Whats up guys, since my goat ate one of my plants last year I decided to grow indoor this year. I got me a Vivosun 8ft by 4ft grow tent thats 80" tall. I would like to go with LED lights but I have no idea how many lights I need or what wattage would be good for a tent that size. Also what is a good brand that is recommended?
You can do two 1200 watt Meizhi led lights, 2 Epistar Mars Hydro lights or three 196, three 900 watt viparspectra reflectors, 2 Advance Platinum 600, or two Advance DS XML 650, are two Apache Tech AT600 either one will work!!!
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Awesome, that paints a nice picture for me, thanks Yoshi.
If you live in a coldish enviroment then it couldnt hurt to have a 600w hps cool tube, they are awesomeee dude.
Also one good tip, totally clean the tent and anything and everything that goes in it (besides the seeds) with a mild bleach solution, saves getting nasties in the long term.
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I suggest you run both if you can 600 watt hps with two Meizhi 300 on each side would give you strong resin trichomes and super large big dense buds.
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I live in the California desert where temps easily reach over 100+ degrees in the late spring and summertime that’s why I want to go LED to keep the temp down as much as possible. My grow tent is located in the garage where there is no a/c at the moment but I do have 3 large windows and fresh air does flow nicely. I know hps is the way to go but I think it’s just to hot for me in the summertime. In the winter the temperature drops to the 20’'s then I can do hps no problem, that’s also why I got a grow tent because I wanted to start growing year round and keep my plants in a less stressful environment as far as extreme weather and wind. I get very strong winds here as well. All input is appreciated guys, thank you.
I appreciate the tip to wipe everything down, it being a brand new grow tent, I wouldn’t even have thought about disinfecting it.Thanks McLovin777
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Than do a T-5 or T-8 in the middle of the Led. But to save you some bucks Meizhi lights are very cost friendly and they work extremely well in flower and Viparspectra is about $50 more and are great in vegetable stage but doe produce great flowers in budding, but Meizhi will out perform viparspectra in production is what @fromanoc told me from his side by side comparison. Than I think Mars hydro is great, than Advance Spectra Maxx, Advance Platinum , Advance Led, which the advance brands are all different models and design, than Heliospectra, Kind, Spectra King, Duo lux, Black Dog, Apache Tech which some brands are high end in cost and some brands are very cost friendly but work.
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@Phatz, don’t forget that LED’S still generate heat: just less of it. Not so good this summer but not so bad next winter, especially if you have an insulated grow box. You may have to get some a/c in there somehow.
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Yes you’ll still have to move air in an out even with Led panels to control temps and humidity, except it’s not as bad as HPS hoods.
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Better safe than sorry my friend. If i could restart mine… (started 3 weeks ago)
Id
- NOT GERMINATE UNTIL EVERYTHING HAD ARRIVED
- Disinfect literally everything, think walter white and jessy pinkman when he goes to mexico
- Germ 1/3 extra seeds to pick your utter best, then have the others growing just for back up
- Dont skimp out on an carbon filter fan, filter can be cheap but go for a good fan (im getting a phresh stealth hyper fan, most silent on the market that i know of)
- Get a smoke alarm as many people forgot about that when i posted it before, also tedt it!! Mine didnt even work… chinese crap man.
Good luck bro! Il send you a pic of my lights when the new ones get here, its similar to your sized tent i think? Mines 1.2m x 2.4 x 2meter
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Hps in the middle, those 2 leds on one side, and another x2 on the other side 
these where cheap as hell… but are doing a pretty sweet job.
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That’s what I’m talking about Mclovin777, that’s why I love this site, all you guys are so helpful and nothing says it better than actual pictures. If you don’t mind, can you break down the wattage on your hps and your leds and what brand they are? If they work for Mclovin777 it should work for me and if you got them cheap as hell even better as long as it works it’s good enough for me, no need to go high end. I have some babies that are 5 days and a few 33 day veggers I’ve been moving in and out between t5’'s and outdoor sunlight to keep there light schedule over 12 hrs. I’m actually getting about 13 to 14 hours of sunlight outdoors right now but I was hoping to move everything inside my grow room once I got my lights. Why is it that you wished you waited before germ? Is it for sanitary reasons?
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Sure thing
Lights are
big red one is 360w actual - ZNET 12, its a beast, i paid about 220bucks for it
the little white one was 65 bucks, runs 180 watt!! so bright for such a little thing, and its blue which is cool for veg, and to give a broader spectrum throughout the life cycle in general.
The dual spec bulb is on a digital ballast, 250w 400w 600w, so handy for vegging little ladies and then upping it when your happy ect or can keep the heat down, got that with the cool tube for 90 bucks.
and… il show you the updated pic i took today, just fit x 2 cheapy ones like the little white one, they run 180 watt each
so totalling 360 + 360 + 180 = 900w actual LED power
and up to 600w hps, dual spec or MH (got a few bulbs because i was origionally going for 3 600w HID lights… christ they get hot! and i have no extraction fan running as of yet, so just using the LED’s
I wished i waited because i left my seeds in tissue for like… 4 days? first time germinating anything and i didn’t have rockwool or my dwc system (was on its way to a friends house and arrived 4 days late) so the girls had a really rough start! all the bigger ones where transplanted from soil to rock wool also, so harsh start but they seem to be ok now.
Anyway, my advice is buy high actual watt LED’s second hand in good condition, or buy cheap Chinese ones! like those small white ones, cost about 90-120 bucks new, and they are bright as tits man.
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Wow, that looks great man. Looks like you are good to go. Yeah I saw those Chinese ones on ebay but I wanted to get some feedback on them first to make sure they weren’t junk. Now I feel more confident with my light shopping since I have a better idea what I need for what I got. I’ll be getting online real soon and get them ordered. I’ve only grown outdoors for years so I’m pretty excited about my new adventure. Thanks again.I’ll post some pics as soon as it’s all up and running.
Why you reflecting the cool tube ? I think the light out the top will still reflect from the Mylar but that’s different . Now I can only wait to see what your grow does from here but if the big red light is a beast you say I think two of the cheap led could be hung for side lighting and lower bud lighting , but this will be interesting to see the results , but you should really get some nice full big buds cover in resin trichomes , dude this gone be very interesting to watch , and far as heat you might want to run a 8 inch inline with a 6 inch to move the heat and control temps .