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help a vert-noob, how to safely hang my barebulb and other ?'s

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
Just a thought sour, but if you use the next size up from your fan, insulated duct, it will quiet things down quite a bit (i.e attach 8" insulated duct to your 6" fan via reducers). The larger duct area and insulation helps reduce the whoosh sound considerably.

My 8" fan is practically silent with 8" R8 insulated duct. The 6" is dead silent. I don't roll with speed reducers... but to each their own.
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
I will be buying some insulated ducting for sure...

bobble you referring to me and speed controllers or Mister_D about reducers? he is talking about duct reducers... 8">6" but anyway thanks guys... everything arrived at the safe addy today so I hope I will have everything set up by hopefully this weekend?

Ah shit I just remembered the carbon filter and speed controller were ordered from amazon and they are gonna be another week. whatever.
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
I let my fans go full speed. I have 8" insulated duct on an 8" fan, and well as a 6" fan with adapters. Just sharing what I do. If you're controlling temps with a speed controller, you might as well use a cooling controller, seal the room up, and use a back-draft damper on the intake to stop the stink from leaking out if the fan shuts off.
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
I let my fans go full speed. I have 8" insulated duct on an 8" fan, and well as a 6" fan with adapters. Just sharing what I do. If you're controlling temps with a speed controller, you might as well use a cooling controller, seal the room up, and use a back-draft damper on the intake to stop the stink from leaking out if the fan shuts off.

:yeahthats
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
Speed controller was just for noise and so that the plants were not living in a wind tunnel. I recently read a statement from Mister_D though that said there is no such thing as too much ventilation unless it is so forceful that it hurts your plants... lol

So between the muffler, carbon filter, and insulated ducting I think we will be good and might not need the speed controller after all...

Sealing up sounds great but just is not a viable option right now... soon enough though...

for now it is much easier to just run the fan full time scrubbing the stink... no chance of any smell leaking out...
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
Got pretty much everything in. Only thing we are waiting on is the Carbon filter and speed controller.

Then I gotta make a Home Depot trip, for ducting, clamps, etc. I am going to make up a list and post it up so you guys can make any suggestions for things I should add that I am forgetting about.

Ballast says must be mounted on metal, concrete, or something similar. this means wood obviously is not the best option... how far away will the ballast still fire the bulb? I have something like a 25ft lamp cord, obviously I will not need all of that. Would something like 10 ft away be ok? Only metal thing I can think to mount it on is a mini-fridge lol. Is this ok? does it actually have to be mounted down or is it ok to just sit it on top?
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
Never knew about mounting on metal or concrete.... My ballasts are all hung on the wall in my room. Seems to be working so far. Check your manual, but I think galaxy ballasts fire the lamps up to 65' away. The shorter the distance the better. I cut all my lamp cords to size.
 

Eighths-n-Aces

Active member
Veteran
the metal or concrete thing is more than likely about fires not spreading from a ballast that malfunctions. you could use drywall if you are worried about it. 1/2" gypsum board is fire rated for a half hour burn through if i recall correctly.
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
yeah most likely safety thing for fires and things like that so they don't get sued. I will probably just sit the mini fridge next to the cab and leave the ballast on top of the mini fridge for safety...

Ok now I have to figure out how I am going to do my ventilation for my tiny ass cab...

I have a 6x18" duct silencer and a 6x24" carbon filter. The muffler fits in the cab but not when connected to the fan. The carbon filter won't fit in the can with or without the fan. Normally you would put the carbon filter first with air being pulled through it then out the cab and so on.


(half way in, half way out)
Would it be ok to put the muffler first in the cab> connected to the fan > connected to the carbon filter (outside cab) > and air out....

I will try to get some pics to explain what I am talking about.

EDIT: Is it ok to use ducting to connect the fan to the muffler and carbon filter or are you supposed to connect the carbon filter and muffler DIRECTLY to the fan flanges and then run ducting at the end of the line? It should be ok to use to connect them right? I have a feeling someone will say not to use flex ducting for this...
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
If I was you... I would hang the scrubber in the cab, and mount the silencer and the fan outside the cab... Connect them all with flex duct if that's what you have... But I prefer semi-rigid or rigid duct.
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
the problem is I don't know if I can fit the scrubber in the cab... it still hasn't gotten here yet but since the muffler is 6" shorter and it is a tight fit... I have a feeling the srubber isn't going to fit... I will wait til it gets here to confirm that...
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
what are the dimensions of the cab? If its too small for a 6" scrubber, its probably too small for a 600w lamp. You should probably build a new cab. I used a 6" fan/scrubber combo to cool 1800w... Sounds like you should be using a 4" combo.

Good luck dude. You can blow through the scrubber and it will work... but its supposed to go scrubber>muffler>fan.
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
Roughly 2x2 with a couple extra inches one way or another... I am not running a 600w, i bought a 400w for the Galaxy Select-A-Watt ballast. I know it is going to be tight but I am hoping I can pull it off with proper training... and the extra exhaust only helps to deal with the heat. 4" prob would have been perfect but it is a little late and as everyone says overkill is underrated. now I just have a 6" for later down the road when I can put it to full use.... for now I will run it on a speed controller that Vortex reccomended, and if my fan takes a shit I'll get a brand new one from them because this shit has a 10 year warranty. That is good service, I must say.

