Help with grow setup.. In closet tent grow

[420OGKUSH]

Setup
Tent: I'm planning on growing in a tent with the dimensions of 20"W x 36"L x 64"H that is going to be placed in my sliding door closet, the closet itself is only 24"W x 48"L x 68"H.
Nutes & Soil: FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil and FoxFarm Soil Trio Nutes.
Ph Control: General Hydroponics Ph up and Ph down with the little liquid Ph checker.
Light: 400 watt cooltube with switchable ballast from ebay, I'm going to use both MH and HPS.
Ventilation: Soler & Palau TD-100X Mix Flow Fan 135 CFM on high 100 CFM on low attached to a DIY carbon scrubber.
6" EcoPlus 160 CFM duct booster fan for cooltube.

Questions
1. Is the liquid Ph checker going to be accurate enough? Do I need to invest in a probe-style one?
2. Anyone have experience with Ebay grow lights?
3. Does the overall setup seem good? I'm a little bit worried about temps so I think that having the two seperate fans will definitely help.
4.I hope to be able to fit 4-5 plants in there and get 1-1.5 oz's per plant.. can this be easily accomplished if vegged to 1-1.5 feet?

This is going to be my first grow and I've been doing a lot of research, but all advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[bcbubba]

Setup
Tent: I'm planning on growing in a tent with the dimensions of 20"W x 36"L x 64"H that is going to be placed in my sliding door closet, the closet itself is only 24"W x 48"L x 68"H.
Nutes & Soil: FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil and FoxFarm Soil Trio Nutes.
Ph Control: General Hydroponics Ph up and Ph down with the little liquid Ph checker.
Light: 400 watt cooltube with switchable ballast from ebay, I'm going to use both MH and HPS.
Ventilation: Soler & Palau TD-100X Mix Flow Fan 135 CFM on high 100 CFM on low attached to a DIY carbon scrubber.
6" EcoPlus 160 CFM duct booster fan for cooltube.

Questions
1. Is the liquid Ph checker going to be accurate enough? Do I need to invest in a probe-style one?
2. Anyone have experience with Ebay grow lights?
3. Does the overall setup seem good? I'm a little bit worried about temps so I think that having the two seperate fans will definitely help.
4.I hope to be able to fit 4-5 plants in there and get 1-1.5 oz's per plant.. can this be easily accomplished if vegged to 1-1.5 feet?

This is going to be my first grow and I've been doing a lot of research, but all advice would be greatly appreciated!

For ques #1.. yes you should always use a PH pen. 5.8 to 6.2 is a good range.
Good Luck!

 

[420OGKUSH]

For ques #1.. yes you should always use a PH pen. 5.8 to 6.2 is a good range.
Good Luck!

Thanks for your input, do you know of a good brand? I've read some reviews on them before and it seems like you have to pay a lot in order to get reliability.

Also I just realized this should probably be moved to the Growroom Designs & Setup section if one of the mods could move it for me..
Thanks

 

[bcbubba]

Thanks for your input, do you know of a good brand? I've read some reviews on them before and it seems like you have to pay a lot in order to get reliability.

Also I just realized this should probably be moved to the Growroom Designs & Setup section if one of the mods could move it for me..
Thanks

I use an HM Digital PH Pen. Regularly recalibrating it should keep it accurate enough!

 

[weedomat]

You shouldn't use lamps from ebay because you can never know how long they have been running allready. Lamps become weaker the longer they run.
You can still use the Ballast and CT, but buy some new light bulbs.
Also I think 400W is a bit too much for your setup, i think 250W would be sufficient.

 

[420OGKUSH]

I use an HM Digital PH Pen. Regularly recalibrating it should keep it accurate enough!

Thanks a lot I'm definetley going to invest in one..

Does anyone know if when having two seperate fans for exhaust if the one cooling the tube not going through the scrubber would give off stanky air?

 

[daishere]

400w is fine, I use one in a 2x3 area and it works great

 

[touringfunkband]

I think a 400w is fine for the area as well, but you might consider a digital dimmable ballast like the Lumatek so you can run the ballast at 250w if heat is an issue. Plus it gives you room to upgrade if you move into a larger grow tent or closet.

 

[bcbubba]

I think a 400w is fine for the area as well, but you might consider a digital dimmable ballast like the Lumatek so you can run the ballast at 250w if heat is an issue. Plus it gives you room to upgrade if you move into a larger grow tent or closet.

Absolutely! I agree. Lumatex Digital is what I'm using and they're great. Mine do 600, 750, 1000w & super luminus (overdrive!) & will do either Hilide or HPS! You would need a different model but....

 

[420OGKUSH]

So if I was to buy a 400 watt bulb and dim it down to 250 watts it would give off the same amount of heat as a normal 250 watt bulb?

 

[touringfunkband]

I wouldn't expect there to be much, if any difference but unless someone sets up both for twenty-four hours there's no way to know for sure.

