Help with grow setup.. In closet tent grow

[fly poster]

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!

Can only talk from experience, as I am on a first time grow. I use a 400w HPS in a tent for vegging, plants are doing really well. Someone might correct me if I am wrong here, but CFL's I thought you would use for mother plants, not for vegging.
sounds to me like you have a budget, I would prioritise an EC and PH pen over fancy pots and a MH light if this is the case. bear in mind you might need some back up money for dealing with pests, or a new bulb, and buy a back up drip test ph kit, I know my pen went wacky recently.
With regards you 30% run off, are you growing in coco? If so yes, you are right. The runoff helps stop the build up of salts, although you should still flush every one to two weeks.

Homemade carbon filter? again I would sacrifice fancy stuff and go for the basics, and get a CF I know I could trust. Security is of paramount importance.

Where are you drawing air from, and expelling too, and have you considered temperature during lights off? You don't want you ladies getting too cold. Have you bugeted for a enviroment meter?

Good luck.

FP.

- Just noticed you are going for a soil grow, I would imagine feeding and watering is different, not sure now about you run-off. or what Nutes to use, as I suggested canna below.

 

[fly poster]

Also what nutes are you using? I would go with Canna for a first grow, simply because you can find so much info on this forum about them.

 

[LetsSeeYa]

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

I run 300w of LED's in my tent and my temps were at 85 without any venting yet. But need to get something as its getting stinkyBut this is my first go round in the tent so iv got some learning to do with it. LED's are new too, but it grew out my NL very nice for me, but iv got better reflection with the tent....................


LSY

 

[CannabisDog]

http://cgi.ebay.ca/400-Watt-Ballast...079?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item3a5be90557

This is a good price and works very well. Come with MH and HPS bulb for veg and flowering you can use the same ballast. The reflector isn't the greatest but you could get a better one.

 

[dy-no-mite3000]

check out htgsupply on ebay. Im in the same boat as you looking to jump to a tent. I've had 3 successful runs in a PC case with 162w of cfl's inside. The tent you and I want is roughly 60, and a digi ballast 400w combo kit is 270.

As far as ebay lights and equipment purchases, check the sellers ratings, and many growers here have spoken of the success buying on the bay of e. Hell I built my pc setup basically with everything but the case from HD.

What I'd like to find out is exactly how much yield and how many plants I could run in the 3x2 tent.

 

[Marn]

sounds similar to a closet setup i'm working on. mine will be 2 x 2 with a 250. look into scrog if you're space is confined. i would scrog 4 plants under your 400 and you would def reach more than 1.5oz's per.

 

[LetsSeeYa]

A friend uses the Scrog and get 3 to 4 Oz'sstrain My per plant


Here is what my LED'S did for my NL#5. I luv this strainMy lights have 3wters in them and 150w per light, i run two in my tent. These lights together equal a 600w hps. Something i read in one of Ed's books, its the text for Oaksterdam U. Some good reading. If you go to LED, make sure ya get the 3w doides in the LED light you choose as they will give you a much better grow. Plus the doides go for like 20,000 hours, which The HID's lights need changed after a few grows, but like iv said im just getting started with them. And some of my info is from reading and watching the grow logs of the guy i got them from, very killer grows............

They grew this clone out for me. Had mites so yield wasnt as i would have liked, but still pleased with end result


LSY