I'll see what I can manage when the scrubber gets here. A bigger cab might not be a bad idea... but i'd rather not...

What are the cons to pushing isntead of pulling through the scrubber?
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
(half way in, half way out)
Would it be ok to put the muffler first in the cab> connected to the fan > connected to the carbon filter (outside cab) > and air out....

I will try to get some pics to explain what I am talking about.

EDIT: Is it ok to use ducting to connect the fan to the muffler and carbon filter or are you supposed to connect the carbon filter and muffler DIRECTLY to the fan flanges and then run ducting at the end of the line? It should be ok to use to connect them right? I have a feeling someone will say not to use flex ducting for this...

You can do this either way, and it will work just fine. Long runs of flex duct should be avoided due to added air resistance, but it's fine in most cases. Just do whatever makes most sense install wise.
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
Roughly 2x2 with a couple extra inches one way or another... I am not running a 600w, i bought a 400w for the Galaxy Select-A-Watt ballast. I know it is going to be tight but I am hoping I can pull it off with proper training... and the extra exhaust only helps to deal with the heat. 4" prob would have been perfect but it is a little late and as everyone says overkill is underrated. now I just have a 6" for later down the road when I can put it to full use.... for now I will run it on a speed controller that Vortex reccomended, and if my fan takes a shit I'll get a brand new one from them because this shit has a 10 year warranty. That is good service, I must say.

I'll see what I can manage when the scrubber gets here. A bigger cab might not be a bad idea... but i'd rather not...

What are the cons to pushing isntead of pulling through the scrubber?

2'x2' IMO is too small to run a 400w bare bulb. I would make it 3'x3', and 4'x4' if you ever plan on using a 600w lamp. You want the plants to finish 8-12" from a 400w lamp. 18" from a 600w lamp. Getting your plants closer than that just blocks light to the other plants. The odd cola 6" from the lamp isn't a big deal, but the edge of the canopy needs to be further back. You haven't allowed for your plants to have any depth. You're going to have a hard time keeping things under control throughout the grow in your 2'x2" cab with a 6" fan... If your plants don't burn up from being too close to the lamp, they might look burned up from transpiring due to all the air that fan is going to pull through your cab, even on a speed controller.

2"x4"s and OSB are cheap. Build a new cab.
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
You can do this either way, and it will work just fine. Long runs of flex duct should be avoided due to added air resistance, but it's fine in most cases. Just do whatever makes most sense install wise.


this is pretty much what i was thinking... since I went overboard with a 6" I should pretty much be able to pull anything off no matter how I set it up, as long as it doesn't reak...
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
2'x2' IMO is too small to run a 400w bare bulb. I would make it 3'x3', and 4'x4' if you ever plan on using a 600w lamp. You want the plants to finish 8-12" from a 400w lamp. 18" from a 600w lamp. Getting your plants closer than that just blocks light to the other plants. The odd cola 6" from the lamp isn't a big deal, but the edge of the canopy needs to be further back. You haven't allowed for your plants to have any depth. You're going to have a hard time keeping things under control throughout the grow in your 2'x2" cab with a 6" fan... If your plants don't burn up from being too close to the lamp, they might look burned up from transpiring due to all the air that fan is going to pull through your cab, even on a speed controller.

2"x4"s and OSB are cheap. Build a new cab.


you snuck in there while I was responding to Mister_D...

you think so? even with trellis netting on the walls pulling the plants back from the light? The cab is really something like 25.5"x28.5" not a big difference but I figure I can have slightly larger plants on the 28.5" sides and smaller on the 25.5" sides...

say 7 inches of space from buds to bulbs, that leaves about 6 inches of plant depth? how much space should you account for plants? I am not trying to grow 1 oz plants or anything here like you were bobble... I really don't care what my yield ends up being. I just want to experiment with vert. If you really believe this is not possible I guess I will come up with a bigger cab. But I believe Marlo and others did 400w grows in a 32"x32", I know this is bigger but really not by that much... it just means I need to have smaller plants... Am I correct?
 

Eighths-n-Aces

Active member
Veteran
400 in a 2x2?

I know Marlo's closet is small but it ain't that small sour.

What i see when i try to picture that is more like a biscuitbox running 400 watts. I would never say it's impossible, but IMHO you are going to make your life "interesting" if you try to run those watts in that space. It's going to be very very tight in there brother! No room for error whatsoever might not be the way to go on your first vert grow


Thats just my:2cents:
 

soursmoker

East Coast, All Day!
Veteran
haha ok fine... what kinda size should I be looking at then? I think I can score a 32"x32"x60" tent on amazon for $100. would that be good? that's the only square one... a 2x4 would not work well for vert...
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
dude... IDK all of your dimensions... cubic footage is calculated L x W x H. So say your cab is 2'x2'x3', that's 12cft. Your 6" fan is rated for 400cfm+... So you're exchanging your air 33x a minute... a bit of a stretch from the 2x a minute rule at even 50% power.

3'x3'x4'= 36cft... getting there... 4'x4'x5'= 80cft... Now that's the minimum size cab for a 6" fan on a speed controller... with 5x a minute air exchange at full power.

:joint:
 

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