This is my first grow in 25 or 30 years. My past experience was open air way out in the boondocks when I was a youngun’. I’m expecting my Oklahoma grower’s card any time now. I’m getting some White Widow seeds. I’m intending to run this first grow through from babies through drying in this tent. Planning on doing 8 plants in a DWC. I’m looking for a little direction on a 8x4x78" tent for lights/vent. I’m setting up with the intention of scaling up in the future. I have a limited budget and would appreciate a little input. Thanks in advance.
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@dbrn32 should be the guy to start you off on the most important thing: lights.
Welcome to the forum!
There is a lot of “stuff” between the WW seeds and the tent. Can you give us an idea of what you still need to get and what your budget is?
Doing a DWC grow is pretty ambitious and I would STRONGLY suggest you follow a reputable grower’s journal before attempting. For a budget as well; soil is probably the least expensive.
Lighting needs to be another careful decision and if you are thinking of buying one of the LED’s on Amazon, STOP! They are not even close to state of the art.
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Thought I’d add a little more info. WW seeds are fem and I have a temp/humidity controlled place to sprout them. I can keep them there until I can get lights set up. Was looking at a 6" 442CFM carbon filter/fan for exhaust. The room that the tent is in isn’t air conditioned but I’m building 2 10x10 rooms (slowly but surely).
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Funny that you should say stop on the lights. That’s EXACTLY why I started a topic. I was just to the point of pulling the trigger on some lights when I ran across several posts from @dbrn32 and a couple of others that said the same thing. The only thing that I have right now is access to the seeds and I have the tent. My budget is somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500-3000 total for startup.
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I run a 4x8 and would start with 8 of these and DIY it
https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/all/products/qb324-with-slate-2-single-combo
Seems like with 8 and the 2 drivers your under $800
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I’m happy to help you get equipment picked out. Do you plan on using the whole 8x4 for canopy?
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Yes, I was planning on using the whole thing. I’ve read a ton and watched a lot on hydro and thought that I’d head in that direction. I can spend at least a couple of hours a day on cultivation as I work for myself and can adjust my schedule. I’d love some pointers and equipment recommendations from you.
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Anyone have QB’s in stock without the heatsinks?
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How hard is the DIY on them?
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Not hard at all. I’m out with kids right now, I’ll be back a little later and can run through a couple of options with qb’s.
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dbrn32 is the expert but it seems like with them having the heatsinks you just buy some aluminum channel for the frame
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I did a full set for my 4 X 6 space using EB strips and scavenged aluminum for heatsinks. All up I have around $650 in lights but without heatsink cost.
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@GoodGuy they don’t really make lights that fill your tent right. making an EB light fills it good
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u r starting off great.!
light is the plant food, great place to spend extra time researching.!
COB and QB r the best lighting for the money right now,
they will actually save u money over the course of their life.!
the QB kits r the cheapest route right now, assembly is very easy,
a HLG 260w V2 XL QB covers a 2 x 4 area,
4 of them would cover your 4 x 8 tent wall to wall in flower,
with the seperate fixtures u can start seedlings under one, veg under 2 then 3, and flower under all 4.!
https://growerslights.com/collections/horticulture-lighting-group/products/horticulture-lighting-group-260-watt-xl-quantum-board-led-kit
this will not be enough, 4x8x6.5=208qf, 208x4=832 cfm needed
try the Vortex S-Line, either the 8" or the 10",
coupled to a Can-Filter, 100, 125, or 150.
a tent room and a ‘lung room’.?
the 4x8 will barely fit in a 10x10 room,
u need good access to both sides of the 4x8 to work on plants,
u will only have 1.5-2’ to get around the end and 2.5-3’ to access the sides.
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The tent is for the current grow. I’m building the rooms for future grows and ramping it up as time and money allow. What is a lung room?
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Lung room is a transition from outside air to inside air. So you don’t get a rapid change in temp and RH.
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So if you decide to DIY a light, I would consider doing something with the passive boards from hlg as a baseline. As @boardsbird pointed out, they don’t require any heatsink material so fairly cheap to get into. And it’s not a difficult build that would require a bunch of fancy tools or time to do. I figure in an 8x4 you’d want at least it to be divided into 2 fixtures, so size manageable. Doing something like qb 120’s, probably 8 boards and two drivers per fixture, for a total price of around $450-500 per fixture. Or $900-1000 for the whole tent.
In retrospect, you can buy fixtures that would be similar in performance for about $750-800 per 4x4 and do nothing. Both would be kinda minimalist approaches to getting enough light to consider yourself in recommended flowering intensity ranges. In my opinion, great for running an efficient grow where something like gram per watt or gram per killawatt hour would be important.
If we step up to something like $700-800 build, or like $1200-$1500 commercial fixture per 4x4. That would put your light levels at a point where you’d be more looking to get everything you can out of space on ambient co2. Probably slightly more labor intensive build, but more time consuming than difficult I would say.
Whether you want to build or buy, I’m happy to answer whatever questions you have and help all the way through process.
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Sorry, I guess I got caught by the post limit. It told me to wait 24 hours or something. I’ll see if I can stretch to 1600 for the lights.
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@350 per kit, u would need $1,400 to fill a 4x8 with the HLG 260w XL QB’s.!
the DIY 120’s might be cheaper,
search Soil2Coco in GrassCity forums, he is rockin a 4x4 with them.!
he is also using the HLG 360’s in a 2x4 area and is loving them.!
https://growerslights.com/collections/horticulture-lighting-group/products/horticulture-lighting-group-hlg-elite-360-led-grow-light
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So, what do I need to do the 700-800 fixtures and is there a how to on putting them together?
Sorry for being so needy.