Fan or ballast?

Hey guys so ive finaly decided to upgrade my setup from a 2x2 tent to a 4x4 tent kit, the kit includes tent, fan with filter and ductingand a choice of 250,400 and 600 watt hps magnetic ballst kits in a cooltube aswell as some of those yoyo hanger things.
I plan to buy the 600 watter for its huge potential.

My budget is unfortunately fixed and the kit is almost reaching the limit of that. But i still have a wee bit left. My problem is i just noticed that the fan that comes with the kit is abit weak for the 600 watt ballast. I dont know much about hps setups and whether or not i could use a weaker fan through a cooltube. I asked the guy if he wpuld consider upgrading either the ballast to a digital ballst so i can adjust its wattage or if i shoukd stick with the magnectic ballast and upgrade the fan instead.

Either way i can only afford for one of them to be upgraded so its either a better fan but then stuck with a non adjustable ballast(which means alot more heat) or i could keep the weak fan that comes with the kit and instead upgrade the ballast to an adjustable digital ballast.

Please keep in mind though that although im leaning towards the 600 watt for the lighting option im still needing to try keep power consumption as low as possible

So i spose what im asking is what would the better option to go for and why. Ill be moving from the cfl wolrd to hid finaly so i feel new again

a 4 inch fan will cool a 600 watt light in a cool tube, i did it for almost 2 years before i upgraded my filter and required a bigger fan.
the fan will run about 350 cfm, which is plenty to cool the light, but the 4 inch filter is only rated to 200 cfm. to get good odor control i had to upgrade to the 6 x 24 rated at 550. i'm only running the 6 inch fan at about 70% lights on, 25% light off, to control humidity and maintain a light negative pressure, and it keeps odor under control well

the 600 watt hps is the most efficient of all the options, putting out the most lumens per watt. it will use more power than a 400, obviously, but the 50% increase in power usage will return close to 100% in lumens. your plants will grow bigger, faster, and yield more than they would under a 400, by a good bit.

http://www.phreshfilter.com/shop/product/phresh-filters
check this out for some more fan/filter info

Roger A. Shrubber said:

a 4 inch fan will cool a 600 watt light in a cool tube, i did it for almost 2 years before i upgraded my filter and required a bigger fan.
the fan will run about 350 cfm, which is plenty to cool the light, but the 4 inch filter is only rated to 200 cfm. to get good odor control i had to upgrade to the 6 x 24 rated at 550. i'm only running the 6 inch fan at about 70% lights on, 25% light off, to control humidity and maintain a light negative pressure, and it keeps odor under control well

the 600 watt hps is the most efficient of all the options, putting out the most lumens per watt. it will use more power than a 400, obviously, but the 50% increase in power usage will return close to 100% in lumens. your plants will grow bigger, faster, and yield more than they would under a 400, by a good bit.

Click to expand...

Ok so are you saying i should leave the bigger fan and get the digital ballast instead? The only difference is that the one i get to control light wattage( which includes heat and power consumption) or the other i get a stronger fan with 290cfm over the 170cfm that the kit usualy comes with

most ballast are digital now, its rare to find a magnetic ballast anymore. dimming a ballast changes the spectrum the light puts out, i'd rather get a larger fan and run the light the way its intended to be run.
heres the thing about fans and filters. they're both rated at how many cfm they can handle. if you suck air through a small filter too fast, it doesn't work, the carbon doesn't have time to scrub anything out of the air. so you're limited to the max cfm of your filter. thats the weak link in your chain. you can change ballast, you can change fans, but if you run your fan faster than the filter allows, you basically have no odor control.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

most ballast are digital now, its rare to find a magnetic ballast anymore. dimming a ballast changes the spectrum the light puts out, i'd rather get a larger fan and run the light the way its intended to be run.
heres the thing about fans and filters. they're both rated at how many cfm they can handle. if you suck air through a small filter too fast, it doesn't work, the carbon doesn't have time to scrub anything out of the air. so you're limited to the max cfm of your filter. thats the weak link in your chain. you can change ballast, you can change fans, but if you run your fan faster than the filter allows, you basically have no odor control.

Click to expand...

The filter that comes with this kit is rated to 120 cfm apparently but im not realy worried about the filter right now. I can upgrade that at a later stage if need be but for now its between fan or ballast just wanting to see what the majority of people say.

can you link the set you're looking at? is it online anywhere or is it just a set a grow shop put together?
its possible you might be able to do better by the piece off of ebay and amazon

I cant help out until we get some specs or links to the stuff you are buying. Don't jump to buying anything yet until you have gone through every piece you need and the Pro vs Con of all the options. This is how you will get the value for your budget $$$.

• Get Digital Ballast for more light output vs mag
• Get Mag Ballast if the "electronic" ballast is cheapo and may emit RFI. <---Research this.
• Do not buy electronic or digital ballast for the intention of dimming bulbs for any reason including saving power. Not sure where you live but you wont save much, here it is 3.9 cents per kWh and you will be shifting the bulbs spectrum, it may look brighter to a human but to the plant its not.
  
• 170cfm will work for that space. I used 4x4 with a squirrel cage fan for a few grows when I started, pushing it through a CAN 50 filter rated for 420CFM. No problems, just make sure the carbon matches CFM.
  