 

[durka_durka420]

in that space 400W is perfect i run a 250 in a 2x2 space thats just bad advice telling him to run a lesser wattage in that space....theres some decent ph and tds/ppm meters on this site for a good price http://sunstoneherbals.com/testers_ph_tds_etc.htm..and for you space id run your fan and ducting like this (FILTER)>>>|FAN|>>>(COOLTUBE)>>>EXIT and use about a 200-250cfm fan on a speed control would be your best bet..for me i found a perfectly matched fan for pulling through the filter, running the length of duct for cooltube, and still keeping negative pressure and air exchange high...that fan was a 145cfm squirrel cage blower...works great and sounds like a normal fan with the diy fan muffler on it....also in that space you can fit alot more then 4-5 plants i can fit 6 in a 2x2 in 3gal rectangle/square pots....of course you could use larger plants/pots and less plants all up to you!..good luck with your tent!

 

[420OGKUSH]

in that space 400W is perfect i run a 250 in a 2x2 space thats just bad advice telling him to run a lesser wattage in that space....theres some decent ph and tds/ppm meters on this site for a good price http://sunstoneherbals.com/testers_ph_tds_etc.htm..and for you space id run your fan and ducting like this (FILTER)>>>|FAN|>>>(COOLTUBE)>>>EXIT and use about a 200-250cfm fan on a speed control would be your best bet..for me i found a perfectly matched fan for pulling through the filter, running the length of duct for cooltube, and still keeping negative pressure and air exchange high...that fan was a 145cfm squirrel cage blower...works great and sounds like a normal fan with the diy fan muffler on it....also in that space you can fit alot more then 4-5 plants i can fit 6 in a 2x2 in 3gal rectangle/square pots....of course you could use larger plants/pots and less plants all up to you!..good luck with your tent!

Thanks everyone for your advice! I really appreaciate it..
I was planning on setting up my tent with the filter first then cooltube then fan. Would that work out good? I want to hang my fan with some bungee about 6" from my closet roof facing outwards so that it can blow the hot air out of the closet into my room. I can't cut any holes in my roof so that's pretty much my best option. If that doesn't run cool enough I'm going to get a 4" duct booster fan and use it as an intake from my room. The fan I'm getting is rated at 293 CFM on high so I think that should be good enough, but we'll see.

Can anyone reccomend a good quality 400 watt hps/mh complete system with ballast, cooltube/aircooled hood, and both bulbs? Does spending the extra cash on the more expensive bulbs like hortilux make a big difference? Thanks everyone.

 

[durka_durka420]

most have thier exhaust fans inside the tent mine came with 4 straps 2 for fan 2 for filter...and you wont need a intake fan thats why i said get a fan with more cfms then you need for cfm loss due to ducting,carbon filter and also pulling in air from the vent ports..no need for those inline boosters there ment for one thing and that is to boost air thats already in ducting...other then that they dont work the best

 

[CLOWD11]

Have you considered LED?
Im using a cabinet similar to your space and are getting great results without having to worry about heat.

 

[420OGKUSH]

I heard LEDs weren't worth it.. any good brands?

 

[CLOWD11]

Yeah there are a few now that have proven their worth.
They do require an expensive initial outlay but that is soon negated by running costs.

The OP of this thread https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=185111
..is using http://www.ledgrow.se/produkter.html these LEDs with great looking results. Those are using 3W LEDs.
Ive had great results from lights using 1W LEDs. The same mob released their 3W Pro version recently. http://www.hydrogrowled.com/ They seem to have the best spectrum ive come across in my searching so i bought a couple, they worked very well so i ordered another for an upcoming tent grow. Hope to order another in 2 or 3 months.
There is not alot of others being reported to work well, only whingers upset with their purchase of crap LEDs, and rightly so imo.

 

[durka_durka420]

no led's are not worth it right now as electricity aint extremely expensive it would be best just to go with hid man because in all honesty it is not cost efficient....and the cheaper led pannels dont use correct leds at all....just go with the HPS people have been using it for years and has proven results....and cheaper cost...with the extra money you save not going LED you could buy some killer ass genetics to put under your hps .....led has alot of hype right now they will go down in price soon enough...and running cost is the least of many peoples worries unless there running a few kw's as a 400w hps uses less power then most of todays desktop computers.......hell my 250 has very very little impact on the power bill it adds like under 5$ a month..id wait untill led tech is more refined and the price goes down but thats just me....as i say do what fits within your budget and what will perform the best within your budget...

 

[420OGKUSH]

Thanks to both of you for responding it really helps me make some decisions.. I think that I'm gonna go with the 400 watt with an air-cooled hood. Does anyone know if air-cooled hoods are better than cool tubes? Well anyway I'm gonna go with the 400 watt hps for flowering and possibly a 400 watt mh for vegging. Do you think that I could get away with 150 watts of cfls instead for vegging to save some money on electricity? Eventually I'm going to be using this tent as a veg tent and I'm gonna move the 400 watter to the flowering tent so maybe then I'll use the leds.
Also I had a nooby question about watering.. I plan on using smartpots and I was wondering if you just place the pots in a drip tray to collect all the runoff and then empty the tray once it starts getting full. Also you're supposed to water every time until 30% runoff correct?
Thanks for all your help, I can't wait to start!

 

[420OGKUSH]

can anyone help me out?