250w HPS - 2x Afghan Kush Ryder 1x Russian Rocket Fuel

seal1990 said:

Heeyyy fellow growers!!!
Im back and upgraded to a 250w HPS!

Im starting a new thread to show my first HPS grow lets hope its better than my 370w CFL grow or i will be very dissapointed

so... this is what my equipment is:
250w dual spectrum HPS
2x 120mm fans for intake and exhaust
1x 13.5w B&Q fan for circulation
Temp and Humidity gage
PH tester
Grow cab is 60cm x 60cm x 1m (upgrading to a 60x60x140 grow tent)
For soil i have just mixed up some B&Q multi purpose compost(50%) with B&Q perlite(25%) and vermiculite(25%) in 7.5L Pots
For nutrients i have some BioBloom and Big Bud
PH of soil is 6.5

Okay no pictures yet because its only Day 1 today and you cant even see the lil babies on my camera so no point...
my grow has only just begun and already i had problems with heat in my cab as it was hittin 37c when HPS was 15" away from Pots and was very dry (30% humidity) so i have raised the lights to 20" from pots untill i get my tent (about a week) and the temp has gone down to 30c and humidity up a lil to 37%.
Im using a dual spectrum bulb untill they are about 14 days old and then i will switch to a Red spectrum.

Will post pics as soon as they are visible on my cam haha, here is a pic of what my cab is at atm tho just to get an idea..
View attachment 2145927
any help and comments will be much appreciated and welcomed

Happy farming people!

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You should use the dual spectrum until you are ready to flower then use red spectrum

bombasticson said:

You should use the dual spectrum until you are ready to flower then use red spectrum

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14 days is usually when autos start to flower

bombasticson said:

You should use the dual spectrum until you are ready to flower then use red spectrum

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im doing autoflower strains, they start flowering at around 14-20 days there is no photoperiod

meefeater said:

14 days is usually when autos start to flower

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sorry my friend i posted befor your post came up but that is correct +rep

Just picked up some AKR autos myself. I won't be planting them for a couple months until my current grow is completed so I'm highly interested in seeing how yours do. Grats on your new equipment and I hope you have better luck than your first grow.

Amaximus said:

Just picked up some AKR autos myself. I won't be planting them for a couple months until my current grow is completed so I'm highly interested in seeing how yours do. Grats on your new equipment and I hope you have better luck than your first grow.

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Thanks mate, my first afghans were monsters under CFL's had about 50 grams out of 2 plants but ye should expect more out of the HPS......what lighting are you using?

seal1990 said:

Thanks mate, my first afghans were monsters under CFL's had about 50 grams out of 2 plants but ye should expect more out of the HPS......what lighting are you using?

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Currently I'm finishing an all photo grow with a 180w Blackstar LED & a bunch of mixed CFL's (275+watts give or take). It was my first grow and kind of grew out of control. Once it is finished I'll be starting a multistrain all auto perpetual and at some point before then I'll be buying another LED so I can remove more CFL's.

I look forward to your updates.

Amaximus said:

Currently I'm finishing an all photo grow with a 180w Blackstar LED & a bunch of mixed CFL's (275+watts give or take). It was my first grow and kind of grew out of control. Once it is finished I'll be starting a multistrain all auto perpetual and at some point before then I'll be buying another LED so I can remove more CFL's.

I look forward to your updates.

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haha reminds me of my first grow with blue himalaya, short stuff claim that it doesnt grow more than 15" and mine grew to like 30" so yea it also went out of control but yielded very well.
ive never done photoperiods but would love to no if they do yield more and if its worth the extra waiting time.

will defo be keeping this thread upto date thanks for the comments

ok so Day 2 is here

ive done abit of fiddling around with the lights and pots as they were 20" from the light and i dont like that as i believe it loses to many lumens so ive managed to get the 15" from the light but the temp is now sitting at around 32c and humidity has dropped to around 27%! is this ok or will this effect the growth of my babies???
ive added another small pc fan and pointed it directly at the HPS so hopefully that will calm things down a bit!

here are some pics of the 3 babies i have (sorry for the bad quality pics but i only have an old samsung cam thats 10.2MP) there still too small to even notice tho!

