Gathering intel for a grow tent set up. Are all air filtration kits basically the same, spider farmer, ac infinity etc. or are there quality differences? Are there other brands I should be looking at? Also, are these kits complete or will I need addons.
Thanks in advance!
Hi @mulligan , I’m an AC Infinity guy, so I firmly believe in their products. One-sided here. 
The tent I zeroed in on is the ac infinity 2x2x72. It is the tallest of all the other 2x2’s out there from what I gather. Now I’m trying to ascertain is all in one or piece by piece the way to go for me.
2x2 is 1 big plant. Kinda small. 2x4 more in range…3 good plants. 3x3 is way i would go if room.
You will find that is too small. I promise e.
I run a 2x4 and a 2x3 2-n-1 and a 2x2x48.
My 2x2 is just for drying. My 2-n-1 is too small for a single plant with good room. You only get. 2x2 space in the 2-n-1 to grow.
A 2x4 is good a 2-3 plants. Depending on your grow style
I also wish I had more than 72" at the top. Without training, your plants may grow too tall.
The height is the crucial measurement. I have a low ceiling, 7 ft. Which brings me to another gray area with tents. Are there components, parts etc. which go on top of the tent. This would be a very hard thing to learn the hard way. As a side note besides the extra cost of going to a larger tent, if my ability to grow with a tent is an abject failure my losses might not hurt as much.
I’ve never bought a “kit”, so I wouldn’t know. But you’ll at least need:
A fan - Common sizes are 4, 6 and 8 inches.
A controller - Anything from an on/off switch, to a wireless readout with climate probe.
Ducting - Black is nicer, silver works fine. Long enough for your situation.
Clamps - To clamp the ducting and fan together of course.
Filter - Charcoal one necessary if you need to control odor.
Hangars - To suspend the fan &/or filter from the tents ceiling supports.
Some people put the fans outside the tent on the top to save inside vertical space, but that’s about it that would go on top of a tent that I know of. A 2x2 might struggle with horizontal space as well if you run a filter, not sure. Some just put the filter inside the tent and the fan outside. There’s proper installation, but there’s no single pattern for doing it. Whatever works, as long as it works
Edit to say AC Infinity is the crowd favorite. For a reason. Others are fine, but you’ll see AC stand out again and again throughout the threads.
All the items you listed are what everyone puts in their kits. I wanted to be sure of the components because I’m figuring the cost of an all in one set up vs piece by piece. Of course reading the advice to go larger than a 2x2 has me rethinking. Thanks a lot! (LOL).
Ac infinity is the go to for exhaust for sure.
There tents…I have two 4x4 and a 2x4…are sturdy.
I don’t have experience with their lights and would suggest hlg…size depending on the tent you buy.
Remember you’ll need to control your temps and humidity…so a humidifier,heater,air conditioner, heat and temp controllers…or ac infinity 69 pro.
Amazon burple lights are not the way to go…I started led growing with them… they’ll grow bud…but it will also work against you…the color prevents you from seeing the plant clearly, they put off a ton of heat, the wattage is usually wrong…or off.
Nope. Just need to vent from a top side hole if too close to ceiling. Everything inside unless put drivers outside. To be perfectly honest budget a good light…cheap tent
.fair exhaust fan… cheap small clip on. Light is the KEY component. Everything else is superfluos to a good light. Bigger than you need. Dimmable. Bar lights are giving best coverage anymore. Can make a tent from cardboard but cant do anything in most expensive tent out there with a subpar light.
Thanks for that info. I see my biggest hurdles to growing were light and environment. From what I gather from many posts is that lights make the difference. Having said that, how do ac infinity and spider farmer lights compare?
I can’t speak for either…
I do hear the the AC infinity are good… depending on the light.
I would recommend hlg for a light…they are an investment but the most important part of the investment. Depending on the size tent you go with…the light would be easier to recommend knowing that.
If its 2x4…then hlg 350 diablo or one of their kits 260 or 260xl.
4x4…hlg 750, blackbird or a couple kit lights together.
Even better go for refurbished…save money while retaining warranty.
I’m using a 2X4 tent from MyHighgrow, comes with “everything you need”…seems to be legit so far. Strong charcoal exhaust fan. Then again, this is my first time.
I am running two AC Infinity lights in my 2x4. A 100w and. 200w. That was the only way to flood the tent with light using the AC Infinity lineup.
