WWYD - help with specifics / tent

Hello all, this is my first post here. I appreciate any advice those of you with experience can give me. Even if I should move this to another forum. I am really looking for specifics on brands etc. for lighting and ventalation. I'd rather spend a little more and do it right from the start. That way the hardware is one less thing I'll need to fool with. Whenever I start to look at all these web sites my eyes just glass over, I just need an expert to help me make a shopping list. Thanks!

Some friends and I would like to do our own thing b/c we're all outta the loop in a new area. Since I'm the one who's not married and has an extra bedroom - well you get the idea. We've got a decent budget to work with between us and have made a couple of basic choices. The bedroom in question has a 3' x 2' closet in the tiled bathroom that I think will be the cloning and mother station. Probably just put a 24" flouro fixture for the babies on a shelf over the moms and same and/or cfl's for mom(s) - any input there would be very helpful but I think that should be the simple part once we get it going. For strains we'll probably start with NL and I also hear some good things about the tolerance of spoetnik 1.

For the rest we have decided on two tents (sun hut xxl silver) one for veg and one for flower.

Everything else - I'm kinda unsure about. Except for the fact that we'll be growing in soil pro mix and will be using big pots or storage bins (15-18 gallon.) I can remember seeing plants in those big 18 gallon storage bins yielding 400+ and they just looked so happy.

Here's what I envisioned:
Veg: 2 400 w MH, maybe cool tubes with a closed air circuit from the outside or should I vent air from the tent out through the lights? We could Probably cut more intake and exhaust holes in the tent. Again this is where your input could really help. Please, give me as much detail as you can.

Flower, I guess gets a little more tricky because we've got odor to deal with. So again, what kind of lights (i was thinking two 600w), or would 100w on a mover be better, can you even rig movers in a tent? would you run from carbon filter to fan to lights to exhaust?

Also open to alternatives to keep the heat down and or increase productivity, for instance, combining floro tubes in the flower for extra lighting without too much heat, maybe sides etc.

Thanks in advance.

your on the right track, i just finished up with a secret jardin 150 and got 19 oz using a 600hps and a 430 sonagro, for the moms and clones i would get a 250 mh, as for the veg go with a 400 or 750 mh, and for flowering dont waste your time with 2 400s they would put out about as much light as a single 600, i would go with 2 600s personally. in my set up i put a filter and an inline fan in the tent blowing through the lights and i also had another inline fan with a filter sucking out the top just to keep the heat down, personally im not a fan of the big tubs to grow in, they are a bitch to move around and if one of the plants dies or something you cant move another in its place and you cant prop the short ones up closer to the light if they lag behind, i use these things called smart pots i think, they are fabric pots and they kick ass, they let lots of air in to the roots and since its fabric the plants dont get rootbound, plus when the plants are small you can bunch them up under the light real good, but yeah i think 3 gal pots will do more than enough because you have to remember that your going to be running them through the system pretty fast so they are not going to be giants. of and for a fan in the tent what i found to be the answer is those window fans, you just hang one of those just above plant height ...thats all i can think of for now

THanks for the advice, any specific brands and models best for the lights?

Bump, any advice folks? What are your thoughts on flouros for veg to save on heat issues, electricity and increase security? Please, help - brands etc anythkng you've learned. I have done lots of searching on here and my head is about to explode.

take a break and come back to it keep filling your head until it does break then come back for more i come on this site almost every day to better my ability to grow so much imfo. changing hands every day i love it
read through the grow FAQ gret info on lights ...rob

Rob - thanks, I've been outta the loop so long and my old friend that's trying to 'tutor" me, lives a long way away and has a my way or the highway approach - 1000w hps, 18 gallon tubs for pots etc. But before he quit I've helped him trim and never got less than 400 off a plant! I just cant have that kind of juice and heat in this room.

Alright, so here's my current status - going to start the seeds in a hothouse under a t5 and over a heat mat tonight. Mymain thing now is training these ladies so they don't pop out of the tent - and id rather have a plan from the start ya know. As always, any advice is much appreciated.

If you had 6 fem chocolope seeds and the following equipment, what would you do to keep things under control and get the maximum yield?

Got this strain because it said easy to grow but I am concerned about the height. As many specifics as possible would be really helpful. For instance best ph, light medium or heavy nutes, would you lst them during veg? Top them ( ow many times can you top?) Things like that. How long would you veg given the height restrictions (tent is like 6' 7".) Thank you much!

4x8 sun hut silver tent
2 x 600 digitals (can be dimmed to 75 & 50%) with cool tubes - vented with 6" can fan
6 x lgm5 led bars ( http://www.led-grow-master.com/LGM5.html ) for the sake of experimentation
will be settling on some sort of carbon scrubbing set up as well. Either continuously scrubbing inside the tent or exhausting - but I was going to do some dry running to get an idea of what kind of heat issues I might be dealing with.

I am a newb but have some wishes that were passed to me as conditions on the gifts - one is to use big pots - ideally 18 gallon storage tubs (minimum 10 gal.) Another was to use promix and Green Air Genesis Nutes. This project is sort of a memorial so i want to do it right.

Thanks again!