View attachment 2147375

Forgot to say, ive been misting the top of the soil as it gets bone dry very quickly under all that heat but i have a moisture tester and it says the soil is still moist and i dont really want to water just yet because their still young... is this ok? or should i not mist incase the roots try to grow upwards?

DAY 3!!!

not much of an update as their still very small and barely visible on my cam, im still having heat issues and temp is always around 31c to 32c so i try to leave the door open while im at home and it drops to around 28c to 29c but im not sure weather thats wasting too much light!
another thing is they seem to be growing very very slowly and im wandering if its because of the heat??
soil is still moist from when i soaked it befor i potted the seeds and ph is at around 6.8

here are a couple pics and once again sorry for the crap cam!

seal1990 said:

DAY 3!!!

not much of an update as their still very small and barely visible on my cam, im still having heat issues and temp is always around 31c to 32c so i try to leave the door open while im at home and it drops to around 28c to 29c but im not sure weather thats wasting too much light!
another thing is they seem to be growing very very slowly and im wandering if its because of the heat??
soil is still moist from when i soaked it befor i potted the seeds and ph is at around 6.8

here are a couple pics and once again sorry for the crap cam!

View attachment 2149171View attachment 2149172View attachment 2149180View attachment 2149178

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It's only day 3 so it's kind of hard to judge.

A few questions... Have you used the HPS before or is this your first grow with it? That cabinet looks awfully small for such a powerful light. I'm thinking no matter how good you vent it you might still have heat issues?

How are you vented right now? General consensus seems to be that you want your intake twice as big as your exhaust so that you can create negative pressure and keep the air moving. I know when I first started I had all sorts of heat issues. I ended up putting 180mm computer fan on my exhaust, removed the intake fan completely and made the intake hole twice as big. Just make sure all openings are light proof.

If your in such a situation where you can keep your door open to manage the temps then that is certainly fine for now. But for when lights are out you want that puppy light proof so I dont know if that is something you want to manage everyday for several months.

Scratch the HPS question. I think ya mentioned you switched from CFL's, So this would be your first HPS grow in that cab if I'm correct.

Amaximus said:

Scratch the HPS question. I think ya mentioned you switched from CFL's, So this would be your first HPS grow in that cab if I'm correct.

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thanks for your replys buddy,

it is my firs thps grow and my cab is 60cm wide 60cm depth and 1m high so ye its pretty small.. i have 120mm fans for intake and exhaust and i have now got a lil 80mm fan blowing straight under the hps and a 9" 15w household fan for circulation and temps are still not going down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

do you think it will be a problem keeping it at 30c???

once again thanks for your comments buddy rep to you

No problem bud. Your having a legit problem and I've been there. Heat issues suck.

Heat issues were one of the reasons I decided to go LED this time around. Before the LED purchase I was looking into a 400W HPS system. I'm glad I didnt jump the shark on that one.

But back to you... There is a certain point where you are going to be building up heat faster than you can dissipate it with a small cabinet. When I was having problems with my all CFL grow I was able to switch out lower wattage bulbs or flat out remove some if I had to. With HPS I'm not sure there is much to do.

If you haven't already, I'd remove that intake fan and use it for regular air circulation or even to blow through your HPS setup like you have the 80mm currently doing. And if you have done so yet, and you are able to do so, I'd make sure the intake is twice as big as your exhaust.

If you have done all that and the temps keep rising then you might have to do whatever is possible to get temps down. Whether that means getting a bigger grow area, leaving a door open or downgrading back to your CFL's (i know i know).

