HELP! Help me equip my grow space!

[CaptainCannabis709]

Hi Friends,

I am in the planning stages for a small grow tent and if all goes well, I plan to upgrade to a larger tent and then have dedicated veg and flower tents. I have read a mountain of excellent info however i'm still very unsure about some aspects of the space. The grow space has already been determined and it measures 39" x 39" x 71". Keeping in mind that next year I plan to get a larger tent so some of the equipment that I buy for the small tent may find a new home in a larger tent in the near future. I'm open to any and all solutions and my idea is not set in stone. Here we go!

I decided to go with a HID system and I will veg with MH and flower with HPS. My tent falls inbetween lighting standards. I understand that 400w is ideal for 3x3 and 600w ideal for 4x4. I should also note that my larger tent that I do intend on buying will be a 4x4 but for now (the rest of 2019), I will be vegging and flowering in this 3.25 x 3.25 tent. I figured that buying a 600W system with a variable ballast should do the trick. I can keep at 400W if the heat is too much and it can easily be installed into the larger tent when the time comes.
I want this unit to be an air cooled hood. This is where most of my confusion starts. As I understand, the air cooled hood has 6" ducting on each end, therefore the lamp requires space for the hood as well as space for the ducting. Most air cooled hoods that I can source online (Canada) all measure about 24". This seems like it will be a tight fit and possibly too big when you factor in ducting. Would it fit comfortably? I can easily go for a cool tube and leave the lamp stationary and grab a massive reflector but I feel as if that's overkill. I simply cannot come to a sensible conclusion with this. I don't want to "over light" my crop but I want a sensible set up. Any suggestions would be fantastic!

Due to the fact that I wanted some sort of cooled hooded lamp, I would require a 6" inline fan to keep it cool. No issue there. I should note that the air that will blow through (yes, positive pressure) the lamp will not be air conditioned. It'll just be air pulling from a larger room that the tent sits in and then exhausting back into the same general room. If this makes it impossible to cool 600W, no worries, remember the adjustable ballast I had in mind.
I'm assuming that I would also use 2 6" fans for intake/exhaust. Is this too much for a tent measuring 3.25 x 3.25? I've calculated the CFM to be somewhere around 150 but I was thinking with a controller, I can slow the fans down so they don't collapse the tent. And of course I will be adding a carbon filter to the exhaust.

Other items such as controllers, humidifiers, etc will be sourced later.

So this is pretty much my design. I like to go above the standard but not too far that I cause more harm than good. This entire system is also only penciled in, except for the tent. I can easily look at alternative methods however I've put a ton of effort into this and would like to see it through.

Any and every comment about this will be well received. I am open to several angles and methods. Please don't hesitate to make any suggestions or tell me that i've gone way too far. Hopefully with the help of the community, I can grow into my screen name that I had chosen!

Cheers!

[Potted]

I used the same light,hood and ballast (as your planing) on using for my first grows 600 watts/ 300/150 with a air cooled hood and glass that when removed can b easily cleaned and replaced. I pulling air thru my intake openings two 8” by 10” covered by duct grills and filters, the alr gets pulled thru the hood cooling the light and then it goes out a 6” flexible ducting to my 440 exaust Waiting in the attic to b desapated 4 stories up and away. My fan is 10’ away from my grow room, the further away u place the fan the weaker the draw. I’ve seen fans run outside of tents before at my hydro store mounted right to the top of the tent. My.02 cents.

[Toker1]

Few things. Pushing air is not as efficient as pulling air for heat removal.
I run a 600w HID with no AC as well. What are your ambient temps like? Will you turn your lights on at night and turn them off durring regular day light hours?
Might want to dump the heat outside, or into another separate room. I don’t suggest recycling the heat back into the same room your grow tent is in.
Just note when you dim the ballast, if the bulb isn’t designed to run at that wattage, spectrum and bulb life can be affected.
24” hood will so fine in a 39” (on a side) space with the ducting. Just place the fan outside the tent and you will do better with heat and space.
lastly, I wouldn’t set up 2 fans on one hood. Instead, I would have 1 fan to pull cool air into the hood, while pushing the heat outside. The other fan should be for the carbon filter on a separate line, which should be placed directly above the hood so it sucks up any excess heat.

[alltatup]

Hello Captain and welcome to the forum. Your plans sound solid and the learning really happens as we grow; that's when we really start to fine tune the grow environment for the different seasons where you live, etc..