Please help me design my future tent grows

[ballplayer 2]

If you guys know me on here, I have been having serious problems with air-quality/off gassing materials in my basement. I'm done trying there. I am planning to go the grow tent route in the future. I am hoping to list my equipment I currently have, and then have some discussions with other members about how to best utilize said equipment.

I have been looking at the DR 150 (Dark Room 150, 5'x5'x6'7"). I would hope to use this as my finishing area, and hopefully use both of my air cooled hoods in there. Then I would hope to use a smaller tent as my germination/veg area.

Ok here's my list:

4--400W MH ballast (Hydrofarm)

2--Hydrofarm Daystar 6" air cooled hoods

2--Hydrofarm Radiant reflector (non air cooled)

1-- 250W Sunsystem (ballast enclosed) HPS

1--4ft 4 bulb Hydrofarm T5 high output Fluorescent

1--6 inch 449 cfm Vortex fan

2--265 cfm Dayton exhaust fans

1--95 cfm Dayton exhaust fan

2--CAP Air 3 Temp/Humidity controller

1--CAP PPM 3 CO2 Controller

1--Bottle/regulator Carbon Dioxide

--Plenty of clip/oscillating fans to circulate air

I have some equipment that will not be used, and will likely trade it toward the purchase of any tents, fans, carbon scrubbers.

My idea is to use the DR 150 as my finishing room, equipping it with the two Daystar 6" air cooled reflectors. I will be using the 400 W Sunmaster Warm Deluxe as my bulb of choice. I feel its a solid bulb from veg through finish.

My main question is do you think I should use the 6 inch Vortex to air cool my lights? Is that overkill? Could I use the Dayton 265 to air cool my lights? Thus allowing me to use the more powerful Vortex to exhaust my tent. My worry is that if I must use the Vortex fan to cool my lights, perhaps the Dayton 265 may not be strong enough to properly exhaust the tent through a scrubber. I would prefer to avoid buying any further exhaust fans. I was thinking either a 4 inch 172 cfm Vortex or 6 inch 449 cfm Vortex, if its impossible to use the Daytons to air cool my lights.

Also how difficult is it to setup one of these tents (in this case the Dark Room) with air cooled lights? Is there places on the inside of the tent to mount the fan devoted to air cooling my lights?

I think the DR 150 states it can support up to 66 lbs. I'm afraid with 2 Daystar air cooled hoods and two exhaust fans I may be pushing the limit. Each Daystar reflector weighs 22 lbs. Vortex fan weighs 14 lbs. Dayton exhaust fan weighs 15 lbs. Seems that is too much weight, the last thing I want is the tent collapsing. That's not even taking into consideration the weight of the scrubbers. I guess I will only be able to use 1 air cooled hood per tent. So I will have to upgrade ballasts most likely.

I'm not sure if it would be better to upgrade a ballast to a 600 or 1000. Or go with a smaller tent and only mount 1 air cooled fixture in each tent. Perhaps try getting by with cooling both lights and exhausting air with the Vortex 6 inch fan.

Basically I need help sifting through my equipment so I can figure out what is usable and what is not. That which is not usable I will attempt to sell/trade. Is the CO2 even worth my time to F around with? If not, the parts are quite valuable and could be traded to the local shop toward the purchase of my tents, fans, scrubbers.

A small detail about air cooling the lights. The room which will contain the tent(s) has an ambient temperature which range from 70-75 F, and generally will not leave those parameters.

Hopefully some of you wise and kind designers out there will be able to help me put something solid together here. If you were designing your own optimal tent grow, what would you do?

I am very appreciative for your time and assistance.

Ballplayer 2

EDIT: Sorry for the rambling , stream of consciousness post. I was researching product weights while I was typing this.

 

[i love herb]

I'm in the planning process and will be going with tents as well. I chose DR260w for the added width. Runner up was the DR150 but wont have much space for a carbon filter.

Go with the vortex 6" and get a fan dimmer, that way you you can control the speed and have some overhead.


the DRs can support 65 lbs per cross pole, i believe in the DR150 there are 3 cross poles.

Also since the DR 150 is roughly 5x5 id suggest getting one 1k instead of 2. Coupled with the Magnum XXXL hood you will be golden.

 

[ballplayer 2]

So if there are three cross poles each having the ability to support 66 lbs, then I should have no problem mounting all the necessary equipment I was planning on using? That would consist of (2) Daystar 6"AC hoods, (1) Vortex 6 inch fan, and (1) Dayton 265 cfm fan.

Would a 265 cfm Dayton exhaust fan be able to air cool two 400W bulbs? What about 1 600W HPS and 1 400W MH? The Dayton fans have a 4 inch intake port so I would have to use a 6" to 4" reducer. Would that most likely work, or should I just get a cheap 6" inline fan to cool the lights? Do I mount the fan responsible for cooling the lights on the inside of the tent? Does that fan also need a scrubber?

I would really, really appreciate some input regarding this project. All the way around. If it were your 5x5 tent what would you do?

Thank you.

 

[Dr.gnome]

I used a 6 in inline duct fan with a 240 cfm on a 1000 w in a 4x4 ... one thing to keep in mind is what is the temp of the room that the tent is in?? is there a ac unit to that room?? and when you exhaust from the tent does it dump back into the "room" or ducted out side?

 

[Snook]

I took a 2'x2' piece of 1/2" plywood and cut a 6" hole (6" fan) that matched the top hole placement on top of the tent and mounted the fan outside the tent with the plywood holding and spreading its load weight over the 2x2 plywood.... if you have the room above the tent..


EDIT: at one time I was thinking of making that 2x2 piece 2'x4'9" matching the length of my tent and mount the ballasts up there too but changed the plan..

 

[Snook]

I used a 6 in inline duct fan with a 240 cfm on a 1000 w in a 4x4 ... one thing to keep in mind is what is the temp of the room that the tent is in?? is there a ac unit to that room?? and when you exhaust from the tent does it dump back into the "room" or ducted out side?

excellent point... 2 posts and dr gnome is hitting home runs..

 

[TreehouseJ]

I use 2x2's the way snook is describing. I wouldn't trust my tent to hold sh*t without them.

Google sketchup is free, and its such a simple and amazing program for design and conceptualization. An hour or two on youtube, et viola, you'll be using cad to design all of your future projects to spec, avoiding a ton of costly stoner mistakes. Plus it makes it way easier to ask and answer these types of questions when you can actually place the reader in your hypothetical room.

Just my 2 cents.