Personally, it works great at 300w, but there is a great deal of heat with the boards. I’m thinking of upgrading to the Spider Farmer SE4500 for my 2x4 ACI tents. That’s 480w I believe.
I haven’t shopped for lights in a few years, but there are certainly some lighting guru’s around here to learn from. I think AC is still kinda new on the lighting scene, but they make good stuff, so wouldn’t doubt their quality. I have read they have good spectrum and components, just not quite strong enough, so need to double up, which might not be cost effective. Dunno…
HLG has been the go to for performance, quality, power and customer service, but you pay for it. There’s a couple of other, smaller brands in that tier that I’m unfamiliar with, so no help with those. Spiderfarmer and Marshydro are in the next tier below HLG, and all the feedback on them are pretty good. They seem to be great “value” lights. A little lower build quality, but proper diodes and plenty of power. Not sure how their drivers are, but haven’t heard anything bad about them. Lots of people grow great stuff with properly sized lights from these makers.
I wouldn’t bother with any of the other Amazon type lights. There’s still a few “dual spectrum” lights and blurples around in the market I think, but nobody that I’ve seen ever recommends any of them and I would steer clear of “too good to be true” specs and wattages from no-name manufacturers. There’s a lot of snakeoil salesmen in the lighting biz.
Some general overall suggestions when starting from scratch, would be to match the tent and light together. Square tent = square light, rectangle tent = rectangle light. Shape determines coverage, and you want it wall to wall.
Also, the light is the single most important AND expensive piece of gear to indoor growing. Nothing else compares, so go big or go home imho. LED lights lose around 5% each year, so buy big for longevity. Height is always an issue in tents, and besides lots of tying, bending and training, the only way to get shorter plants, is more light. Most good lights have dimmers, so you can always dial it back, but if it falls short, you have to upgrade, or buy another and fiddle with fitting extra lights hanging in an otherwise carefully planned out tent setup.
There’s a few general “rules of thumb” that people throw around, I like the “40 watts per square foot” one. It’s a good number that’s at the max end of lighting req’s, and easy to work with. If I ever bought another light for my 2x4, it would probably be something like an HLG 320xl, or 350 Diablo. They each fall on opposite sides of the $500 mark on their website.
Nutes, feeding, watering, temps, humidity, pH, PPM’s… these are enough variables to deal with in a grow, don’t let lighting be another. Buy one and done is my advice fwiw. Have fun shopping, don’t let it stress ya out!
Ok this is an “I’ve got a friend…” stories
A friend of mine got an AC infinity full set up (twice actually), and I was on board with her decision with the exception of the light. I was skeptical about it as I thought it “looked” smallish .
In any case she had real success with it. I have not seen the final dried /cured product so I can not comment on firmness of buds, per se, but the pics I saw of her plants in the final stages of flower looked great.
I have ac infinity tents, exhaust fans and carbon filters and they are excellent.
The filter will get you a good 6 months with almost no odor and another 6 with minimal odor (imo)
After the 6 month mark, it was not bad, but I must admit it did have some stank.
If you decide to go the kit route, I don’t think you’ll find anything better than the ac infinity kit, and they seem to run sales every now and again
That having been said, if you decide against a full kit, and get your lights separately, I can recommend hlg lights (obviously as they are a gold standard) and I have a bloom plus 2000 which is a cheaper light, but so far it has performed quite splendidly.
I don’t know about the longevity of the bloom plus light as it has lasted through 2 harvests and is still going strong, but being a bargain brand I have no idea how long it will last.
Mine is an older model, that has no dimmer switch though… I have to just adjust the height instead of dimming
I’ve had two A/C Infinity filters and was not impressed by them. I got my first one due to the high praise that A/C Infinity gets. Once set up it was not what I would consider good at filtering odor. I contacted A/C Infinity about it and they were very respondent and said they would send me a replacement at no cost which they did, can’t speak badly of their customer service. I purchased a vivosun filter while waiting for the replacement from A/C infinity. The vivosun worked much better than the A/C Infinity. My last grow I installed the replacement filter and once my plants started to give off odors the new A/C filter was useless. I now have a Canfilter which doesn’t let any odor past. I like A/C Infinity products for the most part but like many other companies they can’t be the best at everything. If you are looking for total stealth I would recommend the Canfilter brand, pricey but definitely worth it.
I have heard nothing but praise about the canifilter