Let me/us know how you do. And keep a clear head, heat issues suck and take a bit to get down. Remember any changes you make will be reflected after a few hours (for the most part) so dont be discouraged if you try something and 5 minutes later the temps still suck.

sweet buddy thanks for your advice, instead of takin the intake fan off im just gonna add another household fan in there now and if that doesnt work then ill do as you say and even make the intake bigger.. ill let you no how it goes,

thanks alot ay!

You don't need a intake fan, passive intake is fine, you need to remove the hot air from your box so you need an extraction fan.

You really need to buy an extraction fan, minimum of 100 cfm preferably more. You want your temps at around 22- 26c, 30c+ is an issue you need to fix asap. You can buy cheap extraction fans from Ebay, BnQ or your local hydro shop. Its best to buy a decent fan however, i bought mine from my local hydro shop, its a Systemair 150L1, cost £60 and it runs almost silent.

Kush2180 said:

You don't need a intake fan, passive intake is fine, you need to remove the hot air from your box so you need an extraction fan.

You really need to buy an extraction fan, minimum of 100 cfm preferably more. You want your temps at around 22- 26c, 30c+ is an issue you need to fix asap. You can buy cheap extraction fans from Ebay, BnQ or your local hydro shop. Its best to buy a decent fan however, i bought mine from my local hydro shop, its a Systemair 150L1, cost £60 and it runs almost silent.

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hello there Kush, thanks for the advice, is it easy to wire one of those up to a socket tho? do you mean taking my exhaust fan out (120mm) and replacing it with a bathroom extractor fan? i suppose it would slot into the 102mm hole i have drilled. i definatly need something close to silent because its in my bedroom so i dont want something rattling around

thanks for your advice

seal1990 said:

hello there Kush, thanks for the advice, is it easy to wire one of those up to a socket tho? do you mean taking my exhaust fan out (120mm) and replacing it with a bathroom extractor fan? i suppose it would slot into the 102mm hole i have drilled. i definatly need something close to silent because its in my bedroom so i dont want something rattling around

thanks for your advice

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Hey, yes they are very easy to wire into a socket, same as you would wire any normal plug. Get rid of your 120mm fan and swap it for a bathroom extractor fan or any INLINE fan. Maybe you could use your 120mm fan as an air movement fan to aid circulation.

If you need it to be as quiet as possible your best bet is to hang the extractor fan inside your box. You can hang it with rope, string or cable, anything that will hold its weight. Make sure its not touching anything or it will vibrate. You could also buy some ducting to run from your fan to your box wall. I also used to run ducting from my fan to my reflector (near the bulb) to directly remove heat radiating from the bulb. If you don't want to hang it (i strongly recommend you do hang it) you could try mounting it with some rubber to reduce vibration.

This is not something you can avoid, heat stress is detrimental to a plants health, so get this fixed asap. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Kush2180 said:

Hey, yes they are very easy to wire into a socket, same as you would wire any normal plug. Get rid of your 120mm fan and swap it for a bathroom extractor fan or any INLINE fan. Maybe you could use your 120mm fan as an air movement fan to aid circulation.

If you need it to be as quiet as possible your best bet is to hang the extractor fan inside your box. You can hang it with rope, string or cable, anything that will hold its weight. Make sure its not touching anything or it will vibrate. You could also buy some ducting to run from your fan to your box wall. I also used to run ducting from my fan to my reflector (near the bulb) to directly remove heat radiating from the bulb. If you don't want to hang it (i strongly recommend you do hang it) you could try mounting it with some rubber to reduce vibration.

This is not something you can avoid, heat stress is detrimental to a plants health, so get this fixed asap. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

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thanks man, i appreciate your help and im considering it as i did think the temp was to high and your just comfirming it for me, so you suggest i hang it in my box and point it to the top hole (the exhaust hole)? my box is pretty small tho its only a metre tall so dont have much room but im thinking of gettin one of those 60x60x140 tents

thanks matey for the adivce