first grow

I have a 6x6x6 room, im running a 400 hps over it now, I was wonder if I add 2 150 watt lights 2200 lumens if it would help the grow. also I have 6 plants in 5 gal buckets with 2" of peat rocks on the bottow than a mix of MG and peat moss. Do I need drainage holes? any tips would be awesome

floridaguy727 said:

I have a 6x6x6 room, im running a 400 hps over it now, I was wonder if I add 2 150 watt lights 2200 lumens if it would help the grow. also I have 6 plants in 5 gal buckets with 2" of peat rocks on the bottow than a mix of MG and peat moss. Do I need drainage holes? any tips would be awesome

Click to expand...

To answer your question simply, YES. Honestly in a 6×6×6 400 watts isn't going to be nearly enough, depending on how big you want your yield to be.

But if you are wanting to maximize yield for your space, I recommend getting a 1000w hps. They really would only need that much power during flower, so if you had a dimmable ballast you could run it at like 400 during veg and then kick it up to 1000 when you start 12/12.

If a thousand watt isn't an option or in your budget then the cfls would help. There's an old saying, "watts is weight". 90% of the people that you will find on here who are having a problem with loose and airy buds, are having that problem bc they don't have enough light (usually they are using cfls).

Remember, cfls don't have much penetrating power. So if you go with those then keep them as close to your plants as possible, preferably 1-2" from the plant. But if you can get a 1000w in there, with a big hood that will spread the light, then you could easily have a 2 pound harvest in that space.

yea im on a budget, also worried bout the heat from 1000, so the cfls on each side of the bottom of the plants will work? Aso it gets round 20at night and 40 during the the day, I have a heater in there to keep it to 70ish at night n 80 during the day. I was wondering since its so cold should I put a intake fan in or will that blow to much cold air in? I have a rotating fan in there now and I open the door a few times a day to exchange air. the humidity is all so around 36 40.

Dude, how long will it be cold for? A few more months? Sounds like a perfect setup for a 1000w dimmable ballast. I guarantee if you ran it 12 hours at night then the heat from the thousand watt would counter out the cold. I definitely recommend hooking up a fan and some ductwork to the hood to help keep it cool, but if you get a dimmable ballast then you could always turn it down if heat is a problem.

I definitely understand if you're on a budget, but like I said if yield is important to you then investing a couple hundred quid (if that's where you are lol) would really be worth it after a couple months. My first grow I got a pound and a half by vegging under 400w and then flowering under 1000.

Edit: but yeah, you can play around with different combos of **how many watts you are using/heat you are generating, plus different combos of intake/exhaust to help control the temperature. As well as running it at night or day. I used to have a setup last winter where I had a fan pull air through my hood, and then out the door into the hallway. It was kind of loud but we didn't have to use heaters throughout most of the winter, and our bill was super low.

yes you need drainage holes !!!

and if I was you, I would add two T5 fixtures to either side of your 400. If you learn how light really works you'd be amazed at the results. Lumens mean nothing to plants and has zero to do with penetration,it is a measurement for how humans see light, I flower with T5's over 2 feet off the canopy and get great results because I understand how to effectively use light check it out ,,,,
https://www.rollitup.org/t/light.853779/

RM3 said:

yes you need drainage holes !!!

and if I was you, I would add two T5 fixtures to either side of your 400. If you learn how light really works you'd be amazed at the results. Lumens mean nothing to plants and has zero to do with penetration,it is a measurement for how humans see light, I flower with T5's over 2 feet off the canopy and get great results because I understand how to effectively use light check it out ,,,,
https://www.rollitup.org/t/light.853779/View attachment 3319407

Click to expand...

Nice how many watts of t5's are you using? Do you have any idea how many grams per watt?

Btw op, depending on if it's cold outside, adding very little intake could easily keep temps pretty low, especially at night with no light. You're in your first grow, but play around with different combos and you'll find the sweet spot for temperature, and then humidity follows suit until you start getting a lot of plants.

growing_thunder said:

Nice how many watts of t5's are you using? Do you have any idea how many grams per watt?

Btw op, depending on if it's cold outside, adding very little intake could easily keep temps pretty low, especially at night with no light. You're in your first grow, but play around with different combos and you'll find the sweet spot for temperature, and then humidity follows suit until you start getting a lot of plants.

Click to expand...

tis 1000 watts approx, each fixture is rated 332 watts but includes the ballast, cost $130 each I average between 1.2 and 1.5 gpw and the light is dialed in the PAR ranges that plants use, not one useless photon PAR is how plants see light my area is 5X5

RM3 said:

tis 1000 watts approx, each fixture is rated 332 watts but includes the ballast, cost $130 each I average between 1.2 and 1.5 gpw and the light is dialed in the PAR ranges that plants use, not one useless photon PAR is how plants see light my area is 5X5

Click to expand...

Dude, nice. So you're cropping out between like 2 1/2 to 3 pounds under those t5's?!?! I was going to mention photons after you said that about lumens lol. I've got a legal grower buddy in Colorado that doesn't believe me when I tell him I can get 2 pounds every 2 months with my 1k and vegging on 4x4" mixed spectrum t5.

Btw, I just looked back at your op, and you said you had two 150 watt lights, that were 2200 lumens? Are they cfls? Generally a 23 watt cfl generates about 1500-1600 lumens, so you could use like 6 of those for every 1 of the 150 watt bulbs and have 7×1600 lumens instead of just 2200. Just food for thought