I just got in most of my lights and hoods for my first indoor grow. My veg/bloom room is 12' X 12', with 10' X 10' under lights. I am only going to be using six 600 watt lamps, which will actually give me a lower wattage per square foot than either of your two choices, but conversations that I have had with some long time growers has me feeling pretty comfortable with the decision. If I don't like it I can always add more.

If I were you, I would go with the single 600 and if you don't like how it turns out you can always change it out to two fixtures.

In 3'x5' I would suggest 2x600W. They cover 3'x3' very well, about 65W per sq.ft. Those duct helper type fans wont cool shit. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
You could get by with 2x400W if you restrict yourself to SOG, i.e. short plants. You know, 20in. penetration and all.
A 6in. Vortex will cool 2x600W with no sweat. Even a 4in might work. That leaves you with only radiant heat to deal with. To cool efficiently you need 2-3 air exchanges per minute. That puts you in the market for about 300 CFM or so if you figure in the loss of airflow from the filter.
With 1200W in that box, you'll grow some serious buds! More light=More bud, Always!
Hope this helps,
Fred

ill keep the 2 600s in mind but i realy wanted to stay under 1000 watts in lightins and some where around 1200-1500 watts total with venting, circulation, lighting. i apreiate all the help let me hit the drawing bord for a little bit and see what can figure out

Countryfarmer said:

If I were you, I would go with the single 600 and if you don't like how it turns out you can always change it out to two fixtures.

Click to expand...

very true i could do the one 600 then add either a 400 or a 600 in after

If you plan on expanding always buy 600W. Gave most my 400's away to patients. You should look into a dual 600w ballast that is dimmable. Lumatek makes a nice one that isn't to exspensive. You can use bulbs as low as 250w. Good Lu k.

i looked into that ballast only thing that i dont like is the 240. i'd like to stay with 120 that way i dont have to re wire or wire in a seperate outlet, but i was looking into doing a 48" dual cool tube from hydrofarm and two of the dimable 600 watt lumetek bllasts to keep at 120 volt. a little more expensive but id rather work with 120 than 240. how much airflow should i do with that lighting a 4 inch 170 cfm fan with a 6 inch adapter or a 6 inch 424cfm fan.

6in. You can always slow it down if necessary. Better to overbuild than under build.

Yep go with the larger fan.

ok im going to do a 3'w x6'l x6'h, ill go 1 foot longer and higher, im 99% sure i have a foot extra. i want to use the hydrofarm 48" dual bulb 6" cooltube w/ a Growbright 6" H.V. inline fan( 424 cfm ). i want to go with the growbright 6" h.v. inlinefan w/ tallboy caron filter on a fan speed controler for exhaust. that way i can fine tune the exhaust. do i need an intake or go with a passive intake like was told previously? i was thinking about going with a 4" h.v. inline fan ( 170 cfm ) on a fan speed controller also for an intake.

i was looking at using two agro max 600 watt hps for flower, they are rated at 95,000 lumens a piece so id have like 10,500 lumens a sq ft optimal, i know it will be a little less actualy.

does anyone have any expierience with the hybrid metal sodium bulbs, are they worth it or just hyped up?

probably doing soil/soiless i dont have the equipment yet for hydro and im still a lil intimidated by all the monitoring of res. so would 8 plants ,probably 3 gal maybe 5 gal pots, be pushing it in 18 sq feet? id actualy like to do 10 if posible. low bushy indicas.