Advice on best fan to hook up to cool tube

[silent-toker]

Well you have done a bit of research and your heart is set on vertical lighting. i have read somewhere

there are more ways to grow than there are growers.

 

i fully agree with the theory and have seen great results from systems like The Collisium on OG which is like a vertical SOG. But my 2cents is..

your room is 3x3 or approx 900mm, lets say your vertical light is dead centre.

you will need at very minimum 250-300mm between the bulb and plant, 360 deg around the bulb, this is gonna create a no go zone (circular) 500-600mm in diameter.

this will leave about 150-200mm around this circle of light for your plants which would require alot of training to contain.

The 250-300mm i mention is from my own experience with a horizontal 400w HPS,150mm intake fan blowing straight over bulb, in winter/spring.

 

i fully understand that you want to do your best but sometimes we can try too hard and get too technical, especially us newer growers who want to follow the experts.

i did exactly this myself by trying a 16 plant vert SOG with different strains straight off the bat!

you will get excellent results from a horizontal HPS in your set up, i would use the $110 that you intended for the cool tube and get a simple batwing relector to hang the bulb horizontally and a 250mm bathroom exhaust fan/ ducting to fit to the top of your room, the intakes down the bottom are well positioned to blow fresh air up through the canopy.

this ventilation along with ability to raise the light will cover any temp issues.

Now with that variable taken care of you can focus on feeding schedule, training etc which will give you a greater increase in yield than hanging your light vertical.

take a look at Sukonmiskunks wardrobe grow for pure simplicity and excellent results

 

you can always play around when your growin skills are sorted, you will some of your own smoke by then too! so maybe a bit more $$ to throw at a vert cool tube set up!

 

have fun!

S-T

[Gazza2001au]

this is one of my old setups can be found in my sig this is in a 3x3 foot area 400w in a chinamans hat its the only shade that would cover a 3x3 area on the light meter SS is spot on with the chinaman hat,250mm bathroom fan in a 3x3 area u dont need cool tubes there added problems unless u want to get technical and spend $ with the cool tubes from my own experience u need a good fan that will cool the tubes in summer and have a fan speed controller handy to slow down the fan in colder months or you'll have problems

chinaman hat will set ya back $25-$60

250mm lenco ceiling exhaust fan $40 (hauls ass on airmovement for price) i use one to vent my whole room running 2x 600watters so they do work

and just a few more $ on a basic coco/perlite mix in pots ur underway

[Lollygag]

Thanks for all the responses guys

Much appreciated.

 

thanks for them ;links man

all the best with ya grow

bil

No chicken curries mate, glad they're useful to you. I ran into problems sourcing some of the parts - all the tutes are written by seppos, they have a bigger diy product range over there. I noticed Bunnings carries thin sheet metal though so with a bit of improvisation it's well doable. Lotsa aluminium tape too I think. Just so long as it's sturdy & constructed out of fire proof materials you'll be right.

 

one q's ive always pondered is if the plant happens to fall against the lamp, would that represent a fire risk?

Not something I'd be keen to test thats for sure.

Edited November 14, 2006 by Lollygag

[Lollygag]

your room is 3x3 or approx 900mm, lets say your vertical light is dead centre.

you will need at very minimum 250-300mm between the bulb and plant, 360 deg around the bulb, this is gonna create a no go zone (circular) 500-600mm in diameter.

this will leave about 150-200mm around this circle of light for your plants which would require alot of training to contain.

The 250-300mm i mention is from my own experience with a horizontal 400w HPS,150mm intake fan blowing straight over bulb, in winter/spring.

 

You're right. I completely failed to take this into consideration in building the box.

Exact dimensions are 950mm x 970mm, but I got a bit of space to play with - the back wall is mylar, the rhs wall is panda plastic.

if I added some more panda to both those sides I could stretch it to 1.2 x 1.2 metres if need be. Ads roughly an extra 150mm on all sides, not a helluva lot - but the vert thread I linked would appear to indicate it's adequate, his was 1m x 1m - but being I'm a n00b, stuff ain't gonna be the same for me. Not to mention I have no idea what strain I'm growing or how big it'll want to get... Enough to persist with my vert folly ya reckon? We shall see.

 

you will get excellent results from a horizontal HPS in your set up, i would use the $110 that you intended for the cool tube and get a simple batwing relector to hang the bulb horizontally and a 250mm bathroom exhaust fan/ ducting to fit to the top of your room, the intakes down the bottom are well positioned to blow

you will get excellent results from a horizontal HPS in your set up, i would use the $110 that you intended for the cool tube and get a simple batwing relector to hang the bulb horizontally and a 250mm bathroom exhaust fan/ ducting to fit to the top of your room, the intakes down the bottom are well positioned to blow fresh air up through the canopy.

 

The little buggers are only about a foot high right now, so I can stick with the vert for the moment, but if the flowering stretch starts making things too tight even after enlarging the space, a switch to horizontal may yet become necessary. I'll be holding onto that cool tube $$$ for the batwing or chinaman in case.

 

take a look at Sukonmiskunks wardrobe grow for pure simplicity and excellent results

 

Will do!

 

Thanks for the pointers ST, very much appreciated. :tup:

 

,250mm bathroom fan in a 3x3 area u dont need cool tubes there added problems unless u want to get technical and spend $ with the cool tubes from my own experience u need a good fan that will cool the tubes in summer and have a fan speed controller handy to slow down the fan in colder months or you'll have problems

chinaman hat will set ya back $25-$60

250mm lenco ceiling exhaust fan $40 (hauls ass on airmovement for price) i use one to vent my whole room running 2x 600watters so they do work

and just a few more $ on a basic coco/perlite mix in pots ur underway

 

Nice set up! I loved that air cooler tute, got some great ideas off it.

 

250mm Lenco. That'd be their 600m^3/hr I guess

It'll probably be a stinker of summer, but if that covers 2 x 600's for you, it should be enough for a 400 here.

I'm sold! Already googled their phone number.

Thanks Gazza.

 

Here's the smelly gals this morning, I swear they've grown noticeably over the last 8 hours or so since the photo shoot.

The cfls provide some blue light for veg.

 

There's 4 girls definite. of the other 2 I think ones a boy & the other a girl, but too early to tell yet. I'm thinking of repotting & switching to 12/12 in the next day or so.

Except for the boy, who'll be put outside in the national park so I can harvest some pollen & make some seeds from the lower buds of 1 of the gals, buggered if I can afford seed dealer prices, If this turns out to be as good a smoke as the bag I got the seeds from it's worth sacrificing a little yield for some seed.

[Gazza2001au]

all hydro shops sell or would be able to order in a lenco fan for you