• A larger fan tuned down with a variac controller works much better but adds another $60 to the budget.

If you are really on a tight budget then do most things DIY as I did a decade ago with my first grows. entire setup and operation cost under $400. Tent can be built with some light 1x4 with brackets or 2x4 lumber without bracket (free or cheap). Black/White Panda Poly will cost you $40 or less and then some velcro strips from walmart/homedepot or dollar store for the entire door flap.

Now without having to buy a budget tent that probably is only 600D (probably way less if its not a known brand) and will have lots of light leaks vs no seams and zippers on the poly tent, you can use that money towards better ballast/fan/carbon and then upgrade to a real tent later.

Watch this, I learned most of my first grow stuff from this Legend. Watch his grow room build, id did that on a much smaller 4x4 scale.

Ok heres the link to tje kit im getting. My budget isnt low ( well for me it is actualy expenisve) but i can afford the kit as it is.
My idea with the digital ballast was so that i could changw it for smaller grows and visa versa aswel. Im not sure yet which digital ballst this guy has but i will ask him today, also the white fan in the pics is the one that comes with it (my current fan is 170cfm) but the other one he offerd to swap is a 290 cfm fan.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com.au/ulk/itm/262932127003


And here the 290 fan http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/231526324990

Ive heard these tents are made in Australia and apperently theyre pritty well made and have all the good zips and openings and evwn a viewing window as to not have to open tent and change the temp and humidity

To be quite honest I would avoid that whole setup, you get what you pay for. The magnetic ballast needs to be replaced with a good digital one. The fan at 120cfm is far too small for a 4x4 tent with a 600W hps and the filter is far too small to be effective.

It will cost you a little more to buy the quality components you need to start with, but it will be more than worth it in the end.

thats not even a 120 cfm fan, 130 cmh = 76 cfm......, that filter is rated at 117 cfm. thats very underpowered for a 600, probably even for a 400. magnetic ballast aren't necessarily bad, but they are old technology, a digital ballast will be more efficient, run cooler, and last longer, if you buy a decent one to begin with.

Kerovan said:

To be quite honest I would avoid that whole setup, you get what you pay for. The magnetic ballast needs to be replaced with a good digital one. The fan at 120cfm is far too small for a 4x4 tent with a 600W hps and the filter is far too small to be effective.

It will cost you a little more to buy the quality components you need to start with, but it will be more than worth it in the end.

Click to expand...

I dont think you saw but i mentioned that the fan in that kit isnt the one i was refering to that had 170cfm. I was talking about a similar one i currently own. As for the setup tho i am going ro get it either way as its the cheapest i can find and i only have another 100 bux to spend which will still not be good enough for one of these other ones tour thinking of

Roger A. Shrubber said:

thats not even a 120 cfm fan, 130 cmh = 76 cfm......, that filter is rated at 117 cfm. thats very underpowered for a 600, probably even for a 400. magnetic ballast aren't necessarily bad, but they are old technology, a digital ballast will be more efficient, run cooler, and last longer, if you buy a decent one to begin with.

Click to expand...

Sorry as mentioned above the fan in the auction is not the 170 cfm i was refering to. The 170 cfm is the one i am currently using with my current kit. I asked the guy if i can swap that 130cmh for a better one and he gave me the option of a 290cfm fan. The filter i am not worried about at this current stage as smell isnt realy an issue as of yet

290 cmh = 170 cfm, thats not too bad, but i personally would go something a little larger. if you have a small fan and have to run it wide open, thats both a lot of wear on the fan, and its pretty noisy. if you went with something closer to 425 cmh (250 cfm) you could run it between half and three quarter speed, which is better for the fan, and much quieter.

I see what your saying but the fan isnt 290 cmh its 290 cfm

ah, well, that ought to be good then, should have room to dial it back and still move enough air

I would buy the stuff separate. Look for close out deals and sale items.

Oversize the filter. I run a 8 inch filter on a 4 inch fan. The bigger the filter the better it works and the longer it lasts.

Plans changed abit now. So i spoke to the guy and we organised that ill get the tent, light and magbetic ballast and the fan will be a 6 inch inline fan with 2 speed setting of high 311 CFM and low 241 CFM with a filter capable of 500 CFM. only difference is that the kit will have a magnetic ballast and not digital

Smokinr33 said:

Ok so are you saying i should leave the bigger fan and get the digital ballast instead? The only difference is that the one i get to control light wattage( which includes heat and power consumption) or the other i get a stronger fan with 290cfm over the 170cfm that the kit usualy comes with

Click to expand...

170cfm is plenty for cooling a single light. It's also about typical for a 4" fan. 375cfm is more like most 6" fans. If at all possible get a second 4" to exhaust the tent and run the ducting for the hoods intake side from outside the tent. 4" is also pretty udeal for that suze of tent as long as it'sset up right. To take it to the next level you can either make sure that you're drawing air from outside of the room the tent is in or exhaust to a separate space and you'll be much better off. Ideally you want to do both when heat's a major issue and you can use different combinations to adjust for seasonal changes.

I'd stick with the 600, get the second fan, and upgrade to a digital ballast later. Just do your research on the best way to arrange the intake and exhaust. Digital ballasts produce as much as 30% more light than magnetics but your first concern is to manage the heat without skimping on light.