Indoor Have high temps...

[dragongrower]

Ok, first of all, I know that heat is a major issue to worry about when growing mj... I know temps need to be between 70 and 80 for optimal growth... However, I have a 32x32x60 tent with cooltube 400hps and 4" can fan/carbon filter setup... currently I have three young plants vegging...

I recently just put a thermometer into the tent to check the temps...Wow, was I fucking surprised...93 degrees...

Was talking to a buddy at a hydrostore when he suggested using a silica additive like Silica Blast...supposedly this nutrient makes the plant less susceptible to heat stress, drought, etc... Has anyone heard about using this to help with heat issues...

So far no heat stress is apparent, dark green growth, no curling...

 

[dragongrower]

The tent is in a room off of the furnace room, so the ambient temperature is probably right around 80 degrees...I might have to look into getting a portable air conditioner...

Unless the SILICA things works...

 

[don]

yeah a 400w is a bit ott in that size tent there really made for 250w due to height

is the fan you using a high pressure fan like an rvk or it it a cheap inline

i doubt silica will solve 90f issues

 

[namvet25]

I wouldn't mess with the silica,I think thats nuts. Do you have your hot air thru the cool tube venting out of your tent? You might need to open some vents and get another small window fan to draw more warm air out of your tent.Also are you drawiing cooler fresh air from outside the tent and running that thru your cool tube?

 

[dragongrower]

I wouldn't mess with the silica,I think thats nuts. Do you have your hot air thru the cool tube venting out of your tent? You might need to open some vents and get another small window fan to draw more warm air out of your tent.Also are you drawiing cooler fresh air from outside the tent and running that thru your cool tube?

Ok, first of all...a little about the area... I have the tent in a room off of the main room in my basement... The main room has an old school coal furnace that has been re-purposed as a steam furnace... The basement stays pretty close to 80 degrees all year round because of the furnace...

Ok, now setup... I have my canfan pulling air from outside the tent, through the cooltube, and then back out of the tent thru the carbon filter... So, yes the fan is hooked up correctly and getting cooler air from outside the tent, (not sure if 80 degrees is really considered cold though, lol)

I'm pretty sure the main problem is the furnace, but unfortunately I can't do anything about that...

here is the link about the silica...
http://www.stonerhaven.com/topic/1214-silica/

 

[dragongrower]

yeah a 400w is a bit ott in that size tent there really made for 250w due to height

is the fan you using a high pressure fan like an rvk or it it a cheap inline

i doubt silica will solve 90f issues

Yeah, I have a 4" canfan that I think is around 250cfm...
you can take a look at the silica link I provided in the last post...
I have heard nothing but good things about it from my buddies that grow, they swear by it and so do most of the growers that I know that run hydro stores...

 

[Son of Hobbes]

yeah a 400w is a bit ott in that size tent there really made for 250w due to height

I disagree, I grew 3 photo plants in a tent about the same exact size as his with a 400W MH/HPS switchable with a reflector (no hood or cool tube) and maintained my temperatures just fine. The problem is the ambient temperature around his grow tent and the temperature inside his grow tent.

Dragongrower, where in your inline setup is your can fan at? You can get drastically different results depending on whether you have the inline blowing air through your cool tube versus drawing air from the cool tube. Would you be opposed to investing a 4" tee and grabbing another 4" can fan? I did this with my setup on a larger tent (you could do it with yours quite easily tho too), so I had one can fan pushing my air to my hood (on a 1000W light fixture this time) and another can fan off my tee pushing fresh cool air into the tent. That way I know the warm air from the light is getting exhausted where it needs to be, and cool air from outside is getting into the tent. You could also look into a bigger fan, I was using 400 CFM 6" centrifuge fans to exhaust my tent that is the exact same size as yours. If you dont' want to shell out a ton of cash, you can get a reducers from 6" to 4" to fit your existing setup.

You might want to look into a dual exhaust system as well; you could vent your cooltube outside the tent as is, then exhaust the tent to your carbon scrubber to still deal with smell. That way you have air flow going through your cool tube that should never even reach the inside of the tent, and the tent itself will have it's exhaust system. Treat your lights as it's own separate entity and the room as it's own separate entity. Much easier to isolate and control in my opinion.

 

[dragongrower]

I disagree, I grew 3 photo plants in a tent about the same exact size as his with a 400W MH/HPS switchable with a reflector (no hood or cool tube) and maintained my temperatures just fine. The problem is the ambient temperature around his grow tent and the temperature inside his grow tent.

Dragongrower, where in your inline setup is your can fan at? You can get drastically different results depending on whether you have the inline blowing air through your cool tube versus drawing air from the cool tube. Would you be opposed to investing a 4" tee and grabbing another 4" can fan? I did this with my setup on a larger tent (you could do it with yours quite easily tho too), so I had one can fan pushing my air to my hood (on a 1000W light fixture this time) and another can fan off my tee pushing fresh cool air into the tent. That way I know the warm air from the light is getting exhausted where it needs to be, and cool air from outside is getting into the tent. You could also look into a bigger fan, I was using 400 CFM 6" centrifuge fans to exhaust my tent that is the exact same size as yours. If you dont' want to shell out a ton of cash, you can get a reducers from 6" to 4" to fit your existing setup.

You might want to look into a dual exhaust system as well; you could vent your cooltube outside the tent as is, then exhaust the tent to your carbon scrubber to still deal with smell. That way you have air flow going through your cool tube that should never even reach the inside of the tent, and the tent itself will have it's exhaust system. Treat your lights as it's own separate entity and the room as it's own separate entity. Much easier to isolate and control in my opinion.

Thanks for the advice, but I think I might have got it figured out...
I had some adjustable ducting left over... The tent in the basement is directly under our bedroom, which we keep around 50-65 degrees so we can sleep...
I have a large hole in the floor in the corner of the room where the old school stand up furnace register was, about 2" hole... I figured at the least I can run some of that ducting up to the hole in the floor and find some way to attach it... That way whatever air is pulled into the tent will come from the upstairs cold bedroom... I will just have to make sure that I close all the other passageways for the air to get in, except for the ducting that I'm gonna run...

Hopefully it will work somewhat, kind of a jimmie rigging way to do it, but hey if it works...

 

[Scott817]

Sounds like a good plan!

 

[dragongrower]

Checked it this morning...down to 82 degrees... Also I order my first LED panel...570 watter @ 360-380 actual watts... So in a week or so, the 400hps will be coming out and the 360 watt led will be going in...temps to drop further...