Indoor I'm hooked now - planning my second grow

[Ryker604_BT]

Hello guys and girls, I hope you are doing well .

A couple of days ago I jarred my first grow ever! Let's say that it was a success, as the dry yield came up to 420g, the most of it very nice buds (unfortunately, no pictures now, I'll try to post some if people show interest). Obviously, I can't stop now, especially after joining AFN .

Concerning my first setup:

• 1,2m x 1,2m x 2,0m HomeBox Ambient Tent
• 600W Sylvania Dual Spectrum HPS with Adjust-A-Wings Medium Enforcer
• 15L Smartpots with Plagron LightMix, worm hummus, perlite and BioTabs Mycotrex and Startrex
• BioTabs and Plagron organic nutes

I want to fine tune my next grow in this tent, so that's what this thread will be for, as I have another 2-3 weeks to the planned start.

I will be running Autopots this time with the whole BioTabs nutes line up. The main thing that needs change in my opinion is the lighting, specifically the reflector. The main reason behind this is that I live in an area that has hot and humid summers and I want to replace the Adjust-a-wing with an air-cooled hood and add an MH lamp through veg. This decision opens up many questions for me, so I'll start:

1. First of all, is this decision valid? Room temperatures outside the tent will probably be 25-26 C average, but it will go up to 30 some days.
   
2. I have a good deal on the Prima Klima Spudnik - http://www.primaklima.biz/spudnik.html . Is it worth anything, does anyone have any experience maybe?
3. What about light output through the glass? Is there a great difference in lumens, PAR percentage and such? Should the glass be cleaned regularly?
   
4. Should I cool the lamp with a separate fan? It seems that this will help more in lowering temperature than running the main intake alone through the hood.
5. Will the MH bulb in veg make any difference with autoflowers? The dual spectrum bulb seems to do the trick, but I can get my hands on a Sunmaster Cool Deluxe for a great price.

A lot of questions, I know , but any help with battling summer conditions will be greatly appreciated . I'll tag some people from my introduction thread, tough luck boys @Fairlynew @A-Train @Renaissance Redneck

 

[A-Train]

1) yes it is a very valid plan and what needs to be done to get your temos down

2)no experience with that particular brand but the hood looks fine. Should do the trick just fine.

3) the glass isnt going to cut down much at all. I woukd bet through a PAR meter you would not see much of a difference. I cleaned mine every grow when i ran the air cooled mh

4) no you do not cool it with a seperate can... i ran a 500 cfm fan through 6 inch tubing. It starts at your filter inside the tent and travels to one side of the new hood. Then from the other it will leave the exit port in the top of the tent and attach to your fan.. no need for 2 unless you can run 2 filters but that will add cost. If your pulling 500 cfm and an air cooked hood your temps will drop.

5) the dual spectrum bulb will be just fine. I wouldnt focus on that especially adding cost.

All that being said. I would invest my money into LED lighting. If you cannot now i undwrstand but MH and hps are old tech and not very efficient. They certainly grow nice cannabis thats not the case at all. But if your making an investment to save yourself money and grow better meds for the FUTURE... the the initial investment of LED daves the money back over time. And if you are handy at all you can build a light for much cheaper than the higger end panels.

 

[F.N.]

I agree with A-Train on the lighting. I have been running led since September 2014 and will never run a HPS. Your cost should be reduced using led as a lighting system.

 

[fruititooti]

Subbed on this for the journey,
@Ryker604
what was you growing mate and how many? Ive currently got x2 mephisto under 600w hps in a 80cmx80cm but my reflector is a standard one was thinking of pushing boat to three on next run, I'd love a return like that do you think the reflector makes much difference?


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[Ryker604_BT]

All that being said. I would invest my money into LED lighting. If you cannot now i undwrstand but MH and hps are old tech and not very efficient. They certainly grow nice cannabis thats not the case at all. But if your making an investment to save yourself money and grow better meds for the FUTURE... the the initial investment of LED daves the money back over time. And if you are handy at all you can build a light for much cheaper than the higger end panels.

I agree with A-Train on the lighting. I have been running led since September 2014 and will never run a HPS. Your cost should be reduced using led as a lighting system.

Would love to switch to LEDs, especially for the summer, but it seems to me that most valid options for a 4x4 tent are very much out of my budget [emoji55] . And I don't want to pay for a budget LED option if I can get a nice hood and mh lamp for an even lower price.

Sometime in the near future, fingers crossed [emoji2] .

Subbed on this for the journey,
@Ryker604
what was you growing mate and how many? Ive currently got x2 mephisto under 600w hps in a 80cmx80cm but my reflector is a standard one was thinking of pushing boat to three on next run, I'd love a return like that do you think the reflector makes much difference?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

5 plants - 3 strains - 2 blk amnesia haze auto, 2 rqs royal haze auto and 1 nyc diesel auto.

I don't have anything to compare the Adjust-a-wings to, but my tent was shining really bright and the light penetration seemed pretty decent for a hps. However, no measurements were made and the reflector which I used is meant for an even wider area, so maybe a standard reflector is fine to cover your canopy.

Hope that helps a little bit [emoji4] .

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[Ryker604_BT]

Any other opinions on adding an MH bulb through veg?

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