DR80 CFLs or 400W HPS

knox1973

Member
I got a DR80, I plan on growing 4 Northern lights plants in there. Which lights should i use for veg and flowering stage? Thanks.
 
The beauty with CFL's is that you can place them close to and throughout the plants and they are cheap to buy and cheap on power. I would go with 4+ per plant if not more depending on how tall you're expecting these beauties to be...
 

Cereall

Well-Known Member
personally i would keep it easy and get a t5 panel

dont know the specs of your tent but a 2x2 t5 light would be great until they are big enough to need the HPS

I am not too fond of the CFLs and think its easier with same/better results using t5 light panels
 

Lt. Dan

Well-Known Member
fwiw, I'm on my 1st grow....................

DR120II tent, I started with 4 bulb T5HO's, added 2 125w cfl's, and then removed those and put in a NextGen 400w/600w ballast. I used the 400w setting with a MH bulb and things really took off. ( maybe they were getting ready to take off anyway????) I love the Nextgen

I switched over to 600w setting and put in a HPS bulb for 12/12 flowering.

BUT, with the HID lights, you'll need to vent (air cool) them out of the tent to keep the heat down.

Anyway, good luck with your grow,
 

knox1973

Member
hey Lt. Dan, a few questions about your setup. How many plants do you have in there and what are you using for your ventilation?
 

Cereall

Well-Known Member
HPS is what you want to use after veg

Metal Halide is a good veg light, probably better than t5s if your setup allows for switchable bulbs. I would recommend that before all others.

Ventilation in a grow tent... i have a 4x4 tent also but running leds

If i were using HID... would run an air cooled reflector and just pull straight through the reflector and out of the tent with a 6" Inline fan and attach a carbon filter and have that hanging inside your tent
so
[CARBONFILTER]>>>>>LIGHT>>>>>>FAN>>>>>Outside the tent

with the >>> representing 6" ducting
 

Lt. Dan

Well-Known Member
hey Lt. Dan, a few questions about your setup. How many plants do you have in there and what are you using for your ventilation?
I have 5 plants at the moment, was 6, but 1 turned out to be a mutant.
Right now I'm using a Sunleaves Windtunnel 6" inline fan (409cfm), 6" flexible ducting, Xtrasun 6" AC reflector. I have one vent hose sucking air from the right side of tent, into the AC reflector, and out the left side of tent. I have a 2nd hose sucking air from the top of tent out. I then have a 'T' connecting those 2 vent hoses to the inline fan and out through a carbon filter.
Right now it's venting into my room and keeping the room temp around 75-77*F and the tent temp 8" below light is 81-83*F.
My plan is to vent out to my garage..... I'm going to put the fan out there too.

I've also thought about venting the way Cereall explained it.

Cheers,
 
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